Obama pledges to help double electricity in sub-Saharan Africa,launch a $7 billion US-funded program

[The Straight Story]

Obama pledges to help double electricity in sub-Saharan Africa

President Barack Obama is to launch a $7 billion US-funded program to double access to electricity for people in Sub-Saharan Africa, the first new big bucks initiative of his tour of the continent.

The Power Africa plan is expected to be announced during Mr. Obama’s visit to Cape Town later Sunday. It follows announcements of new US funds for food security and leadership mentoring schemes for young Africans.

Taken together, these all signal a shift in US policy that would leave the world’s poorest continent less “a dependent” or “a charity case” and more “a partner,” to use buzzwords that the president has repeated during his visit. In these times of austerity and sequestration, this new approach to foreign aid – “the least popular part of the federal budget,” Obama concedes – is also cheaper and makes use of innovative joint public-private cash vehicles.

This refreshed focus drew on “the lessons of Nelson Mandela’s life,” the president told reporters on Air Force One Friday, evoking the man Obama called “a personal inspiration for me, and an inspiration for the world.”

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-pledges-help-double-electricity-sub-saharan-africa-150700728.html

I'd rather our money go to something like this than military/corporate tax breaks. Could well open up new markets for us to sell light bulbs to

[patrice]

1. Solar makes the most sense for them, because it's scalable. & That was a good speech.

Looks like I've been pretty good at reading the tea-leaves this last year.

[msongs]

2. we can cut social security in the US to pay for it too nt

[patrice]

3. That's likely to happen if what calls itself "the Left" abandons this President. nt