KISHORE MAHBUBANI n AYAAN HIRSI ALI

WANG JISI n TARIQ RAMADAN n CARLOS FUENTES

KHALED HOSSEINI n GARRY KASPAROV

How the World ViewsObama Victory

America is more a creed than a nation. Our promise has always been that all individuals,

despite race, religion or gender, have the equal chance to make it. The election of Barack

Hussein Obama as president of the United States is thus a “soft power” coup for America’s

global image, which had lost its luster during the Bush years. Obama is the anti-Bush who

will lead by the power of example instead of the example of power. Yet, there are real limits.

Can the power of example stop the North Korean or Iranian nuclear programs? Can it stop

jihadists bent on establishing a new Caliphate across South Asia? Can it limit China’s

ambitions as the new power in Asia? In this section commentators from across the world

offer their views.

For the first time, a

mixed-race leader will

have come to power

north of the border.

WINTER 200934

Obama: The First Mestizo Leader North of the Border

CARLOS FUENTES’ most recent book is Happy Families, a collection of short stories.

Along with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, he was recently awarded the

Quixote Prize by the king of Spain.The following essay has been translated from the Spanish.

mexico city—The historical election of Barack Obama—the first “mestizo”—to

the White House will go a long way toward redeeming the promise of the United

States in the eyes of the world, particularly after the truly ruinous Bush tenure. For

the first time, a mixed-race leader will have come to power north of the border.

Obama will face the most difficult agenda since Franklin Roosevelt assumed the

presidency in 1933 in the midst of the Great Depression. Bush’s market fundamen-

talist ideology—that the market can manage itself with minimal regulation from the

state—has led to the remarkable national recapitalization (some would call it nation-

alization) of top American banks.

Without doubt, the next US president will have to increase the economic role of

the state, raise taxes, expand public spending and apply a policy of redistribution on

a grand scale.

Unemployment will increase. Profits will fall. And the abyss between the haves

and the have-nots will be plain for all to see.The middle class will slide toward greater

poverty. Resentment will grow between those who can barely pay for a university

education and for health care, and those in the financial world with their shameless

bonuses and “golden parachutes.”

Yet, I do not underestimate the capacity of the US—especially under a

Democratic administration led by Obama—to recover. But the investment should be

directed away from anything that smells of market speculation and toward the mod-

ernization of infrastructure. A visitor to the US is astonished at the deterioration of

dams, railroads, public spaces and schools—not to mention the absence of decent

health care and pensions—above all in comparison with Europe.

The election of Obama has certainly thrilled those of us who must live with the

choices of the democratic process in the US, even though we live outside the country.

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