OBAMA—THE SEARCH FOR AN IDEALISTIC HUMANE GOVERNMENT CONTINUES

It has been many years since the famous “I Have a Dream” Lincoln Memorial speech of 28th August, 1963 by Martin Luther King where he wished to see a United States of America where her people would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the contents and strength of their character. Surprisingly or not so surprisingly whenever you heard anything about “I have a Dream” speech in the media it never went beyond the colour of their skin and the one about the strength and contents of your character was disdainfully dismissed.

Now what exactly is this thing called: the colour of your skin; the more appropriate word is skin tone - and scientifically speaking the melanin content of your skin or pigment. Each and every human being on this over populated planet of ours (i.e. almost 5 billions or 6 billions- too much already in any case!) have their own skin tone and most importantly it is not a fixed thing; i.e. prolonged exposure to the sun or complete lack of it will cause the skin to take various hues and shades of colour. The quote un quote “white” world spends billions of dollars on sunny beach vacation destinations to work on their tans and even super rich businessman or politicians who are always dropping the words “men and women of colour” in their conversations are often seen holidaying/relaxing on their yachts with a pot belly and a reddish brown suntan. It seems like they need the “men and women of colour” from all over the world to work hard so he can have a break and have suntan like his employees. Let’s also not forget thousands of suntan places doing brisk business all over America and the western world. The point I am trying to make here is the absurdity and the hypocrisy of this whole system based on the tonality of your skin.
The novelist Mr Joseph Conrad in his novel “The Heart of Darkness” observes caustically that Imperialism as nothing but plundering and enslaving of people and culture that possess darker skin a different hair pattern and slightly flatter noses. That they have those particular physical characteristics because of the proximity of the Sun to those equatorial countries is conveniently ignored. What an uninteresting drab world it will be if we all looked just the same. Thank God for our diversity and differences. It seems the ruling class or the ruling elite chose an arbitrary system to divide people to justify their exploitations - and hence the birth of racism and slavery. And then later on religion was added to justify and compound the problem. This vicious cycle of exploitation needs to be broken once and for all for human beings to evolve and move forward in consciousness.
If we look around in this world and here I thank profusely the Discovery channel Animal planet... Plant planet …so on and so forth we are overwhelmed and awed by the beauty and mind boggling range of diversity that stares us right into our face both in the floral and faun an world. And it is only when we come to the Human world this whole concept of diversity takes a back seat in the bus. Why? The answer is simple economics. Everything in this world can be boiled down to hard core economics which in plain English translates for the benefits and advantages of wealth certain people will go to extreme lengths to justify their heinous acts.

In the present times we are not in direct slavery anymore but we are still modern slaves, whether we are slave to technology, heavily dependent upon the economics, slaved and intoxicated by power and wealth… which always goes hand in hand….slave to wrong images as manufactured by the media and the advertising industry which has reduced masses of people to nothing but consumers of enormous amounts of not needed (unwanted) products. We are increasingly living in a very Americanised McDonaldised, televisionised world where more and more malls are being constructed and plastic soap operas and coca colas are thrust upon people who were very recently farmers and fishermen. They simply do not understand what is going on? A simple peaceful life of hard labour and living close to nature (where their main source of joy comes from!) has been replaced by concrete steel glass and plastic civilisation---If we can call that civilisation at all? The people living within that civilisation are themselves uneasy and unhappy and now we go world wide to dump that on simple indigenous people who frankly does not need our civilisation. On the contrary they may have many valuable lessons to teach us on how not to rape and plunder nature ceaselessly and make her barren and bald way before her time.
Now my readers you may ask what does it have to do with Obama as the New president elect of America in 2008 elections…patience my friends and fellow readers. It is America that holds the key to the survival of this planet and mankind. (We say Man-Kind but surprisingly so few in the present days of Ugly competition are actually kind or generous!). It is this very American spirit of can do attitude and nothing is impossible made the global imperialism of USA happen. Is it not possible (and I know I am going out on a limb here) that same spirit once properly inspired can bring about a different sort of change. The Change in people’s heart and attitude, his mind body and spirit. A feeling of Oneness, that we are in this altogether as one mankind one race the Human race. This endless exploitation of world resources to feed the frenzied whimsy of the super-rich and their lifestyle must stop. The world simply does not have enough resources for one billion Chinese and Indian people to catch up with their first world dreams and the life style that goes with it. What we need is to re-evaluate how we have been conducting ourselves and our businesses all over the world. Business as usual also equals to exploitation, poverty and misery as usual. A more balanced sustainable and ethical ways of conducting business is absolutely Imperative and urgent.

Change we must (otherwise it will be forced upon us anyway!) in our attitude our thinking and our lifestyle—mostly in the Westernised democracies of the world to pave the way for a peaceful, tolerable Just and green world. What America does today the rest of the world follows. It is only in America people are not burdened down heavily with an obsolete past breathing heavily over their shoulders, and thus making quick dynamic movements almost impossible. This is what happens with other countries, they are burdened by their own past from India to China to Europe it is a heavy price to pay in the name of tradition and culture, - while America is light and quick footed always flexible, re-inventing and re-discovering herself since her birth of democracy (approximately 250 years ago) to the present times, as election of Mr Barrack Obama as the new President clearly proves. America is moving forward from a colour bound to a colour blind society. It is not that America is incapable of mistakes but it also knows how to rectify and learn from her previous mistakes. In an increasingly bifurcated world of haves and have- nots whether in America, UK India, Africa or Europe we need to set aside our superficial differences whatever they may be(nationality, skin tone, looks etc) and work together for the overall benefits of the Human race. I am specially calling out to good kind decent and well meaning individuals of all nations to work together for a Greater Good and to be honest our very survival and existence on this planet is at stake. (Hell folks we don’t have much time left!)

This beautiful blue white and green Planet Earth of ours which we call home which looks so wondrously beautiful from space yet fragile is screaming for Change---and it is up to us ----to All of US to make that change and transition from steps leading to a mass graveyard to the steps leading to a beautiful garden. I think to me the choice is obvious. What the world needs Right Now is Kindness and Compassion more Contemplativeness, Meditation, a silent Prayer to heal this broken world of ours. This does not necessarily mean that we sit in meditative poses folding our legs (though half an hour a day is not too much to ask surely?) but we have to integrate our kindness and compassion into the everyday world of workplace and practice it with all sincerity and earnestness. We are the keepers of our fellow brothers and sisters and then and only then can we become True care-takers of this world, this Planet Earth.

As I have mentioned in the title of this article “Obama—The Search for An Idealistic Humane Government Continues”…..but that cannot happen unless we ourselves become Human and Humane individuals.

PEACE ON EARTH….PEACE ON EARTH….MAY PEACE BREATHE IN OUR TROUBLED HEARTS AND SOULS.

P.S: A note to my readers, you may or may not have noticed I use the word human quite often in this article and I will continue to do so…it is a bit like drilling advertising slogans by TV people and I will continue to say Human----till one fine morning you wake up and you realise that you are nothing but a Human Being after all and all your false identities have been stripped away from you. I look forward to that particular Dawn.

(Aside: I do not mind if that defining moment happens in evening or noon-times, as long as it happens!)

This original article was authored and kindly donated (without copyright,) by writer & Poet: SAIKAT MONDAL. You may contact him personally with positive comments by Email: saikatmondal_2004@yahoo.com - it was at the invitation of Carol & Mandel Rheems, of the “One Earth Vision & Mission”, for WE ALL GATHER TOGETHER ALSO AS: “FRIENDS FOR WORLD PEACE”. You may contact us for further details or with positive suggestions by Email: friends.for.peace@btinternet.com.

PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS & FAMILY OF OUR ENDEAVOURS TO GATHER PEOPLE IN COMMUNITIES TO BRING PEACE THROUGH CREATIVE ARTS, MEDITATION, ENCOURAGEMENT, HEALING - AND SPREADING HOPE FOR THAT NEW DAWN OF AWAKENING TO ALL OF OUR PEACEFUL PURPOSE IN LIFE, TO RESTORE THIS PLANET FROM THE POLLUTED STATE, TO THE SAFETY, BEAUTY & JOY AS BEFITS & UPHOLDS THE SACREDNESS OF ALL LIFE, & PLEASE OFFER TO ADD YOUR GOOD WILL TO OUR WORK. THANK YOU. Carol Rawlins-Rheems.