By Saiyed Mohib Asad
Now, these people are serious minded businessmen, and this is a prosperous firm which employs hundreds of analysts, actuaries, insurance agents. Unlike the pundits of the media, and their serious looking "experts" who always hedged whatever they said, Ladbrokes put their money where their mouth was, and it's serious money we are talking about here. So that is why I was sure. Have known the business house more than forty years. They err very seldom.
I am also sure that the spirit of Kunta Kinte was there somewhere in the huge crowd in Chicago which was addressed by President-elect Obama on the night of Nov 4. For sure, more than one tear would have rolled down his cheek. If you do not know who Kunta Kinte is, I suggest you read Alex Haley's book Roots. He was a slavery-time ancestor of the author, and is still alive on the Internet.
That the Americans are an amazing people is self-obvious. They are the richest (six percent of the world's population consuming fifty percent of the world's resources on a daily basis), they are the most powerful with the weapons to blot out every man, woman, and child on the planet, and deplete only a small portion of their bombs. They are also per-capita the biggest charity givers in the world. They are industrious, educated, merit-oriented, humorous, and highly religious as a people. Like all nations they make monumental mistakes at times, like electing Bush to be their president, but they self-correct the blunder once they can, like electing Obama as their leader now.
The United States being the world's sole superpower at the moment, their government is imperialistic, ruthless, lying, treacherous, and very effective. The USA has bases in more than fifty countries, including Europe, where the legal tender is the American greenback.
Obama is an absolute marvel. The man has charisma cascading out of his large ears like the Niagara Falls. That he has created history is the ultimate understatement of the century so far. So they should stop using the cliché now and look for a new one. One sincerely hopes a global change will come in effect now. Recall that despite all our grandiloquent images of Pakistan, we are a client state of the USA, and will remain so during the next eight Obama years. Facts are facts.
I said that the Americans are an amazing people. Consider the following:
A study done by one of the top universities of the world, I now forget which, finds that the economic condition of the nations is directly inverse to the religious dogmatism in that society. So all highly religious populations were found to be poor, and vice versa. The only exception was the USA, which has millions of Bible-toting rednecks, and over a hundred other denominational churches of Christianity, and is yet so rich. The USA has millions of agnostics, but very few atheists.
When they built the aircraft-carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65), they put a plaque in the Captain's cabin which said, "Have mercy, O Lord, for thy sea is very big, and my boat is very small." Now, the USS Enterprise is a nuclear-powered ship with a displacement of ninety three thousand tons, can steam for eighteen months without a port of call, carries ninety supersonic jet fighters, can deliver nuclear bombs any old where from its anchor in the ocean (position classified). The ship carries a crew of three thousand, has a deck area of 4.5 acres, and its range is said to be limitless, being powered by eight nuclear reactors.
Obama has inherited an office which has always carried its set of problems, both domestic and international. Two of these which are of great concern to a lot of Pakistanis are missile attacks in the FATA, and the present economic meltdown. They are of concern to the US presidential office, because as I said, we are a client state of the USA, unless we are all in denial of reality.
The LoC in Kashmir has had bombs lobbed over it in both directions for the last fifty years, yet it is business as usual between India and Pakistan. How is the Sandeman Line any different, I wonder? And if the Sandeman Line is also a disputed border like the LoC, why do we make it a matter of national honour if the Afghans and their allies lob a few bombs our way? So, first things first, and let the new administration in the US move quickly to settle this disputed border so that we know if the bombs are actually landing in this country, or are the Afghans up to friendly fire!
Our economic nightmare will self-destruct if we stop the smuggling of wheat and dollars, and provided the oil and commodity prices fall.
With the US election results one of the major fears of the world, which was the continuance of the Bush policies for another term, has evaporated. This in itself is cause for celebration worldwide, for the stance taken by Obama is one of "change," and the world waits, and hopes.
The writer is a former director-general of the FIA. Email: mohibs143@ yahoo.com