Obama has still to prove the effectiveness of his administration to deal with the economic and social problems the US is facing and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, compared to Bush he is becoming the eyes and ears for US and the world. His trip to Egypt and speech to the Muslim world gave a window to the Muslim world. Through his speech he has made many Islamic extremists irrelevant. The speeches of the extremist lost their lustre and are not having the impact that they had during the Bush era. In relation to Iran, the rhetoric against the U.S has mostly subsided. During recent troubles in Iran the leaders there blamed Britain but refrained from blaming the US because of their hope of dialogue with Obama.
Obama's trip to Ghana has given a new window on Africa and the horrors of slavery. He visited the place where slaves were kept before they were shipped to Europe, South America and North America. Thousands and thousands of men, women and children died in these dungeons as they were kept in subhuman conditions with no sanitary conditions and quite often just let the victims die there of hunger and disease. I did not know the full extent of these horrors until I saw a documentary on CNN about it. Likely millions of men, women, and children perished during this slave trade. It was a big and evil business and such business is capable of carrying out atrocities for profit. In this case trafficking of slaves.
Here is the speech Obama gave at the site of the slave dungeons.
It is hoped that Obama has opened many eyes in the U.S and the world about these atrocities and that we must not forget these atrocities in order to avoid them in the future. We have come a long way but sadly we still live in a very imperfect world and constant vigilance is essential.
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