"I say to you today, my friends, so even though
we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a
dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 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"
Exactly 45 years, (August 28, 1963 –
August 28, 2008), after the late Dr King, Jr delivered his celebrated 'I
have a dream', the Democratic Party of USA will declare the first
nominated African American, Barack Obama, as the presidential candidate to lead
their party to general elections in November 2008. For a country that has a
strong history of racial and economic apartheid, this is a dream come
true. I am sure the late Dr King is
smiling in his grave (or Heaven) expressing unheard words 'my dream has come true'.
However, this dream will only continue to formulate and actualize if the
enemies of Democracy do not shoot Obama dead just as they did to the late Dr
King. The test of democracy is here, and the world waits to see if the country
who claims bragging rights as a leader in democracy will pass the test
This dream comes at a time when the entire world
faces global challenges in terms of political turmoil, an imbalance in
population growth, economic uncertainty and deteriorating health and social
services. With fluctuating socio-political
climate, and constant economic changes, global leaders are faced with growing
challenges. Right now, the USA is facing one of the worse politico-economic
crises in the history of the country. The war in Iraq has consumed a bigger
portion of US attention. The war is like holding a snake in deep waters. You
fear to let it neither go nor continue holding it. Forecloses are on the
ascendency, social service is nothing to write home about, and as the
privatization of the medical industry increases, many Americans struggle to pay
costly medical bills. Americans now live
to work, instead of working to live.
While the average Americans continue to dream of the day they will be
able to partake in the American Dream, they find certain conditions inhibit
their ability to actualize the dream.
Yet, in the midst of chaos, the USA still has
bragging rights as a super power; a country that sneezes and the entire world
catches fever. America also has bragging
rights as a father of democracy, and as a nation that teaches other nations how
to practice democracy, how to care for their people, how to run their
economies, how to manage population growth and how to operate and supervise
their security and military intelligence.
While many citizens of other nations have limited freedoms, Americans
enjoy a high level of freedom, so much so that at times they may take it for
granted.
While all
nations have defects, and exist in historical contexts often filled with
oppressive legacies, and while the USA has its shares of flaws, it still is
seen as a great nation with a strong capacity for leadership in the global
world. While many countries and nations,
view America through mixed lenses, the entire world still catches fever
whenever the USA sneezes.
The
challenges are phenomenal and diverse. USA
foreign policies have almost being dragged to the ditch. Political landscape is
shaky and being pulled to the testing board.US democracy is in the process of
being tested. She is consistently losing
its economic power to China and other Asian nations as she has become a consuming
instead of producing nation, and owes them trillions of dollars.
China has a huge manufacturing capacity, and thus a deep hunger for raw
materials, including oil. Millions of barrels of oil that would have gone to
USA now go to China to run their plants, and the ripple effect is the
consistent hyper inflated gas prices greater than ever witnessed in the history
of USA. This culminates with a huge
public debt for the USA. USA is going through an economic recession and part of
the cause is the diversion of funds to cater for war in Iraq. As of April 2008
the total U.S. federal debt was approximately $9.5 trillion. It is predicted
that by 2020, China will produce more cars than the U.S. This is the challenge, and this is the test
America has to pass. Will the US be able to continue to move forward in a
changing global context? Will the US be
able to rise above the ashes, and move forward as an example of change and
global leadership in the midst of economic turbulence? This is the headache which awaits the next
President of USA, be he McCain or Obama.
The world waits to see what America’s next move will be.
Other challenge that the world leaders have to deal
with is population imbalance and the consequent on future socio-economic arena.
Population experts have it that maintaining a steady population requires a
birth rate of 2.1. When we look at birth
rate in Western Europe, it stands at 1.5. This means that in thirty years, there will
be about eighty million people short of what they have today. This is
problematic because it means as older citizens die out, there will be less
young people to replace them. While a
work force can emigrate from other countries, countries need to make sure they
are able to have the capacity to support those immigrants and that they are
able to be integrated into their host country.
With a lack of
supportive measures will lead to a politico-economic catastrophe for a number
of European countries. A look at Asian
countries such as Japan, its birthrate is 1.3 and she will lose about sixty million
people in the range of thirty years. While Europe has tried to use immigration
as a solution for population imbalance, Japan has tried to solve the imbalance
by closing schools and production facilities leading to a whole set of problems
with the potential of creating economic chaos. China and India continue have stable increase
of population growth which, if handle well, would supports their economic
growth and development. While China captures the manufacturing industry, India slowly
begins to overtake the US by surprise in terms of the Information Technology; which
is the backbone of today’s economy.
Africa
countries are heeding to the wake-up call to practice democracy. The economies
are not yet ripped for real practice of Western democracy. For the past decade,
Africa south of Sahara had a little bit stability that drew a bunch of
investments from Asia, Europe and America. Nonetheless, this year witnessed
unprecedented political turmoil beginning with hitherto the most stable
country, Kenya. The economies of African countries are still at teething age. They
could do better had it not been the greedy political leaders who steal the
wealth and hide in banks in Europe. With its highest population rate, Africa
can do better in terms of economic growth and development. Having being
recovered steadily from HIV/AIDS pandemic, Africa can improve its economic
growth if they diversify their economies and concentrate on adding value to
their raw materials to gain bargaining power.
In USA,
the birth rate is 2.0 and this is a bit below replacement. While the English
speaking American birth rate is 1.6, the good news is that the highest group of
immigrants, Hispanic, have a birth rate of 2.7 which, coupled with
diversity program, will help replace the baby boomers generation. This gives
Latinos a stake in the bragging right of handling the problem of population
growth in USA. With a growing Latino
population, the need to learn Spanish becomes vital for American citizens. There may be a day in the close future when
Spanish will become a second language in the USA or, worse still, the official
language. The beauty of America exists
in its growing diversity, a nation of immigrants, No wonder the quotation on
the Statue of Liberty state, ‘Give me your tired, poor, your huddled masses’, representing America as a place of rest for
the weary immigrants. Yes, America is a
land of dreams and opportunities, and those who earnestly seek to achieve them,
will one day achieve them no matter how long it takes.
Challenges
are many and the agitations are rift. Barack Obama’s nomination appears to
point to an inner restlessness in many American citizens for a change, and hope
to see democracy actualize. Our desire, hope and aspirations are that we live
peaceful lives where justice and mercy prevail. Indeed,
leaders will come and go, and yet ‘unless
the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.’
God bless
the World,
Justin
Kojok (Snr Minister)
