On the other side of this blog, there’s a new post about Obama, the Prez. of the United States — www.thomasfroese.com/2013/will-barack-obama-come-to-africa/ It’s a piece about Obama’s relationship, or lack of, with Africa. Which is interesting, I think, because he’s a half-child of this continent, as his father — his absent father, that is — was …
(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 16, 2013)
KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ It was YouTube and it was Barack Obama talking to the neighbours in Kenya. You may have heard that they’re about to vote.
The last time the Kenyans did this, six years ago, 1,000 lay dead on the bloody streets. Another 600,000 were displaced, including here to Uganda where UN shelters near the airport are still up.
… if America ever had greatness, if America ever was a modern republic to emulate, it’s largely because it’s been a nation united with rather different peoples and regions and perspectives.
KAMPALA, Uganda✦
So you think you feel good about what unfolded south of Canada’s border on Nov. 4?
You should see the party in Africa.
There has been dancing in the streets, public holidays and general high-fives from nationals to diplomats to expatriates, all convinced that, as one Ugandan paper put it, “America is reborn.”
Recently travelling back from Canada to Uganda through London, England – capital of history’s most influential empire – I got some renewed perspective on global leadership and change and how, in politics, there’s nothing like old-fashioned fear to move things along.
