Obama ran: Our children can fly

Nov 09, 2008 Features / Columnists, Ronald Sanders

By Sir Ronald Sanders

We have lived through a truly historic moment. The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America defied all odds and lifted the hopes and aspirations of people of all races and nationalities.

But, his election has created unreasonable hopes amongst many simply because he is half-black. Evidence of this has been the official statements of several Caribbean governments that they expect the US government to pay more attention now to the developmental needs of their countries.

On the morning after the elections, when asked by the Caribbean Media Corporation for a comment on what the Caribbean could expect from an Obama victory, I said the following:
“Obama’s election will bring no new and special attention to the Caribbean. His priorities will be righting an American economy gone wrong, fulfilling his promise to take US troops out of Iraq, settling Afghanistan, improving a cooperative relationship with a resurgent Russia and managing a difficult trade and economic relationship with China.

Given the $900 billion hole in the US Treasury that followed the bail out of US financial institutions, some of his own domestic campaign pledges will have to be delayed.

In this connection, the Caribbean – except for Haiti and Cuba – will not be a priority. There are some negatives.

Obama has taken positions against off shore financial services and outsourcing services – both of which will affect the Caribbean.

This will call for Caribbean governments to be pro-active now in putting their case before the Obama transition team as soon as it becomes functional in the next few days.

In the wider context, Caribbean people, whose history is marked by slavery, indentured labour and racial discrimination, are better off because through Obama’s election, we have woken up today to a world which acknowledges the equality of all men”.

It is important that everyone tempers their expectations. Obama is quite obviously a unique man – visionary, focused and hardworking – with the capacity to select highly capable people to help him achieve his objectives.

But, he did not promise the myriad things that people all over the world seem to expect him to deliver. Therefore, they must not be disappointed when their own hopes rather than his promises are unfulfilled.

The eminent West Indian Professor, Dr. Norman Girvan, summed up this matter of Caribbean expectations in an eloquent essay written on the night of the election.

He said:” I dislike the assumptions that underlie the question, “What can the Caribbean expect from an Obama Presidency?” It is not just that the expectations are unrealistic: they are misplaced.

Barack Obama may have a global following, but his political constituency is domestic. Within the United States, he must find the means to carry out his ambitious agenda in the midst of an economic crisis that is taking the federal deficit towards the one-trillion dollar mark.

Overseas, he must obey the imperatives of America’s strategic interests. To attempt to do otherwise would be to court political suicide. The main difference from the past will not be in ends, but in means, and in style.

Obama understands – or seems to understand – that diplomacy, negotiation and winning hearts and minds are more effective means of pursuing American interests than the ready exercise of brute force.

And such a willingness to see and understand the point of view of ‘The Other’ must be welcomed. The opportunities are to be grasped.

Only the naive would expect U.S. President Obama to put the interests of other countries above those of the United States; whether in trade, security, or in the matter of offshore tax centres.

The responsibility to define and defend our interests remains with us. The opportunities lie in the possibility of more constructive engagement. No, Obama cannot be our saviour”.

For all the talk of shifting global power and the creation of new alliances – all of which is true – an equal truism is that, for the Caribbean, the US remains the nation to which the Caribbean must pay closest attention.

It is the country that houses the majority of our people (other than our own countries); it is the single largest source of our tourists; apart from our own Universities, it is the location for the tertiary education of the majority of our people, and it is our biggest single trading partner.

Strong Caribbean supporters and advocates in Washington have despaired at the lack of strong action by Caribbean governments in Washington.

One of them, David Lewis of Manchester Trade, now says: “The Caribbean has moved from being the only region in the world with a preferential economic relation with the US (CBI 1983) to being at the ‘bottom of the pile’ literally as all other nations in the Americas and elsewhere have positioned themselves strategically up-front and in-line with US interests… try to play ‘catch-up’ based on some misunderstood notion of “key Caribbean-American players” just will not cut it in the competitive environment of Washington… it is very sad but we have only ourselves and our inactivity and lack of strategy and vision as responsible for this state of affairs”.

We in the Caribbean must not expect Obama to do for us what we are not doing for ourselves. His is a different task – and it is related to his own people in America. To a certain extent by his very election he has delivered to young, black people.

On the night of November 3rd I participated in an election-watch gathering with a group of black West Indians in Canada. They were full of guarded hope for they knew only too well the bitterness of disappointment.

When the announcement came, they formed a circle and joined hands in prayer, and one young man thanked the Almighty that he was able to witness this great moment in his lifetime.

It made true and telling the observation that: “”Rosa sat so Martin could walk…Martin walked so Obama could run…Obama ran so our children can fly”.
(The writer is a business consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)
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