Safe and Secure

It would appear that the Burmese thugs are going to put Aung San Suu Kyi on trial again, so that they can keep her in the jail that is her house forever.

An American who bravely swam across a lake to get to her house is also going on trial.

If ever there was a time for President Obama to act decisively in the name of freedom, it is now.

I thought that Obama’s approach to Cuba was well thought out. We would all agree that good relations between all companies in the world are a good thing and his offers would seem to be aimed at easing the plight of the Cuban people, whilst giving the Cuban dictatorship a difficult choice.

Let’s hope he shows similar guile when dealing with others, who don’t do the best for their people and cling on to power by all means.

My son was worried that the American voting system would let Obama down, but then he does tend to look for conspiracy theories.

I’m glad that he’s come, but whether he’ll be able sort out the mess that the US is in, only time will tell.

I’ve just read the review in the Guardian of a new film called I. O. U. S. A. This is the first paragraph.

This thoroughly admirable picture by documentary film-maker Patrick Creadon takes the driest subject in the world – America’s national debt – and makes you deeply ashamed of not having been worried about it before now. Its thesis is that America’s crack-cocaine-style debt addiction is a more serious problem than either terrorism or global warming. The budget deficit of the US has risen to an eye-watering $9tn; its trade deficit is $738.6bn; its political leaders are casual about waste, and its feckless, want-it-now citizens buy stuff on credit and have abandoned the habit of saving, drummed into them by their provident parents and grandparents.

Before anybody points it out, Britain is just as much in hock under paper-Chancellor Brown.

I tend to go along with the premise that debt is the worst of the problems, but will Obama be able to do anything about it.  He’s come in on a wave of goodwill and it will be political suicide to bring in unpopular policies to attempt to cut back the debt.

I do feel though, that in other areas we might see some progress.

Will for instance, Obama be more active in trying to sort out the problems of Africa, where there is no US economic interest. Zimbabwe, DR Congo, Somalia and several others need something more than platitudes. And a lot of their leaders need to be given comfortable cells in The Hague.

Then there is Israel and the Palestinians. But then no US President has ever upset Israel, by making them do the things they say they will.

If there was one thing, I’d like him to do then it is to end capital punishment. It is barbaric and actually non-productive and expensive too, but it’s abolishment would send a message of a more humane America to the rest of the world. It would also remove America from a club, where the major members are China, Iran and North Korea.

The result in Iowa might be early in the US Presidential Elections, but has Hilary Clinton lost already?

I’ve always been sceptical that a woman could be the US President. 

If you look at successful woman presidents or prime ministers, they have generally been exceptional woman who were in tune with the mood of the country; Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

Now, Hilary Clinton is a formidable woman, but I can’t see her going down well in a lot of places in the United States. 

I was once asked to give my impressions on a company in the Mid-West for someone who was thinking of taking it over.  Let’s say, that a woman like me, who for that job dressed in cord skirts, flat shoes and shirts, was treated very much as a resented outsider, where business was concerned.  The takeover didn’t proceed and the US company went bust.

So Hilary might go down well in New England and California, but I can’t see her taking enough of the middle of the US to win.

And that is just because she is a woman.

Good luck to Obama, as if he can impress in Iowa, he must be good. 

Over here we know nothing of him, except what has been written in serious papers.  We get to know your leaders best, when they appear personally over here.  Some make gaffs, some impress and some appear to be boring.  No prizes for who made the most gaffs.

It’s Huckabee though that I look forward to as a President.  But only as a European.

Being a Baptist preacher brings baggage that must cause problems for the US.  Unless he’s a better preacher than many of that sect I’ve met.

I’ve read his entry on Wikipedia.

I wouldn’t vote for him.

Why?

His policies on Iraq, the death penalty, abortion, creationism, homosexuality, AIDS and gun control for a start.  His Wikipedia entry has nothing on his views on global warming.

But if he gets elected, he’ll be good for Europe, as even more Americans will emigrate this way and enrich our commerce and innovation.

America is in danger of digging itself into a big hole with it’s policies, inability to face up to global warming, reliance on foreign oil and manufacturing, obesity and a massive balance of payments problem.

The latter is the most worrying.  If the US was a company, the banks would put it down immediately.