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  • MODERATOR: We now come to the promised surprise

  • guest part of the program.

  • Some you may have heard of or from the speaker we're going

  • to be hearing from next.

  • I've talked with him over the years, and I think you'll find

  • him to be a surprisingly effective communicator.

  • He's an officially retired man, but still quite

  • active in public affairs.

  • He's spent a lot of time thinking about the issues that

  • have been on the table through our whole first day of

  • Zeitgeist this year: issues of corporate growth, of

  • technological responsibility, and connectedness

  • around the world.

  • Ladies and gentlemen of Zeitgeist 2007, I'd like you to

  • turn your attention to the screen, because from New York,

  • we have joining us the 42nd President of the United States,

  • William Jefferson Clinton.

  • [APPLAUSE]

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Thank you.

  • Thank you very much.

  • MODERATOR: Mr. President, thanks for joining us.

  • Here is the way this will work.

  • We have two microphones in the room, and there's a roving

  • microphone who can come to you if you can't get to

  • the microphone.

  • I'm going to ask one question to start this session.

  • President Clinton has said that he'd like to

  • take our questions.

  • I'll ask one initial question just to give you time to

  • move the microphones.

  • From that time onward, I'll just call on you.

  • Here is my initial question for President Clinton: the people

  • in this room have largely built the latest industrial

  • revolution for the United States, and for the world.

  • Most of them are not ready to quit their day jobs yet, but

  • many of them are in position where they know they can

  • leave a mark on the world.

  • There are past models of how people did this well, or not

  • so well: the Rockefellers or the Carnegies are an

  • inspiring example.

  • You, President Clinton, have been thinking a lot recently

  • about the right modern models for people to make a mark in

  • the world in a positive way.

  • People in this room are still affecting the world through

  • their work, but are beginning to think about how they

  • can leave their mark.

  • What would you like them to bear in mind about the conduct

  • of their lives in that regard?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: First of all, thank you, Jim.

  • I want to thank Larry, Sergey, and Eric Schmidt.

  • I think Al Gore's in the audience.

  • I called him a couple nights ago, and got another updated

  • seminar on climate change.

  • If I say anything at all about this that you like, I have

  • to get him partial credit.

  • If I screw it up, I hope you'll correct me after

  • I get off the screen.

  • Let me say first of all Bill McDonough gave you a terrific

  • presentation, and I'm very grateful to him for the work

  • he's doing, particularly in New Orleans, a place where

  • my foundation still works.

  • I think that taking the work Google does now, and the

  • presentation Bill made, gives me a chance to ask you to think

  • about how you would spend the rest of your life solving the

  • world's problems, or easing the world's ills, or giving the

  • next generations a chance to survive climate change, or

  • giving poor kids more equal chances in the world.

  • The way I think about it is as follows: number one, what are

  • the major challenges to the world as we would like to be?

  • The first is persistent inequality in incomes,

  • education, health care, and organized systems which enable

  • people to be rewarded for the efforts they exert.

  • The second is the unsustainability looming over

  • us because of climate change, and the related problems of

  • resource depletion and population explosion.

  • Don't forget, even though it's not much discussed, it is

  • projected that the world will grow from it's current level of

  • six and a half billion to nine billion within only 43 years.

  • It took us 150,000 years, give or take, to grow from 1 billion

  • to 6.5 billion, and unless we do something quick to put all

  • the girls in the world in school, and give all the women

  • in the world equal access to the job market, we're going

  • to have nine billion people in 43 years.

  • It makes all these problems even more urgent to solve.

  • So the question is: what can you do about it, and is there

  • an inevitable conflict between trying to ease the inequality

  • problems in income, education, and health care-- particularly

  • in economics-- and in trying to do something about climate

  • change, resource depletion and aggravation by

  • population explosion?

  • My answer is no, not if we do it right.

  • If you just look at the previous presentation-- the

  • stunning presentation by Mr. McDonough, you see why.

  • Companies may have spent a little more money doing

  • whatever they were doing to save the planet, and he

  • explained how in terms of concrete benefits to employees,

  • they got their investment back.

  • They also created a lot of jobs manufacturing all those

  • products: putting them up, designing them, and imagining

  • the next generation of them.

  • I think you should ask yourselves three questions, if

  • you want to think about how to spend the rest of your life as

  • a citizen, and not just as a worker: number one, am I

  • maximizing my potential and my company's potential to advance

  • the public interest in a cooperative way?

  • By what we're doing now, and how we're doing it.

  • Number two: what cannot be dealt with that the world

  • faces, and my country faces, unless there is a significant

  • change in government policy?

  • How can I best, as a citizen, contribute to bringing

  • about that change?

  • Number three: what is the role of civil society, the

  • non-governmental sector?

  • What can I do to strengthen it?

  • Google helps me to make the Clinton Global Initiative more

  • effective by making available opportunities for smaller NGOs

  • to reach other people and build collaborations and partnerships

  • around the world.

  • We know that even with optimum government policy, and strong,

  • enlightened business leadership, there will be a gap

  • between where we are and where we ought to be, especially in

  • the developing world.

  • That has to be filled by non-governmental organizations

  • working together with others in the developing world

  • with governments.

  • That's basically what I do.

  • We sell the world's cheapest AIDS medicine, and account for

  • about 30% percent of all those people in the world getting

  • medicine, even though we spent a tiny fraction of what

  • anybody else does.

  • we're working with 40 cities on five continents to help them

  • maximize the transition to reduce their greenhouse gas

  • emissions in a way that makes their workplaces more

  • productive and their living spaces more habitable, and

  • generates economic growth, rather than reduces it.

  • I think you just need to ask yourself those three questions.

  • In the 21st century, we will have to exist as workers, as

  • political actors, and as I believe citizen givers.

  • Are you doing all you can at work?

  • What should your politics be, and how can you bring about

  • the changes you want?

  • In the meanwhile, while we're waiting for all the political

  • changes we want, what can you do in the non-governmental

  • sectors as a citizen servant that will help move

  • things along?

  • We need a major, major paradigm shift in order to get through

  • this climate change crisis, and in order to deal with the

  • rising pressures of population growth and resource depletion,

  • and simultaneously to reduce all these inequalities

  • in the world.

  • If we don't do it, then the identity conflicts occasioned

  • by our global interdependence as manifested in roadside bombs

  • set by terrorists, the refusal of the Russians to allow

  • the Kosovars to become independent by U.N.

  • mandate, and the continued conflicts between the Hindu

  • Tamils and the Sinhalese Buddhists in Sri Lanka, and

  • any number of other things.

  • The rise of ideological politics in America, and the

  • war on science-- which, it occasioned, was the subject

  • of Al Gore's latest book.

  • All these things are going to get worse.

  • If we do it right, they'll all get better.

  • One thing is sure: you've got the right title for this

  • meeting, because there is almost no problem that any

  • individual, any business, or any nation can solve alone.

  • MODERATOR: Why don't we go to a question?

  • Yes, sir.

  • Please identify yourself for President Clinton.

  • TIM CARTER: President Clinton, I'm Tim Carter

  • from askthebuilder.com.

  • About eight years ago, I got a phone call in my office one

  • day from a gentleman you probably know.

  • He's one of the senators in Arizona.

  • I helped him save $6000 by cutting a countertop

  • the right way.

  • At the end of me helping him, he said, is there anything I

  • can do for you to repay you?

  • I said, well, I do have a question.

  • At the time I was very interested in the flat tax

  • initiative here in the United States to try to get some kind

  • of equalization of taxation.

  • He said, Tim, the best way to do that is to get a grassroots

  • movement going, because politicians listen to

  • grassroots movements.

  • So my question to you is-- as one of our former Presidents,

  • and being so deeply involved in the political process all your

  • life-- can we effectively use a grassroots movement to

  • do some of this work?

  • More importantly, what is the best way and the shortest

  • pathway that the current politicians will listen to us?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Well, first of all, to answer

  • your first question, is yes-- grassroots politics works.

  • It works for good or ill.

  • For example, in the recent debate on immigration in

  • Washington, I actually supported President

  • Bush's position.

  • At least, I supported the position of the administration

  • and most of the Democrats in Congress that there ought to be

  • a path to citizenship for people who are here illegally,

  • as long as they didn't get ahead of those who

  • waited in line legally.

  • So that we can identify everyone that 's in our

  • country, acquire better control over our borders, I thought we

  • ought to lift the quotas for more skilled workers

  • in the short run.

  • I thought that this ought to happen.

  • It was defeated by a grassroots movements by people who

  • basically frightened the Republicans and members of

  • Congress in the House and Senate into voting against it.

  • Grassroots movements tend to have more power when there's a

  • lot of emotion in an issue, I suppose, like that.

  • The reason that grassroots movements are important in

  • terms of building a clean energy future, for example, is

  • that we need more of our members of Congress to know the

  • facts, and then we need more people to make this

  • a voting issue.

  • Many of the things that we need to do is a country today, for

  • example, are set a price on carbon, make a commitment to

  • reduce our greenhouse gases significantly, and become a

  • part of the international agreement.

  • You talked about the flat tax.

  • I'm not so sure about the flat tax because America is so

  • unequal now, but the idea behind the flat tax, you see

  • in Europe with the VAT tax.

  • What they're trying to do there is to-- and Al Gore pointed out

  • this to me in our conversation a couple days ago-- they're

  • trying to rely less on employer specific tax burdens, and more

  • on broadly spreading the tax burden, so our businesses

  • would be more competitive.

  • In order to get those kinds of changes, people need to number

  • one, make sure their representatives and senators

  • know what the facts are; number two, they need to make sure

  • they know they will not be defeated for public office if

  • they support these kinds of changes; number three, they

  • need to know that it's a voting issue for you.

  • One of the problems we've got with climate change right now

  • is I think there are big majorities in America that

  • would support very significant changes necessary to put

  • america back in the forefront of reducing greenhouse gas

  • emissions, and to give us some chance of persuading the

  • Indians, the Chinese, and others to go along with us and

  • to try to save the planet, and to do it in an environmentally

  • and economically sensible way.

  • I'm not sure there are many people in the Congress

  • who believe it's a deep voting issue for people.

  • Only a grassroots movement can change that, barring some

  • natural calamity that everybody will clearly associate

  • with climate change.

  • I think grassroots movements are important.

  • There at the Google meeting, technology gives you a chance

  • create virtual communities, and mass grassroots movements

  • in next to no time.

  • The interesting thing is it also gives you a chance to do

  • it without having to provoke the kind of hysteria that was

  • provoked in the recent immigration debate, because

  • you have a way to widely disseminate relevant

  • information in a short time.

  • So, yes, it's important, yes, you should do it, and it's

  • being done as never before.

  • In the big critical issues to our survival, number one:

  • people have to have the facts in Washington, number two, they

  • have to know that they will be supported, and number three,

  • they have to know not only that they won't be defeated if they

  • take action, but they might be in trouble if they don't,

  • because it is a voting issue for the American people,

  • whether it's tax reform or reducing greenhouse gases.

  • MODERATOR: We know that you had certain things you wanted to be

  • sure everybody has audience had heard, even if we didn't

  • happen to ask them questions.

  • Is there any other particular message that has not come up in

  • a question that you want to be sure we hear before we go

  • to further questions?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: No, I'd rather talk about whatever

  • the audience wants to talk about.

  • I just want to say that, again, you cannot afford to be

  • satisfied with your life in the 21st in a wealthy country at

  • the cusp of technological change only in your work life.

  • you've got to be a political citizen, and care about what

  • government has to do in both your national government,

  • your local government, and international cooperation.

  • Beyond that, you need to be involved in some sort of

  • non-governmental work, because there's a big gap between where

  • we are and where we ought to be, and it's not going to be

  • filled tomorrow just by the marketplace and government.

  • Civil society is needed there.

  • It's exploding.

  • We've got twice as many foundations in America as we

  • had at the beginning of the decade, so there are more and

  • more people involved in this, but because of technology, we

  • can have an exponentially larger positive impact: not as

  • a substitute for proper government action, or a

  • substitute for responsible business action, but

  • a supplement to it.

  • It's basically your citizenship will have to unfold in three

  • parts in the 21st century.

  • MODERATOR: Thank you.

  • Yes, over here.

  • Yes.

  • CHRIS EDLEY: Boss, this is Chris Edley, asking your

  • question respectfully.

  • There's one problem--

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: That means it won't be.

  • [LAUGHTER]

  • CHRIS EDLEY: There's one problem which is engineering

  • the right kind of interventions, both public and

  • private sector interventions to do something about global

  • poverty and similar challenges The other question is the

  • parallel challenges of building enough of a sense of connection

  • between people who view themselves as different, so

  • that you can have a moral consensus to actually

  • take action.

  • I know you share that view.

  • My question is, what are some of the most exciting or

  • effective strategies that you've experienced that helped

  • build that sense of connection?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Let me just give you one example.

  • I think that one of the most interesting ones is a little

  • website called kiva.org, which allows individuals of very

  • modest means to become directly involved in extending

  • microcredit to people in Africa, Central Asia, Latin

  • America, and all kinds of developing countries by

  • actually selecting and contributing to them, knowing

  • that a local non-governmental organization is managing this

  • and getting reports on it, and then becoming ongoing

  • in their involvement.

  • Kiva had a [? lies ?]

  • of all kinds of business people who need credit all over the

  • world, and after I talked about them, and they were featured on

  • the Oprah Winfrey Show when my book came out for the first

  • time in their brief history, they had no more customers and

  • they had more credit than they knew what to do with.

  • I think we've only scratched the surface of having people

  • see that people in other countries with different skin

  • colors, different perspectives, and different fates actually

  • have a lot in common with them.

  • There are lots of other strategies that I think have to

  • be pursued, but to go back to your point: if you really think

  • about the source of most of the world's problems, they're

  • rooted in the conviction that cooperation is not as an

  • important value is conflict, because our differences

  • are more important than our common humanity.

  • My general answer to you is anything that brings people in

  • positive contact with one another, and reaffirms

  • their common humanity is a good thing.

  • I have long supported an organization called Seeds of

  • Peace in the Middle East that began as a partnership between

  • Palestinian Muslim kids and Jewish Israeli kids, and also

  • some Arab Israeli kids.

  • It now encompasses people throughout the Middle East.

  • Now they're trying to do it in the Balkans and Northern

  • Ireland, and in other places.

  • I think that we have to find a way for people to have

  • consistent, constructive contact with each other when

  • they're young to affect the way people think about

  • their differences.

  • I think that we have to find a way for people to appreciate

  • what's unique about themselves without being drunk about

  • it in their arrogance.

  • That is, we think that God ordained all of us with Ivy

  • League educations like you and me too up occupy the superior

  • positions we do, or, in a total other context, that Allah

  • really does want to the Al Qaeda to send all those young

  • kids to an early death so they can be immediately go to heaven

  • and get a medal pinned on for killing a lot of other

  • non-combatants.

  • All of these things are basically heresies of

  • arrogance: the idea that our differences matter more than

  • what we have in common.

  • In a way, that's also keeping us from making the right

  • decisions on climate change.

  • If we really believe that our common humanity was more

  • important than our interesting differences, we could not live

  • with ourselves if we ran any risk that was avoidable that

  • our children and grandchildren wouldn't have the same or

  • better life chances that we have.

  • Almost every one of the world's problems requires a cooperative

  • solution, and requires people to give up the notion that

  • their identity requires them to have somebody to look down on

  • just because of the categories which they find themselves.

  • I think we've got a big job to do in teaching, and arguing

  • about that, and also giving young people contradictory

  • experiences.

  • It's not enough just to live together.

  • Th big problem with the British, for example: at least

  • in 9/11, Americans could say, well, we were invaded, and the

  • whole world-- briefly, before we diverted to Iraq-- was

  • supporting United States.

  • Among other things, we had 200

  • Muslims killed-- innocent Muslims killed in

  • the United States.

  • We had 230 something British citizens, people from all over

  • the world, from 70 countries killed by an invading force.

  • Look what happened in Britain.

  • In the bus bombings and the subway bombings, you had

  • British citizens affecting that.

  • What happened?

  • These people didn't think they belonged.

  • Their whole reality was different from those with whom

  • they worked, their kids went to school with, their kids played

  • with, who went to sporting events, and movies together.

  • They were not there.

  • Look at the recent car bombings, which thank

  • God, failed in the U.K.

  • You had two doctors who would've killed, had they

  • succeeded, more people on one day than the number of lives

  • they saved in their entire careers.

  • That's a humongous identity crisis.

  • I think that the next civil rights expert like you needs to

  • think about going to beyond the notion of civil rights

  • to civil community.

  • Do you know what the major debate in biology is today?

  • This is interesting.

  • When Al and I were in our last year in the White House, there

  • was an international consortium of scientists that finally

  • finished sequencing the human genome.

  • As a lay person, the most important finding was that we

  • were all genetically 99.9% the same, so if you look around

  • that room today, every difference you can see among

  • people, including gender, and race, is rooted in 1/10 of 1%

  • of our genetic makeup.

  • Craig Venner-- who was one of the competitors, and then

  • became a cooperator with the International Consortium to

  • sequence the genome-- has done a lot of work since then, and

  • he has come up with new findings that say that that's

  • wrong, and that we are in fact 99.5% the same, not 99.9%.

  • This does have huge implications for scientific

  • research, whether our differences are in half of 1%

  • of our genetic makeup, or a tenth of 1%, but for politics,

  • it is a stunning reaffirmation that it is nuts for us to go

  • around killing each other, and killing off our children's

  • futures, and thinking that our differences are all that

  • matter, since the whole range of them is somewhere between

  • 1/10 and one half percent of our biological make up.

  • I think somehow we have to get that across.

  • That has infuse the way we teach our children about our

  • religious faith, about their family and community

  • obligations, about how they imagine themselves going up and

  • having meaning in their lives.

  • MODERATOR: Thank you, Mr. President.

  • Yes, over here?

  • JIM KOLOTOUROS: Good evening, Mr. President.

  • My name is Jim Kolotouros, and I am a Googler.

  • I have a quick question for you: I think what a lot of

  • these global attendees would ask with regard to the biggest

  • issues they face domestically, which are potentially energy,

  • health care, and education.

  • The first question would be are we looking at these issues by

  • qualifying them specifically as domestic, and two: are these

  • three issues in particular to big for any one governmental

  • branch, or even the government to handle on its own without

  • internationally for a solution?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Let's take them each

  • in turn, shall we?

  • The answer to the energy question is that we clearly

  • can't do what we need to do about climate change or global

  • resource depletion alone.

  • On the other hand, that argument has been used by

  • people who didn't really want us to do anything.

  • When Al Gore went to Kyoto to finish the negotiations there,

  • the U.S. Senate voted against the Kyoto Treaty almost

  • before Al got off the plane.

  • I know it was the only bill I ever lost in the Congress

  • before I ever sent it to them.

  • When President Bush got elected, he just

  • withdrew from it.

  • One of the big arguments was well, we can't solve this

  • alone, because India and China and the other developing

  • nations to have to be part of it.

  • It's true that we can't do it, but it's also true that as the

  • richest of the countries, and the biggest greenhouse gas

  • emitter, we will never get them to be a part of it unless we

  • strike out alone, and do as much as we can by is setting a

  • ceiling on carbon, pricing carbon, making a commitment to

  • reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and proving that the

  • Bill McDonoughs of the world make it possible for us to make

  • this good economics, not bad economics.

  • If I had more time, I could give you another 30 examples of

  • things we could do that would spark an enormous economic boom

  • in this country if we did it right.

  • I think that we are making a terrible mistake by thinking

  • that because we can't whip the climate change problem without

  • international cooperation, we don't really need to do

  • much between now and then.

  • I think every day we lose is a tragic day, moving us closer to

  • biofeedback in a calamitous situation, and giving up

  • opportunities we have to create new businesses, new jobs, and

  • greater democracy and economic opportunity within

  • the United States.

  • Setting an example that others would then be more likely to

  • follow increases the chances that we can get a

  • new international climate agreement.

  • That's what I think about that.

  • On health care: that really is something we can deal with

  • on our own for Americans.

  • We have three huge problems: we spent $700 billion dollars more

  • than we would spend if we had any other country's health

  • system, and a lot of them have better health

  • outcomes than we do.

  • We insure 16% fewer of our people than we would insure

  • if we had any other advanced country's health system.

  • The third problem is we do a good job of treating people

  • when they're really, really sick, and a bad job of keeping

  • more of them well and healthy in the first place.

  • It has led us to the verge of an epidemic in childhood

  • obesity, and alarming rates of type two diabetes in young

  • people, which will collapse our health care system within a

  • decade even if we reorganize it so that we save money and

  • have universal coverage.

  • We just need to take the best lessons we've learned from the

  • American systems, from what works here, and from other

  • countries, and deal with this in a way that is good for

  • health care, and good for the economy.

  • We have a consensus to do it now.

  • Globally, we cannot achieve a healthy planet unless we

  • contribute more money to, among other things, HTV and malaria,

  • and infections related to dirty water-- cholera, dysentery, and

  • diarrhea-- those things claim 25% of all lives on earth.

  • We need to invest more in public health and

  • waste management.

  • A billion people have no access to clean water, and 2.6 billion

  • people have no access to sanitation.

  • There are lots of problems that have to be handled globally.

  • They're much, much cheaper than going to war, I might add.

  • It wouldn't cost us very much money to do this.

  • I could give you the annual cost of all these things for us

  • to pay our fair share, and they would all be a pittance of

  • what we spent in Iraq.

  • Now, on education: I think there's a national issue,

  • and international issue.

  • We have the best system of higher education in the world

  • still, in terms of the number of quality institutions,

  • although we're not winning many international competitions any

  • more, like the International Computing Competition that

  • occurs every year among global universities.

  • I think we need to do more to make college

  • universally available.

  • We need to do more to give at least two years of post high

  • school education and training to people who don't go.

  • We need to loosen the rules again to let more foreign

  • students come here to study if they want, not just to get

  • H-1b visas, but to study.

  • In other words, we need to keep our competitive advantage.

  • We need to invest more in research of all kinds through

  • the university networks, and the national institutes.

  • Pre high school, we have a different problem, which is

  • that a lot of our schools are doing a good job, but the

  • system as it works never replicates excellence very

  • well, because it's neither a top down system, nor a bottom

  • up fully competitive system.

  • We know what works.

  • I don't think Leave No Child Behind is the

  • best way to do this.

  • I think there too many tests that are too meaningless.

  • I think that we know that high levels of performance come

  • largely from school cultures that have defined goals, where

  • there is a general assumption that all children can learn,

  • and then appropriate supports to maximize the chances that

  • they do: get parents into the school system, make the

  • benefits of the school system available to parents whose

  • first language is English.

  • There are lots of things that can be done.

  • We have huge numbers of examples, but we do not

  • replicate excellence.

  • That needs to be done in America.

  • Then there is an international agenda: a 130 million

  • kids don't go to school.

  • Tens of millions more go to school without learning

  • materials and basic texts, so it's cheap to put

  • them all in school.

  • We spent just $300 million dollars in my last year as

  • President to give kids in the developing world one good meal

  • that they come to school to get.

  • It's just $300 million dollars, and enrollment

  • went up 6 million.

  • That's $50 a kid a year.

  • We spent $2.5 billion a week in Iraq, so that's about

  • a day-- less than a day.

  • So should we spend more money to put all the world's

  • children in school?

  • Yes.

  • Should we spend more for learning materials?

  • Yes.

  • Could technology make a difference?

  • If you had the right access to the to the Internet, and a

  • printer-- a solar power printer-- in most remote

  • villages in the world, you wouldn't need

  • textbooks anymore.

  • There are lots of things you guys can do about this that

  • ought to be thought through.

  • There's John Wood, a former Microsoft executive, has

  • done a lot of work on this.

  • Greg Mortenson, with the Central Asia Institute, has

  • done a lot of work on this.

  • How do you bring educational materials, and meaningful

  • education, to people in poor parts of the world?

  • In the rest of the world, and in a developing country, every

  • year of schooling is 10% to income per year for

  • life, on average.

  • We have work to do in America, and work to do in the world.

  • Again, it's a lot cheaper than going to war,

  • and we should do it.

  • We can never overcome all this inequality unless we build

  • systems of education and health care around the world.

  • We need international money, but NGOs can

  • have a big role here.

  • That's what I do.

  • We we sell AIDS medicine to 71 countries.

  • It's the least expensive high quality AIDS medicine in the

  • world, and we've tried to put up health systems

  • in 25 of those.

  • Every day we work, we see that intelligence, creativity, and

  • willingness to work hard is evenly distributed

  • throughout the world.

  • What is not evenly distributed is investment, education,

  • organization, and systems.

  • That's what we need to think about.

  • I don't mean systems in a bureaucratic way.

  • I mean systems like the systems that all of you access.

  • If you sit down in front of a computer, and you Google

  • somebody, you think there is a connection between the keys you

  • push, and the information you get back.

  • The fundamental problem in really poor places is that

  • there's almost no systems where no matter how smart people are

  • there is a predictable consequence to the

  • effort they make.

  • That's what we have to do in education, that's what we have

  • to do in health care, and that's what we have to do in

  • economic empowerment in those countries.

  • MODERATOR: Thank you.

  • We have just about nine minutes left with the President.

  • How about a question here?

  • JIM STEYER: Hi, President Clinton.

  • I'm Jim Steyer for Common Sense Media.

  • We've been talking a lot today about environment, world

  • poverty, and a lot of really key global issues, but we are

  • at Google in the center of technology universe.

  • I wanted to ask you how you think companies like Google and

  • the other major media technology companies here have

  • done in terms of looking at the impact of media and technology

  • here in the U.S., and around the globe, and what they ought

  • to be doing about that.

  • Also, what is the role of the private sector versus the

  • public sector in looking at media and technology and its

  • impact on the world, and also kids in particular?

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: You can answer that question a lot

  • better than I can, and you already have in your career,

  • and I thank you for it.

  • Let me just make a couple of observations which may seem

  • superficial compared to the work that you've done, but I

  • think in terms of the media-- the news media-- and the way

  • people communicate information, I think we are going through a

  • period of transformation that started probably before we

  • took office back in 1993.

  • It's not yet finished.

  • I was thinking about the difference in the coverage of

  • the Iraq war the coverage the Vietnam War, and the

  • coverage of World War II.

  • When I was a young man, and Vietnam was raging, we had

  • three television networks, and they had enough competition to

  • keep each other honest, and enough guaranteed market share

  • to send seasoned reporters in their fifties to be on-site for

  • an extended period of time, and say what they thought.

  • The newspapers: every city had at least one daily, and you

  • could afford to have two daily papers.

  • It was a much more orderly process.

  • Then, it all got blurred with cable, satellite television,

  • and entertainment networks.

  • You don't have to watch the news at all anymore.

  • Your friend, my daughter, tells me that as many of her

  • generation get their news from Jon Stewart's comedy hour as

  • they do from network news.

  • Increasing numbers of young people don't read newspapers

  • at all, but they do read the newspapers' websites.

  • Look at what Al Gore has done with his television network.

  • What I think is happening is we're going through a period

  • where we were moving toward more and more and more discreet

  • sources of news, where if you're willing to exert the

  • effort, you can use technology to have access to the same sort

  • of in-depth information, and maybe even more than you used

  • to be able to find in the narrow channels of the 1960s.

  • I think that the period we had where the news could be

  • politicized, or in effect, where the compulsions on people

  • producing it-- because the competition was so stiff-- are

  • to turn three dimensional people and issues into two

  • dimensional cartoons.

  • That's something that Vice President Gore and I both have

  • a little experience with.

  • That is going to abate.

  • I think that over the long run the democratization of

  • disseminating information and opinion will give us a more

  • literate citizenry, if we have an absolute principle of

  • universal access to technology, including training and how to

  • use it-- how to make it affordable, and how to use it.

  • We did a lot of work in the administration in trying to

  • make sure all the schools, hospitals, and rural

  • libraries were connected.

  • We had an [? E-Rate ?]

  • which saved the schools $2 billion a year in charges

  • they otherwise would have had to pay.

  • I'm a little out of the loop now, but somebody's needs

  • to do an update on that.

  • How are we doing in community learning centers?

  • How many schools are open at night?

  • How universal is access to the latest technology?

  • How much do people know about what they can find?

  • I like the direction of this.

  • I find myself now, for example, every day when I read my news

  • clips, I also read as many as a dozen different blog sites,

  • because I know that these are the people that may only have

  • to write one article a day.

  • I like the direction this is going in.

  • I'm still concerned that not everybody's going

  • to be able to go.

  • I think we need a lot of focus on access.

  • MODERATOR: President Clinton, there many, many more people

  • here who would like to ask you questions.

  • Our time with you has come to an end.

  • If you had a microphone of the whole audience, you would have

  • heard applause and laughter at all the appropriate places.

  • We're very, very grateful for your spending

  • this time with us.

  • Thank you very much for this interview.

  • WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON: Thank you all very much.

  • Thanks for having me.

  • [APPLAUSE]

MODERATOR: We now come to the promised surprise

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比爾-克林頓在Zeitgeist'07上的演講 (Bill Clinton at Zeitgeist '07)

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    王惟惟 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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