Of Donkeys and Elephants

Four years ago sitting in the computer lab in college, I still remember how we were desperately hoping John Kerry would pull through and send Mr Bush back to Texas. Unfortunately that did not happen and the world was subject to four more years of Dubya Bush. As Michael Moore rightly pointed out after the defeat in 2004, the only positive that came out of the election was that it would be just four more years of Bush, no more.

But in that election campaign, in the midst of all the sloganeering on a donkey’s back (the Democratic Party’s symbol), there was this young African American chap from Illinois who gave a stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention. There were two lines in that half hour long talk that suddenly waltzed him into everyone’s living room and people started wondering who he was, the man with a Kenyan father and a Hawaiian mother. Incredibly simple yet incredibly powerful-:

'We should not divide ourselves into red states and blue states because we represent the United States of America'



When a man with incredible oratory skills delivers such a line, the world is bound to take notice. Four years later, he has been crowned(?) the President of the U.S.A., a nation state, whose leaders have more often than not caused a lot of heartburn to the rest of the world. While his being elected into the Oval office signals a remarkable wave of change, I only hope that his foreign policies will signal the dawn of a new era.

For too long, men and women in the corridors of power have failed to understand the importance of being a superpower and have successfully ensured that America has been antagonized and used as a rallying point by the fundamentalists to spread their vicious gospel. One can only hope, the 44th President of the oldest democracy in the world brings about real change. For a nation so powerful must learn to lead and facilitate peaceful coexistence.

So, as America goes to sleep with the words ‘Change’ on their lips, I go back four years to use the line that used to fill the air in Democratic rallies with nothing but unabashed (perhaps unsubstantiated) optimism-:

‘Hope is on the way’

-X-X-X-X-

Dear Sarah Palin,

Having seen a Russian mountain from the backyard of your Alaska home does not count as foreign policy experience. Please get hold of a visa and travel the world.


Dear Asif Ali Zardari,

I am sorry to inform you that your attempt at trying to floor Sarah Palin with your Cassanovaesque lines will yield no political benefits.


Dear George Bush,

Thank god for small mercies in life.


Dear Katrina Kaif,

You have the hottest nose that I have ever seen on a woman

Image Courtesy: www.coxandforkum.com