Philip Dominick
JF-Expert Member
- May 26, 2013
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- 189
- The curving stretch of road along the Indian Ocean behind the State House was once simply called Ocean Road. Now, a black-and-white-striped post holds a sign bearing its new name: Barack Obama Drive.
fter Mr. Obama headed back to the United States on Tuesday - ending a trip to sub-Saharan Africa that also took him to Senegal and South Africa - the American flag still waved alongside the green, yellow, black and blue of the Tanzanian flag, under the ubiquitous signs with Mr. Obama's face and the Swahili word for welcome, "karibu." Mr. Obama retains the kind of celebrity status here in East Africa that he once enjoyed in Europe and other parts of the world, making his visit a public event as much as an act of diplomacy. The cheering throngs welcoming him to Tanzania were much larger and louder than those he saw on the first two stops of his trip.
"Obama is like the president of the world," said Nuhu Sandari Mohamed, 60, who was out for a stroll along the street named after the president. "The fact that he's connected to Africa, my children and their children and their children should know."
Couples strolled and sat by the water on Barack Obama Drive on Tuesday, as ice cream salesmen pedaled their three-wheel cycles with coolers loaded with treats. For Said Maumba, 28, Mr. Obama's visit was the best day he had ever had selling frozen treats, like Kreemas for about 31 cents, to the throngs waiting to watch Mr. Obama's motorcade pass.
"He's hugely famous, and a lot of people are obsessed and just want to see a glimpse of him," Mr. Maumba said.
Mustafah Lada, 21, who was selling a knockoff iPhone along Barack Obama Drive, was a bit more skeptical. Unlike for ice cream sales, Mr. Lada said the distraction of Mr. Obama's visit made it harder to sell cellular phones. More broadly, he questioned whether it was ordinary people or the elites who gained the most from American engagement.
"I believe it's good that he came here, but the benefits?" Mr. Lada said. "I think it's those people in power who are benefiting, and we people without regular employment are losing."
Electricity remained a paramount concern of people here, for whom it is both a quality of life and a development issue. Before leaving on Tuesday, Mr. Obama toured a once-idle power plant that was brought back to life through a partnership between American business and the Tanzanian government. Mr. Obama's administration has agreed to spend $7 billion - and has recruited from businesses an additional $9 billion - in an effort to double access to electricity in Africa.
Evarest Makwaya, 31, a gardener, said he was grateful that Mr. Obama had promised to help bring electricity to Tanzania. "I'm touched by the fact that he launched the power plant," Mr. Makwaya said. "That's one of the issues affecting ordinary Tanzanians."
He said that although there was power where he lived in Dar es Salaam, the village where he came from did not have electricity. "I cannot say I'm happy, because my siblings and my parents live in darkness," he said.
While Mr. Obama has frequently been criticized for prioritizing other parts of the world over Africa - and for barely visiting sub-Saharan Africa as president before the trip that ended Tuesday - others said such complaints were misguided.
"We don't expect much material gain," said Margaret Sigale, who had just been at a hospital with her mother. "In my opinion, President Obama has no obligation to return to Africa simply because he is in a way connected," she added, referring to his Kenyan father. "We should not make him feel he has to give anything, or has any obligation."
"For the continent of Africa," continued Ms. Sigale, 29, a homemaker with two daughters, 13 and 3, "President Obama will go down in history as the first black man in the White House." Her older daughter was "very well aware" of Mr. Obama's visit, and "was glued on TV watching."
"Even the younger one, whenever she sees a plane, any plane, she sings: ‘That's Obama. That's Obama. That's Obama.'"
chanzo: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/03/w...-an-electric-moment-for-tanzania-lingers.html
Source: ITV Habari
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