Clinton’s Global Initiative Brings ’em Together

In New York, big things are happening at the ex-prez’ gathering of luminaries.  Here is an account of a late afternoon session today.

“Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Fernando Cardoso (former president of Brazil) and Hernando de Soto, the visionary economist from Peru. Clinton proudly announces “we are on schedule!” Then Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University, calls the meeting to order, and the conversation quickly becomes remarkable.

Each has a different and profound area of expertise, yet they are all interested in each other’s thoughts, listening as well as they are speaking, and there are no canned remarks. In fact, it could be said that they listen most intently to the least well-known of them, Hernando de Soto, who has fought to raise the profile of the world’s invisible poor by investigating the simple facts of their existence (their legal status as citizens, as property owners, taxpayers, occupants of addresses, etc.), and proving that governments often do not even register these people.

As Ruth Simmons says, it’s a problem that is “hidden in plain sight,” and de Soto ranges impressively through world history, citing Hobbes and Jefferson, to shed light on how societies have ignored their poor.

Presidents Clinton and Cardoso (the descriptive “president” becomes a little redundant at CGI – three presidents on this panel alone!) bring their unique experiences as heads of state into the discussion, and Cardoso especially praises the role that NGOs will have to play in the future, abandoning the adversarial role that governments and activists have usually enjoyed.

When Cardoso and de Soto speak, there are hints of mild leftism, including de Soto’s argument that free market capitalism excludes as many (or more) people than it includes. But this conversational breeze runs into a counterblast from Bill Gates, who argues forcefully that market innovations will be crucial to solving global poverty. It is really a remarkable back and forth, ably summed up by Presidents Simmons and Clinton – well worth watching more of on the CGI webcast.

These public conversations are happening all the time here, and begin to seem normal – it’s important to remember that they are not. Is there a historian on earth who would not have wanted to attend a public conversation held, say, in 1910, between a charismatic former president (Teddy Roosevelt), a business giant (Andrew Carnegie), a thoughtful critic of the system (Upton Sinclair) and the former leader of a huge nation in the hemisphere? (I don’t know who Brazil’s leader was in 1910, but I’m assuming that not many others will either.)

Later at night, two parties pump up the volume a little more. Well, OK,a lot more. First, a giant gala at MoMA, where the crush of humanity is so great that the only work of art visible is a giant sculpture of a helicopter hovering dangerously over a stairwell.

Then a smaller event for press afterwards, at a nearby restaurant. The MoMA crowd bursts into applause when President Clinton, during his arrival, sees a familiar figure arriving behind him, President Jimmy Carter, now a little stooped, but unmistakably still himself, and goes over to embrace him. Their high-wattage smiles almost compete with the flashbulbs.