Obama Youth Townhall in London
On Saturday April 23rd, at a town hall organized by and for young people, Obama answered questions on a myriad of topics including on his legacy, which popular movements had inspired him the most, his successor and LGBTQ rights with North Carolina and Mississippi having recently passed regressive anti-LGBTQ equality laws.
Adam Matan
Obama chatting with Adam Matan
Adam Matan, a young Somali-British man asked the president a pointed question that apparently confounded the president. It was a moment that we rarely witness, with President Obama who always comes across as prepared and very informed admitting that he wasn’t familiar with the specific issues raised by the young man. The President promised to take the Adam’s contact details in order to obtain more information on this particular question and indeed White House staff did follow up. Adam asked a very specific question about American naval ship activity in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. It is alleged that apparently the ships have been dumping waste into the ocean including toxic waste that is alleged to be killing sea life including fish, toxic waste containers washing up ashore and devastating coastal communities according to Adam.
Admittedly, this young crowd's questions put all of us at the White House press corps to shame with their probing, very thoughtful and well-crafted questions that clearly engaged the President.
Asked about his proudest achievements, Obama channeled Bernie Sanders pointing to the turn-around of the US economy from the brink of total collapse as a “result of the actions of some greedy actors on Wall Street.”
On a question about what social movements have moved him, President Obama for the first time that I’ve heard, mentioned Black Lives Matter saying that BLM had done a great job informing the public about the deaths of young blacks at the hands of police. Inevitably as has been his pattern whenever discussing black issues, the President went on to caution BLM arguing that “after movements have succeeded in raising awareness, and led politicians to be willing to sit down and talk with them, these movements should now sit down at the table and get involved in discussions to move the needle” He went on to cation against ideological purity arguing that the purpose of “acting crazy” should be to raise awareness and obtain a seat at the table.
The President also expressed his admiration for the Marriage Equality Movement which he credited with having brought about the fastest changes in attitudes over any issue that he has ever witnessed, including on his own evolution on the matter which convinced him that his support for civil unions was simply not enough, but rather that full marriage equality was the way forward.
In a somewhat dramatic moment, a young person Maria decided to come out to the President and the world describing themselves as non-binary, and non-gender conforming. Maria then went on to ask about the North Carolina bathroom Law that requires people to use the bathroom of the gender they were born with rather than the gender they identify with, as well as the Mississippi law. It was actually somewhat surprising to learn that these regressive laws were being noticed overseas, with the United Kingdom (which has a conservative leader by the way) issuing a travel alert to its Citizens over both of these States. Interestingly however, Maria’s criticism was aimed at the UK, pointing out that In fact there were currently no laws or measures protecting British non-gender conforming individuals from such repressive measures should any be pursued in the UK. This led the President to defend his buddy David Cameron, pointing out that while he couldn’t speak for Prime Minister Cameron, the UK was well ahead of many countries on issues of LGBTQ equality, being one of the few nations that had full marriage equality.
I later followed up with Adam to ask him to elaborate further and found him quite engaging. These are obviously the thoughts of just one young Muslim man, but I found his sophisticated and nuanced outlook one that should be considered especially given the current heated political climate with declarations about locking out ALL Muslims from the United States for example.
My interview with Adam is below.
Q: What was your specific question and how did it feel to be personally addressed by the President of the United States.
A: "400 young Somalis died at the Mediterranean last week and there are multiple reasons why those young men are leaving their families, communities and country behind but one of those reasons is that the International ships that have been mandated to protect the Somali sea from piracy are either dumping or facilitating toxic waste to be dumped at the Somali sea. This has caused millions of fish to die and toxic containers to wash up at the Somali coast. This is having a devastating impact on coastal communities and Somalia as a whole, forcing many young people to make the dangerous journey of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to seek a better future. Therefore can you kindly use your international leverage to galvanize the International community to look at this issue and formulate practical steps to ensure this doesn't happen again?"
Q: What do you hope will be the outcome of your question and subsequent connection to the White House?
A: The president responded that he is not very familiar with the issue raised by me but promised we would talk after the session to discuss this further and he came to speak to me at the end and agreed for further discussion with an introduction to his personal secretary. Therefore I hope the Somali people will have an opportunity to enlighten Obama about this issue and agree on some practical steps to ensure Somali people are not dying due to toxic waste being dumped into their sea.
Q: What is your anti-tribalism movement - can you tell me a little about it?
A: The Anti-Tribalism Movement is a non-profit organization aimed at educating and raising awareness about the effects of tribalism within (communities. The ATM’s vision and track record is based on a cohesive and dynamic society where every person’s opinion is valued regardless of clan, gender or political belief.
Q: Are you Somali, British or Kenyan or all of the above?
A: I am Somali-British or British-Somali and more importantly a global citizen.
Q: Is there any significance as far as you are concerned that Obama is half Kenyan? Do you think that influences him in any way?
A: It is always heartwarming to have shared East African heritage with the leader of the free world but regardless of Obama's origins, I think he has made great contributions to this world and history books will mention him.
Q: What are your personal feelings about his policies generally - especially his foreign policy? There have been lots of drone attacks across the Muslim world and in Somalia as well during his time in office. Did you expect or hope he would have ended the American wars in Middle East, North Africa and Afghanistan?
A: The President made great contributions nationally and internationally. With that in mind not everybody agrees with all his policies but two policies that captured my heart is that he has been a great advocate of rejecting the notion of calling ISIS an Islamic state urging other world leaders to avoid associating those extremists with the peaceful religion of Islam. The second policy has been his influence on the world to stop seeing Iran as an enemy and treat them as an equal partner. Through his leadership and courage he achieved the Iranian deal and this has potentially stopped millions of other people suffering because of conflict.
But the very controversial policy that is close to home is the drone policy as the collateral damage is devastating for law abiding and peaceful communities who have been exploited by violent extremism and may further push young people and communities to extremism. There has been many successful drone attacks that took out the intended targets, therefore balance is needed here to ensure there is no further collateral damage leading to deaths of innocent people.
Q: What of Obama's policies in Israel and Palestine.
A: The two state solution has proven difficult due to uncompromising parties. Throughout the process there needs to be compassion, healing, forgiveness, compromise, understanding and dialogue. (The Palestinian Israeli issue) is a universal concern and it is the dream of mankind to see the children of Palestine and Israel living side by side peacefully without fear, discrimination and prejudice. No children deserve to die. And I hope Obama can contribute to this process within his last 9 months to leave a blueprint. There has been no breakthrough agreement reached so far with or without Obama's contribution.
