Condoleezza Rice visits Liverpool (Edit)
Tomorrow US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is visiting Liverpool with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. This visit is to reciprocate his visit to Birmingham, Alabama where she is from, which took place last year.
They will be visiting Blackburn where Mr Straw was a member of parliament. Then they will visit Liverpool, Paul McCartneys former school, the Liverpool School for Performing arts and see the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
There are many people here in Liverpool that do not agree with the war in Iraq and they are planning demonstrations in protest. All in all it should prove to be an interesting day.
I know a little about Dr. Rice. I know that she was born in Birmingham, Alabama and was the daughter of a Presbyterian Minster. She had a tough youth growing up during racial segregation and one of her schoolmates was killed by a bombing of a primarily black church. She initially planned to be a concert pianist but didn’t quite make it. She got interested in politics and went to college, later to become a professor of political science and the head of Stanford University California. She speaks Russian, French, German and Spanish. She is an all round clever woman. And of course she’s black.
I’ve never met the woman. I don’t know what she’s like. But I have seen her many times on TV even in a couple of movies. Primarily this has been highlighting the fact that during her political career and in particular the issue of Iraq she has contradicted her self many times (also sometimes know as covering up lies) and changed her story to suit the given situation. I’m sure you have all seen it…we are in no danger from Iraq…we are in direct danger from Iraq…Well as I said I don’t know the woman but I’m not convinced she is as righteous as she should be given all the hype about her being such a great black female role model, but when it comes to Iraq and all that stuff well I’m afraid she appears to have made her bed and now she must lie in it (pardon the pun about lying there).
I know that people will have opinions on this so let’s see what the comments are like… Does Condoleezza deserve to be subject to protest because of her involvement in the war in Iraq?
Edit: I've just seen on the news that the protests in Blackburn have been enough to put Condoleezza off. She was supposed to visit a mosque there and the reality of the situation wouldn't look good for Condoleezza's PR. She's had the opertunity to face muslims with concerns but has chosen not to face up to it. I knew that this would be interesting. More news tomorrow no doubt.
2 comments:
I don't know about protest - I suspect if the Administration is the subject of the protests then yes, but not her as an individual.
I was at an event with her last night - if you can go and hear her speak do it; what she lacks in integrity she makes up in articulacy.
I agree that a protest against her as an individual would be ridiculous but you know that often protestors can’t disassociate a person from the administration they are involved in and it can be the case that the abuse is hurled directly at the person rather than what they stand for.
Public speaking and debate is a skill. Equipped with the right skill it is possible to steer a speech or debate in any direction, and strong speakers can convince the majority that black is white and vice versa. This is how, I believe she and many other politicians got where they are today. She was not elected to that role by the people she was put there by the administration. She's highly competent and will say whatever she is told to say, but in a very compelling way. Her articulacy may be impressive but as you have noted it is her apparent lack of integrity that lets her down.
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