Young Africans to Obama: 'Clean your own house first' - Polidicks

[b]Young Africans to Obama: 'Clean your own house first'[/b] Source: [url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33697932]BBC[/url] ____________________ [quote][img]http://i.imgur.com/1EbOEZn.jpg[/img] President Obama came to Africa to deliver a "blunt message" to its politicians. But young people in Kenya and Ethiopia had plenty to say to Mr Obama about the state of America. "Tough love" has been a theme of President Obama's visit to East Africa. The moments where he really came alive on this trip were not just when he talked of his love for Africa, but also when he spoke passionately about human rights. Standing beside the Kenyan president he likened the pursuit of gay rights in Africa to the civil rights struggle in the US. To an enthralled crowd in a stadium in Nairobi he talked of the importance of women in society. He talked of the need to eradicate corruption and treat fairly minority communities, including Muslims in Kenya. "Progress requires that you see the differences and diversity of this country as a strength, just as we in America try to see the diversity of our country as a strength," he said. "I always say that what makes America exceptional is not the fact that we're perfect, it's the fact that we struggle to improve. We're self-critical. We work to live up to our highest values and ideals."[/quote] I'm not American, nor Ethiopian, but... things are infinitely better in the US for black people, than in Ethiopia - you don't see 8-year-olds recruited by mass-murdering warlords, for instance... [editline]2nd August 2015[/editline] Or people so mind-blowingly ignorant that they think AIDS can be "cured" by having sex with other person as a way to "wash the disease away", like washing your hands. :/

This is a stupid year we're living in right now I'm afraid. Hopefully it'll end soon-ish.

[QUOTE=Pvt. Martin;48354538]This is a stupid year we're living in right now I'm afraid. Hopefully it'll end soon-ish.[/QUOTE] Agreed. 2016 can't come soon enough. [editline]2nd August 2015[/editline] [quote]"When Obama declares gay rights is about human rights, most of us feel he's not Christian," says Daniel Abera, 33, in Addis Ababa. Some Kenyan journalists attending the news conference in Nairobi even cheered when the Kenyan president said homosexuality was unacceptable in his country's culture and gay rights was a "non issue".[/quote] Yea because, being gay in Ethiopia usually means a +90% chance that you may end up stoned to death. :/

While the US has problems, the problems in Africa are far more dire. They should be fixing those first.

[QUOTE=download;48354640]While the US has problems, the problems in Africa are far more dire. They should be fixing those first.[/QUOTE] Why does one have to come before the other? Africa does have more damning social issues than the US, but America still suffers from some fairly damning injustices. We fight to correct our own mistakes while simultaneously imploring others to do the same. It doesn't make us hypocrites.

People are capable of addressing several issues at once, thankfully.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;48354866]Why does one have to come before the other? Africa does have more damning social issues than the US, but America still suffers from some fairly damning injustices. We fight to correct our own mistakes while simultaneously imploring others to do the same. It doesn't make us hypocrites.[/QUOTE] Because its called multitasking and I'm afraid everyone has collectively forgotten what that was and I wonder if they somehow think the US government operates under Civilization V rule logic.

[QUOTE=Primigenes;48355385]Why not both?[/QUOTE] Because then they might actually have to do something, I assume.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;48354866]Why does one have to come before the other? Africa does have more damning social issues than the US, but America still suffers from some fairly damning injustices. We fight to correct our own mistakes while simultaneously imploring others to do the same. It doesn't make us hypocrites.[/QUOte] Ya scapegoating minorities is the easiest way to distract from the issues and this leads to the massive civil wars and government crackdowns.

It's really sad how the issue of gay rights is a non-issue for them. They dont even see it as something that needs changing.

They don't want to admit how far behind us they are, and they don't want to admit that so many of their views are wrong. Now I know that sounds incredibly self-centered, but anytime anybody resorts to using the "But you said/did/are/etc." argument, where they try to spin the situation around off of themselves and back onto you, it usually means that you're actually making really good points and statements against them, and they're bothered by this and don't want to admit to it. And that's especially true here in this situation when critiquing their treatment of homosexuals and women, etc. For what problems the United States has socially and economically, we are still demonstrably more advanced than any country in Africa is, and I think it's safe to assume the vast majority of people out there understand this (regardless of whether or not they want to [i]admit[/i] to it, which is another matter entirely). We enjoy higher standards of living, have more legal mechanisms for protecting religious/ethnic/sexual minority groups than they do, and (in spite of what conservative bastions of resistance there are) have more general tolerance just amongst our citizens towards people who are of different backgrounds and orientations. Even if all this weren't true and we were a third-world hellhole, that wouldn't make Obama's statements any less valid and true or even make them hypocritical for that matter; it would make them "See how fucked up we are? Learn from our mistakes" kinds of statements. These guys just don't care, that's all it is. They're set in their views, they're not willing to take a lesson from a country that actually yes does know more than they do and wants to see them change for the better and could teach them something, and that's that. It was a good attempt on Obama's part, but nothing's going to change over there. Not anytime soon anyway.

This is kind've like the preacher pointing out how the congregation condemns gays but are adulterers.

It's pretty alarming to see that so many people in Africa are perfectly fine with the treatment of gay people there

One giant logical fallacy.

[QUOTE=Pretiacruento;48354530][b]Young Africans to Obama: 'Clean your own house first'[/b] Source: [url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33697932]BBC[/url] ____________________ I'm not American, nor Ethiopian, but... things are infinitely better in the US for black people, than in Ethiopia - you don't see 8-year-olds recruited by mass-murdering warlords, for instance... [editline]2nd August 2015[/editline] Or people so mind-blowingly ignorant that they think AIDS can be "cured" by having sex with other person as a way to "wash the disease away", like washing your hands. :/[/QUOTE] Ethiopia hasn't been that way since at least 1993, there are regional tensions but nothing along the lines of mass-child soldier recruitment. It isn't the DRC or Sudan, it is mostly Christian and Muslim though, so you will get a lot of opposition in regards to gay rights

I'm sorry, but Africa is a shithole that dumping billions a year into wont help. But at the same time we can't fix shit here in the states because handouts, for some reason, are taboo and if you use them you're lower than dirt.