The West has always treated African leaders like
children. They always talk down to
them. They don’t show them the respect
that is shown to heads of state from other parts of the world. In keeping with past practice of slights and
departure from protocol, the Obama Whitehouse announced this weekend that every
African leader that has received an invite for the White House Summit will be
tested for the Ebola Virus without exception. How demeaning and disrespectful is that?
Some have written about the fact that President Isaias
was not on the invite list. It looks
like he has already been vindicated before the summit even started. Why would any self-respecting leader subject
himself and his country to that kind of disrespect?
He would not have come anyway had he been invited. He would have politely said “No Thank you” as
he did to the Europe-Africa Summit that was held in Brussels this past April. Part of the reason the West disapproves of
Eritrea and its leader is because Eritrea refuses to be dictated to and insists
on being treated as an equal partner when it comes to issues of development
assistance, foreign investment as well as political matters. It goes without saying that foreign aid is
anything but altruistic in nature. The
thinking in Western capitals is, “How dare Eritrea tries to be different! How dare she!” Of course, African countries are not allowed
to think for themselves.
According to US News and World Report, the Obama
Whitehouse has already announced that it is going to break protocol tradition
and not allow the African leaders a one-on-one meeting with the President. African leaders are asking what the point of
their trip is then. In another break
with protocol, the White House is telling African ambassadors that there will
not be a final document after the summit is over. The fact that the summit is held on President
Obama’s birthday has led many critics to believe that this is more of a legacy
program for the president than a working meeting with real results.
Received on Sun Aug 03 2014 - 07:52:39 EDT