Once a Charmer, always a Charmer. Thats how one would love to sum up the former United States president Bill Clinton who despite yielding presidency to George Bush Jr a decade ago, never faded away from public memory neither on the domestic front nor internationally. And so, in a fortnight, as he gets ready for his 64th birthday (August 19), he is again centrestage on the International stage.

And so as newspapers and television channels highlighted his succesful trip to Pyongyang where he secured the release of two detained and convicted US scribes, it was evident that the Clinton had neither lost his kanck nor the respect he always commanded from the international community.

And he remains as busy as ever. A look at his schedules and successes in the past eight years - since 2001 when he relinquished the White House - one would note that not only has he been busy with his interest areas like AIDS relief and awareness, technology, literature, medicine and humantarian aid but has also been widely involved by powers-that-be in diplomacy and international relation bottlenecks as well.

After a brief lul when he got engaged with post-presidential preoccupations, Clinton has been more than active in the years ever since then. The 63-year-old former prez had actively campaigned for the fellow Democratic candidates in the Senate polls in 2002, then set up the William J Clinton Foundation in the coming year. The foundation took up campaigns like treating HIV/AIDS, Malaria, reversing childhood obesity in the US, combating global climate change based on the time tested belief of “transforming ideas into action”.

IN 2004, he set up the William J Clinton Presidential Center and takes out time to pen his biography which is also released this year. Titled “My Life” the book sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Moved by the trail of never seen before devastation and despair left by the Katrina, sets up the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and edged the ruling prez George Bush Jr in popularity charts.
The same year he was also appointed as the special envoy for the United Nationa organization (UNO) to overlook Tsunami relief. His criss-crosses many parts of Asia which were mauled by the deadly natural calamity. In the year 2007, he was chosen to be the opening speaker at the Ontario Economic Summit and in 2009 was appointed as the special envoy to Haiti. And the latest has been to secure release of two scribes working for a television channel his one-time deputy, former vice-president Al Gore runs.

And this must have been the most daunting task of all that he has handled so far. Negotiating with the Communist dictator, specially daggers drawn with the US for ages, Kim Jong, and that too over the dinner table must have required hell lot of statesmanship, resilience and persuasiveness. Clinton has been extensively jet-setting the globe, travelling to Saudi Arabia, Peru, Colombia, Sweden, Belgium - the list is endless.

But the cherry on the cake seems to be the equal attention he is giving to his family. Other than his official and social engagements as the head of many a foundations and organizations that he heads or is party to, he has been an extremely caring, responsible and responsive hubby who was always available at the beck n’ call of better half Hillary Rodham Clinton. Be it the campaign he solidly led for Clinton when she succesfully ran for the senate from New York in 2000 or loaning his wife’s presidential campaign a $ 5 million fund in 2008.
I had the rare previlige to shake hands with him and take a response to my question on seeing Taj Mahal, when he was at Taj Khema mound to address a select gathering which I covered for a national daily. Have been a quite a fan of him eversince. A little research on the subsequent work that he has done, has only added to the measure of respect I have for him.

A Job Well Done:

Out of the few works the Clinton Foundation has done in the last few years:

* 1.4 million people are benefiting from medicines purchased under the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative agreements, representing nearly half of all people living with HIV and on treatment in developing countries.

* Through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, the Healthy Schools Program provides nearly 4,000 schools with onsite or online support in all 50 states to help create school environments that promote physical activity and healthy eating.

* Through the Clinton Climate Initiative, 40 of the world’s largest cities are working with us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a variety of large scale projects, including building retrofits, public transit improvements, and advanced waste management systems.

* Since its launch in 2005, Clinton Global Initiative members have made over 1,300 commitments valued at $46 billion, which have already impacted more than 200 million lives in more than 150 countries. Commitments made at the 2008 Annual Meeting are expected to impact almost 160 million people.