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Falling Short On Sudan
What was otherwise a very good speech in most respects by President Obama in Egypt fell very short on the Sudan side. Here is his reference to Sudan in the speech:
For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. When innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.
So, Sudan is lumped in with the financial crisis, swine flu and Bosnia in a single paragraph. This is enormously disappointing given that the speech was delivered in Cairo, and that Egypt is one of Sudan’s most important neighbors. President Bashir felt emboldened enough to visit Cairo himself in March despite facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. No mention of that from President Obama at a time when the entire world was watching what he had to say. No discussion of diplomacy or U.S. leadership of a peace process.
Stylistically, the construction of the reference is also troubling. The speech lumps Bosnia and Darfur together, almost as if both were historical events now in the hazy rearview mirror of the past. From these remarks you would never know that the crisis in Darfur and across increasingly large parts of Sudan is ongoing, and deserving of a robust, coordinated and well-leveraged response from the United States.
WATCH or READ Obama's "New Beginning" Speech
READ Comments about the speech
LISTEN To the ongoing conversation in Twitter
Photo: President Barack Obama delivers his address on America's relationship with Muslim communities around the world at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt. AP/Ben Curtis
I just finished watching President Obama's 54 minute speech and I personally thought it was amazing. I think that his intent was fully met. His purpose was to persuade people of different religions, especially Muslims, to work together in diplomacy to shape a better world. He addressed several different and important issues, highlighting the power we have to bring about change, specifically a "new beginning" among nations. His focus was on America's relationship to the Muslim world, since Cairo is predominantly Muslim. Therefore, his speech may have fallen short in the eye's of John Norris in reference to Sudan, but that was not specifically President Obama's purpose in his speech. Below is an excerpt from his speech, in which he discusses some of the things he will do to support countries around the world, including Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo:
On science and technology, we will launch a new fund to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries, and to help transfer ideas to the marketplace so they can create more jobs. We'll open centers of scientific excellence in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and appoint new science envoys to collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create green jobs, digitize records, clean water, grow new crops. Today I'm announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio. And we will also expand partnerships with Muslim communities to promote child and maternal health.
Since Islam is a world religion, he is seeking to create a "global effort" to stop violence and all other injustices around the globe. I recommend everyone to watch President Obama's speech or at least read the transcript because it touches upon several issues in terms of world religions and human rights.
I appreciate your remarks and feel heartbroken to see only a sentence in which a reference to Darfur appears and, at that, in the context of genocide ended, i.e., Bosnia.
This is my 39th day of fasting on refugee rations; I can only imagine how the people of Darfur and the people of Congo feel.
Will keep on...