The next G-20 meeting should define Obama’s world-view

So far, not so good! This administration could turn out to be far more secretive than the last one. For example, under the cover of $789 billion stimulus bill, the administration has allowed totally unrelated items to be slipped into the final bill. These measures are totally political and are actually illegal in terms of global commitments. The first one is the ‘Buy American’ clause that has greatly alarmed America’s critical trading partners like Canada, China and Japan. They are bound to raise this issue in the up-coming G-20 meeting on April 2, 2009. The other provision in the bill is the removal of H1-B visa for foreign workers, especially from India and few other countries. This is contrary to the assurance given to the Indian Prime Minister by George W Bush in the last G-20 meeting. This suspension of work visa is bound to hurt the US economy more than Indian Economy. Just THINK about it!

Americans need to be educated about the non-western world rather than be mis-led by un-informed politicians and a parochial media. We were hoping for a much enlightened administration this time around because Barack Obama has spent some time overseas. Instead, what we are beginning to see is a typical new uninformed ‘American Administration’. They are willing to shoot-first and talk-later crowd, just like the initial Carter or Clinton Administrations. Both wasted their first term. Unfortunately, for President Obama there may not be a second term if he does not wise-up and wise-up soon. This is a much different world and the non-western world is not willing to sit-through the entire ‘Kabuki-dance’ of an in-coming American administration. Americans may not like to hear this but the world is slowly and reluctantly drifting towards a ‘Post American World’. They have not much choice!

President Barack Obama has an excellent opportunity to attend the next meeting of G-20 economies on April 2, 2009 in London and listen to the other world leaders for a change. He needs to talk less and listen more, THINK about it long and hard and start the difficult task of educating his fellow-Americans about the whole-wide-world. Obama likes to be compared to FDR but does not want to make the difficult decisions like him. Franklin D Roosevelt had to do so many things early on that Americans were not prepared to even think about. He made the difficult choices and not pander to the congress for the sake of winning next mid-term elections! Obama needs to develop a spine before he starts comparing himself to the legendary FDR. Roosevelt couldn’t have imagined a pork-loaded stimulus bill the kind Barack Obama is about to sign. There were plenty of bleeding-heart liberals during the time of Roosevelt.