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Lucylastic -> RE: Gotta love Yahoo! (6/23/2013 5:35:24 PM)
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While Im enjoying the hijack of the OP, I just want to point out , that its a working vacation, something not mentioned ....yet altho DesS was right on!!!!!
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-06-24-south-africa-at-the-intersection-of-obama-and-mandelas-paths/#.UceS9vmR9C1
Meanwhile, even as this story continues from a Pretoria hospital, Barack Obama is about ready to begin his most extensive visit to Africa while president – stopping in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. Yes, he visited Africa several times before becoming president and he made quick visits to both Egypt and Ghana, but there has been nothing close to Obama’s extensive visits to various European and Asian nations until now.
Finally, on 21 June, the White House offered its first substantive discussion about the importance and scheduling of this imminent visit to South Africa. (And up until Sunday 23 June, the South African government had yet to carry out a significant public discussion about its own hopes and goals for this visit.) As a result, what has passed for a public conversation in South Africa over the Obama visit has mostly been unseemly squabbles about whether Barack Obama was some kind of “war criminal” or if, instead, he should be hailed as a hero by receiving Cape Town’s Freedom of the City, being given an address to parliament or be awarded an honorary degree from the University of Johannesburg.
Moreover, within the US itself, the themes of the trip have been largely submerged by questions of cost. There were reports in the American press about the seemingly astonishing cost of conveying a president, his staff, his family, his aides, the security teams, communications support, vehicles and emergency medical support personnel, equipment and vehicles to three countries on the African continent. And there were reports that questions of cost led to the cancellation of a safari break during the Tanzania segment of the trip.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/21/white-house-lays-out-busy-africa-itinerary-for-the-obamas/
President and Michelle Obama will leave Washington on Wednesday for a week-long trip to three African nations, focusing on economic development, democracy building and private sector investment.
The Obamas say goodbye at the Accra, Ghana, airport after a one-day visit to the country in July 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Among the highlights for the president will be bilateral meetings with the leaders of Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania, visits to Senegal’s supreme court and a power plant in Tanzania, tours of a slave museum in Gorree Island and the site of the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for two decades on Robben Island. Obama also will tour a community center with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/obama-might-not-get-to-visit-madiba-1.1535997#.UceSl_mR9C0
Obama's wife, Michelle, was able to pay a visit to the anti-apartheid icon during her trip to Africa two years ago, and she said it was the most moving moment of her visit.
Obama will leave Washington on Wednesday, June 26, on the first leg of a three nation tour meant to emphasize economic potential and democratic development, in east, south and western sub Saharan Africa.
The president will stop first in Senegal, where he will meet President Macky Sall and pay an emotive visit to Goree Island and a museum and memorial to Africans caught up in the slave trade.
Then he will move onto Johannesburg, South Africa on June 29 and the next day in Pretoria will hold talks and a press conference with President Jacob Zuma.
Later, Obama will hold a town hall meeting with young Africans at the Soweto campus of the University of Johannesburg.
On June 30, Obama will move onto Cape Town where his events include the Robben Island visit and a roundtable with business leaders which will include senior members of the president's economic team.
The final leg of Obama's journey will take him to Tanzania, where his program includes talks and a press conference with President Jakaya Kikwete and a visit to the Ubungo power plant.
Obama will also lay a wreath at a memorial to 11 people killed in the US embassy bombing in 1998.
There is one glaring omission on Obama's itinerary - Kenya, the homeland of his late father, where he still has living relatives.
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