Obama’s Egypt Tour: Its Historical Significance

Obama’s Egypt Tour: Its Historical Significance

Source: The Africa Executive


Barack Obama's choice of Egypt for his historic address to the Muslim world carries a lot of symbolism. It coincides with the anniversary of the start of the first battle between Islam, under Prophet Muhammad, and Christendom in AD629; the 30th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini's demise and the appointment of Ali Khamenei as the new “Supreme Guide of the Islamic ummah” and more importantly, the rebuilding of the Ka'abah, the stone at the heart of Mecca, which had been destroyed in a Muslim civil war.
[click here to READ Barack Obama's SPEECH TRANSCRIPT at Cairo University]

That he should use Cairo, the home of ancient Egyptian belief systems that are believed to have contributed immensely to modern Islamic and Christian value systems to convey his message not only sends home the message of peaceful co-existence and mutual respect in the Middle East and feuding African communities, but also reflects his understanding of Egypt’s (and by extension Africa’s) rich civilization, valuable contribution to intellectual thought and cultural exchange throughout the millennia.

It is on record that Africa has contributed greatly to the world’s intellectual discourse; metallurgy; writing; astronomy; navigation; medicine; architecture; agriculture and governance, amongst other fields. That the continent should fall from this height and capture the news headlines for all wrong reasons is what Obama seeks to correct by holding the important meeting in Africa.

Obama’s Egypt forum is not only an effort to re-brand Africa, but a wake up call to the continent’s leaders and elites to rise to the occasion, retrace where they lost footing and reclaim Africa’s position in global affairs.

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Related Posts:

1.President Barack Obama's visit - What's in for Africa?
2.Obama cracks the code to reach Islam
3.Excerpts from the press on Barack Obama's speech at Cairo University
4.Obama’s Egypt Tour: Its Historical Significance
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President Barack Obama's visit - What's in for Africa?

President Barack Obama's visit - What's in for Africa?

Get all the latest on President Obama's first visit to Africa as President. We look behind the headlines to let you know what is in store for Africa. Stay tuned.


The question of why Barack Obama has chosen Ghana rather than Kenya, his father's homeland, or Nigeria, Africa's giant, for his first trip to Africa as President of the United States, is exercising newspapers from Nairobi to New York.

Nairobi's Daily Nation said Monday that "in skipping Kenya, the first African American president is signaling that he puts political values over ancestral allegiances."

Although the Nation quoted Kenyan foreign minister Moses Wetang'ula as denying that Obama had snubbed the country, it also referred to recent U.S. criticism of the country's struggling coalition government.

"Mr Johnnie Carson, President Obama's top Africa official, recently made a stop in Nairobi where he delivered a stern warning to President [Mwai] Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to get the reform process on track or face unspecified sanctions," the Nation reported.

In Lagos, This Day carried a harshly-worded opinion piece from 'Jibola Asolo, a Nigerian lawyer based in Britain, saying that the failure of the first black U.S. president to stop over in the world's most populous black country "should really serve as a moment of reflection for us as a nation. It should shame us as a people."

But, wrote Asolo, Obama's decision should not be a surprise.

"The reality is: on the world stage Nigeria is not ready to play ball. We, as a nation, are still stuck on stupid while other countries are buckling down and taking the issue of good governance seriously. This considered, the President of America would be hard-pressed to grace our land with his presence in light of the joke that is Project Nigeria."

In the U.S., the New York Times reinforced the African commentary.

In a report based on unnamed White House sources, it said that "A year after Kenya exploded in political violence, it remains a tense and unsettled place. Ghana, by contrast, is an outpost of democracy and civil society in a volatile region."

The Times quoted a senior official as saying that ideally Obama would have preferred a longer trip to Africa. But time constraints meant that such a trip would have to wait until later in his tenure.

"So his advisers agreed to tack the quick Ghana stop onto the end of his Russia-G-8 trip to at least get a marker down before too much time passed," said the paper.

And, in a reflection of how difficult it is to get yourself onto the agenda of an American president, the Times quoted the official as saying Ghana offered an opportunity to promote important values even on a one-night visit: "We have limited time and we tried to figure out where we could get the most out of limited time," the official said.


Credit: John Allen, allAfrica.com

“New magazine for Africa’s hospitality and tourism industry launches in Nairobi.”

May 11, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya - Mondeas Ltd, in conjunction with All Times Media, today unveils Host Africa magazine—“Africa’s leading hospitality and tourism resource”.

Targeting mid and top-level management, industry decision makers and suppliers, the magazine is designed as a business-to-business tool capturing in-depth analysis and insights into the hospitality and tourism industry regionally and globally.


The magazine presents an editorial mix of feature stories, news briefs and opinion pieces in a sophisticated, clean and professional design. It is structured to inform and inspire industry professionals to grow on the job and to help improve industry practices across the board.

“Through this product, managers will have access to informative and engaging articles of interest in such diverse areas as airlines, hotels, restaurants, telecommunication, travel, construction and industry suppliers,” says Ken Teyie, Editor Host Africa. “It is the perfect platform for industry decision makers to speak to one another about day-to-day business management challenges,” added Teyie.
Host Africa is working closely with the hospitality and tourism industry across Africa to provide key intelligence to those who need it most. Host Africa also highlights emerging global trends that will affect operations across the continent.

“We are proud to be part of a solution that will help grow the hospitality industry in Africa. Through this magazine, we will shed light on developments that have the potential of influencing the industry in both short and long term perspectives,” says Rand Pearson, Creative Director, Mondeas Ltd. “We have a world class tourism industry here, and it deserves a world class media product serving it.”

“This is exactly what we need as an industry,” says Hooman Ehsani, director of new developments Village Market. “No where else will you get such engaging content that targets you as a business manager locally. This publication will play an important role in bringing back confidence [in the industry], despite the reduction in tourist numbers in the region due to the global economic meltdown.”

Mondeas and All-Times Media will publish four editions of Host Africa in 2009, moving to six editions for 2010 and beyond. Currently the publishers are direct mailing 2500 copies to mid and high level managers across the region, and circulating another 1000 copies through local newsstand and promotional outlets. The publishers expect circulation to double by the end of the year.
“This really is the best-positioned advertising tool for those businesses interested in reaching high-level decision makers in the hospitality industry,” says Sapna Chandaria, Operations Director, Mondeas Ltd. “We’re not a mass-interest magazine; we target our market very precisely.”

Opened in 2007 and based in Nairobi, Mondeas Ltd is a custom media agency producing television program, magazines and websites. To learn more, go to www.mondeas.com.
Host Africa is available via subscription and at selected newsstands in Nairobi.

Slow uptake Zain's ZAP (mobile money transfer) may be due to careless Customer Service

This article includes one update as a footer.

Zain Kenya registered losses in the last financial year. The Kenyan operation has been the poorest compared to operations in other countries. Despite these losses and poor uptake of its highly subsidized products, Zain Kenya may fail to increase its market share owing to poor and careless handling of its customers.
Picture this, I bought a Zain line just the other day to take advantage of its new tariff "Vuka" that allows flat rate calls of between 3 and 8 shillings and offers a money transfer facility.

Yesterday evening (26th March 2009), I went to the company's Koinange street customer care outlet to register for ZAP money transfer services. (Koinange Street is in the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi)

The first lady I spoke to amused me, I told her that I wanted to register for ZAP, immediately her private mobile phone rung, she ignored me took her call - smiling and laughing loudly while at it - as she moved around the open room. After the call, she came back to her desk with me standing there, pulled out a book with application forms and told me to fill. The form had so many details from ID number to other irrelevant details that should be the least of their worry. Seriously why do they need to know my date and place of birth?

I finished filling with the lady staring at what I was writing (while on another personal call), then she asked for a copy of my ID which I produced. She then ushered me to the next counter and told me "Go pay 100 shillings so that I activate you account", I ask her why to which she answered “without the money, the system cannot work"

So I went to pay. I told the cashier that I had been told to pay 100 shillings. She looked at me and said "No it is 200"
I said "fine" and gave her a 200 bill. She took, picked another form and told me to fill in my details (again). I filled and returned to her.
She read through the document and said "OK, now add me 10 shillings as transactions fees"

I asked, why should I pay an additional 10 shillings when I am not transacting but just registering, she immediately turned --to show that I was wasting her time -- but not before hurling what I considered to be the ultimate insult. She told me to "Ishia" meaning "disappear from here"
I looked at her but said nothing. I went to the first customer care rep told her that I had changed my mind about registering for Zap and that she gives me back the copy of my ID. Then she asked "Do you also want to go with the registration form?"

I said "Yes please"

I took the form which had the serial number 203698. (Pictured)

The carbon print of this form remained at the Zain Centre with my full contacts.

The moral of the story, if Zain Kenya ever hopes to catch up with Safaricom, they had better style up. Better the devil you know than Zain with its lousy Zap!

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Update

Following this article, Zain's Branch manager at Koinange Street called me on Friday to apologize on behalf of the customer care reps. She has promised to "take stern action" and to "Train" her entire lot to develop customer-centric attitudes.

Apology accepted. Also please ensure that communication regarding Zain registration is clear especially the registration requirement - how much does one need to complete the registration process because it is not FREE as advertised in the media.

Since one has to leave a copy of their ID at registration, why cant Zain as a company retrieve the information such as ID number, date and place of birth from the the copy of ID without having to subject customers to unnecessary "torture" by "forcing" them to fill this themselves, then go out to photocopy their ID for you guys. You can use internal photocopiers to ease this burden on customers.

Lastly, read the comments by readers in this article and on some other online threads regarding Zain's level of service. It is very clear that a lot needs to be done. The general consensus is that you have great products but your people are failing you. As the adage goes, customer is king.