Some Things Do Change

There was a rare protest in Singapore this afternoon.

I just read the news online on MSN and was pleasantly surprised. The protesters were smart enough to organise a 4-man march, knowing that the police could (and probably would) arrest them if they marched in groups of 5 or more. It is a very small-scale protest and march which would be considered laughable by most international standards but I must applaud Mr. V. Thamizhmaraiyan's courage for leading the march. You have done something that most Singaporeans are too afraid to do. They were protesting against the war in Sri Lanka and marched from Little India to the British High Commission to appeal for British intervention in the war.

I really do hope to see more peaceful protests in the future. It not only shows that Singaporeans are global citizens, it also shows that we have our opinions and are not afraid to voice them.

I also read Newsweek's May 2008 article "The Rise of the Rest" by Fareed Zakaria. You can check out the article here. Prof Harold Tan mentioned something about it when I was speaking to him this afternoon and, in light of recent events, it seem like a pretty good analysis of the world. It is really interesting to hear reports of how the rest of the world is catching up with the US and the fact that we are living in a post-American world. I wrote a blog entry about this 3 years ago. You can read it here. It is not that the US have been doing things wrong, it's just that the rest of the world have been doing things right. The focus is not about just the US anymore, it's about a global perspective and context.

I remember a couple of weeks ago when Obama took over the US presidency. My uncle was commenting that he couldn't believe how Americans could vote for someone so inexperienced and young to lead them. He did not think that Obama was capable enough to lead the US (and the world, for that matter) out of the current financial crisis. At that point in time, I did not understand where he was coming from. Like most people, I was fasinated with Obama's popularity and charisma. But now I see what he meant. First, the market tanked on the day Obama took over, which showed that businessmen did not have confidence in him. Then, Obama angered China the first few days he was in office. Next, he placed a cap on Wall Street's executive's salaries, which pissed some executives off. And just today, he admitted that he screwed up over some tax issues and caused two of his nominees to withdraw their nominations. Not only that, he had to debate about whether to include a "Buy American" provision in the the stimulus package bill. I mean, is that even a cause for debate in today's globalised economy?? Imagine the repercussions if that went through, thank God he backed off it.

All these have lead me to think that my uncle could have been right in his pre-judgement of Obama. I still hope that Obama would be able to lead the US on the right path to recovery. However, he would really need to buck up and stop making these mistakes. The world's economies are in a dire situation right now and it seems the worse is yet to come.

I am waiting to see how this pans out.