Rumi Nations

Hopefully President Obama will have managed to silence the commentators with his spirited performance during the second debate. Maureen Dowd won't be pointing to Barack Obama's biographies in next column pointing out how the President is averse to confrontation and how that's at the core of who he is. I thought the over-reaction to the 1st debate had been unjustified -> I knew Mr. Obama will be in a feisty-er mood this time around since that's what the constituency demanded. Mr. Obama stood up to the pretentious and oh-so-fake Romney without appearing to be jarring or a bully -> both qualities that are the trademark of Mr. Romney. The candidates got to almost a dozen questions with a tough-to-rollover Candy Crowley as the moderator. On Libya, Romney was particularly egregious as a foreign policy novice. On financial matters and tax issues, Romney sought to show that he had a plan -> the only problem was that this was a plan that is entirely distinct from t...

People halfway around the world were rooting for Mr. Obama in 2008. Including me. What did Mr. Obama accomplish? No closing of Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps incumbent presidents become privy to intelligence documents detailing the crazy lengths that terrorists go or can go to try and harm America. And that changes the mind of the President. But what about Wall St? He kid gloved the hedge fund industry, and the billionaires and the tend-headed monster that is the banking industry. On healthcare, he has tried to carry the baton forward from the Great Society platform created in the '60s. Not much in terms of campaign finance reform or the lobbying industry. Perhaps courageous attempts to curb the spiraling costs of healthcare for retirees and also curb the military industrial complex by cutting the defense budget.

President Obama's administration is taking NASA in a different direction than has been the case so far. The history of NASA and its great achievements is curious. NASA facilities are spread all across the United States. Evidently, this was to successfully lobby Congress for the huge funds. The Apollo program had some connection or other to at least 48 of the 50 American states. That probably made it a lot easier to get Congressional approval for the huge budgets that Apollo required. So, the advanced projects that NASA has conducted — whether the Shuttles or the Voyagers or the Pathfinders — have been sort of like job programs for highly skilled professionals. This is now apparently going to change. Instead of next generation space exploration programs like Constellation, private companies will be awarded contracts for ferrying folks to space. This is a new direction. Although, even now, it's really private industry that executes most of NASA projects. The difference perhaps is...

Bob Herbert talks about President Obama promoting solar energy in his New York Times column here ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03herbert.html?_r=1&hp Meanwhile, David Brooks of the New York Times has written an interestingly argued article about the chaging nature of relationships in the age of texting and cellphones here ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03brooks.html?hp Roger Cohen of the New York Times both reminisces about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall as well as pines for a different outcome to the recent semi-uprising/revolt in Iran here ... http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03iht-edcohen.html?hp What more do you want? Enough nutritious intellectual fodder for a day?

One year is an age in politics. As President Obama nears one year since his historic win, I wonder if anyone is still hopeful of revolutionary change in Washington. The New York Times article that looked at the Obamas' marriage provides instructive insights as to who they are as individuals. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/magazine/01Obama-t.html As far as the issue of bringing revolutionary change to Washington is concerned, that's a different issue ... We live in this media saturated world where every little issue is maginfied out of all proportions. So, if anything truly revolutionary were to take place, people who are affected would react so vociferously to it that the media would project that as if Armageddon was at hand. For example, I believe that "Wall Street" should be a backwater of America and the industrial heartland of Detroit and Flint and the many factory townships across Pennsylvania and the Mid-West should be the true prioneers and leaders. Everyone...

President Obama is pondering what to do about Afghanistan. General McChrystal has asked for 40,000 more troops in addition to the existing 65,000 already on the ground. The American military planners are trying to implement a policy of trying to win the hearts and minds of the local people and marginalize the Taliban. Many others have tried to conquer the rugged terrain that is Afghanistan and failed. America's recent 'success' in Iraq has given it hope that it can adopt a similar policy in Afghanistan. But it's sobering to realize that Afghanistan is almost 50% larger than Iraq with almost as many people. The people of Afghanistan are fare more poor and less educated that the people of Iraq. The population of Afghanistan consists of numerous tribes. American forces in Vietnam totalled more than 5,00,000 at their peak but failed in their mission as they failed to win over the local population. Hopefully, whatever America tries in Afghanistan will take into account all t...

So, the Nobel Committee has sprung a surprise -- or, as one might say, sprung a rabbit out of the hat. And the deabte is raging in full bloom! My first reaction was one of happiness as I have no qualms admitting that I'm an Obama fan. Is this premature? Perhaps as the Nobel Committee has said this is a recognition of the window of opportunity that Obama has been able to open by the very fact of his being President. Whether these opportunities turn into real victories ... only time will tell. Often, or usually, that depends on many players ... in complex international affairs. If one were to debate the deservedness of Nobel winners, one might debate whether Peres, Rabin and Arafat were deserving winners ... did they manage to carve out some sort of enduring peace deal out of their efforts? I guess these are often open-ended questions with no definitiveness about them. I have a feeling that Bill Clinton might have reacted with a lot of surprise ... I would love to see his public reac...

President Obama was in Cairo recently and addressed students of Cairo University. Egypt is of course one of the oldest civilaztions on the planet with the pyramids having been built some 5,000 years ago — the human mind with a human lifespan of 60/70 years is certainly incapable of making sense of a timeframe that long. A city like Cairo must have seen so much through the thousands of years of its history. Today, it stands at the crossroads of the 'Clash of Civilizations' debate between Western and Islamic civilizations. President Obama sought to 're-connect' with the 'alienated' Muslim world by this speech. He addressed some central issues: Iran's march towards acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel's right to exist, the right of the Palestininian people to a homeland, the threat of Al Qaida and Taliban in Pakistan/Afghanistan, the plight of women ... or, the 'right' of women to live the way they want to ... whether they want to get educated and purs...

There was an interesting debate/discussion on TV a month or two ago on the subject of whether India needed an Obama ... I realized some time later as I was thinking about the topic that India has had a few leaders in its recent history who have been Obama-like in many ways ... Who would dispute the fact that Nehru was an ideal kind of leader — someone who combined democratic thinking with a rational/scientific spirit and great intellect/intelligence. Nehru was a great writer and a good orator as well ... So, do we need an Obama? Well, one could rephrase that and say: Do we need a Nehru for the 21st century? And the answer to that would certainly be 'Yes.' Nehru was probably more 'progressive' in his thoughts and beliefs and actions than most Indians living today. Nehru was famously an 'agnostic' — perhaps that was more of a nod to the age and the country that he lived in ... if he didn't have to make allowances for the fact that he was a public person in a b...