What a bizarre lack of inspiration politicians are. Yesterday morning I went to a book signing in Rotterdam of Bill Clinton's latest political tract, Give or Geef (they only had Dutch language copies).
After waiting in line for about two hours, I finally got a glimpse of the man in person.... My first reaction was, wow, he's short!... Not much taller than my 5'6"..... I admit to feeling a surge of American patriotic sentiment, standing as I was in a crowd of perspiring Dutch people, nearly all of them taller than I. I nearly cried, I felt so bad for myself.... But I was able to wait out my emotional wave, and the tears didn't come.
I shook his hand, said my name, told him I voted for him, and Hillary, which really caught his attention. He actually looked right at me, turned his head to look again, and thanked me. I was able to steal a few more seconds, and a few extra glances, than the rest of the folks were when I actually said my name in an American accent. It seemed that most of the people weren't saying anything....
I had spent some of my time while feeling faint in line thinking that I had better things to do, but I persevered in the thought that this might be my only opportunity to touch Bill, and to look him in the eye. I actually started to feel inspired, and made several resolutions on my walk back to the Metro. I too could do great things....! I too could do great things....! What a revelation. My life was going to make a great turn around that afternoon! And I had a brief meeting with Bill Clinton to thank for a brighter tomorrow.
When I read the sentence on the poster in the bookstore, "We all have the capacity to do great things," it reinforced my feeling that I was doing something good, of iets nuttigs, in het Nederlands. Just goes to show what a sucker I am for marketing. I even told the guy behind me that the book was probably inspirational, if a bit clichéd. Well, my friends, I am here to tell you now that it is none of this....
Later that evening I started to read the book, which turned out, as I've already said, to be a political tract in support of Hillary's campaign. The book starts out as a list of all of the great things the Clintons have done for the world, and of what great people they are on top of it all. Hillary was of course a great mother who contributed to the common good her entire life. Then it goes on to list other great and powerful, and fabulously rich people in the world who've done great things, including fighting aids in Africa, and the Clintons are associated with all of many of these people, naturally.
It's funny that I've read persuasive articles to the contrary in The New York Review of Books. Hillary was never much of an activist, and turned her back on her activist roots in political revenge. All of the rich Western NGOs crusading against AIDS in the developing world have apparently done a lot more harm than good. As always, the most that's been done to combat the AIDS epidemic has come from the grassroots level, and not from ingratiating politicians looking to score humanitarian points with the masses.
The article on AIDS in the NYRB quotes a Ugandan saying: "there is Slim AIDS and Fat AIDS. Slim AIDS is what happens to the emaciated victims of HIV. Fat AIDS is what happens to the consulting companies who win contracts from International AIDS Inc."
Ever the salesman, Bill was out there plugging himself and Hillary, signing 1,000 books in Rotterdam, and I was one of the suckers who shelled out 20 euro, and several hours of my time to get one.
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