Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obama Pulls Out of UNESCO

I will vote for Obama again. As long as it doesn't rain and it is not a drop-dead gorgeous day. I am not unmindful that some of Obama's failings are exaggerated by existing structures and laws. The sense that I get however is that he has taken advantage of these weaknesses and cultural/social/political divides to pursue a personal agenda. Nothing seems to be beneath him to assure his own political survival.

 

If he is less than gleeful about the mandatory legal withdrawal from agencies that hug Palestine, he has a strange way of showing it. Is he not the great communicator? Why has he not told us his faithful, that he is unhappy about this? I realize that he inherited a losing economy, however, virtually all his solutions have been gobbled up by big business for sinful profit. The poor should perhaps storm the White House and occupy it, forget Wall Street. I am ecstastic about the demise of buffoons like Osama and Ghaddafi but military might ought to be complemented by a coherent foreign policy that seeks to make the world a better place for all of us. Obama has deployed unmanned drones and rhetoric to continue the decimation of brown nations started by his predecessor George Bush.

 

I should be forgiven for expecting some sort of change from the Talkative-In-Chief. After three years, I see a man who is orthodoxy personified. What does he think about poverty? What has he done about it? What does he think about the state of African Americans and minorities in every sphere - education and the prisons being a couple? Does he have a vision in that area? I see someone who appears to go to great lengths to keep a distance from the minority question. I see a white man in the White House, hell he even has a dog named Bo.

 

The other day I was watching a video clip of him speaking to the Ghananian parliament. You would think he was trash talking at a baseball game, he was so disrespectful and patronizing to Africa. He would not dare that in the Knesset. Okay, so he does not have to help Africa, but he doesn't have to be patronizing either. His foreign policy strategy has been to send Michelle Obama to South Africa to coo over Mandela, that iconic mascot of white liberals. The more I think about this the angrier I get.

 

The man is beginning to remind me of Sidney Poitier in the movie Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. If this is what it means to have a black man in the White House, then I must apologise to Hillary Clinton for not voting for her.

 

- Ikhide

 

From: Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng <gapenteng@hotmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: ederi@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2011 6:32 PM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obama Pulls Out of UNESCO

From Yes We can to No We Can't in three short years

 
Kwasi
 
Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng,
Journalist & Communications Consultant
Accra

President,
Ghana Association of Writers
PAWA House, Accra




 

From: AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
CC: Ederi@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 17:26:34 -0500
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obama Pulls Out of UNESCO

U.S. Law requires the U.S, Government to withdraw funding for UNESCO if  Palestine is granted membership as happened recently. It is not Obama this time. The law was in place before he was elected President. Obama cannot be blamed rightly or fairly for this one. Obama is constitutionally required to enforce U.S. law That is what his administration has done. It is not for him to pick and chose which U.S. law to enforce. AS the head of the executive branch of the U.S, government there is no recusal opportunity for him  There is no recusal opportunity for him. It is conceivable and possible that Obama as a person, is also unhappy with that law.

Constructive commentators should not criticize the Obama Administration for upholding U.S. law. What they should be doing is recommending and taking action to secure a repeal of the law. One must not confuse or intermingle the unjustness of a law and its enforcement while it so stands. One suspects that there are some people who are so used to laws not been upheld that they do not understand when laws they do not approve of are upheld.

 

oa

 

 

 

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ikhide
Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2011 3:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: Ederi@yahoogroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obama Pulls Out of UNESCO

 

In the UK Guardian (November 1, 2011), nice article by Ian Williams, titled "Obama will rue his lack of principle on Palestine's Unesco membership." I am disappointed by POTUS Obama's decision to  pull out of UNESCO over Palestine. Increasingly Obama's tenure is looking a lot like rigid orthodoxy wrapped in the shiny toga of pretend-change. We might as well have a Republican regime. Not happy.

 

Read the article here.

 

- Ikhide

 

 

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