President William Jefferson Clinton
Place des Arts, Salle Wilfred Pelletier
18 February 2002
8:00 p.m.

Intro: 8:15p.m.- will start at 8:30

8:42- 
Chair of the event- Roger Corman:

	-God bless the children
	-In Montreal, there's the Montreal Children's Hospital and St. Justine's Hospital 
to care for them
	-Goal is to create in Montreal the same as Israel, using ORT
	-Sunflower Project in Israel- providing long term care using internet
	-Sponsored by ORT
	-Thank CJAD, CKAC, CFCF, La Presse, The Gazette
	-Today is Presidents' Day in the U.S.

8:47- President Clinton appears with Dr. Bernard Shapiro, Chancellor of McGill and 
Vice-Chairman, and Sandra Levy

Sandra Levy:

-Fund internet access at Montreal Children's Hospital and St. Justine's
-ORT provides vocational training
-(in French) Bill Clinton was the president who came to Mont Tremblant and gave his 
visualization of the real world

8:51- Dr. Bernard Shapiro:

-Thought about how to introduce Pres. Clinton, having no personal anecdotes and not 
wanting to just list achievements
-What name could be more American than "Clinton?"
	-place name
-Why "William?"  "William the Silent?"  "William the Conqueror?"
-"Jefferson?"  A man who gave to the land…

8:57- President Bill Clinton:

This is his sixth or seventh trip since he's been out of office.  He's made five times more 
visits to Canada than any other country he visited in office.  He thanked Canada for their 
support and use of airports to divert flights, post September 11.  Al Gore was diverted to 
Canada when he was supposed to go to the National Cathedral with Clinton the next day.  
Clinton credited the town of Gander, Newfoundland, which supplied blankets and shelter 
to twice the size of that town's population, immediately after the attacks.

After Sept. 11, parents were challenged about how to explain to their children what was 
going on.  The global information age offers a mixed bright future, but its still out there; 
we just have to forge it.  The focus of this speech will be on the campaign on terrorism, 
and what about after Afghanistan.

Terrorism has never defeated a country or a people.  It is the killing of noncombatants for 
political or economic behaviour.  In the end, it is only trying to influence people, not 
defeat a country, whether it's by the use of airplanes or anthrax.

Throughout human conflict, there has always been terror first and then a civilized human 
response has prevailed.  Since the early cave man decided to use a club as a weapon, a 
reaction became to cross two sticks with animal skin and create a shield.  First came the 
club, then the shield.  As there become more dangerous weapons, we need to close the 
gap between the club and the shield.  This gap creates too high a level of vulnerability for 
people to accept.

Defence works more than it fails.  Law enforcement has stopped several attempts by 
terrorists (gives a bunch of incidents during his term).  There has been a big increase in 
defence, particularly against biological attacks.  It is important to stop bin Ladin, build up 
a defence, and take control of massive stockpiles of arms.  There needs to be greater 
information sharing among countries, but we are making progress

Terror is not conventional warfare, but it is a crime.  This is seen particularly with 
narcotics trafficking in Latin America.  It has also lead to the creation of discontent in the 
Middle East.  We need to go beyond "prevent, defend, punish," but make more partners 
and less terrorists.

Information has led to economic prosperity.  Breaking down walls is a dark side of a 
world without walls, particularly as information increases.  The global society is full of 
paradoxes.

Take for example, the global economy:  More people are out of poverty now than in the 
last 20 years.  BUT, half the people in the world still live on less than 2$ a day.

The Environment:  Clinton left office with a good environment with clean air and cleaner 
drinking water than when he assumed office.  BUT, global growth creates deterioration in 
the oceans, the water supply is drying, and climate change is real.

Education:  More people are going to school for longer periods of time.  A common set of 
values is being instilled across different populations.  BUT, 100 million children don't go 
to school at all.  The government of Pakistan had run out of money and the poor couldn't 
afford to pay tuition costs at public schools.  The midrases were all they could afford, but 
midrases are where terrorist mindsets are being fostered.

Human Genome sequence:  We've found the genes for Breast Cancer, and are close to 
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease.  In the near future there will be gene cards, where 
parents will be able to see their child's weaknesses to try and raise them to a life 
expectancy of 90+ years.  And YET, one woman dies a minute in childbirth and 10 
million children have diseases.  One in four has AIDS, TB, or Malaria.  Forty million 
people have AIDS and at this rate, it will be 100 million by 2005.  This also means there 
will be 40 million AIDS orphans.

Politics: Half of the world has democratic nations where the people have elected 
themselves.  There has been an explosion of diversity in these countries, post-Cold War.  
BUT, at the end of the Cold War, the biggest threat is hi-tech weapons.  Hi-tech weapons 
linked with patriotism is a dangerous combination

We must then ask, "What are we going to do?"  We need more partners and fewer 
terrorists.  We can get a good deal for a small amount of money.

In terms of economic empowerment, we need to expand trade, provide debt relief, create 
microloans, and get countries to legalize property as assets for loan collateral.  There has 
to be a global debt relief.  In 2000, there was Jubilee 2000, in which the 24 poorest 
countries would get money if it was being put into education, health, and other social 
benefits.  In Uganda, they used it to create twice as many secondary schools, with less 
class sizes.  In Honduras, six years of mandatory schooling was increased to nine years.  
In trade, there has been 1000% increase in prosperity in Africa.

In education, 100 million children are in school.  The G8 countries agreed that there has 
to be universal education by 2015.  This is not soon enough.  In 2000, Clinton created a 
plan that would give a meal to poor children if they went to school every day.  This 
became effective because children would come to school and get breakfast.  The cost of 
this was minimal.  The more children that go to school, the less war there will be.

In health care, most AIDS cases are now in Africa, then former USSR, then the 
Caribbean, then India and China.  AIDS is on a course to destabilize the world.  There 
was promise of 10$ billion to AIDS relief, of which the U.S. would give 2.2$ billion.  
2.2$ billion would pay for 2 months, 1 week of the Afghan War.

There is no strategy for just defence but there needs to be more friends.  Take the 
Marshall Plan, for instance.  What if instead of the Marshall Plan, taxes didn't go to 
Germany, Britain, and France, and went to defence instead?  Taxpayers believe there is 
too much money going to foreign aid, but they also believe there is too much going to 
defence.

There are problems facing Islam itself- the biggest one being fanatics who are trying to 
take advantage of poverty.  These fanatics think the West is hostile to their way of life 
and economic interests.  The last time NATO was involved to protect Muslims was in 
Kosovo.  And in terms of peace, USA recommended a plan that Israel accepted but the 
PLO rejected it.  Muslim leaders need to stop terror.  Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi 
Arabia told NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman that they would be prepared to accept 
Israel as a state.  There has to be a hunt for peace in the Middle East.  And there is always 
vulnerability for Israelis.

The Middle East is a metaphor for the challenge facing the modern world: there needs to 
be a generous and sophisticated way of norming the future.  We cannot give up races or 
religions, but rather, manifest them in larger communities.

Terrorists believe in an "absolute truth" and they take your life if you don't share their 
view.  They believe in a community composed of those who think and those who are not 
alike.  Most people though, think they don't have the truth.  They think they are limited 
and don't have the whole truth but they learn from other people.  Everyone counts and 
has a role to play to do better when helping each other.

Clinton could create a map of the Middle East from memory.  He could create a map of 
each block in the Old City of Jerusalem.  But it all comes down to one question:  "Which 
do you think is more important, interesting differences or common humanity?"

The answer is hard to live.  Clinton was just graduating university when Martin Luther 
King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy died.  Both were big civil rights pioneers.  His hero, 
Mahatmas Ghandi, was killed by another Hindu who believed India to be for Hindus 
only.  Anwar Sadat of Egypt was killed by another Egyptian.  And Yitzhak Rabin was 
killed by an angry young Israeli, who didn't want Rabin to give Israel up to the 
Palestinians and thought him a bad man and a bad Jew.  It's easy to say we want a 
common humanity, but it's hard to live it.  Around the world, Canada serves as an 
inspiration for this.

We need a world with more partners.  We need a common humanity more than 
interesting differences.  If we live in a world without walls, there is simply no choice but 
a home for all children.

End- 9:34

Michael R(?)- 9:35

Questions:
In the Middle East, there was just another string of suicide bombings.  NY Times 
columnist Tom Friedman just said something about Camp David- Yasir Arafat was told 
he could be either Fidel Castro or Che Guevara.  Response?

Bill Clinton:
Arafat made "a mistake of historic proportions not to accept."  The Palestinians were 
reluctant going into the talks.  But they need to change their mode of operation instead of 
wanting to get offered a better deal.  They had tried in Wye River in '97 and Camp David 
clarified positions on both sides.  Clinton asked Arafat if he knew "what time it was."  
The saying was that Arafat never made a decision until five minutes to midnight.  Clinton 
said to Arafat that it was five minutes to midnight and he hoped [Arafat's] watch wasn't 
broken.

Clinton believes it was a mistake that [Arafat] didn't take what was offered in the 
December/January meetings at Taba.  It would be for the best deal, but Arafat deemed it 
not acceptable.  Thus, the Israelis said, "You won't take this, you wont take anything."  
And so they voted Sharon in for security since they knew that Arafat was not a partner 
for peace anyway.  The Palestinians later realized that they didn't make the right decision 
at Taba.

Now, the moderate Palestinian block is looking towards a need for an interim agreement; 
a need to re-attempt Wye River.  There needs to be an interim solution; a time for resolve 
for the sake of keeping the peace and maybe now is the time.  The Crown Prince 
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently condemned terror AND incitement.  The key is 
incitement, because in Israel, incitement of terror is a part of the problem.  Three days 
ago, Abdullah told Tom Friedman that there was a speech in his desk to get all Arab 
states to recognize the State of Israel for the recognition of a Palestinian state (see: 
Friedman's Article in the New York Times: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/opinion/17FRIE.html ).  -After the deaths of Sadat 
and Rabin, Clinton told Arafat, "If you make peace, they will try to kill you.  But I will 
try to protect you.  If you don't make a deal, more will die.  And if a deal is made and the 
three of us die, we will all have accomplished more than we could have hoped for."

Fifty percent of the Palestinians dead are under the age of 18 and sixty percent of the 
Israelis dead are under the age of 24.  Both sides like General Anthony Zinni.  Clinton's 
recommendation is that he stays until something gets done.

Question: Ethnic Nationalism; How have thoughts on federalism since his speech at Mont 
Tremblant changed?

Bill Clinton:
His thoughts on federalism have been confirmed by everything that's happened since 
Sept. 11.  He supports separatism in some instances, for example, East Timor.  And he 
wanted the Kosovars to be a separate part of Serbia with more autonomy.  There was also 
the Irish Peace with a shared decision.

There needs to be a pulling of people together.  We need to maintain group identities 
within larger groups in order to maintain balance.  Robert Wright wrote the book The 
Moral Animal.  He also wrote Nonzero, which is part of game theory.  In a zero sum 
situation, in order for him to win, I have to lose.  In a nonzero sum situation, in order for 
him to win, I have to win.  Wright writes how "as societies are more complex, there are 
more complex needs for a nonzero sum solution.

Federalism IS the nonzero sum solution.  If there was a State of Israel and a State of 
Palestine, then they could be friends.  It's like a divorce.  There are property settlements, 
but then they go into business together.

Question: Public service is not an attractive option for people.  How do you attract the 
best and the brightest into it?

Bill Clinton:
He and Bob Dole are working for survivors of Sept. 11 for college scholarships for all, 
including foreigners  He asked Dole "are politicians more honest then 30 years ago?"  
Dole answered, "yes."  Clinton believed it was less clean, and this was mainly attributed 
to partisanship and press coverage

There has been a consolidation of traditional media to try and fight off non-traditional 
media.  This doesn't raise the quality of the media.

In '96, partisanship was great and it was realized that power is an end itself, and there is 
no end to its abuse.  Now, particularly in wake of Sept. 11, politicians are forced to see 
the consequences of what they do and don't do for the people.

Politics is not a contact sport.  Through his presidential library, he's trying to form a 
proto-republic service.  Good people will still want to do it.  If you interview most of his 
former staff, most will say, "I like having my life back, making more money, but I miss 
the work."

Question:  How is President Josiah Bartlett doing?  Is The West Wing an accurate 
reflection?

Bill Clinton:
It is as accurate as can be, but still is a weekly TV drama.  Not everything as president is 
exciting.  Sometimes it's like watching paint dry.

Question:  Race relations.  It's a central dynamic of American society.  How can we 
assess race relations in the U.S. and what are its current challenges?

Bill Clinton:
Race relations are better, not perfect.  There are still hate crimes, anti-Semitism, and 
crimes against gays.  The race issue started out White on White with the issue of slavery, 
but there is more diversity now.

President Bush went to a mosque, reassured the Muslim leadership that the U.S. was 
going after terrorists, not Islam.  We need to preserve people's racial pride and 
community and it has to be a constant effort.  The natural human reaction isn't always the 
right one.  Normal human reactions to something like this would be to tighten up.  In 
recent elections, the anti-immigration coalitions in places like Australia and Norway were 
picking up steam.  The attitude is becoming that the best way to defend is to not let 
people in.  And yet, it's amazing that we want a world without walls, but we will still put 
up barbed wire.

End – 10:00
Arthur Server- Thanks
-Introduce Terry Moser (aka Aislin)- editorial cartoonist for The Montreal Gazette

Terry Moser-
-February not the best month to come to Montreal
-Presents Clinton with a drawing of Clinton playing the saxophone with the Montreal 
Jazz Festival logo
-Should come back in the best month of July