Barack Obama delivers speech in South Africa 07/17/2018
French World Cup victors show triumph of diversity
Former US president Barack Obama on Tuesday singled out the African heritage of many players in France’s World Cup-winning football team in a speech paying tribute to Nelson Mandela.
Speaking in Johannesburg to mark 100 years since Mandela’s birth, Obama said that embracing diversity “delivers practical benefits since it ensures that a society can draw upon the energy and skills of all… people.”
“And if you doubt that, just ask the French football team that just won the World Cup — because not all these folks look like Gauls to me, they are French, they are French,” he stressed with a smile.
France beat Croatia 4-2 in Sunday’s final in Moscow, with a team featuring many players of African heritage.
Of the 23 players in the French squad, around two-thirds are of Arab or African descent.
Two of France’s goalscorers against Croatia have African roots: Paul Pogba’s parents are from Guinea while Kylian Mbappe’s parents are Cameroonian and Algerian.
Of the players who started in the final, Samuel Umtiti was born in Cameroon, Blaise Matuidi’s parents are Angolan and Congolese, N’Golo Kante’s parents are Malian while Raphael Varane’s father is from the Caribbean island of Martinique.
As Trump on Tuesday again used Twitter to denounce โFake News,โ a phrase he typically employs in response to negative coverage of his actions or rhetoric, Obama said that โthe free press is under attack.โ
Obama also urged people to reject xenophobia and โrabid nationalism,โ warning that history shows countries that embrace โdoctrines of tribal, racial, or religious superiorityโ eventually โfind themselves consumed by civil war or external war.
โYou can be proud of your heritage without denigrating those of a different heritage,โ Obama added.
Obamaโs speech came after Trumpโs high-profile visit to Europe, which Trump claimed was losing its โcultureโ because of immigration policies.
โThese people who are so intent on putting people down and puffing themselves up, theyโre small-hearted,โ Obama said. โThereโs something theyโre just afraid of.โ
Obama concluded with some biting words about the state of American politics.
โYou have to believe in facts. Without facts, thereโs no basis for cooperation. If I say this is a podium and you say this is an elephant, itโs going to be hard for us to cooperate,โ he said.
He applied the analogy to the U.S. withdrawal of the Paris Climate Accord, noting that if American leaders deny the existence of climate change, even though most scientists around the world have reached consensus on the issue, it will be hard to cooperate with other countries on the issue.
He implored the audience to work toward democracy, a pillar of which should be truth-telling. The denial of facts could be the โundoingโ of democracy, he cautioned.
โPeople just make stuff up,โ he said. โThey just double down and lie some more. Politicians have always lied, but it used to be that if you caught them lying, theyโd be like, โOh, man.โ Now they just keep on lying!โ
posted by:ย ย Ahmed Jigga
