In an upbeat town hall event with people involved in the US -sponsored Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, Obama said young people have historically been the key to progress and development.
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Obama was one of several world leaders visiting Laos to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In his speech to the young leaders he said that the U.S.
“If you are in Laos, you need to know about Thailand and China and Cambodia, because you’re a small country and they’re right next-door and you need to know who they are”. Not everybody in America agrees with me on this, by the way.
“After discussing and listening to other YSEALI from other Asean countries, I feel that young leaders have a deep fear”.
“We have to be able to promote principles that rise above any individual religion, nationality, race”, Mr. Obama said.
While the Laos town hall exploded in applause, the internet burned in anger.
“So we have to fight against that”, he said. “It can lead to the development and unity of all people”.
Speaking at a town hall held Wednesday in Luang Prabang, Laos, President Barack Obama twice suggested that Americans are “lazy” when it comes to the environment and learning other cultures.
“I believe that the United States is and can be a force for good in the world”, he told the audience. “After the election, people can refocus attention on why this is so important”.
Operating under the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the initiative will offer opportunities and resources to help anyone in the world learn English via the new website EnglishForAll.State.gov, he said. “And research shows that when girls get an education, not only do they grow up healthier, but her children will grow up healthier also”.
The $90 million Obama announced follows $100 million the US has committed in the past 20 years.
He’s in town for the ASEAN Summit, but another thing he’s doing while there is visiting survivors of the US bombing of the country during the Vietnam War.
On Tuesday, he said the USA has a “moral obligation” to clean up millions of unexploded bombs it dropped on Laos for nine years during the Vietnam War to stop supplies flowing to communist fighters.
Touring a rehabilitation center in Vientiane, the capital, Obama touted his administration’s move to double spending on ordinance cleanup to roughly $90 million over three years.
On Monday, hours before arriving in Laos, Duterte told Philippine reporters he wouldn’t accept questions from Obama about extrajudicial killings that have occurred during his crackdown on suspected drug dealers and users.
Lao authorities have made no arrests in the case, and there is little indication a serious investigation ever took place. That had caused Obama to cancel a formal meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
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U.S. President Barack Obama walks from Sim, or main building, which houses a large Buddha statue, with Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs Luang Prabang Mrs. Vanpheng Keopannha, as he tours the Wat Xieng Thon. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
