Jun 20 2009 /
YES Alumna Reflects on a Historic Moment in Cairo
by Mahinour El Badrawi, 04-05 Egypt
hosted in WI
On Wednesday 3rd June, a number of YES alumni had the privilege of being invited to the speech of President Barack Obama in Cairo. Luckily, I was one of them. So, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts about that historical event and a few things that I found exciting.
First of all, I cannot express how excited I was when I was told that I have an invitation to attend the speech in Cairo University. I had one simple reaction-wow! You can only guess how exciting it is to go to the event if you know how hard it was to get in! I have professors and even friends who are sons and daughters of Egyptian diplomats who could not get an entrance permission. To me, this meant one thing; we, as exchange students, are important, and we matter as tomorrow’s leaders and are significant enough to be among the “crème de la crème” who attended this event.
This idea was also emphasized when President Obama stressed the importance of students and especially exchange students in bringing together the West and East, bridging the differences and strengthening the bonds between the Muslim populations of the world and America.
And here I realized, wow, YES is in line with the Obama plan in the Middle East. In fact, Obama’s foreign policy and prior intentions in his first months as a president are exactly the same as the YES mission and goals. This was something to brighten up the day!
After Obama’s words on the importance of bridging the gap and me being excited of how identical they are to our goals, here come my reflections about the political part of the speech, and about how the public reacted to it. Over the past few days, critiques have either been too enchanted with the promises and intentions shown by the President, or have totally been disillusioned with them and stated they were merely words and promises like the ones “made before over and over."
Personally, my thoughts are something in the middle. I do not think that the words and intentions stated by Obama should be undermined to the degree of being false promises or clichés like some of the critiques in the Middle East claimed them. I believe a declaration of foreign policy and outreach from the U.S to the Muslim world and the Middle East at this point in time was absolutely necessary, especially with Obama treating the issue of Iraq and putting a timeline to withdrawing the troops; one of his strong points as a Democratic candidate for the Presidency.
The hopes and aspirations for change attached to the revolutionary connotations that Obama has earned in his journey to the presidency also require him to make his policy known in the Middle East, and I found that what he said was absolutely one of the most promising public policies ever received in a very long time. I do not think that anything different or better could have been said. However, it is true that a lot of what President Obama said was not new, however, in this tense world, we do need some “stating the obvious” when what is stated is good intentions and will reassure the commitment to peace in the region and in the world as a whole.
In that sense, I do dismiss the negative critiques of the speech yet do understand that some of what he said was previously stated, and I do believe it should have been done this way. Politically, I found the speech to have been extremely intelligent and smart; there was always a balance and a concessionary tone, which I thought was necessary and the best that could have possibly been done or said regarding thorny issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Thus, when looking at the political responsibilities and complexities of the situation, I believe Obama did the best that could have been done and offered the best outreach possible at this point in time.
To cut it short, in my opinion, President Obama is the best political, social and revolutionary option the world could have today.
