I was a BO fan. I am having misgivings at this time.
Barrack Obama, the young man from a mixed African-White woman heritage, electrified many of us Chinese-Americans eager for a "culture tectonic plate shift" to steer America towards a more open society reaching out to the non-Western world.
Globalization is upon us; "The earth is flat;" and clearly America and the West need to face up to the reality that the next century will be the Asia/Pacific century, with CHINDIA (China and India) at the cusp of a civilizational renewal.
The "kid" from Punahou High School, Hawaii's elite private school, reminds me about many of my Hawaiian law school classmates in California. They are our "Tiger Woods" in the legal profession. They are pushing the envelope in breaking the "glass ceilings," and crashing those heretofore "closed doors" in endeavors never conceivable for a colored man in America. In the legal profession. In Hollywood. In the media business. In America's corporate world. And in our cutting-edge tech world.
Remember Tiger Wood and how he broke through those doors in the golfing world ? Remember his poignancy when he said he was a "Calibrasian," ? A human being with Cherokee, African, White, and yes, Asian blood in him. (His mother is Thai; his father is Cherokee Indian with African roots.
These "Calibrasians," I felt, got it when it comes to racial tolerance, diversity, and reaching out to Asia-Pacific and the rest of the non-Western world. Just visit Hawaii, America's most diverse state, with its "rainbow" of colors, ethnics, races all living in peace together, mixing it up without the "white supremacit" narrative we see and experience in the U.S. mainland.
In my mind, I thought if Barrack Obama becomes American President, which appears to be very likely as we head towards December's U.S. presidential elections, it would be a very powerful and electrifying watershed in the history of the United States since Abraham Lincoln's proclamation freeing American slaves which unleashed the Civil War.
Free at last ! Free at last. Free from the cobwebs of the past. Free to face a new America that is not parochial but forward-looking globally.
BO, I thought, "got it." BO, "ma man."
He has many of us thinking that he is "our man" to underscore the New America where the browning (Latino/Hispanic) and yellowing (Asian) of its culture have swept all across America's heartland, changing racial relations beyond the old paradigm of Whites and Blacks. I know what it is like. I am in California, the center of this shift.
As this juncture, Latinos are fact outpacing the growth of all ethnics and races in their push to be heard and be considered in America's rich cultural landscape.
That said. I was perplexed and rather angered between the "real" BO that I could connect and the "pandering" BO that I have seen him recently become.
Lately, he is beginning to talk like white politicians in America, i.e. "talking from both sides of his mouth."
Consider this:
In San Francisco fundraiser, held last Sunday, he was asked by one San Franciscan why it was so hard for him to reach blue-collar workers, given that many had been overlooked and wracked by America's deterioting economy, suffering from recession, he responded:
"It's not surprising then they get bitter; they cling to guns and religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustration."
How true; and "honest to goodness" raw, but the truth and nothing but the truth.
On the other hand, look at the other BO, on China and China bashing and demonization.
I can't reconcile one from the other.
I can't reconcile the Obama who is part of the strident Speaker Nancy Pelosi-led "storm troopers" behind the blitzkrieg attacks to derail China and demonize China as the "new evil empire." The demoguery is very telling from our third space vantage point.
The Clintons are known to be very amibitious people notorious for saying things to pander for votes. Sure, it is an election year. Anything to get elected, including braving "sniper fires" in Bosnia-Kosovo.
But Obama - BO? Ma Man from Punahou High ? "Barry" Obama from the islands ? Ma Man from Indonesia ? Ma Man from Kenya ? Ma Man. Ma Man. Man Man.
I thought this was the "internationalist" forward-looking BO I was ready to join to the quantum leap to shift America towards a more civil and civilized society away from the "white man's burden" and dumb and perverted mindsets.
I thought this was the man who can reach out and talk with IRAN, engages the people from this ancient Persian civilization in a rational dialogue.; to understand that Iran, as a nation, has genuine grievances against Western interloping in their part of the world.
I thought this was the man who can steer us towards understanding China and yes, the Indian and Pakistani world. The brave new world of "CHINDIA" i.e. China and India, is upon us.
I thought this was the man who can reach out to the Islamic World, and listen to their voices of pain and anguish, of being piled upon by the Western world.
I thought this was the man who can bridge the nasty and ugly hatred between Arabs and Jews, who as a "Calibrasian," like Tiger Woods, would project an image and spirit of reconciliation, rationality, and reciprocity (my Three "Rs").
I thought this this was the man who can reconcile the peoples of CUBA and bridge the divide between Fidel Castro's regime and the exile community in Florida; to live in peace, and look beyond the past and into the future.
This is the BO I can connect with and relate to; not the BO that is not apparently being held hostage by the strident passions, misguided emotions, and the "menu de dia", which are the telltale signs of our time in the Western world, i.e. China Bashing, Chinese Demonization, and Chinaman Lynching.
Get real, BO.
Will the "real BO" step up to the plate and bat like Barry Bonds, my favorite baseball slugger, sans the steroids ?
"BAT FOR a RATIONAL U.S._CHINA RELATIONSHIP!" Will 'ya?
You can do better, BO. You must do better. BO! And watch your back with the other BO advising you on U.S. foreign policy. (Read the next blog below). The politics of geoeconomic hegemonism by the Western world is dead. Finito. Rien. Nada. No Mas. Tapos na. Yuen la.
