Excellent opening speech of President Obama in his second term

Luckily, in the midst of so many somber realities and expectations, President Obama appears as the leader of  the yet most powerful country of the Earth, who can start the "new beginning", the historical inflection from force to word.

Despite harassment of the Republican Party on which lies the military, financial, energetic and media "great domain", he has now the moral authority at a global scale that would allow him to replace the democratic principles where "globalizers" placed trade laws; ethical values that were replaced erroneously by the “market”.  And he could undertake the reconstruction of a democratic multilateralism, respecting "all peoples" -as stated in the Charter- and not only to the most prosperous and powerful. Obama could also tackle the great socioeconomic, environmental and security and peace issues adopting measures at national and global levels involving all the inhabitants of Earth, as far apart today, so unequal, so confused, so many needy...

Here are some of the paragraphs that I consider interesting to note:

“Together, we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play”.

“Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable…”.

“…We have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges”.

“For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it”.

“We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time”.

“We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations…”.

“The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it”.

“But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war…”.

“We will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad”.

“We will support democracy from Asia to Africa; from the Americas to the Middle East, because our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom”.

“Peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity; human dignity and justice”.

“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country”.

“For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay”.

“You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time — not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals”.

Obama, another opportunity to clarify the directions of a future respectful with the young and succeeding  generations, in order to straighten up the injustices caused by the extreme greed, due to the absolute power blindness rather than genuine democracy.

Very Important News: “Newsweek” is no longer published in print version

I consider the decision of the Newsweek publishing group to exchange paper for the “cloud” to be quite relevant. Given the immediacy and speed of these media, a lot of news is logically disseminated through information technologies. But I still think that at least some news merits being published and preserved “physically” in print form.

I don’t doubt the capacity of virtual archiving or availability in the “cloud”… but I still think that a total replacement of printed media should be undertaken with caution, and with special care for those matters that must survive the passage of time as essential referents to guide the steps of future generations.

“Politics is the Art of the Impossible” (correcting Aristotle)

For many years I have maintained that at any given time the solution to problems requires an analysis that would enable us to determine whether the solutions presently applied are still useful or should be changed. I remember a Nobel Prize Laureate in physics who commenced his conference by projecting a slide that contained a single word: “Inertia”. “This is our greatest enemy”, he observed, “because it often prevents us from making changes that are essential if we are to face the challenges of our time”.

I have also repeated that, based on experience gained over many years, we should not heed the “wise” recommendations that “you’ve got to be realistic” or “pragmatism is essential”. “Realists” have never been able to change reality, because they simply accept it.

It’s clear that we must invent the future, that we must constantly seek new directions to transform today’s “impossibles” into the “possibles” of tomorrow.

The truly great political leaders are those who with imagination and audacity have been able to implement radical changes that were considered impossible.

For me, President Kennedy’s speech in Washington in June, 1963 was very relevant when he proclaimed that “No challenge is beyond the creative capacity of the human species”. And now, more recently, there is Amin Maalouf’s statement that “Unprecedented situations require unprecedented solutions”, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s assertion that “To make our dreams reality we must cross the lines of the possible”.

And lastly but foremost is Albert Einstein’s contention that “In times of crisis only imagination is more important than knowledge”.

All of the experts need to realize this, especially the economists who insist on applying old solutions to new problems. We must dare to correct Aristotle and proclaim that “Good politics is the art of the impossible”.