The other day I saw him on tv giving his daughter Chelsea away (did you know Madonna restyled her all over from nerdy geek with frizzy hair to classy vamp?). That was the first time I thought about him for a long time. I was thinking what it must be like for him to live off his wife’s income now and be married to this woman who forgave him. Or perhaps she never did and as some kind of atonement makes him wake up early every day to do all the household tasks, saying maybe -one day- , she might forgive him. Or not. I don’t usually think about him much, but that same week he was on my mind again. Due to a facebook message. Someone posted a quote of him that really struck me.
"In too many countries, too much money pays for too many people to go to too many meetings and get on too many airplanes to do too much technical assistance".
Somehow I felt
he was directly talking to me. And that made me blush and a bit ashamed, even though I haven’t been involved in any shady cigar business. Not that I travel so much as a consultant doing technical assistance or something, but I do live in airplanes lately. Some are paid by UNICEF, some I pay myself, but from the good money UNICEF pays me. Money that could be spend on food or safe drinking water for Pakistani children too.
I’m not advocating for a salary reduction, I love to be able to do all these things and fly around the world, for work, for training, for holidays. But Bill Clinton’s quote made me think of the UNICEF sponsored walk I used to do as a little girl. Me and my friends would go door-to-door and collect money for every kilometer that we would walk or run. We ran for hours till we were really exhausted. Proudly we would hand in our collected guilders. More money than my pocket money for a whole year. It made me feel really good about myself and about how I was helping the poor children in other countries. Ever since I wanted to work for UNICEF and help more vulnerable children and make their voices been heard. Bill made me think about that though. About all the money for plane tickets. About how selfish it is to feel good about yourself for helping others. I wish I had his phone number to talk things over. But I would have to come up with a more sensible question than his daughter’s secret for non-frizzy curls.
"In too many countries, too much money pays for too many people to go to too many meetings and get on too many airplanes to do too much technical assistance".
Somehow I felt
he was directly talking to me. And that made me blush and a bit ashamed, even though I haven’t been involved in any shady cigar business. Not that I travel so much as a consultant doing technical assistance or something, but I do live in airplanes lately. Some are paid by UNICEF, some I pay myself, but from the good money UNICEF pays me. Money that could be spend on food or safe drinking water for Pakistani children too.I’m not advocating for a salary reduction, I love to be able to do all these things and fly around the world, for work, for training, for holidays. But Bill Clinton’s quote made me think of the UNICEF sponsored walk I used to do as a little girl. Me and my friends would go door-to-door and collect money for every kilometer that we would walk or run. We ran for hours till we were really exhausted. Proudly we would hand in our collected guilders. More money than my pocket money for a whole year. It made me feel really good about myself and about how I was helping the poor children in other countries. Ever since I wanted to work for UNICEF and help more vulnerable children and make their voices been heard. Bill made me think about that though. About all the money for plane tickets. About how selfish it is to feel good about yourself for helping others. I wish I had his phone number to talk things over. But I would have to come up with a more sensible question than his daughter’s secret for non-frizzy curls.
