Having healed the Arab world’s multiple, festering wounds with a single, audacious speech at Cairo University, Obama turned his attentions this week to the African continent, hoping to repeat his performance on the ‘dark continent’. It is now common knowledge, of course, that upon hearing his words at Cairo University, the Iraq, Afghanistan & Palestinian occupations ended almost immediately; the several million refugees created by US involvement there were immediately given palatial residences to come back to in their home countries; and the sudden reversal of US military, financial and political support for the autocratic, authoritarian, and oppressive regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt finally caused these brutal monarchs and dictators to yield to the will of the people, causing mass, hysterical celebrations all over the Arab world.
Now that the Muslim world has been liberated and freed from the forces of tyranny, I am heartened by Obama’s courageous refusal to rest on his laurels and continue straight ahead, for the forces of history, as he likes to say, are on the move. Not a single moment can be wasted if Obama is to part the seas by the end of his first term.
Obama began his speech in Ghana by noting a single, simple premise: ‘Africa’s future is up to Africans’ (1). Far be it for me to contradict this great leader’s words – but, um, no, actually, it isn’t. Maybe we can reformulate Obama’s sentence so that it makes more sense:
‘We must start from the simple premise that, if my country, the leading nation of the free world, can end its support for dictators on this continent whenever it suits our fancy, can cease military interference in this continent’s internal affairs, can extricate half of the countries on this continent from crippling and impossible IMF loan conditions and debt payments, can stop allowing multinational corporations from funding and supporting militias on this continent (and remove their own private armies) – if all this can be done, then, and only then: Africa’s future will be up to Africans.’
Alas, none of these items were mentioned in his speech. Instead, Obama decided to patronizingly tell these darkie illiterates how much they can achieve if only they stop blaming others for their problems. Cause, pointing fingers, after all, ‘is easy.’ Indeed. Taking responsibility for our role in Africa’s suffering is another matter altogether.
Of course, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that by Monday or Tuesday at the latest, Africa will become the world’s leading economic super-continent, and its own multiple, festering wounds will be healed.
Thanks, Obama! We ♥ you.
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(1) (http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/2009/07/11/D99C8L5G0_af_obama_text/)
