'We need an Obama'
2008-09-01 08:31
Pitso Tsibolane, News24 User
In the early hours of Thursday morning I woke up to see a miracle. This miracle was embodied in hope, strength, character and charisma.
It took an American to help me, a South African, to believe that despite the challenges that the world faces, there are still men and women who dare to fight for positive change.
This was embodied in one man, Barack Obama, the first African American US presidential candidate. Despite its faults and the criticism that it has attracted to itself, America remains a fertile ground for those individuals who aspire to make a genuine difference in this world we live in.
As Barack skilfully delivered his lines, I could not help but think of my motherland. I wondered if the current crop of leadership, both ruling and opposition has done enough to inspire this country with a vision of a better future.
Here at home
I wondered if there are men and women who could stand unashamedly in front of millions of South African without a single worry about their past and current activities. Do we have men and women in our midst who have dedicated their lives to a cause greater than themselves and have stuck to that dream?
I cast my eyes across the South African political landscape, and wondered if there is a possibility that perhaps even the good guys have been sucked into a contaminated system, and are now unable to free themselves, and become the pragmatic idealists that Obama is.
I am not in any way gullible to the reality that effecting change is a much harder task than talking poetically about it. However, it all starts with articulating it in a way that the listeners can believe it.
When Obama said that it is enough that eight year of Bush politics was enough, when he shouted that America is a better country than that, I was attempted to shout too in agreement, that my country has also had enough years of un-inspirational, arrogant and distant leadership.
Good men and women
But I knew that the future is not so bright, because the future leadership of this country lies in a murky pit of ego-driven, legally embattled uncertainty! But when the crowd that listened to him echoed that "YES WE CAN", I pulled myself together and this time nodded in agreement.
The reason is that I believe that the good leaders still exists in this country, good people are still scattered all across this country, across all races and gender, across all classes and regions.
There are men and women who in the bottom of their hearts want this country to succeed despite the sea of self-serving comedians we see daily on TV, masquerading as leaders, pretending to have a burning desire to serve, while their daily actions and utterances reveal otherwise.
Obama gave me a few minutes to have hope, to dream, that when "I", individually take it upon myself to be the change that I want to see, I do not need to worry much, but simply do good with an assurance that change is possible, and it starts with me.
I wish him luck as he dares to defy all the odds and move mountains ahead, but above all, I wish that many in this country, in this forum, would start believing that "we are a better country than this", we can turn it into a better place.
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