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Gujarat
Earthquake Relief Fund
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Clinton To Use Gujarat As World Model
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The Gujarat rehab work he is involved in could become a world
model, Bill Clinton said as he announced he would travel to the
Indian state in a few weeks to bolster relief work there. The
program, which may cost about $50 million, was initiated by the
former president at a meeting of top Indian American entrepreneurs
he had called in New York recently.
The estimated cost to support a village, with about 100 families,
was $500,000, Clinton said at a fundraiser in New York that netted
at least $114,000 on Thursday. For 40 villages the total cost
would be $20 million. In the event that the newly-established
America-India Foundation decides to adopt 100 villages, the total
cost of the operation could reach $50 million, he added.
"In a larger sense, I want to make it clear, what we are trying
to do is to develop something that can be a model for the whole
world, that we can use in the long term for the economic development
of poor places, when they are hit by disaster or when they just
need some help,". Clinton said.
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During his eight years as a president, Clinton traveled
to the poorer regions of South and South-East Asia, Africa, Latin America,
as well as to the Native American reservations and the inner cities
in the US -
"During my travels, I became convinced that intelligence is equally
distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not," he said.
"There are now proven devices like micro credit and new opportunities
through technology to give people a chance to skip a whole generation
of development. To give their children futures on every continent in
every country, that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago."
Clinton spoke about his trip to Raj asthan last year where he visited
a community center that had a coffiputer with an Internet connection.
While there, a woman with a newborn baby asked for information on how
to take care of her child. In Clinton's presence the computer technician
at the center logged on to several health related sites and printed
out for the mother information on taking care of a newborn.
"That woman went home with a set of instructions that are about as good
as you can get in the finest pediatrician's office in New York City,"
Clinton said.
"If we could put one good connection to the Internet with one good printer
in every poor village of the world, we would overcome the textbook problem,"
he said, adding that he had visited schools in Africa where maps were
so old that they did not list 80 countries born after those maps were
made.
"There are opportunities for those of us who have been more fortunate
to help these villages not only recover to the form They were in before
the earthquake, but to give their children a broader future."
Clinton addressed gathering of about 200 New Yorkers-mostly Indian-Americans-at
a $250 per plate fundraiser organized by IndoAmerican Arts Council and
held at the Dynasty Restaurant in Radisson Hotel.
Clinton also said that the group he had been working with established
the America-India Foundation, which will raise $20-$50 million to assist
in the long-term reconstruction and development of more than 40 villages
in Gujarat. The funds will be earmarked for housing, healthcare, clean
water, education and micro credits to entrepreneurs in those villages.
"Our goal is to provide enough expertise to prove that we can work together
in a partnership to leave these villages, if anything better off than
they were before the earthquake," Clinton said.
"No one can replace the human loss, the loss of life, the personal things
that people lose in a tragedy like this. But we would like to make something
good come out of this."
The glittering event, attended by New York's high society Indian- American
community, also raised $64,000 from an art auction that was conducted
by Hugo Weihe, Vice President of Indian and SouthEast Asian Art at Christie's,
New York.
The auction included artwork donated by Indian-American artists and
friends of MAC living in the US. The highest bid items included a set
of four framed prints by Natvar Bhavsar and a painting by M.F. Husain.
The bidding for both was $9,000.
"We have earmarked all the money towards the housing component for the
America-India Foundation, since that is the dire need," Moon Shivdasani,
the executive director of IAAC told Rediff corn.
She said that the 200 meals for the evening's event were donated by
the Radisson Hotel (formerly known as the Lexington Hotel and managed
by Taj Hotel group). Christie's also donated its services for the fundraiser,
she added.
Clinton who was extremely relaxed and at his charming best arrived at
the fundraiser at 8 p.m. He stayed at the event for a little over half
hour. Organizers later said that he left early since he had to fly to
Washington DC, the same evening. After his speech, Clinton mingled freely
with the attendees, despite the large presence of secret service men
who kept surrounding him.
People kept clicking their cameras, even though the secret service and
Clinton's staff had tried to restrict photography to a select group
of the news media. During Clinton's presidency, it was reported, that
only major contributors to his election funds could hope to get a picture
with him. But at the IAAC fundraiser, Clinton obliged several people
so they could take pictures for their personal collections.
At the beginning of his extempore talk, which was punctuated by clapping
and laughter from the audience, Clinton joked about the fact that he
now had a smaller staff; and hence no one to write his speeches. He
said that he now does what he had done most of life- speak from hand
written notes.
"The unfortunate thing is I don't see as well as I did before, so I
may have to speak without notes," he said.
Clinton told the group about how moved he was by the images he saw of
the devastation caused by the Gujarat earthquake. On February 1 he had
a telephone conversation with Prime Minster Atal Behari Vajpayee, to
express his concerns.
"As you know I tried to rekindle a new era in the Indian-American relation
and I was very moved by what I saw," Clinton said.
"He [Vajpayee] said that the fundamental challenge was what happens
when the television cameras go away. What about the long-term relief
and what specifically can be done for, not only the larger cities, but
also the 400 villages that were completely devastated. Was there some
way that the Indian-Americans could contribute, particularly those who
had roots in those villages, to make a commitment to long term reconstruction."
The next day-February 2-he had a meeting in New York City with a group
of prominent Indian-Americans CEOs and corporate presidents to urge
them to raise as much money as possible for relief work in villages
of Gujarat.
Those who have attended the meeting include Victor Menezes, President
of Citicorp, Vin Gupta, Chairman and CEO of infoUSA and a major contributor
to Clinton's election campaigns, Rajat Gupta, Managing Director of McKinsey
& Co., Rohit Desai, President and Chief Investment Officer of Desai
Capital Management, Dr. Suvas
Desai, former president of the American Association of Physicians of
Indian Origin, Ramesh Kapur, P.C. Chatterjee and Kailash Joshi. The
Indian government was represented by Shashi Tripathi, the Consul
General of India in New York, who was also present at the fundraiser
on February 15.
On Thursday, Clinton asked the audience to contribute whatever they
could, and added that he was going to do his best to raise as much as
possible for the American-India Foundation.
"I spent a lot of time doing [this kind of work] as a president," he
said, "and I think the best use of my time as a former president would
be to do those things I tried to do as president that most people in
positions like the one I held don't think that are all that important,
but I think will change the whole future of the world. And we have a
chance to do that in India."
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