Yes We can, Mr. President


Much has been said, written, blogged, messaged and shown about that remarkable man Barack Obama. A lot of us know more about him than say about our neighbours. There is a remarkable connect that he’s made from Fiji to Florida from Melbourne to Moscow. Everybody has a reason to like Barack Obama and there is almost a personal connect that each of us feels. Most politicians around the world would give an arm and a leg to achieve this kind of connects with their electorate.
Yes We can might have worked in America, In Europe it was the alternative to Mr. Bush theory, In Africa it was the son of the soil reasons, in Indonesia he was seen like family, in the Arab world he was partly their own religion and so on. While the gene pool and demographics like African American played their role, I feel the connect with Obama had a deeper reason.
The world that we live in has only got more fractured, more complex and more strife ridden. There are cross purposes to every action, there are unwarranted fall outs of every decision. While popular sentiment says that we’re now more comfortable with complexity, the situation on the ground seems less so. Israel and Palestine are still on the brink, the Middle East is trying to go beyond just meaning oil and radicalism, Iran and North Korea might run their own radical course any time. Russia is standing on a war face off and Europe is struggling to find a unified identity. Iraq is now passé but vulnerable, while Afghanistan seems to be the new bête noire of the West. China and India are running the growth path, but also continuously seek a legitimate power position in the world. The pieces on the chess board are still being juggled around and nobody really seems to be in control. It’s in these times that the world needs inspirational leadership. Something that we haven’t seen in a long long time.
The President of the United States has always held de-facto power, given military might and economic supremacy. Which really meant there were shades to how countries and its leaders engaged with him? Some did it because he spoke their language; others wanted favors from him, and some other purely out of economic gain. There really wasn’t too much in the personality, it was all about the position. Not since Reagan have we seen any American President who was admired for what he was as a person. Clinton, some might argue came close, but then he was too much a product of the American system.
So after such a glut, when a strong personality emerges, who displays authentic leadership qualities, seems to address and have solutions to key issues, the world starts to find their image in him. I am reminded of the movie Nayak in which Anil Kapoor gets a one day stint at Chief Ministership and he runs an ideal government. This movie always gets great TV ratings, and most people have watched it multiple times. The strong idealism in the movie is very inspirational. Obama today represents the face of that idealism. He represents the marriage of ideals and power that in most minds are the recipe for a great world order. Until now, true leaders like Gandhi and Mandela stood outside the system and led people to the right path. Obama just might do the same, while being part of it.
Yes we can Mr. President.

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