Monster Ball -- Obama Wines And Dines Africa's Murderous Dictators, Theives and Homophobes

From the UK's Daily Mail, an article which I highly recommend.

I wrote a blog called Anglophones Invented Freedom, But African Americans Don't Get It.  Apparently they never will and here's part of the answer:

"Obama's White House opened its doors to some of Africa’s most evil dictators and homophobes and turned blind eye to their human rights record.

The red carpet was rolled out for Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who shot or jailed virtually all his political opponents, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh, who threatened to ‘cut off the head’ of any homosexuals in the country and for Cameroon’s Paul Biya, who has the dubious honor of ranking 19th on author David Wallechinsky's 2006 list of the world's 20 worst living dictators.  Horrible dictator Robert Mugabe was there too.

Many of the leaders were later photographed in the White House, posing for individual portraits with Obama and the First Lady."

Keep in mind that this is Obama's cultural and political heritage:

"President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s longest serving dictator after seizing power from his uncle and mentor (who used to hang regime critics from the capital’s street lights) in 1979.

The average income of his citizens is $2 a day, few live beyond 53 and 20 per cent of children die before they reach five years of age. Last year the country ranked 163 out of 177 on Transparency International. There is no freedom of the press, the country’s one television station is government-run and clean water is scarce. In 2011, the United States' Department of Justice made moves to seize more than $70 million in assets from President Obiang's son, Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue.

Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore is another African leader who seized power by bloody coup. The Burkina Faso president’s 1987 uprising left his predecessor Thomas Sankara dead – who himself had taken power four years earlier alongside Compaore. In 2011 he watched as protests gave way to calls for his resignation over claims of police brutality and government corruption. However, his presidential guard eventually squashed a mutiny, then made concessions to appease the remaining protesters.

Cameroon's Paul Biya has the dubious honour of ranking nineteenth on author David Wallechinsky's 2006 list of the world's 20 worst living dictators.

Human rights groups claim Angolan president Jose Eduardo do Santos has murdered many and exploited the country's resources to his own gain.

Gambian president Yahya Jammeh took power in a military coup in 1994. Although the coup itself was bloodless, in the 20 years since he has been accused of countless breaches of human rights. In 2008, he threatened to 'cut off the head' of any homosexuals in the country. The following year, it was reported up to 1,000 Gambians had been abducted by the government on charges of witchcraft - they were taken to prisons and forced to drink poison."

You get the picture?

Welcome to Obama's cultural heritage. I wrote that most African Americans are estranged from the Anglophone cultural history of political and economic freedom and self-reliance that white Americans inherited from England and Northern Europe.  But African Americans, including Obama, are often hostile to that heritage and those key ideas.  Theirs is a heritage of corruption, dictators, brutality, theft, murder, hate, homophobia and slavery.   Wonderful, huh?  Oh, and by the way, George Bush was there too.

How come I have to read about this from a UK newspaper and no similar coverage in the US??