Here are nice quotes coming from the president on the eve of his forum with Young African Leaders that shows his administration is clearing having a its eyes on Africa and thinking outside the box.
"This is a new moment of great promise. Only this time, we’ve learned that it will not be giants like Nkrumah and Kenyatta who will determine Africa’s future… It will be the young people brimming with talent and energy and hope who can claim the future that so many in previous generations never realized.” – President Barack Obama
The US president will host African young leaders forum as from August 3-5 2010 and as fate should have it. He will also be celebrating his 49th birthday on August 4th 2010. Perhaps, this is the presidents gift to Africa as he celebrates his 49th birthday.
This conference brings together 100 young African leaders who will examine how they see Africa's future in the next 50 years and also come up with innovative solutions to the problems we face as they network and build working relationships.
This conference comes after he gave the 'Accra speech' in Ghana on his first visit to Africa as the president of USA where he put it bluntly that the future of Africa is with Africans themselves. This conference comes head over heals after an African team, the Ghanaians, sent the USA packing from the world cup!
The president has continued with the policies of previous presidents such as President Bill Clinton who came up with African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and his administration has come up with $ 3.5 billion food security initiative called feed the future which will help 12 African focus countries in modernizing their farm sectors.
So what does the president have in mind when he convened this forum?
“These steps are about more than growth numbers on a balance sheet. They’re about whether a young person with an education can get a job that supports a family; a farmer can transfer their goods to market; an entrepreneur with a good idea can start a business,” Obama said. “It’s about the dignity of work; it’s about the opportunity that must exist for Africans in the 21st century.”
So if he succeeds in his en devours we shall look in year 2060 and say the seeds of Africa's transformation started in 2010.
Below is the town hall meeting the president spared time for.
I was going through my facebook updates in the mornings and happen to have leaped in the Whitehouse photo of the day. Well that was President Obama and Sen. John Kerry but on the site I saw Obama receiving a honorary degree from University ofMichigan. This happened on 1/05/2010.
President Barack Obama receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, before delivering the commencement address to University of Michigan graduates, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., May 1, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Well, that is NOT news (the guy has received a Nobel!).What was coincidental was that this week our papers have been splashed with pictures of Dr. Sarah Obama (Yes! Doctor Sarah Obama.) The grandma of President Barack Obama,Sarah Obama was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by The Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK) at a ceremony held on Monday 3/05/2010.
She was awarded this honor for herengaging in charity and for the passion to feed and educate the less fortunate in the society.
UN Nutrition Goodwill Ambassador Mama Sarah Obama 87, (right) receives a honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from Vice Chancellor Prof Dan Kaseje (left) during the fourth graduation ceremony of the university at Tom Mboya Labour college in Kisumu. She became Dr Sarah Hussein Obama after the honour. Photo/JACOB OWITI
A day after the graduation (Tuesday 4/05/2010) she hosted a party at her home in Kogelo, Siaya District. Two bulls, three sheep and four goats lost their lives.
What fascinated me is that in a span of a day a grandmother and a grandson get to an honorary degree.
