Book: The Promised Land by Barack Obama
People stood up a little straighter, saw themselves differently when they learned their voices mattered
This sentence about his early days of being a community worker has stayed with me.
Reading A Promised Land is like sitting down with Obama for a coffee and asking him everything you wanted to know.
How did you adjust to White House life?
Is Putin as evil as we figure?
What was it like to carry the hopes of many of the worlds black population?
Where would you be without Michelle?
Are there any good points about having security detail with you (apart from staying alive)?
He makes winning his first election to the senate look easy, although it probably is compared to everything he subsequently strived for during his presidency. Reading about the years of campaigning for one post or another, I don't want to run for a bus never mind the presidency. It seems like a horrid life with very few upsides, like when the odd battle is won. Fair enough, that win could change thousands or even millions of lives. The life, though, seems suited to a single person and certainly not for those with young families. I guess we have to credit Michelle and her mum for ensuring their Obama kids have grown up seemingly well adjusted and happy.
As for the inside knowledge on others, we already know about Palin’s lack of knowledge. Obama describes McCain as so out of touch with American/world economics that he didn't know how many houses he owned (8). However, forever the diplomat, he stays courteous and without this book, I doubt I would have learnt as much about other world leaders. I have no interest in politics and I would never have picked up a political book. I do care about history and how the world has arrived at where we are now. A Promised Land gives an excellent history lesson.
Shanghai is Singapore on steroids
There is none (well, very few) of his self confessed long rambling sentences, although I had to look up ecumenism. Instead, in a few short pages, I know how Putin came to power and how Iran lost its democracy. I learned how America got rid of a democratically elected Iran parliament because Britain lost its profits from their oil (check out the photo). Reagan publicly backed Iraq while simultaneously selling arms to Iran.
It is said that, after 911, the president of Iran offered to help but Bush ignored him and included Iran in the "axis of evil' category.
There is a touch of that American arrogance rearing its head, something I find more tricky to cope with each year that passes. With so much wrong with the nation; healthcare, poverty, racism, sexism, police, prisons and many of those in charge, what gives them the right to take charge of other nations? All this ‘we will have to send in the troops and stay until we get this country to be democratic’ is baloney! The USA is often no more a democratic nation than those it wades into.
If war is a contradiction, so is America.
Obama talks of leaders of both China and Russia as having prepared statements and answers for their meetings. This left no chance of free-flowing adlib conversations like with every other leader. And of trying to persuade EU leaders to use the US example after the 2008 financial crash and describing them as primarily right of centre, except Gordon Brown, but (unfortunately) he got replaced by Cameron. EU regulators are described as slipshod. It’s rare to see America criticising EU, their most significant trading partner.
I learned why it is crucial for America to help Palestine & Israel find a solution but the fact that Israel is an Allie must make (some) Muslims resent America more and more.
There is the early realisation that the meeting of four Middle Eastern leaders was all a pantomime; nothing would change through their talks.
The account of the attempts to persuade the Eqyptian leader to step down while he carried on his violent actions - using US-supplied weapons - against peaceful protestors. Meanwhile, his camp is split with the older members (Clinton et al.) saying leave him be (better the devil you know) and the younger saying he has to go. Meanwhile, his staff are making regular calls to senior Egyptian military personnel to remind them that the crackdown on protesters will eventually have consequences.
This all sounds fascinating until I remember it's not a film. This is happening now while I sit in the comfort of my home reading a book I like. talking about it openly with anyone in the world.
The Promised Land is a whistle-stop lesson on late 20th/early 21st century dictators. The reasons for going to war, convincing dictators to step down, the logistics of it all - how it affects relationships with other countries and so much more.
I’ll finish on another learning point: be generous in my praise and measured in my criticism.