Obama, A South African Perspective
Listening to Barack Obama taking his oath of office again this morning on 5fm, gave me goose bumps.
What an awe inspiring day yesterday was – viewing my first ever swearing-in ceremony of a US president, I felt like an outsider (which I am) looking in at another country’s pageantry and ceremony. At the same time I felt happy for the Obama family and for the American people and hope that Obama lives up to the faith many have in him.
The first moment of the inauguration that caught my attention was when Dr Rick Warren mentioned in his prayer that this was the 44th peaceful power transfer of the United States. It really brought home how new our democracy is in South Africa.
As proud as we are about our achievements in getting the country’s first democratically elected government in place, we will only know the true strength of our hard fought democracy when there is a real power shift.
There can only be a real shift in power though when there is a viable second party and so far South Africa just do not have a party that appeals to a large enough segment of the population. We have more opposition parties than a small country like South Africa needs!
The second moment I enjoyed was Obama’s entire speech. That man sure knows how to get and hold one’s attention.
I like that he spoke of collective responsibility. Ordinary people on the street are just as responsible for their own situations as governments are for the messes they create. Somewhere along the line we should stop demanding governments to take care of us and our children and do so ourselves.
Seeing how Obama uplifted his nation and even some other nations throughout the world, reflects even more badly on our own politicians. Compare the Jacob Zuma effect on South Africa to the US mood and all you can do is shake your head!
The ANC should be ashamed of themselves for putting Jacob Zuma forward to be president of this country. He is no example of what we would like anyone to aspire to be, unless we want our children to grow up being financially, sexually and politically irresponsible.
Obama speaks of uniting his country – regardless of political affiliation, religion, etc. He brings reasonableness to all the hype that we can only hope our government is looking at.
The biggest Obama lesson is that we all need aspire to something higher than our current circumstances. We need people to look up to and have someone that our children will one day hope to emulate.
For all the things he brings to the table, the best thing Barack Obama brings is hope that the future can be better than we’re experiencing.
When the our focus once again returns home, who will we look to for hope in South Africa?
