"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 ascendancy, 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.
