Katy Gabel
22 May 2009
President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania became the first African head of state to visit the Obama White House Thursday, where he discussed issues including Africa's most pressing conflicts with President Barack Obama.
According to a White House readout on the meeting, the presidents "had a valuable discussion on a range of issues" and "exchanged views on approaches to enhancing the U.S.–Tanzanian partnership, improving development policy in the fields of health, education, and agriculture, and working with other partners in the region to solve some of the most pressing conflicts on the African continent."
A Swahili-language report posted to a popular Tanzanian blog hosted by journalist Issa Michuzi said Kikwete and Obama had "debated some of the African continent's biggest challenges, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, Somalia and the current political situation in Kenya."
Ongoing tension between mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar was also raised, the report said. Kikwete had "explained to President Obama... the enthusiasm his government has for reconciliation of political issues with Zanzibar." Recent media reports have suggested that Zanzibar might wish to split from the mainland if oil is discovered offshore.
Michuzi's blog report added: "President Obama... praised President Kikwete for his leadership in improving government education, and assured him that all the aid for building infrastructure from the [U.S.] Millennium Challenge Account will speed things along, and that many projects are already under construction."
Kikwete also met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was among a range of Obama administration officials who sat in on the Oval Office meeting, according to the Swahili news report.
Others included Director of the White House's National Economic Council Lawrence Summers, National Security Advisor James Jones and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, who was a teacher at the Malangali School in Iringa, Tanzania, in his youth. Carson was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from 1965 to 1968.
Tanzanians responded to the White House meeting with cautious optimism.
According to a report in the Tanzanian English-language daily, The Citizen, civil society activist Moses Kulaba said he was concerned with "our president's globe trotting," citing that words exchanged abroad often translate to little change back home.
"We need to assess that all these expensive overseas trips make economic sense to our country. I hope the President uses the opportunity to make it clear on what Tanzania wants to trade better," he said.
Nevertheless, the executive director of the Tanzania Investment Center, Emmanuel Ole Naiko, said Kikwete and Obama's meeting could boost investor confidence: "Their meeting is the best news in these times. Tanzania stands to gain from investors who often take such gestures seriously.
"The U.S. was usually last among the top 10 investors locally but since the rise in relations since the [George W.] Bush times, the country is today in fourth position in terms of foreign investment here," he told The Citizen.
Earlier in the week, President Kikwete visited California's Silicon Valley, where he met with executives at technology giants Cisco, IBM and Google. The three companies "agreed to help" Tanzania, the government-owned Daily News reported.
The newspaper said that at Cisco, Kikwete discussed the "various steps Tanzania was taking in embracing ICT fully, including that of the laying of a fibre-optic [cable] and the establishment of an IT college at the University of Dodoma."
At Google, he discussed how the government could work with the company to "accelerate development and promote efficiency." And IBM Vice President Dr. Mark Dean "assured President Kikwete that the century-old company would continue assisting Tanzania in ICT, especially the proposed IT college at the University of Dodoma."
Kikwete's meetings with technology companies come just a month before the expected landing date for Seacom, the first of three undersea fiber optic cables which will connect East Africa with Europe.
In an interview last year, Seacom's CEO Brian Herlihy told AllAfrica that Seacom "will provide free Internet access to the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania."
Kikwete also visited Stanford University in Palo Alto, where he discussed access to clean drinking water in Tanzania.
On Wednesday, Kikwete received an award from Doctors for Africa in Los Angeles for his efforts to improve health on the continent, and for steering his government toward increasing the country's health budget to 11 percent.
According to the Swahili-language report, Kikwete will spend the rest of his visit to the U.S. visiting international organizations and international financial institutions.
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fiurstly, I say bravooo to the Tnz president being able to sit with President Obama... secondly,, it's a new light penetrating to the African Continent... Thirdly, I have a great hope that, the Visit of President Obama to Ghana will be a real Boost for the West African People to add another Light in the Continent.. just like what the Tanz'n President have did and willing to do for His people... Especially, in terms of Health and Education.... so why can't we hope for the best?? I think it's time for us to learn from the others now before it's too late.... thanks.......
BY PEACE SHALL Many Be deceived (Daniel 8:25) .
DOES THE TERM PEACEKEEPERS ring a Bell ?
Ask the people in Rwanda (who survived that Peace-keeping) about the UN PEACEKEEPERS .
President Obama’s UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE cut her teeth on the RWANDA MASSACRE….OOOPs!!! She said.
(Here’s a Search Link To Many Witnesses To THE NEW U.N. RICE MONSTER)
[http://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=Susan+Rice+Rwanda&cat=web&pl=ff& language=english]
OBAMA DECEPTIONS
#1
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrpRocaEfQE]
#2 Here is evidence of Point 2 of the Georgia Guidestones on Reproduction .
Don't be deceived :
[http://www.infowars.com/?p=7259]
Here are search result links to what the Georgia Guidestones are
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones ]
#3
BY PEACE SHALL Many Be deceived (Daniel 8:25) .
DOES THE TERM PEACEKEEPERS ring a Bell ?
Ask the people in Rwanda (who survived that Peace-keeping) about the
United Nations PEACEKEEPERS .
President Obama’s UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE cut her teeth on
the RWANDA MASSACRE…. OOOPs!!! She said.
(Here’s a Search Link To Many Witnesses To THE NEW U.N. RICE MONSTER)
[http://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=Susan+Rice+Rwanda&cat=web&pl=ff& language=english]
In his piece entitled “ White Collar War Crimes, Black African Fall Guys,”
investigative journalist Keith Snow writes:
First note that the ICC can now be viewed as a tool of hegemonic U.S. foreign policy,
where the weapons deployed by the U.S. and its allies include the accusations of, and
indictments for, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
To understand this, we can ask WHY NO WHITE MAN HAS YET BEEN CHARGED
with these or other offenses at the ICC (International Criminal Court) which now holds
five black African warlords and seeks to incarcerate and bring to trial another black man,
also an Arab, Omar Bashir.
Why hasn’t George W. Bush been indicted ? Or what about Donald Rumsfeld ?
Dick Cheney? Henry Kissinger? Ehud Olmert? Tony Blair?
The sad fact is that the International Criminal Court has become terribly
politicized, as has the entire international justice apparatus.
The ICC has issued indictments, for the first time in history, against a sitting head of
state. Meanwhile, according to Snow, an Israeli weapons dealer, also a reputed Mossad
operative, is revealed to be shipping weapons into Sudan with Pentagon support.
And Belgium changed its law rather than prosecute Ariel Sharon for war crimes.
The double standard cries out to us.
One country in the West, however, increasingly stands out as a place where
justice can be found?and that is Spain. With its landmark indictment of
Pinochet and its current consideration of Israeli war crimes in Lebanon and
U.S. torture in Guantanamo, we increasingly look to the Spanish Courts with
hope. It was the Spanish courts that returned indictments against Rwandan
soldiers for genocide even as the world coddles U.S. proxy Rwanda and its
leader, Paul Kagame.
[allthingscynthiamckinney.com]
OUR DEEPEST FEAR By Marianne Williamson
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate, Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure. It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Won’t Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
It’s Not Just In Some Of Us; It’s In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
[NOTE – BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WON’T STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea, Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS ! BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com]
- Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]
This post was deleted because it contravenes AllAfrica's commenting guidelines.
so what if Obama visits Ghana instead of Nigeria? even if Jesus reappears in Ghana it is still an African country where suffering is eternal and inate
What's the beef of our nigerian brothers, Ghana did not beg prez Obama to visit. he did so on his own conviction. After all he is a right thinking prez.
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