Whenever a president of the United States retires, it's always curious to see what he does with his time. Clearly any normal "job" would be a step down from his previous position.
I'm happy to report that it seems Clinton is following along in the footsteps of Carter:
Former US President Bill Clinton on Sunday visited Maputo Central Hospital, on the first leg of a tour of six African countries where the Clinton Foundation is assisting governments in the struggle against AIDS.
Accompanied by Mozambican Health Minister Ivo Garrido, and Irish Minister of State for Development, Conor Lenihan, Clinton visited the paediatric day hospital, set up to care for HIV- positive children.
A three way partnership is involved: the Clinton Foundation negotiates with the manufacturers of generic anti-retroviral drugs to ensure that Mozambique can obtain the drugs at the cheapest possible price. Then the Irish government provides Mozambique with the funds for the drugs. Irish support in this area, from 2003 to 2007, will be equivalent to 50 million US dollars.
Clinton visited a clinic with sick children and met with HIV positive patients. And the visit from a former American president to an impoverished country struggling not only with this deadly disease but the remnants of a long, bitter civil war can only be a major boost.
The parents at the meeting told him that the day hospital had saved the lives of their children, and made them feel less isolated.
A 10 year old HIV-positive girl gave Clinton a gift from the families (a sculpture), and told him that she wanted to train to be a doctor so that she could help other children.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Clinton said he thought it scandalous that children in Africa were dying of AIDS, but any HIV-positive child in the United States could expect a normal life-span because of the anti-retroviral treatment.
According to wire reports, the Clinton Foundation will help 60,000 children receive the drugs necessary to battle AIDS and spend $10 million in 2005 alone:
"We hope to add another 50,000 children next year. We think that at the end of next year we will have about 60 countries buying medicines through my contract and we are negotiating to try to add more producers to it," Clinton said on Sunday.
Because of the Irish government's admirable participation, the domestic Irish press covered the visit as well. What's extremely odd however is that not a single American news source has reported this, according to Google.
Is not the public activity of a living former American president worth a single mention? I guess that "vast leftwing controlled" media doesn't think so.
Clinton will later visit Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda this week.
Pax