America’s finest hour

Oh my god ! What happened ? It’s still feels so surreal. It is undoubtedly a history-in-the-making moment for America. A once in a millenia type of event and I’m glad I’m alive to witness this. In 1 fell swoop, the elections have now accelerated the process of healing the racial divides and sought to erase centuries of discrimination and bigotry. In 1 election, it has fulfilled Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. And in 1 momentous night, it has completely challenged old stereotypes and mindsets in people the world over, that the color of the skin means less than the value of the human being. Even if President Obama’s can’t deliver on his campaign promises, just by his election to the highest office in the land, America is already once again the land of incredible potential, the beacon that once again shines a righteous path into the future, embodying the ideals of a better world. Once again the world can rely on America’s democratic system and its people to do the right thing. All Americans are the winners in this election and so is the world. There are no losers in this election only those who are now plotting against the tide of history to turn us all into cynics once again. But I have faith in the good sense of the people of America. They will rise to the occasion when called upon and they will again prevail. This is the real foundation of America’s power and strength, not in its military might nor its economic size.

As Bill Clinton once said that America should be “a power in its example, than an example of its power”. The expected goodwill that will come from the Obama presidency will have enormous effects on how the world is going to be structured in the next decades. No one knows how it will look like but like what Colin Powell said, it’s going to be transformational, it’s going to be powerful. No amount of military persuasion can have an effect as large as this and the irony is that it will fulfill what the Republican party’s neocons have been planning all along. Their strategy is to use hard power to exert the predominance of the US but it is doomed to fail in the 21st century. Firm but soft and compassionate power advocated by President Obama is the way forward. It will indeed be a new world order but fortunately not the 1 envisioned by the neocons. This is what I am boldly predicting prematurely because if there’s anything President Obama has taught us, it’s to keep dreaming and hoping for the best.

Once again, I congratulate President Obama and the people of America and thank you for renewing my faith in this great nation on planet earth. God bless America.

India and China

I like the way this article puts it. “Sustainable democracy is based on more than just elections. It requires a functioning civil society that has poise and self-belief in government institutions, is willing to work on the basis of compromise and respects the law.” I think the trumpets of the so-called human rights champions shows just plain ignorance and lack of understanding of the west in their own over-glorified democratic way of life. They have ignored the fact that there are more roads to Rome than they can ever imagine. China with its stupendous size would have logically been broken apart throughout its history (and it has at certain periods). But this behemoth has come together because of an unspoken “political contract” between the government and its people. If the current dynasty is benevolent and “good”, the people will support it, if it’s corrupt and “bad”, they will rebel and reject it. This is the way things have been since the last 2000 years since the Qin emperor unify China. The communist party for all its warts have for the last 30 years been working hard to legitimize themselves and earn the support of the people through positive contributions. They have been trying hard to make up for a disastrous 19th and 20th century. In many respects, with this Olympics, they have also gradually opened up Chinese society to the world. It is a pandora’s box that’s been opened and they know they cannot roll it back ever again. So given time, it will be the Chinese people who will demand the changes they want in their society and not some slogan-wielding, self-serving foreigners who really doesn’t have that much at stake in China than the Chinese themselves. And so too are the Iraqis…