New York City, NY — The Clinton Global Initiative’s panel on Building Parternships to Empower the World’s Smallholder Famers at the Sheraton Hotel on 7th Avenue here sat down and there were two familiar faces on the stage. One was from the political world: Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak. The other…you just KNEW you knew his face from somewhere.
Why, it was comedian-actor Jim Carrey, this time in his non-comedy incarnation as founder of the Better U Foundation. And he started out a bit how you’d expect:
He noted that he wasn’t exactly a small farmer — but he did grow some plants in the 70s that his parents confiscated.
A big laugh..but then it was all seriousness as Carrey and others began a discussion about the world’s farmers. A discussion packed with info from reports, trends, statistics and meaty — versus “red meat” — ideas.
Then CNBC recorded a show for airing tomorrow, a segment “The Meeting of the Minds” — which could not be confused with a talk radio show panel, which would have had to have been called “The Meeting of the Mouths.”
Bill Clinton enters. Massive applause. He’s going to talk about the “Global Economy.”
But it couldn’t be confused with any event run by the Democratic party.
Earlier, Laura Bush participated in a session titled “Harnessing Human Potential.”
Meanwhile, on the lower level, in the jam-packed press room, well-dressed mainstream media reporters (you can tell the less wardrobe-concious bloggers but there were no pajamas) from all over the world work at ever-present laptops as four big screen TVs aired the sessions. A journalist loudly interviewed a source for a story containing questions about Wall Street and President Barack Obama. The press around him worked intently, even at lunch, bringing plates filled with food from a well-stocked buffet table outside the press room.
Is this the kind of event that will flourish in the 21st century, or a quaint vestige of centuries past where ideas, solutions and compromise mean more than creating an outrageous sound bite that gets some people mad or alarmed so they act to stop another group, legislate against them or support a specific political party?
No one can accuse the members from all over the world who paid big bucks to be members — membership is by invitation only and the fee is to join is a bit more than you’d pay to join the Tea Party movement, ACLU or AARP.. $20,000, $19,000 of which is tax deductible — of not trying or of media organizations ignoring it. Members have made some 1900 commitments valued at $63 billion due to these meetings.
But for an example of the disconnect between the serious thoughtful people from both political parties and from all over the world here trying to make the world better and looking for solutions and the current titans of popular politicaltainment shows, look no further than what happened when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dared talk about the need for cleaner cookstoves. Here are her remarks:
Earth & Industry’s Maria Surma Manka put it into perspective in a post that needs to be read in full. Here is part of it:
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves: The name doesn’t roll off the tongue and I’ve seen some cynical Twitter chatter about whether this effort is really going to help “save the world” – but I beg to differ. “Smaller” projects like this – in addition to the sexier work like solar power in Haiti – are exactly what CGI aims to organize. Nearly 3 billion people – mostly women and often refugees – cook over traditional cookstoves. This means they have to forge for fuel (in conflict areas, this means exposing themselves to potential violence) and spend hours inhaling the toxic smoke from the fires. The toxins cause about 1.9 million premature deaths each year thanks to pneumonia, emphysema, lung cancer, and bronchitis. In fact, air pollution is the fourth biggest health risk in developing world, according to the Alliance.
In short, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will create a more robust market for clean and efficient household cookstoves that meet the needs of the local consumer and her cooking patterns. Partners in the private sector – the Shell Foundation, Morgan Stanley, and others – are working on developing industry standards for the simplest, most affordable and cleanest-burning stoves possible. They will work with NGOs (United Nations Foundation, World Health Organization, and others) and governments (Peru, Norway, and others) to get these stoves into the hands of those who need it and use financing mechanisms to help give the poor access to the stoves. By 2020, the Alliance hopes to have a product adopted by 100 million homes.
And yes, there’s a climate change angle to this too: A little cookstove may not seem like much of a climate threat – especially when we tend to picture coal-fired power plants when we think of climate pollution – but multiplied by 3 billion users, there’s a target here.
And how was it received?
You betcha:
Glenn Beck raised questions about the issue and about Hillary Clinton raising it. Which is most likely why there were all those Tweets: people who listen to a talk show host (and consider him their trusted friend) immediately inhale their favorite talk show’s host take on an issue.
It’s so much easier than sitting for hours on a panel and talking in detail and looking for solutions.
And what would get better ratings? A telecast of people such as the Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Managing Director of the World Bank), Alcoa, Inc’s CEO, college presidents, past and present ambassadors, speciality writers, White House officials, Bill Gates, actor Kevin Spacey, various heads of states — or someone seizing on an issue and injecting it with partisan polarization and the never ending liberal/conservative ideology war?
If the battle is between tears and fears and thinking and solving which is more fun?
And which is more productive?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.