Obama's Warning to Africans About America Undercuts Even His Own Initiatives
IBDEditorials.com
Leadership: President Obama had some unsolicited advice for Africans on Sunday: Be wary of foreign powers — including the United States. So this is what our $100 million presidential junket is buying us?
In the most mind-boggling statement yet on his latest trip abroad, America's chief spokesman and the leader of the free world warned the African continent against assuming "folks come here and they're automatically benefiting Africans. And that includes the United States. Ask questions in terms of what we do."
It was as patronizing to Africans, who know all about Western aid rackets and do-gooder carpetbaggers, as it was insulting to Americans.
What kind of president goes overseas to warn the locals about the people who elected him? Yet, that was pretty much the message he delivered in Capetown, South Africa, in the same week the nation that has done more to help more people in more countries all over the world celebrates its 237th birthday.
Somehow, in the president's thinking, Americans are prone to dishonesty and out to cheat Africans even as global rankings show the U.S. is held in the highest regard for honesty and transparency.
Only a leader with deep misgivings about America's role in the world — evidenced in everything from his own apology tours to the first lady's admission that she wasn't proud of America until her husband won the presidential nomination — would say such a thing , anywhere.
Ironically, Obama's "don't trust, verify" advice also undercut the big initiative he hopes will leave a lasting legacy on the continent — a $7 billion Power Africa project.
"If somebody says they want to come build something here, are they hiring African workers? If somebody says that they want to help you develop your natural resources, how much of the money is staying in Africa?" the president asked circumspectly.
These are odd questions, because Power Africa is a consortium whose biggest donor is the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which is contributing $5 billion. Ex-Im Bank, in response to criticism of its financing oil development in Brazil, has pointedly defended itself by stating its cash goes to U.S. workers and U.S. exports.
"The mandate of the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. is to help create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing U.S. exports," Ex-Im Bank stressed in a press release during its controversial funding of Brazilian energy in 2009. "This increases the likelihood that American — not foreign — workers will be employed."
So if African states are to accept Obama's Power Africa initiative, they'll have to say 'no' to Ex-Im Bank financing if they were to take Obama's advice, and simply go without electricity.
The propensity of this president to undercut American presence abroad — not just of the private sector, but even his own initiatives — is disturbing. But not nearly as disturbing as his tendency to bad-mouth America every chance he gets.