Rural Innovation Plenary at 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

Plenary Session on Poverty & Rural Innovation
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 26, 2008

[Left to Right]

Steve Gunderson
[President and CEO, Council on Foundations]

Muhammad Yunus
[Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank]

Rick Warren
[Pastor, Saddleback Church]



My Notes on the Plenary Session:

Elsie Meeks said that she believed she was the only representative on the panel who spoke for poverty within the United States, specifically Native American poverty which often goes unseen by those who do not visit tribal reservations. Her words, "If we can't do this [alleviate poverty] in the US, how can we do it in any other nation?"

Muhammad Yunus told the audience at the Sheraton Towers that, in the 1990s, he recalled a Governor named Clinton and the First Lady of Arkansas [Hillary] inviting him to the United States to become involved on the issue of alleviating poverty in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Looking toward Elsie Meeks, he marveled about their presence on the panel together and their common work within the United States, "We've gone from Pine Bluff to Pine Ridge."

Dr. Yunus spoke about another current social business of his in the United States. Grameen Queens [NY] is an extension of his ever-growing list of Grameen businesses. He said, "New York provides banking for the whole world. What about its own neighbors?"

Speaking about the nature of social business, Dr. Yunus explained how, once the business is created, it can be duplicated many times. He feels that Philanthropy, as we've come to understand it, must be "reinterpreted...expanded." He recommended getting out of the Charity business and, instead, to give people real ownership...to use our creativity to make a meaningful and lasting change. He believes that once a charity dollar is given, the subject of good intention is given the benefit once. When social business is created, however, he believes that the benefits don't end because investment continues to be made. He used the example of Group Danone [the yogurt company] which, in 2007, promised to invest $500,000 in a joint venture with Grameen to nourish children in Bangladesh. The way it works is that, in the future, Danone would expect to take back their initial investment and keep putting the rest of the profits back into the joint social business venture.


Wangari Muta Maathai, explaining her view that of all the Millennium Development goals, Sustainability [currently listed as Number-Seven] should be Number-One in priority, went a step further to say that those who are trying to alleviate poverty must never lose touch with the grass-roots in developing countries. Without grassroots-based concentration on Sustainability, no other Millennium goal can be realistically achieved. Poverty exists at that grass-roots level and the people who work the soil and suffer with the effects of climate change must be met where they are. She cited the Land, the Soil, the Water, and the Forests all as opportunity areas for management solutions. She said that the issue of Climate Change is tied in with the alleviation of poverty and, since she was speaking to a group of potential investors, added that a great opportunity for successful investment exists in all matters surround that issue. One example she used was investment in carbon credits, which she feels will help keep tropical forests standing in places along the Amazon and in Southeast Asia. She stressed her hopes that the United States government would "get on board" with Copenhagen 2009 [a major Climate Conference in Copenhagen].

Jacques Aigrain, CEO of SwissRe added that commercial solutions are being found to be at the core of successful civil outcomes when targeting "poverty traps" (as Muhammad Yunus calls them). Mr. Aigrain explained that what is happening today with social business is not your classic philanthropy. He believes free-market solutions will develop more effective sustainability...more quickly.


Toward the end of the session, Steve Gunderson asked the philosophical question: "Ten years from now, what will we wish we'd done today?" I think it was as good a closing question as there could've been.





Wangari Muta Maathai, Founder, Green Belt Movement in Kenya, 2004 Nobel Laureate

The Green Belt Movement, Professor Maathai, and their compelling stories are featured in several publications including her autobiography, Unbowed(2006), The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (Wangari Maathai, 2002), Speak Truth to Power (Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, 2000), Women Pioneers for the Environment (Mary Joy Breton, 1998), Hopes Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (Frances Moore Lappé and Anna Lappé, 2002), Una Sola Terra: Donna I Medi Ambient Despres de Rio (Brice Lalonde et al., 1998), and Land Ist Leben (Bedrohte Volker, 1993).[..]Professor Maathai serves on the boards of several organizations, including the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), World Learning (USA), Green Cross International, Environment Liaison Centre International, the WorldWIDE Network of Women in Environmental Work, and the National Council of Women of Kenya.

See "Nobel Peace Laureates Al Gore and Wangari Maathai Warn of Threat to National Security and Stability without U.S. Leadership on Deforestation"

Muhammad Yunus [Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank]

Muhammad Yunus, nicknamed "banker to the poor," won the Nobel [Peace Prize] in 2006 for inspiring a global microfinance movement that has lifted millions out of poverty by granting tiny loans. Started 30 years ago with a $27 loan to women in Bangladesh, his Grameen Bank has mushroomed by providing credit to poor people who do not have access to mainstream banking.[..]Unlike Wall Street, which is reeling from a flood of loans that may never be paid back, Grameen bank has a recovery rate of more than 98 percent.[..]"Today, if we are prepared, we could buy some of those falling banks in the United States, no problem, it's possible," Yunus said semi-seriously at former U.S. President Bill Clinton's philanthropic summit, the Clinton Global Initiative. [Source: Reuters]

Rick Warren [Pastor, Saddleback Church]

Pastor Rick Warren told former US President Bill Clinton’s global summit on Friday not to overlook the contribution that millions of people of faith around the world play in tackling some of today’s biggest challenges. "If we take the people of faith off the agenda, we've ruled out most of the world because most of the world has some faith," Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of the southern Californian Saddleback Church, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "There's already an army ready to be mobilised, an army of compassion." [Source: Christian Today]

Elsie Meeks, President and CEO of the Oweesta Corporation

Elsie Meeks is a champion and leader for creating sustainable asset building strategies for Native communities across the country. Through its training and technical assistance services, Ms. Meeks' organization is at the forefront of the movement to increase the number of Native community development financial institutions (CDFI) serving Native peoples. These institutions and their programs are the foundation of any successful economic development strategy. [source: Oweesta.org]

Jacques Aigrain, CEO and Member of the Executive Committee, Swiss Re
[No photo available]

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel to Sing for Obama

That'll be some concert at The Hammerstein Ballroom.

Some Things Bill Clinton Wants You to Know About Obama

Sarah Palin in CGI Audience for McCain Comments

GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin sat quietly in the audience, attracting a lot of press, at the recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Manhattan.

She was gone as soon as John McCain was gone.

The curiosity level was high since we know so little about this athletic pretty bespectacled moose-stalking mommy/governor who was chosen by John McCain as his running mate....but there no words from her. A wave and a smile. The CGI audience got a brief glimpse of her and that was it.

You can see what I saw:

Obama, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers on U.S. Economy & Future

At one of the last plenary sessions of the recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Manhattan, former President Bill Clinton said that wealthy countries must not learn the wrong lessons from the current financial crisis. He recommended that we "fix" the problem while, at the same time, we do not fail to understand the problem. As for the work that he and so many others are doing at the annual Global Initiative meetings, he offered great confidence in that which they are, as a group, trying to accomplish for all people by making money "the old-fashioned way", indicating an honest and straightforward attempt to create and invest in new markets where there once were none in order to shape a far more sustainable world. He assured this group that he surely did not see them or their committed work as "the problem".

Former Harvard president Larry Summers, who attended the CGI meeting last week, seemed to have reiterated President Clinton's warning about the overall problem on Wall Street being misunderstood in a September 28 Financial Times op-ed:

The idea seems to have taken hold in recent days that because of the unfortunate need to bail out the financial sector, the nation will have to scale back its aspirations in other areas such as healthcare, energy, education and tax relief. This is more wrong than right. We have here the unusual case where economic analysis actually suggests that dismal conclusions are unwarranted and the events of the last weeks suggest that for the near term, government should do more, not less.

Lawrence Summers
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 25, 2008
photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Seeing the need for legislation that would provide the quickest and strongest budget impacts at this moment in precious time, Dr. Summers recommends:

The best measures would be those that represent short-run investments that will pay back to the government over time or those that are packaged with longer-term actions to improve the budget. Examples would include investments in healthcare restructuring or steps to enable states and localities to accelerate, or at least not slow down, their investments.

A time when confidence is lagging in the household, financial and business sectors is not a time for government to step back. Well-designed policies are essential to support the economy and given the seriousness of healthcare, energy, education and inequality issues, can make a longer-term contribution as well.

This is a necessary time for the greatest leadership to shine through. I was disappointed in both Presidential candidates in last Friday's debate because they seemed to be mired in the small details. A great leader will not simply say what the people believe they need to hear or become caught in the trap of the political minutiae, but will rise above the trifling temporal restraint of the looming national election and escape the constraint of the smallest details to reassure the American public that these may not be our best days, but the possibility of a better day with honest limits to leadership and more realistic global interdependence and cooperation in a more innovative atmosphere with the creation of new career opportunities and a sustainable and peaceful world is an exciting possibility.

I heard Barack Obama speak toward this vision for the future at the CGI meeting on September 25th and I wish the audience that watched the debate the next night could have heard it.

Here's my own video of Senator Obama speaking about his vision for America's future at the CGI meeting.

David C. Novak - "YUM" at 2008 CGI Meeting

David C. Novak
Cause: "World Hunger Relief"
2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting
New York
September 25, 2008

From LouisvilleBizJournals.com

The Clinton Global Initiative Thursday recognized Yum Brands Inc. for its worldwide commitment to raise and donate $80 million over the next five years to help the World Food Programme and others provide 200 million meals for hungry school children in developing countries.

Louisville-based Yum also pledged to donate 20 million hours of hunger relief volunteer service, $200 million worth of its prepared food to hunger agencies in the United States and to use the company’s marketing clout to raise awareness of the hunger issue.

Former President Bill Clinton announced the commitment during a special session on school food programs. It will mean that one million children can come to school every day for a year and get a nourishing meal.

Yum plans to raise $80 million through its World Hunger Relief campaign, which it says is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort aimed at ending world hunger.

Singer Mariah Carey will be featured in the company’s posters advertising the campaign, and those who donate will receive a free download of her song, “Love Story.”

Yum (NYSE: YUM) is the parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants.

See the World Hunger Campaign account at FLICKR

Josette Sheeran - "Fill The Cup" 2008 CGI Meeting

Josette Sheeran
Cause: "Fill the Cup"
2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting
New York
September 25, 2008

"Fill the Cup" is an international campaign to raise awareness and funds for the 59 million children in the world's developing countries, who go to school hungry. The campaign slogan and logo is based on the millions of plastic cups that WFP uses to handout porridge or other food rations to millions of school children around the world.

Shortly after joining WFP in April 2007, Executive Director Josette Sheeran was handed one of the millions of red cups that WFP uses to distribute its free school meals to young children. Scratched on the bottom of the cup was the name "Lily". Sheeran now never travels anywhere for WFP without a red cup in her luggage. It has become a powerful symbol of the difference that filling a cup with food can make to a hungry child's life.
[Source: "FAQ - Fill The Cup" WFP]


Photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Wyclef Jean for Yéle at 2008 CGI meeting

Wyclef Jean
Cause: "Yéle Haiti"
2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting
New York
September 25, 2008
Photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore
Cause: "Fill The Cup"
2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting
New York
September 25, 2008

Photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell


How did Drew become interested in the "Fill the Cup" campaign?
See this short video of mine:



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The Candidates: Obama & McCain at CGI

I was in the room for this. Stay tuned to future postings for my impressions and my personal video capture.

From the CGI website:

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama Address the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting


President Clinton Announces Mega-Commitments Centered on School Feeding and Improved Sanitation and Clean Water Access for Developing Nations

New York – President Clinton opened the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting by introducing both Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, who delivered remarks to CGI members and those viewing online. The two presidential candidates spoke about issues related to CGI's focus areas: education, energy and climate change, health, and poverty alleviation.

"The fact that both candidates for president addressed CGI's Annual Meeting demonstrates the importance of the issues we focus on and the non-partisan nature of our work," said President Bill Clinton. "The next president will face unprecedented global challenges requiring international collaboration that transcends borders, politics, and religion. It is in this same spirit that we join together each year to commit to take action in response to the urgent challenges of our time."

Among the commitments announced today were several new mega-commitments in the fields of climate change, global health and education. They will: create large scale climate change awareness campaigns reaching well over 150,000 people; bring groups together to address the problems of sanitation and clean water in developing nations, including providing over 1 billion liters of water; and create and improve school feeding and deworming programs, in an effort to keep over 20 million children healthy and in school.

Additionally, Dana Freyer, a CGI member, updated President Clinton on the progress of the Global Partnership for Afghanistan's 2006 commitment. The Partnership committed to launching 100 commercially viable orchards and woodlot businesses in Afghanistan-but its growth has far outpaced its commitment. Already it has engaged more than 9,000 enterprise farmers, helping alleviate reliance on the poppy trade and improve financial stability.

Several of today's commitments, including further information on mega-commitments, is attached.

Information about the Clinton Global Initiative and CGI member commitments is online at www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.



Commitments announced by President Clinton:

* Barclays, CARE, Accenture, and Plan International committed $20 million over 3 years to improve the quality of life for poor people by enhancing, innovating and accelerating sustained access to savings and other financial services. This commitment is expected to provide 800,000 people with access to financial services.

* Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with the University of Colorado Foundation, committed $1 million over 2 years to support the development of the Consortium for Capacity Building, helping developing countries to use science to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards.

* Standard Chartered Bank, Intel Corporation, Seva Foundation, Al Noor Magrabi Foundation, Aravind Eye Care System, Kilimanjaro Center for Community Opthamology, Lumbini Eye Institute, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Vivekanada Mission Association Netra Niramay Niketan Chaitanyapur, Visualiza, Seva Canada Society, International Association for the Prevention of Blindness and the World Health Organization, and Aravind Eye Care System committed a combined value of over $32 million to reduce the incidence of blindness and improve eye care for low-income people around the world.

* Broad Foundation, Harvard University, Departments of Education for the Cities of Chicago, New York and the District of Columbia committed $44 million over 3 years to create the Harvard Innovation lab for the study of urban public schools, providing a place for innovation and objective measurement of urban school district programs for grades K-12.

* Wal-Mart, in cooperation with the Environmental Defense Fund, committed to reduce Wal-Mart's global plastic shopping bag waste by an average of a third per store by 2013, resulting in a potential reduction of 290,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year-roughly the equivalent of taking more than 53,000 passenger vehicles off the road.



This year a number of CGI members have come together to launch several impressive awareness initiatives reaching specific constituencies with a combined commitment value of more than $6.5 million and the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people. They include:


* The Energy Action Coalition will convene a conference in Washington, DC with more than 10,000 young people from across the country and around the world to call for governmental action to address climate change.

* The League of Conservation Voters will engage major labor unions and directly reach at least 150,000 members across the country.

* The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies will launch the Commission to Engage African Americans on Climate Change.




The following individuals and organizations committed to improve access to safe drinking water and effective sanitation. When fully implemented, these commitments will reach 8.5 million people, providing over 1 billion liters of clean water:


* Pepsico and Water Partners have teamed up to invest $4 million in WaterCredit, an innovative model that uses microcredit to expand access to safe water and sanitation in India.

* Through a second commitment to partner with the Safe Water Network, PepsiCo will also provide 200,000 people in Ghana, India, and Bangladesh with village water and rainwater harvesting systems.

* Three foundations – the Hesperian, Gates, and Kind World Foundations – will work together to translate, print, and distribute lifesaving educational resources on water, sanitation, and health in 20 different languages.

* Shaped by his own experience of overcoming polio, musician Feliciano Dos Santos will use the power of song to provide water, sanitation, and hygiene to 50 villages in his home country of Mozambique.

* Population Services International will distribute integrated health care packages-including safe drinking water, treatment for diarrheal disease, and malaria prevention and treatment--to half a million children in Madagascar.

* The Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council has committed to mobilize an additional $30 million dollars for the Global Sanitation Fund, which invests in sanitation interventions for poor people worldwide. When implemented, this commitment will provide 2 million people with proper sanitation and hygiene.

* In collaboration with the Ministries of Health of ten Latin American countries, the Pan American Health Organization will implement a comprehensive maternal and child health program, promoting water, sanitation and nutrition for 2 million women and children.

* Procter and Gamble and its partners will supply 1 billion liters of safe drinking water worldwide, and launch a media and awareness-raising campaign that will reach over 300 million households in the United States and Europe.

* Building upon the success of their award-winning sanitation technologies and social movement in India, Sulabh International Social Services Organization will help five developing country governments adopt their model.

* OneXOne and H20 Africa have committed to raise at least a million dollars to WaterPartners International, providing safe water and sanitation to over 55,000 people.

* Representing a collaboration of 24 companies, non-profits, health organizations, and foundations, the Global Water Challenge will secure funding for the winners of a global competition to promote innovations in water and sanitation.

* The Robert Hernreich Family Foudantion and Global Action will add water purification practices to an existing micro-nutrient fortification program for 25,000 children living in Tanzania.

* The Aquaya Institute will validate a financially sustainable approach to providing community-level water treatment in rural western Kenya.

* Through a partnership with Direct Relief International, Napo Pharmaceuticals will develop and provide at cost a new pharmaceutical to treat pediatric diarrheal diseases in low income countries.



The following education mega-commitment has grown to include more than 16 commitments that will reach more than 20 million children in over 30 countries:


* World Food Program commits to expand its school meals program, in part through the generous support Yum! Brands, who commits to provide $80 million for school meal and nutrition programs over the next 5 years.

Further, the WFP commits to provide a half-a-million school meals per day to children sourced from local, low-income farmers.

* The WFP and the World Bank commit to open its $1.2 billion global food crisis fund, providing more than 5 million children school meals and school deworming.

* Digicel will provide school meals and nutrition to 14,000 students in more than 30 Haitian schools.

* Feed the Children, Deworm the World, Save the Children, and American Institutes of Research commit to deworm 10 million school children in 19 countries.

* Joint Aid Management will provide school meals to 1 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2012.

* Mercy Corps and Best Buy will prepare 375,000 young Americans to fight hunger through a new Action Center to End World Hunger in Lower Manhattan.

* Akshaya Patra and the Deshpande Foundation, after fulfilling last year's commitment to feed one million Indian school children daily, will further expand the capacity of their kitchens to produce an additional 100,000 meals a day.

* Booz & Co. will build a "mega-community" of Italian leadership to increase awareness and funding for the World Food Program

* The International Rescue Committee will pilot a school meals and nutrition program for displaced children in Colombia and apply the lessons learned to programs for children of conflict in 20 countries.

* Rica Rodman Orszag will commit to provide pro bono public relations services to promote the World Food Program Global Red Cup Campaign

* The Global Foodbanking Network will use foodbanking to link surplus food to 500,000 school children in Colombia, Argentina, Jordan, South Africa, and India.

* East Side Entrees commits $9 million to ensure 600,000 students in disadvantaged American schools start the day with a nutritious breakfast in the classroom.

Bill Clinton Will Close 2008 CGI Meeting Today

Today's sessions will feature speakers Wangari Muta Maathai, Rick Warren, Muhammad Yunus, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, among many others. I will not be live-blogging these last sessions. Watch for upcoming stories from me about the many ideas and generous commitments that have come from this year's meeting.

President Clinton will conclude the 2008 CGI Annual Meeting today following sessions featuring new commitment announcements and panel discussions which, as has occurred during the course of the entire 2008 meeting, will focus on devising solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI members have made nearly 1,000 Commitments to Action valued at upwards of $30 billion to improve more than 200 million lives in over 150 countries around the world.

TODAY'S PLENARY SESSION: The Global Impact of Rural Innovation

In today’s society, where technology enables people to connect with one another instantly, it is hard to understand why poor, rural regions around the world continue to face persistent challenges in isolation. To reconcile these inequalities, many individuals, organizations, and businesses are actively addressing education, economic development, energy opportunities, and other vital needs. From the development of alternative-energy technology to implementation of economic development initiatives, persistently impoverished rural communities are developing in ways that can be scaled to address global challenges. This panel will include leaders who are driving innovations that serve rural communities and can be applied around the world.
Program Participants:

Jacques Aigrain, CEO, Swiss Reinsurance Company
Steve Gunderson, President and CEO, Council on Foundations
Wangari Muta Maathai, Founder, Green Belt Movement, Kenya
Elsie Meeks, President and CEO, First Nations Oweesta Corporation
Rick Warren, Pastor, Saddleback Church
Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director, Grameen Bank

I'll be blogging other stories and updates this coming week. I've enjoyed my time here at this annual meeting and look forward to letting my readers know what I learned and answer some of the questions I've been asked.

Plumpy'nut Saves Lives

Plumpy'nut has the ability to save life after life after life.

Sounds like superhero, doesn't it?

The people who've created Plumpy'nut should qualify for Superhero status.

There are many people honoring their commitments and showing results here at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative, and supplying Plumpy'nut to children who'd literally starve to their deaths in other circumstances is just one of the ways that those making commitments to global health are making a positive impact.

Plumpy'nut is a high protein and high energy peanut-based paste in a foil wrapper. It tastes slightly sweeter than peanut butter. It is categorized by the World Health Organization as a Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).

Plumpy’nut requires no preparation or special supervision, making it easy to deploy in difficult conditions. Plumpy'nut is very difficult to overeat and keeps even after opening. It has a 2 year shelf life when unopened. The product was inspired by the popular Nutella spread (one of my personal favorites).

How does it save lives? The New York Times has reported that Plumpy'nut is administered in 500 kilocalorie packets, twice daily, for two to four weeks, in combination with Unimix, a vitamin-enriched flour for making porridge, and has been shown, by saved life after saved beautiful life, to reverse malnutrition in severely malnourished children.

Plumpy'nut has saved lives in places like Niger and Cambodia. Its creator is Andre Briend.

See this video about Plumpy'nut.

Read this story about the little miracle in a foil wrapper.

Wednesday - 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

Wednesday’s opening plenary session, held in the Metropolitan Ballroom at the Sheraton Towers in Manhattan, included the voices of Lance Armstrong (Founder and Chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation), former President Bill Clinton, Queen Rania of Jordan, Bono (who is representing the ONE anti-poverty organization and has been blogging his experiences at FT.com), former US Vice President Al Gore (now Chairman of General Investment Management), and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia.

President Clinton impressed upon everyone, regardless of what part they played in the meeting, that they are important to the success of the CGI, each in their own way. He said, "Everyone who has come to CGI's annual Meeting or is following it online has the power to make a difference. The commitments you will make this year - both at the meeting and on our web-portal MyCommitment.org- come at a time of great uncertainty for the world. This makes our collective ability to touch the lives of others more important than ever. Working together, we can help make a safer and more sustainable future."

Former President George H.W. Bush made a surprise trip to the stage to join with Clinton to announce the creation of the Bush Clinton Coastal Recovery Fund. [see ABC News story]

President Clinton said that the current financial crisis is no excuse to ignore poverty. In his words, "This crisis is not an excuse to walk away from the world's challenges, but a compelling reason to intensify our efforts to meet them, around the corner and around the world."

Bono [of U2 and ONE] who, along with fellow rok singer and activist Bob Geldof have thrown their support behind a European Commission plan to give nearly 1.5 billion US dollars to African farmers, spoke passionately on Wedneday's plenary session panel about his unrealized expectations for his work with and hope for people who live in Africa.

Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, who spent the day here at the Sheraton yesterday, wrote about the potential good that the Clinton Global Initiative has as it is bringing together "non-traditional partners - governments, aid organisations, charities and business." ­She added,

At the opening of the session, U2 singer Bono immediately raised the mood by asking: "If we can spend $700 billion to save Wall Street, why can't we find $25 billion to save the lives of the 25,000 children who die each day?" [Telegraph UK]

Bono spoke of what he called "the extremes," each damaging to humankind, the three extremes being extreme poverty, extreme climate change, and extreme ideologies.

Al Gore gave a fiery talk on climate change, speaking of a need for a new "electronet" as the current grid is in dire need of update. Gore went as far as giving the green light to civil disobedience on behalf of progress on issues surrounding climate change.

College Students Participate in CGI University

College students are participating in the Clinton Global Initiative [http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org] through CGI University [http://www.cgiu.org].

For those who use Facebook technology (as many of my readers do), there are four separate pages dedicated to the focus-areas of the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting and these pages represent different aspects of CGI University:

CGI U - Human Rights & Peace:



Although the number of violent conflicts in our world has decreased in recent decades, the international community must still confront serious challenges to the basic human rights of millions of people. Global citizens are taking note and taking action. College students are playing a vital role in these efforts: highlighting the challenges, promoting social justice, giving voice and assistance to the disadvantaged, protecting the rights of children and women, and establishing dialogues and friendships across communities. CGI U panels will explore these and other opportunities to bridge divides, advance human rights, and expand peace in all regions of the world.


CGI U - Global Health



Each year, millions of people around the world die from preventable causes. Millions more suffer from debilitating diseases because they lack access to affordable, quality health care. Working from campuses, students and universities are making significant progress in strengthening health services and improving the health of societies around the world. CGI U panels will explore novel approaches to harnessing the resources of students and universities to save lives and make the world a healthier place.


CGI U - Energy & Climate Change



As the Earth's temperature rises, so too does the urgency to find solutions to our world’s changing climate. More than 17 states, 600 cities, and 300 colleges and universities are taking the lead on fighting global warming and setting ambitious targets to reduce heat-trapping gases. As this leadership around the world continues to grow, venture capital is pouring into clean energy projects in record amounts. Nevertheless, enormous challenges remain: fossil fuel use continues to rise worldwide, hundreds of coal plants remain on the drawing boards, tropical forests continue to disappear at record rates, and international consensus on next steps remains elusive. Urgent action is needed. CGI U Commitments show specific ways students and universities are working to transform these challenges into economic and environmental opportunities, and preserve our planet for generations to come.

CGI U - Poverty Alleviation



Almost half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. Many families are unable to put food on the table, send their children to school, or attain the basic necessities they need to thrive. During the last decade, individuals and organizations have formed new partnerships – some with the poor – to address this global crisis. Starting from wherever they may be, students and universities are taking steps to alleviate poverty in innovative ways.



Bill Clinton not only spoke about CGI U this morning at the opening plenary session, but also MyCommitment.org, another CGI opportunity in which anyone and everyone is invited to participate. The CGI website describes the purpose of "My Commitment":

MyCommitment.org aims to provide all people—regardless of age, income or where you live—with the resources to take action and make a real change in their communities and around the world.



MyCommitment.org seeks to:

* Inspire Change. Provide information highlighting some of the world’s biggest challenges, raise awareness and motivate others to take action.
* Build Community. Connect people with others who share the same vision for change and help them create networks to put plans into motion.
* Facilitate Action. Offer tools for visitors to make commitments to act and track their progress and results.
* Strengthen Engagement. Encourage citizen action around America and throughout the world.

MyCommitment.org builds on the success of the Clinton Global Initiative, a project of the Clinton Foundation, which has already inspired more than 1,000 commitments to action from some of the world’s top thinkers and government and business leaders. Learn more about CGI member commitments.

Launched in 2007, MyCommitment.org reflects President Clinton’s dedication to promoting citizen service. Throughout his life, President Clinton has met inspiring individuals and organizations taking innovative and unique approaches to solving some of the world’s biggest challenges. These encounters also led him to write his second book, GIVING: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which was released in September 2007.

http://www.mycommitment.org

Lance Armstrong Will Ride in At Least Three 2009 Races

Lance Armstrong appeared at a press conference this afternoon after having participated in the opening plenary session of the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative meeting. He's decided to return to professional cycling, not only for the purpose of competition, stemming from a true love of the sport, but to increase his presence as a spokesperson for his cause.

NYT: Addressing the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Wednesday, Armstrong said he would convene the first global summit of the Livestrong campaign to raise cancer awareness in Paris after the Tour.

He said, "Carrying this strong message around the world, whether it's on a bicycle or through the media is my number one goal."

Armstrong says he'll race in 2009 with Astana [see NYT story], the first race being in Australia in the Tour Down Under. The only other races he'd confirm taking part in will be Tour de France and the Leadville 100.

Armstrong pointed to Olympic contender Taylor Finney as "the future of American cycling" and said that he hoped that the Live Strong Global campaign adds a development component to a committed team already trying their best to win big events.





In a moment of contemplation about his drive to win (while not knowing how he'll perform in these races), Armstrong credited his mother for his willingness and spirit to never quit.

NYT: Armstrong, a fierce and uncompromising competitor, has kept in reasonably good shape. He has competed in several marathons, finishing them in under three hours. Recently, he has raced in smaller cycling races near the home he is building in Aspen, Colo., finishing second this summer in the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile mountain bike race through the Rocky Mountains. He raced for Team Livestrong, which is associated with his cancer foundation.

Armstrong has said the Leadville race, in particular, stoked his desire to return to competitive racing. Just before that race, he rejoined the testing pool run by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Athletes are required to be in the program for at least six months before participating in elite-level competition.

He called Don Catlin "beyond reproach" in his field as an anti-doping scientist and Armstrong plans to use Catlin for his own personal anti-doping program.


Voicing his his appreciation when one woman shared her personal story about her experience with having had cancer and writing a book about it, Armstrong said that there are those who live in societies today who still cannot talk freely about having the disease because of the stigma that all too often goes along with the risk of being so honest. Being ostracized for having cancer is commonplace in some of these societies and whether it's riding a bike, writing a book, participating in community outreach or whatever one person has the power to do, sharing those experiences help people understand that they're not alone. He urged everyone to do whatever they can to create and perpetuate an open and honest discussion about cancer.

Armstrong is convinced that we'll see the face of health care changing in the U.S. regardless of who wins the upcoming election, albeit more change will be likely "if one party wins over the other." He didn't mention which party he meant. When it comes to cancer, he's convinced that the upcoming change in US health care will have a dramatic impact on those who need it most.





What shocks Lance Armstrong? That was a question asked of him today. Armstrong replied with an answer that will cause anyone who's had a loved one suffer with cancer to hope for something better in the future of cancer research. He said, "I'll tell you what shocks me, I think..in 20 years..we'll look back on chemotherapy and that will shock us....we'll look at that and say, 'I can't believe we did that to a fellow human being.'"

I'm a blogger...not a conventional reporter..and I can tell you that I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, remembering my own mother's four-year battle with the disease, a battle that she lost in 2005. lance Armstrong's description of his own mother teaching him to "never quit" rang true when I thought of my mother's valiant fight. She never gave up.

[Photos by Jude Nagurney Camwell]

Some Thoughts About Why I'm at the 2008 CGI Meeting

The major challenges upon which the participants at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative [CGI] meeting have a shared focus are: Education, Energy & Climate Change, Global Health, and Poverty Alleviation.

As a blogger, some people might ask me why I’m here. I blog political issues and, admittedly, this work the Clinton Foundation is doing has a lot to do with the possibilities that come with political persuasion and vision, but this work does not rely solely upon politics in that it asks business, government, and civil society towork together in harmony for the benefit of humankind.






What change is possible in our world through the endeavors of and commitments to the Clinton Global Initiative? It isn't magical and it involves hard work, financial commitment, and a genuine caring for the lives of others. In truth, my personal interest in this goes beyond all politics. I think, in the end, it’s all about what lies deep in my heart. When it comes to what draws me to the CGI, the arrow directed toward my heart involves faith, spirit, caring, hope .. call the sum of it what you will. Think, just for a moment, about whatever causes you to care about your fellow human being. That’s the ground where I’ll meet you as we talk about what can be accomplished by the CGI and all who make commitments to the organization.

I think of my own friend George Henry Amoah who works hard for his fellow community members as Executive Director at Gye Nyame Charity International in Ghana. His organization believes that the plight of equatorial Africa is a global challenge that cannot be ignored by the developed world. At the Gye Nyame website, it states, “A nation can only improve the education & welfare of its people through internal initiatives based upon local & regional knowledge & practices, supported by global, ethical & accountable investment.” The organization, like many of its kind in Africa today, strives to protect poor women who walk long distances in the harvesting season and work the rest of the day picking fruit, many of them suffering snake, scorpion and other dangerous bites that sometimes result in death. They do all of this for some small amount of money.


On the eve of the opening of the 2008 CGI meeting, George wrote me a note of hope that people out here are listening and taking meaningful action to make a change we want to see in our world:

“Hello, Jude. Good morning and pray that we see a world of peace and devoid of bad corrupt practices this we need many good people coming together and working hard and not with lip services, we need to pull people on board and with faith we shall get there.
~ George”

We may be oceans apart, but the heart of a caring, hard-working, prayerful and hopeful citizen in Ghana has reached the ears of a blogger from a Northeastern sleepy suburban village in the U.S. where hardships seem to melt away when you learn the truth about the daily struggle for survival in a place you once thought was so far away.

“There’s no such place as far away,” as the spiritual writer Richard Bach has written. Today, more than ever, he’s right.

I'll Be Live-Blogging the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

Former President Clinton Announces Program for 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
Source: www.clintonglobalinitiave




Beginning Wednesday, September 24, I'll be in New York live-blogging the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative Meeting [as I did in 2006]. Watch for updates on my blog and on my Facebook page.



From an email:

On Wednesday, leaders from business, government, philanthropy, and religion will again gather in NYC for the 4th Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting to find innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges — and you can watch it all unfold, live via webcast on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Distinguished guests will include Her Royal Highness Rania Al-Abdullah, Queen of Jordan, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Senator Barack Obama, Senator John McCain, Bill Gates, Founder and Co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, President René Preval of the Republic of Haiti, Tony Blair, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of the City of New York, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, Muhammad Yunus, Founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank, Bono, Lead Singer of U2, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google, T. Boone Pickens, Founder and Chairman of BP Capital Management, Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church, and Tom Brokaw, Special Correspondent for NBC News.

In addition to live webcasts of all the events, you can find schedules, transcripts, and photos at http://www.clintonglobalintiaitive.org during and after the meeting.

Look for our emails each morning over the course of the meeting, previewing the day's activities and recapping events from the day before. There's much work to be done — but at CGI, we're all about action.

Opportunity International

Russia, France Put Aside Woes. The U.S. Snarls.

Russia, France put aside Georgia war differences | International | Reuters
Source: www.reuters.com



SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and France put aside disagreements over the August war in Georgia in a move to promote bi-lateral relations, especially in key energy projects. We will conduct with Russia

Excerpt:

"Analysts say the new rift with the West over Georgia have scared investors, adding to Moscow's financial woes in the face of recent global stock market turmoil."

I wonder - - which would the US government deem more of a national risk -- upsetting the world markets while the US is already reeling from Wall Street's troubles....or harping, toothless and snarling, with threats about Russia's recent actions in Georgian territory? I mean, really - is the Bush administration hallucinating? After French negotiations with Russia, not one single project has been put off or suspended between France and Russia. Meanwhile, Dick Cheney's still flapping his gums about his ever-rotting dream of a US-led new world order in Eurasia while offering millions upon millions of dollars that the US taxpayer can hardly bear to pay anymore... and while Sec'y of State Rice is "buying a one-way ticket to insignificance."

India apparently won't wait for the U.S. 123 nuclear agreement between India and the US ... with India deciding to sign a "landmark nuclear framework agreement with France during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Paris later this month." While the Bush administration runs ineffective wars, works at a snail's pace for treaties and agreements, and uses idle threats against other nations, business goes on with those nations that understand what realistic cooperation in the 21st century means.

Heckuva job, Dick and Condi. A change can't come soon enough, and brother McCain sounds more like your twin soul than his own man on this faded brand of foreign policy.

Jim Sciutto Talks About "Against Us"

Eye on Books
Source: www.eyeonbooks.com

Hating America is no longer limited to wild-eyed fringe fanatics in the Arab world, according to veteran journalist Jim Sciutto. In his role as ABC News Senior Foreign correspondent, Sciutto has traversed the Middle East, finding that al Qaeda's view of America is increasingly being adopted by middle-class, well-educated, mainstream Arabs. And frighteningly, Sciutto has concluded that the Iraq war is, indeed, a shockingly fertile breeding ground for enemies of America. His book is called "Against Us."

Listen:

Groovy

The Renewed Mind Is the Key
Source: www.theway.org

Don't ask. Just watch.
*Tip o'the hat to Chris Abraham. ;)

Ray Anderson on Sustainability

Blogging about carpet tiles isn't sexy by any means. Give one listen to Ray Anderson of Interface Inc [the word's largest modular carpet company], though, and you'll begin to see a glimpse of social changes through better business practices that will make room and make a sustainable home for the generations yet to come.

Ray Anderson on Sustainability
Source: www.youtube.com



This video is one businessman's testimony of a private and public evolution toward environmental consciousness and vision. See the book that inspired Mr. Anderson: "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawken and the poem that inspired Mr. Anderson - "Tomorrow's Child" by Glen Thomas.

"..Tomorrow's Child, my daughter-son,
I'm afraid I've just begun
To think of you and of your good,
Though always having known I should.

Begin I will to weight the cost
Of what I squander; what is lost
I should never forget that you
Will someday come to live here too..."

Obama's New Economic Philosophy

Senator Barack Obama did his best this afternoon to reassure the shaken American public that he had not only a new philosophy on the ways government should better guard the public interest, but also an initial plan to calm the troubled waters on Wall Street with a temporary plan to protect working Americans. [see transcript of Obama's remarks].

Senator Obama recognized that most Americans were "hurting long before Wall Street was hurting." One of the most compelling parts of his talk this afternoon was his stated principle regarding "mutual responsibility and reciprocity." Obama expressed, with an air of calm under the pressure of some horrific news on Wall Street this week, that his philosophy and plan would entail creating a "broad-based prosperity" in the U.S. rather than the kind of prosperity that enriched a few who are reckless as they've "walked away with the golden parachutes while taxpayers have been left holding the bag."

Stating that this crisis is "no accident of history," Obama pointed to government's past failures to act promptly to avoid the kind of unethical business practices that have caused more and more inequality in the U.S. He said that government has all too often "looked the other way until it was too late" and that government needs to provide common-sense regulation and oversight in order to best protect the public interest.

I imagined, after hearing him speak this morning, what it would be like to have the "broad-based prosperity" of which Obama offered as a realistic vision. The more you spread the opportunity, the better a reflection of the will of the people; the heart and soul of the people.

At Huffington Post, Steven G. Brant hopes that "at least some of our business and political leaders are in enough of a shock that they will look for new ideas and new answers" to this crisis.

Ten years ago, Mr. Brant wrote about the "fog" is being (and, for years, has been) created by "the tendency to see globalization from a perspective grounded in our history of living in a world of separate, independent nations."

The world's economy has become one interdependent system, yet we continue to view it through independent eyes.

What's really going on, from a systems perspective, is that a new, single, global system is struggling to be seen for what it is--a system that can prosper only if all of its parts prosper. It is a single system, one that innately knows that either all of it will make it or none of it will. That's the way healthy systems work. The business world will prosper beyond its wildest imagination once it cuts through this fog and stops viewing the future through "past-focused eyes."

Ex-G.O.P. Official Supports Obama for Values Reasons

For Ex-G.O.P. Official, Obama Is
Candidate of Catholic Values
Source: NY Times
Constitutional scholar Douglas Kmiec explains his current stance in "Can a Catholic Support Him? Asking the Big Question about Barack Obama," which will be published in two weeks by Overlook Press.

I believe that this interview, conducted by email with Professor Kmiec, will please neither pro-choice nor pro-life proponents....and I think the grey areas are an important reflection upon the American electorate's general views on the issue. He says,

"Senator Obama is articulating policies that permit faithful Catholics to follow the church’s admonition that we continue to explore ways to give greater protection to human life."

Professor Kmiec does his best to put the controversial abortion issue aside for just a moment to lay out a plethora of other current social and economic issues that bring about his belief that Obama and Biden's experience and campaign promises best reflect his own Catholic values. He cites, as examples, "the payment of a living wage, access to health care, stabilizing the market for shelter, special attention to the needs of the disadvantaged and the importance of community," saying that those issues are "all part of the church’s social justice mission."

Book Ref: "Can a Catholic Support Him?: Asking the Big Question About Barack Obama"
Barnes and Noble

Earth Sings the Ages' Unspoken Wisdom

as we walked the hills
where our mothers and fathers
were laid to rest
t'was mystic
the silent profundity of spirit
the years of unspoken wisdom
springing from the earth


*My own ancestor Isabell, born in 1780 with troubles raging all around in the new country, rests today on a hillside not far from my own home.

From Susan B Anthony to..Sarah Palin?!

Sarah Palin and Women Voters | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008
Source: www.newsweek.com

"Odd, yes, but there we are. Still, history suggests issues of policy will ultimately trump the politics of identity."

Excerpts that I found worthy of discussion:

ONE: "Decades of experience, stretching back to the suffrage movement, suggest that the brew of excitement (for Palin), horror (from the Democrats) and drama (who knows how it will end?) is fully in keeping with the tumult of the world the women of Seneca Falls, N.Y., made all those years ago."

TWO: "This was the great revelation of the 1920s: women do not all think the same. They reason, and vote, as individuals, not as a pack. [..] "Since 1980, women have skewed Democratic. And, until fairly recently, women have been loath to vote for other women—particularly stay-at-home mothers and elderly women. But the moose-shooting, defiant Palin may be changing that. Her gender is an asset —particularly in an election where sexism has been the subject of heated exchanges."


THREE: [NAOMI WOLF QUOTE] "She's pressing every single button that says 'working-class white woman'." Women candidates like Hillary Clinton had an "Ivy League gloss." Not Palin.But it's a very superficial button."

Petraeus: Troops Alone Won't Quell Violence in Afghanistan

While stressing the need for economic and political progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus told the AP:

"You don't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency."

Microlending: Obama's Mother A Founding Force

Dunham is a woman of the people | starbulletin.com
Jamm Aquino / jaquino@starbulletin.com ..

A panel discussion on the life and work of Stanley Ann Dunham was held yesterday at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Alice Dewey reflected on time spent with Dunham, the mother of Senator Barack Obama. ...

Do you know that Barack Obama's mother was a founding force in microlending?


Like many of you, I continue to ask myself where this country is going. I've watched (and written) for eight years while the U.S. was under a Republican President and most of our country's banks and businesses treated people as pure commodities, bringing citizens to their knees with once-unimaginable fuel prices and loss of their homes, with no timely intervention - legislative or moral - from the President or the GOP-led rubber-stamping, road-blocking Congress.

This isn't a sudden revelation for me. I've watched the house of cards that we've called leadership in D.C. - with the cards having been dealt by a misguiding political party with too much power placed in their undeserving hands - fall in small degrees with every passing day until we stand where we who want to find common ground are today - a confused and divided society with little trust in either major political party to turn the U.S. - and the fate of our allies and innocent people in nations where governments are even worse - toward the sunrise of each new day.

I am not a young person by any stretch of the imagination, but as a person who has not lost the spark of passion for our nation's future and knowing our future is tied to the future of all who live with us on the Earth, I can clearly empathize with the youth of this nation in seeking a leader who will help us find common ground with one another.

Microlending is one of the most innovative ways to use the private sector to not only find success for themselves alone, but to ennoble them by enabling them to have a real, lasting, and positive impact on society and the environment.

Where has the leadership been in Washington DC when it comes to being moral leaders rather than hiding behind business-friendly legislation without asking business leaders to consider the society they serve and promoting the terribly uncreative and uninspiring shopping sprees after 9/11? There are too few citizens, including our potential-filled youth and our most promising business leaders, who know or who have even been asked to care about common-sense solutions to ending global poverty.

Knowing that Stanley Anne Dunham was one of the first activists in the ground-effort to find real-world solutions to end meaningless, cruel, and unnecessary poverty and starvation may cause us to better understand the conscience of the young man she raised who was greatly influenced by such wisdom and heart.

In this silly campaign season where the ads are going nuclear with negativity, I'm afraid that many people who may still be making up their minds could wind up making them up for all the wrong reasons.

In the Presidential race between Obama and McCain, we seem to have another evenly-divided American public. What could break that tie? And what silly media soundbite could bring one campaign crashing down? That is the concern of campaigns.

What about the concern for our future..the one that extends well beyond November 4th? Who deserves a chance to help us all find common ground in a world that seems to be burning with misunderstanding and hatred for the American people. Is it the leader of the party, whether or not he calls himself a Maverick, that demeans and mocks the kind of volunteer public service that has shaken our communities out of complacency in order to make them better? Is it a promise of victory in a war we never should've entered into - especially when we know that the General whose advice should be meaningful is saying he'd never use the word 'victory' when he's speaking about Iraq? General David Petraeus said this week, "This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade... it's not war with a simple slogan." I think we all know that's true and when I hear John McCain's constant use of the word "victory," I tend to wonder if he thinks that American voters can't really take the straight talk that he so often claims he purports to offer.

ABC-reporter Jim Sciutto's new book "Against Us" speaks about hope for America to turn the tide of hate toward us that exists today. A change in U.S. foreign policy needs to be a clear one. A change that will help to rebuild relations with the Arab world and restore confidence in American values will need to be clear.

American politics are complicated and the U.S. media makes a circus out of them....but in the end, this isn't a circus or a reality television show. This is you - in your bed at night - thinking about your future...you son and your daughter...the sons and daughters going to sleep in nations we've never visited or think much about.

The media never talks much about your conscience or your heart. That isn't their responsibility. It's your own responsibility.

I pray that the majority of Americans will be fully awake, in a philosophical sense, when Election Day comes around.

I hope they'll think about the young man whose mother raised him with a solid example of how the future can be molded to benefit us all.

I wish the negative ads would disappear...but then I would be asking for a reprieve from the real world.

Read about Barack's mother. Read up about people like Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Read about the leaders of this nation and this world who are recognizing that life from here on out will be an interdependent one for all humanity and that your living room and your ocean shores are not the end of America's concern.

Think of the hundreds of thousands who crowded the square in Germany for Mr. Obama as more than just a publicity stunt.

He is not the only citizen of this world. We all are.

9/11: There Are No Words

There Are No Words

there are no words there is no song
is there a balm that can heal these wounds that will last a lifetime long
and when the stars have burned to dust
hand in hand we still will stand because we must







in one single hour in one single day
we were changed forever something taken away
and there is no fire that can melt this heavy stone
that can bring back the voices and the spirits of our own




all the brothers, sisters and lovers all the friends that are gone
all the chairs that will be empty in the lives that will go on
can we ever forgive though we never will forget
can we believe in the milk of human goodness yet




we were forged in freedom we were born in liberty
we came here to stop the twisted arrows cast by tyranny
and we won’t bow down we are strong of heart
we are a chain together that won’t be pulled apart






Written 9-11-2001 by Kitty Donohoe, Roheen Music BMI
All rights reserved


HEAR THE SONG AT CSPAN (Fast forward to 58:40)

Not Electrified by VP Who'd Seek to Restrict Key Freedoms

At Facebook: Jude Nagurney Camwell wrote at 2:07pm
Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that works to elect women who oppose abortion rights said women voters would be “electrified” by VP nominee Sarah Palin. Ms. Dannenfelser said, “Sarah is someone who is in sync with the way real American women think.”

I'm about as real and American a woman as they come. I fail to be electrified by a candidate who would choose to legally restrict a woman from making her own choices about the direction of her own life. I believe, as an American woman, that emotion and religion do not trump freedom. I am an American woman. The spirit and theme of freedom is intrinsically "American."

McCain Hopes Palin Will Capture Disgruntled Hillary Voters?

I have a feeling that Presidential candidate John McCain, having chosen a woman as his VP, is hoping to capture the attention of the small percentage of Hillary voters who, even after the Democratic convention, just couldn't "get over it." Even the smallest percentage could produce a winner in an extremely tight race. The question is: How tight will the race continue to be?

When the phone rings at 3am.......

My latest Facebook status message:

"Jude is wondering if anyone's made the 3am phone call primary ad connection w/the VP announcement at 3am."
Jude Nagurney Camwell at 10:43am August 23

Could this text message at 3am to announce Biden as VP have been a final slam on the Clinton primary season ad...as if to say, "Here's your 3 am experience!" ?

Bush Learns Lesson About Reading Eyeballs

Created by Jude Nagurney Camwell

On the John Edwards Scandal

Seeing so many "concern trolls" coming out of the woodwork and sending personal messages to me about the political fallout from the John Edwards affair, you would've thought I was the one who had the affair....or that I'd known about it all along.

I was a strong supporter of Senator Edwards for our common stand on the many issues that were (and are) most important to me. The mistake some of you have made in suggesting that "you told me so" and that I was a "poor judge of character" is that you still don't understand why I supported Edwards in the first place. Perhaps you don't understand where I'm coming from because the media never gave him a fair shake. They wanted to talk about his perfect, unlined face and his big house. They're still digging in with their claws. Pathetic pieces of work, some of them are.

The cult of personality that the Presidential race has become in this nation is at a fever pitch. As in the days of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the media has its collective shorts in a faux-moral uproar over a candidate having a marital affair.

Yes - I understand that, politically, Senator Edwards focused much of his Presidential platform on the moral failings of the past eight years, and so it's easy for some who see his mistake as a key moral personal failing to throw away the proverbial baby (who was a very bad baby) with the bathwater of his down-to-earth vision. It's all too easy to cast away the body of ideas he's been sharing with progressives but for the man's human weakness.

I worked directly with him and Elizabeth on some issues and I can tell you that I've never seen two more committed and politically courageous people. If Mrs.Edwards can find forgiveness, and I assume she did along time ago, then it would only be a sick preoccupation with sex that would cause me to turn away from soliciting their future support on the issues that make a real difference in our lives. I'm just not that hung up on others' personal affairs. I'll leave that to some of you cult-of-celebrity subscribers. To you, I say never fear...your gossip shows will be on once again tonight. You can get another fix in a few hours.

His affair, for me personally, has no bearing on the fact that what he was saying was true all along.

I feel tremendously sorry for the Edwards family right now.

But for those who are coming to me looking for me to step back from my positions because Senator Edwards made a tragic mistake which even the most suspicious of his detractors couldn't have known about or imagined, I think you'd best stop feeling so "sorry" for me and move along. There's nothing for you to see here except my constant positions on the issues that matter to all of us.

The primary ended when Senator Obama became the presumptive nominee. That was quite a while ago. If any of you care to keep Senator Obama apprised of our hopes that he'll get(and stay) on a Progressive path, do something productive rather than accost me....go to The Nation magazine and sign this letter.

Senator Edwards will hopefully be back to help out with the Half in Ten cause,and when he does, I'd encourage those who judged him based on the standards of the cult of personality rather than the trust that he meant what he said all along about ending poverty to join Half in Ten.


I want to share some of my very few comments at Daily Kos on the topic:

Rec'd curious personal notes from concern trolls (4+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
sockpuppet, Noisy Democrat, Triscula, carllaw

Amazing how they come out of the woodwork when something like this happens...as if any of us knew about the politically (and personally) tragic mistake made by Edwards. I take it with a grain of salt because, from a political standpoint, I moved on from the primary a long time ago and still hold to my belief in the social justice that Edwards strongly championed. He may not be able to carry the fight on strongly because of his glaringly poor judgment in his personal affairs and America's preoccupation with sex, but I sure as hell will be fighting myself. And I'd stand beside him in that fight any day..unashamed.

Very well-said, Don, I join your Half In Ten support (5+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
sockpuppet, TomP, planetclaire4, DixieDishrag, carllaw

It would be my deepest disappointment were Half in Ten to suffer.

John Edwards is a human being with human failings.

One lesson to be learned is that no one - regardless of who the candidate is - should be a true believer in a personality. No one should place a human being on a super-human pedestal. And no one should present themselves as a savior of any kind.

I saw many true believers flocking to Daily Kos during this primary season for another personality..Mr. Obama. Let's remember that he, too, is flesh and blood.

We must be cautious and remember it's the cause and not the figurehead in which we should place our undying faith.

My own true belief was in the causes that John and Elizabeth championed.

Thankfully, I have no regret in having been a constant and committed champion of those causes and will recognize and pay tribute to the viable candidates who champion them in the future.

As for Senator Edwards, I am disappointed, but at the same time I still believe that he was just as committed to ending poverty as you and I have been. I still am inextricably enjoined with him, in a social-justice sense, in that cause, regardless of his unbelievably bad judgment in his personal and political affairs. Social justice is a moral cause...and it's far more important to concentrate upon than the kind of hyperfocused and holier-than-thou moral judgment being passed on Edwards now.

Those who choose to blurt out their "fuck you-s" and "I hate you-s" are having knee-jerk reactions in their visions of what could have been and, thankfully, will never come to pass. Edwards could've been the POTUS nominee and have blown it for all of us. Understandable.

Those who excoriate the people who supported Edwards because of his causes are wrong in failing to see that they're only seeing through their own filters...many having shown that they, themselves, have been true believers in another candidate while almost robotically sinking their teeth into the political flesh of Hillary Clinton for so many months.

Many lessons to be learned here.....

My support for Half in Ten remains strong.

I hope others will join you, Don.



great comment! (3+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
sockpuppet, TomP, planetclaire4

the best comment I've read, and I think I've read a great deal, as someone who journeyed far and wide with the Edwards family..

by laurenc on Sun Aug 10, 2008 at 11:53:12 AM PDT

[ Parent | Reply to This | Recommend ]



Thank you, laurenc (0+ / 0-)

I've worked hard for John and Elizabeth myself on many issues that concerned all of us. It's a real heartbreak to see all of this happening..for them...for us...but it doesn't mean that our causes must suffer or that Senator Edwards' personal and political mistake is by any means a reflection on those who believed in those causes alongside the Edwardses. Take heart and know that I, for one, and many others here support everything you did for the Edwardses because you believed in doing the right thing....even if it turns out that decisions with politically tragic consequences were consciously made by the candidate himself. John always told us that his run was about us...and now it's up to us to bethe leaders he wanted us to be....to carry on and hope the healing will take place in the Edwards family and that they'll both be back to fight..healthy and healed.. asconcerned citizens by our side.

At Facebook: Harry Taylor for Congress 2008

"Sanctuary" by Deng Ming-Dao

"Golden light skims azure bay,
Dense air heavy with laurel.
Windless dusk smears to night,
Sonorous pool in a sheltered grove."

Though this world is turbulent, there are still days and places where we can be afforded some tranquility. When this happens, it is right to rest from the tribulations and striving of being in the world and to take advantage of what is offered.












Sometimes it will be the peaceful feeling of sunset, when the blazing sun becomes reconciled with the horizon and a sense of acceptance lingers in the air.













At other times it will be the chance encounter with a secret place - perhaps a grove of trees that promises a mysterious comfort.
















In such private places, we can often find peace. Such stillness can even be precious, as when we notice the deep voice of a stream which we were always too busy to hear before.










Indeed, sometimes we are so worn out by our daily activities that we forget to notice our need for recharging.










Renewal is a profound tonic.
With sanctuary and rest, we can prepare to go forth again.








- From Deng Ming-Dao's book "365 Tao, Daily Meditations"

photos byJude Nagurney Camwell
all rights reserved

Time Horizon...Lost Horizon