Clinton at Yale: Optimistic on Crisis, But Work is Ahead

Former President Bill Clinton wrapped up Yale University's yearlong 300th birthday celebration with an Oct. 6 speech on globalization. Summing up what optimists would say about the 21st century, as well as what a pessimist or a "designated worrier" might say, Clinton included in the latter concerns about a world engulfed by a health crisis.

"This year one in four people in the world will die of AIDS, TB malaria or infections related to diarrhea. Thirty-six million people will have AIDS within five years. The fastest-growing rates are in the former Soviet Union on Europe's back door, and in the Caribbean on our front door, and in any of the world's greatest democracies. And China just admitted they have twice as many AIDS cases as they had previously thought. And only 4 percent of the adults know how the disease is contracted and spread. You could say when we have 100 million AIDS cases it will collapse a lot of these democracies, and it is a recipe for total turmoil and violence."

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