OBAMA IN SOUTH AFRICA, GUANTANAMO TURNKEY VISITS ROBBEN ISLAND

"The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island, who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit." President Obama (comment in guest book of Robben Island, South Africa June 2013)

On his trip to Africa President Obama, took the time out to take his family to notorious Robben Island, the Guantanamo of South Africa. I wonder did the staggering irony of his presence there give him a start as he gazed out of the iron bars of the tiny cells in which Nelson Mandela and other so-called "terrorists" of the past spent decades of their lives under the heavy fist of the Apartheid rulers of that sorry nation. I wonder did he shudder as the realization dawned on him that like the Apartheid rulers of South Africa he was too the perpetrator and facilitator of similar inhumane treatment on another island---Guantanamo. Did his hands tremble as he grasped the worn iron bars when he realized he is responsible for keeping other men in other tiny prison cells half way around the world? Did he think of the suffering and deaths in that place he is personally responsible for? One can not but hope that his visit to Mandela's tiny cell, where that exceptional man, the world's embodiment of courage, silent inner strength and conviction, survived for two decades. Perhaps the powerful emotional vibrations of that cell might have some effect on our President. Perhaps the example of Mr.Mandela's courage and conviction might give our President a tiny bit of the inner strength he needs to actually do something to clean up the embarrassment of our own Robben Island in Cuba where inhumane treatment including shackles and cells are used to suppress human dignity and smother human spirit, which Obama claims to support.

Get the picture?

rjk