Desperately Seeking Obama...

You don't run for Public Office for the sake of being something, you do it to do something, to make a real difference for all the people - Barack Obama

Listening to Barack Obama speak tonight I am reminded of all the reasons why I admire this man.

When he was sworn in as President he had to hit the ground running, because his job required that he literally save the world.

He was pressed into immediate service to reinvent foreign policy in a world where America was despised, to halt financial Armageddon as the global economy was in full blown recession and the US economy on the brink of collapse and, if that weren't enough, the world was being threatened with a swine flu pandemic that had many panicking and was shutting down countries at the border.

For the first time in two centuries Mexico was literally closed for business for two weeks, and nervous reaction to this unknown threat saw Middle Eastern nations destroying entire stocks of pigs as if it were possible to shut that proverbial barn door after the fact.

In the US, Companies with hundred plus years pedigree were winding up and going out of business on a daily if not hourly basis, and the crisis of the burst housing bubble meant that most people's homes were worth far less than the mortgage.

As President, Obama also inherited two major unpopular wars begun by his predecessor, to which he was committed to ending, and if his legacy was that he hit three out of four of those balls out of the park, history would have been very kind to him for trying. But this was a man who was driven to bring real change, and barely six months in Office reinvented the global face of America, put a halt to the financial crisis and began the beginning of the end of the war.

He also found the time to change America by enacting the long fought for and embattled Health Care Reform Bill and signed it into law.

Contrast that with Trinidad:

We have a fairly healthy economy albeit with some challenges that need addressing, some far more urgently than others; we possess a health care system barely in existence and a crime wave brought on largely by bad management and a State 'allowed' flourishing drug trade.

Most if not all of the issues that plague our country are the result of bad management and political bureaucracy gone mad, and most if not all could be solved in six months or less.

With a population of 1.3 million people, we would barely qualify as a ward much less a county in the US, and it would be fair to say that with a true Leader in Office, all of our problems would be solved before lunch time Tuesday freeing everyone up for a round of golf.

I am tired of the apologists telling me that the Government is only in Office six months, as if six months is not a lot of time.

Had our Prime Minister the tenacity and drive of a Barack Obama, she would have forgone the self glorifying trips and stayed home to fix the problems. Taken one by one, the country could have been treated to success after success buoyed on the tides of the popularity the Government enjoyed post election, and I have been telling them this since day one.

Imagine the glory of a crime problem put down by the immediate deployment of required resources, the establishment of police/army bases in the heart of all 'hot spots', the creation of community police and neighborhood police posts, the establishment and deployment of a 'Roads & Highway Patrol' and a zero tolerance policy on unlicensed firearms with onerous fines and jail times coupled with a gun 'buy back' plan to rid the streets of guns and put a halt to the unbelievable murder rate.

Imagine a health care system broken up and privatized with citizens guaranteed proper health care paid for by a proper and competitive National Insurance plan.

Imagine a watercourse development and expansion plan as a matter of urgency that would begin to alleviate if not solve the flooding problem as well as prepare for possible drought.

Imagine a Social Development Ministry focused on the establishment of community centers in every community, a vibrant and supported PTA and an Education System based on term by term results.

In other words, had the people seen SOME relief, anything that could have been considered results, they would still be singing the government's praises.

Instead the people have been treated to old talk, bad talk and excuses, coupled with semi literate obviously under or totally unqualified Ministers incapable of delivering an idea much less a plan who are now bent on making excuses as to their failure.

Six months in, this Government must be seen for what it is.

Save your excuses, the people want REAL change.