Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 24, 2014 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
There is something I thought about when Nelson Mandela died and would like to share, but there was something that occurred during his memorial which I think I should first get out of the way. I’m talking about that Castro/Obama handshake.
Look, there’s a time and place for everything. Why then was all this brouhaha over Barack Obama shaking the hand of Raul Castro, as if it was one of the most repugnant and sinful thing ever done, just reflect on some of the doltish comments that were made, as if these two men are not human beings.
Imagine being at the funeral of a great statesman, one who stood tall; beyond prejudice; beyond reproach, one who saw beyond the colour of skin; possessing the power of forgiveness, embracing human virtues and much more. Yet they expected him — Obama, the President of the greatest country on earth as they like to boast, at such an historic and momentous occasion to belittle himself, reduce his humanity, his standing, by behaving mean, exhibiting hatred, slighting another head of state as if he (Castro) was the devil incarnate.
Lo and behold: some of them have shook hands with some of the most depraved individuals, cold-blooded murderers, but they wanted him to satisfy their base desire, behave silly and look small in the eyes of the world. But he damned them all, and for that they got mad, hysterical.
Obama was bold enough to make strong statements at that memorial that even the USA is a past-master at. In any event, what gives them the right to believe that they are more decent and smarter than him? It’s funny that the things so many people believe in are hardly in accordance with the things they do.
It’s a way with most presidents/leaders into their final term, that they tend to be less cautious or cagey, becoming more bold and open, thus they often reveal things that are bottled-up and have been nagging them. Barack Obama is not going to be any different. As we have seen on CNN, the gloves are coming off: “Some don’t like me because I’m a black President”, which many of us knew long ago, and he is not the kind of man to say things he has never experienced as a President – no matter how subtle, he is too wise not to spot it.
In any event, he knew very well like most of us that the election of a black President in no way would have lessened racism in the USA. As one white man wrote: “He saw it every day from the time he announced his candidacy; he saw it within his own party during the primaries; in all ugliness during the general elections…. and no matter how smart, decent, refined, how positive and optimistic his vision, how patriotic he was, they all don’t matter, because at the end of the day he was still black. And still he is expected to perform three times better than any other president in history, while they disdain him and think he has no right to litter the Oval Office with his skin colour.”
Yet for all that they had the temerity to lament over a handshake.
Frank Fyffe
Listen how to run an oil country
May 14, 2024
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