I am a boring person. That means I like marginally boring things - Kafka, US politics (democrats), Singaporean short stories /colonialism (Baratham, thanks to shawn's intro), Cyril Wong's lyricism and the origins of language.

Alright, now that its been said and done.

During an observatory lesson, Ms Emily Koh mentioned the power of Martin Luther's speech within the context of an arthur miller play. Reading about Hillary's dismissal of his Speech churned up some more thoughts on the already discussed-to-death topic of US politics.

There isn't any need to set the stage: Come Nov 2008, results that will change the course of international relations as we know it will (as I predict) give new voice to the young. Hooray for us. Yet, time has not diminished King’s powerful condemnation of the status quo.
"Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

But I am Youth first, Gender thereafter. And I have been reading about Obama's grip on young voters in every major magazine, and yet am similarly swept away by his soaring rhetoric and message of hope. Perhaps I have set up camp with those gullible impressionable youth of today, those who know nothing of the intricacies of political manoeuvres, seeking instead a Change that is both blind and boorish. Perhaps it could be that I have been blinded by Obama's optimism, idealism and passion, the 3 qualities that have earned him such a loyal following.

Yet, I wonder if it makes me naive or merely hopeful, whenever I hear Obama recognise the times of International Cooperation. (onward UN!) Hasn't it been for too long that we have been subject to the mocking masquerade of a 'United Nations', when it wields the weapons of USA and the USA alone.

Obama has rightly acknowledged that "whether it's global terrorism or pandemic disease, dramatic climate change or the proliferation of weapons of mass annihilation, the threats we face presently can no longer be contained by borders and boundaries." (To wonderful alliterative effect, no less.)

Our largest threats are transnational, and national borders have been all but eroded; it's time a president realises that.

Post-Americanism in America
Yet, this scarily whispers of Post-Americanism; one that comes at the wrong place and time, especially when we need the strong bold American dream now, more than ever.

This waning of American influence -seen most dramatically during the Jimmy Carter era - notoriously became associated with passivity and retreat when the Big Guys decided to rely on ""growing American maturity in a complex world." This maturity failed to persuade Tehran to free the hostages, and policy was pulverized into active helplessness.

The thing is, Post-Americanism is a very real, very frightening possibility, one that could foreshadow an Obama presidency. Obama has attacked the 'arrogance' of the Bush Administration, for its refusal to allow US policy to defer to global bodies.

Q: And finally, do you feel a sense of mission in your quest to become president?

OBAMA [interview]:

"Now it's our moment to lead - our generation's time to tell another great American story. So someday we can tell our children that this was the time when we helped forge peace in the Middle East. That this was the time when we confronted climate change and secured the weapons that could destroy the human race.
And this was the time when we renewed the America that has led generations of weary travelers from all over the world to find opportunity, liberty and hope on our doorstep."

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ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE: You favour Hillary, don’t you?
MM LEE: I feel safer. I’ve watched him on television, but I’m a bit scared when he says "We'll get out of Iraq" just like that and he can't get out of it, you know.

MM LEE: If he wins, he's got to get out of Iraq and that will be a very big mess.


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MM LEE: I do not want to say anything that will hurt President Bush because I believe he went in with the best of intentions."

MM LEE: Yes, that you could change Iraq. How can you change Iraq? It's a 4,000-year-old society. You know, it's not malleable, it's fractured.

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Is the world ready to openly hand power to institutions and people who never hold elections in the first place? This is all so touch-and-go, but is the world ready to have a president who snubs Ahmadinejad, or one willing to engage in “talks” with him?

2008 might see the second coming of Carter in foreign policy - and in far more frightening circumstances than in 1970s.

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John McCain, former Vietnam war prisoner:

"Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing. I can attest to that better than many, for I have seen men's hopes tested in hard and cruel ways that few will ever experience."

"I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need.
"I seek the presidency with the humility of a man who cannot forget that my country saved me."