From January 23, 2009
Naturally, the big news at the moment is the election of Mr. Barack Obama as president of the United States. The TV footage and radio interviews showed what a great deal of hope the American citizens, and also citizens in other nations, have in Mr. Obama. Indeed, many have shown a considerable faith in him, yet no one really knows a lot about him. As we said in a recent Letter from London he was born in Hawaii of an American mother from Kansas and a father who is a Kenyan economist. He, Mr. Obama, has a number of relatives living in Kenya, some of whom were in Washington for the inauguration. As a young person a lot of his upbringing took place in Indonesia, very little has been said about those years. Indonesia is very much a Moslem nation. Back in Hawaii, as far as we know, it was his maternal grandparents who financed his education in one of the largest private preparatory schools in the country. His three years in Harvard Law School seems to have been financed by them as well. I broke off writing this letter at this point as it is Tuesday, 20th January, as I write, Inauguration Day with 2 hours of full coverage of events and the ceremony on BBC television. Did you hear his inauguration speech? I made sure I did! I would be interested to know your reactions to it. But I will give you mine now.
Following his taking of the oath of acceptance of the position of president of the United States he, as is customary, gave the speech of acceptance. Speaking for a full twenty minutes he was in full control and presented himself as speaking from the heart and of reaching out to the average American of whatever color. Not only that, but he presented himself as reaching out to the average citizen of the world of whatever nationality. He would, however, have made few friends among the bankers of New York by his comments. He stressed that there needed to be a change of attitude among everyone of whatever color, race, creed, occupation, age, or nationality. He tried to reach all nations around the world, saying how everyone needed to co-operate, to work together. He stressed the need to do something about climate change – that would have been received with relief by many in other parts of the world. His speech was very much a clarion call to America and the world at large to put differences aside and to work together for the benefit of all. And one could not complain about that.
Looking back into recent history to see any parallels to the speech Mr. Obama gave was not too difficult. One was reminded very much of John F. Kennedy but with a little of Tony Blair. I think President Kennedy was 44 or 43 at the time he became president, Mr. Obama is 47. It was interesting to hear Mr. Obama not too far into his speech, and unlike most American presidents, and certainly no British politicians, quote scripture. He quoted exactly the same one we did in the last Letter from London. He didn’t mention the chapter and verse which was 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 11, and he didn’t quote all of it. He quoted the part where it spoke of putting away childish things. It was in the context of telling America and the world, to grow up! And frankly I couldn’t argue with that. Fundamentally, Mr. Obama gave an excellent speech, he said the right things, made the right call to action, he would have reached the average person in America very well indeed. He might even reach some in other parts of the world. As I said a moment ago, I doubt he would have reached the offices in Wall St, New York. Or if he did, he would not have been received very positively.
The following day is a day when everyone who still has a job, gets back to their desks, back to the check-out, the factory bench, or the endless round of trying to make sales. And it’s when new American presidents sit down for the first time at the big desk in the Oval Office and try to figure out what issues are they to address first of all. The Daily Mail cartoonist Mac said it all in his cartoon in today’s issue. The cartoon was divided into 4 windows. Each one shows Mr. Obama at his acceptance speech. The first window had the caption “My fellow Americans, when I reflect on the great honor you have given me,” then it moves to the second, “and your trust in asking me to tackle unemployment, the financial crisis and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, then window No.3 ” my feelings can be summed up with just one word …. 4th window a big, heartfelt, shout of “Help!” Mr. Obama’s speech, as the Heineken advertisement might have put it, reached those people other speeches do not. The issues facing America, let alone the rest of the world are now just too big for one man anymore. There were certain subjects he either deliberately did not address or sent misleading signals. For example, he invited minister Rick Warren to give the invocation at the beginning of the inauguration. Pastor Rick Warren is against both abortion and same-sex marriage and presumably homosexuality. However, we understand that Mr. Obama is on record as favoring the legalizing of these things, apparently regardless of the fact they are all against the law of God. This would seem to reveal another side to Mr. Obama’s character
Regarding the major issues, how, for example, do you resolve the Arab/Israeli confrontation. One has got to get back to the basics. And the basics are those of what did God give Israel in the first place. The scripture and the archaeological records clearly tell us. The Jews are well aware of what the scripture says. But no one else takes any notice of that. We also have the record of recent history, again this is patently ignored. Ignored by the Arab nations. And ignored by the western politicians; why? Because of oil! This is just one problem. How is it ever to be resolved? It can’t be! So, the war will continue. The best one can hope for is a temporary cessation of hostilities. Try another problem! That of President Mugabe and the situation Zimbabwe is in with an inflation rate of several million per cent! As a new American president what would you do? What would you advise Mr. Obama? And, by the way, the outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe is not getting any better. At the present rate it won’t be long before the entire population of Zimbabwe has died.
Mr. Obama in his speech spoke confidently regarding Afghanistan. He gave the indication that with a positive approach to the Afghan citizens it should be possible to stabilize the whole country and that everyone will then be able to live in peace. Oh, if that were only possible. The reality is that first of all, Afghanistan is in a very strategic location, so from a political point of view it’s a target for several nations. Secondly, its farmers find it more profitable to grow poppies. These can then be turned into opium etc., for the drug trade. Or they can be sold to the medical industry of the west. Either way the farmers and the citizens of Afghanistan don’t want the poppy trade to cease, and it doesn’t matter how much America objects. Then it is the target of the Taliban who want to export to the entire world their own view of Islam, which isn’t exactly that of the Koran. Not one nation, powerful or otherwise, has ever succeeded in bringing order to Afghanistan. Mr. Obama is not going to be able to achieve it. Russia couldn’t! Britain has tried more than once over the centuries and failed miserably each time. Coming back to home, this being the United States for the moment, Mr. Obama addressed some local problems, not in great detail as this speech was not intended to go into any one specific situation or issue in great detail.
He was obviously speaking in general terms. He was trying to give people an idea of what he felt about the problems America and the world faced, and how he viewed what was needed to address them. But what about the problems America faces and which trouble people? The problems! A couple of them come immediately to mind and which, in fact, he did briefly mention. One was the lack of a proper healthcare system. A program on BBC television a few days earlier had focused on this subject. It is unbelievable that in America, the apparent leader of the western world, that 47 million people are not only without any health or medical care, but there is also no way at all that they can possibly pay for it. One after the other of American citizens interviewed told of the medical problems they have, and are suffering from, but because of the enormous cost of treatment have to continue with unrelieved agony and pain. To give them credit, the Clintons, when Mr. Clinton was inaugurated president, did all they could to get Congress to approve a State provided system of medical care for all citizens. However, the Republican party put all the obstacles possible in the way of an approval of such a system. So, it didn’t happen. It won’t matter how hard Mr. Obama tries to get a State funded and organized health care system, it won’t get past the Republican party in Congress. And it probably is now far too expensive for America to afford – especially as the nation has spent so much money bailing out the banks.
The other problem Mr. Obama mentioned very briefly. Although not so briefly that I missed his comment and his raising the subject. But it’s the problem of housing. The way, because of the sheer greed and incompetence of the banks, that so many people are losing their homes and are being made homeless. Homeless in the United States! Maybe in Zimbabwe! But in America? But just how could America afford to relieve the distress of so many citizens now. This has also been addressed on BBC television and the situation is an absolute disgrace.
Some of these problems are to be found in Britain as well and we do address those issues from time to time, but we are speaking here of Mr. Obama and how is he to solve the problems that face America, and the rest of the world. With the best will in the world and determined to make a difference, or to put it in his words, change things, how is he to make those changes? We assume that he really does want to raise the standards of living for the American people and that he has no other agenda, so we do appreciate his intentions, but are sorry to say that this world and the world system has reached a point when it is impossible to make any changes other than the purely superficial, to improve the lot of the average person on this planet. That awaits another man born of a woman who does have the power to make a change. A real change! His inauguration speech has been given; you probably have a copy of it. It won’t be long now before he takes up the position for which mankind has been waiting for a very long time. And may God please speed that day. |
