Posted on 05/21/2012 5:04:08 AM PDT by SJackson
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama invoked his poor family members in Kenya as a reason why “economic growth can’t just be for the lucky few at the top, it’s got to be broad-based, for everybody.”
Obama delivered remarks Friday at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington where he talked about plans for the United States and developed countries from the Group of Eight (G8) nations to assist African countries in agriculture.
“I’ve spoken before about relatives I have in Kenya, who live in villages where hunger is sometimes a reality -- despite the fact that African farmers can be some of the hardest-working people on Earth,” said Obama, who along with first lady Michelle Obama have a net worth of between $2.6 million and $8.3 million, according to financial disclosure forms released by the White House on Tuesday.
“Most of the world’s unused arable land is in Africa,” the president continued. “Fifty years ago, Africa was an exporter of food. There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again. There is no reason for that.”
Bono, lead singer of U2, sat in the front row during the speech.
The president went on to say that growth shouldn’t be reserved for those who already have enough.
“In Africa and around the world, progress isn’t coming fast enough and economic growth can’t just be for the lucky few at the top, it’s got to be broad-based, for everybody, and a good place to start is in the agricultural sector,” Obama said.
“So even as the world responds with food aid in a crisis -- as we’ve done in the Horn of Africa -- communities can’t go back just to the way things were, vulnerable as before, waiting for the next crisis to happen. Development has to be sustainable, and as an international community, we have to do better,” he added.
Obama presented a plan he said would help African countries be more self-sufficient. He pointed out that three years earlier, the G8 established a $22 billion package for global food security.
“On the other hand, we see an Africa that still faces huge hurdles, stark inequalities; most Africans still living on less than $2 a day; climate change that increases the risk of drought and famine,” Obama said. “All of which perpetuates stubborn barriers in agriculture, in the agricultural sector -- from bottlenecks in infrastructure that prevent food from getting to market, to the lack of credit, especially for small farmers, most of whom are women.”
He said under the new alliance, the United States will continue food and emergency aid to Africa, under the plan, but “challenges” more nations, companies and non-governmental organizations to take action and G8 countries to honor commitments.
He announced 45 companies “from major international corporations to African companies and cooperatives” pledged to invest more than $3 billion for the effort. The plan also calls for exploiting mobile phone and satellite imagery for weather forecasts and market prices to be in the hands of farmers. The World Bank will also weigh in on rising food prices. Lastly, the plan focuses on nutrition.
“When there is good nutrition, especially in those thousand days during pregnancy up to the child’s second birthday, it means healthier lives for that child and that mother,” Obama said. “And it’s the smart thing to do because better nutrition means lower health care costs and it means less need for assistance later on.”
you are correct, that is what I tried to imply in my last sentence but I was not clear enough obviously. Thanks for the clarification.
Really??!!
Maybe this statement would be more accurate (certainly, more honest) if he said the ‘hard working’ few!
Luck is no more a prerequisite for success in America than it is anywhere else on earth. If it WAS, everyone breaking the law, risking death and worse to get here would stay put in their homeland and cash in on their ‘luck’... THERE!
Success in any country is all about personal autonomy within the law, opportunity and very hard work!!!
What "O" and other Liberals refuse to recognize is that here in the U.S, we have MORE and GREATER personal autonomy (guaranteed) and unlimited opportunity along with ready and abundant rewards of every kind for those who are willing to work hard !!! PERIOD... If it was only about luck, we'd all be sitting at home waiting for someone to knock on the door, hand us a million bicks and say: 'Here, go have a ball!!'
Robert Heinlein
A radio evangelist of a bygone era, Herbert Armstrong, used to frequently say that there were, broadly speaking, two ways of life- that being the way of ‘give’ and the way of ‘get’.
A system based on the voluntary and peaceful free exchange the economic analogy of the way of ‘give’. In this case that each party to an exchange must give sufficient value to the counter-parties that they freely agree to a mutually satisfying exchange.
Economist Franz_Oppenheimer observed that, broadly speaking, two ways to gain the wealth of other- that being what he called the ‘economic means’ and the other the ‘political means’. [1]
“There are two fundamentally opposed means whereby man, requiring sustenance, is impelled to obtain the necessary means for satisfying his desires. These are work and robbery, one’s own labor and the forcible appropriation of the labor of others.”
Free people who are committed to live at peace with their neighbors and within the rule of law can only gain the things they need to sustain their lives by creating value to exchange with others. This is work. States on the other hand, must expropriate wealth. As George Washington warned, the State is only power. The State simply uses its power and monopoly on the use of deadly force to take what it needs from those within its grasp.
Having said that, to assert that ‘Economic Growth Can’t Just Be for the Lucky Few’ defies the reality of human abilities. Some people are just born with more economically valuable skills than others are. That doesn’t make them any less human. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love them any less. That doesn’t justify treating them differently. The simple truth is that I cannot tell a joke as well as (pick your favorite here), or I cannot act as well as (pick your favorite here) and I cannot dream up as valuable a business idea as (pick your favorite here).
But what I can do, what value I can create, what things I can make and build are mine, and I have just as much an unalienable right to the fruit of my labor as some famous rock group who fight enforce their copyrights or some famous actor who fights to stop pirating of their movies.
When government adopts the idea that ‘Economic Growth Can’t Just Be for the Lucky Few’, then government gets to decide who wins and who loses. WE DID NOT GIVE OUR GOVERNMENT THAT ENUMERATED POWER! And if our government assumes it has that power, then the several States must convene a convention to make it clear they don’t.
The Apostle Paul stated that people cannot be godly and live at the expense of others. He also said that a person cannot be godly if he does not take care of his own family. Government has interposed itself as the arbiter of economic values. Allowing government to do that results in an economy that is base on the ‘political means’ instead of the ‘economic means’, on the way of get rather on the way of give.
[1] http://files.libertyfund.org/pll/quotes/150.html
There is no reason why Africa should not be feeding itself and exporting food again. There is no reason for that.”...Yes, there is o stupid one. It’s called communism and tribalism. Something you want introduced to US.
Learned years ago: Luck is disguised as Hard Work!
He who works hard deserves the rewards of that work.
“From each according to his ability to each according to his need” - (Karl Marx)
They are your family.
Hey America, wake up. You want a "leader" around that tries to make you feel greedy and envious? Greed and envy, hmm, seems I've seen those two on a list somewhere before...
If you took what Moochelle spent on her 17 faboo vacations, and invested it in the sub-Saharan hell hole of your choice, you’d be in a better position to lecture at us, Skippy.
What’s next? A remake of “The Naked Prey”? Set in Chicago?
Guess that question never crossed the razor-sharp minds of the members of the journalistic community...go figure.
Cut them a check from your personal funds, Zero. Otherwise; you are a hypocrite.
Guess that question never crossed the razor-sharp minds of the members of the journalistic community...go figure.
Cut them a check from your personal funds, Zero. Otherwise; you are a hypocrite.
Oh great, now he’s done gone and elevated himself to savior of the whole world and not just America.
.........
Yes. He’ll be evolving into the starchild next week.
Obama thinks everyone with money got their’s the same way he got his.
This is breathtaking. We are borrowing 1 and a half trillion dollars a year to get by but we "have enough" growth that we can start bailing out Africa despite the thousands and thousands of Americans who are struggling to keep their house and worrying how they are going to feed their families.
Yes there is. It happens when we have Black "Leaders".......
That's where we've gone in America, too, with the white-guilt and "whitey owes you" panderers....
They are only "sometimes" hungry? Shoot, I'm hungry every day, these people must be eating good. I assume he meant to say that "starvation is sometimes a reality".
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