Yes, we can and we should too

Decision time is coming up. The presidential election will happen November 2008. It is fair to say that there is a fork in the road for the USA. More so than in a long time in US history and the history of the world, the status quo just is not sustainable, neither on a national nor an international scale.

The country faces an unprecedented debt crisis of several trillion dollars. Its national infrastructure is out of date and dilapidating at an alarming rate. Its international image is in tatters and its military is overextended through involvement in too many wars and conflicts on foreign soil. Its economy wobbles on the edge of a credit precipice. It is consuming more per capita than any other country in times when all crucial resources are under serious threat of total exhaustion. Its democracy has been taken hostage by a few powerful industrial complexes and its government is invested and infested with eager lobbyists that serve their masters and not the interests of the common voter. In short, the country behaves under the delusion of infinite resources and capacity for growth, come what may. Reality has begun to catch up with this fallacy.

The world faces an unprecedented crunch in resources as awakening nations, such as China and India, join the First World with rocketing demands on energy, commodities and natural resources. International politics are fraud with failing democracies, remaining autocracies and theocracies. Matters are worse for the constant interference and manipulation by members of the G8 for their own interests of troubled societies outside the G8. Blatant exploitation via so-called direct foreign investment of resources in these countries stands side by side with ruthless military intervention masquerading as democracy riding in on a white horse. Yet the bluff is slowly being called upon such exploits as citizens of these countries begin to question the real benefits of such foreign presence.

Against the above bleak backdrop and onto such a sombre stage enters the unlikely presidential candidate like a fresh breeze into a stale room: Sen. Barak Obama. Here is a man, who holds a degree in civil rights law from Havard, but who is not an Ivy League boy. He is a senator in the US government, but has not sold his soul to the corporate league. His message is fresh and inspiring. His sentiments appear devoid of ulterior motives and a self-serving sense of entitlement. He calls for a new chapter in US and international history to begin February 2009, when the new administration in Washington DC will commence in all earnest.

The US can save herself and the world economy from collapse if and only if a majority of citizens realises that we are living on limited resources. We cannot just borrow and spend as the whim takes us. We cannot grow indefinitely given limited resources. We cannot spend ourselves out of a financial and economic situation that stems from long-term overspending. We cannot continue to run the world by proxy of our politicians, military and corporations.

Can we get by with yesterday's iPod? Yes we can.
Can we wait until we have saved enough before we go on vacation? Yes we can.
Can we withdraw from foreign countries and begin to respect differences? Yes we can.
Can we stop the international bombast and sit down to listen? Yes we can.
Can we walk 0.5 km to the shop instead of driving? Yes we can.
Can we buy a station-wagon instead of an SUV to carry the children? Yes we can.
Can we put the corporations, such as the military industrial complex and pharmaceutical industry, out of controlling the halls of Washington? Yes we can.

It will require a major change of heart at grass-roots level and leadership at the top.
Yes we can and we should too.