Bill Clinton

I think that they're all having economic trouble and they want to hold their money as long as possible.

I'm going to call all those governments and say, the ones who said they will give money to support the Haitian government, I want to try to get them to give the money.

So when you come to Haiti, a place where 85 percent of people did not have electricity in their homes before the earthquake, they should understand that this is going to be more like the tsunami.

I've never dealt with a place that lost, essentially, its urban center and 30 percent of its population and far more than that of its GDP.

Yes. If we burn it, then all you've got to do is bury ash. Ash can be fertilizer.

I would say -- I'd say we're -- I'd say we're right around maybe 200 million that's been spent one way or the other.

When we can get the donor money flowing in here, they won't need that money so much any more.

It's -- it's what I call the chokehold theory of revenues.

They should, and they shouldn't charge them any customs fees. Zero. It's not right.

I think that the -- if the donors will honor their commitments and we on the commission can do a good job, and none of these international bodies will delay things too much, I think you'll see good results.

It's going to take a while to move all these people out of the -- out of the camps.

I say even in Florida, when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, a year later not everybody was in a home.

It's wrong; it makes them look bad. A lot of the NGOs are convinced it is some sort of corruption scam.

Yes. I am -- as we get the donor money in here, I believe I will succeed in getting the government to drop that fee.

I agree with that, but keep in mind, I have -- it's not for lack of effort. We have met with the groups and the United States, over 90 percent of the funds spent by NGO's here.

They should expect us to be making progress, moving people out. But you can't just measure it on that. See how good -- see how well we do with the health care, with the schools, with the energy, with the economic development, with the…

I'm going to call all those governments and say, the ones who said they will give money to support the Haitian government I want to try to get them to give the money. And I'm going to try to get the others to give me a schedule for when…

Until Haitians can live, day to day, and month to month, in healthy conditions and out of danger, it will be useless to expect the country to commit wholeheartedly to a long-term national reconstruction plan.

I see parallels between the mood of the country today and at the time of the Oklahoma City attack.

He symbolizes the loss of control, of predictability, of certainty, of clarity that a lot of people need for their psychic well-being. And I worry about it.

The fundamental difference between now and then besides the fact that all of the indicators have gotten worse so people will understand how much more important it is -- is that they filibustered it to death in the Senate, and they could…

Well, I'll give you just a couple of ideas. First of all, there are plenty of gifted people there who want to stay, that will stay if you train community health workers, you train more nurses, and you provide facilities.

This is maybe one of the most important reasons for you to pass the GHI.

I think one of the most important things that this Global Health Initiative can do is to intensify the ability of countries to recruit, train, and retain health care workers.

Just think about Haiti. If we can build a healthy Haiti and one where the economy works well, then that's much less incentive for it to be a drug transshipment point for America and all the problems here.