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Twenty ten sounds so much better than two thousand and nine. Thank god for small mercies. But while all the newspapers and television channels gloss over the year gone by very few have spoken about the challenges that lie ahead of us. Apart from recapitulating the happenings of 2009 I feel it would be in order to take stock of things as they are today and prepare ourselves for the challenges that face the world. Let’s check out the three major issues one by one.
If you go by a poll conducted in Pakistan, despite the kind of ‘investment’ Obama has done in Pakistan, America is still perceived as the number one enemy in that country. Let me tell you for a fact that this will not change for at least the next few generations. If that be the case is there any assurance that the govt in Pakistan will keep overlooking the general public opinion? Remember, how the strong public opinion forced even a president like Musharraf to quit? Actually Obama can thank the fundamentalist parties in Pakistan who have not yet whipped up this very strong emotion prevalent amongst the populace of that country. But things can change very fast in case they actually do.
Given the rate at which Barrack Obama is bowing in front of monarchs I’m really sacred about his back. First to the Saudi King and now to Emperor Akihito. I hope he has consulted his doctors while indulging in this back breaking exercise. I mean we can’t really have an American President with a broken back. Can we? His planners too have to be really careful so as not to include more than one meeting with a monarch in one visit. I mean one BOW is okay but BOW BOW is bad and BOW BOW BOW is disaster. It also conveys a very different meaning which I’m sure Obama would not like. Nonetheless by now Obama has actually perfected this ‘art’. So much so that he can now do it better than the Japanese. A perfect perpendicular BOW because of which Emperor Akihito could possibly read the label stitched at the back of Obama’s collar. But do you guys know why Obama keeps doing a BOW so often? That’s because he is Barrack Obama and Wife. That’s the real reason. Well, alright I admit. That’s a stupid joke. Just the same I wonder how Michelle Obama feels when she watches her husband doing all that bowing, one after the other. Thankfully for him there’s one monarch less in this world for him to bow to, Nepal.
At some point or the other each one of us must have asked these questions to oneself: Is my religion the correct one to follow? Why are there so many religions in this world with each one ’seemingly’ out to destroy the others? Which one of these is the best? Why was I born in the religion that I was? If indeed there is one God then why are there so many different faiths which give vastly different interpretations to the truths of life? Why did God let this happen, if there is indeed a God?
They say that Obama was surprised when the award was announced. Let me tell you, he may have been surprised whereas I was aghast when I heard about it. I actually thought it was a joke. And so did most Americans. They say that though Obama did deserve a Nobel but for economics and not for peace- for the way he is leading America and in effect the rest of the world out of recession. The committee got it all wrong. Even Obama’s kids don’t believe it. They’re more concerned about their doggy’s b’day(?) than the Nobel. Maybe that’s the way it should be.
To some people this visit was just a means of achieving the freedom of the two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from N Korea but it is much more than just that. The official line from Washington may well be that it was a personal visit but I’ll be damned if Obama personally did not endorse if not authorize it. Anyone who feels otherwise is just being naive. Just as well, the visit has achieved what may be called as the ‘turning point’ in the strained relationship which these two countries have shared in the past. I know I’m being premature in my judgement here but be that as it may I feel very strongly about this. And US would be rather foolish not to capitalize on this. Remember the ‘unclench your fist’ remark by Obama?
Barrack Obama needs to be more patient about his media eloquence. He needs to reconsider all the pros and cons before he hits the deck. Otherwise people in America may get this impression that making a black man the President was a mistake in the first place.
On the face of it the Americans say that they will ensure that Pak stops aiding terrorists. But what has been done to achieve this? Nothing much to speak of. Yes, Some lousy idiots have been arrested by Pakis but no one who really mattered has been put behind bars let alone punished. This, despite the fact they have all been assuring us for the last decade or so. And therefore one has to be an absolute moron to believe that crap! And quite possibly we are morons to continue believing the Americans and Pakis.
‘Pakistan has been treated unequally by the US’. That’s what General Pervez Musharraf said when he spoke to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on the role of Pakistan in the ‘war on terror’. He goes on to add that US abandoned Pakistan after Russians were forced out of Afghanistan in 1989. Well, come to think of it, that’s partly true. Isn’t it? After their aim was achieved US just left these guys with all the Mujaheedin and all the weapons that were given to them to fight the Russians.
Yes we can. That’s what Obama would like the Americans to believe and work for. Make no mistake, if the tenor of Obama’s speech was any indication it is going to be one hard task to achieve, not just for Obama himself but for Americans in general as well. Undoubtedly, his speech was full of confidence and hope for the future. But that wasn’t really unexpected. What it did lack was plain rhetoric and symbolic statements for the historians and media to quote and mark this historic day.
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