I stayed up late last night because I wanted to watch the INAUGURATION of Barrack Obama as the 44th President of United States of America. It was 1:00AM here in the Philippines when he was sworn in, and even if it was rather late for my sleeping time, I stayed wide awake just to witness this very historic event that happened to America, and to the world, so to speak.
Obama is the first African-American that serve the US with the highest leadership level. He is black. He has lived in different parts of the globe. He is also no doubt a charismatic speaker. America is still in recession. Many lost their jobs and many are living a life sub-standard than the kind they used to enjoy. And due to the US economic difficulty that started a few years ago, the world has caught the epidemic and is also in the same page financial page. There are wars going on, Iraq, Gaza strip, Israel, Palestine, even here in the Philippines. Terrorism is still a worldwide problem.
These are factors that made people believe Obama is the ideal person to serve the US and the world. They decided that he is the answer to the burgeoning worldwide financial and security crises. That's why the American citizens voted for him to win and was inaugurated last night as the new US President. And because of this turnout, it is not only the Americans but the people of the world who celebrated it. Amazingly, the world has caught the Obama fever. This was clearly manifested by last night's attention the globe has paid to in the swearing in of Obama under a sacred and legal oath. In fact, the whole world stopped the whole time the event transpired. Hundreds of millions of people all over the world tuned in to be part of this making of a new history.
Time had even stood still when he delivered his speech. The atmosphere was electrifying when the whole world waited for all what he has to say. I can say he is indeed a person who is exuding a lot of wisdom and charisma when he talks. His speech was rich and substantive of heartfelt promises. And it is apparent that the people believe whatever he says. He is like a magnet that attracts all people and make them pay attention. You feel the depth of his commitment to this new chapter of his life.
To expect a lot from this big man is not surprising. But the burden is his. He has lots of pressure in his shoulder to deal with. The people has high hopes and highest of high expectations from him. Somehow, this is kind of frightening. It is as if there is no room for Obama to make mistakes. People have made that clear. But what if he does? Will people accept it? What if Obama is not as good as he is in the honeymoon stage as in the later stage of his presidency? It is too early to tell.
In the meantime, we know what is certain. The whole world, including me, is very positive and is depending on him to change the world.
As what he puts it in one part of his speech last night, "
the world has changed, and we must change with it."
