Proud of My President!!!!
It is truly a first for me. I am today proud of my president, George Bush. He is now in Africa and he is doing some very good things. First, in Tanzania he continued his administration’s excellent record with contributions to Africa for things like malaria and AIDS and debt reduction. He is getting some criticism about his choices for receipients of the money (church-based organizations get a lot), but from what I have seen many of the traditional charities are ridiculous messes of bureaucracy so I am not sure this criticism is really being leveled for the benefit of Africans. I was just laughing with him (another first, most of my laughs of the past have been at him) seeing him be a goofball with the Masai dancers just as I have experienced. We all look ridiculous with the Masai and they look ridiculous, too! Second, he went to Rwanda and lauded them for everything positive they have done since 1994. I think his visit to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali was an excellent thing to do. I especially like this support for this country given France’s horrible acts of the past with Rwanda and their hell-bent judicial moves to protect genocidaires and claims that Kigame and his fellow government heads are criminals. These claims are to try and cover up the facts about France’s role in the genocide so having the leader of the free world (ouch, I can’t believe I am saying this of Bush!) put our support for this fledgling country and its attempts to move beyond the horrors is just fantastic. A D- president getting an A+… not bad, George!
Tags: Africa
vagabondrick
You’re there; I’m not, so I can’t comment on Bush’s performance there. However, I think it was ill-advised not to go to Kenya or Chad. He opted to be safe, not truly diplomatic. My opinion, only. Anyway, I agree with what you say about the charitable organizations. When we left Tanzania, I had too much local money remaining due to a shady exchange. (!) Couldn’t take it out of the country but our guide told me not to donate it to a “charitable organization” for the very reasons you mention. Instead, we took it directly to an orphanage in Moshi and handed it over. SOMEBODY benefited. I hope it was the kids…!