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Today I was talking to an intelligent small business owner named Daniel here in Malaysia. I asked him what he thought of Obama. He said, "Obama is a puppet." I felt sad to hear this. I felt a little defensive. But I could not argue with him. I wished it weren't true. But I am afraid it is. I would have expected Obama to handle the bin Laden case differently, for example to actually use the theoretical principles of American justice. But instead he ordered bin Laden to be assasinated. I lost a lot of respect for Obama on that day. I heard him speak to the parliment in Australia last night. He is a good speaker. A good talker. Daniel also said Obama is a good talker, but he asks, "What has he done?" I could not answer that. I said, "At least he is intelligent. Bush wasn't intelligent." But I know that there is a lot of truth in what Daniel says. And I feel sad about that. Discouraged. Disillusioned. Afraid. Afraid because people that are "pulling the strings" are leading the country and the world to more violence, more pain and more suffering. And they don't care as long as they are safe and rich. Would a millionaire who owns an oil company, or a weapons company really care if a million people died? I learned about what was called the "military industrial complex" when I was at Indiana University. I think it was about the same time I was sexually abused there. The idea was basically that the leaders of big weapons manufacturers move in and out between their jobs and political positions and they are all linked together. I feel sad to think that many people actually don't want to end wars -- they are making too much money from them. Anyhow, I thought of the mayor of a city in Australia where I had been living. His name is Geoff Kettle. I felt pretty respected by him when we talked. We talked several times in person about a plan I felt very opposed to. It was a plan by a wealthy businessman named Andy Divall to put a waste processing center on the riverbanks in a place that could be used for a nice park and green space in the town limits. The town is called Goulburn. The first day we met I asked Geoff why he would want to be mayor. He said something like he thought Goulburn had a lot of potential and he wanted to help it improve. He told me that he was elected by the other councillors, not directly by the people. He said the other councillors decided that the previous mayor, Carol James, was not a good enough communicator. I didn't question him on that at the time. I assumed he meant something like she wasn't communicating with others in the local government well enough. Now though I wonder if the problem was that she wasn't good enough at creating an image - an image that everything is wonderful and beautiful inside city hall. In other words, she wasn't good enough at propaganda. The mayor had a weekly column in the loca newspaper. He never used it once to address the issue of the waste center on the river. He just used it to promote the party line, let's say. He was a good communicator, indeed. But is that what the people really need in a leader? I would have to say that he wasn't a leader at all. He was a figurehead. He was being used by someone else more powerful. I never figured out who really had the power in that little city. But I learned a lot. Most of it disgusted and discouraged me. It repulsed me and repelled me from getting involved with politicians ever again. I need honesty, including emotional honesty in order to function efficiently. I was naive thinking I might have found some of either in the city hall building there. |
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