President William J. Clinton – Bill Clinton – appeared before 2,000 people at a reception for the Clinton Foundation at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco. An event which raised $200,000 for his organization. (The video that accompanies this is the only one online with the full speech Clinton gave that night.)
He gave a short – for him – speech about giving. He says that this event is part of a global movement toward lifting citizen power to do public good without holding office, where people are donating to World causes at levels not seen in history. "Warran Buffet’s gonna give away 98 percent of all his money. Bill Gates already gave $35 billion,"President Clinton said.
"The Internet," he said, "has made it possible for people of modest means, if they agree on one thing, to change the World." President Clinton said the Internet made it possible for the Bush / Clinton Katrina Fund to generate $1.2 billion in America alone.
President Clinton also pointed to the rise of "NGO’s" or "Non Governmental Organizations "around the world for the rise in global donations to causes. They are the organizations like the Gates Foundation giving money and directing it to solve problems around the World. There's a half million NGOs in Africa and China, each.
President Clinton himself was able to negotiate a dramatic price reduction in medicine for AIDS in developing countries. In America he’s working to combat the problem of childhood obesity and promoting economic empowerment.
President Clinton explained that we must work to achieve positive works from our interdepence. "We’ve still got to figure out how to live with our differences, "he said.
“I want you to talk to people about what you did tonight, "he said.
Senator Hillary Clinton did not appear on stage, but she was there according to a security agent I talked with.
For more information, visit the Clinton Foundation website at http://www.clintonfoundation.org
