Barack Obama's election to the presidency of the United States has inspired hearts and minds toward new idealism emerging from the wreckage of a material world buried under its own weight. America needs a leader for a change that will not be ordinary, but one that focuses on ordinary people's hopes and dreams. When the trappings of a modern world have corrupted our ideals, it is time to go back to the basics of the life we want to live.
America found the right person to bring back idealism into the hearts of everyone, at the same time that most of the world re-examines its own set of ideals in a wasteland of economic devastation. One can say that the financial chaos that greeted America, and the rest of the world in mid-September was a crude awakening to our lack of conscience and common sense. We have allowed ourselves to be led by political and economic leaders whose sole motivation is self-interest and preservation of a system built at the expense of ordinary people.
If the Americans can wake up one day and realise that they need real change, and then elect the best person they believe capable of leading them towards change, why can't other nations do the same? The only other historical moment of this magnitude - that awed the world - was when Nelson Mandela after being held in prison for many years, became the first democratically-elected President of South Africa. He led his country towards democracy and freed his people from the politics of racial segregation.
How many nations today suffer from political systems that perpetuate corruption and a social cancer that feeds on the ignorance of the people, on their religious beliefs that poverty and over-population are mandated from heaven. The Philippines, has had one shining historical moment of what is now commonly referred to as "People's Revolution" in 1986, and wherein a woman- also historical in itself - became president and replaced a dictator who fled at the height of the popular street uprising. At that moment, there was a singular voice among the people who called for change. The mandate of leadership was given to Corazon Aquino, widow of the slain politician Benigno Aquino. But she faltered, lost the vision for change and in the end, old politics returned with merciless vengeance.
There were other nations that also experienced illustrious historical moments, as did happen in Poland with Lech Walesa and the Solidarity and in Czech Republic with Vaclav Havel. They were social agents that brought about change beyond national borders, change that inspired others to follow a better path for humanity. Many changes took place at the tremendous cost of human lives. However, looking at America just now, the change that is going to make or unmake a great nation rests upon a charismatic young leader with a vision of what the country needs in terms of shared purpose and common goals, the empowerment of ordinary citizens in a world without wars.#
