Global Initiative: Bill Clinton's bid to save the world

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Bill Clinton's bid to save the world
The former president's Clinton Global Initiative draws an array of leaders and activists, and plenty of money for their causes.
By Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2007

NEW YORK -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Archbishop Desmond Tutu were having a diplomatic face-off during a panel discussion on, basically, how to save the world from itself, the meta-theme of the Clinton Global Initiative.

You go first, Tutu motioned to Karzai. No, motioned Karzai, you go first.

"Quit being deferential," Clinton snapped in faux frustration. "You're wasting time."

It's hard to imagine anybody but a former president speaking to dignitaries that way, but the exchange captured the urgency and the informality of the three-day conference, which ends today. (The impish Tutu had brought the house down when he described Myanmar's persecuted political activist Aung San Suu Kyi as his "only pin-up.") Later, everyone else's pin-up, Angelina Jolie, brought many to tears as she recounted recently meeting an 8-year-old Iraqi refugee in Syria....

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The Clinton Global Initiative is a festival of philanthropic and socially responsible investment. Heads of state, CEOs, billionaires, mere millionaires and celebrities join up with nongovernmental organizations and underfunded activists looking to solve four generally intractable world problems: climate change, poverty, health and education. Guests this year included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Nobel Peace laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch.

Members, who must be invited, pay $15,000 a year and undergo rigorous screening. They are expected to make substantial commitments to one of the four areas of focus during the conference. Those who do not follow through are not invited back....

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It's difficult to imagine anyone other than the popular former president trying to save the world on this scale. As wonky as he is charismatic, Clinton managed during a 30-minute news conference to discourse knowledgeably on the incremental nature of political and social change; carbon markets versus carbon taxes; the 150,000-year history of human existence; how educating girls and women is not only the way to stop overpopulation (because they will marry later and have smaller families), but also the way to stop illegal immigration (because eventually, countries with low birthrates will be crying for immigrants); and the controversy over releasing the list of donors to his foundation and presidential library.

After reeling off a list of facts and figures attesting to the initiative's success, Clinton was asked by a reporter from the French newspaper Le Monde, "Why do you do this?" To summarize: He feels obligated to give something back to a world that has given him so much, he hasn't lost interest in global problems just because he isn't president anymore, and mainly because he really enjoys it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bill28sep28,0,7335757.story?coll=la-home-nation

[Demeter]

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