Tag Archives: president

Old Presidents

image by Luiz Fernando Reis / flickr

Over the past 3 weeks I have been in Portugal helping my grandparents with daily life during a trying series of complications that often come with old age. During that time Ive strangely found myself watching television, specifically programming from the more intellectual Portuguese state television RTP2.  While washing dishes one night I heard a familiar Brazilian accent and looked over at what was a clearly older and slightly weaker Lula da Silva. The former 2 term Brazilian president was being interviewed about his life, his presidency, his country, and the world in general. He spoke about how his thinking has been impacted by his successful battle against throat cancer. He spoke about injustice and inequality in different parts of the world, including in Brazil.  And most impressive for me, he spoke with a clarity and wisdom you’re rarely allowed to see in the world of international politics.

This got me to thinking about the wisdom and freedom to speak that comes with no longer being the leader of a nation. Every now and then, a president or a prime minister steps down, and suddenly it is like a weight has been lifted and a light shines upon them.  In the United States, Jimmy Carter has long been the voice of unwavering criticism and honesty about the state of the world and the shortcomings of is own presidency.  Nor he or Lula are the first of their kind, but listening to someone who led such a large and dynamic nation during a period of such immense change, in addition to having survived the near loss of his voice (and life), is quite enlightening.

Critics will say – he (and all former leaders) are still and always will be politicians. Lula himself says this. But the office of the executive seems so often to paralyze and silence the true voice of the person elected to that position. Perhaps you can’t speak truth to power when you are the power. But if anyone in this world were looking for useful information based on unique and qualified experience, look for the former presidents who still care about the world and have finally found the nerve to tell it like it is.  They can help advise both leaders and citizens of this world, to learn from their mistakes, and look critically at how our world is being run.

Note: I will subtitle the interview and post it in the coming week as a video entry. 

Work on the Candidate

Many of you know I’ve lived outside the United States since late 2001.? If I were trying to seem poetic or sentimental I would mention that it was 2 months after 9/11.? Or I would bring up the extreme difficulty and hostility I experienced trying to do research as a freelance journalist into the disappearing immigrants of Arab descent.? But thats not really it either, the reasons I left are more complex and less dramatic.

Still throughout the last 7 years I’ve often wondered if a change of president would make it more appealing to live once again in the US.? But I can also tell you that one thing I’ve figured out for myself is that the president is not what is wrong with the United States.? No the problems go beyond the white house and beyond politics.? So a change of president does not equal a change in culture… things don’t happen that quickly or easily.

Speaking with one of my most valued friends back in NJ today, he said to me “Obama mania is sweeping the nation man… its going to be great.”? To which I responded “Just because there is Obama mania does not mean things will be great.” Which is the response I feel I need to give more and more these days.

Like his profile? Sure why not. Plenty to like about that life and family history.? Like his speaking style? Most of the time, although if we’re honest with ourselves we know that 75% of the time he’s not really saying anything, just using the talking points and the slogans like advisors tell him to.? Like his politics? Im not sure about that anymore either. From Free Trade, to Middle East policies, to Criminal Justice, Barak Obama says less and less that I can actually agree with or that differs with the same old populist politics of the last decades.

Obama mania is sweeping the nation.? It starts to sound like any one progressively minded should lay down their arms and embrace the man in the name of getting him elected.? Yet I propose.. hell.. I demand something else.? I demand that you hammer this candidate with questions. That you scrutinize his proposed policies, his staff choices, his voting record, and the details of the lofty promises or the shady relationships with questionable forces. Don’t jump on the bandwagon, stand up and ask your candidate to explain himself.? Run him through the ringer, before its too late, and we end up with a man that owes favors to the same old powerful interests and politics we never actually wanted.

Hypocracy of Death

So lets just review:

A president of a country.

Gets involved in a few deadly and terrible wars.

Targets civilians and uses deadly weapons.

Strips citizens of their rights

Pockets most of the country’s wealth for himself or his friends

Plunders the wealth of other countries

Refuses to admit he has done anything wrong.

Insists that a president must do everything in his power to preserve the country and his office.

…..gets sentenced to death.