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WHAT ARE YOU DOING BARACK?

 

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I believe that critical decisions require critical thinking, which entails weighing all the alternatives carefully to make the most rational choices. The task faced by Obama at the moment requires no less as his choices will make or break the outlook of his administration. He must be sure that whoever joins the change train must be a clearly assessed factor through a thorough cost-benefit analysis, considering the larger vision of his leadership. Rationality in this case does not imply a political context, for we so easily assume that it is a requirement to fulfill national agendas. But in this wise, it represents a commonsensical approach to leadership selection considering the broader implications of America’s role in the global political and economic sphere. It is within this framework that President-elect Obama must operate from.

As an International politics commentator, I understand that it is the internal politics that determines the global effect a country has. But nowadays, it has become obvious that image is everything. What face people see representing the US is the character that they will define it by. Everyone tends to characterize Iran by the braggadocious Ahmadinejad, Russia by the thuggish Putin, and France by the boyish Sarkozy. Image matters a lot and international relations pundit will point quickly to why who trots the globe representing your interest is capable of raising the bar of your respect, or lowering the value states place on your presence. While Henry Kissinger was respected for his global influence and his diplomatic dance of shuttle diplomacy, Donald Rumsfeld was seen as an international devil and brought a lot of global disdain to the form of American politics. Madeline Albright and Condoleezza Rice did bring a more humane dimension to American foreign affairs. However, it seems to me that the Obama campaign is about to make the same mistakes the past administrations had made in selecting women as the Secretaries of State.

Let’s be frank here, this thing is not a textbook issue, it is a lot more about practical reality on how the world works. When selecting a woman as for this kind of positions, Obama will risk one major thing, others I may not be too informed to talk about. If he believes that he wants to bring even the most hardened states to a table of discussion and deliberation, he must know how some states function. The Middle-Eastern and more hard-line states have a problem with negotiating with women. This is because in those societies, women still function in subservient roles no matter their qualifications. You really think a man like Ahmadinejad will sit down with Hillary Clinton to discuss? Let’s not be deceived at this time, the world is still evolving and when such proud men who dominate and trouble the global system come to the rounds of talks, they carry their ego along with them and dump all forms of civility. Could one imagine that Putin will be telling Sarkozy that he will hangs Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia by the balls? That kind of use of coarse imagery by certain leaders shows how nasty the system has degenerated into. Obama will need a man who will stand shoulder to shoulder and eye to eye to throw down the gauntlet of tough diplomacy.

I feel funny talking about this because I am already being nailed to the cross for the sin of sexism. Although I do not see any other person as progressive as I am in noting that women should become the worlds administrators since they manage better, but I cannot help but state this point clearly. Obama’s choice may very well organize the funeral service for his foreign policy even before it is birthed. And let’s not forget that the whole world watch the spin of the campaigns over the past year. Clinton has been repeatedly quoted for criticizing Obama’s willingness to engage so called rogue nations (whoever defines them as so) in talks and has also stated that she will not sit down with certain people. How then will Obama get her to go against her own foreign policy disposition? Brother Barack needs a rethink on this issue if he really is thinking of offering her this job. Hillary no doubt is qualified and well traveled, but on this matter, she trails the likes of John Kerry (who also speaks fluent French) and Bill Richardson. 

There is no big cake for big shots in a government of change. Change indicates a depart from the norm and a reinventing of rationale. If this is really about change, then Obama will certainly see that Hillary had a special heart for Health Care in the US. I believe strongly that if he places her as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Hillary will work her heart out and give value to the lives of Americans. So Barack what are you doing? We are trusting you to do the right and the right you must do with the abundant political and social capital at your disposal. Peace Bro.

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Politics

WHEN HISTORY IS MADE

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“History has been made as America witnesses its first black president…” This was a statement made by a CNN reporter and it dawned on me that it was real. That statement are the kinds of words you hear spoken in a movie that tries to capture a political scenery, but this time it’s no movie. This is not just a freak in history, but a calculated attempt by an unseen hand to effect his agenda in the lives of men. As I sit here brooding over the last one year and my conversations and my disbelief, I stand to say I was wrong throughout the time and I am not ashamed to admit it that I was. I now believe more strongly that absolutely nothing is impossible under the sun.

My entry into the floodwaters of American politics started sometime in 2006, when myself and my friend Bayo Akomolafe were reading the news in the university library. He showed me a Time magazine story on Obama and he said to me “Reginald, do you know that he may become the next president of America?” My reply of course was that which every other person even Obama’s wife could have given. “Bayo, America ain’t ready for that yet!” I had to wake Bayo from his sleep in Nigeria and swallow my words to his delight. He was a silent prophet then with a lone voice in the wilderness who was even despised by his closest friend. Oh foolish me!! I forgot that ‘impossible’ was a word invented by men and will be redefined by the same men. Today I look back to that day and see the events that time has spurned and I wonder if there was not a pre-design already in place before all the hullabaloo. Well… that may be the case, but I today I have learnt that small is powerful, and weak is wonderful. The smaller you are, the greater your inner power and this is what Obama utilized. Let me show you a few things I have learnt from this wonder-filled process.

First, God does not make great things from big things. He creates big things from small things. This is why I despised Bayo’s convictions that day because it was small in my eyes. I wanted a major event or a break in the sky for an announcement that the American status-quo had changed before I would consider the possibility of Obama becoming the president. But forgot that nothing that is solid in history ever starts big. In his words yesterday, he said he was the most unlikely person to succeed, and started his campaign not in the corridors of power, but in the parlor of a ordinary person. As young man, having nothing but a a dream and a few people whole believed in him, he rose to build the most phenomenal campaign in history.

Second, don’t go to the mighty when you are starting out, go to the humble. The mighty can only see from the perspective of their greatness, but the humble can see the ground and no where the hurdles are to cross. Obama came to the lowly in society and made his case. They took him in and worked their heart out for him. For those who are not in the US, I can emphatically tell you that I have never seen that kind of political passion before. You could see that these people had nothing but their strength to dissipate, and they did it joyfully, causing an infectious hope across whole populations. Can you imagine that on the eve of the elections, Obama grassroots mobilizers knocked on 1 million doors encouraging people to vote. That is amazing and points to the fact that the humble are powerful and will do what they promised they will do. You remember David in the scriptures? The men that came to him in the desert after he ran away from the persecution of Saul, were outcasts of the society, broken men without hope. But later, it was on record that they became the ‘Mighty Men of David’. So make the humble your friends in the journey of life.

Third, refuse to give up your message. You are what you believe, and your message is what reveals to others what you believe. Obama stuck to his message of hope and refused to give it up even in the face of Smearing attacks of a Rovian order. Even when your character is called into question, keep the focus, for it could be very easy to un-sheath your sword and go after the throat of your enemies. Even David when given the neck of Saul refused to revenge. I have learnt that when you refuse to move your position and reduce yourself to the class of politically disheveled men, you retain your class and gain a premium in the hearts of those who hear you. Obama made it clear that this is a lesson for history.

Fourth, disconnect yourself from success. the danger of success is that it can create failure. Paradox aye? Success places you on a pedestal that slams you with so much self satisfaction that it may blunt your sensitivity and blur your sight. Therefore, remove from you the hold and elements of success and go down the hill and see what can not be seen from the elevations of success. Obama struck that note when he stated in his victory speech (paraphrased) “This election victory is not the change we need, but a chance to get the change we need…” This can only come out of a man who inner confidence comes not from outer positives, but from deep seated convictions. I pick this wisdom and hold it close to my heart.

There are four things I have stated above, but far much more I have learnt not just from the candidate, but also from his opponent. In the making of history, you don’t just learn from good stuff, but also from bad stuff. Because these two coalesce to form a celebrated outcome. McCain has shown me what not to do. Palin has taught me the issues women have to overcome in our world as they play the role the world awaits them to. McCain’s campaign also taught me that there is nothing like a single eyed purpose not compressed by the tyranny of the urgent. David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager has shown me that you don’t have to appear on TV to be seen as hard working. Hillary Clinton advise me never to walk the paths of desperation, for you will see yourself become warped by the devils of desire.

Friends, when history is made, you can either be a victim of the present or you become an advocate for the implications for the future. I hold this history close to my heart, for I have a chance to use its wisdom and the dimensions of its accompanying mystery to remake history in my own little corner of the world. What more is there to see but to warn all of us that there is a lone voice still calling right now in the wilderness, pointing to a little things or persons that will still remake history. When history is made, it makes us realize that history will always be made.

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issues

UNDERSTANDING: THE KEY TO MANAGING DIVERSITY

Taking a class in diversity management has helped clear my afore ignorance on the subject matter. There is no feeling as soothing as knowing what you never used to know, and seeing that what you now know will help you know what you are yet to know. I always saw issues of diversity as bordering on race and ethnicity, concerns for which the world is greatly suffering because it still is awed by the complexities of the multiplicity of mankind (ha ha ha….crack that). Also another error of thought was that diversity was a discussion whose endpoint is oneness and also a mechanism through which equality of outcome is guaranteed. Far from that. The discourse of diversity seems to have slipped through the hands of those that will constrict its meaning and append narrow definitions to a concept that in itself defies a single explanation. Diversity is as diverse at it sounds and it seeks to divert our attention to something a bit more colourful than the usual straight-jacketed issues of race and ethnicity and the preaching of equality by the year 20??.

I am not writing paper. I felt the urgent need to state this, because I am already preset by default in that mode as a student and I sense that what I have written above is almost passing for an assignment paper on the diversity topic. But what I am trying to communicate here is some of my meditation on how beautiful diversity becomes when we understand it for it’s true meaning. In fact, the understanding and ability to manage diversity becomes the most powerful tool anyone can posses in the century we are living in. There is not one thing that is the same, yea not even a xerox copy. I thought to myself how I would feel if I couldn’t uniquely identify anything, if everyone were the same, if situations were all similar, and Life going through a wicked cycle of repetitions? ‘Boring’ falls heavily short of describing how the world will be. But thankfully, we have diversity injected into every facet of life not to separate us, but make us interdependent and harmonize our living.

In my meditations about the matter, I wondered what music would be formed if there existed only one note. What artistic works would be done if there existed one colour? What great speeches would be made if there existed one sound pitch? What great dramatic performances could be made if there was only one character? What great love can be shown if there existed one person? Therefore the world becomes melodious, artistic, colourful, dramatic, and loving when diversity is appreciated and understood. Diversity is rooted in the beauty of difference and the managing of the same. Those who live a fulfilled life are those who can recognize the beauty in the difference all around them and harness each part to make a whole new life.

This is what I am coming to learn. People are different and will never all be the same. Skin colours are different, speeches are different, languages are different, philosophies and values are different, clothing is different, writing is different, there are differences in food, abilities are different, and capacities are different. Are all this to regroup us and create iron boundaries between us? No!!! Rather, they are the several strokes of a masters hand, as he hits the canvass creatively to reveal a beautiful big picture. No great picture is mono-coloured, it is the sweet apportionment of a little here and a little there, that unravels something that all eyes love to behold. Everyone and everything around us plays an active role in forming a greater union that benefits all. This I now see to be diversity. It seeks not to make everything or everyone the same, but it seeks to confirm our difference and help us love it and live with it.

Therefore how can I sheath my evil sword of separation and take on the plowshares of cultivating acceptance. It is by a virtue called Understanding. Understanding is standing under to…(fill in the blanks). Standing under seems to say something about support. Understanding seeks always to support what is not like you so it can be good for you. Understanding also sounds like ‘another’s standing’. Which again means that understanding will always bring you to where you stand in the place of another to feel what they feel, see what they see, hear what they hear, and understand what they understand. Understanding also sounds to me like the opposite of ‘over-standing’, because while the latter tries to overrate and overstate ones self, the former tries to downplay ones position to bring out the best in the other. Believe me, understanding is the most effective tool in managing diversity.

So if you ever find yourself in a position of fainting because of the differences you see all around, remember these exist to enhance your life and not to cut it short. Then take on the virtue of understanding, as it is the prism through which the varieties of life will shine through to you, and you will see the awesome beauty and embellishments your living will be decorated with. Trust me, I tried it and guess what? IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!

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