[Irish Times, Ireland]
Libération, France
Hope
"Since the election of Barack Obama, the future has
switched sides. No longer will it be confiscated by the thirty-year old
alliance of religious conservatism, technological modernity and the cult of
money. It has again found a human face."
By
Laurent Joffrin
Translated
By Sandrine Ageorges
January
21, 2009
France - Libération - Original Article (French)
Let's give hope a chance. Since the election of Barack
Obama, the future has switched sides. No longer will it be confiscated by the thirty-year
old alliance of religious conservatism, technological modernity and the cult of
money. It has again found a human face.
Will Obama disappoint? Yes, of course.
Contrary to what one might believe by observing the planetary fervor that he
has triggered, he's not president of the world but of a single nation, however important
that nation may be. He will be accountable to American interests and his constituents,
as all presidents are. He is a formidable politician and therefore amenable to
compromise - disappointing but inevitable - especially in a country where the
separation of powers are more than empty words.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Above all, he practices a flamboyant centrism that is
essentially cautious and without which he would not have been elected. Let us
expect of him, therefore, what can be expected. Not a fantastic and unrealistic
rupture, but one that begins to reverse the blind course we have been on, of an
economy without rules and aggressive corporatism. Even if in an imperfect,
incomplete, limited manner, Obama can demonstrate, in word and deed, that people
are more valuable than markets, that elected representatives can supplant the
power of money, that the logic of global cooperation is more effective than
that of confrontation.
Thus this new president will by definition fail to
meet the expectations that his emergence has created, but perform far beyond
the eternal lessons of calculation dispensed by the cynical and resigned.
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH
VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
January 21, 9:05pm]
