[Stoves] Cleaner Clintons, Cleaner Cooking (politics)

Traveller miata98 at gmail.com
Wed Sep 7 16:28:35 CDT 2016


Some of you may know that Mrs. Hillary Clinton has been criticized - not
just by her detractors - for facilitating Government of Norway
contributions to GACC. Other donors' grants to GACC may have been
influenced by a desire to impress the Clintons and use their influence in
the near or long term, or simply by recognition that "clean cooking" by
poor women of the developing world had become a goal of US foreign policy,
continuing as JFK took over State Department
<http://www.state.gov/s/partnerships/cleancookstoves/> from HRC, expanding
and extending US taxpayers' support for RD&D and marketing of American
stoves <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/09/247240.htm>.

Media reports suggest that the Clintons - the former and one future
president - may relinquish the control of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea
Clinton Foundation.

Some Democrats Press Clinton to End Ties to Foundation
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/some-democrats-press-clinton-to-end-ties-to-foundation-1472600643>,WSJ
31 August 2016: "The Clinton family is being pressed by some party
officials and donors to sever all ties to the Clinton Foundation should
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
<http://topics.wsj.com/person/C/Hillary-Clinton/6344> win the presidential
election."
Separation Anxiety: Bill Clinton Eyes Exit From His Charity
<http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/31/us/politics/ap-us-campaign-2016-bill-clinton-legacy.html>,
NYT 31 August 2016: "When Bill Clinton told the staff of his global charity
he would have to step down if Hillary Clinton won the White House, he was
vividly clear about how that felt: Worse than a root canal, he said".

A liberal newspaper from Mrs. Clinton's college days has asked that the
Foundation be shut down. It has also published an OpEd arguing against
shutting it down.

Clinton Foundation should stop accepting funds
<https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/16/clinton-foundation-should-stop-accepting-funds/W8JsNkBseYo6wIxWosNb5O/story.html>,
Boston Globe 16 August 2016, "The foundation should remove a political —
and actual — distraction and stop accepting funding. If Clinton is elected,
the foundation should be shut down."

Don't close the Clinton Foundation, Robert Kelty, Boston Globe 30 August
2016. "The growing politicization of philanthropy represents a real danger
to the nonprofit sector, not just in the United States, but around the
world.If the Clinton Foundation can be forced to shut its doors,what are
the chances that future presidents and public figures will put their
reputations on the line to be forces for good in the world? How much social
and financial capital will remain on the sidelines out of fear of motives
being questioned? By shutting down CGI, who will convene NGOs, governments,
and corporations at the highest levels to form innovative partnerships? ...
More broadly, can we in the not-for-profit sector allow ignorance about our
work to triumph?"
-----------
Mrs. Clinton may still lose. She and Mr. Trump are campaigning in coal
counties of West Virginia.  Whoever gets elected will look for funds from
all sources to get votes from all who can be pleased. An opinion piece
<https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/05/07/coal-miners-struggle-reinvent-themselves/Wyl9rO3NGsMqV7cGuGdp2M/story.html>
asks, "And yet, who actually took these hard-pressed people and their
plight seriously? .. Who is trying to help them meet the real and
unavoidable challenges the future holds? .. Or, to put it more broadly, who
really treated them honestly, and with the respect they deserve?"


The same questions can and need be asked about the "clean cookstoves"
enterprise, a top-down culture change led by the same people West Virginia
coal miners blame - rightly or wrongly - for their plight: EPA and Barack
Obama. (It was Clinton and Gore who started the war against coal and made a
lot of money in that war.)

Shutting down Clinton Foundation may not matter to GACC.  I don't yet see
any money from Clinton Foundation to GACC, just that Mrs. Clinton helped
facilitate financing
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/1/hillary-clinton-emails-show-foundation-shaped-poli/>
for GACC. Last year's State/Global Partnership evaluation of GACC
<http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/251105.pdf> does not even
mention Clinton Foundation.

Bill Clinton also accepted a charcoal stove and biomass briquettes - a gift
for Haitians - from an Indian politician who gave Clinton Foundation
between $1 million and $5 million. (Trump attacks Clinton on Indo-US deal:
Here are the ‘facts’
<http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-foundation-india-us-nuclear-deal-amar-singh-cii-2875427/>
Indian
Express 26 June 2016)

With Mrs. Clinton in the White House - I hope - and the Clinton Foundation
shut down, public financing of the "clean cooking" may be open to greater
debates and accountability.

Which can only be better for GACC and the agenda of "clean cooking".

There are more ways to empower girls and women than just promising to clean
up their lungs via EPA/ISO charade of "performance standards" for boiling
water in labs.

I hope President Clinton II - via not just her EPA but also FDA
<https://www.pyxeraglobal.org/one-campaign-usaid-fda-discuss-global-health-development-crossroads/>,
USAID, Treasury (through MDBs) and, why, even CDC
<http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/news/20160818/carbon-monoxide-invisible-but-deadly>s
- can mobilize US government funding, and that funds can be spent wisely
and effectively. (Subsidizing clean fuels, including biofuels, is an idea,
but on that some other time.)
----------------------------
Any taint of "pay and play" must be avoided. The UN Foundation, which
"houses" GACC, is reported to have donated between $250k and $500k to the
Clinton Foundation
<https://www.ff.org/clinton-enlisted-state-employees-to-steer-funds-to-clinton-foundation-partner/>,
perhaps in gratitude, possibly a pre-agreed fee for favors. If donation to
Clinton Foundation can be shown as a "political contribution" before a
grand jury, non-profits can be indicted. (Not under President Clinton II, I
am sure, with James Comey continuing at FBI and the Friend of Bill as the
Attorney General.)

Or these were just gifts and favors between friends. Senator Wirth of the
UN Foundation and President Clinton I of his own Foundation are lobbyists
just like many other US politicians. When "clean cooking" is depoliticized
and impersonalized, bureaucrats and businesses may get a freer hand.

Cleaner Clintons will help the cause of Cleaner Cooking.

Nikhil
Declaration: I do not have a vote in the US and have never contributed to
any candidate for any political position. If I had a vote, I would vote for
HRC and hope she takes her vows seriously.

PS: I was trying to find out if Bill grew up with gas and electricity in
Hope, Arkansas. I discovered Hope had electricity in 1900
<http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=895>
.


---------
(India +91) 909 995 2080
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