From: michael seium (michael.seium@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Aug 12 2009 - 22:00:35 EDT
*Hello to all peace seeking folks,
May be the Obama team can clean up the big mess at Foggy Bottom before it's
too late. They need to consider Eritrea's role in the horn as a positive
first step and work with Eritrea to shape up the wrong policies of past.
Instead of attacking Eritrea for everyone else's problems, they need to
recognize that there is a major problem at the institution and fix it
quickly. Please read and share your opinions.
Find this article at:
Find this article at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-10-africa_N.htm
Problems plague State Dept.'s Africa bureau
*By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
August 12, 2009
WASHINGTON — The State
Department<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/United+States+Department+of+State>'s
Africa operations are beset with "leadership shortcomings" that "compound
acute staffing problems," according to a bluntly worded inspector general's
report released Monday in the midst of Secretary of StateHillary Rodham
Clinton<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/People/Politicians,+Government+Officials,+Strategists/Executive/Hillary+Rodham+Clinton>'s
trip to Africa.
"There is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the uneven quality of
leadership that affects recruitment to key positions in some cases, and
retention in others," said the report, written by a team of diplomats who
interviewed Bureau of African Affairs employees.
Despite the criticism, the report said the Africa bureau "performs
extraordinarily well in light of the constant, exhausting crisis management
that characterizes much of its work." It praised the new leadership under
the Obama<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/People/Politicians,+Government+Officials,+Strategists/Executive/Barack+Obama>
administration,
including Johnnie Carson, the new assistant secretary of African affairs.
However, the report said:
• Diplomats feel overwhelmed by new demands without additional staff.
• The group in charge of boosting the U.S. image is a "failed office" with
no strategic plan and little integration with other diplomats.
• While the United States "helps feed Africa," it should focus more on
helping Africans feed themselves — and on preventing HIV/AIDS as well as
treating the condition.
• There isn't enough travel money to properly oversee a $2 billion Africa
peacekeeping program.
• A new military command in Africa is "stepping into a void created by a
lack of resources for traditional development."
• Corruption "receives insufficient attention as an impediment to trade,
development and investment."
President Obama's focus on African political corruption, which he laid out
in a speech last month in Ghana, has not yet penetrated the bureaucracy,
that last finding suggests.
Clinton has addressed the issue repeatedly during her seven-nation African
tour. In Angola on Sunday, she urged lawmakers to "stand against
corruption."
The State Department "looks forward to considering the report's
recommendations" and using them to improve the Africa bureau, spokesman Bill
Strassberger said.
*Find this article at:*
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-10-africa_N.htm