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PrintJuly 11, 2009
Chicagoan Barack Obama lectures African leaders on bribery
Is this just another instance of the grass being more bribable on the other side of the ocean?
While Senator Roland Pay to Play Burris (D-IL) announced he isn't running for re-election (something about being unable to raise funds) and a friend of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) is convicted of bribery, hometown boy made good, President Barack Hussein Obama (D) told African leaders who were meeting in Italy
his cousin in Kenya cant find a job without paying a bribe, and that's not the fault of the G-8. And when companies can't operate without paying, in some parts of Africa, without paying the 25 percent fee off the top in bribes, that's not colonialism." The president said, Froman said, recounting from his contemporaneous notes, "that it is important to think about people on the ground who are focused not about who's at fault on how to survive in Africa's situation but are focused on how to survive and succeed and provide for their families and in that context he emphasized the importance of transparency, openness, and efficiency."
It's important, the president told the African leaders, that development programs are implemented so they "reach people who really need them, that the assistance actually gets to the farmers and the farmers benefit from this. That was the point he made. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. Several following speakers noting that they thought it was a very moving remark and thanked him for sharing his personal story with them. And I think it helped define the seriousness of the discussion and the importance of the subject."
And in a rare, but courageously blunt statement, Obama also stated, according to deputy national security advisor David Froman, as reported by ABC's Jake Tapper
that the problems that Africans face weren't just a product of colonialism or past history," Froman said, "that this partnership -- whether it's over food security or other development ideas -- require local governments to take responsibility seriously. This wasn't a time to make excuses. And that it was important to join together in a clear-eyed way."
Good for Obama, finally placing the blame where it belongs, perhaps because it was so personal to him! Just one question--why didn't he say the same things to the powers that be when he was a "community organizer" in Chicago, a state senator in the Illinois General Assembly and an Illinois Senator in Congress? Many of the people he represented couldn't get a government job unless they bribed someone, couldn't get some basic government services unless they paid a bribe, suffered from diminished job opportunities because many corporations refuse to play the ingrained Chicago, Cook County and Illinois bribe game and set up shop elsewhere. Bribery and corruption are built into the system there
And certainly such politically connected lawyers as the Obamas well knew how it operated. After all they were they able to get their large home at such a favorable mortgage thanks to the recently convicted Tony Rezko and Michelle Obama was oh so conveniently offered a $300,000 job created just for her after her husband's election to the state senate.
If Obama--rightly--admonishes those who tolerate and practice corrupt governing in his father's native continent why was he so--wrongly--silent all the years he represented government in his own?
