Being a journalist is pretty cool.
Remember when I saw the president of South Africa?
Well, last night I saw the president of the United States.
Contrasting the two experiences is somewhat funny. My News24 coworker who was with me at both events admitted she was more excited to see Obama. "Does that make me a bad South African?" she asked.
When I saw Jacob Zuma, my coworker and I heard about the event in the morning, walked a few blocks from our office to the South African government buildings, then breezed past security to hear the president give a very brief PR-stunt-style speech alongside American actor Danny Glover. I was able to get in with my foreign driver's license, and I stood an arm's length away from Zuma.
Seeing President Obama wasn't quite as easy.
First of all, this is the most expensive presidential trip in history. Obama brought massive amounts of security along with him on his three-country tour of Africa, including, but not limited to, an aircraft carrier docked offshore with a fully staffed medical trauma center, bulletproof limousines, and Marine helicopters. The Obamas also canceled the family safari they had scheduled in Tanzania because the nature park was posing too much of a logistical challenge for the presidential snipers.
My colleagues and I had to submit scanned copies of our passports to the White House about a week in advance of Obama's visit. Then we had to wait until the day before the event to find out if we would be able to get in. Four of us submitted requests and the US Embassy only granted permission for three of us to get in--no explanation offered.
Obama wasn't scheduled to speak until about 6 pm, but we had to arrive at the event venue with all of our equipment at 11 am. We then had to leave the equipment there so that security could rummage through our stuff and sniff through everything all day. We came back at 4 pm and were issued our official White House badges and escorted to our official press area. The press area was separated from the audience by a little divider and the audience was separated from the podium by a little divider and several security guards.
I wondered why the sharply dressed man in the press area next to me wasn't snapping photos like all of the other journalists, then I realized he was a secret service guy.
Obama touched on predictable points about Africa in his speech--government corruption, poverty, women's rights, development. He also paid homage to Nelson Mandela (who is still in the hospital after three weeks) throughout his speech.
But my personal favorite part of Obama's speech was when he told an anecdote about his time at Occidental College. I don't think he saw my fist pump though.
Obama looked and sounded pretty much just the way I thought he would in real life. The one thing that struck me from hanging around snapping photos of him for an hour was that this guy is amazingly photogenic. I ended up taking over 700 photos and hardly got any where he's making funny faces. What a pro!
See my best photos from Obama's speech on News24.
Remember when I saw the president of South Africa?
Well, last night I saw the president of the United States.
Contrasting the two experiences is somewhat funny. My News24 coworker who was with me at both events admitted she was more excited to see Obama. "Does that make me a bad South African?" she asked.
When I saw Jacob Zuma, my coworker and I heard about the event in the morning, walked a few blocks from our office to the South African government buildings, then breezed past security to hear the president give a very brief PR-stunt-style speech alongside American actor Danny Glover. I was able to get in with my foreign driver's license, and I stood an arm's length away from Zuma.
Seeing President Obama wasn't quite as easy.
First of all, this is the most expensive presidential trip in history. Obama brought massive amounts of security along with him on his three-country tour of Africa, including, but not limited to, an aircraft carrier docked offshore with a fully staffed medical trauma center, bulletproof limousines, and Marine helicopters. The Obamas also canceled the family safari they had scheduled in Tanzania because the nature park was posing too much of a logistical challenge for the presidential snipers.
My colleagues and I had to submit scanned copies of our passports to the White House about a week in advance of Obama's visit. Then we had to wait until the day before the event to find out if we would be able to get in. Four of us submitted requests and the US Embassy only granted permission for three of us to get in--no explanation offered.
Obama wasn't scheduled to speak until about 6 pm, but we had to arrive at the event venue with all of our equipment at 11 am. We then had to leave the equipment there so that security could rummage through our stuff and sniff through everything all day. We came back at 4 pm and were issued our official White House badges and escorted to our official press area. The press area was separated from the audience by a little divider and the audience was separated from the podium by a little divider and several security guards.
I wondered why the sharply dressed man in the press area next to me wasn't snapping photos like all of the other journalists, then I realized he was a secret service guy.
Obama touched on predictable points about Africa in his speech--government corruption, poverty, women's rights, development. He also paid homage to Nelson Mandela (who is still in the hospital after three weeks) throughout his speech.
But my personal favorite part of Obama's speech was when he told an anecdote about his time at Occidental College. I don't think he saw my fist pump though.
Obama looked and sounded pretty much just the way I thought he would in real life. The one thing that struck me from hanging around snapping photos of him for an hour was that this guy is amazingly photogenic. I ended up taking over 700 photos and hardly got any where he's making funny faces. What a pro!
See my best photos from Obama's speech on News24.
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