I guess this post is not going to make me popular.
So Barack Obama wins the
Nobel peace prize for the Potential to bring good to the world I
really don't know whats happening . The cynic in me says he knew he was in the running, he knew he had a good chance and maybe
that's why the request from his military commanders in
Afghanistan for an additional 40 000 troops has been put on hold. The cynic in me says he will shortly authorize an increase of 20 000 with a further increase of 20 000 troops and say it is the right thing to do to bring peace and justice to that war ravaged nation. He has waited to be the man of peace before becoming the man of war. What else can he do? His experts say the troop numbers need to go up, he cant pull out he knows that the effect would be
catastrophic for the region and for Americas standing in the world. He cant get other countries to put in combat troops, in the UK the Prime Minister has been snubbed and is fighting the toughest political fight of his life, in
Australia the labour party has run GW's deputy out of Kiribilli house in fact they drove him out of parliament as well, they will not send more combat troops the other members of this great alliance have no one else to send. So watch the troop numbers rise even as the American press remains silent on Iraq.
I like hope. I like the message of hope, my political heroes have always carried that message of hope but they have always delivered as well. Reagan lifted America from its malaise,
Churchill repeatedly carried his political comrades and his country with his message
of hope from the start of the great war to the end of the world war. Thatcher was a tough lady who said it would be done because it could be done and it should be done. Blair for all his spin and mirrors put England in a position where it has more then the option of being a foot note of European history, he effected change in Northern Ireland where the great and the good failed before him. Lyndon Johnson without whom there would be no President Obama today brought hope and change to a system that cast a man aside because of his colour, Dr. King played a huge part but he would have been whistling
dixie if Johnson
hadn't picked up
Kennedy's mantle.
So i like hope, I like a positive message but i want results. Every single one of the people I have named except Johnson campaigned on a Hope and Change platform EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Maybe one day Barack Obama will be able to sit at the same table with them for carrying his message through with deeds not just rhetoric. His standing in the polls have fallen dramatically, that was to be expected if they stay down that will simply mean that middle
America and parts of the left have tired of talk and want action. Almost 10% unemployment.
Man cannot leave on hope alone sometimes a slice of bread would be nice.
If you ask me who should have won this year if it had to be an American I would say Bill Clinton, another Hope and Change politician who unfortunately was not as lucky as some as the footnotes of history will always carry the taint of his should i say foibles. But if ever a man has done more to redeem himself for not fulfilling his mission while in office its him, in the almost 10 years since he has left office he has raised close to a billion dollars and his groups the Clinton global initiative has seen more then 10 billion pledged to end hunger and poverty in places like Africa. I
don't like the guy but you gotta like what he done.
So maybe Barack deserves the prize for his message of hope, for the potential of his polices and for just being him but
certainly right now there are more deserving people around. AS every person knows potential is not an indicator of greatness. Rhetoric is not always the vanguard of great deeds and obama fever is contagious in Norway.
I wonder if the art of conversation is dying and by conversation I mean face to face, reach out and tocuh kinda stuff. With so many avenues to communicate with such as facebook, blogs, text messaging, mobile phones, house phones, email, fax, msn, twitter and a host of others, is face to face conversation passe as it were. ( ironic that i am blogging about it eh)
