Bill Clinton speaks about major grievances and shortcomings worldwide in Tampere

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The former President of the United States Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Turning Point seminar held at the Tampere Hall conference venue on Tuesday. Clinton's speech met all expectations, even though it was delivered to a considerably smaller audience than might have been anticipated.
      Tampere Hall can accommodate almost 2,000 people, but only around 700 attended the event.
      On Tuesday, it was not immediately clear how many of the crowd had actually paid EUR 790 for his or her ticket. Even free and subsidised tickets were handed out.
     
The seminar was organised by Jari Sarasvuo, who also spoke for an hour before anybody had a chance to even see Bill Clinton.
      As the opening speaker of the seminar, Sarasvuo spoke out against poverty. Empathetically, he spoke in favour of the global economy while noting that development aid should be given to women, as "men tend to drink, gamble, or to start tribal wars".
     
The star of the event Bill Clinton surprised all who were aware of his reputation.
      Calmly and precisely, he discussed the major grievances and shortcomings worldwide. While there was hardly any human failing or complaint that Clinton would not have covered at some juncture, the actual theme of his speech was climate change and global warming.
      Furthermore, Clinton discussed social policies in European and African countries, as well as in the Middle East.
      The master diplomat mentioned also both the Darfur and Rwanda 1994 genocides, while not mentioning how the United States under his leadership had refused to intervene in the Rwanda conflict.
     
Clintonist slogans which sound good when spoken, but less so when written down, were also heard.
     
In an onstage interview with Editor-in-chief Juhani Pekkala of Taloussanomat, a daily newspaper focusing on economic and business affairs, the former President answered a few well-worn and pre-selected questions. Clinton mentioned his discussions with the Russian leaders Boris Jeltsin and Vladimir Putin. "I have tried to tell both Jeltsin and Putin that Russia ought to define its own national worth according to the criteria of the present - not past - century. For example, the use of energy as an tool of extortion is not one of today's methods."
      Bill Clinton (b. 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, who served two terms in the White House. His domestic achievements included the economic recovery of the United States. Internationally, his priorities included the promotion of peace talks in the Middle East. A serious setback to his career was the impeachment trial in 1998, following allegations that he had lied during grand jury testimony regarding his relationship with a young female White House intern. The acquittal of Clinton in 1999 came as no great surprise to anybody.
      After leaving the White House in 2001, Clinton established a foundation, and has since toured the world engaging in a career as a public speaker on a variety of issues such as poverty and AIDS. His wife is the Democrat Senator for New York Hillary Rodham Clinton.


Links:
  Turning Point ´06 seminar

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