First Lady to Speak at Clinton Global Initiative Conference and UN
"This is one of those rare things." *
There are times when the needs of our world take precedence over partisan politics. I believe this is one of them. The Clinton Global Initiative conference looks beyond politics and toward a mission that President Bill Clinton has characterized, inspired, and animated by relating it to the Founding Fathers' ideas about "forming a more perfect union" - on a global scale.
The second annual CGI conference will be hosted by President Clinton with guests such as First Lady Laura Bush, Bill & Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, President Pervez Musharraf, President Hamid Karzai, King Abdullah & Queen Rania of Jordan, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Shimon Peres, Kofi Annan, Colin Powell. Attendees will participate in workshops and meetings focused on four main topics:
- mitigating religious and ethnic conflict;
- poverty alleviation;
- global health.
Attendees will make specific commitments to address one of the topics covered and will report to President Clinton on the progress made throughout the course of the coming year.
A Special Note:
I'll be attending the Clinton Global Initiative Conference as a blogging member of the press and hope to keep you updated with brief highlights during the week and more in-depth coverage after the conference.
map credit: National Geographic
Mrs. Bush will also host her own conference this week on global literacy as the United Nations' honorary ambassador for the Decade of Literacy. She'll also be promoting the White House agenda on Myanmar (formerly Burma).
She'll confer with U.S., U.N. and NGO reps on the situation in Myanmar, a nation that has been long criticized for its repressive policies and detention of the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (for whom the U2 song "Walk On" was written and dedicated.) The Myanmar government is indeed a dictatorship, 'roundly criticized for human rights abuses ever since it killed an estimated 3,000 pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 and subverted the results of a public election in 1990. The year before, the government had put the elected president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, 60, under house arrest, where she remains today.' [source: National Geographic]
To give a unique perspective on Myanmar, a naturalist/wildlife biologist who I admire for his tenacity, hope, and rugged courage, Alan Rabinowitz, has been trying to deal with this repressive government for decades while helping them to establish an 8,452-square-mile tiger reserve in the rain-forested Hukawng Valley. Lately, Mr. Rabinowitz has run into problems that seem to have only been exacerbated by a hard-line government...and for him, time is running out...
From National Geographic:
Hard-liners have come to the fore in the Myanmar government, engaging with Asian neighbors who seem to care more about clear-cutting Myanmar's jungles than preserving them. Across the country, and particularly in remote, rural areas, the government has conscripted locals into forced labor to build railroad lines and military outposts, raising doubts as to their intentions with this large new reserve. And even as he plans his return trip to help salvage his life's work, Rabinowitz feels an added sense of urgency. Four years ago the robust scientist was diagnosed with incurable leukemia, and there's always a chance that his next trip may be his last.
*The quote used above is from edverb in reply to a blogpost about Mrs. Bush's upcoming speech.
