The forgotten children of Checenia. Life in Grozny. Picture taken by Musa Sadulajew.

The forgotten children of Checenia. Life in Grozny. Picture taken by Musa Sadulajew.
The forgotten children of Checenia. Life in Grozny. Picture taken by Musa Sadulajew.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Barak Obama, maybe the biggest disappointment on XXI Century

Did you still remember what happened January 20, 2009? If not, I will help you to refresh your memory. It was the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States and took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. 

Something more than three years later, let me ask you something: how do you feel regarding Barack Obama's government way? Or, if you prefer, maybe you wish I formulate better my question as follows: how do you feel right now regarding Barack Obama's government way if you compare your feelings with the feelings you had the moment Barack Obama took possession of his charge?

Well, I know you can't answer me straight away, unless you are going to write your opinion into "Comments" section at the bottom of this post. But, yes, while I wait for reading your opinion, I can express my opinion regarding it.

When I saw Barack Obama to make his oath as 44th President of the United States surrounded from a huge crowd at his feet, I felt like a breeze of fresh air deep into my heart. I mean that after eight years of George W. Bush era, I had the hope to see a change into politic, not only in USA but all over the world. What is inside my heart three years later? There is truly a deep sense of frustration and disappointment.

I have tried to answer to myself why I feel so disappointed and frustrated. I wondered: did I have too many expectations about Obama? Did I believe that was really possible to produce a change if you are the first almost "Black Man" into the White House? Was I too much idealistic regarding Obama? Did I believe too much to his electoral promises?

Maybe there is a bit of truth in any positive answer to all these interrogations. However what really disappointed me regarding Obama was not the matter he didn't get, till now, some important result (except, of course, Osama Bin Laden death). The disappointment comes from and for another reason.

The reason is the following: I have an idea about "Black Men" which is the result of observing big black character of the past like, for instance, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Cassius Clay alias Mohammed Alí. And even if Mama Rose was a woman and not a man, but she was black, well, I admire her a lot.

I have always admired, even if I am a "White Man", the aptitude of certain kind of "Black People", especially black people in the past decades. What I am trying to say is that this kind of "Black People" reminded me, in a certain sense, the same aptitude of French and American revolutionaries. In general terms this means I have always considered black people as the modern natural extension of the great revolutionary white men in the past.

Can I say that Barack Obama incarnate this same revolutionary spirit? Frankly speaking and observing him after three years of his administration, he his very far from the biggest figures of black people in the past. In my opinion he is just the shadow of them, sorry to tell this.

This is then the kind of disappointment that produced me Barack Obama. I was expecting a kind of "Black Man" with an indomitable spirit, not a man just able to move into the Washington “policy maze". I agree this is a good skill, I will not say it isn't. But, let me ask you: what USA and the world really needs? Do they need a President able to be a good diplomatic or do they need a President with a "couple of balls hard like steel"? In concrete terms, for instance, a President able to fight the arrogance of Wall Street and in general bank and financial corporations arrogance.

Three years later I do not have the pleasure to say: since Barak Obama went into his charge, the world is changed in a better place. I mean that this should sound like the world is now experiencing more justice and a better distribution of wealth. No, exactly the opposite. The world is unsecure as before his coming, the world has the same economic problems, maybe worst, as before his coming. The world is again on the border of a new Middle East war. So the Barack Obama era seems like an extension of George W. Bush Era, only a bit lighter.

By this I don't want to say that Barak Obama is guilty if the world is not going into the right direction. If the world is as it is, this is our fault, the responsibility is ours. However what Barak Obama failed, in my opinion, is in terms of leadership. Personally I expected a kind of leadership much more energetic. All that I have been seeing for three years was a "mild" leadership. This is the deep sense of my frustration and disappointment. And maybe this is your same frustration and disappointment.

So I would like to urge Barack Obama to revise his idea of a good leadership. Maybe he is still convinced that what brought him into success to be elected as US President was the same aptitude he used in his youth in Chicago as social assistant. I am not sure this is the aptitude the world needs right now. Probably the world needs a kind of stronger aptitude. Stronger in the sense that he should be "strong with hard people and not only with weak people". Weak people like young people, unemployed, single women/men with kids, elder people doesn't only need to receive compassion. They need, like in the mediaeval age for instance, a "Knight defending their Trampled Rights".

From here I urge Barack Obama to revise his politic position and in the next following months he should transmit a stronger aptitude to voters, if he wishes to be confirmed as US President. If he will renounce, be prepared to see again a Republican seating in the White House next year.