Barack Obama is a-coming

John L. Silva

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President Aquino would be wise to study the accomplishments his guest, the US president, has achieved, and maybe take some cues in creating for his administration a legacy which we can be proud of

John SilvaPresident Barack Obama in our country will be an incredible changeover sight. The man’s color alone, for a color-sensitive nation (we are the second largest consumer of whitening soaps), makes him a very, very different Bwana from Anglo-Saxon William Mckinley, the first American president to subjugate us for God and civilization 107 years ago.  

Barack could pass for a Muslim datu, and can “get down” switching syntax and accent, dispense with the jacket, roll up his sleeves, and willingly accept a San Mig Light right on the spot to mix with fellow natives. What a change from when we had to form our own Filipino clubs in the ’30s since we weren’t allowed entrance in theirs.  

His early speeches for international consumption were inspiring. More collegial, more we’re-in-this-together, less name blaming, avoiding hackneyed teleprompter scripts that singled out the Palestinians as the baddies or Fidel as the menace. In professorial, NGO language, he’s rooted the world’s ills on poverty and trade imbalances (the current Pope may have taken a few lessons) which then produced the nasties like Al-Qaeda. Which is a good thing since Obama won’t be coming to our shores exhorting our puny military to be part of another Freedom Coalition to fight in a made-up war like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got suckered into.

How wonderful that this world leader visiting us would also be a New York Times Best Seller author, listens to Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, and Aretha. We’re persnickety over what he’ll eat here, but not to worry. After all, he’s got a Filipina for a White House chef, so she must have dished him some mean adobo once in all those 6 years.

This president – who has those red phones and can, in a flash, send thousands of nuclear missiles to an evil North Korea – likes to dance. The way he moves those hips and sways his arms and closes his eyes and gives a pout transforms him from Mr. Nuke-capable to one of our own DI’s or prom date. And, thank God, Barack finally exudes a sex appeal, which we haven’t seen inhabit that sterile White House since the original hottie, John F. Kennedy. Despite some faded glory and unfulfilled promises (like not closing Guantanamo and being stuck in Afghanistan), Mr. Obama will breeze into this country and charm an easily-charmed nation.

It’s to be expected, as it has always been, to expect from this down-home brainy president to be bearing goodies and proceed with some knuckle rapping. Military hardware is usually received with a sullen grunt since they’re usually used and of Vietnam War vintage. If Obama isn’t beholden to the military industrial complex, he should really put more money into USAID, which has been doing a good dent with education programs and infra projects in Mindanao. The Pentagon doesn’t ever seem to get it that one nice long cemented road from market to port, compliments of the American people, goes a much longer way than our soldiers weighed down with the latest in bulky night-vision rifles, Ray-Bans included.

President Aquino may have to take some licking on how many journalists have died on his watch in this democratic-free-press country. And a couple more painful knuckle raps for not getting speedy convictions. If Obama wants to play it tougher, he should predicate his foreign aid goodies with a fixed goal of getting X number of convictions within the year. No clink, no honey.

President Obama arrives at about the time Filipinos are beholding the first-ever spectacle of seeing once untouchable senators and their aides actually indicted, and the almost jaw-dropping possibility that they will actually, and truly, go to jail. On the one night he is here, after all the festivities, Barack should hold PNoy’s hand and have a heart-to-heart about how his country has nailed and jailed over 25 senators and congressmen, two Federal judges, and two senior White House staff members in a span of 20 years. And there were no favorites saved, like Congressman Jesse Jackson (D-IL) who was sentenced last year to two and a half years in prison for the misuse of $750,000 in campaign funds. Barack should give PNoy a very tight grip indeed.

Barack, with a record of more bluster and negotiation rather than actual invasion fever (Ukraine is the current example), might extend the same gambit with China’s snatching of our islands. The sound bites coming from Air Force One even before it lands at NAIA (a.k.a. the worse airport in the world) could prattle about our inviolable historical relations and long-term security interests, while on the line later PNoy can tell him very pointedly that our country’s military and navy are going to have to take the lead in fighting the People’s Republic.

This may cause a lot of handwringing in Malacañang and in Congress, but it should be a lesson that the unchecked corruption that festered in the military all this time – from surplus selling to kickbacks to depriving the soldiers fighting boots – has made the country totally incapable of defending its territory. We may lose the islands fighting, but at least we didn’t go the cowardly route of making American soldiers die for our sins. It’s like foreign troops coming to town and sent to the esteros for a day of civic action clearing the garbage. Shouldn’t we be doing the clean-up ourselves? 

Let’s turn the tables. Instead of gimme-gimme-gimme-America as our government is wont to do, what is it that we can tell Barack Obama that may be of help to his own country and people? That’s a hard one.

But there is one. Though he’s trying his best, Barack has to make greater strides in America’s carbon emissions, the highest in the world. They continue at that pace, and island nations like ours – not to mention his favorite Hawaiian Islands – will soon disappear into the ocean. Though this may point a finger at them, the rest of the fingers point at ourselves, starting with our penchant for massive deforestation. For starters, PNoy could introduce him to Illac Diaz and his conversion of soda bottles to light bulbs.  

Perhaps, bereft of anything to offer, we should just commend Barack for a job well done and a direction that resonates with the better interests of Filipinos at last.  

We endured and were contemptuous of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush Sr., who made a mockery of the American democratic legacy given to us by supporting the Marcos dictatorship and institutionalizing corruption and greed.

We’ve been hoodwinked by Bush Jr. into getting into a war in Iraq whose antecedents were a complete fabrication, and his subsequent torture policies making that country the world’s pariah.  

Instead, President Obama has reversed and ended those repellent practices (waterboarding first practiced in the Fil-Am War), ended the war in Iraq, eliminated Osama bin Laden, and improved the country’s image abroad.  

He has, among many other things, stimulated the economy, put a stop to job losses, got universal health insurance after 5 previous presidents failed, and finally got in step with the voters’ approval of gay marriage, making that a centerpiece of his second term.

Our president would be wise to study these and all the other accomplishments his guest has achieved and maybe take some cues in making his administration create a legacy which we can be proud of. Just making our airport – named after his father – be up to snuff would do wonders for our image abroad. Sarcasm aside, our president, despite his popularity, clearly has a lot more “doing the right thing” to do.

President Barack Obama’s presence is a quick lesson in the strides made in his country. In our history, there is the little known fact that during the Filipino-American War, 6 African American soldiers would desert and join General Emilio Aguinaldo’s fledgling army. One of them, David Fagen, fought many battles, became a legend, and given the title of General.  

All of them deserted because they opposed the racism in their army resulting in the senseless and brutal killing of tens of thousands of civilians and combatants. They also linked the subjugation of the Filipinos and the extinguishing of their sovereignty to their own struggle for freedom. These men didn’t live to tell the tale. Fagen would have his head chopped for treason.

And now, the United States has an African American president. That’s enough to get you starry eyed again for that country and its progress. – Rappler.com 

 

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