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DISAPPOINTING…
By Anthony | March 12, 2009
As President Barack Obama navigates through the positive history of just mentioning his name, and conversely one of the more difficult periods in this nation’s history it is important to still challenge his apparent contradictions.
We all have them and hopefully there are those who love us, or just like being complete pains in the buttocks, that constantly remind us when we are inconsistent in our actions.
If accepted, and given, in good will these unwelcome, but legitimate, critiques force us to be our best. In fact, they’re much like good natured sibling rivalries or in sports where there’s an opponent that compels you to raise your game in order to win – Earvin “Magic” Johnson vs. Larry Bird quickly comes to mind - or more to the point here they play the part of the many human rights supporters who’ve demanded fairness and justice.
With that said it was disappointing to hear the Obama administration announce that it would not be attending the Durban Review Conference next month in Geneva, Switzerland.
This gathering, open to all nations, is designed to evaluate the progress of the initial meeting eight years ago in South Africa to confront racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
The primary reason for the boycott of the Durban II Conference is a perceived bombarding and attacking of Israel in the structure and tone of the entire proceedings. You may recall that back in August of 2001 then Secretary of State Colin Powell left the meeting after these same sentiments.
Now certainly no one likes to be invited to a meeting where they are the brunt of the criticism, but there are times when any kind of dialogue is necessary and once you cut through the rhetoric some substantial gains can be made.
For all we know the first real opportunity on a global stage to seek redress for years of alleged racism, racial intolerance, etc… (I say alleged only for purposes of advancing the discussion) for many of the supporting nations was at both of these sessions, and to summarily decide not to attend because you didn’t like the tone continues the problem and forces the accuser back to their hardened stance right along with the hands-in-ear posture of Israel, the United States, Canada, Italy and several other countries that will fall in line.
Needless to say Obama’s refusal to attend flies in the face of everything he stood for during the campaign when he spoke of the need for dialogue and eloquently stated that the overall gains are minuscule when both sides clutch to their own inherit beliefs and refuse to honor the others.
Is not attending this conference similar to that?
And now we’re going to talk to “some” Taliban?
What’s even more troubling is the United States’ seemingly overwhelming lockstep agreement with all things Israel.
You name the president and his position vis-à-vis Israel is usually always in the affirmative. It’s almost as if it’s a prerequisite for attaining high office. You would think that Israel (slightly larger than New Jersey and thousands of miles away from U.S. borders) was Canada or Mexico in terms proximity and national security.
This is not intended to belittle anyone’s suffering only to nudge the world closer to understanding, fairness, justice and dialogue. As a result that adds to the dismay to see Mr. Obama – the man who won so many over with his courageous and compassionate reasoning - fall for the status quo.
It must be pointed out that he has stated that if the tone changes they will welcome talks on a smaller scale, but is it really fair to dictate these terms while not attending?
Yet, that even fails to even honor the other racial incidents in Africa, Europe, Asia and the U.S. that this conference apparently hopes to discuss, so to not see a face representing the 44th president’s administration is indeed disappointing.
PEACE
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March 13th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Indeed! Hypocrisy has no place for these times right now, nor does a “simon says” mentality do much for these issues at hand either.
It just is a strong indicator of what I was saying a while back about him being a “puppet”.
It reminds of of.. “Ol’e Jesse here is a good slave..we let him mow the grass, and clean our cars… but no no he doesn’t sit to the table and eat with us…we leave that for him and the hogs to do outside…”
I hate the fact that his presidency because of prior bills and doctrines written before him on one hand makes him the most powerful President we have ever had in terms of what he can do “to the American people”…yet at the same time he is “powerless” to just simply follow the plan and play along and do what the ones that put him there wants him to do.
I say again we have an illusion of equality and justice, and fairness. This is another trick of smoking mirrors and snake oil.. this isn’t a real healing with his election.
Just as many have walked away with measurable results from tests and studies even though they were given a placebo… if our present president motivates you to get off of your ass and do something positive that you really could have done by yourself before his election, well ok good for you that is a good thing.
Just don’t get this confused with what is real power, or real advantages to having the perceived “our kind” represented in the white house. You taking a placebo to treat cancer can seriously kill you…
Big B. Statz