William J. Clinton Presidential Center Dedication

I have been to many places but I never saw anything like this.

- Martin Varsavsky

I should admit that while maybe it was a secret objective of mine to become a friend of President Clinton, the first time I arranged to meet him was for two very pragmatic objectives.

I had learned that President Clinton, right after leaving the presidency could be hired to speak for a fee of $300,000. By then I had already started Educ.ar, an ambitious program of connecting all Argentine students to the internet and providing them with educational content and net savvy teachers that the Varsavsky Foundation started with the failed government of President De la Rua, in 2000. When I learned about the fee it occurred to me that if the Varsavsky Foundation hired President Clinton to come to Argentina and asked each guest to donate a computer to an Argentine school, we could get over 500 people and raise more money than his $300,000 fee. Simultaneously, the free publicity we could get from his appearance would give the program a real boost!

On top of all is this, I was already extremely worried about the economic policies of Domingo Cavallo and his persistence to peg the Argentine peso to the dollar, in effect transforming Argentina into the most expensive country in Latin America. So uncompetitive was my country at that point that it had embarked in a rare known phenomenon: deflation coupled with unemployment and lack of opportunity.

While we ultimately hired President Clinton to speak on behalf of Educ.ar, we were only able to accomplish one of my two goals. While we succeeded in raising more money in computers than his speaking fee, we failed to change the flawed monetary policy of the Argentine government.

Despite the fact that President Clinton and I met with President De La Rua and Domingo Cavallo, and despite Clinton’s brilliant presentation on why Argentina had to devalue in an orderly manner to restore growth, the stubborn finance minister rejected his advice and insisted that Argentina should not devalue.

It is this decision that cost De la Rua his presidency and Domingo Cavallo his reputation. After being so flatly rejected President Clinton was understandably frustrated. And so was I.

However, sometimes common failure forges alliances and creates opportunities for people to get close to each other. After this failed attempt at recommending sound policy, President Clinton and I flew to Brazil and started what I would call an occasional friendship. No, I am not a close friend of President Clinton but the experiences we’ve shared have been quite memorable. Some have included eating Domino’s pizza with him and Kevin Spacey at the Ritz hotel in London at 2 in the morning, or hanging out at Casa Lucio eating fried eggs with him and my fiancée Waya in Madrid. The latest was a VIP invitation to the inauguration of his library that took place Nov 16th, 2004.

Clinton’s presidential library is in Little Rock Arkansas. A small town by a river, Little Rock has the few high rises that all small American cities must build in order to feel part of the American skyline, but so poor that the downtown commercial and business lack any shopping facilities. It is not of course, Latin American poor. It is American poor. No beggars, no slums, but modest, without much opportunities for its people, without any major companies in the area. When we asked the uniformed National Guard officers who came to pick us up at the airport, what were the major sources of employment in the state, they cited the over 5000 servicemen and women from Arkansas serving in Iraq right now. That said it all.

The Peabody of Little Rock, the VIP hotel, is a poor man’s Hyatt with an atrium, glass elevators and all. The people of Arkansas look pretty integrated, black and white, and it seems that obesity is an equal opportunity disease, what all races have in common in Arkansas, as well as in most of the United States.

Now the shock of the day was the contrast between the locals in Arkansas…and the stars. And there were many, many stars. There were more stars there than at any event I have been to in my life. And I don’t just mean stars like Chevy Chase who I found twice on the elevator, but political heavyweights like John Kerry, Al Gore, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Wesley Clark, Walter Mondale and everyone who has ever been important in the Democratic party…They all converged at the Library opening on one very, very rainy day in Little Rock.

America is a land of contrasts. The nation that many see as the most selfish country in the world, also leads the world in volunteerism. And what was amazing about the inauguration is how President Clinton mobilized so many residents of Arkansas to volunteer for the opening of the library. I lack data but I imagine there must have been at least 5000 volunteers helping out in Little Rock doing such things as driving people around and buying 2000 umbrellas and rain ponchos for VIPs on moments notice!!!

As we arrived at the opening and saw that the weather was awful, hundreds of volunteers appeared out of the blue with boxes full of $3 dollar umbrellas that they must have gotten the night before. It was magical how well they all worked. Still, there was only so much they could do because it certainly did rain hard on President Clinton’s parade. But as former VP Al Gore said, it rained in Woodstock and we’re still talking about it! And yes, that was a perfect line to encapsulate how we all felt. Clinton’s library opening was Woodstock 2004. It was the Woodstock generation, the same people who were 20 somethings in the 1970s, coming together again… But this time, they were the social, economic, and political leaders of our nation. This time around, they´d become used to a life of luxury and privilege and yet were more than willing to endure, what was for Waya and I and many others who were too young to attend Woodstock, the most uncomfortable event of our lives. The rain was coming down so hard, that no poncho, raincoat or umbrella could protect you. Waya and I were sitting down in the cold and rain for four hours straight, hugging, trying to keep each other warm and yet, as hard as everything was, emotion won…and we stayed all the way until the end when we entered the library, on the verge of hypothermia! Why did we stay? Because everyone else stayed, enduring the rain and cold as well…And I guess because, as many religions have discovered, suffering helps imprint memories, evoke emotions, and discover the masochist hiding in all of us.

The ceremony itself was a tribute to one man, President Clinton, and his achievements over 8 years in office. Nobody could be said criticize Clinton at the ceremony. Not even Bush Sr., who lost to him in 1992, or Bush Jr. who President Clinton has so frequently criticized. Clinton himself had only praise for others, for Carter, for Bush Sr. and for Bush Jr. And as corny as this litany of continuous praise may be…it worked. It worked very well, it moved people, and it moved me and other non-Americans there. Because here comes the next great thing about America after volunteerism and that is the ability to concede defeat, the talent to join others, to unite. President Clinton said at one point that he was sure he was not the only person in the event who thought that both Bush and Kerry were good people, that both Bush and Kerry wanted what was best for the United States. And I would say that for a moment I believed Clinton, and that is his magic as communicator, because you catch me at any other time outside of the cold, the heavy rain and Clinton’s inspirational speeches and I would tell you that I think that President Bush has mismanaged the US economy, and his policies have unnecessarily killed thousands more people than Al Qaeda and all terrorist organizations put together in the world. But thanks to Clinton’s magic, I too I was in a religious trance during that time, and Bush himself almost appeared as a nice guy to me. This taught me a lesson, a lesson that, as President Frei of Chile told me as we left the event, must be learned outside the US: reconciliation is essential for a country to work out it’s problems. This ceremony was one huge healing experience. Its success lied in addressing the serious political repair that was needed in America after the 2004 elections. Still, as we looked at Kerry, Waya and I and probably 95% of the 30,000 people at the ceremony could not but feel so sorry that this event was not taking place with Kerry as president. Indeed Kerry did not even have front row seats! He was in the same row as we were, four rows from the stage, together with other senators (at least the ones who were not former first ladies.)

Other than Clinton’s magnificent speech on reconciliation there were other good speeches. Carter was funny and spoke about how Clinton, even though he was nobody at the time, made him wait the first time they met. Bush Sr. was very gracious, talking about how Clinton destroyed him in the 92’ debates and how much he hated debating him.

Chelsea showed that she does have the best of her father and mother and made me feel that just maybe, the next Clinton to be President might not be her Mom. While I deeply admire Hillary, I wonder if she can unite the deeply divided “blues” and “reds” in the U.S. But Chelsea, and I mean this, was so self-assured, so confident, so charming yet intelligent, that I think she may very well enter politics at one point. And in the midst of all the humorous conciliatory speeches came what for Waya and I was perhaps the most magical moment of all, Bono and Edge singing Sunday Bloody Sunday. That was the icing on the cake of a wet, still unbeatable day in my and many people´s lives.