Pres. Obama het vroeg verlede jaar toevallig ’n voorliefde vir die Graham Beck Brut NV ontwikkel toe hy en sy vrou een aand, kort ná sy besluit om hom as presidentskandidaat verkiesbaar te stel, by hul gunsteling-restaurant in Chicago gaan eet het. Die sommelier het twee glase Graham Beck Brut NV aanbeveel en hulle was geweldig beïndruk.
Toevallig was Graham Beck se keldermeester, mnr. Pieter Ferreira, in dié tyd in Chicago om sy wyn te bemark, ofskoon hy Obama nie self raakgeloop het nie.
Agterna het Obama ses bottels bestel vir die geleentheid op 4 November, waar die proppe geklap het voordat hy die skare in Grant Park, Chicago, toegespreek het net nadat hy as president aangewys is.
Die Burger | Barack baie lief vir Bolandse vonkelwyn
Well, why not? He is a coloured, for Heaven's sake.
There was the phone call yesterday to Mahmoud Abbas. Maybe Obama thinks he's the leader of the Palestinians, but as every Arab knows, except perhaps Mr Abbas, he is the leader of a ghost government, a near-corpse only kept alive with the blood transfusion of international support and the "full partnership" Obama has apparently offered him, whatever "full" means. And it was no surprise to anyone that Obama also made the obligatory call to the Israelis.
But for the people of the Middle East, the absence of the word "Gaza" – indeed, the word "Israel" as well – was the dark shadow over Obama's inaugural address. Didn't he care? Was he frightened? Did Obama's young speech-writer not realise that talking about black rights – why a black man's father might not have been served in a restaurant 60 years ago – would concentrate Arab minds on the fate of a people who gained the vote only three years ago but were then punished because they voted for the wrong people?
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The friendly message to Muslims, "a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect", simply did not address the pictures of the Gaza bloodbath at which the world has been staring in outrage. Yes, the Arabs and many other Muslim nations, and, of course, most of the world, can rejoice that the awful Bush has gone. So, too, Guantanamo. But will Bush's torturers and Rumsfeld's torturers be punished? Or quietly promoted to a job where they don't have to use water and cloths, and listen to men screaming?
Sure, give the man a chance. Maybe George Mitchell will talk to Hamas – he's just the man to try – but what will the old failures such as Denis Ross have to say, and Rahm Emanuel and, indeed, Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton? More a sermon than an Obama inaugural, even the Palestinians in Damascus spotted the absence of those two words: Palestine and Israel. So hot to touch they were, and on a freezing Washington day, Obama wasn't even wearing gloves.
Robert Fisk | So far, Obama's missed the point on Gaza...
Hamas said Thursday that it would begin handing out compensation and reconstruction aid to residents of Gaza, in a sign of the challenges Israel faces as it tries to weaken the militant group’s hold after the army’s operation there.
Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for the Hamas government in Gaza, said at a news conference that it would start to distribute the first installment of $35 million to $40 million in payments to Gazans on Sunday. Israel ended its three-week offensive against Hamas last Sunday, and withdrew its last troops from the area early Wednesday.
New York Times | Hamas to Start Paying Gaza Residents Compensation and Reconstruction Aid
It's the sort of thing democratically elected governments — like them or not, do. Recognising that, and rather than starting his presidency phoning a nobody, Obama might have contacted Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh instead.
Or will a non-event become the tone of his presidency?
As for Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner:
As Timothy F. Geithner moved closer yesterday to confirmation as Treasury secretary, he signaled a more confrontational approach toward China, bluntly stating that the new administration thinks Beijing is "manipulating" its currency and it will act "aggressively" using "all the diplomatic avenues" to change China's currency practices.
China's control of the value of its currency, the yuan, has been a friction point for years, with some economists saying Beijing has kept its currency artificially low to keep the prices of its goods cheap and generate trade surpluses. That has led to a global capital imbalance, as American consumers borrowed and spent and China became the United States' largest foreign creditor.
Washington Post | Geithner Says China Manipulates Its Currency
Do you really think you can afford such an attitude? Now, about those tax returns ...
One nine-year-old boy said his father had been shot dead in front of him despite surrendering to Israeli soldiers with his hands in the air. Another youngster described witnessing the deaths of his mother, three brothers and uncle after the house they were in was shelled. He said his mother and one of his siblings had been killed instantly, while the others bled to death over a period of days.
A psychiatrist treating children in the village of Zeitoun on the outskirts of Gaza City, where the alleged incidents took place, described the deaths as a "massacre". Rawya Borno, a Jordanian doctor, said civilians, including children, were rounded up and killed by Israeli troops.
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In interviews with ITV News, Palestinians claimed that Israeli forces knowingly killed civilians in Zeitoun on the morning of Jan 14. Abdullah Samouni, nine, described the moment his father was allegedly "executed" by Israeli soldiers. Holding his arms in the air, he said: "He was surrendering like this. My father came out and they shot him right away."
A boy named Ahmed said he was trapped for days in the wreckage of the shelled Samouni family's house. He said: "My mother was dead beside me, she was clutching my brother Nasser and they were dead. My brother Itzaq was bleeding for two days and then he died. My brother Izmael bled to death in one day. My uncle Talal was bleeding for two hours and he died. God bless them."
Telegraph | Israel accused of executing parents in front of children in Gaza
"Sometimes I wish my patients would just die. Their injuries are so horrifying, that I know they will now have to lead terrible and painful lives."
Dr. Karim Hosni, Al-Naser hospital, Khan Younis
