If inaction were peace…



He had not brought down the stock of nuclear weapons anywhere. He had not brought an end to any war in the world. He had not successfully negotiated any agreement between Israel and Palestine, Chechenya and Russia, Georgia and Russia, India and Pakistan, Or even between Iraqis and Kurds. Don’t even think about Iran.

All Obama did was talk. That too in eloquent, flowery, weasel phrases with occasional wit and charm that was overflowing with triteness before the election and with philosophical optimism after.

The oratory skills, however, do have their own fan following. People get swayed by it. Not many in the world, including America, follow the world affairs. The problems that are plaguing the US and the rest of the world, some of them the creation of the US and other by the religious, egoistic, monomaniacal fantasies, are not like corporate projects, where one can set a project schedule, have a kick off, and monitor during weekly status meetings. The media do not print them like stock market updates. So all one gets to read are the speeches made by the leaders and everybody get excited. It is saddening to realise that the Nobel committee are among them.

The media is already citing this Nobel as a rebuke to George Bush who ‘didn’t’ do anything. In the midst of eloquence, sadly, the facts got lost. Yes, it’s true that George Bush was a poor orator in the standards of Karunanidhi, Obama, Indira Gandhi et al. He called a spade a shovel, which was bitter and he saying such things with occasional bloopers didn’t help either. Obama calls a spade an earth removing implement, and that is charming.

But then, Bush brought Libya’s nuclear ambitions to an end. Gen. Gadaffi, one of the customers of Pakistan’s A Q Khan Nuclear Supermarket, dismantled their structures under the surveillance of inspectors and world media. Soon enough, North Korea too fell under the pressure and agreed to comply. Bush brought terrorism to the main stage, which added strength to cases countries like India had been putting forward. Only after War on Terror commenced, was India recognised as one of the victims of Islamic terror. The word terror and the Jihad was never going to be same after 9/11 but especially after War on Terror it gained a special status.

Obama neither added value to any of these achievements, nor built any new on his own. Handling rogue states or managing terror aside, he didn’t achieve substantially in other crucial departments such as recession, health care, or tax reforms either. Last year’s G20 meet belonged to Gordon Brown, even though the Obamas hogged the limelight for their celebrity appearance a la Cannes red carpet, which is what they have been doing everywhere.

In one of the episodes of Friends, Phoebe, a masseuse, sees a trophy lying around at home. She picks it up, sees the mirror, and says elatedly ‘Thanks you for awarding me the Nobel prize for achievements in the field of massage.’ What Obama got was for the red carpet walk and talk. While what Phoebe did was a joke, with Obama, it’s a shame.