Everyday Musings > Yes we can

Many of us at work were glued to the television sets to hear Barack Obama's speech as the new President of America. As glued as we were when enraged politicians waved wads of currency in the Indian Parliament before the trust vote was to be declared. As glued as we were in the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremony. As glued as in the finals of the Cricket World Cup.

We're all suckers for the finale, for the Ceremony.

Obama's speech today was a bit too pat and quite uninspired. But he did make some interesting points. Especially this - "This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change."

Somehow, in all the ceremony of the beginning well and ending grand, we seem to miss out on all that happens in between. The elections are celebrated. But the tenure is not. There is much fanfare when the Manifesto is declared but none when what is said is adhered to or not.

The matter doesn't seem to matter; only the embellished skin does. Everything turns into a symbol for something else. And the true purpose turns to smoke in all the fireworks.

Obama becoming President makes me wonder who the American people really elected – a symbol or the man. If it was a symbol, then the victory and the purpose is done and over with. America has its first African American President, as McCain very cleverly repeated again and again. 'You wanted a symbol,' he seemed to say.' You have it.' But what after this, what about the man who will live on as President every day and take decisions that have nothing to do with his race or colour of his skin. Where the symbolism will mean nothing. What then? Or will America wake up again, at the end of the tenure and then watch Hillary fight it out perhaps for another symbolic win – America's first Woman President.

They're all tags. And we're suckers for tags.

The world is increasingly finding refuge in these tags. Wearing pink or red ribbons to support Breast Cancer or Aids doesn't mean anything. It is a symbol that ends its purpose the moment someone wears it. And then what? Watching 'An Inconvenient Truth' and promoting it is seen as having done enough for the cause of Global Warming. There is no action required to be taken, no responsibility for changing status quo.

This 'I endorse' culture is a lazy world's social aphrodisiac. Can we break out of it and realise that endorsement is not the same as action. That to take a stand, one must stand and face and take charge. Be in the centre of action, rather than in our living rooms, smsing our vote or forwarding chain mails and signature campaigns or wearing a hip Live Strong band. Can we break out of our social cocoon and actually create change, each one of us. Can we? 'Yes you can' says Obama.