CGI Live Blog: Closing Session With Hillary Clinton | Tonic

CGI Closing Session (Hillary Clinton)

(09/25/2009)

1:00

Steve Enders: Howdy folks – we’re waiting for the session to begin

1:02

Caroline: The room is buzzing. Back to a high energy level with oodles of cameras smack in my line of vision

1:02

Caroline:
Though with internet access on my side (knock on wood) i don’t have any room to complain

1:02	[Comment From glenndimes] finally. we were jonesin’ over here.

1:02

Caroline: We wouldn’t abandon you, Glenndimes!

1:02	[Comment From Tammy] Hey is this live on TV or the web?

1:03

Caroline: Hi Tammy — you can see the live webcast of the plenary here: http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/ourmeetings/meeting_2009_annual_webcast.asp?Section=OurMeetings&PageTitle=Webcast

1:03

Caroline: Watch it in sync with our coverage and you’ll get full commentary/backstage scoop!

1:04	[Comment From Tammy] Sisterhood of the Travelling Pantsuits 4 ever! Thanks Caroline!

1:04

Caroline:

My pleasure, girl!

1:07

Caroline: OK — observation. Audio observation:

1:08

Caroline: The “Waiting Line” song from Garden State has been on consistent rotation during the wait-time before each plenary. I’m beginning to think it’s their little joke on us.

1:11

Steve Enders: Well it beats Coldplay and the violin song. I was getting tired of that.

1:12

Caroline: touché

1:12

Caroline: (synth violins)

1:13

Caroline: Getting up and stretching and seeing if i can spot anything particularly scandalous or noteworthy going on in the room …

1:14

Caroline: The house is full — photographers are starting to push and shove. The setup has changed. Instead of the stage and rows of tables, the seating is now in a 3/4 moon around a podium in the middle of the room

1:15

Caroline: much more dramatic. Energy is high. Fun mix-up after a relatively chill morning.

1:15

Caroline:

(More Garden State songs. Perhaps Zach Braff did the music for CGI)

1:18

Caroline: slideshow playing

1:18

Steve Enders: Well this is taking a while to start. Let’s see what’s going on on Twitter.

1:18

Caroline:

18 minute late and counting … da drama!

1:18

Caroline: anyone got a good joke?

1:18

pierre: In the back, but still a good seat. #cgi09 http://post.ly/6GEl

1:18

Caroline: glenndimes?

1:19

CD09: RT @ClintonTweet President Clinton challenges you to a Global IQ Test! http://www.clintonfoundatio… #cgi09

1:21

Steve Enders: I swear everyone should be dancing. Why not?

1:21	[Comment From glenndimes] i got nothin’. we do have an office question: is it bad form to borrow your workmate’s headphones when he or she is not there?

1:21

Steve Enders: Glenndimes: yeah, we suggest do not borrow. Ear cooties.

1:21

Caroline:

hm. good question. let me ask hillary when she hits the podium

1:22

Caroline: Ear cooties. Gross Steve.

1:22

tomwatson: RT @aplusk Listening to John Glenn mock the social web because he doesn’t understand it. I wonder if people mocked his space program. #cgi09

1:22

Caroline:

just snapped a quick pic of the setup so you can get the feel. be up in a few …

1:24

Caroline:

a video just started playing, introduced by one of the young women who performed during the Opening Plenary on Tuesday

1:24

Caroline: I believe she’s on stage now but the room went dark for the video’s sake. My guess is she’ll be doing some fierce spoken word again soon …

1:25

Caroline: Video is showing highlights from the past few years at CGI

1:26

Caroline:

On video: St. Angelina and Andre Agassi highlighted. Tom Brokaw, Lance Armstrong, Al Gore, Gates, Farmer, the Clintons of course

1:28

Caroline:

Here come the clintons! Pardon me while i stand …

1:29

Caroline:

They announced both but only Bill took the stage. Hill is still in the crowd next to Chelsea

1:29

Caroline: He’s expressing his “extreme indebtedness” … for giving him the first chance in a week he’s had to see Hillary. Ha!
(crowd goes wild.)

1:30

Steve Enders: I have heard rumblings of a Chelsea sighting or two from the U2 show last night.

1:31

Caroline: (someone had the nerve to leave their distinctive iPhone ringer on. Pretty muffled, but dude. really?)

1:32

Caroline: He’s giving a really lovely, heartfelt introduction to Hillary now

1:32

Caroline: And here she comes …

1:32

Caroline: (looking ravishing in red, i might add)

1:32

Steve Enders: Bill of Hillary: “the best public servant our family has produced”

1:33

Caroline: Video

1:33

Steve Enders: narrated by Damon

1:33

Caroline: Wow. This is a good one.

1:33

Katherine Gustafson: Are you sure that’s Damon and not Pitt?

1:33

Caroline: THANK YOU, Steve, that was driving me crazy!!!

1:33

Katherine Gustafson: Oh, I guess you’re right.

1:33

Caroline:

I thought it was Pitt too, Katie

1:33

Caroline: Nope, I’m convinced it’s damon now

1:34

Caroline: That’s my vote

1:34

Katherine Gustafson: Ah, the debate rages.

1:34

Steve Enders: Amazing imagery of examples of climate change

1:34

Katherine Gustafson: Maybe they’re switching off.

1:34

Katherine Gustafson: This is a good video!

1:34

Caroline:

This video is actually incredible. Goingt o see if we can track it down to show you guys.

1:34

Steve Enders: and the outcomes of climate change’s effect on food production

1:34

Caroline: We’re talking about poerty, about climate change, about the global food supply … “we need to work from the ground up”

1:35

Caroline: investing in agricutlural development like we do with food aid. to build the foundation, not just place the band0aid, so to speak

1:36

Caroline: (i’ve got a little tear in my eye here)

1:36

Steve Enders: I hope the CGI people put this online

1:36

Katherine Gustafson: It’s Hillary!

1:36

Caroline:

“SEE THE FUTURE; FEED THE FUTURE; CHANGE THE FUTURE”

1:37

Caroline: She’s begun her address

1:38

Caroline: she says she’s very proud of her husband. awwww …. applause

1:38

Caroline: she says that there are far too many heads of government to even begin thanking them as she normally would of secretary of state

1:39

Steve Enders: hillary: what i have found over the past 5 years with development of cgi is the hunger for people to be a part of networks and partnerships that will make a difference

1:39

Caroline: applause for attention this year to the needs/concerns of women and girls

1:39

Caroline: Her keynote is focused on this issue: Chronic Hunger

1:40

Katherine Gustafson: Here’s our article about the theme of investing in women and girls: http://www.tonic.com/article/investing-in-women-cgi/

1:40

Caroline: (ding ding ding, steve!!! it was indeed matt damon narrating)

1:42

Caroline: she’s painting scenarios now of a woman in a rural farm in a developing country and a man in an urban city in that same developing country … and how their services and demands could complement each other perfectly if only we had the resources and infrastructure to ensure the ability to grow, buy and sell food

1:43

Caroline:

and here’s the term “food security” again

1:43

Caroline: she’s acknowledging that there are reasonable arguments on both sides of the question “Does development really work?”

1:45

Steve Enders: Hillary is describing the new food security program to be released by the obama admin.

1:46

Steve Enders: not just about food: environmental, national security

1:46

Steve Enders: food issues have a direct bearing on national security, environmental, education and all other aspects

1:48

Steve Enders: describing a domino effect if food security can be achieved then many other societal ills can be fixed

1:49

Steve Enders: five initiatives

1:49

Steve Enders: partner countries to create and implement their plans

1:49

Steve Enders: bolster agricultural sector in various countries

1:49

Steve Enders: work with countries that will make investment themselves

1:50

Steve Enders: addressing underlying causes of hunger. develop better feed/seed and insurance programs to help farmers

1:50

Steve Enders: link agribusiness to farmers

1:51

Steve Enders: invest in women so they’re entrepreneurial and practical

1:51

Steve Enders: 3rd point – improve coordination at international, national and local levels

1:52

Steve Enders: 4th: leverage multinational institutions

1:52

Steve Enders: encourage more countries to donate and encourage financial flows. large infrastructure projects, etc.

1:53

LanceMannion: Rwanda of all places a success story over the last 3 yrs. Increase in production and GDP. #cgi09

1:53

Steve Enders: 5th: pledge long-term commitment and accountability to our efforts

1:53

Steve Enders: will monitor and evaluate commitments just like at cgi to publically track results

1:55

Steve Enders: hillary rolling through the complexities of getting this done

1:55

Steve Enders: so many agencies and organizations working on this via a number of international agreements

1:55

Steve Enders: last piece of strategy: work with CGI members

1:56

Steve Enders: state.gov for more info

1:56

Steve Enders: here’s the video that was on earlier: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1705667530?bctid=41957167001

1:57

Steve Enders: and here’s the link to the new program: http://www.state.gov/s/globalfoodsecurity/

2:00

Steve Enders: Here’s bill talking about how different younger generations are than how he grew up in the rural south. His point being, we make the mistake of forgetting the dignity element of being able to feed yourself.

2:00

Steve Enders: “This is a big deal.”

2:01

LanceMannion: Bill: used to dodge snakes when he visited the outhouse on the farm when he was growing up. #cgi09

2:01

Steve Enders: Now Bill is going to roll thru some new commitments

2:02

Steve Enders: General Mills, State Dept., urban gardens, and agribusiness

2:03

Steve Enders: producing healthy fortified food products for africa, local food systems for african school kids, and provide fortified rice in india. also working with small farmers to develop better value chains

2:04

Steve Enders: photo opp

2:05

Steve Enders: recognizing ann venneman – head of unicef

2:05

Steve Enders: now a group developing new cookstove – works without charcoal and produces less emissions. sounds like they’re made for haiti

2:06

Steve Enders: benefit for indoor cooking and severe deforestation in haiti

2:07

Steve Enders: 3% of the island has forest covered. people have hacked down all the trees to use for cooking. hurricanes that hit haiti are devastating b/c there’s no watershed to absorb the water

2:07

Steve Enders: photo opp

2:07

Steve Enders: next commitment

2:08

Steve Enders: britannia industries

2:08

Steve Enders: Vinita Bali

2:09

Steve Enders: Bill doesn’t have his remarks – turning over the mic to Bali to describe. Haha

2:09

Steve Enders: He’s a little red but that was very well played

2:09

Steve Enders: She’s talking about malnutrition in india

2:10

Steve Enders: Theirs is one of the biggest bread brands in India

2:10

Steve Enders: http://www.britannia.co.in/

2:10

Steve Enders: developed biscuits that are good to eat and fortified with nutrients

2:10

Steve Enders: distribute to kids and families in rural areas and schools

2:12

Steve Enders: moving their model from CSR to corporate responsibility

2:12

Steve Enders: they’re changing business model so they don’t pass costs of fortification on to consumers

2:12

Steve Enders: and their company is doing better than ever – stock is up.

2:13

Steve Enders: Bill: I misread it earlier – she was supposed to give us a progress report!

2:13

Steve Enders: Very well done Ms. Bali

2:14

Steve Enders: talking about Muhammad Yunnus

2:14

Steve Enders: Bill has the mic back

2:15

Steve Enders: Describing first meeting with Yunnus

2:15

Steve Enders: Now on to Leapfrog Investments

2:15

Steve Enders: first micro insurance funder in the world

2:15

Steve Enders: goal is to insure 25 million in next 10 yrs

2:16

Steve Enders: http://www.leapfroginvest.com/

2:16

Steve Enders: Andrew Kuper

2:16

Steve Enders: “micro-insurance can save and change lives”

2:17

Steve Enders: insurance for less than $1/day

2:17

Steve Enders: there’s a billion person market for microinsurance

2:17

Steve Enders: people making $150 a month who are willing to pay 1-2% of income for insurance

2:18

Steve Enders: they’ve raised $44million in a year to fund their programs

2:18

Steve Enders: leapfrog = leap out of poverty

2:19

Steve Enders: leapfrog has built a business on product and purpose

2:19

Steve Enders: he’s calling for finance institutions to open the gates to help fund a hundred leapfrogs and partnerships with them

2:20

Steve Enders: another commitment now

2:20

Steve Enders: $2 billion over 5 years – scale up businesses on sustainability and efficiency

2:21

Steve Enders: among other initiatives – rolling quickly… funds for green entrepreneurs

2:22

Steve Enders: bill: this is the most important thing we can do to cut greenhouse gasses and boost economic growth

2:23

Steve Enders: new commitment

2:24

Steve Enders: funding for getting people out of the slums in rio/brazil

2:25

Steve Enders: new folks coming up

2:25

Steve Enders: from american univ. of dubai and students from kenya

2:26

Steve Enders: will provide a scholarship to the kenyan girls at univ. of dubai – named clinton scholarship

2:27

Steve Enders: final commitment

2:28

Steve Enders: cdc foundation, cdc, unicef, un population fund, etc…

2:29

Steve Enders: joining together on reducing sexual violence – focus on countries where violence spreads hiv/aids

2:29

Steve Enders: success from a program in swaziland – expanding elsewhere in africa

2:29

Steve Enders: outreach via media and world cup

2:31

Steve Enders: photo opp

2:31

Steve Enders: i think we’re wrapping up – bill is still rolling…

2:32

Steve Enders: thanks to cgi sponsors, the government for opening and closing cgi, business leadership…

2:32

Steve Enders: rolling through lots of names

2:32

Steve Enders: from the foundation and cgi

2:33

LanceMannion: Bill afraid he’s a broken record but must say again, Green is where economic growth, the jobs, environmental savings are. #cgi09

2:34

Steve Enders: talking about somalia

2:35

Steve Enders: and an award winner who was insistent on the people of somalia – not everyone is fighting.

2:35

Steve Enders: going through the CGI award winners

2:35

Katherine Gustafson: He just thanked Ruchira Gupta; here’s our article on her: http://www.tonic.com/article/ruchira-gupta-will-change-the-world/

2:35

Steve Enders: what came out of all this work?

2:36

Steve Enders: 1. finance was a destructive force in the financial crisis. needs to be constructive

2:36

Steve Enders: 2. pathalogical collaboration

2:37

Steve Enders: 3. access to finance should be a human right as much as education and health care.

2:37

Steve Enders: 4. infrastructure: more than roads and bridges – it’s education and the role of govt

2:38

Steve Enders: 5. human capital – places that don’t have good education networks, trade and investment will have limits. businesses need to be encouraged to go to work in those areas and invest locally

2:38

Steve Enders: 6. innovation – a lot going on at the bottom of they pyramid. they need to be found/financed and supported.

2:39

Steve Enders: people from 170 countries have gone to the CGI website – he’s talking about the interactivity of cgi this year

2:40

Steve Enders: which indeed has been good

2:40

Steve Enders: (when the wifi works)

2:40

Steve Enders: 80 tweets per hour: “means a lot of you haven’t been paying attention” (laughter)

2:41

Steve Enders: talking about the influence of bloggers

2:41

Steve Enders: thanks to the MSM

2:41

Steve Enders: very gracious

2:42

Steve Enders: people don’t need to all agree all the time to be able to work together

2:42

Steve Enders: 282 commitments worth over $8 billion over 5 years

2:42

Steve Enders: will reach 170 million people

2:44

Steve Enders: being a good citizen in the 21st century is more than not breaking laws, casting informed votes, working hard, etc

2:45

Steve Enders: people are committing their money, resources and time

2:45

Steve Enders: cgi is an evolving model – talking about the role of methods. the “how” questions – how to get all these things done?

2:46

Steve Enders: he’s asking for suggestions on next year

2:47

Steve Enders: cgi will go carbon neutral this year and next by committing investments in forest restoration

2:48

Steve Enders: side note: the press has been drinking out of biodegradable water cups all week

2:48

Steve Enders: but also lots of paper coffee cups. sorry. :-/

2:50

Steve Enders: talking now about CGI-U

2:51

Steve Enders: bill: starting to have a long term impact – cgi is catching and people have made multiple commitments over the past few years

2:54

Steve Enders: Clinton just mentioned the Toltec Four Agreements, which seems to be a running theme here this week. Apparently I need to read this book.

2:55

Steve Enders: here’s a summary: http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/interviews/int_20000113.shtml

2:55

Steve Enders: Be impeccable with your word

2:55

Steve Enders: Don’t take anything personally

2:55

Steve Enders: Don’t make assumptions

2:56

Steve Enders: Always do your best

2:56

Steve Enders: http://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Freedom/dp/1878424319

2:56

Steve Enders: Clinton now talking about interconnectivity

2:57

Steve Enders: It means three girls from Kenya can go to school in Dubai, or someone in the mountains of Aghanistan can blow up a bomb halfway across the globe.

3:00

Katherine Gustafson: Boy, Clinton sure can talk!

3:01

Katherine Gustafson: He’s finished now — ‘Thank you and God bless you.’ Thunderous applause.

3:01

Katherine Gustafson: And that’s it for 2009′s Clinton Global Initiative, as well as for our live blog.

3:01

Katherine Gustafson: Keep your eye on tonic.com for more stories related to CGI next week. We’re not finished yet!

3:02

Katherine Gustafson: (At least one, anyway)

3:02

Katherine Gustafson: Have a great weekend everyone.

3:04	[Comment From K Rupp] Thank you!

3:04	[Comment From glenndimes] that dude is freakin’ awesome.

3:05

Steve Enders: Thanks everyone – that’s a wrap!

3:05

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