Hillary Clinton's US State Department Gets Cozy with TED and Microfinance
/As Smart Sensuality women, we are stupendously happy that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has decided to bring another ‘man’ into her life. It’s about time.
Just teasing, but we’re thrilled to read on the White House blog that Hillary is hooking up with TED. This is a spectacular piece of news. Thankfully, I don’t mind sharing TED with another woman, especially Hillary Clinton. TED and I have a long and fruitful relationship, and I’m not the jealous type.
Pursuing this breathtaking news, I discovered the must-watch Smart Sensuality woman speech that Hillary gave on April 22, 2009 at the Global Philanthropy Forum Conference, sponsored by The Aspen Institute.
Introducing the concept of “Smart Power”, Secretary of State Clinton outlined three key C-ways that the US Government can support global initiatives that improve life on Planet Earth. These initiatives evolve from the Obama Administration’s commitment that our State Department will anchor their efforts on a three-legged stool, not only one.
If you use your imagination, a one-legged Defense strategy stool can’t stand up for very long, in spite of our American bravura.
Clinton outlines a US State Department strategy of Defense, Diplomacy and Development goals that aren’t dominated by Defense alone. This is Cultural Creative, Smart Sensuality thinking at its best.
Hillary’s three C’s include America’s role as: Conveener, Collaborator, Catalyst
We assume that the new TED alliance fits within this strategy. Applause; applause. See existing TED videos recommended on the White House blog, and news of upcoming US government-sponsored TED talks.
Another Plea for Microfinance
In her speech before the Global Philanthropy Forum, Secretary of State Clinton speaks of the power of the Internet and the effect of small donations in solving big problems.
Smart Power — we call it Smart Sensuality Power — inspires women (and men) everywhere to make small giving a part of their everyday lives in the microfinance sector.
I did not know that Hillary Clinton and Grameen Bank’s Muhammad Yunus go “way back” to the Clinton’s days in Arkansas. A quick Google search unearths the information that Hillary introduced the founder of microfinance to her husband Bill Clinton and they developed a program of microcredit in Arkansas.
Of course we need business investment in major business development projects around the world. But the critical importance of small donations to making a big difference cannot be overemphasized.
This importance of microfinance is central to Secretary Clinton’s platform, and ours also, here at Anne of Carversville.
It’s my personal goal that we all become active and aggressive supporters of the microfinance initiatives of leaders like Nobel-Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who will be our focus regularly in my writing.
Dr. Yunus’s Grameen Bank now loans $100 million monthly to women around the world, including our own Queens, New York. Secretary of State Clinton praises Muhammad Yunus’s new efforts in health care insurance.
While my focus is lighting a fire under American women — because I believe we are unintentionally laggards as global activists, compared to European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand women (and more) — our escalating mission is to inspire women worldwide to support Smart Sensuality initiatives like microfinance.
Smart Sensuality Mix
It may seem strange to focus on serious topics like global poverty in the midst of sexy talk about Smart Sensuality fashion and the pleasures of eating aphrodisiacs. As a marketer and consumer trendmeister, I believe in speaking to women on their own turf, so to speak.
The entire concept of Smart Sensuality is conceived around the idea that we are Cultural Creative women who appreciate the importance of not only leading with our brains but with our senses and our hearts.
We appreciate natural beauty and understand that global culture has much to teach American women about living a good life. In fact, some of the most relevant life lessons are learned in those societies not defined primarily by Western materialistic values.
I was really proud of Hillary Clinton, watching her articulate this new direction in American diplomacy and values. In a few simple words, Hillary articulates the sentiments so many Americans want to express: America is back and we care.
Hillary arriving for NATO meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier; via Huffington PostOn that note, I think that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has more than earned her Smart Sensuality cigar. And I hope that when she cozies up with TED, that she wears hot pink. The color clearly inspires her. Anne
See also:
Redtracker: Smart Sensuality Colors Explode in Design and Fashion for Both Genders
Redtracker: Hillary Clinton Delivers Her Own Dose of Smart Sensuality Charm
