Timothy Kalyegira
24 October 2008
column
The most important question in the next six weeks, should the Democratic Party candidate Barack Hussein Obama Junior win the United States presidential election of November 4, is how the world will start viewing America.
In an April 2, 1990 Newsweek with the cover story, "What Japan thinks of America: a nation of crybabies?" a Newsweek/Gallup poll of what Japanese thought were America's most serious problems, 93 per cent thought it was America's drug and alcohol addiction; 66 per cent thought it was lazy workers; 57 per cent thought America's problem was too many racial and ethnic groups; 55 per cent thought it was not enough long-term investment; and 53 per cent though workers and bosses were too greedy.
In an interview in that same Newsweek edition, the then chairman of the United States car maker Chrysler Corporation, Lee Iacocca, noted that, "If you read any history of Japan, their idea of competition is always highly adversarial, and its objective is...to destroy the competition- not to compete, but to wipe it out."
During the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, the Japanese Olympic team carried both their national flag as well as that of China in a gesture of the reconciliation of these once bitter enemies and their working to create a new century, the 21st century as the Asian century.
A study in 1983 by the United States group, the International Communication Agency, found that the Chinese "are inclined to underestimate American resolve and strength because of the multiplicity of voices and currents in American life, which, in their eyes, signifies weakness and lack of unity." (Newsweek, July 11, 1983, page 9).
What is not stated but is implicit in these China-Japan views of America is clear: these East Asian economic giants think America was once great because it was a White-dominated society but that its greatness has, over time, steadily been eroded by the presence of too many Blacks and Hispanics in the US society.
To these emerging Asians, as well as the Arabs, the Whites have become the standard bearer of the world and their sense of fashion, style, architecture, humour, music, news media format, education systems, sports, languages, physical appearance, and religions are widely imitated and grudgingly adopted.
Likewise, for all sorts of reasons, the bitter and inconvenient truth of our undeniable underachievement, lacklustre products and goods, inconsistency, indiscipline and overall unproductivity leads to us the Black race being perceived as the lowest of the low of the world's people. We are loved for our simplicity of personality and lifestyle and genuine friendliness, but in general we are not taken seriously.
Americans might like to view themselves as a post-racial, fully harmonious society, but what is important in the geopolitics of late 2008 and 2009 is that most of the rest of the world still sees Whites as the people to respect and fear and Blacks (even a President Obama) as a people not to be taken seriously.
And so this pervasive racism toward Blacks will be a major factor in how the world perceives and responds to an Obama-led America. There are several nations that view the United States as a rival or obstacle to their wish to dominate the world.
Iran, Japan, China, Russia, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Libya, and leading European Union states like Germany and France would gladly take advantage of any perceived weakness of America under a liberal Obama.
That explains the record amounts of campaign money Obama has been able to raise via the Internet. With the US economy faced with a major downturn, families losing homes, cars, jobs, and their life savings, can these same hard-pressed Americans be the same people to pour out their money into Obama's campaign, however much they love and support him?
Could some foreigners be quietly sending in money to make sure Obama wins? Many foreign governments are banking on a soft Obama presidency and will plot their foreign and military policies around that perception.
For all these reasons, Obama's presidency will dramatically speed up America's fall from its current superpower standing, not because Obama is an irresponsible leader, but because of how these competing Asian nations view the world's only superpower being led by a Black man.
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If America continues to "Roll Down the Slope" after Obama occupies the White house, it will be a a "Fallacy Of False Cause" to attribute the trend to OBAMA. Your paper sounds sensible prima facie but fails when checked for reasonableness. For example, when did all these Countries that are vying for Supremacy hold a meeting to behave the way you are predicting if a Black Man wins in America? Is the Rain Doctor responsible for the rain because he(the rain docor) came to town?
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The world ruled by Asians tigers will be some xenophobic imperial entity filled with little people with Napolean Sydrome. Africa is making big mistake if they think Asian countries - China, Japan, and India - are working for or in Africa's interests. If any thing it is like jumping from frying pan to fire. If I were you I would be worrying about Africa instead of worrying about America or Asia.