Barack Obama Inherits the Weight of the World

138

Share		Email

• Share
• Email

When Barack Obama laid his hand on President Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and took the Oath of Office yesterday, he became America’s 44th President.

As her first black president he is fast becoming an icon of hope, not only to the American nation battling recession and war, but globally to a world looking for change for the good.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is quoted as saying: “We are eager for him to get to work so that with him we can change the world.” Sarkozy seems to be tapping into the theme of shared destiny that Obama creates.

Even in Kenya the Obama t-shirts stating “Yes, we can” are selling like hot cakes. Obama may be the most powerful man in the world as the US president, and possibly the most popular, but that will not make him a ‘saviour’ with supernatural abilities to change the state of the world.

In his inauguration speech he called on the American people to take responsibility for their actions and blamed ‘greed’ for the dire economic conditions of the time. He will be calling on Americans to be thinking of how to serve the public interest.

In these difficult times, Obama called for a spirit of national sacrifice: “. we recognize that here in America, our destinies are inextricably linked. We resolve that as we walk, we must walk together. And as we go forward in the work of renewing the promise of this nation, let’s remember – that our separate dreams are really one.”

However, no country operates in isolation. Obama will be watched closely as he takes on the global challenges of climate change, Middle East conflict, recession and the global economics behind it. Relations with North Korea, Russia and China will need to improve.

“In this new period we hope that both China and the US could make joint efforts to create favourable conditions and improve and promote military-to-military relations,” Ministry of Defence spokesman for China, Colonel Hu Changming told reporters in Beijing. He will also be walking a political tightrope as he negotiates relationships with Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.

In Kenya, Mr David Akech, a businessman in Nairobi and of the same ethnic tribe as Obama, said: “Obama is a role model, not only to me, but also to my son. Everything was against him in this election, and there’s no way to do something great without slaying a Goliath. But now that Obama has won, my son can say: “This man can do it; I can do it, too, no matter the challenge.”"

Getting to the Oval Office is only one step on a very long journey for Obama though. Undoubtedly his greatest challenges lie ahead of him. Let’s hope that it can be said of him at the end of his presidency, “This man did it; I can do it too, no matter the challenge.”