JessicaAnn
ONE love, blood, life
Let's hope this will show Bush that more aid is needed for Africa.
Bush Says Will Travel to Africa Next Year
Thu Jun 20, 9:38 PM ET
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush ( news - web sites) said on Thursday he will visit Africa next year and vowed the United States would help African nations with responsible policies to combat disease, poverty and illiteracy.
The dates and itinerary for the trip, which follows former U.S. President Bill Clinton's journeys to sub-Saharan Africa in 1998 and 2000, were not disclosed. A U.S. official who asked not to be named said Bush would also visit sub-Saharan Africa.
"I will be going to the continent next year," Bush told a black tie dinner in honor of the late civil rights leader Leon H. Sullivan, prompting a lengthy standing ovation. "It's going to be a great trip."
Immediately after Bush announced his journey, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo strode across the stage and warmly shook his hand, prompting the U.S. president to joke: "I think the president has in mind a particular stop."
U.S. officials said Bush had no plans to attend a summit in Johannesburg called the World Summit on Sustainable Development -- a follow-up to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit -- that is scheduled for Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.
Acknowledging the poverty and disease that plague much of the continent, Bush held up a vision of an Africa "where people are healthy and people are literate ... a vision free from the horrors of war and terror."
"America will not build this new Africa; Africans will. But we will stand with the African countries that are putting in place the policies for success," the U.S. president said.
"America stands united with responsible African governments across the continent and we will not permit the forces of aggression and chaos to take away our common future," he said.
The evening, which included a tribal dance performance, was in honor of Sullivan, who is best known for his "Sullivan principles," a code of conduct for companies operating in South Africa which called for nonsegregated work places and fair employment and pay and is credited with helping end apartheid.
The president proposed doubling U.S. funding to improve basic education and teacher training in Africa to $200 million over five years, a sum one critic suggested was inadequate.
Bush said the money would train more than 420,000 teachers, provide more than 250,000 scholarships for girls, and partner with historically black colleges and universities in America to provide 4.5 million more textbooks for children in Africa.
"That's $20 million additional a year. $20 million is about what it costs to build a major high school in the United States, and it's probably about 1/20 or 1/30 of what the World Bank ( news - web sites) estimates is needed for Africa for universal education," Gene Sperling," a former Clinton adviser, said on Thursday.
Bush also mentioned his pledge on Wednesday of $500 million to help fight the spread of AIDS ( news - web sites) in Africa and the Caribbean. There are an estimated 40 million HIV ( news - web sites)/AIDS sufferers in the world, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 5,000 Africans die each day because of the disease.
The president also said that he would work to lower trade barriers that make it more difficult for African nations to export their products, calling this a "great obstacle to Africa's development."
The announcement of Bush's trip comes soon after Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's 12-day tour of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia to take a first hand look at African poverty and to ponder ways to alleviate it with Irish rock star Bono, who wore his trademark wraparound blue sunglasses.
"I knew the trip had had an effect on our secretary when he showed up in the Oval Office wearing blue sunglasses," Bush joked.
Bush Says Will Travel to Africa Next Year
Thu Jun 20, 9:38 PM ET
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush ( news - web sites) said on Thursday he will visit Africa next year and vowed the United States would help African nations with responsible policies to combat disease, poverty and illiteracy.
The dates and itinerary for the trip, which follows former U.S. President Bill Clinton's journeys to sub-Saharan Africa in 1998 and 2000, were not disclosed. A U.S. official who asked not to be named said Bush would also visit sub-Saharan Africa.
"I will be going to the continent next year," Bush told a black tie dinner in honor of the late civil rights leader Leon H. Sullivan, prompting a lengthy standing ovation. "It's going to be a great trip."
Immediately after Bush announced his journey, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo strode across the stage and warmly shook his hand, prompting the U.S. president to joke: "I think the president has in mind a particular stop."
U.S. officials said Bush had no plans to attend a summit in Johannesburg called the World Summit on Sustainable Development -- a follow-up to the 1992 Rio Earth Summit -- that is scheduled for Aug. 26 to Sept. 4.
Acknowledging the poverty and disease that plague much of the continent, Bush held up a vision of an Africa "where people are healthy and people are literate ... a vision free from the horrors of war and terror."
"America will not build this new Africa; Africans will. But we will stand with the African countries that are putting in place the policies for success," the U.S. president said.
"America stands united with responsible African governments across the continent and we will not permit the forces of aggression and chaos to take away our common future," he said.
The evening, which included a tribal dance performance, was in honor of Sullivan, who is best known for his "Sullivan principles," a code of conduct for companies operating in South Africa which called for nonsegregated work places and fair employment and pay and is credited with helping end apartheid.
The president proposed doubling U.S. funding to improve basic education and teacher training in Africa to $200 million over five years, a sum one critic suggested was inadequate.
Bush said the money would train more than 420,000 teachers, provide more than 250,000 scholarships for girls, and partner with historically black colleges and universities in America to provide 4.5 million more textbooks for children in Africa.
"That's $20 million additional a year. $20 million is about what it costs to build a major high school in the United States, and it's probably about 1/20 or 1/30 of what the World Bank ( news - web sites) estimates is needed for Africa for universal education," Gene Sperling," a former Clinton adviser, said on Thursday.
Bush also mentioned his pledge on Wednesday of $500 million to help fight the spread of AIDS ( news - web sites) in Africa and the Caribbean. There are an estimated 40 million HIV ( news - web sites)/AIDS sufferers in the world, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 5,000 Africans die each day because of the disease.
The president also said that he would work to lower trade barriers that make it more difficult for African nations to export their products, calling this a "great obstacle to Africa's development."
The announcement of Bush's trip comes soon after Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's 12-day tour of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia to take a first hand look at African poverty and to ponder ways to alleviate it with Irish rock star Bono, who wore his trademark wraparound blue sunglasses.
"I knew the trip had had an effect on our secretary when he showed up in the Oval Office wearing blue sunglasses," Bush joked.