Obama delivered his reassuring forecast to a group of 800 young people during a visit to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Tuesday, at a town hall meeting of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.
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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has lodged a protest with U.S. President Barack Obama over the incident that led to the arrest of an American man working at a U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture on suspicion of abandoning the body of a Japanese woman.
– Eager to heal old wounds and galvanize new generations, President Barack Obama will become the first sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, where seven decades ago the US dropped the devastating atomic bomb that ushered in the nuclear age.
President Obama’s beatboxing skills were on brief display, during a town hall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, earlier this week.
President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday about the importance of the arts in global politics, making some music of his own to drop a very brief beat for Vietnam’s “Queen of Hip Hop”. “Come on. Do you need a little beat?” and gave a glorious two seconds of presidential beat-boxing. “But actually, are they really happy?”
Obama has said since his first trip to Japan in 2009 that he would like to visit Hiroshima, but the White House was cautious about scheduling the trip, mindful that Republicans have repeatedly accused the president of conducting “apology tours”.
Suboi asked Obama his thoughts about the importance of the arts and promoting a nation’s art and culture.
“And imagine if at the time that rap was starting off that the government had said “no” because some of the things you say are offensive, or some of the lyrics are rude or you’re cursing too much”, he added.
President Obama used rap – complete with some impromptu beatboxing – to make an important point about self-expression this week. “Obama defended the decision to lift the arms ban despite Vietnam’s dismal record on human rights – involving the jailing of dissidents and stalled political reforms – saying sales would be evaluated on a “case-by-case” basis”, CNN reported.
“We start realizing that we have more in common”, said Obama.
The president then said goodbye to the audience.
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“That was pretty good”, Obama said to the crowd as they applauded Suboi’s performance. “I was more interested in basketball and girls”, he said.
