From pianist to America’s most powerful woman
Condoleezza Rice, a trained concert pianist, chose power politics, became a confidante of President George W. Bush and now, one of the world’s most influential women, is the US secretary of state.
Condoleezza Rice, a trained concert pianist, chose power politics, became a confidante of President George W. Bush and now, one of the world’s most influential women, is the US secretary of state.
President George W. Bush nominated Rice to replace Colin Powell, who tendered his resignation.recently.
She is the second woman to hold the top cabinet post, after Madeleine Albright, whose father persuaded Rice to leave the piano and study international relations.
The second female US national security advisor has been admiringly called a “steel magnolia†and “warrior princessâ€. And despite her stern appearance, Rice, who turned 50 recently, is one of the most popular members of the Bush administration.
Rice’s intellectual brilliance is undisputed but many Americans also wonder how a black woman born into segregation in the Deep South allied herself with one of the most conservative administrations of the past 25 years.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 14, 1954, Rice was taught piano by her mother, a music teacher. Her father was a pastor and school principal who influenced her to become a sports maniac.
Racism was so ingrained in her childhood that she says she hardly noticed it.
She was only eight years old on September 15, 1963 when the Ku Klux Klan carried out one of its most infamous bombings, of an Alabama church. One of the four 10-year-old girls killed had been a friend of Rice since kindergarten.
Rice’s parents taught her that education was the only way to escape segregation. She has said that because of her colour, to get ahead, she had to be “twice as good†as the other kids.
She enrolled at the University of Denver at the age of 15, and graduated with a degree in political science at 19. She got a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies.
Rice studied music with the ambition of becoming a classical pianist. But she was inspired to switch to superpower relations during a course taught by Josef Korbel, a Czech refugee and father of Albright.
At 26, Rice was already a fellow at Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and Arms Control specialising in Soviet affairs.
After serving as Soviet affairs advisor to the National Security Council of the elder president George Bush, Rice returned to Stanford in 1991 and in 1993, became the youngest, the first female and first non-white provost at the elite California university.
Rice became foreign affairs advisor to Bush during his 2000 election campaign. They are close friends sharing a religious commitment to using US military power to change the world.
Democrats criticised Rice for speeches she made prior to the November 2 election, mostly in states crucial to Bush’s re-election victory.
A fluent Russian speaker and expert in arms control and the Soviet Union, Rice prepped Bush the elder for nuclear summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Her influence has grown because of Bush’s lack of experience in foreign affairs.
“Power matters,†she said in one interview with the National Review magazine.
“But there can be no absence of moral content in American foreign policy, and, furthermore, the American people wouldn’t accept such an absence. Europeans giggle at this and say we’re naive and so on, but we’re not Europeans, we’re Americans — and we have different principles.â€
Throughout the post-September 11 crisis and the dispute over the Iraq war, Rice has displayed a determination that had led some experts to predict she could be a future secretary of state.
Coit Blacker, director of Stanford University’s Institute for International Studies, said: “She’s a steel magnolia.
“She has a wonderful kind of Southern effect in the positive sense — a kind of graciousness. But mixed with this is a very steely inner core.â€
Rice sat for 10 years on the board of Chevron, which named a 129,000-tonne oil tanker in her honour. The company removed “Condoleezza Rice†from its hull after critics said it further proved the administration’s ties to big oil.
AFP
President George W. Bush nominated Rice to replace Colin Powell, who tendered his resignation.recently.
She is the second woman to hold the top cabinet post, after Madeleine Albright, whose father persuaded Rice to leave the piano and study international relations.
The second female US national security advisor has been admiringly called a “steel magnolia†and “warrior princessâ€. And despite her stern appearance, Rice, who turned 50 recently, is one of the most popular members of the Bush administration.
Rice’s intellectual brilliance is undisputed but many Americans also wonder how a black woman born into segregation in the Deep South allied herself with one of the most conservative administrations of the past 25 years.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 14, 1954, Rice was taught piano by her mother, a music teacher. Her father was a pastor and school principal who influenced her to become a sports maniac.
Racism was so ingrained in her childhood that she says she hardly noticed it.
She was only eight years old on September 15, 1963 when the Ku Klux Klan carried out one of its most infamous bombings, of an Alabama church. One of the four 10-year-old girls killed had been a friend of Rice since kindergarten.
Rice’s parents taught her that education was the only way to escape segregation. She has said that because of her colour, to get ahead, she had to be “twice as good†as the other kids.
She enrolled at the University of Denver at the age of 15, and graduated with a degree in political science at 19. She got a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame and a doctorate from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies.
Rice studied music with the ambition of becoming a classical pianist. But she was inspired to switch to superpower relations during a course taught by Josef Korbel, a Czech refugee and father of Albright.
At 26, Rice was already a fellow at Stanford University’s Centre for International Security and Arms Control specialising in Soviet affairs.
After serving as Soviet affairs advisor to the National Security Council of the elder president George Bush, Rice returned to Stanford in 1991 and in 1993, became the youngest, the first female and first non-white provost at the elite California university.
Rice became foreign affairs advisor to Bush during his 2000 election campaign. They are close friends sharing a religious commitment to using US military power to change the world.
Democrats criticised Rice for speeches she made prior to the November 2 election, mostly in states crucial to Bush’s re-election victory.
A fluent Russian speaker and expert in arms control and the Soviet Union, Rice prepped Bush the elder for nuclear summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Her influence has grown because of Bush’s lack of experience in foreign affairs.
“Power matters,†she said in one interview with the National Review magazine.
“But there can be no absence of moral content in American foreign policy, and, furthermore, the American people wouldn’t accept such an absence. Europeans giggle at this and say we’re naive and so on, but we’re not Europeans, we’re Americans — and we have different principles.â€
Throughout the post-September 11 crisis and the dispute over the Iraq war, Rice has displayed a determination that had led some experts to predict she could be a future secretary of state.
Coit Blacker, director of Stanford University’s Institute for International Studies, said: “She’s a steel magnolia.
“She has a wonderful kind of Southern effect in the positive sense — a kind of graciousness. But mixed with this is a very steely inner core.â€
Rice sat for 10 years on the board of Chevron, which named a 129,000-tonne oil tanker in her honour. The company removed “Condoleezza Rice†from its hull after critics said it further proved the administration’s ties to big oil.
AFP