ANALYSIS SPEECH OBAMA IN RANGOON This speech was held in Rangoon on the 19th of November 2012, during President Obama’s first visit to Burma, where he spoke at the University of Yangoon; he began this speech with a Burmese phrase (Myanmar Naingan, Mingalaba!) as it seems to be very close with this country and its people.
He felt honored to be there and to be the 1st president of the United States to visit the country. He said that Burma is a country where lots of actions had happened, referring to the following: Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel peace prize in 1991, a symbol of fierce dignity that fights for human rights and freedom; students demanding their basic rights like scholarships, Buddhist monks protesting peacefully for their rights and freedom of religion; and that Parliament has passed a resolution to revitalize the universities while the Government tries to improve the future of people through education and tolerance.
He said compared the origin of both countries (USA and Burma): both having emerged from the British Empire and USA being the first country to recognizes an independent Union of Burma ( 4th January 1948).
In the last decades the country became strangers but now Obama urges to remain hopeful for an improvement of social and political relation between the two.
When he took office as President he sent a message to the governments who ruled by fear: “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”. The situation in Burma in the last decades was dramatic, dictatorship and censorship was at the basis of the power of the State, all people who tried to oppose this reality were either jailed or killed. In recent years, the situation is changing and The United States’ government has decided to extend the “hand of friendship”: now there is an ambassador in Rangoon, sanctions have been eased and they will help rebuild an economy that can offer different opportunities.
Even though we come to different places, we share common dreams: good education, good living, peace and freedom, which are the things that made human progress possible. Obama in this speech talks more about this: freedom of expression is one of the most important human right, so for this reason we must hear the voices of ordinary people and government should respect and reflect their will.
Now is the moment to see the freedom, to taste it, because in the past people only fought for it, but never saw the real achievement. Instead of being repressed and stifled, the rights must be fully respected and people can draw their future progress.
Obama said that Burma could reach all that it deserves: a future in which the laws are stronger than any single leaders, women and children are not exploited and laws protect everyone from power abuse.
America will support every step of this change by providing assistance to empower civil society, to promote human rights and democracy; in other to reach this potential growth, it’s important that corruption, violence and power mismanagement must left behind.
The most repeated words in this speech are People, Freedom, United States, Country and Nation; this gives me an insight of what President Obama’s ideas and goal are. He thinks about a world where people are equal, where the respect of fundamental values and freedom could be achieved through the attendance of the United States.
This speech is not difficult to follow and analyze, the words are simple and some concepts are repeated in different ways, as if Obama wants to emphasize his ideas more. Some examples:
- “I came here because of the importance of your country”; - “I came here because of the beauty and diversity of your country”; - “I came here because of my respect for this university”; - “I came here because of the history between our two countries”; - “I came here because of America’s belief in human dignity”
President Obama also underlines the importance of the power of United States as a supporter of growth and democratic development in Burma: “I’ve come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship”; “America will support you every step of the way”; “…and that's the partnership we seek with you”; “And here, too, America will do our part in working with you”.
In the second part of this important speech made by President Obama in the Rangoon University we can find some considerable topics.
- The cooperation with reciprocity between the United States and Myanmar (also in the field of education with students’ exchanges);
- The freedom of worship. The world freedom appears many times in the speech: it is a dimension with a lot of importance for the author.
- National reconciliation between the Burmese government and rebel groups in Kachin State and other ethical minorities (such as Rakhine and Rohingya)
- The fact that diversity is a strength and not a weakness
- The fundamental freedom from fear, taking back this concept by an Aung San Suu Kyi’s paper.
- Issue of foreign affairs of the United States, such as the focus of the Americans for the South East Asia (“we see nations that are on the move -- nations that are growing, and democracies that are emerging; governments that are cooperating; progress that’s building on the diversity that spans oceans and islands and jungles and cities, peoples of every race and every religion”). The President also opens the relations with North Korea, if it stops its nuclear experiments.
The President is aware that there is a substantial difference between his audience of this speech (students in the university of Rangoon), that represents the privileged part of Burmese population, and the situation of the majority (. “I say this knowing that there are still countless people in this country who do not enjoy the opportunities that many of you seated here do. There are tens of millions who have no electricity. There are prisoners of conscience who still await release. There are refugees and displaced peoples in camps where hope is still something that lies on the distant horizon”)
Also in this speech, like in others that Obama did during his career, we find an evident linguistic link with the audience. Listening at last worlds in the speech, in fact, we hear a Burmese expression: cezu tin bad de. This is useful to create a more elevated consensus on the speech, and in addition it gives the image of a more human President.
In two occasions we can observe a desired use of repetitions in the speech:
- “But I have confidence that as you do that you can draw on this diversity as a STRENGHT and not a weakness. Your country will be STRONGER because of many different cultures, but you have to seize that opportunity. You have to recognize that STRENGHT”
And surely more evident in:
- “In many ways, FEAR is the force that stands between human beings and their dreams. FEAR of conflict and the weapons of war. FEAR of a future that is different from the past. FEAR of changes that are reordering our societies and economy. FEAR of people who look different, or come from a different place, or worship in a different way. In some of her darkest moments, when Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned, she wrote an essay about freedom from FEAR. She said FEAR of losing corrupts those who wield it -- “FEAR of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and FEAR of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
This last case is very representative: the repetition want to facilitate the listeners to focus their attention on a specific topic: the FEAR. But also FEAR become the subject of the sentences with the purpose, in my opinion, of generalizing the concept without attributing the responsibilities about these fears. He continues with the prolonged use of this world in the next paragraph.
You can find the whole text of this speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/19/remarks-president-obama-university-yangon
ANALYSIS SPEECH OBAMA IN RANGOON
RispondiEliminaThis speech was held in Rangoon on the 19th of November 2012, during President Obama’s first visit to Burma, where he spoke at the University of Yangoon; he began this speech with a Burmese phrase (Myanmar Naingan, Mingalaba!) as it seems to be very close with this country and its people.
He felt honored to be there and to be the 1st president of the United States to visit the country. He said that Burma is a country where lots of actions had happened, referring to the following: Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel peace prize in 1991, a symbol of fierce dignity that fights for human rights and freedom; students demanding their basic rights like scholarships, Buddhist monks protesting peacefully for their rights and freedom of religion; and that Parliament has passed a resolution to revitalize the universities while the Government tries to improve the future of people through education and tolerance.
He said compared the origin of both countries (USA and Burma): both having emerged from the British Empire and USA being the first country to recognizes an independent Union of Burma ( 4th January 1948).
In the last decades the country became strangers but now Obama urges to remain hopeful for an improvement of social and political relation between the two.
When he took office as President he sent a message to the governments who ruled by fear: “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist”. The situation in Burma in the last decades was dramatic, dictatorship and censorship was at the basis of the power of the State, all people who tried to oppose this reality were either jailed or killed. In recent years, the situation is changing and The United States’ government has decided to extend the “hand of friendship”: now there is an ambassador in Rangoon, sanctions have been eased and they will help rebuild an economy that can offer different opportunities.
Even though we come to different places, we share common dreams: good education, good living, peace and freedom, which are the things that made human progress possible. Obama in this speech talks more about this: freedom of expression is one of the most important human right, so for this reason we must hear the voices of ordinary people and government should respect and reflect their will.
Now is the moment to see the freedom, to taste it, because in the past people only fought for it, but never saw the real achievement. Instead of being repressed and stifled, the rights must be fully respected and people can draw their future progress.
Obama said that Burma could reach all that it deserves: a future in which the laws are stronger than any single leaders, women and children are not exploited and laws protect everyone from power abuse.
America will support every step of this change by providing assistance to empower civil society, to promote human rights and democracy; in other to reach this potential growth, it’s important that corruption, violence and power mismanagement must left behind.
The most repeated words in this speech are People, Freedom, United States, Country and Nation; this gives me an insight of what President Obama’s ideas and goal are. He thinks about a world where people are equal, where the respect of fundamental values and freedom could be achieved through the attendance of the United States.
RispondiEliminaThis speech is not difficult to follow and analyze, the words are simple and some concepts are repeated in different ways, as if Obama wants to emphasize his ideas more. Some examples:
- “I came here because of the importance of your country”;
- “I came here because of the beauty and diversity of your country”;
- “I came here because of my respect for this university”;
- “I came here because of the history between our two countries”;
- “I came here because of America’s belief in human dignity”
President Obama also underlines the importance of the power of United States as a supporter of growth and democratic development in Burma: “I’ve come to keep my promise and extend the hand of friendship”; “America will support you every step of the way”; “…and that's the partnership we seek with you”; “And here, too, America will do our part in working with you”.
In the second part of this important speech made by President Obama in the Rangoon University we can find some considerable topics.
RispondiElimina- The cooperation with reciprocity between the United States and Myanmar (also in the field of education with students’ exchanges);
- The freedom of worship. The world freedom appears many times in the speech: it is a dimension with a lot of importance for the author.
- National reconciliation between the Burmese government and rebel groups in Kachin State and other ethical minorities (such as Rakhine and Rohingya)
- The fact that diversity is a strength and not a weakness
- The fundamental freedom from fear, taking back this concept by an Aung San Suu Kyi’s paper.
- Issue of foreign affairs of the United States, such as the focus of the Americans for the South East Asia (“we see nations that are on the move -- nations that are growing, and democracies that are emerging; governments that are cooperating; progress that’s building on the diversity that spans oceans and islands and jungles and cities, peoples of every race and every religion”). The President also opens the relations with North Korea, if it stops its nuclear experiments.
The President is aware that there is a substantial difference between his audience of this speech (students in the university of Rangoon), that represents the privileged part of Burmese population, and the situation of the majority (. “I say this knowing that there are still countless people in this country who do not enjoy the opportunities that many of you seated here do. There are tens of millions who have no electricity. There are prisoners of conscience who still await release. There are refugees and displaced peoples in camps where hope is still something that lies on the distant horizon”)
Also in this speech, like in others that Obama did during his career, we find an evident linguistic link with the audience. Listening at last worlds in the speech, in fact, we hear a Burmese expression: cezu tin bad de. This is useful to create a more elevated consensus on the speech, and in addition it gives the image of a more human President.
In two occasions we can observe a desired use of repetitions in the speech:
- “But I have confidence that as you do that you can draw on this diversity as a STRENGHT and not a weakness. Your country will be STRONGER because of many different cultures, but you have to seize that opportunity. You have to recognize that STRENGHT”
And surely more evident in:
- “In many ways, FEAR is the force that stands between human beings and their dreams. FEAR of conflict and the weapons of war. FEAR of a future that is different from the past. FEAR of changes that are reordering our societies and economy. FEAR of people who look different, or come from a different place, or worship in a different way. In some of her darkest moments, when Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned, she wrote an essay about freedom from FEAR. She said FEAR of losing corrupts those who wield it -- “FEAR of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and FEAR of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
This last case is very representative: the repetition want to facilitate the listeners to focus their attention on a specific topic: the FEAR. But also FEAR become the subject of the sentences with the purpose, in my opinion, of generalizing the concept without attributing the responsibilities about these fears. He continues with the prolonged use of this world in the next paragraph.
You can find the whole text of this speech at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/11/19/remarks-president-obama-university-yangon
Michael Massarutto