Former President Jimmy Carter spoke at Google today. He came to speak about The Carter Center, a non-governmental agency that does amazing work around the world to help the poor and suffering.
He spoke about human rights: the human right to be free, the human right to live in a good environment, the human right to be healthy, the human right to be alleviated from unnecessary suffering, the human right to live in peace. Human rights were the cornerstone of his presidency and he proudly boasted that during his four years, he focused on promoting peace – no guns were fired, no bombs were launched, no missiles were dropped. We saw a film of the great things that the Carter Center has done and he spoke of his work at Habitat for Humanity.
He answered questions from the audience. My favorite was when a Googler asked how he dealt with problematic or hostile governments – he responded with “their governments or ours? … it’s a lot easier to deal with their governments.” ROFL.
(For Joe.) One Googler asked him how to assure a democratic election this year. He spoke of how in Venezuela, they use digital election ballots but everyone got a paper ballot printed out that they then submitted in a paper system. Thus, people were assured that their vote was identical to the digital system and there was a backup to be counted in case of trouble. ::sigh:: It’s going to be an interesting election.
He spoke about how essential understanding other people were and encouraged Googlers to get involved in the poorer regions of their communities, to understand the people that provided services to them.
All and all, it was a bit odd. I got to shake his hand, i got to listen to amazing Democrat rhetoric with well constructed progressive framing. And yet, we all knew that he was there because Google(rs) have just made a lot of money and the Carter Center wants Google(rs) to donate.
Hi, sorry to disagree.
“The Carter Center, a non-governmental agency that does amazing work around the world to help the poor and suffering”. Mr. Carter and his agency are fresh from endorsing a (massively) fraudulent referendum in Venezuela. Down the line, in a few years, the world will be facing with dealing with a totalitarian headache called Chavez. For now the oil price surge was controlled.
The sad thing is that this is not Mr. Carter’s first time. In 2000 he did the same in Fujimori’s Peru…
The other facet of this unfortunate event is that the part of the Cuban vote which may have switched to Kerry will be going to Bush again. This community is not happy about Mr. Carter’s “work” in Venezuela.
PS: Most of the fraud was conducted using electronic voting machines… like the ones the US will be using in some states in the upcoming election…
To Frederic above: the last thing futures traders want to see is another American-baked coup in Venezuela. As for your “fraudulent” claim, back it up or shut the fuck up.
And Carter as ambassador for peace? The blood of countless Cambodians, East Timorese and Nicaraguans is forever on his hands. That some on the American left are now trotting old Jimmy out as some kind of humanitarian hero would be laughable if it weren’t so ignorant.
Hi,
Backup? For those who can read spanish:
http://www.eluniversal.com/2004/09/07/estudiohausmann.pdf
and
http://globovision.com/documentos/documentos.decretos/2004.09/08/tulio2/index.php
Regarding the “American-baked coup in Venezuela”, it’s already done. The american endorsement of the referendum is a coup.
Sorry, some afterthoughts…
What do you call a country where a political coalition ranging from extreme left (bandera roja) to the extreme right (bloque democratico) opposes the government vehemently?
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A dictatorship?
El Universal, the opposition paper that among other things published completely bogus polls in the run up to the election? Come on, my deceitful friend, who do you think you’re fooling here besides yourself?
To danah: sorry about hijacking the thread, but Fred here’s just too full of shit, and that gets my goat every time.
Sorry danah, my last message.
The report that you can download at el Universal is a scientific study conducted by Harvard professor Hausmann and MIT’s Rigobon. If you do not want to read it because it was published by some newspaper that’s your problem.
Anyhow, this fraud is an open secret and history will tell the truth.