( A new Dawn or just Hype? )

Picture the scene, it is the morning of Wednesday January 21st 2009 and I have just awoken from my sleep. I hop out of bed and walk across to my window, where as usual, I fling open the curtains to catch my first glimpse of the outside world. Nothing on earth could have prepared me for the sight that awaited me. The sky was blue, with a giant rainbow cascading above me. The birds were all singing in the trees, the flowers had all blossomed and all war, famine, disease and greed had vanished from the face of the earth. How could this miracle have happened? Who is responsible for such an amazing change? Yes of course you have guessed. The newly appointed President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Of course for now this is all a fantasy in my head and not reality. You would have had to be living on another planet not to have heard all the big talk and hype surrounding this "historic" event.

I suppose that after eight years of George W, US citizens are more than ready to see a new face at the top and it certainly seems like a few changes will actually be made, but this begs the question, will anything change and are we really entering a new dawn for the human race?

I'm at an age where I have seen many leaders in lots of countries come and go. Here in my homeland I have seen around 10 different Prime Ministers run the UK and before each one came to power, they all stated the same things and made the same promises. An end to poverty, an end to crime and better treatment for the sick and prosperity for all. But as each fell from favour and made way for the next "bright" trail blazer, nothing actually changed. We still have crime, we still have people living on the bread-line. There are still queues for hospital care and general unhappiness is at an all time high!

When it seems like a great wave of optimism is spreading, I tend to take a step back from the gathering crowd and look around me. From my point of view we are all looking for some sort of miracle, a person to make all the bad things go away. I suppose there is nothing wrong with this way of thinking, but I think it is only right to keep everything in perspective and not get carried away with building something up too much.

I tend to go along the lines of "lets wait and see" and a year from now I will tell you what I think of the new US office and what has really changed in this world of ours. You see the problem with hyping a leader up and putting them on a pedestal is that they must live up to that role and not let us down, not even once. Of course no living person on this earth is perfect and I'm sure within a couple of months in the White House, something will go wrong, just as it always does and always will.

The problem with making promises is that people often expect you to keep them and in the case of President Barack H Obama, there is a great deal for him to live up to. For now all we have to hold onto are our hopes and dreams. As I often say..Time always reveals a persons true intentions. We will see what eventually unfolds.

(Misterduncan) ............................................