Amartya Sen on the Obama Victory

I am certainly much less optimistic than Sen although I agree his presidency represents at least a symbolic breakthrough for black Americans. However, the powers that put him into power are no different than those promoting past presidents. Obama was better able to sell the illusion of change and bring African Americans and youth into the system. The multilateralism that Sen speaks of may be more pronounced under Obama. Perhaps that will mean Obama will try to convince more allies to contribute to Afghanistan. Emanuel Rahm will be busy twisting arms and threatening countries that refuse to send their citizens as cannon fodder. Perhaps Obama will be a bit more reasonable in defending and advancing US imperialism. What a world shattering advance!


http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081106/jsp/nation/story_10069737.jsp
The Telegraph
All for Obama, Amartya counts the gains
AMIT ROY
New York, Nov. 5: Amartya Sen today told The Telegraph he wasdelighted with Barack Obama's victory and that it had importantconsequences for India."It was a big night. I went to bed late. It's an excellent result. Iobviously don't have a vote in America — I am an exclusively Indiancitizen — but I have been a supporter of Barack Obama's candidatureright from the beginning," the Nobel laureate, who teaches at Harvard,said from his home in Boston."He (Obama) brings three very important things for America. First, akind of democratisation by the inclusion of African Americans now inthe highest political positions of this country. This is a wonderfulchange since there were racist laws excluding blacks from theirrightful place in society even a few decades ago," Sen said."Second, the alienation of the world from the US was based on anAmerican policy that had been extraordinarily unilateral. For example,world opinion was quite contrary to the intervention in Iraq. Obamahad been critical of this unilateralism and it is quite clear that inhis vision of a good world, multilateralism plays a big part and thatis very important for the world given the fact that the US is stillthe strongest country."Third, the unilateral policies chosen by the government have oftenbeen peculiarly daft. Often they were not well thought out, forexample, attacking Iraq was not only a unilateral decision, it wasalso a stupid decision. Iraq had no involvement with 9/11 since it didnot allow al Qaida to function in the country; and the running of Iraqessentially by an American administration was bound to be deeplyproblematic and resented."Similarly, it is not smart to do nothing about the deterioratingenvironment and just watch the calamity develop. It is also not veryastute to let all the regulations of financial markets go away,allowing people to make huge amounts of unaccounted profits and thencomplain about the greed of the money-makers."Greed is not a new phenomenon but what it needs is decent regulationswhich make people responsible for their decisions."So, in all these respects, by making America more democratic (and)American policy more multilateral, we can expect major advances froman Obama administration. The most distinguishing feature of Obama hasnot been the fact that he is black or that he has a liberal votingrecord but that he brings a reasoned approach to taking decisions. Andthis America needs today. And so does the world."Since I have been involved in the civil rights movement in Americafor a long time — I visited this country many times and I was verymuch present at Berkeley in 1964-65 when the free speech movementoccurred and at Harvard during 1968-69 when there were alsoparticipatory movements on the campuses — it is a moment of particularjoy to see what is ultimately a success of the fruits of the civilrights movement."I can't say like some of my friends that I wept, I didn't, but I amdelighted and extremely happy."I think this victory has implications for India. The Bushadministration has not been particularly hostile to India at all. Andtherefore it is not so much that the last administration was moreanti-Indian than the Obama administration would be. But it is in theinterests of all countries, including India, that American policy bebased on reasoning."We all have much to benefit from intelligent decisions taken by eachcountry and it is the likelihood of a more reasoned approach to worldproblems on which world peace, including suppression of terrorism inan intelligent and effective way, depends. And India has a huge stakein that."