As President Obama wraps up his whirlwind world tour with the traditional final stop on any American president's foreign relations glad-handing photo-op junket -- the continent of Africa -- let's see how long it takes for the collective media world to go back to ignoring that far-away place with all the dark folks.
If you drew a map of the world according to Western media coverage, the Middle East would be gargantuan and Africa would be the size of Rhode Island. Not that that sets the political agenda, but in our ADD/Idiot Empire, it's good to wake people up every so often to the real world -- and not the brain dead MTV reality show.
I just hope the first African-American president takes advantage of the opportunity he has to really reach out in a real, concrete way to the first continent of his hyphenated ethnicity.
Colonialism ended quite a while ago, but the relationship between the so-called international community and Africa still appears to be a resource-based, materialistic venture, no matter which country is being discussed on the massive, diverse continent.
The best approach for any impoverished nation lies right below the public servants we elect. It's the dirt, stupid.
Our best partnership potential with actual long-term significance would be aimed at sustainable agriculture. Farmer exchange programs, soil scientists, hydrologists and land conservationists all could play a pivotal role in helping each African nation find their best crop options.
If it was framed as saving donor money spent shipping food aid to countries ship overseas, maybe then the roots would be planted for that thing that was so popular some months ago: change. Sadly, dollar bills do seem to be the international language.
Call me crazy, but it's something about food and jobs that can really help the stability of a country.
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