WILL OBAMA GET A WARM WELCOME ?

South Africa may not welcome Obama warmly Though many people look forward to welcoming the US president in his tour of Africa, not all are happy with the American president's visit and not all will welcome him with an open arm. The guardian wrote that "Obama should not expect red-carpet treatment from all South Africans, despite the historic affinity between the civil rights and anti-apartheid movements. Workers, students and Muslim groups are among those determined to give Obama a bumpy landing when he descends on Africa's biggest economy. "NObama" is the cry from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist party, which have called for "all workers" to join mass protests including a march on the US embassy in Pretoria on Friday. Academics and students have vowed to boycott the University of Johannesburg's award of an honorary law doctorate to Obama. The Muslim Lawyers' Association has called for the president to be arrested as a war criminal." (http://m.guardian.co.uk) One Bongani Masuku, Cosatu's international relations secretary, said: "Obama is perpetuating American foreign policy. The US is an empire run on behalf of multinational companies and the ruling class of America. US foreign policy is militarising international relations to sponsor and make their own weapons." He added that "I'm not disappointed because I didn't expect anything. It's not about the individual; it's not about the race he came from. It's about the class he represents. It's like he's the gatekeeper for white monopoly capital. He promised things we knew he wouldn't be able to do." Steven Friedman director of Rhodes and johannesburg universities said "I don't think that it's unkind to say that he's done absolutely nothing for this continent. In some respects, George W Bush did more for Africa than Barack Obama. So any sense that this is Africa's president who's actually out there trying to win the continent for the US is not the case. I can't remember a US administration that has shown less interest in the continent than this one." A lot of other people also cautioned about the need not to 'exploit' Mr Nelson Mandela whom Obama has met once, in a Washington hotel back in 2005. One Goldberg, 80, said: "I think it would be such an intrusion on an old man who's ill. We exploit Nelson Mandela and I object to that. We need to respect this great man's privacy because people go to see Nelson Mandela not to support Nelson but to gain support for themselves, and this is exploitation." While speaking from Washington, Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said: "While we're in South Africa, we are going to be very deferential to the Mandela family in terms of any interaction that the president may have with the Mandela family or with Nelson Mandela. "Ultimately, we want whatever is in the best interest of his health and the peace of mind of the Mandela family. And so we'll be driven by their own determinations in that regard. "We'll be in touch with them. The president wants to support them in any way. He's supporting them with his thoughts and prayers as it is. And if he has an opportunity to see the family in some capacity, that's certainly something that we may do." (http://m.guardian.co.uk)