Bill Clinton talks Africa on Meet the Press

President Bill Clinton appeared on Meet the Press this Sunday and had a chance to speak out about the Clinton Global Initiative and Africa. When pressed by MTP host Tom Brokaw about why Americans facing an economic crisis should care about global poverty, Clinton remarked that providing aid to Africa addressed the two main concerns in the upcoming US presidential election– namely, “how to restore economic strength and broadly shared prosperity and how to restore America’s position in the world.”

Partial transcript below:

MR. BROKAW: When you ran successfully for president in 1992, the unofficial slogan was, “It’s the economy, stupid.” It’s hard to imagine, given the political and especially the financial climate that we’re all living in now that someone can say it’s about aid to Africa, stupid, or it’s about AIDS, stupid, or it’s about doing something about poverty, stupid. Is this not going to be an issue, your great work here as the Clinton Global Initiative, in this campaign? Is it going to have to be set off to the side?

PRES. CLINTON: Well, I think the answer is it will not–it’s not nearly as big an issue for the two thirds of American people who are having trouble paying their own bills and are worried about their future. On the other hand, I think there–the two great issues in America in this election are how to restore economic strength and broadly shared prosperity and how to restore America’s position in the world. I think–if I were making the CGI argument in a political speech, I’d say we’re not going to have the America we want unless prosperity is broadly shared, and to do that, we have to have economic opportunity in the poorest parts of America. And in the world, the places where America is popular today in the world, really popular, 10 countries in central and eastern Africa. Look at the Pew poll. Wildly popular. Why? Because they see us through the prism of President Bush’s AIDS and malaria programs and the work the Gates Foundation does, the work that I do, the work that others do. So we can–this should be presented to the American people that as a part of our participation in the interdependent world, we actually make more partners and fewer enemies.

MR. BROKAW: One of the concerns that the Gates Foundation has, that everything coming out of Africa that is reported is doom and gloom, and they say there are real success stories there.

PRES. CLINTON: Absolutely.

MR. BROKAW: And the American people need to hear about that.

PRES. CLINTON: The American–first of all, I wish we could have a cessation in the use of the word Africa for just 18 months while America learns that Africa is a continent that just in sub-Saharan Africa has 48 separate countries, and that it’s not just the geography, it’s the politics, the culture, the language, everything is different, and that yes, there’s been bad news in Darfur, yes, there’s been bad news out of Zimbabwe, but you have country after country after country with very high growth rates and remarkable progress. I mean, Rwanda, genocide in ‘94, 10 percent of the country dies in 90 days. Four years later, their per capita income still well under $300 a year, 10 years later, $1,000 a year. Nearly quadrupled their per capita income. That’s the real Africa. That is far more representative of what the African people are doing and can do tomorrow than the other, and I really wish every time we talked about it–you should discuss it with your news people–whether we would mention a country. You might say, “Oh, by the way, it’s in Africa,” but we’ve got to stop thinking of Africa as a monolith.

MR. BROKAW: Mr. President, thank you very much.

-Chris Scott

Hope lies in today’s youth

Yesterday’s International Herald Tribune covered this month’s 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City and outlined many of the most difficult challenges we face in our work. At the conference Bill Clinton concluded that “with no magic bullet in sight… the need now is to combine efforts to advance prevention and treatment.” The article also goes on to note that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a new test that can pinpoint new infections and control them more quickly in developed countries. However, this test still needs to be “refined for use in poor countries” and many participants were unhappy with an eight-month delay in reporting the test’s success.

Reading through the article, one part stood out to me. Even in the face of an often overwhelming crisis, there remains a tremendous glimmer of hope: young people.

There were calls for innovation and recruiting more young investigators to the AIDS field. As Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise in Manhattan, put it, “The engines of discovery are new people.” Bernstein noted that recruiting new workers should be less of a problem than in the past because of an explosion of interest on university campuses about global health.

You can read the full article here.

Bill Clinton Announces Africa Trip

Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton announced an upcoming trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal to promote the Clinton Foundation’s new programs to fight AIDS and malaria. Earlier this month, the Clinton Foundation “reached an agreement with several pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of the top anti-malaria treatment by 30 percent.”(AFP)

President Clinton travels to Africa once a year and his first trip was while he was president in 1998. Due to ONE members’ “Visit Africa” campaign in February, both Senators McCain and Obama have pledged, that if they’re elected, they’ll visit the continent during their presidency. Check out their pledges here.

Bill Clinton: “I love the ONE Campaign!”

A few of us were able to attend a rally with Bill Clinton on Monday. Angela Tomasello and Matt Higginson joined me for the event with our ONE signs and T-shirts.

During his stump speech President Clinton looked over to us and addressed ONE’s issues directly - citing the need to fight extreme global poverty and the fact that 1 billion people live on less than $1/day and over half the world’s population lives on less than $2/day.

President Clinton also talked about how his Clinton Global Initiative has teamed up with other NGOs such as ONE to supply inexpensive HIV/AIDS vaccines to Africa and the developing world.

We were able to snap a photo with him after the event to which he proclaimed, “I love the ONE Campaign!”

-Rebecca Hoffer

Marine Crosses Party Lines for B. Clinton and ONE

It is called “Double Duty” and that is exactly what ONE’s Marine, Michael Castaldo, did on Saturday by crossing town and crossing party lines to advocate for the world’s poorest people to President Bill Clinton.

It can be hard to reach a candidate or politician here in New Hampshire as the crowds grow bigger as we near the primary. President Clinton undoubtedly had many ONE members in his crowd, but Michael sent me this ONE report:

This time it was a familiar news crew who gave me a tip off led to my interaction with President Clinton. They told me that the “still pen” was right by where President Clinton would be coming in, and they encouraged me to take my camera up there and act like I belonged. The secret service agent that was positioned there did not seem to mind, so I hung around right at the rail where he was due to arrive.

When he entered he paused for a minute to size up the crowd and looked around. He saw me in my ONE shirt up front he made a circle on his own chest and gave me the thumbs up!

After his speech, he made sure to reach out to me and accept a ONE band and shake my hand. I thanked him for his work in reducing the cost of ARVs, and he thanked me for supporting ONE.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer

Finding Bill Waaaay Up North

On Friday, I traveled waaaay north in New Hampshire, and through a surprise snowstorm, to see and hear President Bill Clinton campaign for Hillary…and make sure that he heard from ONE Vote ‘08 while he was in the Granite State.

Before the principal of White Mountains Regional High School introduced President Clinton, he told a quick story about President Clinton’s and President Bush’s speech at the 2007 UNH Graduation Ceremony. He said that one of the biggest things that struck him during President Clinton’s speech was when he spoke about a rural tribe in Africa. In that tribe, when someone greets another person, they respond in their native language with what is translated in English to mean, “I see you” - a recognition of a person’s humanity and an affirmation of each other. I thought this was also a fitting notion for our work with the ONE Campaign, as we use our collective voices for those that do not have such a voice in the global community.

After a brief speech, President Clinton made his way through the crowd and I was able to speak with him and remind him that Bretton Woods, NH, was just down the road, the place where the free world gathered in 1944 and the roots of the Marshall Plan were created. I told him that it was important to renew that Bretton Woods promise by fighting AIDS, Malaria and TB in Africa today, and we discussed his own efforts in the most desperate places on Earth.

From the snowy mountains here in New Hampshire, all the way to sub-Saharan Africa, people are realizing that we can save lives and beat extreme poverty, when we come together as ONE.

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer

How Do We Find the Time?

Nick from New Jersey University asks: “As college students, we’re incredibly busy. How do we find time to support causes like ONE.org.

Chris says: “I bet if you had AIDS, you’d find time to work on it.”

Bill Clinton, on a more serious note, says (paraphrased) “You start from where you are. Volunteer an hour, two hours a month. Just start. Don’t get hung up that what you can give isn’t enough. You have to start from where you are.”

President Bill Clinton

Clinton is thanking MTV for working with him on this project.

He says today young people have more power to make change than at any other time in human history - highlighting the impact of, among other things, the Internet.

He says if young people want to see the 21st century that they want to live in, we must do 3 things.

1. Make a contribution to society by doing honorable work
2. Be intelligent and active voters and participants in our democracy
3. Be civil servants

This is why they’re expanding the Clinton Global Initiative to young people: to “CGI U”

Going to Town(Hall) with Hillary and Bill Clinton

On Friday, Hillary and Bill Clinton came to New Hampshire for a series of town hall meetings and events.

Last time Hillary was in town, she ran into ONE members thanking her and Sen. Smith (R) for the Education for All Act that, if passed, would help enroll millions of children in the developing world into basic primary schooling.

This time, all across the Granite State, Hillary and Bill Clinton encountered many ONE volunteers in ONE Vote ‘08 shirts, and many more wearing ONE bands.

At their first stop in Keene, New Hampshire, ONE members put “ONE” lawn signs all around the event site to make sure that the poorest people on Earth were remembered. ONE’s Marine Michael took the whole family to see Hillary and Bill in Nashua, New Hampshire, and was able to band them both.

Michael told me:

“I took the opportunity to thank the president for his work with the Clinton Foundation, specifically his most recent success in sharply reducing the cost of ARVs. I told him I thought it would mean that he was responsible for saving millions of lives and I was immensely proud to be an American because of his efforts. Even as a lifelong Republican the words did not get stuck in my throat - my voice was clear and firm and I meant it.”

At a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, Hillary was seen by ONE members sporting a ONE band, and behind her on stage was newly confirmed ONE Ambassador and NH State Senator Maggie Hassen wearing her ONE band too.

Later in the day, ONE member Lindsay Hanson was able to talk with both Hillary and Bill Clinton and mentioned her work with the ONE Campaign. She told me that Bill Clinton said “Bless you”.

Our Interesting Differences or Our Common Humanity?

Last week, I went to hear President Bill Clinton give the spring commencement addess at Ohio State University. My boyfriend, Mike, and I saw some ONE t-shirts and wristbands throughout the crowd and our friend and fellow ONE member, Cheryl Johncox, wore a lovely ONE.org on her graduation cap. We were crossing our fingers that the commencement speech might mention some of ONE’s issues - well, I think President
Clinton mentioned them all. Now it’s up to us to do something about it. With the launch of ONE Vote ‘08, we can put aside our differences and focus on our “common humanity” as President Clinton would say.

Below are some excerpts of what he had to say:

“I could talk to you all day about what needs to be done. Is Darfur a travesty? Yes. Does it still bother me that we still after three years of intense effort don’t give medicine to all poor people in the world that need it to deal with AIDS, TB, Malaria and infections related to dirty water? (They claim one-fourth of all the lives on Earth every year.) Yeah, that bothers me. But all these problems are rooted in one larger question, and the answer to that question will determine whether your children and your grandchildren will be able to come here 25 or 50 years hence in an increasingly interdependent, crowded, clashing world.

The question is which matters more: our interesting differences or our common humanity, and what are you supposed to do about it?”

“We have to see each other because in an interdependent world, we really can’t succeed without each other. That will be your great challenge. All other things will be dealt with if we think and feel and act as if our common future is our common future.”

You can listen to the full audio of his address here.