Beitrag vom 12.07.2009

The New York Times, July 12, 2009
Obama Delivers Call for Change to a Rapt Africa
By PETER BAKER

CAPE COAST, Ghana — President Obama traveled in his father's often-troubled home continent on Saturday, where he symbolized a new political era but brought a message of tough love: American aid must be matched by Africa's responsibility for its own problems.
"We must start from the simple premise that Africa's future is up to Africans,” Mr. Obama said in an address televised across the continent. For all its previous sins, he said, "the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants.”
To build a prosperous future, he said, Africa needs to shed corruption and tyranny and take on poverty and disease.
"These things can only be done if you take responsibility for your future,” he told Parliament in Accra, Ghana's capital. "And it won't be easy. It will take time and effort. There will be suffering and setbacks. But I can promise you this: America will be with you every step of the way, as a partner, as a friend.”
…
He delivered a blunt message that from his predecessors might not have been received the same way. Instead, it was cast by aides as hard truths from a loving cousin.
"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers,” he said. "No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top, or the head of the port authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end.”
Mr. Obama added: "Africa doesn't need strongmen. It needs strong institutions.”
…
"I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family's own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. Some of you know my grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him boy for much of his life.”
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He said little about what America would do for Africa, however, focusing instead on what Africa should do for itself. He called on the people of his father's continent to build the sort of society he never saw, prosperous, democratic, honest and healthy.
"You can do that,” he said. "Yes, you can. Because in this moment, history is on the move.”

Complete text:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-…