Ghana oozes with Affection For Obama

Richard Zangba waited for six hours Friday night and another five hours Saturday morning to catch a glimpse of Barack Obama’s African homecoming.

When the American president’s motorcade sped by the crowd waiting outside the conference center in Accra, Ghana’s capital, Saturday, Obama gave a brief wave through a heavily tinted window.

Zangba, an 18-year-old from a small town in Ghana’s Upper East Region, whooped wildly.

"He is a great African," he said.

A day earlier Obama landed in hana for a 24-hour visit. It’s his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as President of the United States.

The streets in Accra were lined with signs welcoming the Obamas. Vendors made a fortune selling their Obama wares. By Saturday, those who hadn’t bought an Obama shirt were being handed ones adorned with his picture.

Many Africans expected Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, or Kenya, the land of Obama’s father, to be the president’s first stop.

While an Obama sighting was hard to come by, the people in Ghana were oozing with affection for America’s first black president.

Friday night, 68-year-old Feea, Daughter of Zion, arrived in Accra from Jamaica for a three-day visit, just to see Obama."I couldn’t miss him coming to Africa," she said. "This is a great moment for us as a people. It used to be impossible for a black man to become president."

Under a light drizzle and the night sky, people frantically searched the airport Friday night for the best spot to see Obama. When a handful of Ghanaians strayed from the crowd everyone followed.

Zangba, hesitated to move from his station at the front, but thinking he was missing his chance to see Obama, he broke into a sprint.

"Obama is here!," he shouted.

But it was a false alarm.

The crowd met a police barricade and turned back.

A young boy, dubbed an Obama-look-alike, was interviewed by a television reporter and swarmed by a mass of amazed Ghanaians. Later, the boy had to seek police protection.

When the crowd heard the roar of a plane engine around 9 p.m., people rejoiced. The hustle for a better vantage point intensified.

In the end, the crowd never saw Obama, yet the mood remained festive.

On Saturday Obama addressed Ghana’s parliament in Accra, but the crowd of about 200 people outside the parliament wasn’t the throng one might have expected.

Only those with good connections or wily enough to outfox Ghana’s police got near the site.

Zangba was one of them. He took a taxi to the lightly policed back entrance where he waited patiently for a crowd of people to distract the officers. When they did, he scurried past to join the crowd.

The rest of the people roamed the streets in confused excitement. Wearing Obama shirts, toques, buttons and belts, people were eager to see the president’s motorcade, but most Ghanaiains’ hopes for an Obama-sighting went unfulfilled.

Not everyone was eager to see Obama.

David Pessey, of Ghana’s National Reform Party, believes Obama’s just a fresh face for the same American policies: "He’s riding a tiger."

Pessey suspects Obama visited Ghana in the hopes of placing an American military base in West Africa. But Zangba isn’t worried about America’s foreign policy.

Inspired by Obama, the recent junior-high school graduate dreams of becoming Ghana’s president.

"Obama gives us all hope that we can do anything. He gives us encouragement to lose our inferiority complex," Zangba said.

David Kumagai is a journalism student at University of King’s College. He is an intern at a radio station in Ghana this summer.

Obama's Books:

"Each day, it seems, thousands of Americans are going about their daily rounds--dropping off the kids at school, driving to the office, flying to a business meeting, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets--and coming to the realization that something is missing. They are deciding that their work, their possessions, their diversions, their sheer busyness are not enough. They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives, something that will relieve a chronic loneliness or lift them above the exhausting, relentless toll of daily life"

Meetups address people's very specific needs (such as to learn a language, to get fit, or to succeed at business), but they also address this need that Obama writes about. People sometimes walk-on-air after a Meetup because they feel welcomed and part of a community. People also feel an incredible sense of purpose when a Meetup Group gels and realizes its unique mission

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UK Reports Its First Swine Flu Death

London: A person with underlying health conditions died of swine flu in Scotland on Sunday - the first reported death from the illness outside the Americas, health officials said.

Britain has been harder hit by the virus - known as H1N1- than elsewhere in Europe. Earlier on Sunday, Britain had reported another 61 cases of swine flu, bringing the U.K. total to 1,226 cases.

"Tragic though today's death is, I would like to emphasize that the vast majority of those who have H1N1 are suffering from relatively mild symptoms, " Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said. "I would reiterate that the risk to the general public remains low and we can all play our part in slowing the spread of the virus by following simple hygiene procedures."

One more person tests positive for Swine flu in Karnataka

Now that swine flu has officially been declared to be a pandemic, or global outbreak, health authorities expect to see more cases and deaths worldwide. The World Health Organization said last week that the virus has not become any more lethal, but is now unstoppable.

So far, swine flu appears to be a relatively mild virus, and most people who get it do not need treatment to get better. About half the people who have died from swine flu have had other health conditions including pregnancy, obesity, diabetes, or asthma.

"The patient had underlying health conditions," the government statement announcing the death said, without saying what they were.

Scotland's government said the patient was one of 10 people being treated for the influenza at a hospital. The statement did not identify the patient or the hospital.

It was the first death from the H1N1 strain of influenza reported outside the Americas, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva or the European Centers for Disease Control in Stockholm, which both keep tabs on confirmed cases of swine flu around the world.

The latest WHO report, released on Friday, said 74 countries have reported 29,669 cases of swine flu, including 145 deaths. Fatalities had occurred in eight countries in the Americas: Mexico, the United States, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala.

Last week, the WHO declared the flu a pandemic. WHO said it expected further cases - and deaths - to occur as the pandemic plays out over the next few years.

35 swine flu cases in India as virus spreads

Hugh Pennington, a bacteriologist at Aberdeen University, said the underlying conditions are likely to have been a "significant factor" in the death because it raises the odds the patient will have difficulties.

"It makes it more likely that they will get the serious form of the virus in the first place," he said. "If your lungs are already only working at half capacity when the virus kicks in and takes half of what is left, you will be left teetering on the edge."

Pennington said that while the death was unfortunate, it was "quite unremarkable" given the number of reported cases and compared favorably to ordinary seasonal flu

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Pakistan Has Lost Kashmir Plank: Pakistani Media

Pakistan has lost its Kashmir plank with India bringing on centre stage the need to counter terrorism, an editorial in a leading English daily said Thursday while welcoming the apparent subcontinental thaw after the meeting in Russia between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'There was a time when Pakistan wanted 'movement' on Kashmir from India. Now India wants 'movement' first, on terrorism,' Daily Times said in an editorial headlined 'The message from Yekaterinburg'.


'One phase is over whether Pakistan likes it or not. The next phase is upon us and that is Pakistan's war against Baitullah Mehsud's Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda.


'One reason phase one is over is that even for Pakistan, the priority now is getting rid of the terrorists. Beyond that is a new model of relationship in South Asia between its two big nuclear-armed states and with the threatened countries that lie on the edge of the region,' the editorial contended.


Manmohan Singh had delivered a blunt message to Zardari at their meeting in Yekaterinburg Tuesday, their first after the Mumbai terror attacks that India has blamed on elements operating from Pakistan.


'I must tell you quite frankly that I have come with the limited mandate of discussing how Pakistan can deliver on its assurances that its territory would not be used for terrorists attacks on India,' Manmohan Singh had said.


Delhi Times also noted that New Delhi's official line on Pakistan before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit at Yekaterinburg that India and Pakistan had attended as observers was -- do something about terrorism first and then expect the resumption of dialogue with India.


'The message from Yekaterinburg was that the 'primary issue of terrorism will be discussed by the foreign secretaries of the two countries before the leaders of the two countries meet again in mid-July on the sidelines of an international conference in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt',' the editorial said.


Holding that the war against terrorism 'should not be an India-Pakistan war', the editorial said: 'A new kind of dialogue between the two countries is essential. And it can't be a rehash of what happened in the past, in which some optimists saw 'great progress' but which yielded no results.'


According to The News: 'The resumption of greater normalcy between Islamabad and New Delhi is welcome.'


'But while dialogue and negotiations between the two nations are to be encouraged, and have in the past led to steps - such as the cross-border bus services - that help people meet and encourage contact between them, it is time now to fix a firmer goal,' said the editorial, headlined 'Time to talk'.


Holding that both Pakistan and India 'have suffered immense losses due to terrorism', the editorial said: 'They then stand to gain from coming together.'


'But if this is to happen, India must accept it too has made many errors and committed many wrongs that need to be righted. Simply making demands on others while failing to correct one's own mistakes serves very little useful purpose.


'India needs to demonstrate it deserves a status as 'big brother' in the region by setting the right example and, by doing so, winning the respect of its smaller neighbours,' the editorial maintained.


Dawn, too, focused on the theme of terrorism, saying the two countries should focus on the scourge that 'threatens the peace and stability of South Asia'.


'It is important that neither government provide any kind of sanctuary to terrorists operating against the other in the misplaced belief that this strategy promotes its political interest.


'It is time both realised that terrorism is a double-edged sword that also destroys its protector and patron. Hence the SAARC mechanism that has already been set up to investigate and fight terrorism must be activated and used effectively to the advantage of both,' said the editorial, headlined 'Handshake in Russia'.

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