Obama at Mandela's Day declares against Trump in Johannesburg

Obama: Given the strange and mysterious times we live in, each round of daily news brings us more interesting and strange headlines
Obama at Mandela's Day declares against Trump in Johannesburg
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former US President Barack Obama took the opportunity on Tuesday to give a speech in honor of late African leader Nelson Mandela to talk about US and international affairs.
Obama warned of "strange and mysterious times" going through the world, in what could be considered a convincing attack on his successor Donald Trump.
Obama did not refer directly to Trump, but warned of the "spreading policies of fear and discontent" encouraged by leaders who scattered facts and spread lies.
Obama has also criticized those who deny climate change and develop racist race-based immigration policies, rampant capitalism and "strong man's politics," which are linked to the controversial Trump administration.
"Given the strange and mysterious times we live in, each round of daily news brings us more interesting and strange headlines," Obama said at the start of his speech. "Maybe I thought it might be useful to retreat for some time to see from another perspective."
Obama was speaking to more than 10,000 people at a cricket stadium in Johannesburg on the 100th anniversary of Mandela's birth.
"This is in part due to the failure of governments and elites in power, which now makes us see most of the world threatening to return to old, dangerous and more brutal ways of doing business," he said.
In the immigration case, Obama seemed to be heading sharply to Trump when he said: "It is not wrong to insist that national borders are important, but this can not be a pretext for immigration policies based on race, ethnicity and religion."
Trump and US conservatives have also questioned climate change in the face of scientific evidence.
"You have to believe the facts, without facts, there is no basis for cooperation," Obama said.
"I can not find common ground when someone says there is no climate change, as most scientists in the world tell us," he said.
"If you start by saying that it's a trick built on, where do we start?"
"Today politics seem to reject the precise concept of objective truth," Obama said. "People just invent things."
"We see the full fall of shame among the political leaders whose lies are revealed but they continue to multiply the lies."
Mandela 's Birthday
Each year, the Mandela Foundation pledged to a senior guest to deliver a speech on the anniversary of the birth of Madiba on 18 July 1918, which died on 5 December 2013.
Since his departure from the White House, Obama has shown little on public occasions, but he has long regarded Mandela as one of the most influential figures of his life.
After spending 27 years in the prisons of the white apartheid regime, he became the first democratically elected president in South Africa in 1994 and a symbol of the struggle against racial discrimination. He remained in office until 1999.
Although Obama and Mandela met only once in 2005 in Washington, they were admiring each other.
Obama said in 2013: "I am one of the millions of people whose life was a source of inspiration for Mandela," adding: "My first political move was a demonstration against racial discrimination."
Mandela said he was "very happy" when Obama was elected US president in 2008 "because it was a key moment in the history of the United States," Mandela Foundation President Silo Hatang said.
Both were the first black president in his country.
"We want more hope because we live in a difficult time," said Noumsa Nkoussi, 45, who was in attendance at AFP.
"Mandela was unique and we need young people to come and see what it means to have an incentive in life."
Before arriving in South Africa, Obama visited Kenya, the country of his father.
He will take part in another event in the Johannesburg Municipality on Wednesday with 200 young leaders selected from African countries to participate in a five-day training program.
Mandela was jailed under apartheid in 1962 before being released in 1990 when he led the African National Congress (ANC) to win the first black-and-white elections in 1994.
Source: Agencies