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To balance the sales [he has devoted his post-presidency to giving]. it's acall for action about how each of us can change the world.You will learn little about his presidency in this book. I was inspired by GIVING--written and read by Bill Clinton. After I narrowly escaped what could have been a fatalheart attack in 2004, I felt that way even more strongly.He then presents accounts of what companies have done, but I wasmost moved by the stories of such individuals as the following:* Oseola McCarty, a retired cleaning lady in Mississippi, who gave her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi for a scholarshipfor poor African-Americans;* Paul Farmer, who grew up living in a trailer park, a boat and evena tent but eventually graduated from Harvard Medical School andwent on to devote his life to fighting AIDS and tuberculosis in destitute places around the world; and* McKensize Steiner, a six-year old California girl who organized andsupervised drives to clean-up the beach in her community.GIVING motivated me to want to do more not only for my Ashevillecommunity, but also for this country and the rest of the world. rather, youwill learn what Clinton has spent his life doing since leavingthe White House. as he writes:* Politics is a getting business--[getting votes, support, contributions,etc]. you'llfeel the same way, too, if you read this book.
It was like reading the minutes of a business meeting. I am passionate about the subject, so when I popular figure like Bill Clinton writes a book about it, I become joyous with the hope that this book will ignite a trend amongst people to give to those less fortunate. Oh man.I was truly hoping that this would be a book about giving. This book read like a laundry list of how much society's upper crust is donating to the poor - with some political agenda overtones to boot. I was hoping that the book would give some practical advice or some profound inspiration. It did neither. I take that back. The last chapter was all about political agenda.In short, the only giving it inspired me to do was to give it back to the library.
Most of the "giving" Bill Clinton suggests involves lots of money and endless resources. This book was boring. Since I don't have $1 million laying around to give to charity, I found this book pretty useless. I couldn't finish it. Quit after 100 pages. The intentions of this book are good, but the ideas are just not realistic. Still, I love Bill Clinton.
Here is a man that could not "give" a solid response to save 800,000 Rwandans writing a book about giving.The irony is nauseating. No one who sits by and watches 800,000 people die and not take action should never be assumed to have the least bit wisdom in the area of giving.
Many of the anecdotes were heartwarming like the woman from the Village Kisinga, in Uganda that was given a goat that produced offspring and in turn also produced income for the family of twelve, however the family didn't keep the offspring or the money gained, they decided to donate it to other families in China. The books organization made it easy to read. I thought that was beautiful, how people can help one another with the little they even have to begin with. The chapters were outlined with the different methods people could give. I know many people who only think that volunteering and donating money is the only way to give but they would be surprised that there are many other ways to help out those with fewer resources. Overall the book is a good read, my only criticism is that it is a bit redundant.
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