Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative
Whats it about?
In Bill Clintons words:
It is my pleasure to announce the inaugural meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative to be held September 15-17, 2005, in New York City. This event, which will bring together King Abdullah II, President Leonel Fernandez Reyna, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Secretary General Kofi Annan, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Dr. Hernando de Soto, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Parsons, and an array of other distinguished and dedicated leaders, will coincide with and complement this fall’s Millennium Summit of the U.N. General Assembly.
This nonpartisan conference will concentrate a diverse and select group of current and former heads of state, business leaders, noteworthy academicians, and key NGO representatives to identify immediate and pragmatic solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. The workshops will focus on how to reduce poverty; use religion as a force for reconciliation and conflict resolution; implement new business strategies and technologies to combat climate change; and strengthen governance. Our meeting will emphasize dynamic group interaction to identify an agenda we can actually implement.
By identifying specific ways to address the challenges of our time and asking each participant to make a specific commitment to take action in one of the areas discussed, I believe this Initiative will prove to be a unique and effective forum for leaders and their communities around the world. What we begin during three days this September will continue throughout the year to come with coordinated implementation of our agenda.
We have an opportunity we can not afford to pass up–in just three days, we can begin to make a world of difference.
Bill Clinton
See: Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative Online
The Washington Post reports:
The big surprise of Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative conference at the Sheraton Hotel in New York last week was how strangely calming it was. You would expect to emerge begging for mercy from a three-day talkathon on the world’s most intractable problems emceed by history’s most garrulous president — especially if you were a survivor of one of his book tour gigs.
For more see this Washington Post article
I did see part of the conference on CNN and must say I was impressed and we can only hope good initiatives like this one will lead us to better days for all.
The bile is rising in my throat. You are struck by his style, which is good, but reflect back on anything of his own accomplishments. Please don’t say good economy. A true idiot could have done well there. What else?
I’m thinking the author of The Washington Post article is not a Bill Clinton fan and I’m not a fan of hers.