Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Countdown Begins .....

No, not for CNY, but for something slightly earlier.

The inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the USA on 20th Jan 2009 is just 3 days away . Not only America, but the World awaits ...... in Anticipation ..... with Trepidation ..... but mostly in Hope.



Make no mistake about this : A New World Order is at hand.

The Recession/Iraq/Taliban/Gaza/North Korea/Environment/etc. situation will still be there. And it will take a long time to resolve (if ever). And sometimes it may seem like nothing's changed. But what I am pretty certain will change is the APPROACH to solving the issues.

Where Bush says "If you're not for us, you're against us", and acts accordingly, Obama wants to have dialogue.

Where the line between Republicans and Democrats were starkly drawn in the Bush era, and things were seen in black and white terms, Obama sees shades of gray and seeks bipartisan teamwork.

Where Bush gives tax breaks to the wealthy, and increases the USA's national debt simultaneously, Obama wants to take those same tax breaks away and give it to the poor and middle class. He may not be able to do it immediately, but he's put it on record.

Where Bush started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and was willing to stay there, Obama's set up a task force to plan for the USA's withdrawal from Iraq. Afghanistan just won't go away.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fan of Obama ..... yet. He, after all, has little track record of note. But if he is able to run the USA the same way he ran his presidential campaign, then we have hope that the USA will be able to get out of the mess that Bush got them into.



I think that part of the Hope in Obama lies in the fact that he's a symbol of the culmination of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. That black and white people can stand side by side and see one another as equals.

I don't think that I can spell out what this means to minority races in other lands when they see that the USA has elected a coloured President. But I do think that the word "HOPE" is somewhere in their dreams.

And the other part of the Hope lies in the fact that there are so many who are just glad to see the back of George Walker Bush.

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