It was very pleasing today to see the US president patronising the leader of Kenya on gay rights today, approximately 7 minutes after gay marriage became legal in the USA - after the USSC ruled in a decision not related to an Obama policy.
Given the world had previously lacked the level of citizen scrutiny achieved in the past by the East German Stasi - until we knew otherwise from the traitor Snowden - perhaps the a US government agency can advice Kenya on a way forward with its internal difficulty.
Will we hear more from the president, perhaps lecturing China on its human right record again, in particular the number of citizens incarcerated.
Perhaps he should continue to lecture North Korea on state aggression, various non-state actors on ‘disappearing’ people and torture, and also advice President Putin on foreign-induced civil war on his nations border.
I feel sure he also has much to offer central and south America after the success of the 20-year War on Drugs, and Pakistan, Yemen and numerous other countries on state assassinations, esp. remotely and from the sky.
Given the success of his predecessors, he is certainly in a position to offer advice on how heads of state avoid prosecution at The Hague for war crimes.
His half-sister Auma Obama has a degree from Heidelberg University in Germany, and a PhD from the University of Bayreuth. Barack Obama actually went on her (ex)husband’s stag night, back when she lived in London. I’m pretty sure she lives where she chooses to.
Doesn’t he also have a half-brother there? And if so, is he alive? Or am I hallucinating again? I didn’t see any mention of any half-brother in the two articles I read.
Oh, as for the OP: Agree, of course. He should be doing all those things you suggest, for what little good can come of that.
RIghto, and if he didn’t point out that we don’t approve of imprisoning gays, even the right wing would be all over him for visiting a country that imprisons gay people*** and he didn’t say anything about it***. People sure work pretty hard to find something to criticize the President for. Maybe they should take a day or two off and just wait til he does something worthy of disapproval.
Why do you imagine they would want to move away from other family members and a familiar society? It’s very hard to adapt to a new country. Of course many people want to move to the US for economic reasons, but unless they are in actual need they may not care to. Not everyone in the world wants to live in the US!
Well, maybe the USA isn’t a great place to live if you’re black given one in three black males born today will end up in a US prison:
There was a very interesting article in the Guardian a few weeks ago by its US correspondent who was writing his leaving piece having been the US desk for, I think, 14 years.
He didn’t say it explicitly, but he is black and he did mention his son a lot: how on earth could you take that level of risk with your own family if you have a choice…
It’s worth noting that a major reason things are so bad for gay people in many African nations is because American evangelicals, no longer finding much support for their bigotries in the US, have started exporting it abroad. Interesting that, of all the Americans going to Africa to talk about gay people, the one he’s upset about is the guy advocating tolerance.
I’ll move to Ireland if you move to Kenya. Or would you like to trade?
I just find the whole Obama Kenya family thing a bit odd. Mildly odd. Note, I said MILDLY. The same can be said for me for some of Regeans family history and well, when it comes to Billy Carter, enough said. And a few other famous politicians that are probably escaping my tattered memory at the moment.
Exactly. An African leaving Africa is a much bigger deal than a black American moving to another country. In Africa, you’re leaving not only your extended family, but your tribe, your culture and your history. Tribal affiliation is at least as strong as family ties. A black person from an African nation can’t just automatically assimilate into American black culture or community simply because he has a similar skin color.
It’s not even mildly odd. A nation that likes to trumpet it’s pioneering, immigrant, origins is going to have citizens who have family in other countries.
Some of them will even have family they know about in Africa (and lots will have family in Africa that they don’t know about, of course)
You haven’t really explained exactly why you find it odd. Please tell us the reasons they would want to move to the US.
People who live in the US can have some very peculiar ideas of what it’s like to live in a developing country. Not everyone is living in huts. If you have an adequate income, you can live a life-style approximating the US if you wish (and usually for less money than you could in the US.)
Ah, but imagine the hilarity that will ensue when a tribe of Obama’s African relations descends upon the White House with grass skirts and bones in their noses, humourously attempting to buy Hillary Clinton for many cows and trying to put the Chaplain into a large iron cooking pot surrounded by carrots and potatoes.
