(TALKZIMBABWE) Obama's meeting with young Africans insincere
Obama's meeting with young Africans insincereBy: Nancy Lovedale
Posted: Monday, August 9, 2010 7:42 am
President Barack Obama listens to a question during a town hall-style meeting with young African leaders in the East Room of the White House. August 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
I RECENTLY watched with a mixture of amazement and disgust US President Obama's meeting with so-called Young African Leaders in Washington recently in Washington DC. This mixed feeling was triggered by a number of factors that Mr Obama would wish we did not know about.
While the US President fails to engage African leaders on key and crucial global issues he selectively picks young people that America wants, and hopes to be, future leaders of Africa and hosts them in that country.
Anyone who saw the images from the three day event would have witnessed the wide smiles of appreciation these young people had just meeting Mr Obama and being in Washington; but the implication of this visit is far and wide.
Dubbed the President's Forum with Young African Leaders, the three day "token" event involved "seizing opportunities in governance, economic opportunity and youth empowerment".
These handpicked young men and women were from civil society organisations that are funded in Africa by the US, and many of these young people have never been heard of in their host countries.
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“This is our attempt to see the future of Africa through the eyes of young Africans. Rather than our bringing people here and explaining to them that we think they need to do A, B, or C; we're bringing them here so that they can describe for us their vision of the future of their country, their region and their continent.
"That then will give us ideas about how we can support the sort of progressive approach to governance, economic opportunity and social development. The education part of this is really going to be the Africans to the Americans,” says Bruce Wharton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Africa.
Interesting statement by Mr Wharton. He made it look like the young people has set the agenda, when the US public diplomatic team set that agenda a long time ago. The US will always see Africa in its own eyes, not anyone's eyes. This move is a well-calculated move to alter the perception about the US on the African continent. They have tried the same on other continents, but failed.
In Beijing, where I am writing from, the US is not seen in that light. The Chinese and most Asians do not believe the US is concerned about their plight. It has never been and it never will and the anti-American sentiment rises by the day, because of it policies on Afghanistan and Iraq and the bullying on the international scene.
The key words in Mr Wharton's statement are "governance, economic opportunity and social development". This is the mantra of democracy and human rights that is repeated by the US, when in fact the real story is about extending the influence of the US globally; and counter other rising powers like China and India.
Otherwise why would the US be killing millions in Afghanistan and Iraq and destabilising so many countries around the globe? Why are their policies at the World Trade Organisation and other international trading organisations impoverishing millions of people on the African continent?
These young people should know that the US will never define their destiny. It will surely alter it.
Africa is a key continent. It is the "last colonial frontier" and the US would like to extend its influence on that continent to get access to the abundant resources there. The best way to do that is to start with the youth.
If Mr Obama was really concerned about these three issues, he would engage the leaders of Africa today.
His window-dressing on African affairs is right in the open for all to see. No one believes him when he says he is passionate about the continent. As President, he has shunned visits to his own native Kenya which he visited back in 2006 and promised to "come back".
He has blamed corruption of African leaders as the source of problems on that continent, and chose to forget about the millions of able-bodied men and women that were transported in inhumane conditions to Europe and the Americas during the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Mr Obama infamously said Africa can no longer blame colonisation for all the problems it faces today, forgetting that the land problems we face everywhere on that continent are a results of the borders created by imperialists in the 1880s in Berlin.
The land problems that Zimbabwe faces today are a result of British colonialism and renewed efforts at plundering that continent.
I hope the young people who are today made to feel like America is their saviour will rise above this politicking.
A three day event cannot alter the lives of millions of men, women and children, who suffer on the continent today from the effects of colonialism, slavery and neo-colonialism.
The US, if it is concerned about the plight of Africans, should start by making sure that global rules on trade are redefined to be more meaningful to African people, who toil the land day and night.
This window-dressing by Mr Obama is as hollow as his policies back in the US which are now proving useless for the millions of black people whom he had given hope for "change you can believe in".
Before he engages young Africans, Mr Obama should hold a "Forum with Young Black Leaders" in America who have never stepped outside of dangerous areas of Harlem, Brooklyn, South Central LA, etc. They would cherish the idea of going to Washington, where their life is determined.
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*Nancy Lovedale writes from Beijing, China. She can be contacted via nancy_lovedale *** yahoo.com
Labels: BARACK OBAMA, NEOCOLONIALISM
posted by MrK @ 5:46 PM
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