Obama Inc. Shifting Funds from Cultural Exchange w/Europe to Africa

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Interesting, but not terribly surprising. Obama is nothing if not consistently anti-Western.

If the Obama administration’s proposed education and cultural exchange budget for next year passes Congress unchanged, fewer students and scholars could study abroad via the venerable Fulbright Program due to an unprecedented $30 million, or 13 percent, cut to the program.

Neher is one of 53 Nobel Prize winners among the 355,000 alumni strong global Fulbright community which also includes 29 heads of states or government, 80 Pulitzer Prize winners, numerous top academics and business leaders and spans across more than 150 countries.

Obama isn’t big on saving money. If he cuts a program, it’s usually because he opposes it on political grounds and is moving the money somewhere else.

So why slash what the State Department itself calls its “flagship international academic exchange program” while the overall budget for educational and cultural exchange goes up by 1.6 percent?

Because we’re done with Europe.

It reveals a regional shift away from Europe in favor of Asia and Africa.

That’s because at the same time the Fulbright Program is earmarked for a hefty cut, two new programs focusing on Africa and Asia, the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) and the Young South-East Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) are scheduled for launch. Their proposed budget matches almost dollar for dollar the $30 million slashed from Fulbright. In addition, a new Fulbright University Vietnam is slated to support “academic freedom and autonomy in developing new curricula”.

But aside from Vietnam, the truly interesting question would be how many of those programs would end up focusing on Muslims. Because everything is CVE, aka all about Islam.

“There has been a big shift away from our Western European programs,” says Stephen Reilly, executive director of the US Fulbright Association, the largest of Fulbright’s national alumni organizations, which has not been consulted on the plans.

To stave off the planned cuts, Fulbright supporters have launched an online petition “Save Fulbright” which has so far garnered more than 25,000 signatures. According to the petition, “if these cuts were applied to the part of the Fulbright Program for US students and US scholars, over 40 percent of the awards would be jeopardized.”

Not a problem for Obama. It’s Europe so he has no use for it.

  • Habbgun

    Its actually all for the good. He is starting a precedent whereby another better admin could reach out to the enemies of the jihadis and create the broad front we need. Europe is beyond hope.

    • CosmotKat

      Who are the enemies of jihad, where are they, and why should the USA trust them? Your response citing evidence would go a long way in validating your statement there are legitimate reasons for abandoning Europe as beyond hope for Western Civilization.

      • Habbgun

        The enemies of Jihad are all those pushed into the corner by Jihad. How about African Christians? How about we educate people about that support of Jihadists is a form of racism. They kill and its the people who don’t have a voice who suffer the most.

        Is Europe beyond hope? Honestly I don’t know and in the end don’t care. They have the means to fight back but they choose collaboration. We don’t need government sponsored cultural exchange with Europe. There is plenty of free market exchange as there should be. If we are going to spend money on such things lets do so in a way that shows we mean to start cutting off Jihad wherever it may be. Showing we care about non-Moslems in other countries might be a good place to start. Certainly the Leftists don’t and we need to show they aren’t really the champions of the poor and the Third World at all.

        • CosmotKat

          Thanks for sharing and we hold similar views. As a Greek Orthodox Christian Iwith many Coptic Christian friends I found Raymond Ibrahim’s new book “Crucified Again” a very interesting, but alarming book on the atrocities being perpetrated across the world by Muslims. The tie that binds is Islam in all encounters where Christians are being systematically eliminated.
          I also find that Europe is at a real cross roads with their left’s embrace (much like the left in the USA) of the Muslim jihad as some sort of simpatico revolutionary to be especially troubling and I worry they may be too far gone, but there is always hope, I think.

          • Habbgun

            I’m Jewish but I find the apathy towards ME Christians shocking. I don’t think its a Jewish fight but a primarily Christian one but if Christians don’t recognize the threats to themselves how will they work with others to fight against an invading culture where everyone is an infidel and deserves to be violently harassed and enslaved?

            I don’t know what to think about America and Europe. There are certainly bitter, nasty people who self identify as Leftists who welcome Islam or at least the violence it is unleashing. These people are becoming brazen. In some sense its good news. The quicker the clear sides are drawn the sooner we know what the future may be and what and who to fight.

    • objectivefactsmatter

      As if that was some significant requirement to have a Marxist “reach out” to Muslims first before we can then fight them?

      In team sports, always let the opposing team run up the scoreboard before you bring out your real game plan. Because…it’s just cool that way.

      • Habbgun

        If we are stuck with these programs at least use them in a better way. If the narrative changes from Moslems good and infidels bad they’ll take notice. They themselves use cultural markers to signal their intentions (like blowing up statues, etc.). Secondly Europe really, really doesn’t need our tax money.

        • objectivefactsmatter

          “If we are stuck with these programs at least use them in a better way. If the narrative changes from Moslems good and infidels bad they’ll take notice.”

          What do you call what is happening now? It’s not just about “narratives” but our entire approach. They successfully extract jizya and we don’t get any “credit” for being nice. All we do is make them richer and convince them that they are correct, or why else would Allah force the West to submit to them?

          And how can anyone believe that we’re “stuck” spending money? What madness is this?

          “They themselves use cultural markers to signal their intentions (like blowing up statues, etc.).”

          We’re signaling that we’re idiotic dhimmis submitting to the greatness of Islam.

          “Secondly Europe really, really doesn’t need our tax money.”

          Completely separate issue.

          • Habbgun

            I would be perfectly fine if government wouldn’t spend money on this. If it does I don’t think Europe is the place to spend it.

            If you want to stop spending this money I agree. If you think taxpayer subsidized cultural exchange with Europe outside of the free market is good then we disagree. What is your preferred outcome?????

          • objectivefactsmatter

            Generally speaking most of these projects are purely a waste of our money.

            I would not outlaw them, but require a solid case be made for each. How that would work given how corrupt our budget and expenditure process is, I don’t know. I guess the thing to do would be to cut it to nearly nothing and then hear arguments for whatever projects people wanted.

            Bureaucrats have way too much power in the USA right now. I’m not sure what we can do short of starving them out. We have a full agenda just getting rid of the ACA and trying to keep amnesty considerations from causing further mayhem.

  • Ban Liberals

    RAAAAAAAAAAACIST!

  • DogmaelJones1

    Actually, I’m opposed to the whole Fulbright program, and have nicknamed it the “Bright Fool” program, because so many of its leading lights are liberals. In any event, the government shouldn’t be giving scholarships and the like to anyone, anywhere. Get it out of education.

    • liz

      Right, and what business does it have doing any of this when we’re already trillions in debt and our own education system is in the toilet because of government involvement.

      • DogmaelJones1

        I concur.

  • Andy_Lewis

    Ahhh, yesss…everything old is new again:

    Beep beep, bang bang, ungawa, black powerrr

  • American1969

    What else is to be expected from an anti-American Marxist?

  • http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?p0=263&iso=20170120T00&msg=Time+left+until+Obama+leaves+office John Barleycorn

    Sooner this Bantu is out of office the better