The dawn of a new age

Barack Obama's inaugural speech today was not the best he's delivered. His speech on election day after being confirmed winner was much more uplifting, inspiring.
But the lack of rhetoric and the more down-to-earth tone adopted today still had a lot of content worth analysing.
He did deliver a critical message that gives us hope that this could be the dawn of a new age.
Obama made clear the challenges and the difficulties the US and the world is facing today. He did not allow the grandeur of the moment to blind him from the tough road ahead. It was a sobre description of the moment we are living.
America is weak, he said. It is at war with terrorists and the economy is in the dumps. Jobs have been lost and people have lost their houses. But most of all he made reference to the sapping of people's confidence.
Basing his launch pad on this bleak scenario, Obama sent out a message of hope to middle America, the poor, minority groups and workers. One can only hope that he will have the courage to capture the moment and pass critical legislation to provide free health care to everybody, improve education, create green jobs, control unscrupulous speculators and ensure wealth is more evenly distributed.
But for us non-Americans it was his message to the rest of the world that had significance. He reached out to the poor nations, to America's enemies, the Muslim world and America's friends.
He harped on the value of dialogue and engagement to overcome problems but made it clear that this should not be interpreted as weakness. He talked of America's military might but insisted on restraint and the power of conviction. America is ready to lead once again, he said, clearly ditching the unilateralism championed by George Bush.
Obama made reference to the difficulties poised by climate change and the need for the US to join hands with other countries to overcome this challenge.
Unfortunately he avoided completely any mention of the Middle East and the Palestinian cause. Hopefully this will be among the first things on his international agenda.
All in all Obama promises to bring along the dawn of a new age. I only hope he will live up to the expectations he has raised in America and the world.

Where is Obama?

What is happening in Gaza is an affront to human dignity and I would have expected at least one meaningful public statement from US President-elect Barack Obama on the humanitarian disaster that is developing there.
After all he is the man who campaigned on the ticket of change and a new way of doing politics. I can understand that he is not yet officially in the driving seat but this status has not prevented him from commenting publicly on the financial crisis and the rescue package he intends to propose to Congress.
Can Obama stomach the insult to people's intelligence when the Israeli foreign minister insists there is no humanitarian disaster in Gaza?
Does he really believe that all the civilians killed or injured are Hamas operatives? Is the Director General of Shifa Hospital in Gaza lying when he insists that lack of medicines, drinking water and constant electticity cuts are making doctors' work difficult?
I expect Obama to address the Gaza issue. Until now he has let me down.
The truth is that Israel will not heed mounting international pressure to stop its incursion in Gaza until it continues to enjoy the backing of the United States.
What a shame.
Once again the Israeli government has shown that it has an effective, well-planned strategy to do war but no plan for peace. With elections in Israel due for February, rival politicians are trying to win on the back of innocent Palestinian blood.
The defence minister Ehud Barack is leader of the Labour Party and the Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the new leader of the centrist Kadima Party. Both form part of the coalition government that risks being upstaged by the centre-right hawkish Likud Party led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
A veritable competition of hawks at the expense of stateless, oppressed and humiliated citizens.

Gaza

Three Palestinian children have just been killed by an Israeli missile attack. Others will wake up the next morning to see they have no school to go to.
Indeed they may not eat tonight as food has long run out. Getting hold of medicines is like looking for life on the moon.
Palestinians living in Gaza have been enduring a blockade by the Israeli authorities for months on end. The blockade reduced food supplies, medicines, destroyed trade and turned Gaza into a humanitarian crisis. It is no wonder that Hamas turned back to its habit of launching rockets into Israeli territory.
I cannot condone the killing of innocent Israeli civilians. But things need to be put into perspective. After decades of being promised a State, Palestinians do not yet have a place to call home. They live in occupied territory. They are the oppressed.
Oppression leads to desperation and I find it cheeky, to put it mildly, that Israel and the US justify the current war being waged against the residents of Gaza on the basis of self defence.
What do you expect when people are driven up a wall? What do the Palestinian authorities have to show their people? Is it any wonder that they resort back to the only thing that can hurt their oppressor?
The war on Gaza is nothing more than a blood thirsty drive to annihilate innocent civilians. Hamas is just a comfortable excuse and nothing else.
Before the internal Palestinian split which saw the more moderate Fatah maintain control of the West Bank and Hamas take over Gaza, Hamas had won a free and fair election.
Unfortunately they were written-off immediately by Israel and the Western world. While Hamas had to assume responsibility for its actions in Government, I felt and still feel that they should have been engaged in dialogue.
Israel's actions will simply strengthen the more hardline elements among the Palestinians.

The power of words

I have finally come around to create my own blog where I hope to put across my ideas and impressions on what is happening around us.
I believe in the power of the word. The title of this blog 'Words make us different' was inspired by Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate who was kidnapped and kept hostage for six years before being rescued in the summer of 2008.
I was watching an interview with Ingrid on HardTalk on BBC.
The interviewer asked her whether today, just like she did six years ago when contesting the presidential election, she still believed that the political authorities in Colombia should engage in talks with the FARC rebels.
Ingrid's answer was inspirational. "I will not tell the Colombian authorities what to do. But words are what make us different from other animals."
While reiterating her belief that time was up for the FARC rebels, Ingrid still advocated engagement.
Indeed, words are all we have. What a difference a word can make. I have come to realise this all the more since my child's birth. The use of one word over another, one tonality instead of another, the use of a statement rather than a command, can dramatically change a tense situation into a calm exchange or escalate it into a shouting match.
I believe in the power of words. I believe that dialogue can enable two people with opposing views to find a working relationship that allows them to hold on to their positions but also enables them to understand the other's viewpoint.
Hence the creation of this blog. I intend to share my ideas, my words with you in the hope that they can make a difference in someone's life, somewhere.