The Mark of a New Generation

13^th January 2008
The Malta Independent on Sunday

 

There comes a point in time when it becomes evident that a new generation starts taking over from the older one.

It happened in 1968 when the baby boomers born in the decade after the end of the Second World War started reaching adulthood and saw their two political idols, brothers John and Bobby Kennedy, murdered by old forces that were not ready to accept the change that society was aspiring for.

1968 was the year when it dawned on the young people of America that they were fighting a lost war in Vietnam. It dawned on French students that the rigid let’s pretend sort of life they were expected to adhere to by their parents was suffocating their creativity, which longed for liberation. 1968 was the year when the baby boomers took over to render society more tolerant of diversity and less puritan in the matter of sex, arts, and religion.

2008 seems to have the potential to be another 1968. Like 1968 it started in the shadow of a political murder that happened the preceding year. It was Robert Kennedy in 1968 and now it is Benazir Bhutto who was murdered on 27 December 2007, throwing unstable nuclear-enabled Pakistan into a political turmoil that could benefit terrorist organisations with an eye on its nuclear facilities.

It is continuing with the primaries for the US presidential elections where the Democratic candidate is likely to be a woman. To become the first female president, she has in her own words to “break through the highest and hardest glass ceiling of them all”. Her main challenger is a black post-baby boomer of Kenyan descent born in Hawaii and who spent his childhood in Indonesia. Barack Obama is gaining momentum and is capable of giving Mrs Clinton a good run for her money, despite her edge of being supported by the party establishment where her husband and former President, Bill Clinton, still has a lot of influence.

Who could have imagined just a few years back that the next US President following the divisive and generally failed presidency of President Bush, which makes the Democrats clear favourites to occupy the White House this time next year, will in the end be a choice between the first female President and the first Afro-American post baby boomer President?

Who could have imagined that whiter than white Iowa would give a land-slide victory to a black presidential candidate, and that in New Hampshire clear favourite Mrs Clinton had to struggle to keep the momentum of Obama from edging her out in that State as well?

Obama is electrifying crowds with his passionate speeches. His gift of oratory and excellence at story telling is unmatched by any other candidate on both sides of the fence. Halls are becoming too small even for standing crowds and though short on specifics, his policies based on “hope” and “change” carry the mark of an inspirational leader who can carry the nation with him once he gets into the hot seat.

Hillary Clinton tries to make capital on her experience and the support she gets from her husband who has done it before, and did it quite well (sexual indiscretions apart), given the popularity that Bill still commands. She tries to belittle her opponent by depicting him as a dreamer lacking experience and not a safe pair of hands to lead America following the disastrous Bush years.

Yet in spite of the inexperience that comes with the young age of 46 for a presidential candidate who is a first term senator, Obama is proving a good match who, though short on execution details, is quite clear on objectives. He was consistently against the war in Iraq and is promising to withdraw swiftly if elected.

He is the only candidate who shows a preference for persuasion before guns and offers dialogue to America’s enemies almost in biblical spirit where the Son of God was willing to speak to sinners because it is the sick that need the doctor.

Free from support ties of the establishment and gaining substantial funding with minimum reliance on corporate handouts, Obama seems to carry more credibility in his claim to give America a social soul starting with universal health care. Obama is shaping up for America into something like what Tony Blair was for Britain but without the Iraq baggage which tarnished Blair’s legacy.

It is far too early to hold out any reasonable hope that Obama can build enough momentum to seize the Democratic Party nomination from the hands of Hillary Clinton, who seemed to have it already wrapped up before the start of the primaries. But if Obama can pull a feat of gigantic proportions and become the next President of the United States, we can certainly speak of 2008 as a year when the new generation takes over the running of this world from the baby boomers who did not live up to their promise to free the world from war and to make society more just and honest.

As the baby boomers start to retire they have to let go and give a fair chance to the next generation of which Obama is a prime specimen – the generation of globalisation.