single in kind of the primary purpo...

single in kind of the primary purposes of Barack Obama's two-week trip to Africa, as stated by dint of a spokesman for the Illinois senator, was to call attention to the importance the well-being of African nations has to the United States. That's truthful he said, "especially when it get tos to stable governments, terrorism, spiritedness security and humanitarian crises like as genocide and AIDS." The efforts of celebrity emissaries like Obama and Bono notwithstanding, the touchs of Africa get short shrift in this home particularly when our collective fate present the appearances tied with greater immediacy to Iraq and the Middle East and North Korea. Corruption in Africa, where millions in aid dollars have conclusioned up buying weapons for repressive regimes instead of going to those in ne has contributed to that detachment.

however Obama's African sojourn, which conclud Saturday, may be seen on some as a grand political action it had no shortage of meaningful achievements and memorable forces His visit to Kenya, where, joined from his wife and daughters, he was addressed like a hero, could have been little more than a ceremonial whistle-stop in the homeland of his father. further in a speech carried forward national television, he spoke revealed against the corruption, patronage and "ethnic-based politics . . robbing an straightforward people of the opportunities they fought for." He explicitly laid the blame for that corruption onward the administration of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who promised reforms when he was prefered in 2002 but who has failed to deliver them.

Having also criticized the direction of South Africa during his visit there for being in "denial" of the AIDS scourge in promoting nutritional correctives instead of modern anti-viral medicines, Obama took an HIV standard in an outlying Kenyan city to dramatize the ne for men to master tested and otherwise take responsibility in the prevention and treatment of AIDS. The disease is ravishing Kenya, where about 700 tribe a day die from it, and a elephantine swath of sub-Saharan Africa. While the senator was hardly the first visiting dignitary to champion the cause of HIV testing, his status as a favorite son gave him an advantage in his effort to secure African men to see there is no shame in having their offspring checked for the disease. And with the Bush administration promoting abstinence across condom use as the dominant theme in its African AIDS policy, Obama's declaration in a shantytown outside of Cape Town that "there is no stigma in using condoms in the United States" spoke compasss

to be ascribed to circumstances beyond his sway Obama was unable to out and out his itinerary. With violence escalating in Congo in the days leading up to its presidential runoff election, he had to cancel his trip there. And he was unable to learn into Sudan as a end of the Sudanese government's calculated delay in issuing visas to his collection But he did visit with refugee from the newly inflamed Darfur region across the border in Chad. His neighborhood there reflected the humanitarian troubles of not only Americans, unless people from all over the globe. Obama's attempt to raise consciousness there, and here, was admirable and honorable.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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