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As part of his agenda to improve the United State's image abroad, President Barack Obama embarked on a 10-day, four-nation trip abroad with First Lady Michelle. The couple's first stop is India, and they arrived on Saturday. Obama's three-day stay in India will be his longest in a foreign country as president.
Asia's third-biggest economy, India offers a rapidly growing market for U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines, power-plant turbines and locomotives. While the president held a meeting to discuss America's relationship with Pakistan and other matters, Mrs. Obama decided to shake her groove thang Bollywood-style with 33 disadvantaged girls from the Indian charity Make a Difference.
Mrs. Obama told the schoolgirls that she did not come from a wealthy family and her parents did not have a lot of money. The first lady stressed the importance of education and how it was her ticket out of poverty.
The girls were fascinated by Mrs. Obama's educational journey and how she went from growing up on Chicago's poor South Side to earning Ivy League degrees from two of the nation's most prestigious schools, Princeton and Harvard.
The first lady also played a game of hopscotch with the students, with English words chalked on the floor in Mumbai to stress the importance of literacy and learning in a new global economy.
Fifteen girls also accompanied Mrs. Obama on a tour of the capital's National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum.
Mrs. Obama's mission in the United States and abroad is clear-cut: sharing the importance of education and women's empowerment. The pro-women message that the first lady heralds everywhere is particularly important for rural Indian women to hear. They have to deal with educational obstacles and a society that is mostly patriarchal.
The practice of female infanticide or the killing of girls in the womb still happens. School drop-out rates for girls, especially for those who live in rural areas, is very high. Some of the girls who met with Mrs. Obama come from a village where education stops at the eighth grade.
"Women and power," Obama told the maroon-uniformed girls, who grinned back at her as she pumped both hands in the air. Each girl was gifted a soft-sided backpack with the White House symbol emblazoned on it and school supplies, such as notebooks and crayons.
What about the male school children? One school girl told Mrs. Obama that the boys in her village will be jealous of her actually meeting the first lady. The little girl promised to give the boys a blow-by-blow account of all that occurred during the visit and will especially share the fact that the first lady thinks all girls should get a good education.
Watch Mrs. Obama in action here:
Comments: (15)
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By: Pink on 11/08/2010 2:04PM
Tax cuts should not be continued for the 2% wealthiest people in the country. And we should be calling, writing, and emailing Obama, our Senators, and Congressmen and letting them know our stance. Overall the wealthy businessmen haven't provided very many, if any additional jobs to date, and I don't think they will even if the tax break is continued in their favor. If they were providing a lot of jobs; then the unemployment rate wouldn't be as high as it is. Unfortunately I think they will just continue to pad their pockets. Just like we are blogging on this site; we should be contacting our representatives. All we have to do is google or county, or state to find out who our representatives are.
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By: gerald on 11/09/2010 12:31AM
Its their money that they used to start a business eveybody stop waiting for a handout.
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By: EB on 11/08/2010 3:19PM
Be honest and call this what it is--another vacation. The U.S. will not benefit from this trip and the autor of this subject forgot to mention that Mr. President was "Protested" while there.
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By: Rashad on 11/08/2010 6:08PM
I think you need to look more into this. President Obama secured a series of commercial deals on Friday, including the purchase of 33 Boeing 737s by India's SpiceJet Airlines. He also announced a preliminary agreement between Boeing and the Indian Air Force to buy 10 C17 cargo jets.
Depending upon the model, the 737 deal could be worth $1.7 billion to $2.9 billion. This trip that you are calling a vacation just ensured me of a job for the next 7 years. Have your facts straight before you start running your mouth.
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By: Rashad on 11/09/2010 2:05PM
Wow EB, I see you're still running your mouth. Boeing employs over 160,000 jobs to Americans across the country, with a bulk of those jobs being in my home state of Washington. Yeah you may have a point, it may not affect America as a "Whole", but every job saved or created in these times are important. Oh and I love the little nugget you threw in below about the President's Idonesian school records and questioning his faith. Wow are we still on this? I bet you are one of those loons who believe he was not born in Hawaii, 9/11 was an inside job and we never landed on the moon. Dude, do us all a favor and stop listening to Alex Jones and start thinking for yourself. People are starting to think you guys are crazy.
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By: EB on 11/10/2010 8:59AM
Rashad, your comments have made my point. More specifically, when it comes to Boeing, no jobs are being created or saved. Every employee of Boeing know that Boeing works on contracts, and when one ends, another begins. So selling a few fighter bombers to India, or not, is not going to cause any movement in the unemployment rate in this country.
But the scam is yet to come. If you would go to the government's web site you will see thousands of jobs posted. Hoever, most of those jobs only pay between $24-35,000.00 per year, and for many of them, although having been posted several months ago, the closing dates for applying are around the beginnng of 2011, and also, many of them are only 2 year assignments.
Let's see-- the beginning of the "official" 2012 campaign season begins around the beginning of 2011. So hire thousnads of people in extremely low paying basically "temporary" assignments to make it appear that there is a boost in job growth. Then, just after the 2012 election, many of the jobs will end.
President Barry is screwing up this country far worse than GW ever did and he can't accomplish anything with these "working" VACATIONS, and oops, last week's election confirms that a majority of the country agrees with me
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By: MS PEGGY on 11/08/2010 4:11PM
How wonderful that the first lady is able to connect with young girls so easily. Music and dance are international languages that can be understood by all. I can't even imagine young girls feeling that comfortable around a Barbara Bush or a Nancy Reagan whether American, Indian, African, Chinese or whatever. Loving it. She is an American goodwill ambassador. May the Lord bless and keep her.
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By: Miss Jackson on 11/08/2010 7:58PM
BillSchrier,
Aren't you Bill Schrier from the Seattle, Washington? I thought I recognized your name. I just wanted to remind you that chimpanzees resemble people like you more than people who look like the first lady. Remember, chimps have white skin all over, just like you.
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By: Rev. B on 11/08/2010 8:08PM
It is so nice to be accepted by all nations around the world. The Obamas are real Americans who made it by getting a good education, working hard making it against all odds of being black in America, took the opportunity to press forward and make it. May I say with class and dignity. They set the example of a good stable family. God bless and protect them is my pray. God bless America and please help those who find it so hard to love and honor their fellowman. God please
mercy on us. Amen
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By: jewishways on 11/08/2010 8:58PM
"Asia's third-biggest economy, India offers a rapidly growing market for U.S. companies, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and GE, the world's biggest maker of jet engines, power-plant turbines and locomotives."
Bye-bye America's middle class. Nice doin business with you. They're certainly not going to ship you over there to work for these companies. The writing is on the wall. Stop drinking the koolaid.
P.S. Bill Schrier or whomever he really is, is an idiot. I don't particularly care for Obama either but the personal assaults are juvenille at best.
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