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Updated, 15.04
THE WHITE HOUSE has released the long form of US president Barack Obama’s birth certificate, hoping to finally quell persistent speculation that he may not have been born in the United States.
The certificate, released this afternoon, declares officially that Obama was born in Hawaii, making him eligible to hold the office of president.
Obama’s political opponents had speculated that the refusal of either Obama or the White House to issue a copy of the long-form birth certificate may have pointed to the fact that he was not, in fact, born in the United States – a fact which would otherwise rule him ineligible to hold the presidency.
Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump had recently begun to question why Obama had yet to issue a long-form copy of his birth certificate, positing that the failure to do so before now – in spite of years of suspicions over his background – hinted that Obama may have had something to hide.
The White House had earlier released a standard short form, but requested copies of his original birth certificate from officials in Honolulu earlier this week in hopes of finally burying the controversy.
In a press conference at the White House this afternoon, Obama said the country did “not have time for this kind of silliness”.
Obama’s communications director Dan Pfeiffer, meanwhile, wrote on the White House blog that he hoped the country could now move on from this “fake issue”, and denounced “carnival barkers” for casting doubt over his birthplace – though without mentioning Trump by name.
“The President believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country,” Pfeiffer wrote.
The Hawaii State Department of Health made an exception to its usual rules, he added, and did not ordinarily issue copies of long-form birth certificates – instead issuing a short-form copy certifying Obama’s identity and parents, but little else.
The long form edition had been issued “in part because of the tremendous volume of requests they had been getting”, Pfeiffer added.
The original shorter version had been released by Obama during his 2008 election campaign, when opponents suggested that he may have been born in either his father’s native Kenya, or in Indonesia where he spent many years as a child with his mother Stanley Ann Durham.
A poll published last week showed that a quarter of Americans believed Obama was born outside of the US, and was therefore not eligible to hold the country’s highest office.
In a hastily-arranged press conference, Trump said he felt “proud of myself, because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” but said the document would need to be examined to vouch that it was “real” – though he hoped it would be.
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the biggest obstacle is religion
The biggest problem is lack of education. I have lived in the AIDS capital of the world and religion was not the barrier there
religion is a barrier to education
Religion has nothing to do with this.
It’s lack of education and knowledge. Full stop.
I agree education is key, education in safe sex and removal of tribal cultures surrounding ‘cures’ for HIV, and especially key is the education of women – as they tend to be more likely to pass onto children, where culture and tradition have not yet become indoctrinated.
However, Africa has a boom in Catholicism: http://www.africamasterweb.com/AdSense/AfricaAndCatholicism.html
And the official Vatican stance and that of catholic relief and aid workers is that condoms are not to be condoned or distributed: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june11/vatican_05-30.html
This is despite condoms and testing being key to the decrease in HIV infections in the Western World.
Have you checked the numbers between countries with many Catholics and those with the highest AIDS rates? They might not match as closely as you believe.
Most of Southern Africa, which is where you will find those countries with the highest rates of AIDS are actually predominantly protestant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa#Southern_Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country#Africa
Just to point out that I am actually an agnostic and so not a Church supporter but there’s no point blaming them for something that is not entirely their fault
Without getting into lies, damn lies, and statistics I would wonder how much of those protestants in Southern Africa are from an ex-pat background and therefore less likely to be an victim of HIV?
Like I say, I’m not discounting what you’re saying – I’d just like to see relief organisations (of which many are Catholic) move towards teaching and promoting safer sex, rather than unrealistic abstinence.
Most of the Africans in Southern Africa are protestant.
Most African catholics were converted by Catholic Missions who generally stayed around mid-Africa whereas the protestants (English, Dutch, etc.) settled and converted in Southern Africa.
I’ve grown up there. I know the statistics
I would like to say that I too, would like to see a realistic approach to teaching safe sex and use of condoms as opposed to using the ridiculous notions that Africans will follow the idea of abstinence
Siomha,
I remember Bishop Desmond Tutu addressing a WHO conference and declaring that the attitude of Catholic missionary and aid groups to condom use had exasperated the spread of the disease in Africa.
Religion is only a small part of it – need to look at the bigger picture!
I’ve been living with HIV for seven years. If it wasn’t for the antiretroviral drugs I’d be dead. Huge advances in the treatment and decreases in the stigma attached to the virus have been achieved, but there’s still a long way to go. The virus is seen as a manageable disease and therefore not the threat is once was. This is folly. I wish the only impact on my life was the taking of a tablet each evening. Little is known about the long-term effects of these drugs; nor about the very real risk of dementia, cancers, pneumonia, skin conditions and the host of opportunistic infections being infected leaves you prone to. Education is everything.
Why does Concern’s Senior HIV Adviser never mention the use of CONDOMS to fight Aids in developing countries? NOT MENTIONED ONCE.
I find that surprising as well. Condoms are the main way to prevent the spread of AIDS and nearly all anti-AIDS campaigns use those as their main platforms.
Maybe it is more than just the use of condoms that is important?
Si it is more but they are the best way to prevent AIDS spreading. Every campaign should highlight that
Could have sworn I heard the news on the radio say infection in young people here had risen sharply
The article doesn’t break down the infection rates by demographics so you could be right. The overall trend seems to be going the right way.
You did hear that. Young men 24 to 39 at highest risk, I think. Ignorance is on the rise because the heyday of AIDS campaigning was 20 years ago when they were little kids.
Hmmm.. There were people in Swaziland eating faecal matter not so long ago because they couldn’t take their AIDS meds on an empty stomach (talk about skewed priorities – drugs are more important than FOOD now?)
This article also points out that in the place where new infections are rampant nutrition and sanitation leave a lot to be desired..
Wonder how many people in the 3rd world get “diagnosed” with AIDS when malnutrition and poor sanitation is the true reason their immune systems don’t work? Bearing in mind that the “tests” (ELISA and western blot) specifically state that they are unsuitable for determining the presence of HIV, a virus that has not been isolated. Rather these tests measure viral load and antibody response (and can test positive if you have the flu, are pregnant, or have just had a vaccine – hence the two tests taken several weeks apart).. There are people starving, they are obviously not adequately nourished, and instead of making sure that they can eat – drugs take priority (and companies like concern just keep pushing that appalling quality soy based muck and drugs approach rather than building self sustainability and organic farming)
I do not wish to detract from the seriousness of the problem, but something here reeks of fish..
have your say