Current Events
Silver Lining
T. SHER SINGH
As one gets older and periodically takes the time to look back and survey life’s slings and arrows, the one pattern that emerges with increasing clarity is that indeed every cloud has a silver lining.
You spend your life skipping around clichés, and then, lo, one day, you suddenly realize that your life has been nothing but a string of clichés.
Recent goings-on in the world around us are no exception.
True, a cloud, a dark and sinister cloud, hovers over the United States of America today, and the winds will buffet it and scatter whiffs of it to neighbouring and distant lands, threatening to distribute its nuclear-active load.
But there IS a silver lining. Each one of us should know from experience that once we get past the storm -- and we will, as sure as day follows night -- the cloud ultimately dissipates into thin air and allows the sun to shine through in full glory.
Remember George W Bush who went around the world igniting fires like a banshee on steroids? Well, the pyromaniac did do immense damage, especially by bringing his own country down to its knees.
But, like many things bad and ugly, he found himself in the dustbin of history, and what followed, as a direct consequence of his crimes -- an unintended result, I’m sure -- is something that changed the world for the better.
The petty, ignorant man -- arguably the worst president America has ever had -- left behind a field weeded, tilled, and ploughed, ready to receive a crop it would never have tolerated otherwise: an unprecedented, unanticipated, even unimagined, revolution which almost instantly gave rise to Barack Obama.
Not meaning to be rude or crude -- the analogy begs the metaphor! -- the one served as the manure that made the other, the coming harvest, all the richer.
No ordinary phenomenon, this new man on the scene. I would argue that history will rank him amongst the greatest of US Presidents, and place him at the same level as Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, et al.
I know what you’re thinking. I too am cognizant of all the criticisms ladled so liberally by his conservative foes, even by some of his allies. But I won’t waste your time spelling out the wasteland he inherited from his predecessor, or the visceral determination of his foes -- who had, unfortunately, the legislative power to sabotage his projects -- to ensure that his legacy appeared diluted and flawed. I am aware of them and believe they will be of little consequence in history’s measure of him.
Because the point I want to make is that the very fact that he performed the Herculean task of winning the American Presidency, given his circumstances -- not once, but twice, the first was not a fluke! -- that fact alone puts him head and shoulders above most of those who preceded him.
No one, not even in the year that preceded his victory, had anyone ever deemed it possible that America would in the foreseeable future elect a Black man as President. That fact alone says so much about the total paucity of racial fairness in American society, and so-o-o much about the man who, not through bluster and scheming and fraud, but by means of his extraordinary personal qualities, conquered a mountain, found the Holy Grail, captured the Golden Fleece.
What makes his achievement so significant in human history, not just American, is that it shattered the glass ceiling that had been carefully put in place by half-a-millennium of colonization, and proved with a single stroke that all races are equally capable, eligible and entitled to every position of power, even the one touted as the “Most Powerful Man on Earth”.
There is no ceiling left. Overnight, the artificially placed hordes of the ’white European male’ -- hitherto ensconced in every seat, regardless of the scale of his merit or the total lack of it -- now find themselves, to their utter consternation, having to compete in eligibility with one and all.
See what Obama has wrought: in the race to succeed him, the frontrunner in the Democratic race is a woman. It’s never happened before. Until Obama came along, it was believed it may not happen in this generation.
Nipping on her heels is a Jewish-American.
Then, let’s turn to the Republicans. Amongst the five frontrunners before the winnowing of the Super Tuesdays, two were Latin-Americans, one a Black-American, one of Czech-Croatian ancestry.
[Incidentally, the fifth, who claims to be the saviour of the ’white European male’, is the only one already universally declared, not just by a majority of Americans but by much of the rest of the world, as irretrievably incompetent, corrupt, fraudulent, obnoxious and unqualified!]
I have heard no serious complaints from anyone suggesting that a woman shouldn’t be President, or similar remarks relating to anyone else of any ancestry.
That’s entirely a new phenomenon. Unheard of before Obama’s ascent. Unimagined as even feasible this ’early’ in human evolution.
It is this fact alone -- we don’t need to look at any other list of successes and failures, given Obama’s impeccable qualifications for the job -- that will put him in the honour roll of the Greatest US Presidents in History.
I’ve heard the retorts from many an apologist of the proverbial ’white male’ ilk: Look at the lay of the land, they say; women, blacks, other minorities, they too have proved crooked and incompetent. So why change things?
My father had the perfect response to it. I heard it from him when I was but a teenager. Yes, the mantra of those who wish to hang on to undeserved and unearned privileged is as old as time.
The status quo is manned, inter alios, by fools, thieves, and the incompetent, my father said. So, by hiring women and minorities, we’ll have a fair share of fools, thieves and incompetents from both genders and from every section of society. Why should women and minorities be expected to be perfect while the status quo has proven itself to be anything but perfect, to use a kind term!
Touche!
Why should the imperfections of one group disqualify them from jobs, any jobs, while the imperfections of the status quo seem to qualify them, or protect them, for those very same jobs?
The change -- Yes, We Can! - brought about by Obama has world-wide implications. No society, no country in the world can maintain its glass-ceiling for much longer.
It is no coincidence that Canada’s new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, became the first to bring in a cabinet which has an equal number of men and women.
“Because it is 2015!” he said when he was asked why.
It is no coincidence, I would suggest, that this “2015” came AFTER Barack Obama.
Thus, Barack Obama has been the silver lining to the cloud that had blackened the skies before him, and he has brightened the world as a result.
So will, I believe, the strange and curious election cycle that the US is currently suffering through.
Donald Trump is but an instrument of change, no more. Just like George W was an instrument in the change brought about by Obama.
Trump’s shenanigans, though alarming, are merely accelerating the change which is long overdue, which is inevitable, in the evolution of modern man. He is helping energize minorities like no one has been able to until now. The latest news is that, to take one example, hundreds of thousands of Latin-Americans are flocking to update their documents so that they can vote in the election in November. They are learning to act like full-fledged citizens and are ready to wield their electoral power.
Trump is also helping energize women like no one has been able to until now, not even Hillary. It appears that only insults and gross abuse by a white, uncouth boor of the male persuasion can remind women of the harsh reality of life they have faced until now.
Hillary couldn’t have done it. Only Trump can.
As John Milton famously said: “They also serve who …”
Trump will do his bit for human evolution whether he wins or loses … though, I should add, I believe Americans are simply too intelligent to allow him to become their President. Who can forget Nixon and his legacy? And George W’s? Now, with loss of face and power, are they willing to let Trump to deliver the coup de grace?
Just you wait and watch the legacy Trump will leave behind.
I suggest you’ll never again see a presidential slate, Democratic or Republican, which will not have a woman AND a Black AND a minority member on it. Never again.
T-h-a-t, dear reader, will be Trump’s legacy.
March 18, 2017
Conversation about this article
1: Akaal Singh (San Francisco, California, USA), March 18, 2016, 11:22 AM.
I guess you finally got your Vitamin D shot. Chardi kala!
2: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 19, 2016, 11:49 AM.
To inspire and elect credible candidates who can make life better for the constituents (and others around the country and the world) should be the cornerstone and bottom line of any election enterprise pursuant to democratic principles and not stupid empty rhetoric, false proclamations and fear mongering or xenophobic tendencies or racism. Very few political leaders around the world (past and present) have (had) the ability and vision to leave their countries or electorate behind in better circumstances upon leaving office than when they were elected to do their job - few that come to mind who accomplished the latter (Laurier, Lincoln, Pearson, Pierre Trudeau, Tommy Douglas, Kennedy and now President Obama). Our young Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a great and historic opportunity to join this club of extraordinary leaders as Canada needs at the present time such committed high calibre visionary leadership to tackle many important issues not only domestically but abroad as well (crumbling health care, climate change, building infrastructure, national security, combating terrorism, Aboriginal rights and issues ... to list but a few. All Canadians (Liberal, Conservative, NDP) should assist him to achieve the best for Canada in all arenas by putting differences aside. We should always remember, if Canada as a country does better, we all do better. I have faith in the American people as well that they will elect a President worthy to lead their beautiful country.
3: Arjan Singh (USA), March 19, 2016, 10:09 PM.
Agree with Dr. Birinder Singh ji ... that the American people will ‘eventually’ elect a President worthy enough to lead this country from their current dire straits. We just hope that they do so in these coming elections. The entire atmosphere is now poisoned with hate speech and negativity. From the few interviews I have heard of Justin Trudeau, he is impressive. Visiting Canada is always a pleasant experience, and each time I come back with a fresh head to the stressful and fearful climate of the US.
4: Dya Singh (Melbourne, Australia), March 20, 2016, 10:41 PM.
Though our political goings-on in Australia are as amusing, amazing and unbelievable as any, Trump certainly has us, down-under, still gaping open-mouthed in disbelief. We held our breath wondering whether a black man might become president of USA many moons ago. Now we hold our breath wondering whether Americans will allow a rich, spoilt brat, whose mannerisms at his campaign rallies sometimes resemble those of Hitler, to become president! On a different note, yes, Trudeau appears to be quite amazing. Canada has done us (especially Sikhs) proud. Well, our new Oz High Commissioner to India, is a Sikh lady. And Sikh youth are being groomed to play their part for our country too. Through all the talk of doom and gloom, I must say - what exciting times we live in!
5: Ajit Singh Batra (Pennsville, New Jersey, USA), March 21, 2016, 10:21 AM.
GGS:313: "mayadhari aut anna bola". That is, "Man of wealth can be extremely blind and deaf". Wealth can prove to be a curse when it corrupts and influences a person. Trump may win the Republican nomination but he is bound to lose in the general election. I believe Americans will chose to reject his shenanigans.
6: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), March 24, 2016, 9:11 PM.
In the US, we should be putting forward Sikh candidates in the coming elections ... keep on trying again and again, until we succeed. That'll be our perfect answer to Donald Trump!