An ill wind 207
Obama speaks of a WIND OF CHANGE blowing through America. In February 1960 the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made a speech in which he said that the WIND OF CHANGE was blowing through Africa.
We are not accusing Obama – or his speech-writers – of plagiarism. He can leave that to his veep, who notoriously plagiarized a speech by the British Labor Party leader, Neil Kinnock.
What we want to point out is this: the Wind of Change that blew through Africa was an ill wind that brought no African country much good. Barely a single one is more prosperous than in Macmillan’s day, even among the few that became more democratic. In sheer numbers, far more Africans are exposed now to civil war, invasion, oppressive government and profound impoverishment than in the 1960s. Some populations have experienced, or are even at present experiencing, genocide; some, massacre on a vast scale; some, in considerable numbers, actual starvation.
One can only hope that Obama’s Wind of Change is not the same wind.
