Has the Rubicon been crossed?
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Mushtaqur Rahman
THE election of Barack Obama is an occurrence that goes beyond the precincts of dreams and the wildest at that. It is the sweetest, the most exhilarating and singularly tantalizing event since man's landing on the moon and America is heir to that -- congratulations.
The euphoria is almost transcendental and inversely or directly proportionate to the miseries, injuries and injustices of our time. While we cannot but admire and be transfixed by the myriad qualities both of mind and heart that have landed OBAMA to this pinnacle of earthly power, we cannot but give the American people their due. By any stretch imagination such thing could only have happened in America and nowhere else or perhaps in a remote distance in time, yes INDIA. It has been a long time coming but if you come to think of it a bit more it has actually come sooner than imagined. Has the Rubicon been crossed?
A word must be said about the concessional speech of Senator Mac Cain. By admitting that he has fought as hard as he could he has dispensed with any reservations, excuses and after-thoughts that so often creep in most of our admissions of defeat she has made our celebration unalloyed, wholesome and total. He is a great American citizen.
Coming down to business the deluge of felicitations and adulations is already giving way to articulation of demands. Obama is barely settling and assembling his dream team and this clamour is actually doing him a disservice. China is sounding its concern over Taiwan, the Poles soliciting reassurances about proposed anti-missile deployment and even Tony Blair is alerting him of the agonizing Middle East imbroglio. The list is growing . . . can we not be a little more patient. Obama has to do a very tight-rope walking. Given the misgivings and apprehensions that still persist in several quarters he may be forced into some unenviable and ill-considered positions. Besides Bush is still in charge and he may give some finishing touches to his tenure, his solemn privilege.
At the end of the day human nature with its propensity for crime and cruelty and the uncontrollable and erratic situations that develop for its unleashing could very easily revert to former times and in the processes leave us bereft of all our innocent hopes and simple aspirations. In such a predicament we will take solace in the thought and recollection that such an event on such a day had ever come to pass.
THE election of Barack Obama is an occurrence that goes beyond the precincts of dreams and the wildest at that. It is the sweetest, the most exhilarating and singularly tantalizing event since man's landing on the moon and America is heir to that -- congratulations.
The euphoria is almost transcendental and inversely or directly proportionate to the miseries, injuries and injustices of our time. While we cannot but admire and be transfixed by the myriad qualities both of mind and heart that have landed OBAMA to this pinnacle of earthly power, we cannot but give the American people their due. By any stretch imagination such thing could only have happened in America and nowhere else or perhaps in a remote distance in time, yes INDIA. It has been a long time coming but if you come to think of it a bit more it has actually come sooner than imagined. Has the Rubicon been crossed?
A word must be said about the concessional speech of Senator Mac Cain. By admitting that he has fought as hard as he could he has dispensed with any reservations, excuses and after-thoughts that so often creep in most of our admissions of defeat she has made our celebration unalloyed, wholesome and total. He is a great American citizen.
Coming down to business the deluge of felicitations and adulations is already giving way to articulation of demands. Obama is barely settling and assembling his dream team and this clamour is actually doing him a disservice. China is sounding its concern over Taiwan, the Poles soliciting reassurances about proposed anti-missile deployment and even Tony Blair is alerting him of the agonizing Middle East imbroglio. The list is growing . . . can we not be a little more patient. Obama has to do a very tight-rope walking. Given the misgivings and apprehensions that still persist in several quarters he may be forced into some unenviable and ill-considered positions. Besides Bush is still in charge and he may give some finishing touches to his tenure, his solemn privilege.
At the end of the day human nature with its propensity for crime and cruelty and the uncontrollable and erratic situations that develop for its unleashing could very easily revert to former times and in the processes leave us bereft of all our innocent hopes and simple aspirations. In such a predicament we will take solace in the thought and recollection that such an event on such a day had ever come to pass.