Chicago as a Global City: Marshall M. Bouton, President, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Marshall Bouton: Chicago is one of the advanced cities in the world!
Niagara Foundation, Chicago based organization aiming at contributing to peace by bringing together various cultures by so many different events, hosted a very important guest in the framework of newly established “Luncheon Forums”. Marshall Bouton, the President of one of the leading think tank organizations of Chicago – “The Chicago Council on Global Affairs”, delivered a presentation entitled “Chicago as a Global City”. Stressing the importance of Chicago not only in the US but also in the world, Marshall Bouton, also emphasized the fact that Chicago is home to one of the busiest airports in the world. Emphasizing on the advantage of geographic location of Chicago, Bouton stated that the almost all trade routes to the West pass through Chicago. Bouton also noted that by 1990s, Chicago advanced in spheres of production and trade and stepped to an important level; “living standards advanced, and unemployment decreased”. Ethnic colorfulness and very loud society of our city has been enhanced for the last 30 years. Migration increased. Especially immigrants from Latin America dramatically changed the ethnic composition of Chicago. “For the last 20 years, average household income has been drastically increased” said Mr. Bouton.

“Chicago and its suburbs host most of the so-called “Fortune 500” world’s biggest organizations” claimed Bouton, “Chicago has become the locomotive of Midwest of the USA for the last 20 years”. Bouton also shared his views about the future policy recommendations on making Chicago a global city. “First of all, we need to know how 21st century economy works. Then we should have links with other global cities in the world. The last but the most important, we should increase the number of qualified people and human resources with large capacity. In order to realize them, we need to make Chicago a very attractive place for those mentioned human resources.” Bouton also stated that Chicago, which has world-wide famous universities, museums, entertainment centers, is not far from above-mentioned characteristics and looking forward to becoming a global city very soon.

After addressing the questions that asked by audience, the Executive Director of Niagara Foundation, Kemal Oksuz, presented a present to Marshall Bouton. After the program, vice-president of Elmhurst College James Kulich answered the questions of ZAMAN as he congratulated Niagara Foundation due to its activities and found Marshall Bouton’s presentation very useful. He noted that high college officials and some professors will have a trip to Turkey soon and in this respect, he appreciates Niagara Foundation’s efforts and thinks that they represent Turkey and Turkish culture in the best way.

Mayor of Arlington Heights, Arlene J. Mulder said that they are very much informed about the Turkish community in Chicago thru Niagara Foundation and she was very much impressed about the academic background and intellectual level of speakers and participants.

The Consul General of Turkey to Chicago Naci Koru, the German Consul General Wolfgang Drautz, Australian Consul General Bob Charles, French Vice-Consul Isabelle Marques Gross, Canadian Consul General Georges Rioux, Pakistan Consul General Aitzaz Ahmed, Bulgarian Consul General Ivan Sotirov, Czech Republic Consul General Marek Skolil, Elmhurst College Vice-president James Kulich, Arlington Heights Mayor Arlene J. Mulder, DePaul University Vice-president J.D. Bindenagel, Loyola University Vice-President Patrick Boyle, Daily Herald Newspaper editor Jim Slusher, Chicago International Visitor Center, Director Peggy Parfenoff, Chicago State Radio representative Jason DeRose were among important guests that attended the event.

The next guest at Niagara Foundation’s Luncheon Forums will be ABC 7 TV President and General Director, Emily Barr.