Ten years after leaving office, the vigorous, newly vegetarian former US president is devoting his time to convincing billionaires to care about the world's poor
By Carl M. Cannon
By Carl M. Cannon
William Jefferson Clinton is a man of the world, a globe-trotting celebrity as likely to show up at the World Cup in South Africa as he is at a humanitarian mission in Indonesia. As the 42nd president of the United State, he was lampooned, even by his allies, as a Big Mac scoffing, saxophone-blowing, sly lawyer from the Deep South. At the same time, his adversaries acknowledged his charm, intelligence and political acumen.
Clinton still keeps tabs on politics- he pays attention to polling, as he always has, especially to the approval numbers of a certain secretary of state- but he spends time every day running the public William J. Clinton Foundation, which takes on the most pressing issues facing the planet. Its signature endeavour is the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), which in five years has facilitated 2000 "commitments to action" (it awards no grants) by its members- governmental bodies, non-profit organisations and individuals- valued at US$63 billion ($64 billion). CGI programmes have helped nearly 300 million people in more than 170 nations get better access to healthcare, safe drinking water, and job training, and its members have underwritten medical research and reforestation efforts and made thousands of small loans. Former South African president Nelson Mandela has praised the initiative for its ability to have "a direct impact on the lives of millions of people across our planet." President Barack Obama has called Clinton’s efforts “a remarkable record of achievement”. Last year’s annual meeting featured a star-studded guest list that included Barack and Michelle Obama, 60 current and former heads of state, and a host of celebrities including Bill Gates, CBS’s Katie Couric and Ben Stiller. As the world came to his door once again, it was clear that Bill Clinton’s foundation had not only helped redefine global anti-poverty efforts but had also set a new standard for what US presidents can do after they leave office. Clinton sat for an extended interview for Reader’s Digest with Carl Cannon, a former White House correspondent and executive editor of politicsdaily.com.
Reader’s Digest: It’s been ten years since you left office, and you look more physically fit now than you did then. Is the secret not having to deal with the White House press corps?
Bill Clinton: [Laughs] No. I’m working as hard as ever. But after my heart surgery and my stent, I decided I had to try a radically more heart-friendly diet, and I started watching what I ate. And I try to walk a lot and do some work in the weights room. I feel great.
Three generations of Rovers are pictured at the Mars Test Yard at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in this undated handout photograph. (Photo: Reuters)
10 July 2013 /REUTERS, CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA
NASA's next mission to Mars should look for past microbial life and collect samples to eventually bring back to Earth, a science advisory group said on Tuesday.
The US space agency expects to spend about $1.5 billion, plus launch costs, on a mission to follow the ongoing Mars rover Curiosity, which is scouting an ancient impact crater for habitats that could have supported microbial life.
The so-called Mars 2020 rover would take a more direct approach to learning if life exists beyond Earth, though it would search for past, not present-day, microbes.
“We don't have the clear indications that life is at such an abundance on the planet that we can go there with a simple experiment ... and detect that,” said Brown University geologist John “Jack” Mustard, who chaired the Mars 2020 science advisory team.
NASA tried that approach in the 1970s with the Viking landers and found itself at a scientific dead end, but more recent discoveries about the planet's chemistry have cast those results in a new light.
The United States, which has been the only country to successfully land and operate on Mars, did not return to the planet's surface for more than 20 years.
Since then, an increasingly more sophisticated series of orbiters, landers and rovers have turned up evidence that the planet most like Earth in the solar system was once warmer and wetter than the cold, dry desert that exists today.
“To go and look for simple organisms, or not-so-simple organisms, that are living within that toxic, harsh environment, we just think is a foolish investment of the technology at this time,” Mustard told reporters on a conference call.
“What you really want to get at is, ‘Was there ever life elsewhere? Was there a second genesis that had the same characteristics as what we had on Earth?' To go after those questions, you want to approach it in a logical, systematic, stepwise fashion so that you can be confident about your results as you move forward,” Mustard said.
To that end, the advisory team proposes NASA include a way to collect and store about 31 tubes of crushed rock and soil to be returned to Earth in the future. The panel did not address cost and timing for that part of the endeavor.
The National Academy of Sciences last year ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade.
If the rover found “a dinosaur-type bone, we probably wouldn't need to have to return that sample. We could recognize that from our current capabilities,” Mustard said.
“Our understanding is that [life on Mars] is likely to be microbial and that's a darn hard measurement to make and a darn hard measurement to convince the skeptical science community that it is indeed the case,” he said.
Unlike Europe's planned ExoMars lander, a life-detection mission that is due to launch in 2018, NASA's rover would not drill deeply into the planet's surface for samples to analyze. Some scientists believe that any organic materials on or near the planet's surface would have been obliterated by the planet's harsh radioactive environment. The advisory panel, however, points out in its report that landing in a relatively recent crater could mitigate those concerns.
The United States had planned to partner with Europe on ExoMars, but backed out of the project last year, citing budget concerns. Since then, Russia has stepped in to fill the gap left by NASA's withdrawal.
NASA had no immediate comment about how the cost of the Mars 2020 mission compares with what it had expected to spend on ExoMars.
In addition to searching for past life, the new rover, which would launch in 2020, also could include tests that would help pave the way for eventual human missions to Mars, a long-term goal of space exploration initiatives.
NASA officials said they will be studying the team's report before issuing a solicitation for science instruments for the new rover.
The Houston Rockets have been fined $150,000 for prematurely commenting about new acquisition Dwight Howard, the NBA confirmed to Reuters.
Apparently “Pain & Gain” is director Michael Bay's lowest budget film with an approximate budget of $20 million.
Remember, this man has directed multi-million-dollar Hollywood entertainment extravaganzas like “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and the CGI-infused “Transformers” series.
Yet again, Bay's style of lavish adrenaline and promotion of absolutist American valor and virile accomplishment continues with his latest release that stars Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackey.
It is the mid-'90s in Miami -- a sultry, colorful and pop-culture town reminiscent of the series “Miami Vice,” which is shown through the lens of cinematographer Ben Seresin.
Daniel Lugo (Wahlberg) is a fitness instructor and hardcore weightlifter. What matters most in his life is looking good. He explains his obsession with fitness with a twisted understanding of American meritocracy: You have to work hard to gain anything in this life, and those who do not work hard enough must be dismissed from the system. Like, for example, fat people or unhealthy people.
But is Daniel really that happy living with this “can do” attitude? Sure he's got a great body and a decent job that could pay a bit more, but he just can't get his head around how some people are so much richer than he is -- especially those who have average bodies. Why doesn't he just have more? Doesn't he deserve it? Apparently not.
One day, a rich, half Jewish-half Colombian businessman enters his gym and Daniel, through half-witted justification, decides to make the man his mark for an extortion scheme. Together with his deeply confused weightlifter buddies, the steroid-ridden Adrian (Mackey) and ex-alcoholic Paul (Johnson), they decide to kidnap the man.
These men are so carried away with their super-hero wardrobes that they can't even put a proper heist plan together. It is only on their fourth try that they manage to abduct the man. Days of torture ensue, and the trio slowly starts siphoning the man's money. We get to know these men even better, and believe me there is not one ounce of sympathy we can summon up for them even if we laugh at their general stupidity and crassness. They are shallow beyond belief, and their morality is continuously questionable even though one of them feels a tinge of self-doubt. Lugo moves into the man's house, Adrian continues with the steroids, and Paul falls into drug addiction. The money runs out, and they can't afford to give up their dreams of glamour, so they decide to proceed with another heist that this time will surely get them caught.
This is not a story of American heroism, and though the screenplay is very clear on that note with its satiric dialogues and ironic twists and turns, director Bay takes the story to a whole different level with his overexcited direction. Most of the time it seems that he adores these three misfits; he makes use of a deeply emotional soundtrack that pushes us to try to empathize with their trials and tribulations. Low-angle frames and slow-motion technique are incessantly used, as the three men walk and move, glamorizing their Adonis-like bodies. It is as if the director is trying to create an example of stereotypical masculinity for his male audience.
The dichotomy of this film lies between its narrative and narration. This could have been an amazing black comedy that could have pushed itself in criticizing the greed, shallowness and obsession with image and consumerism that is essentially the focal point of its screenplay. However, it is shot like a typical action-hero film that chooses to dispel all subtleties with its visual and aural intensity. The film prioritizes a contrived style that is concerned with looking flashy and chiseled on the outside as opposed to creating real intellectual and emotional meaning. It falls into the same pitfall as the image-conscious characters it portrays.
“Pain and Gain” leaves one feeling unsatisfied, and with a strange taste of bitterness after seeing so much senseless violence and characters who we can only feel apathy for. Wahlberg, Johnson and Mackey try in all honesty to give great performances, but within the fast-paced editing of the film their moments of genuine human complexity are lost.
‘Pain & Gain’
Directed by: Michael Bay
Country: US
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris, Ken Jeong
Momentous developments have been shaking the Middle East since the Arab Awakening started in Tunisia. Initial enthusiasm was replaced by gradual pessimism, especially after the Syrian revolution ran into problems in 2012. | |
Last week's coup in Egypt has added further complications to the region's already fragile balances. The Turkish policy community has been focusing mostly on the internal aspect of the coup in Egypt. The coup was widely condemned in Turkey as an unacceptable act against the democratically elected government in Cairo. Needless to say, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) enjoyed close relations with the Muslim Brotherhood and thus almost viewed the coup as perpetrated against itself. The AK Party has been articulating its support to President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood very forcefully since July 3. The Turkish discourse about the coup is very much conditioned by Turkey's own history with military coups and the problems related with them, especially those suffered by Turkey's conservatives. Apart from the internal aspect, there is more to the changes in Cairo. Egypt is one of the most important countries in the Middle East. Hence, the changes in Cairo will have an impact on the regional strategic set-up. The Turkey-Qatar-Egypt axis has suffered a significant blow as the new rulers in Cairo are likely to have a very different approach to regional policy. One of the first things expected is a tougher relationship with Hamas and a consequent increase in Egyptian-Israeli cooperation. Egypt will work harder against the lawlessness in the Sinai as well as coordinate closely with Israel on the Rafah border gate and tunnels into Gaza. The new Egypt will also work closer with Saudi Arabia, which is seen as a prime beneficiary of the recent changes. The aid packages offered by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are not only sending strong political messages but will also help the new rulers to manage a very fragile Egyptian economy. Turkey and Qatar are the main losers of the events in Egypt. Turkey's close relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood and Ankara's strong reaction against the coup will contribute to the ongoing decline of Turkish influence in the region. Turkey's Syria policy and its inability to deter Syrian attacks against Turkish civilians, territory and military had already dented Turkey's image in the region. The reversal of fortunes in Syria is extremely worrying for Ankara. The concomitant tension with Iraq and Iran as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon has limited Turkey's room for maneuvering even more dramatically. The changes in Egypt signify a diminishing of Turkish influence in the region. Ankara would have been better off if it recognized the potential risks in Syria and took a more careful stance. Arguments in the policy community to adopt a more modest and prioritized approach to the region have been ignored. Ankara still sees itself as a primary player when developments clearly point to a more limited role for Turkey. Faced with a huge mess in Syria, Turkey would do better if it refrained from more intervention into Egyptian domestic affairs. Turkey's priority must be its immediate neighborhood space. Here, the most pressing issues are relations with Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Syria. Already pressed and challenged by historic protests domestically, Ankara should have little appetite to get more entangled with intra-Arab affairs. Turkey could not have predicted the Arab Awakening. It was not responsible for starting this historical process either. However, given Turkey's position in Syria and the associated costs, Ankara must re-prioritize its regional policy objectives. Ankara would be well-advised to take a more modest and focused policy approach that would give its immediate neighbors priority. Ankara would be better off if it completes the normalization process with Israel. The region is changing in most dramatic ways. Regional dynamics are not in favor of Turkey's current positions. Should we fail to adapt to these changes, Turkey will find itself in a secondary position with a limited number of partners to work with. |
By 2050 the number of elderly citizens in Africa is expected to quadruple, topping more than 200 million. Meanwhile Africa's governments are scrambling to find the means to support their aging community.
"For the great majority of Africans, there is no such thing as 'retirement' like we understand it in the northern countries," said Valerie Golaz, the co-author of a study by France's National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), which explores how African countries are addressing the challenges of getting older. The Uganda-based demographer's conclusions offer insight into an ever-aging African population.
Yes, there are countries with large, structured economies on the northern part of the continent. "But even in these countries, very few people pay into a retirement fund or receive retirement benefits," said the researcher in an interview with DW.
South of the Sahara, the retirement systems are poorly developed, Golaz added. "This relates almost exclusively to those employed in the private sector or the public sector. Even within these sectors, very few people receive a pension."
Furthermore, there are striking differences between men and women. In Tunisia, the study revealed that 30 percent of men over 60 received a pension. However, this was true for only 30 percent of women in the same age group.
The informal job market
Since the 1960s, efforts have been underway in Africa to introduce a federal pension program. Institutions such as the UN's International Labor Organization attempt to facilitate the process. The pension models in question consist of contributions from both the employee and the employer. But the job market in Africa remains for the most part informal. In other words, there are hardly any functioning administrative structures in place to support such a model.
The job market in Africa is dominated by informal labor
The results of this situation are clear. In many countries fewer than 10 percent of the elderly receive a pension, especially in West and Central Africa. In countries like Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia or Lesotho, however, the situation is considerably better. Even in those countries though, the pension offered is generally very low.
Without a pension there are only two possibilities: work until you are no longer physically and mentally able or rely on the solidarity of family. This solidarity, however, is dwindling as the physical distance between relatives grows, and the younger generations face their own difficult financial situations.
Finding an alternative model
In Africa the population as a whole is getting older. According to UN estimates, the number of seniors over 60 will quadruple in the next 40 years, from 56 million in 2013 to 215 million in 2050.
Currently a popular model among African governments is the "unconditional basic income." This model has been particularly successful in Latin America and stipulates that the state provides an income to its most vulnerable people.
This model is presently being tested in Uganda. Until now that country had the worst reputation in Africa when it came to pensions.
"Mainly under the auspice of Great Britain, a system of 'cash transfer' was introduced to provide not only for the most vulnerable people, but also for those over the age of 65," said Valerie Golaz.
Without a pension, many rely on their families in old age
In Uganda pensioners receive about $10 (about 8 euros) per month. But the current financial situation doesn't allow the Ugandan government to increase the amount, nor the number of recipients at the moment.
One drawback of this model is the financial burden placed on the state. Countries like Brazil or Ecuador can potentially afford it. Most governments in Africa can't - at least not without foreign aid.
Unions intervene
What about private retirement plans? Is the African market becoming a target for large life insurance companies? Not yet, says Tharcisse Nkanagu, coordinator for social security at ILO.
Rather, another type of supplementary pension is spreading, especially in the largest companies: the occupational pension scheme.
"It's not the employer encouraging the employee to establish pensions. It's the unions," says Nkanagu. "They think about it and negotiate with the employer to introduce such supplementary pension plans into the company."
Social security: the big picture
The ILO sees a strong link between seniors' income and other forms of social security.
"The ILO envisions two axes: access to income and access to health care," said Tharcisse Nkanagu. "These two components are inseparable. If you have an income, then you can pay for basic needs - especially health services. And when you have access to health services, then you need an income to stay healthy."
To prevent seniors from landing in poverty due to health care costs, the ILO sees a need for communities to cover different costs through national social security systems or community insurance associations.
The latter have been extremely successful, especially in Senegal, Benin, Cape Verde and Rwanda, said Nkanagu. Such groups are based on the principle that between 10 and 20 percent of their members each year must pay for the cost of care.
For now the only thing missing is adequate and modern health services. Many specialists are found only in major cities - if at all - and specific services for the elderly are not well-developed in this 'young' continent.
UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations media department on Thursday made a faux pas when it identified commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma as his Cabinet colleague Kamal Nath.
Sharma, who is leading a high-profile business delegation to the US, called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday morning and the media alert sent out to various media outlets at 9am in the morning said, "Photo Opportunity: The Secretary-General with HE Mr Shri Kamal Nath, minister of commerce industry of India at 10am on the 38th floor."
This sent Indian-American media representatives scurrying as there was no advance intimation of the arrival of Kamal Nath, the urban development minister of India.
Later, the media was told that Anand Sharma would be making a courtesy call on the Secretary-General.
However, the UN website till Thursday morning carried the caption beneath the photo of Ban and Sharma as "Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with Shri Kamal Nath, minister for commerce and industry of India."
The photo was credited to UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe. Kamal Nathhad served as Union cabinet minister of commerce and industry from 2004 to 2009.
According to UN officials, it's the duty of the officials at the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations to provide the names of the visiting dignitaries to the UN departments concerned.
It was not known whether the mission provided the correct name of the minister to enable the UN to make the announcement or left the choice to the UN media department.
