Clinton's Farewell Speech

The divide between the affluent and those living on the “knife-edge” of poverty was a preoccupation of the farewell speech of ex-US President Bill Clinton.

As British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has done before, Clinton said that poverty “is a powder keg waiting to ignite” to blow apart the comfortable lives most of us in the West enjoy. Self-interest then is the uneasy consort of compassion in the fight against poverty.

It may be a way of reaching more people - decrease poverty means your car stereo will be safe. But it is a risky enterprise as this kind of thinking can lead to quite draconian methods to ensure certain people do not enter into certain neighbourhoods - thus further widening the divide talked about by Clinton.

He was proud, Clinton said, of his days of service as US President, but would be prouder still to hold the title of citizen. Blair says he also wants to promote citizenship. 2001 is the UN Year for Volunteering and the British government has money for projects which encourage people to put their spare time into good causes.

If volunteering is no longer to be the preserve of the retired of people who do not need to earn their own living, then changes need to be made in attitudes and regulations governing paid working life and the social security system. Those who are in paid work have no time, those out of work risk losing the benefits on which they rely if they give their time unpaid to voluntary organisations. Where is the pressure on employers to do their bit by taking pressure off their staff and, horrors of horrors, even giving them time off in order to do their citizen’s duty?

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