More Obama

The Chicago Defender has an interview with Barak Obama with more info about what he's doing about Darfur.

"We End Up Being What We Practice Being"

Any blog that describes it's subject matter as "faith and culture, theology and beer, movies and books, and miscellanea," must be worth reading. So check out the parish. He has a great post and discussion about worship. There is a follow-up post as well. His key question, which every church should ask, is:

does the collection of practices in which we engage on a Sunday morning make me a better Christian or a better consumer?

Obama news

The Chicago Tribune reports that Barkck Obama has hired Samantha Power, "a high-profile human-rights activist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and lecturer from Harvard."

I read Power's book, "A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," which won the 2003 Pulitzer, a few months ago. I highly recommend it. It is a history of America's response to genocide in the 20th century. If Obama wants to take a leading role in our response to the genocide in Darfur, he could not find a more knowledgable advisor than Power.

Obama is really taking his position on the Senate Foregin Relations Committee seriously. What a great position for a freshman Senator, especially if he is persuaded to run for President one day. Here's hoping!

Africa

There has been a lot of talk in the blogosphere about Africa and the G8 summit. Some think that nothing the G8 countries do will help, other think that pouring more money to the continent is the way to go. democracyarsenal.org has another one of their top ten lists of ways that President Bush could show that he is really serious about Africa.

1. Make good on existing promises.

2. Launch a major push on vaccine availability.

3. Stop lumping all of Africa together.

4. Address each stage of development.

5. Create a governance aid program.

6. Channel more aid through NGOs.

7. Take action on Darfur.

8. Help Zimbabwean opposition groups.

9. Explore AFTA.

10. Develop aid partnerships.

Be sure to read their comments about each of these items.

Nicolas Kristof has written another article praising Bush for doing more than any previous President to aid Africa, while also criticizing him for not living up to his own rhetoric. Here is a summary.

...the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventual tripling of aid for Africa. Mr. Bush's crowning achievement was ending one war in Sudan, between north and south. And while Mr. Bush has done shamefully little to stop Sudan's other conflict - the genocide in Darfur - that's more than Mr. Clinton's response to genocide in Rwanda (which was to issue a magnificent apology afterward).

...All that said, in the right circumstances aid can be tremendously effective, especially in well-governed countries - Mozambique is an excellent example. And Mr. Bush's new push to help Africa is smartly designed, targeting problems like malaria and sex trafficking, where extra attention and resources will make a big difference on the ground.

Mr. Bush's signature foreign aid program, the Millennium Challenge Account, is off to an agonizingly slow start, but is shrewdly focused on encouraging good governance and economic growth. The first grant went to Madagascar, a well-run country, to clarify property rights there. This isn't sexy, but nothing would help the poor in Africa more than giving them clear title to their land so they could secure loans and start businesses.

...And while Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than most people realize, there's one huge exception, because anything with a whiff of sex in it makes some conservatives go nuts. Mr. Bush's decision to cut off funds for the U.N. Population Fund means that more African girls will die in childbirth. Even more tragic is the administration's blind hostility to condoms to fight AIDS - resulting in more dead Africans.

Mr. Bush has another blind spot as well: while he is right that aid is not a cure-all, sometimes he seems to use legitimate concerns about aid as an excuse for stinginess. Aid has shortcomings, but Mr. Bush himself has shown that it can be used effectively to save lives by the millions.

Yet Mr. Bush is resisting the G-8's calls for further help for Africa; he thinks the sums are better spent on cutting the taxes of the richest people on earth than on saving the lives of the poorest. Come on, Republicans! You need to persuade Mr. Bush to be more generous this week, because his present refusal to help isn't conservative, but just plain selfish.