Bill Clinton: “Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General. I am delighted to share this historic moment with you, with President Mandela, with…”

“Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General. I am delighted to share this historic moment with you, with President Mandela, with Prime Minister Blair, and all our friends supporting NetAid. The launching of this website represents a truly important new front in the struggle against poverty. Information technology has been vital to the prosperity achieved by many nations this decade, including ours. The people of the world have never communicated better or more easily, and that has spurned countless new ideas and opportunities. But it's also a fact that this prosperity has been very uneven within and among countries. The democratic promise of the Internet, therefore, is not yet fulfilled, because vast populations around the world still have no access to computers at all. Through USAID, the United States Government has pledged millions of dollars to build Internet access in other countries, especially in Africa. But the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is growing much too quickly. Today we build a bridge across that gulf. NetAid is the creation of a remarkable partnership combining the international reach of the United Nations development program and the powerful resources of the private sector. I want to thank Cisco Systems' John Chambers as well as the other technology companies. Thanks to them, one of the largest websites ever built has been created to spread information about extreme poverty and to help concerned citizens do something about it.…”