Real Hope and Change

"Where you have na tions that are oppressing their people, isn't there an international responsibility to intervene? I think the need for intervention becomes a moral imperative. . .

"There are going to be objections to just about any decision, because there are some in the international community who believe that state sovereignty is sacrosanct. . .

"But we also say we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse position and unable to act."

So, what happened to the non-meddling (except in Central America) foreign policy stance? Don’t get us wrong, we are certainly more agreeable to this hawkish, neo-con approach to foreign policy than the wait, wait, wait….. wait and see response we got with respect to Iran.

Is there a fundamental shift at work here or do we have a differing set of standards depending on the location on the globe?

Ralph Peters, no fan of Obama he, says the President’s speech was the finest on Africa made by an American President.

Yet there's hope. Obama's latest adore-me tour began badly, but ended on a powerful positive note. Following the debacle in Moscow and disappointment in Italy (where the G8 proved resistant to charisma), the president made a wise, useful and praiseworthy stop in Ghana...

It was a great speech (he should give a variant of it to several of our own domestic constituencies). I could not have been prouder of our president.

Read more, here.

Finally...

… a break from Bush.

Between the spending of money we don’t have, renditions, military tribunals, wire-taps, etc., many people were wondering what policies of Bush, Obama would actually overturn or change course on.

Hey, how about slashing the funding to fight Aids in Africa?

So, Africa.... what's up with that?

The editorial board at The Onion opines on just what needs to be done about Africa.

Actions of the Government have caused fear and panic among its citizens.

"The recurring violations of liberties [in Algeria] have lately reached an intolerable level. The most recent of these is the witchcraft trial that took place on the stage of the courthouse in Tiaret. The victim, a 37-year-old woman, is in danger of being sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the crime of Christianity."

This is typical of the persecution of Christians in Africa. Actually, this woman is getting off easy as Christians and animists are just hunted down and slaughtered elsewhere on the Continent, particularly the Sudan. Full story here.

H/T: MEMRI

Complexity and Conflict

Picture is of Bob Geldof and President Bush aboard Air Force 1. Article here from TIME is of Geldof’s conversations and reflections while traveling with Bush around Africa. Geldof, as mentioned here, has been extremely laudatory of Bush’s aid toward Africa which is something of which we are conflicted.

Of course, we want to help… Of course, we feel a sense of obligation and moral duty to help those less fortunate than us. Its part of humanity. Its part of the higher calling of most any religion on this planet for the well-off to assist the needy, the sick and the hungry.

But seeing Geldof sitting there reminds us of his own noble efforts back in the mid-80s to “do something” to stem the tide of starvation, sickness and disease which resulted in… truckloads of grain and rice foreign to the diet of the East Africans for which it was intended sitting and staying on the pier and which was held hostage itself by the governments and warlords in exchange for further power.

How does this happen? Don’t our intentions count? Isn’t our willingness to at least attempt to do the right thing amount to some Karmic justice where some fruit is borne for our efforts… at least as much as picking up the phone and dialing a 1-800 number counts for effort?

In Africa, it would appear that Bush is treated as a King. Perhaps that’s the wrong term as many of these people have seen other individuals exert undue influence upon their lives as self-styled “Kings” with disastrous consequences. A “savior?” Even worse, given Bush’s and this country’s own ecumenical sense of the word as it relates to spiritual salvation, self-reliance and individualism. And that in itself presents a danger for further commitment. One welfare state is enough, thanks.

In the article, Bush speaks or spoke of Africa playing no role geo-politically and how, again, aid for Africa is simply doing the right thing. With China’s long reach probing for oil in the Sudan and as a consequence resulting in the genocide in Darfur, how can this be true anymore? And how can we, as the lone global superpower (for the immediate time being) with the military, logistics and resources to affect positive change throughout the world in the face of disease, misery and yes, evil, square that with realpolitik where we turn a blind eye to naked aggression against entire peoples unable to defend themselves?

Its realized that this isn’t a new issue… that these aren’t novel foreign policy concepts just now being introduced. It would seem though with modern technology in T.V. and the internet that tend to shrink the globe, a possible recession looming here (certainly un-funded future domestic commitments), new geo-political challenges and the very simple American demand for financial accountability brings all that we do both here and abroad into sharper focus.

No answers here – just a lot of questions.

Bush is in Africa?

Irish rock’n’roller and Band Aid/Live Aid organizer Bob “Rip Van Winkle” Geldof has apparently been unaware that President Bush doesn’t get a fair shake from time to time from the press.

While speaking to reporters who were waiting for a press conference with Bush and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Geldof praised Bush for spending billions of U.S. dollars on Africa to fight disease and poverty while slamming the press corps for largely ignoring it.

Here’s Bob, who like us, doesn’t like Mondays:

"This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion."
"What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.
Mr. Geldof said that the president has failed "to articulate this to Americans" but said he is also "pissed off" at the press for their failure to report on this good news story.
"You guys didn't pay attention," Geldof said to a group of reporters from all the major newspapers. Story here.

In fact, we were vaguely aware that Bush was over there or was scheduled to be over there in the very near future. We let our minds wander, though, to fantasize about the spectacle this would’ve been had it been Himself, America’s first black President, descending upon Africa to “make it rain” U.S. dollar bills on the dark continent. Pure rapture and unbridled adulation, we believe.

But he didn’t and you gotta think Geldof saying Bush has done more for Africa than any other U.S. President has to chap Himself’s hide. First, Bush stole his 9/11 moment and now he has the audacity to be given credit by some long-haired, F.M. radio type for doing more for Clinton’s own people than Clinton, himself! Another revisionist legacy-building opportunity shot to hell.

With his own chances of performing some Lincoln Bedroom fundraising looking slimmer and slimmer every day, these can’t be good times for ol’ boy.

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(The picture above captures the dramatically hideous moment when the man to Bush's left snapped his own neck as a result of a violent whiplash that was an involuntary response to witnessing Bush perform his tribe's dance. Perhaps to avoid further tragedies such as this, the Bush Africa policy should also provide Africa with tapes of American caucasian wedding receptions to better socialize the people of Africa so they aren't caught off-guard in their initial face-to-face encounter with these unfortunate situations).