Issue 3 2008/9

Page 16

The name is Obama Jay Patel

Change will not occur over night, and in reference to above, media commentary that the questions of racism have finally been addressed, are unfounded and most certainly incorrect. Martin Luther King dreamt not of the day a black man would be President, but “…that one day the nation would rise up and live out the true Now many of you out there may “...Hope, leadership and the prospect meaning of its creed: "We hold have switched off during the of change in light of a world falling, these truths to be self-evident, that build up to the US elections. albeit slowly, to its proverbial knees. A all men are created equal.”" Surely it was a given as to who “blank sheet to rest nation’s hopes America has far to go in realising the victor was going to be? on.” this dream, but for now, they need However the election of the first Afro-American as the next President of the United States of to step up to the plate and take mantle as the worlds leading America is significant past the edges of history and the ‘once democratic power to re-build true democracy, re-entrust the worlds financial markets and to help make the place we all thought impossible’ decision the people of America have taken. Eight years ago, America was in political turmoil. The call home safe in the face of uncertainty. Presidential election was a farce, and asked serious questions of their Democratic ideals. How was it a man who received The name is Obama! thousands more votes than his opponent end up coming second? ‘That’s the system, get over it’. On what should have Final Thoughts been a celebratory day the inauguration of President George Bush II, in January 2001, was met with rain, concern and Out of the turmoil emerges one emblem, an engraving — silence. Imagine this! Hundreds of Kenyan children have been born over the past few days with a distinct similarity. They share a name. A name now synonymous with hope, with change and the inability to say “no we can’t”.

A young Negro at dawn in straw hat and overalls,

What then proceeded can only be seen as eight years of complacency, international insecurity and now the most challenging financial situation of a generation. The President elect must now rise to one of the most difficult handovers in US history, is he up for the challenge? Over the course of this presidential election, many spoke about the inabilities and inexperience of the democratic candidate. Indeed since, many have said that the underlying issues of racism have now been rid with the election of a black President. The challenges that the new President now faces are numerous and lie deep both in the American psyche and indeed their pockets. What America and indeed the world now need is exactly what was promised so very eloquently and characteristically. Hope, leadership and the prospect of change in light of a world falling, albeit slowly, to its proverbial knees. A “blank sheet to rest nation’s hopes on.” The words ‘yes we can’ are simple yet affective. They provided a nation with the inspiration to allow grass roots citizens to feel they had a real say in the development and future of a nation. They galvanized and empowered people to be swept away on a tide of optimism and belief.

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An emblem of impossible prophecy, a crowd Dividing like the furrow which a mule has ploughed, Parting for their president: a field of snow-flecked Cotton Forty acres wide, of crows with predictable omens That the young ploughman ignores for his unforgotten Cotton-haired ancestors, while lined on one branch, is A tense Court of bespectacled owls and, on the field's Receding rim — A gesticulating scarecrow stamping with rage at him. The small plough continues on this lined page Beyond the moaning ground, the lynching tree, the tornado's Black vengeance, And the young ploughman feels the change in his veins, Heart, muscles, tendons, Till the land lies open like a flag as dawn's sure Light streaks the field and furrows wait for the sower. Derek Walcott


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