I have known you for almost a decade, and I have one sort of personal question which
I figure I'll just ask you now.
Okay.
And then we'll get to the refugee stuff.
It's interesting that Her Majesty did not start off as a "Her Majesty."
She grew up in Kuwait, Palestinian origin, went to business school, worked at Citibank
and Apple a little bit.
And was at a dinner, and met, you know, an impressive young man.
They fell in love, and they got married.
Sometime after you got married, you found out you were going to become the queen.
Mm-hmm.
It was completely not in the plan.
How did this change your life?
What did it -- what happens when you find yourself becoming queen?
Well, it was quite an upheaval.
As you said, it wasn't expected.
It was during a difficult time, because we had just lost my father-in-law, who was King
of Jordan for 47 years, and we couldn't really imagine the country without him.
So it wasn't easy.
I didn't feel that I was prepared for it, and -- but, really, I didn't have much time
to think about it, because from that -- Just sort of did it.
from that day on, it was just one thing after the other.
Yeah.
One challenge after -- this was '99.
I was 28 years old, youngest queen in the world.
That was my title.
And -- But then it was, you know, the -- obviously, 9/11 happened.
We had the war in Afghanistan.
We had the war in Iraq, waves of refugees coming into Jordan.
We had the Intifada, and then another Intifada, the war in Lebanon, financial crisis, waves
of refugees coming into Jordan.
So -- And in between, I had two kids and was setting up my office and my team and establishing
my work.
So it really was -- I didn't have much time to think about it, but you learn lessons along
the way.
And I think I'm very privileged to be around a lot of people that I could learn from.
And I think it's always important to look around you and learn from other people's mistakes
and other people's successes.
And some of the things that I realized very quickly, even though I felt I wasn't qualified
maybe technically, I didn't have the technical experience, it really isn't just about knowing
what the right thing to do is.
Because sometimes you can have the right ideas, you know that you need to reform your education,
you know you need to open your country up for investments and the kind of incentives
you should put in, or bring technology into your -- into your country.
But if you don't have the trust of the people, you're not going to get much momentum with
that.
So it's important to be trusted and liked just as much as it is to actually know what
needs to be done.
Because you could have absolutely the right plan for your country, but if people don't
trust you, if they don't believe in you, if they don't believe that you have the right
intentions, you're always going to face a headwind.
Whereas the opposite is also true, you may not know exactly what needs to be done, but
if people really believe in you, then they will give you the right kind of support.
So I quickly realized that.
I also realized that, you know, with time, actually -- and I'm sure many of you have
gone through this -- you start to become less idealistic, you know.
You realize that, you know, sometimes it's just -- you know, your options are between
what's terrible and what's even more terrible.
And sometimes you have to make these choices.
And, unfortunately, in our part of the world, we've been in that situation quite often.
So I think, you know, I'm much more comfortable with where I am now.
But it's a learning process, and I'm still learning.
You never -- you never completely get it.
You never completely get it right.
It's just a learning process.
But I always feel that the most important thing is to always evolve.
Sometimes are changing very quickly.
Our landscape is changing, not only politically, but in any sphere of life, and we have to
continuously evolve with the challenges, keep your finger on the pulse of what your people
are feeling, what they're thinking.
And I always feel insecure when I feel there's a distance.
If I feel like I'm out of touch.
If something's happened and I wasn't aware of it, that's when I feel like I'm not doing
some- -- something's not right here.
So, staying close, understanding what's going on, and really keeping abreast of issues is
so important.
It's interesting that I first met your husband, His Majesty, in Davos the year he became king.
And this was a man in a hurry.
Mm-hmm.
The country was in trouble.
And I remember the raw energy that he took to building the partnerships that actually
allowed the country to recover during that period.
Mm-hmm.
And I wonder if that's what people saw and became so faithful and so excited about his
leadership.
It's interesting, as you know, I had dinner with your son, who's the crown prince, -- I
guess that's the correct term -- in the United States recently.
And we were having this chat, and he's in the military.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
He was on leave.
Now, where is he now?
Is he fighting?
He's actually not far away from here.
He's at the military college in Sandhurst.
He's been there now for -- he's only about three months to graduate.
It's a very tough thing.
Yeah.
So I'll be very relieved in August when he's done with it.
But I think it's built the kind of strength and resilience that he needs, particularly
in our part of the world.
As you can see, I mean, Jordan is a country where, unfortunately, we have conflict on
four of our five borders, you know, between Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Iraq.
It's the kind of reality that we have to face every day.
And I think having that military aspect, it's part of the tradition in our family, but it's
also very important for the kind of challenges that he's facing.
But having said that, I think that's only one aspect of preparation.
I think it is important for him to also not just be exposed to the military and political
aspect of things, not just to the public sector, but also to technology, to the private sector.
You know, what I'm seeing in our world is, for example, I could be with you now, and,
you know, speaking about the fourth industrial revolution and technology and all those kinds
of changes that are happening in our world.
Tomorrow, I could be in a different setting with, you know, officials from government,
and they're speaking a completely different language.
It's a different vocabulary.
And I feel that it's important for these worlds to overlap, because these are the -- these
are the kind of qualities that you need in leadership.
You need a leadership that understands the vernacular of not just public policy.
We're seeing our governments more and more being, you know, reactive rather than strategic.
And they seem to only move when everybody else has already gone to the next level.
So they're always catching up.
And that's -- that's why you're seeing a lot of frustration.
You know, in our world today, you're seeing a wholesale, cross-border rejection of traditional
politics and establishment.
People are looking for players outside of the system.
We're seeing that coming into play in elections all over the world.
And I think that's because there's a frustration by the public and a feeling that the leadership
doesn't understand the real needs of the people.
And that is true to some extent.
You know, I don't think that the people in government today actually speak the language
that needs to be spoken.
I don't think they have a grasp of the kind of challenges that we're facing.
How many -- how many people in government now talk about artificial intelligence?
You know, how many -- how many people understand --
I'm trying to get them to talk about intelligence in general.
[ Laughter ] That's a good point.
I mean, you know -- I think we live in a day and age where, you know, somebody from the
technology field should be thinking about running for president, because that kind of
person -- you know, they'll tell you, oh, he doesn't have the experience and knowledge
in that field.
But that's the exact qualification we need.
We need somebody who doesn't have the experience and knowledge, because they can look at things
with fresh eyes and look at the kind of -- get us prepared for the challenges that are coming
ahead.
Because I don't feel that the people in power now have the skills to navigate the fourth
industrial revolution successfully.
And this is something that you -- you and your husband have worked hard on to modernize.
I think of you as the primary modernizers of the whole region.
I think we're all worried about the rise of populism.
So one way of looking at the election yesterday in France is, two-thirds strong majority for
Emmanuel Macron.
Congratulations.
Another way to look at it is, one-third of the people voted for a very different model
of the country, which is worrisome, at least to me.
How would you see handling this rise of populism and its negative and presumably positive benefits?
It threatens many of the global order that you and I and others have worked so hard to
preserve.
Look, I think as human beings, we all seek clarity; right?
I mean, we -- we think it's easier to perceive the world when we can put things in category:
good, bad; right, wrong; black, white.
But the most important thing I've ever learned is that 99% of things in life fall along a
broad spectrum of gray.
So I believe binary thinking creates a false reality, you know.
And, you know, when you see things in black and white, you become blind to, you know,
a vast and nuanced middle ground.
And that's where 99% of the answers lie.
And I feel that this is happening with the debate on globalization.
People either globalize it or vilify it, you know.
Whereas, the truth is that, you know, globalization has delivered vast
Absolutely.
benefits to the world.
We're all living longer, healthier lives.
We're all better educated.
There's less poverty in the world.
That said, we have to acknowledge that it hasn't been kind to everyone.
So, you know, it's created a fast-paced world where, you know, economies have merged, borders
have blurred, disruptive technologies have opened us up in ways that our politics, our
cultures, our security system, even our psychologies haven't been able to keep up.
And as a result, there's this world of contradictions where the more you have the free flow of culture,
the more people are holding on to age-old traditions.
You know, the more people are migrating, the more people are becoming nationalistic.
So it's created a kind of reality where people feel alienated in their own environments.
They look around them, and they don't know where they fit in.
And they're anxious.
You know, they're scared of terrorist attacks, of uncertainty in the economy, jobs, social
disruption.
They're scared of tomorrow.
And I think when people are afraid, they cower from whatever feels foreign and they seek
whatever seems familiar.
So that's why it's no surprise that this populist rhetoric, this xenophobic, ultranationalistic
narrative is trending right now, because I think politicians have figured out how to
turn anxiety into votes by pointing to a common villain: globalization, immigrants, refugees,
elites, liberals, Muslims.
Scapegoats are really easy substitutes for solutions, because when you ask these demagogues
for answers, they never give you real answers.
They always give you slogans, simplistic, superficial, almost always revolving around
separation.
So let's close off the economy.
Let's expel all foreigners.
And I think that's extremely dangerous, because not only does it foment division and intolerance
in our societies, but it also keeps us focused on the past and ill-prepared for the future.
So, you know, when you blame immigrants, well, guess what?
You know, immigrants are not the problem.
They're not the ones that are going to take away your jobs.
It's the fourth industrial revolution that's going to, you know, delete whole sectors,
not just a few jobs here and there.
And in that kind of atmosphere, truth is a common casualty.
So -- especially in the media landscape that we live in, where what's viral upstages what's
accurate any day of the week, so truth completely gets lost.
So it is -- it is very -- very dangerous, this populist rhetoric.
And I think it's the politics of fear.
Yes.
You know, just play on people's fears, and therefore keep them distracted from what the
real issues are.
One of the things that's driving this, of course, is the fear of refugees.
If five refugees show up in the United States, the country goes berserk.
[ Laughter ] Not a good thing, by the way.
In Jordan, I've been wondering, you guys have been able to build your country from waves
of immigration.
And one of the reasons that I admire His Highness and yourself so much is that, completely counter
to everything in the West, you have welcomed millions of refugees.
Mm-hmm.
I read an article that one-seventh of your population are Syrian refugees, and before
that, waves of Palestinian refugees.
Mm-hmm.
And other nationalities.
And other nationalities as well.
Yeah.
Iraqis, Yemenis.
Iraqis forth.
We have a whole bunch.
Yeah.
It seems like you've got a pretty good deal going.
You've figured out a way to do it.
You are the example of success.
I wouldn't say we've figured out a way of doing it.
We didn't think that we even had a choice.
It was never a choice for us whether to accept refugees or not.
It was never a question of yes or no.
And you have a gentleman right here who understands this.
If he was going to come to our country today, how can I close my door?
It was never, should we or shouldn't we.
Because if you look at it from a rational, logical point of view, if you were to assess
it, a country like Jordan, so resource-poor, is it the right thing to open up your doors
to refugees, technically?
Of course not, because there's no way we can support them.
But it's -- from a moral perspective, from a human perspective, when you have women and
children at your borders being shot at by their own Army, how can you say no?
How -- how can we -- how can my husband issue an order to the Army telling them, don't protect
those women and children?
How would he respect himself?
And how would he earn their respect if he was to issue an order like that?
It was never yes or no.
It was always about how.
How can we accommodate them?
And we're still in the how.
We haven't figured it out.
We're still in the how, whether it's education, integrating them into our economy.
You know, refugees stay an average of 17 years in foreign countries.
So it's not -- we don't want temporary solutions.
We need to figure out how to -- how to actually accommodate them, how -- for them to thrive.
And, you know, social -- human mobility is not a new thing.
It's existed throughout history.
But today presents at a very different scale.
But so does our progress and the resources that we have at our fingertips.
So, for example, take smartphones.
For a refugee on the move, a smartphone with applications like Google Maps or WhatsApp,
is infinitely much more important than a passport.
So for refugees, connectivity is just as important, just as vital to life as food and water.
But even those refugees have figured out to use new technologies to survive, our humanitarian
systems have been very slow to adjust and to adapt and to evolve to the needs of the
21st century.
And as a result, a familiar and tragic scenario plays out every single time.
There's a disaster.
People flee to neighboring countries.
Aid organizations become overwhelmed.
Host countries suffer.
Then you have donor fatigue sets in, followed by global apathy, children miss out on their
childhoods, on years of schooling, and refugees are left to linger in a state of limbo in
foreign lands, as I said, for over 17 years.
Every now and then, you'll have a new horror or tragedy that will just prick the world's
conscious, like, for example, a picture of a lifeless body of a child washing up on the
shore.
The world will wake up.
But then again, reoccurrence of this kind of imagery has the paradoxical effect of numbing
us to it.
So until we stop looking at refugees and immigrants as a problem and start accepting human mobility
as a new norm, as a by-product of our new global order, we will never deal with this
issue effectively.
You know, it's only if we start thinking of it in a different paradigm that we can start
to redesign and remodel our humanitarian systems so that we can apply -- so they can become
more robust and we can apply 21st century solutions to this kind of issue.
Otherwise, we're just going to be limping from one crisis to the next, leaving a wake
of misery, wasted lives, and chaos in our wake.
So, you know, it's -- we need to rethink this whole thing.
And, you know, like I said, Jordan doesn't have it figured out.
We are the number one host of refugees in the world.
So one in seven are Syrians, and one in five, if you take all the other nationalities.
Some countries have been generous, but scale and the scope of the crisis has outpaced the
support.
So only 35% of the cost of hosting refugees has come from aid.
The rest, our government has had to cover.
We allocate a quarter of our budget for refugees, a whole quarter.
Unbelievable.
And it's been very, very difficult.
And as I said before, I'm very proud of the humanitarianism of the Jordanian people.
But I'm also very sad that they had to pay such a heavy price for the world's apathy.
You know, everybody says this is a global problem and requires a global solution.
But it hasn't been until the -- tragically and literally, the crisis of Syria started
washing up on the shores of Europe that people started to really take that seriously.
And I think it's because even though our futures are so interconnected, I think it's always
-- it's still narrow self-interest and not universal human values that continue to drive
our policies and our politics and our decisions.
And I think that really needs to change.
One of the things that -- I'm struck by the clarity of your argument.
It's so profoundly right.
You have backed this up by a great deal of effort around education, because you've observed,
and I've seen you make the argument that education is everything for a refugee.
Right.
So take us through that argument and what -- what we should all do about it.
Well, let's go back to Syria.
1.75 million kids are out of school in Syria today.
An additional half a million Syrian refugee kids are out of school.
In Jordan, we've opened up our public schools and are taking as many as we can in.
But as a result, our classrooms are overcrowded and underresourced.
Our education system is suffering.
We're having many of our schools operating on a double shift basis.
We've taken in about 120,000 refugee children.
But we're -- plans are under way to increase capacity so that we can take all school-aged
kids.
But I have to emphasize that just adding classroom space isn't the solution.
Because the strain on our education system has meant that both Syrian and Jordanian children
are suffering.
You know, they -- they're not getting the quality of education that they need.
So the pressure has exasperated past challenges and has undermined past progress.
And that's not the whole story.
Across the region, there are 13 million children in conflict areas that are out of school.
That's 40% of school-aged population.
I mean, you think about that.
The -- a whole generation's future is hanging in the balance.
To me, that's real crisis in the Middle East.
And as you know, the problems of the Middle East don't stay in the Middle East.
So imagine the effect on our collective future when a whole generation of kids is growing
up in ignorance.
I know that education doesn't completely immunize against radicalization.
But I also know that extremists feed off desperation.
And education provides hope, so it is an antidote in some ways.
And, you know, there are many NGOs and foundations trying to work on this issue.
And they make a difference, and about five, ten, 20 schools.
But usually they rely on resources and tools that are very difficult to implement systemwide.
And as you can see, crises happen at scale.
So you need solutions to come at scale.
And, you know, all around the world, you have, like, 75 million children that are in conflict
areas.
So they -- they need solutions.
And the global community has declared that our current global -- our current educational
system is broken.
We need something that's more scalable and flexible.
And I think that given the circumstances we're in, Jordan could be a really good test bed
for such a model.
I know that my foundation has been working on piloting interventions that are contextualized
and localized and scalable.
And I'm very, very happy to mention that we're working now with Google.org -- thank you very,
very, very much -- and we are going to be building an online platform that will provide
content for kids from K to 12.
Actually, about three years ago, I had challenged my team to build an online platform that will
provide youth across the region with quality higher education.
A year into that, we had Edraak, which is a MOOC, Arabic platform.
And it was amazing that within -- we were struck by the reaction to it, you know, how
much thirst there was for content and knowledge, especially in Arabic.
And right now, we have over one million registered users.
And 15% are from conflict areas.
So, for example, there's a Syrian refugee who lives in Turkey now who has completed
five of the courses and who's moderating workshops in the refugee camp in Turkey, using the platform.
So, I'm so happy that we're doing this with -- so excited about it, because it's building
on that success, you know.
We -- It's not just about higher learning, it's trying to reach refugee kids and disadvantaged
populations all over the Arab world.
And they don't even have to be refugees.
Any kid can reach this.
It's going to focus on formal and nonformal education, with a special emphasis on enabling
educators.
We're starting off with math, but we're going to expand to other topics.
I think we've all heard it before: Education is the greatest equalizer.
But I think often it's the lottery of birth that determines the quality of the education
you have access to.
With this, that doesn't have to be the case anymore.
I think with your team and my team working together, we can change the way we teach and
learn and provide more equitable access to quality education wherever learners are.
And, hopefully, they will be able to overcome a lot of the barriers in our region.
So, again, thank you very much for this.
>>Eric Schmidt: Thank you.
And we -- so everybody knows, we are incredibly committed to the mission that Her Majesty
has laid out here as a corporation.
It makes such perfect sense to us.
We've run over, but I want to indulge you with one -- one more question.
It just seems like it's problem after problem in the area, in the region, refugees, so forth.
But there is one person, and her husband, who really have been in the middle of this.
For now, almost 20 years, right, you've fought these battles.
In that sense, you're like a -- an entrepreneur who has built a business step by step and
step by step, and you've learned the hard way, the real way, where to make the tradeoffs.
What are you optimistic about?
What -- How does this end in a good way; right?
Is it possible -- and I'll make this up -- that by virtue of the strong emphasis on education
that this influx of population could ultimately produce a very strong, educated middle class
that would serve the whole region out of Jordan?
Is that a goal?
Is that possible?
Is it achievable?
Now, I know the right answer is always to say, yes, I'm optimistic.
You know, sometimes it is -- it is hard to be, you know -- from Jordan, my vantage point
is not exactly the brightest.
Like I said, we have war all around us.
And some days, it's very difficult, especially when you see images of young children in Syria
on the streets, gasping for air, as we saw last month after the --
Horrific.
chemical attack.
And whenever I speak to people who have just come out of Syria, whether they're, you know,
seasoned war journalists or aid workers, they all describe the situation with the same haunting
words.
They all say, "We've never seen such devastation."
And this is happening on our watch, in full view of the world.
So some days, it's -- it really is hard to be hopeful.
And, you know, there's heartbreak all around.
And I do feel it every day.
But I think the heart works in mysterious ways.
When it breaks, sometimes little glimmers of hope shine through the cracks.
And I do feel that in crisis is an opening for us to finally confront and address some
of the ailments that had been lurking in our societies for so long and have been really
crippling us and holding us back.
So I see renewed passion by people to really try to find solutions, you know.
I'm inspired by people like yourself and others in this room who understand that in our wired
world, geography is no longer relevant when it comes to identifying communities, and it's
no longer relevant when it comes to identifying problems.
So a problem that's happening halfway across the world is a problem for you.
You understand that, and that's why you want to engage in finding the solutions.
And that keeps me hopeful.
I'm always optimistic when I speak to young people in our region who are really on the
cutting edge.
They're really bursting with creativity, and they're propelled by this drive that I haven't
seen anywhere else.
They really want to make a difference.
I look at Jordan.
You know, it keeps me hopeful when I see a country that's defied every single odd and
is not only just standing, it's trying to provide an example.
I know that our ambitions far outpace our -- exceed our resources.
But I think it's in that gap that the magic happens.
So, in answer to your question, I remain hopeful not by looking at what is, but I'm focusing
on what can be.
You know, there's tremendous potential in our region that can be unleashed if we do
the right things, you know, the right policies, reforming our education system, you know,
more transparent governance, looking at the -- how we manage the private sector and the
kind of incentive and the kind of environment we provide for our young entrepreneurs.
All those things can really change the course of history for the Arab world.
And, of course, I'm not going to ignore the big elephant in the room, really confronting
the -- the extremist rhetoric that's in our region.
We have a job, this is a battle inside of Islam.
We have a job to really stand up and speak loudly against what -- what's happening.
But at the same time, I think the West has a responsibility to be aware not to apply
a wholesale rejection and alienization of Muslims, because that feeds right into that
place, right into the hands of the extremists.
So I think, you know, if we do the right things, hopefully, the Middle East could start being
no longer a place where you only hear about catastrophe and war, but maybe more stories
of hope can start coming out.
>>Eric Schmidt: You know, tough times produce great leaders.
And we who sit here and watch this complain about it.
But there's at least one person in the room who has not only lived it, but is trying to
really solve it.
And I say with great admiration that you and your husband are true heroes to me --
Thank you.
because of your charity and because of your willingness to attack problems that you didn't
create and that your citizens expect you to solve.
It's an extraordinary leadership story -- Thank you.
about you and your husband and your family.
And I would also like to remind everyone in this room that you will never hear a queen
ever discuss a MOOC except for this one.
Okay?
[ Applause ] Her Majesty, Queen Rania.
Thank you very much.
[ Applause ]
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