"I want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a joyful holiday season." —President Obama pic.twitter.com/dQZy9BqEj8
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 24, 2013Check out behind-the-scenes videos, photos and crafts from this year's #WHHoliday decor: http://t.co/tzpp5EMyQu, pic.twitter.com/H3EEb2EI95
— FLOTUS (@FLOTUS) December 26, 2013
Tutu greeted Obama with a "welcome home" to the continent where his father was born, and pleaded with the U.S. president to be a leader for peace, especially in the Middle East, who can make all Africans proud.
Obama was visiting the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre, an after-school program in a community where many young people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. Obama praised Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped bring an end to South Africa's racist apartheid rule, as "an unrelenting champion of justice and human dignity."
Tutu then spoke of Obama's re-election last fall as America's first African-American president. "You don't know what you did for our psyche," Tutu said. "You won, and we won."
"Your success is our success. Your failure, whether you like it or not, is our failure," Tutu said, reaching out to touch Obama's arm. Obama chuckled and threw up his arms as if acknowledging his fate.
"We want you to be known as having brought peace to the world, especially to have brought an end to the anguish of all in the Middle East," Tutu said. "We pray that you will be known as having brought peace in all of these places where there is strife. You have brought peace and no need for the Guantanamo Bay detention center" in Cuba, where the U.S. has detained dozens of suspected terrorists.
In an address before an enthusiastic audience of students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the oldest university in the continent's largest economy, President Obama saluted the progress that has "rippled across the African continent" in recent decades and encouraged Africa's young people to continue pushing forward in pursuit of a brighter future.
. . . "I believe that my own nation will benefit enormously if you reach your full potential," he said. "I'm calling on America to up its game when it comes to Africa."
He cited the pursuit of new trade relationships with African countries and a new initiative to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa as evidence of America's deepening engagement.
. . . At the outset, the president's remarks took a somber turn as he recognized the ailing former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who remains in critical care in a South African hospital, saying Mandela's health "weighs heavily on our hearts."
"Like billions all over the world, I and the American people have drawn strength from the example of this extraordinary leader and the nation that he changed," he said. "Mandela showed us that one man's courage can move the world."
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — Welcomed by troupes of traditional dancers, President Obama arrived here Monday to say that he hoped Tanzania would benefit from a regional trade partnership that would improve lives in ways that foreign aid cannot.
"We are looking at a new model that's based not just on aid and assistance, but on trade and partnership," he said, giving as an example ways to help Tanzanians grow their own food and export goods.
"Ultimately, the goal here is for Africa to build Africa for Africans," Obama said. "And our job is to be a partner in that process."
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete praised Obama and his predecessor, George W, Bush, who provided the country with millions of dollars in aid to prevent the spread of HIV, spending that Obama has cut in Africa.
. . . President Barack Obama met with South African President Jacob Zuma on the grounds of the historic Union Buildings on Saturday. The two held a press conference in an ornate and intimate room that lasted over an hour. It included topics ranging from international trade to restructuring the United Nations to immigration and of course, the health of former President Nelson Mandela.
Zuma said of Mandela’s health that his condition hadn’t changed but that the country hopes that he will be out of the hospital soon. Earlier, the White House announced that while the president and First Lady will meet with members of the Mandela family today but they will not be visiting the ailing former leader. But Obama took a moment to honor Mandela’s legacy, “The struggle here against apartheid for freedom, Madiba’s moral courage, this country’s historic transition to a free and democratic nation has been a personal inspiration to me. It has been an inspiration to the world.”
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 29, 2013
. . . Obama said that on Saturday he would introduce an international youth initiative, saying, “This afternoon I will be in Soweto to announce a major expansion of our initiatives to invest in young Africans who will shape this country and this continent for decades to come.” The Young African Leadership program will now include a “Washington Fellowship.” The White House says it “will bring 500 young leaders to U.S. universities and colleges each year for academic and leadership training, beginning in 2014, with the goal of increasing to 1000 participants per year within five years.”
On Sunday, the president plans to travel to Cape Town where he will visit the historic Robben Island with his family and he will head to Tanzania on Monday.
Greetings, President Obama (at the University of Johannesburg) pic.twitter.com/1jZwMBWsi7
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 29, 2013
The president and his family visited a small slave house on Goree Island off the coast of Dakar, the nation's capital, where it is said men, women and children were traded, sorted, shackled and weighed before being sent across the Atlantic to the Americas.
The president stared pensively out the "door of no return," described as the exit for those boarding slave ships, while spending about half an hour in the two-story salmon-colored house filled with dark holding cells.
"Obviously, for an African American — and an African American president — to be able to visit this site, I think, gives me even greater motivation in terms of the defense of human rights around the world," Obama said afterward.
"I think more than anything, what it reminds us of is that we have to remain vigilant when it comes to the defense of people's human rights — because I'm a firm believer that humanity is fundamentally good, but it's only good when good people stand up for what's right," he said.
President Obama and the First Family arrive in Dakar, Senegal pic.twitter.com/XuuSdOHTmr
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) June 26, 2013
Pres. Obama gives Pres. Sall of Senegal a pretty sweeeet handshake after their press conference. pic.twitter.com/HSm6Jf31nc
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 27, 2013
President Obama makes "powerful" visit to Goree Island slave-trade house http://t.co/jhDg3v07Ck (Photo: AP) pic.twitter.com/FgJYucqqKp
— msnbc (@msnbc) June 28, 2013
Pres. Obama at a prison cell window at the House of Slaves on Goree Island. FLOTUS is in the background. #Senegal pic.twitter.com/cGyzsLA6jh
— Nerdy Wonka (@NerdyWonka) June 27, 2013
President Obama greets kids on Gorée Island in Senegal: pic.twitter.com/Vx7NevnMnA
— The White House (@whitehouse) June 27, 2013
Can't get enough of @FLOTUS Michelle Obama? She's now on @Instagram: http://t.co/3NUHnOH2y4 pic.twitter.com/kpKRKghgrh
— The White House (@whitehouse) June 27, 2013
Obama is in the middle of a three-country tour of Africa that the White House hopes will compensate for what some view as years of neglect by the administration of America's first black president.
Before departing Dakar, Obama was scheduled to meet with farmers and local entrepreneurs to discuss new technologies that are helping farmers and their families in West Africa, one of the world's poorest and most drought-prone regions.
But it was Mandela, the 94-year-old former South African president who is clinging to life in a Pretoria hospital, who will dominate the president's day even before he arrives in Johannesburg.
Asked on Thursday whether Obama would be able to pay Mandela a visit, the White House said that was up to the family.
"We are going to completely defer to the wishes of the Mandela family and work with the South African government as relates to our visit," deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters in Senegal.
"Whatever the Mandela family deems appropriate, that's what we're focused on doing in terms of our interaction with them."
Departing the West Front of the U.S. Capitol after delivering his second inaugural address on Monday, President Obama wanted to take one last glance of the hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered to celebrate his second term. After all, it would be his last.
"I want to take a look one more time," Obama said, lingering for a few short moments to savor the view as the crowd shuffled past him. "I'll never see this again."
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More than 600 real-life nurses and other healthcare workers joined Boyle's army of volunteers during the extravaganza.
. . . Boyle said: "One of the reasons we put the NHS in the show is that everyone is aware of how important the NHS is to everybody in this country. We believe, as a nation, in universal healthcare. It doesn't matter how poor you are, how rich you are, you will get treated.
"One of the core values of our society is that it doesn't matter who you are, you will get treated the same in terms of healthcare. We all end up there. You can be in all these private hospitals - if anything serious happens to you, you are in the NHS. And that felt like something that we thought was a great thing to celebrate.
"We are almost unique in having universal healthcare. It is something that is very dear to people's hearts. All types of government fight like billy-o, to control it, to cut it, to deal with it. But there is something about it - it is so embedded in us that we have decided to keep it. It is an amazing thing to celebrate."
Boyle said that the volunteers who came from the NHS were "proud people", adding: "They work for something that they truly, truly believe in. We're delighted to add to that by saluting them. All of the volunteers have made a special sacrifice to be with us but these guys are extraordinary.
"They turn up after shifts - you know what they are dealing with every day, they are dealing with mortality and sick children - yet they turn up and they have made it absolutely amazing."
. . . Lottie Pink, from Kingston, south west London, was one of the patients from the hospital who took part in the show. The 10-year-old was treated for a brain tumour two years ago and returns to the hospital every few months for check-ups.
She said: "I am proud to represent all the great work the hospital does. Without them, I would not be here.
As a lesson in good natured statesmanship - if not to say simple manners - it was a masterclass.
For Michelle Obama cast aside stuffy protocol to join in the fun and games to celebrate today’s opening of the Olympic games with more than 1,000 children.
The First Lady met the children - most of them from U.S. military families - in the grounds of Winfield House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador in London.
She was joined by David Beckham and Olympic gold-medal sprinter Carl Lewis who signed autographs.
She said: “I’m so excited,” after jogging to the stage as a marching band played the University of Florida fight song.
“I am thrilled to be here on London for the 2012 Olympic games. I am proud to be leading the U.S. delegation to the opening ceremony.”
Mrs Obama, who later tried out sports including tug-of-war and football alongside the children, offered a tribute to military families who had been invited to take part in the event.
Jenna Bush Hager, one of the George W. Bush's daughters, told "Fox & Friends" the day will be a chance to "celebrate his work, `cause he worked pretty hard, so I think he deserves at least a painting."
As to where it will go, she said: "Probably in the very back somewhere. I'm just kidding."
Actually, the painting will hang prominently in the formal entrance hall to the White House, the Grand Foyer.
