Obama 10
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event & press conference. Senator Obama speaking on the suffering and exploitation of children; using the election of Liberia's leader, Charles Taylor, as an example. Obama repeats a quote he heard: "'He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will still vote for him." Liberians simply wanted the bloodshed to end, but his election still did not achieve that. If children grow up without an education, they become more susceptible to alienation and exploitation. Instead of finding jobs, they end of running with gangs, which take them down a dark path with no future. It is the job of both local and international leaders to provide opportunities and hope for a better way of life. Sen. Obama goes on to say that partnerships are important, especially when it comes to bringing weakened countries out of authoritarian control. This goes beyond taking military measures. Obama believes in a more coordinated strategy, and not just a piecemeal approach. SAIIA member Tim Hughes, seated adjacent to Sen. Obama.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event & press conference; SAIIA member Tim Hughes seated and listening. Senator Obama comments on U.S. President George W. Bush's administration setting up an office in the State Department for Foreign Assistance; he hopes this new office forces the United States to look beyond its military efforts overseas, and both the U.S. and South Africa need to work with other nations to improve civil societies. Much can be done through organizations such as SAIIA, faith groups, media, and humanitarian organizations to build up a nation in ways a government cannot. Sen. Obama references his personal experiences in South Africa and the work being done to combat HIV/AIDS as positive evidence, but often more resources are needed to further humanitarian efforts, including the ability to experiment to find out what works and what doesn't, and scale up from there.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs event & press conference; SAIIA members Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Tim Hughes, middle-aged adult Caucasian man, and Chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee Thandi Tobias seated at table on stage. Senator Obama talks about his support for additional foreign assistance spending, and along with the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) seeks to highlight the need for more foreign assistance, pushing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration to support development goals at the G8 summit. It is important to hold governments accountable to promises made on humanitarian efforts. Sen. Obama also supports moving away from donor-client relationships; there has been criticism of foreign aid given and received, sometimes developed countries and institutions have had too heavy-handed an approach, but recipients have had issues of corruption. Both sides must do better for there to be a real and last partnership. Adult Caucasian and African male and female audience, listening.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event & press conference. Senator Obama recognizes that economics play a big role in the development of a country; developed nations have trade policies that rankle under-developed nations, and developing nations should have more access to the international marketplace. However, even nations like the United States have issues with manufacturing displacement, so it is not an issue exclusive to developing nations. Sen. Obama speaks about the delicate balance between supporting free trade with other nations in the hopes of boosting their economic growth, while also paying attention to the needs of his constituents in Illinois; making sure they can feed their families by protecting their jobs. Trade is not the cure-all, according Sen. Obama. Each nation, including the United States, will need to undergo tough internal reforms to stay competitive in the global market.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event & press conference. Senator Obama states that if the United States wants to building true partnerships to combat the threats of the 21st century, then it will have to create goodwill and popular support, not just with foreign governments, but also with the people themselves. Sen. Obama uses Kenya as an example; the U.S. has been asking Kenya for help combating international terrorism. Kenyans have helped the United States, but now wonder when the United States will reciprocate, and help Kenyans with issues in their day to day lives; such as aid for the treatment and prevention of the malaria disease. The solutions are not costly. The United States has given some aid, but so much more can be done in a cost efficient manner. Positive partnerships move countries past zero-sum scenarios. The United States needs to show the world that we care about problems that do not directly affect us. To do so, would bolster the message of freedom and democracy that America so often espouses, and lend credence to the values America holds dear.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at SAIIA event: “I realize that I offer these words of hope in a time when hope seems to have gone in many parts of the world. As we speak, there is a slaughter in Darfur, there is the war in Iraq, a centuries old conflict smolders in the Middle East, Al Qaeda plots, AIDS ravages the continent. And I have to admit, it makes me wonder sometimes whether men and women are in fact capable of learning from history; whether we progress from one stage to the next in an upward course, or whether we just ride in cycles of boom and bust, war and peace, ascent and decline. All of us, I think, suffer at times from a shortage of hope. But, then I think about Africans breaking free from European Colonialism, and I think about Europeans liberated from Fascism and Communism, and I think of Mahatma Gandhi’s quiet strike, and I think of Dr. Martin Luther King’s forward march, and I think of Polish workers standing in solidarity, and I think of freedom riders that helped to liberate a people in the South of the United States, I think of when the wall came down, and I think of that moment Mandela was free for the first time in 27 years.”
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. He reflects on his trip to Africa, on how unlikely it would appear to his father's generation, who grew up in a time where he was not allowed to cast a ballot and apartheid reigned over South Africa; to see him standing where he is, with the status he has achieved. Sen. Obama quotes Martin Luther King Jr.: “The arch of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." SAIIA member Tim Hughes seated at table on stage, adjacent to Sen. Obama.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues speaking at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Obama, commenting on Martin Luther King quote: "I believe he’s right, but it doesn’t bend that way on its own, it bends towards justice because throughout history, millions of ordinary people do extraordinary things; millions of people grab onto that arch and they bend it in the direction of justice. Today, it is up to us, sharing that same moment of life and seeking that same happiness, to take our own two hands and bend that arch towards a new and better United States, a new and better South Africa, a new and better world. I look forward to being a partner in that process with this nation and this community for many, many years to come.” SAIIA members Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Tim Hughes, middle-aged adult Caucasian man named Peter, and Chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee, Thandi Tobias seated at table on stage; adult Caucasian and African men and women seated in audience.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) taking questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event; SAIIA members Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, Tim Hughes, middle-aged adult Caucasian man named Peter, and Chair of the Parliamentary Defense Committee, Thandi Tobias seated at table on stage. Adult African male stands among fellow adult African and Caucasian males and females, and welcomes Sen. Obama, and hopes he returns many times. Man credits the Congressional Black Caucus for its role helping end apartheid, but since then has consistently seemed lost; citing missteps in Nigeria and Rwanda. Man: "The African American population is larger than the Jewish population, but yet you don't seem to have the same sort of effectiveness. Have you lost your activism in the Congressional Black Caucus? And my second, very short question; Cornel West called Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell as basically servants of empire, and you also had Harry Belafonte describe Colin Powell as a 'house Negro'....I don't know whether you can comment on these two prominent African Americans." Sen. Obama quips: "Where's the easy questions?"
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) answering questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Sen. Obama states it is true that the Congressional Black Caucus was very effective in its campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, and its recent lack of effectiveness, especially in the cases of Nigeria and Rwanda, is, at least in part, due to "an unfortunate unwillingness on the part of many members of the black leadership of America to apply the same exacting standards of black rule as they did over white rule. And I think that's an absolute mistake. I have no patience for cruelty or injustice, whoever is perpetrating…nobody likes to be bullied, nobody likes to see the fruits of their labor taken away, nobody likes to get a knock on the door in the middle of the night and taken away because they’re expressing their own views. And when we see those things happening, we have the duty to speak out.” In fairness to the Black Caucus, Sen. Obama points out that it is made up mostly of Democrats, and he's the only Senator, so it is not a matter of desire, but a lack of power as the minority to shape an agenda or policy.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues answering questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Sen. Obama addresses the issue of activating the broader African American community around events ongoing in Kenya and Rwanda. The African American community is poorer and thus, cannot contribute as much to hire activist lobbyists and think tanks to work for their issues. With regards to the his view on Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, Sen. Obama is very wary of using the words "house Negro" toward anyone, because it implies there is an expected behavior of any black person, and he is careful not to appear to be self-righteous and that is how someone becomes blinded to their own flaws. In his opinion, both are capable people who happen to be part of a team that made an enormous foreign policy error. They may not have been leaders in those decisions, but they carried them out. He holds them accountable for their actions, as he does anyone who was part of that decision making process, regardless of race.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) taking questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Elderly adult Caucasian man states that many in South Africa looked to the United States for aid during the apartheid years. However, now they see the same things in the United States that they fought against in South Africa: detention without trial, torture, domestic surveillance. He asks Senator Obama if he sees any potential for change in the upcoming election, so that people can once again look to the United States as a leader for freedom and democracy? Adult Caucasian and African males and females listening in BG.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) answering questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Sen. Obama starts by talking about a conversation he had with an interfaith group regarding the United States' Middle East policy. He provides context in the backdrop of 9/11 and how that shook the nation; the United States had been "fat and happy" before then. Previous to 9/11, there hadn't been an attack like that since Pearl Harbor, and even longer since there was a foreign attack on the continental United States. It was a huge trauma on the nation, and good decisions are not made when people are afraid, and the current administration has encouraged some bad impulses. However, the reason for hope is that this isn't the first time the U.S. has made poor judgements; referencing FDR Japanese internment camps, suspension of habeas corpus under President Lincoln, Alien and Sedition Acts under President John Adams. Sen. Obama believes progress is bumpy, and what keeps liberties alive is a constant voice fighting for them. Leaders must speak out forcefully against the violations of rights and freedoms. SAIIA member Tim Hughes seated at table on stage.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues answering questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Sen. Obama provides optimism in the American checks and balances system, so that when rights and liberties are infringed upon, like detention and domestic spying, the court system is there as a bulwark to protect and uphold the Constitution. Sen. Obama believes these challenges to the peoples' rights, liberties, and freedoms will reflect on upcoming elections in November and in 2008. The American people are waking up to the fact that the Iraqi invasion was a fiasco, and the fear factor has worn itself out. Sen. Obama believes that American politics are at a point where the question is: "What's our future, and what's out vision?" And the Republican Party has exhausted its idea, which, in his view, is "ruthless laissez-faireism and an odd combination of manifest destiny idealism and a cynical real politick". The Democrats have an opportunity to create a new vision and consensus, and it will be up to the nominee to present that new narrative.
Barack Obama Speaks at SAIIA Event
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) continues taking questions at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) event. Adult Caucasian male notes that Republicans are shifting attention from the Iraq War to gay marriage and flag burning, and asks what the Democrats are going to do to change peoples' lives rather than pointing out the opposing sides failures. Also, what are Sen. Obama's plans for 2008 or 2012? Adult Caucasian and African men and women seated in audience. Sen. Obama isn't sure how effective it will be for Republicans, if their strategy is to shift attention to social issues. There is a base that is moved by that, and that can be crucial in a close election. However, every poll indicates Democrats are more driven this election cycle. Democrats have to address concerns about cultural changes, still, as does South Africa, with regards to the way HIV/AIDS is talked about and addressed. Democrats have to address cultural concerns without scapegoating.