Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp, this is The World. Today, President Obama in Ghana. It’s his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president. Our correspondent Laura Lynch is in the capital, Accra. Laura, we’re going to get to the nitty-gritty foreign policy stuff in a minute or two, but first, just tell me what’s going on in Accra today. I’m assuming this Obama trip is a really big deal there.

LAURA LUNCH: It is a really big deal, practically every street that you drive down, you see posters welcoming President Obama, posters with Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, and the word Aquaba, which is in the Niganayan [PH] language means welcome. And some of them also say, welcome home, which gives the sentiment that the undercurrent of this visit, is the excitement of it is all about welcoming the United States first African American President to Africa as a sitting President. There’s no doubt that people here feel a great sense of pride because of that, a great sense of connection to this President, even though they’ve had other President’s come and visit here, President Bush was here in 2008, and President Clinton before him. So, no surprise that for the people here, this s a cause for great excitement.

JEB SHARP: And, presumably there will be an awful lot of people, many Ghanaians hoping to catch a glimpse of President Obama. How prepared is the Ghanaian security operation?

LAURA LUNCH: Well, there are a few wrinkles in all of this, Jeb. What’s happened was that they were initially hoping that they were going to have an open door speech given by President Obama in Independent Square, which is where Bill Clinton gave a speech some years ago that was attended by a hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians, and others from Africa. Well, that’s not gonna happen. Now they’re saying part of the problem is the weather, and no doubt the weather here is terrible, Jeb. The rains have just been pouring down, there has been flooding, the streets have been damaged. So, that is a definite problem, but there may also be concerns about security, with a crowd that big. So, unfortunately for the Ghanaians, they’ve moved the speech indoors to a conference center that can accommodate only two thousand people. And this is supposed to be his major speech, people are wanting to see him. They’re going to be disappointed when they don’t get a chance to see him in person. The only chance that someone might get is a fleeting glimpse of a motor Kay going by, or perhaps those who might be gathered at Cape Coast, just up the coast from Accra, when he goes to see a [INDISCERNIBLE] in the afternoon. Other than that, really not much chance for any kind of personal glimpse of the President in Ghana.

JEB SHARP: Just to be clear, that much anticipated speech is scheduled for tomorrow?

LAURA LUNCH: Yes.

JEB SHARP: And for all the anticipated crowds and the buzz, give us a sense of how widespread the excitement is. I mean, do you find Obama-mania everywhere?

LAURA LUNCH: No, it’s not everywhere. It is in large part here in the city in Accra, and other parts of the country. But, today I was at a market, a market that serves some of the poorest people who are living in Accra. And some of the people there, well, they weren’t really paying any attention at all, you didn’t see Obama banner. Or as you’re about to hear in my report, there are some who have some very practical concerns that they would like President Obama to address. It’s market day in one of Accra’s poorest neighborhoods. The chicken’s cooped up inside this wired cage will be on someone’s dinner table tonight. There will be food for some, but for others here, probably not enough. 52-year-old Ebenezer Tetteh knows all about the President’s visit, and he wants Mr. Obama to tell Ghana’s leaders to cut out the corruption and the waste, including all the millions spent building a grand Presidential palace.

EBENEZER TETTEH: While we are hungry.

LAURA LUNCH: He’s telling you he’s building that brand new presidential palace, and you’re going hungry.

EBENEZER TETTEH: And we are hungry, our children can’t wait. Armed robbery is still going on.

LAURA LUNCH: Armed robbery is still going on. This is the view from the street, or given the torrential rains of the last week, the view from the muddy pathways that crisscross across slums. Corruption, mismanagement, poverty, and a host of other problems mar many people’s lives. But political analyst, Kofi Bentil thinks those matters will be drowned out by the sounds of Mr. Obama praising Ghana’s stable democracy.

KOFI BENTIL: In my mind, what President Obama is coming to do is give us a hug, and say way to go, that’s it. What are they looking for? They are looking to showcase this small country in West Africa as a model to follow.

LAURA LUNCH: Still, the president has made it clear, America has strategic and economic interests in Ghana and across Africa. Gaby Asare Otchere-Darko knows what that really means.

GABY OTCHERE-DARKO: We have something they want, they have something we want. Lets sit down and talk.

LAURA LUNCH: Otchere-Darko is a lawyer and a political consultant for Ghana’s main opposition party. The recent oil discovery in the seabed off the country’s coast could provide the United States with an alternative to the middle east, but only if the region is stable. Otchere-Darko says that’s where America’s interest in Africa’s energy potential dovetails with its desire to establish a military presence on the continent.

GABY OTCHERE-DARKO: America wants oil, we have oil. America has a strong military power, and I really can’t see America invading any African country, but it can help us enhance our capacity to defend ourselves among ourselves, and against, you know, these sort of hard-line selfish militants who may be within our midst. So, I think really, this American interests don’t necessarily have to contradict African interest.

LAURA LUNCH: The United States military created Africa Command, or Africom in 2007. Its stated mission is to help Africa succeed, but so far, Africom is African in name only. It’s based in Germany, since there aren’t any African nations willing to play host.

Ghana is an attractive candidate precisely because of its stability and it’s newfound oil. But Kofi Bentil says, Ghanaians aren’t interested.

KOFI BENTIL: We don’t like Africom, we don’t want a situation where the US has a huge foothold in Ghana. We think it has the potential of destabilizing us. Much as we would like to help the Americans, we know what happens when you have a huge American base in your country. The Americans simply attract trouble, so I think that if they put a huge base here, we’ll have to up our security a hundred times and there’ll be a collateral damage to us.

LAURA LUNCH: Gaby Otchere-Darko disagrees. He thinks Mr. Obama might try to sell Africom as a way to win the battle against the drug lords who are turning the region into a hub for smugglers.

GABY OTCHERE-DARKO: How Africom would work is if there is a strong partnership element. And if it goes beyond what may be seen as American interest. The drug war, for instance, is affecting African countries, but it’s also of mutual concern for Africans, Europeans, and Americans. If there’s one area that Africom can support us, I think that will help Africom.

LAURA LUNCH: It’s unlikely there will be any big pronouncements about Africom or oil during the president’s brief visit. Instead, Mr. Obama’s public remarks are likely to focus more on the need for African nations to mend their ways, end dictatorship, clean up corruption and help people help themselves. Kofi Bentil knows Ghana will be held up as the shining example, and he’ll welcome the attention, but that won’t last forever.

KOFI BENTIL: Unfortunately for me, I know that after two, three days of the euphoria, we’re going to go back to the same old Ghana, and we’re going to have to solve our problems looking hard and thinking, you know, properly about how to deal with them.

LAURA LUNCH: American Presidents, Clinton, Bush and now Obama have all come calling on Ghana in recent years, using it as a platform for preaching the virtues of democracy and economic reform. Still, little has changed across the continent, many regimes are unstable, many elections flawed and even here in Ghana, many can’t afford to feed themselves. For The World, I’m Laura Lynch in Accra.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is the World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston. Barack Obama came, and he saw, but it’s not clear he conquered. President Obama had a poor image among Russians before his visit to Moscow earlier this week. His summit with Russia’s leaders was a chance to change that perception, to reset relations.  Jessica Golloher reports on how Russian TV covered the Obama visit.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Over pictures of the two leaders shaking hands, Russian TV said, “Obama brings a big change in foreign policy.” Despite the positive headlines, Mascha Lipman with the Carnegie Center in Moscow is skeptical that Mr. Obama made a strong impression. For instance, neither the first family’s departure from Moscow, nor for that matter, their arrival on Monday, got much coverage on State TV.

MASCHA LIPMAN: If they chose not to show the departure or the arrival. If they chose not to focus on, you know, a wonderful family, totally charismatic figure of Obama himself, his wife, little girls. We didn’t broadcast it so that the Russian public may be charmed by the American President, or would be unduly impressed by him.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: State run Television did not carry the two President’s news conference live, but did show excerpts throughout the day. They also described meetings between the two leaders as positive. Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov boasted that US/Russian relations were on the mend because Mr. Obama needs Russia.

SERGEI LAVROV: His administration wants to reconsider their view of the global situation, and thinks over the threats it needs to react to. And the main threats are terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Obama’s main idea is that the United States will not be able to counter these threats on its own, and Russia is indispensable here.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Obama’s speech to graduates at the New Economic School was broadcast on a cable channel, but not live or on major networks. During the speech, Mr. Obama was critical of the Kremlin’s increasingly authoritarian politics and aggressive foreign policy. Mascha Lipman of the Carnegie Center says, the kind of TV coverage the summit got shows the Kremlin hasn’t yet made up its mind about the meeting’s success.

MASCHA LIPMAN: We really need to see what issues the coverage will be focused on, and what quotes will be used, and whether the focus will be on the achievements, on what was not achieved, you know, the differences that remain.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Before Mr. Obama came to Russia, a public opinion poll showed that 75 percent of Russians didn’t have faith that he would do right by Russia. And considering the coverage he received here over the past few days, ordinary people didn’t get much of a chance to change their minds. For The World, I’m Jessica Golloher in Moscow.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

View pictures

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: Ghanaians already know what they think about President Obama, they are delighted that he’s gonna stop by the West African country this weekend. The World’s Laura Lynch reports from the Ghana’s capital, Accra.

LAURA LYNCH: The partying has already started, even if Barack Obama isn’t around to join in the dancing. There’s American barbecue, American flags, and just beside the dance floor, a place where you can watch the president’s inaugural speech all over again, if you get bored with the party. This is the Hotel Obama, not five star, not a splashy set up, but owner Kwame Osuru hopes now that he’s built it, they, they being the Obamas, will come.

[SOUND CLIP]

LAURA LYNCH: The most expensive room has a small lounge, a big, big bed and a lovely Obama family portrait on the wall. The other rooms have names too, Michelle Obama’s is down the hall, Joe Biden’s is just opposite. Then there’s the Harvard room, the Hawaii room and the White House room. Now you might think this is just a bit of marketing, but Osuru lived in New Jersey for more than two decades, married there, and raised a family. So the hotel and Mr. Obama’s impending visit, mean a lot to him.

KWAME OSURU: And for me, with all due respect, as a colored person, it gives hope. To show an appreciation for the people of the United States, for looking beyond the barriers of colors, and look for what is good for them. It gives me also hope that my daughter and my son who are Americans, it tells them to work hard, there is opportunity for them.

LAURA LYNCH: There’s a tendency for people here to attach whatever significance they like to the presidential visit, even though it will last less than 24 hours. Benis De Koomah (PH) runs the center dedicated to the memory of American civil rights pioneer, W.E.B. Dubois. Dubois moved to Ghana in 1961, and is buried on the grounds of the center. De Koomah is hoping President Obama will lay a wreath at the gravesite.

BENIS DE KOOMAH: It represent the desire of Dubois for black people to come home, to come to the African continent, so Dubois himself make the first move by dying in a continent of Africa. And if a black President also have this high office and coming to Ghana, and following up the footsteps of the forefathers, or the leaders of black people, it’s a very interesting and happy for Ghana.

[SOUND CLIP OF A CAR]

LAURA LYNCH: Mr. Obama has framed this trip as one meant to highlight Ghana’s stable democracy, choosing it over his troubled ancestral homeland of Kenya, to make his point. Ghanaians know that and are proud. They’re also very, very excited.

[SOUND CLIP]

LAURA LYNCH: Chris Adu is smiling as he unpacks more Obama T-shirts.

CHRIS ADU: Obama make me happy. I’m happy. And now I’m expecting Obama, I’m happy, I’m making it big.

LAURA LYNCH: Adu is making it big. He says he’s selling about 200 dollars worth of shirts a day right now. Coretta Osuru, hotel owner Kwame Osuru’s American born and raised daughter spoke with pride of her Ghanaian heritage. Still, being named after Martin Luther King’s widow Corretta, she’s also proud of Mr. Obama. This weekend, her two worlds will come together.

CORETTA OSURU: I feel that his visit here will help to make other international people and from different countries know more about West Africa, and understand that that Ghana is a very good country. Its not war, it’s not a zoo. People have a lot of misperceptions about the place, and I think that once Obama comes, it’ll reveal that Ghana’s a very good and progressing country.

LAURA LYNCH: The President probably will discuss economic issues with Ghanaian leaders, and there are other serious matters that may be on the agenda such as Ghana’s growing battle against the flow of illegal drugs from Latin America, newfound oil resources off its coast, and it’s potential as a partner in American’s effort to establish a military presence in Africa. Those matters aren’t top of mind for many Ghanaians, though. They’re too busy celebrating. For The World, I’m Laura Lynch in Accra.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. President Barack Obama went to Moscow to help reset the relationship between the United States and Russia. Well today, he met with Russian President, Dimitry Medvedev, and then the two leaders announced a major component of that reset process. It’s an agreement to reduce the number of the two countries’ nuclear warheads. The new accord is due to replace the 1991 start treaty between Washington and Moscow. President Obama says, this agreement announced today is an important step toward stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

BARACK OBAMA: This starts with the reduction of our own nuclear arsenals. As the world’s two leading nuclear powers, the United States and Russia must lead by example, and that’s what we’re doing here today.

LISA MULLINS: President Obama said the accord will reduce US and Russian nuclear warheads and delivery systems by up to a third from current treaty obligations. The presidents of the United States and Russia also agreed on a variety of other issues. Russia, for instance, will allow the US military to fly troops and weapons across its territory to Afghanistan. And Washington and Moscow agreed to work together on the challenges posed by North Korea and Iran. President Obama said that is in everyone’s interest.

BARACK OBAMA: That’s why I’m pleased that we’ve agreed on a joint statement on cooperation on missile defense and a joint threat assessment of the ballistic missile challenges of the 21st century including those posed by Iran and North Korea.

LISA MULLINS: Despite the agreements announced today, Mr. Obama faces challenges in dealing with Russia, notably the two-headed nature of its power structure. President Medvedev is nominally the head of state, but former President, Vladimir Putin still exerts significant power as the country’s prime minister. The World’s Jeb Sharp reports.

JEB SHARP: In the days leading up to this week’s summit, statements from all sides have been scrutinized, and there was even a little ripple of apprehension and excitement when President Obama seemed to attempt to define the difference between Medvedev and Putin in this Associated Press interview.

BARACK OBAMA: Prime Minister Putin still has a lot of sway in Russia, and I think that it’s important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev, that Putin understands that the old Cold War approaches to US-Russian relations is outdated, that it’s time to move forward in a different direction. I think Medvedev understands that, I think Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new.

JEB SHARP: Putin brushed off the criticism.

PUTIN: [SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN]

JEB SHARP: [TRANSLATES WHAT PUTIN SAID] “We have a popular saying, which is not very literary.” Putin said. “We can’t stand legs akimbo. We are firmly standing on our feet and always look to the future.” Prime Minister Putin went on to say that he was looking forward to President Obama’s visit with warm feelings. President Obama will meet Putin for breakfast tomorrow, but today it was all about President Medvedev. The US and Russian presidents were business-like but also generous towards each other in their news conference today, as they rattled off areas of agreement and disagreement. President Obama was asked directly whether he trusted Mr. Medvedev. He said he did. He was also asked whether he had figured out who was in charge in Russia, Medvedev or Putin.  He didn’t exactly answer.

BARACK OBAMA: My understanding is that President Medvedev is the president, Prime Minister Putin is the prime minister, and they allocate power in accordance with Russia’s form of government, in the same way that we allocate power in the United States. And, so, my interest is in dealing directly with my counterpart, the president, but also to reach out to Prime Minister Putin, and all other influential sectors in Russian society.

JEB SHARP: But in meeting with Prime Minister Putin, President Obama is actually doing a little more than just reaching out. Kathryn Stoner-Weiss of Stanford University says Mr. Obama actually has no choice but to meet with Mr. Putin, because he still holds so much power.

KATHRYN STONER-WEISS: I think it would be wrong to think that, first of all, there’s any departure in thinking between Putin and Medvedev, and that it’s important to go to the source of the thinking in Russian foreign and domestic policy, and I think it’s safe to say that the source is Mr. Putin.

JEB SHARP: But Stoner-Weiss says that knowledge hasn’t stopped the Americans from poking and prodding a little bit to see if there is any space at all between Medvedev and Putin.

KATHRYN STONER-WEISS: Testing to see whether or not there could be any way of creating some kind of schism in dealing with Mr. Medvedev, who’s viewed as a friendlier, easier partner, or bolstering him somehow domestically. Honestly, I don’t think there is much hope in [LAUGHS] pursuing that strategy.  Mr. Putin chose, handpicked Mr. Medvedev as his successor, as President on purpose, and it’s because Medvedev is very, very dependent on Mr. Putin to stay in office.

JEB SHARP: Having said that, Stoner-Weiss thinks the meeting has gone relatively well, with modest goals on arms control and Afghanistan cooperation that have been largely met. Jeff Mankoff of the Council on Foreign Relations says the United States and Russia still have serious differences.

JEFF MANKOFF: They’re still very far apart on Iran. I think they’re going to be agreeing to disagree on the question of missile defense. And probably the most explosive issue, which is the status of the former Soviet Union and Russia’s influence over its one-time colonies or satellites, I think, is to a large degree insoluble.

JEB SHARP: To be sure, neither President Obama nor President Medvedev shied away from their differences today, but they did both vow to work hard to find more common ground. For The World, I’m Jeb Sharp.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: Barack Obama has gotten used to warm receptions during his overseas travels, but Russia, the President is not quite the rock star he is in other parts of the world. From Moscow, Jessica Golloher reports that Mr. Obama is winning some Kremlin minds, but not many Russian hearts.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Russian President, Dimitry Medvedeve had said he was looking forward to Mr. Obama’s trip. President Medvedev’s video blog address even showed him getting a personal call from the American President. Mr. Medvedev said he was glad that President Obama was coming to Russia, and that he was excited to with him, but many Russians don’t seem to share their president’s feelings. Olga Saburova works at a Russian dating service. She has no trouble containing her enthusiasm about Barack Obama.

OLGA SABUROVA: I’m not very interested in your President. A lot of President of all countries come to Moscow, for me, he’s not special. Maybe he’s special for Kremlin, but not for me.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Saburova is not alone. A poll conducted by the Levada center, at the University of Maryland found that fewer than one-fourth of the Russians surveyed have confidence in President Obama to do the right thing when it comes to International Affairs. Saburova says she doesn’t think American’s care about Russia at all. Infact, she says, they don’t think about anyone but themselves.

OLGA SABUROVA: I have impression that American people think they are number one in the world, but I don’t think so. It is not good behavior of your nation, George Bush spoiled the reputation of United States.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: And Barack Obama has not reversed that perception here. That’s largely because Russians don’t see or hear much of him in the state-run media, according to urban planner Daria Kramtsova.

DARIA KRAMTSOVA: He received very limited press coverage here, I think it’s very tightly controlled. Even on TV it’s always like short paraphrasing of what he says. So they don’t know how powerful his personality is perhaps. Yeah, they know that he has like two daughters and a dog, but I don’t think they know much beyond that.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: But they may know more about Mr. Obama in a day or two.

ANREY KORTUNOV: A lot will depend on the coverage of his trip.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Andre Kortunov is the President of the Moscow based New Eurasia Foundation.

ANREY KORTUNOV: I’m sure that Obama and his team would like to have an aggressive PR Campaign here in Russia, for a number of reasons. So that we’ll see how it plays out in the Russian media.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Mr. Obama’s PR team has done a pretty good job of crafting his image as a family man who’s at ease in his own skin. Back at the dating service, Anna Bogaslovskaya thinks that image could sell in Russia. Unlike her more skeptical colleague, Bogaslavskaya is excited about the Obama visit.

ANNA BOGASLOVSKAYA: [TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH] I think it’s very important for US-Russia relations. I think it’ll be good for Russia to have this contact with the leader of the United States. I’d really like to meet him, to see how he lives.

JESSICA GOLLOHER: Bogasloskaya’s enthusiasm for Mr. Obama is still not shared by her co-worker, Olga Saburova. But, Saburova does have to think for a minute, when I ask her if she’d rather go out with her pals for a drink, or meet the President.

OLGA SABUROVA: It is not my daydream, [LAUGHS] to get acquainted to meet him. Maybe I will meet Barack Obama with my friends. [LAUGHS]

JESSICA GOLLOHER: For The World, I’m Jessica Golloher, in Moscow.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.