Author Archives: Stephen Kaufman

About Stephen Kaufman

Stephen Kaufman is an experienced writer who has covered the White House and the State Department, and continues to report on international and democracy issues, including press freedom.|| As a writer for America.gov, he has covered stories in Afghanistan, Russia and the United Kingdom. His day job also manages to subsidize his rock and roll career.

Rajiv Shah: Newest Member of the Obama Administration

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As Secretary of State Clinton said on Wednesday, development is going to be just as important to President Obama’s foreign policy as diplomacy and defense, and the president has picked 36-year old Indian-American Dr. Rajiv Shah to oversee those efforts as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Shah was sworn in yesterday and immediately went to work focusing on ways to help Afghanistan improve its agricultural sector. As USAID administrator, he said he will be guided by the two principles of doing development work in “deep partnership” with the host countries, and measuring the work by real results, rather than the amount of money that is spent.

Shah comes from the Department of Agriculture, where he worked as undersecretary for research and chief scientist. Before that, he held senior positions at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.

At Shah’s swearing in ceremony, Secretary Clinton said he brings “determination and an unwavering belief that anything is possible,” as well as “humility and quiet confidence instilled by his family.”

Shah “also carries with him the enduring images of his first trip to India as a boy with his parents, both immigrants from that country, where he saw that nation’s rich history and diversity, but also saw human suffering on a scale that inspired him to action then and continues to inspire him now,” she said.

The United States is Still Open to Visitors

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President Obama says there are increased security measures that many travelers to the United States may have to cope with following the attempted attack on an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas.

“Just as al Qaeda and its allies are constantly evolving and adapting their efforts to strike us, we have to constantly adapt and evolve to defeat them, because as we saw on Christmas, the margin for error is slim and the consequences of failure can be catastrophic,” he said after meeting with his national security team January 5.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is mandating enhanced screening for all air passengers coming to the United States from the four countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism (Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria), and ten other “countries of interest” (Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen). The TSA says the “countries of interest” list is under constant review and may be modified as circumstances warrant.

But at the same time, the Obama administration is also reminding the world that the United States still welcomes visitors, the overwhelming majority of whom come as tourists, students or for work or business purposes. Travelers to United States are important not only for its tourism industry, but also to foster goodwill and mutual understanding.

At the State Department, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P.J. Crowley said the interaction between Americans and their guests is “actually part of the process by which ultimately we will defeat and mitigate political extremism.”

“We’re not closing our doors to the United States; far from it,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that the process by which people come here and travel here is as safe as it can be.”

Obama tells New Orleans “we will not forget you”

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Yesterday was not President Obama’s first visit to New Orleans after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, but it was his first time as the head of federal agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security who came under criticism for their response in the immediate aftermath of the crisis.

At a town hall meeting at the University of New Orleans, the president acknowledged that the U.S. federal government “wasn’t adequately prepared and we didn’t adequately respond” in late August 2005, and there is still “a long way to go” towards a full recovery. “There are sewers and roads still to repair. There are houses and hospitals still vacant. There are schools and neighborhoods still waiting to thrive once more,” he said.

But progress has been made in getting more federal assistance to the city, reducing the number of residents living in emergency housing, and moving forward on stalled infrastructure, education and health projects, he said, and the Recovery Act has “put thousands of Gulf Coast residents back to work.”

“We will not forget about New Orleans,” he promised. “[T]here are too many folks out there who are having a tough time — to get tired,” and who are still working hard to rebuild their unique community.

“The story of this city’s resilience begins with all the men and women who refused to give up on their homes; who stayed to clean up and rebuild — not just their own homes or their own yards or their own lives, but their neighbors’, too,” he said.

The people of New Orleans “have reminded the rest of America what it means to persevere in the face of tragedy, to rebuild in the face of ruin,” Obama said.

Obama observes Diwali at the White House

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President Obama became the first president to light a ceremonial Diya at the White House to mark the observance of Diwali, the “festival of lights.” He also used the occasion to sign a new initiative aimed at expanding opportunities for Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage.

Diwali, holy to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists, has a different significance to each faith, but the president said the lamps symbolize “the victory of light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance.” The festival is a time for both rejoicing and reflecting on the less fortunate, he said.

“In that spirit of celebration and contemplation, I am happy to light the White House Diya, and wish you all a Happy Diwali, and a Saal Mubarak,” he told White House guests at the October 14 ceremony.

The president then signed an executive order to set up a commission to find the most effective ways of helping Americans of East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian heritage, as well as descendants of Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.

There are “very real challenges” facing certain Asian-American communities, he said, such as having higher than average rates of diabetes and Hepatitis B, higher school dropout rates, low college enrollment rates, and economic disparities, particularly among those of Hmong, Cambodian and Malaysian descent. In addition, Obama said many continue to face language and workplace barriers, and have been victims of hate crimes.

The U.S. government can provide help, he said. For example, the Small Business Administration can offer loans to Asian-American entrepreneurs, the Department of Health and Human Services can fund research on the diseases that disproportionately affect them, and the Justice Department can uphold their right to vote, as well as provide language assistance at the polls. The two year commission will collect data on the many communities in order to find the most effective means of helping them.

Ending discrimination against gays and lesbians

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Gays and lesbians are still struggling for acceptance and equal rights in the United States, and President Obama has told them “I’m here with you in that fight.”

The president spoke to 3000 people at a black-tie dinner of the Human Rights Campaign in Washington October 10, and said he would end the U.S. military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, which has allowed gays to serve their country only if they can keep their sexual orientation secret. He also said he expects Congress to pass legislation extending the definition of a hate crime to include violence based on sexual orientation so he can sign it into law. Members of Congress are also working to pass an employee non-discrimination bill that would prohibit a worker from being fired simply for being gay.

Obama compared the struggle for gay rights to the African-American Civil Rights movement, and said “we cannot — and we will not — put aside issues of basic equality,” despite the many other urgent challenges facing today’s United States.

“My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians,” Obama said. “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.”

What is the status of gays and lesbians in your country? Is sexual orientation an issue of public debate, a non-issue, or something that cannot be freely discussed?

Obama Expresses Surprise, Humility at Nobel Peace Prize

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“This is not how I expected to wake up this morning,” the president said, after hearing that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had awarded him with the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace. “I am both surprised and deeply humbled,” he said, and “do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.”

“To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace,” he said.

There have been detractors in the United States and overseas for the Nobel Committee’s decision. After only nine months in office, the president’s vision of eliminating nuclear weapons and his renewed emphasis on global cooperation and dialogue to resolve challenges such as climate change and pandemic disease have not yet accomplished their goals. Obama himself said today that some of his policy goals may not be completed during his administration, and the elimination of nuclear weapons “may not be completed in my lifetime.”

But when Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland announced the decision in Oslo, he compared President Obama to other peace prize winners such as former West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whose own reform efforts had not been achieved when they received the prize.

“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” Jagland said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”

The president said the prize has been used to “give momentum” to causes, and he said he sees the award, which will be given in Oslo December 10, as “a call to action” for the United States and all nations to “confront the common challenges of the 21st century.”

What do you think about this surprise announcement? Do you think this will help or inadvertently hurt President Obama as he tries to advance his policy goals?

The first lady’s heritage offers a window into a painful past

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Yesterday, the New York Times published a fascinating article compiling research on first lady Michelle Obama’s genealogical background. I have always been a fan of genealogy because it can shift the historical focus from the famous to the more “common” people, offering a much fuller and more accurate picture of what life was actually like. What the story of the first lady’s ancestors shows is a family’s slow but steady rise over more than a century from the worst of conditions, indignities and abuses to becoming a celebrated and influential symbol of today’s United States.

Much of the information in the article is also apparently new to the first lady and the rest of her family. As I blogged and wrote about earlier this year, many descendants of slaves and slaveholders are simply not aware of their past, or share a common desire not to talk about it out of a sense of shame. But, as President Obama said during his campaign, instead of continuing to sweep the issue under the carpet or simply declare it “ancient history,” slavery is something many Americans, black and white, still need to come to terms with if they are going to move forward together to build a more unified country.

Of course, the United States is not alone in having skeletons in its closet. When you think about your family’s history, what historical legacies still lurk in the shadows and perhaps play a part in your country’s modern day politics? Does knowing your family’s role help you understand and motivate you to move forward, or would you rather not know?

Directive from my boss

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President Obama, who I can also describe as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of my company, the U.S. federal government, ordered us to start measuring our greenhouse gas emissions and set targets within 90 days to reduce them by the year 2020.

In the president’s Executive Order, which he issued October 5, there are two important things to bear in mind with this requirement. One is that the U.S. federal government is the largest energy consumer in the U.S. economy, occupying nearly 500,000 buildings, operating more than 600,000 vehicles, and purchasing more than $500 billion per year in goods and services. I am also one of more than 1.8 million civilian employees. In other words, that’s about the same number of employees as Walmart, the world’s largest employer, had in 2005.

Which brings me to the second point: President Obama wants his employees to lead by example “when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste, and use environmentally-responsible products and technologies.”

Along with coming up with a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, we “feds” are also being asked to meet other targets such as 50 percent recycling and waste diversion by 2015, a 30 percent reduction in vehicle-fleet petroleum use by 2020, and a 26 percent improvement in water efficiency by 2020.

I’m curious to see what plans the State Department will come up with by January 5, 2010. From my tiny little corner of the federal government, I can see one way of making my workplace more green: automatic hand dryers as an alternative to paper towels.

Obama Honors Mahatma Gandhi

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“If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?” That was the question a student from Arlington, Virginia asked President Obama when he visited her school last month.

The president’s answer? Indian independence and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi. “He’s somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. (Martin Luther) King with his message of nonviolence,” and “ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics,” Obama said.

Today President Obama recognized the anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, saying Americans owe him “an enormous measure of gratitude,” including his influence on Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement. Today’s United States “has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent social action movement for Indian independence which he led,” Obama said.

The occasion offers a moment for Americans to join with Indians in celebrating his life, and a time “to reflect on his message of non-violence, which continues to inspire people and political movements across the globe,” the president said.

When President Obama was Senator Obama from Illinois, just a short year ago, he included Gandhi in his “wall of heroes” gallery of photographs in his Senate office. The historic photo of Gandhi sitting at his spinning wheel hung among those of former U.S. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, Dr. King, and the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.

Reflecting it is the 140th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth, I can’t help but remember renowned physicist Albert Einstein, himself a big Gandhi fan, who said: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.”

Obama sets the latest refugee quotas

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President Obama has authorized up to 80,000 refugees to enter the United States during the 2010 fiscal year (FY), which begins today, October 1. In a presidential determination, he specified what is known as the “refugee ceiling” or the maximum number of refugees allowed from each world region. The figure includes an “unallocated reserve” designed to accommodate unforeseen crises, and specifies that immigrants from Cuba, the former Soviet Union, Iraq, and those identified by U.S. embassies as having “exceptional circumstances” will, “if otherwise qualified” to enter the U.S., also be considered refugees.

The president said his administration is “committed to maintaining a robust refugee admissions program,” which has been an important part of the overall U.S. effort in “support of vulnerable people around the world.” Citing the recent global economic downturn, Obama said an in-depth review of the program was done “with the goal of strengthening support to both the refugees and the communities in which they are being resettled.”

I decided to do a little review of my own, comparing the latest figures with those of a few previous years (FY 2007-FY2010). Not surprisingly, I found that presidents adjust the numbers and allocations for refugee admissions each year, perhaps to reflect the latest needs assessments from their advisers.

There were some interesting developments. For example, in FY 2008 then-President Bush increased the allowed number of refugees from 70,000 to the current 80,000 level, and much of that went towards allowing a dramatic increase in refugees (+22,500) from the Near East and South Asia. In FY 2009, an additional 9,000 were allowed from those regions and President Bush specified that those coming from Iraq would be considered refugees. But during both years, Bush made cuts to the numbers of refugees coming from Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

By comparison to the previous two years, President Obama’s adjustments today were fairly modest. He increased the number of those coming from Africa by 3,500, with the current level now at 15,500. The Latin America/Caribbean region was increased by 500 to 5,000. East Asia and the Near East/South Asia were both decreased by 2,000 for a total of 17,000 and 35,000, respectively, and the numbers for Europe/Central Asia and the unallocated reserve were unchanged at 2,500 and 5,000 respectively.

Marking World Refugee Day on June 20, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States is the world’s largest donor for refugee relief, contributing $1.4 billion in 2008, and “nearly 3 million refugees have made new homes in the United States, more than any other nation in the world.”

What are your thoughts on President Obama’s refugee quota? How do you think these kinds of decisions should be made?