Proud to be an Indian

Really Inspiring !

Obama - The next president of the US

I am really glad, that Obama was elected the next president of the US. chuck all the effects, Bradley, Urkel, everything. He smashed all the records and has become the first African American president.

Like many people, i have been following the US elections right from the beginning. Initially, Obama said "change" and all other competitors even in the Democratic party laughed. In spite of all the silly and desperate campaign efforts from the McCain group, he has made history.

If you think about it, Obama's story can be made into a movie and it is a sure block buster. He is like a Hero now. If this indeed was a movie, then by this time, credits will be rolling. But it is not. And it seems like Obama understands that already. Do you know, Obama already has a 50-chapter transition booklet, with details on how, when and who he should appoint for which position? Just brilliant. Bill Clinton started the planning only after he got elected and reached a decision only 4 days before his inauguration.

As all the newspapers pointed out, it is indeed a success for Democracy. With a record turn out like this, newspapers are claiming that it looks like America is just re-inventing herself. The US behaves as if it is a newly formed Democratic country, as if people were given a right to vote just yesterday. Americans have proved that they are a lot more tolerant about race than any other country in the world. Imagine, if the Bradley effect did work and if Obama lost the election, it is a big scar for the country, that boasts its Democracy and Free Markets.

Now, what can I expect from a Obama era? It is weird and at the same time astonishing, how every single person in the world is asking this same question. This is a testimon of the American influence on the World, which is both good and bad, as i have always assumed. Anyways, in India, there is already a suspision that he will crush the Outsourcing industry. In my opinion, there is a slight possibility for that happening. He promised to give tax cuts for corporates, who employ more people in the US. Given the fact that the Corporate tax in the US is so high, and the forthcoming recession and the unemplyment rate in the US, there is a slight possibility of that happening. But again, it can be argued that all the above said reasons can work in favor of India as well. We gotta wait and see.

What about Finance industry? I am really worried about the answer to this question. The american president has enourmous power to bring about change in anything. And in general, the Democrats have always, always argued for more regulation. Therefore, we can expect to see more oversight and strict regulations for the American Banks. This can be a big blow to the Investment Banking industry, given the fact that the industry has been thriving because of less regulation and more risk-taking. All this will change. But to what extent? We gotta wait and see.

Obama said during the victory speech, "Change has come to America". I dont know how change can come, if he is going to appoint everyone in his team from Clinton era. Every president in the US, said he wanted to change the way business is done in Washington, but noone ever achieved it. (Even Bush said, he wanted change, during his 2000 election campaign). But lets hope, atleast Obama will bring about the Change we expect.

US Presidential Elections - III

After two long years, the race for the White house, is about to end this Tuesday. The race was so close. It was really tough. Even today you cannot be sure about who is going to win. It looks like Obama has a good chance. But anything can happen.

This week "Time" magazine had a good article about the leadership style of the two candidates and also, about the various problems that they might face in this presidency. I think it makes perfect sense. There are just too many things that the next president should fix. There is a huge Economic Crisis, Energy crisis, Unemployment, Housing crisis, Health care, possible Recession, Problems in Iraq, fragile Afghanistan, decaying Pakistan, Rise of China, newly refreshed ambitions of Russia, Climate crisis, Problems with Iran, Terrorism in the country itself.

Am just a normal university student, who occasionally happen to check the news. Even I can list down 14 critical issues that the next US president has to address. Then imagine the real trouble he is in.

Over the years, the world has developed a certain dependency towards US. We all tried to follow their Free Market Capitalism and Democracy and unknowingly became too dependent on US. The problems that the US president has to address just becomes too much when you add in this "Dependency" factor. Whether you like it or not, every decision, he is gonna make is gonna affect the world, not just the US. And that is the sad reality. We are in a once-in-a-century crisis right now, because the current administration for some reason, refused to acknowledge this fact.

You can read the 6-page article here and it will give a pretty good idea of how the next 4 years can be. Anyways, am eagerly waiting for the results of the US elections.

Obama informercial

Check this one. I found in Time website. Prolly shd hav been the effect of Obama buying primetime for an infomercial. If you havnt seen it yet, you can see the infomercial here. I think Obama has too much money to spent and is not quite sure, what he can do with it, with elections coming to an end. "Spend this many millions in this many days". lol.