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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Obama Meets "Young Leaders" From Africa

Young leaders from 45 African countries are meeting with President Obama at the White House from August 3-5 to discuss issues relevant to the future well-being of the continent. This is probably a good thing but for the fact that it is not clear who these young African leaders are and how they were selected for this meeting. If the young African leaders are those who have been hand-picked by the old African leaders or by America, then we are in for more of the same. And it is an aberration for young African leaders to come and discuss the future of Africa with an American president. Same old dependencies. I wonder how many Americans discuss the future of America with African leaders.

The most interesting this about this video is probably that President Obama interacts with Africans in a way that many of their leaders back in Africa would see as beneath them.

For another take on the event see this NYT article.

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