Just compare Obama's speech in Cairo to the Middle East with his speech to Africa; they are two different speeches. The speech in Cairo says: "we are sorry for what we did;" the speech in Africa says: "forget about what we did and talk about what you did." For Americans to talk about Africa's problems being African is an excuse for avoiding America's problems. But for Africans to talk about Africa's problems is not an excuse, it is a beginning.
I think the Americans have a more serious problem than just being hypocritical. Look at it particularly in Africa; American presence in Africa is above all, military. America today has nothing more to offer to Africa except for AFRICOM (Africa High Command) -- more soldiers, more military alliances, more war on terror and more militarization. That is a real problem because they are competing against the Chinese, the Brazilians, and the Indians. Everybody they are competing against is offering non-military goods; infrastructure, development; they are offering a joint enterprise in which they hope to benefit, but they realize that since they are outsiders, they can only benefit if the insiders benefit. That has always been the outsider's point of view that unless you deliver some benefits to the insider, you have no chance. The Americans have nothing to offer; Barack Obama has a nice rhetoric, but he is confronted by strong and well-established military institutions.
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