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Posted on 07/08/2003 9:48:15 AM PDT by areafiftyone
GOREE ISLAND, Senegal (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) made an eloquent speech but did not win many friends during his brief visit to Goree Island off Senegal on Tuesday.
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"We are very angry. We didn't even see him," said Fatou N'diaye, a necklace seller watching dignitaries file past to return to the mainland at the end of Bush's tour.
N'diaye and other residents of Goree, site of a famous slave trading station, said they had been taken to a football ground on the other side of the quaint island at 6 a.m. and told to wait there until Bush had departed, around midday.
Bush came to Goree to tour the red-brick Slave House, where Africans were kept in shackles before being shipped across a perilous sea to a lifetime of servitude.
He then gave an eloquent speech about the horrors of slavery, standing at a podium under a sizzling sun near a red-stone museum, topped by cannon pointing out to the sea.
The cooped-up residents were not impressed.
"It's slavery all over again," fumed one father-of-four, who did not want to give his name. "It's humiliating. The island was deserted."
White House officials said the decision to remove the locals was taken by Senegalese authorities. But there was no doubt who the residents blamed.
"We never want to see him come here again," said N'diaye, hiking her loose gown onto her shoulders with a frown.
As the sun rose over Goree before Bush's arrival, the only people to be seen on the main beach were U.S. officials and secret service agents. Frogmen swam through the shallows and hoisted themselves up to peer into brightly painted pirogues.
Normally, the island teems with tourists, Senegal's ubiquitous traders, hawkers of cheap African art, photographers offering to take pictures and all the expected trappings of a tourist hot-spot in one of the world's poorest countries.
On Tuesday, shutters on the yellow and red colonial-style houses remained shut. The cafes were closed and the narrow pier deserted, apart from security agents manning a metal detector, near the sandy beach. A gunship patrolled offshore.
"We understand that you have to have security measures, since September 11, but to dump us in another place...? We had to leave at 6 a.m. I didn't have time to bathe, and the bread did not arrive," the father-of-four said.
"We were shut up like sheep," said 15-year-old Mamadou.
Many residents compared Bush's hour-long visit unfavorably to the island tour by former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) in 1998.
"When Clinton came, he shook hands, people danced," said former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne.
As the Bush roadtrip moved on, Goree was returning to normal with children once again diving into the shallows and clambering over the now inoffensive pirogues.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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Well, I've never seen him either, and I'm not mad. Sheesh.
I am deeply saddened.
Clinton came? I hoped they washed their hands too.
Well, I've never seen him either, and I'm not mad. Sheesh.
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Touche`!
If the Senegals made the decision to "detain" it's people for the event, we (the U.S. Gov.) should make a big stink about it.
If the U.S. Gov. knew in advance that this would happen and went along with it, that was a stupid decision.
Indeed. I had a strong sense to pray for his safety while he was speaking.
I watched his speech this morning - it was incredible!
Well, when the Sinkmaster's motorcade rolled through midtown Manhattan about 2.5 years ago, those of us who had the misfortune to be trying to get home or just go about our business were forced to stand on the block where we were for at least a half hour before he rolled by.
With a name like that, perhaps they'd rather it were somebody else visiting? Somebody sort of tree-like?
This is who wrote this story.
No angry people in the picture.
The Left Wing media goes out of their way to get negative stories. No balance as usual in this story. I guess Reuters couldn't find even a single person who enjoyed his visit. SHEESH.
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