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CNN Sunday Morning
Gates, Bono at World Economic Forum
Aired February 03, 2002 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
O'BRIEN: The World Economic Forum in New York is studded with political and business leaders and some celebrities. Among them, Microsoft's Bill Gates, both a business leader and a celebrity by default, U2 leader singer Bono, a certified celebrity and campaigner for causes. Bono and the billionaire joined forces for the cause of global healthcare. Both talked about recent lessons learned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BONO, U2: If anything come out of September 11, it's the sense that the world is more interdependent. And you know, following through on the you know, the pursuit of justice, you know, to find out who is responsible, comes the pursuit of a less dangerous world, a safer world, a fairer, more inclusive world.
BILL GATES, FOUNDER, MICROSOFT: The thing that holds most people back, that held me back, was just not knowing how bad conditions are and understanding that these very effective interventions are available. You know, vaccines we take for granted here, not being given to children around the world and costing millions of lives. So it was as I visited Africa and saw the children there. It's as I read more about it, I realized that waiting until I'm older and saying OK, that's the time for philanthropy, that didn't make sense. I wanted to get involved now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Sort of a pro Bono effort, I guess. Outside the Economic Forum at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the streets were studded with protesters of all stripes. There were demonstrations against corporate greed, racial profiling, Israel and U.S. Navy bombing practice, just to name a few. Protests were loud, but not violent.
CNN's Brian Palmer was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chanting and marching, confrontation. And even negotiation. Familiar elements of a political demonstration in a city well acquainted with protests.
How do the protests differ these days than some of the old days?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're different people. They're younger, but I'm still here.
PALMER: Thousands of people with a variety of agendas turned out to demonstrate at the World Economic Forum. First timers like 16- year-old Ethan Labowitz.
Why are you protesting the World Economic Forum?
ETHAN LABOWITZ, PROTESTER: Well, we feel that basically big companies dominate small coronations and basically inflated their residence.
PALMER: And veterans.
RON KUBY, FIRST AMENDMENT ATTORNEY: What you see here is really the infancy of the anti-globalization movement. And thousands of the finest young people turning out in the streets because they're not going to be quiet, because they do care, and there care about these.
PALMER: How effective can activism be?
BRIAN BECKER, INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER: Well activism is the only thing that's really effective. We know that all great change has taken place, whether it was the Civil Rights movement or the ending of the war in Vietnam. That came about as a result of a grassroots activist movement.
PALMER: Lately, grassroots activism has been overshadowed by violence. In Genoa, at last year's group of eight meeting and at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. Many activists here have these event and September 11 in mind.
CLAYTON PATTERSON, DOCUMENTATION: I'm not sure that people aren't less determined here and people aren't more affected by, you know, the world economics and Enron and what's going on. But I think a lot of us are affected by what happened at the World Trade Center.
PALMER: Few are looking for a replay of Seattle, but some still sympathize with the so-called Black Block, anti-globalization protesters who veer from civil to criminal disobedience to further their cause.
MARY LOO, ACTIVIST: I personally love the Black Block. I think it's a beautiful thing because they know you can't change the system by begging and asking them and going, "Meow, give me rights."
PALMER: But for the majority, the basic non-violent methods of protest, holding placards, marching and chanting, were the order of this day.
Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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