Wagle Street Journal

I thought warm days were coming in Kathmandu but today it’s surprisingly cold outside. Woke up at 12 midday, and what else, read newspapers. Nothing special but one news that I was eagerly waiting to read (and wasn’t expecting in Kantipur and the Kathmandu Post) was about the American senator Barack Obama’s announcement of his candidacy for the President of the United States. I had seen him on TV last night after he gave that electrifying speech. Every article and news item about him pulls my attention just like the news about Gmail used to do mid 2004. I have been a great admirer and user of Gmail service ever since.

I strongly feel Barack Obama is in the race to win. I am thrilled by just the mentioning of his name. It creates energy. Hillary Clinton, whom I admire, is Obama’s key challenger for now but I think the senator from Illinois has the vision and capacity to do what needs to be done. He is young and he is energetic. He talks sense and he seems genuine. Leaders are for vision and directions. Obama has shown that he has vision and ideas about new America. Because he is young, (at 45 he is definitely younger than Hillary, 59) he has the potential of brining about the generational change in the United States. [Obama is definitely not my mama- maternal uncle- but I can very well identify myself with his charisma and energy and vision.] When Tony Blair was elected the Prime Minister of Britain in 1997 at the age of 44 and his victory had some kind of psychological impact even in Nepal. I heard Sher Bahadur Deuba, former Prime Minister of Nepal, once saying that Nepal needed younger generation to lead the country. In the name of experience and unifying figure we are still relying on 80 plus year old folks. I can’t vote for Obama but I will be closely following his campaign (thanks to the Internet).

Talking about the Internet, I should also thank Nepal Telecom for providing free connection for a week (which will end tomorrow) on CDMA phone. I know the free lunch can’t be continued forever but I really wish NT reduced the price so that people like me could be online as long as they want. Rs. 3 plus 14 percent tax for a MB of data transfer is expensive. NT has recently reduced the corporate charge for Internet connection significantly after it started using fiber optic connection with India. Now it’s our turn, the turn of consumer, to get benefit of fiber optic lines.

I was talking about the weather in the beginning. It’s raining outside, there is an Arnold flick on Star Movies (he has been cloned!), and Email is occasionally flipping through sports channels to follow three separate cricket matches that are being broadcast live. Thanks for two warm cups of tea (one milk and the other black). I am feeling lazy. I don’t even want to go to office but I will go anyway. Or may be I will not. It’s like many of those undecided voters in the United States who make their mind on the eleventh hour! It’s cold outside but not as cold as it was in Springfield, Illinois where Barack Hussein Obama said:

It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people – where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.

I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness – a certain audacity – to this announcement. I know I haven’t spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I’ve been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change. (read the complete speech here)

Links:

1.Barack Obama Web Site
2. Barack Obama Campaign Blog
3. NYT coverage on Obama announcement
4. A Washington Post report on weather and Obama
5. NYT blog on the weather in Springfield

Filed under: Wagle Web Log