Regardless of how much we dislike the idea, our world at the moment needs America. We look to her for direction and, as the current economic crisis has all too well illustrated, for stability. The past eight years of the Bush presidency has created a vacuum in world politics, as leaders across the globe have turned away from Bush and his ultra-conservative and violently isolationist policies, but have not been able to find a suitable replacement. This has resulted in countries and regions going it alone and perhaps more than at any other time in the past half-century the world has felt fragmented. It is with an overwhelming sense of relief therefore that countries across the globe, with the exception of a very few Bush-like isolationist countries (like Israel and Cuba), have joyously celebrated the Obama victory and welcomed him as the world leader they have been seeking.
It is perhaps unfair to hoist such a global burden of responsibility and expectation onto his shoulders, but it is surely not one of which Obama has been ignorant. His European adventure earlier this year, during which he drew huge crowds, clearly showed early on how the world community was pinning its hopes on an Obama presidency. Perhaps never before has so much been expected from a US President, nor has he been expected to be a global President as much as Obama is expected to be.
There have been few truly globally recognized leaders in our modern era, but at there has been at least one for every generation - Ghandi, Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan, Mandela and now Obama. These leaders instill a sense of hope and optimism about our future and tend to make people feel that there is a new direction in which we should be heading. They create a sense of renewal in environments of stagnation and, despite all their grace and quiet humanity, they are bold, determined and outspoken statesmen to whom we flock for reassurance and guidance.
After eight years of Bush tyranny, it is going to feel like a new experience for Americans to be welcomed back into the world fold. Besides sharing that warm, fuzzy feeling that comes with being re-embraced after a long period of rejection, Americans are also going to have to get used to sharing their president. Kenya is a leading example of how Obama is being claimed by other nations, but as the following email I received last week illustrates, he is being held up as a light to all around the world:
"This is why the USA will continue to be the strongest nation on the face of the earth:
Will South Africa ever come close?"
Thank God we have Mandela to fall back on.
Dion Marc Delport
15 November 2008