A Simple Question of Packaging

Some time on January 20th next year1, the U.S.A. will have a new president at the helm, the 44th. He is a Democrat named Barack Hussein Obama, who is also black, a detail that does not seem minor. What must be remembered is that the man, barely 47 years old, has promised change. His campaign has been built around that promise. Will he able to keep his word? And he must especially ask himself if he will have the political means, because when the euphoria dies down and the spotlights dim, those who will assume those duties will have the heavy burden to manage a power that has just proven to have clay feet.

The myth of the American dream that they want to make alive again through the ascension of Barack Obama has lost its splendor. The U.S.A. is now entering one of the darkest phases of its existence. These past few months have demonstrated to millions of Americans that the dream can just as easily become a nightmare. The hope to put it back is embodied by a man who incarnates this revival and change is a discovery that has proven itself to be quite lucrative. The miracle workers behind the scenes have made a spectacular media show of Obama. The fact that they will have had to resort to the most expensive campaign ever in all of American history isn’t important in of itself. What counts is the result and power is to admit he is it. The election of the Democratic candidate is in effect tangible, definitive proof in knowing how to sell a specific moment. But one also mustn’t make any illusions, being Obama isn’t self-educated. He is the product of a system or a model that doesn’t see itself falling apart.

The U.S.A. of today is maybe in the most fragile phrase of its existence. The image that has been shared and sent back to the rest of the world is inevitably negative. That’s because the power needed to resuscitate the myth of the American dream is nevertheless represented by Obama. The genius of Obama’s communication strategists and that of the Democractic party is to be able to know how to and to exploit a weakness that could transform itself into a force to tap a majority of Americans. The level of participation in this American presidential election is the highest in ages. That the majority had voted for Obama isn’t at all surprising; it’s in that change where the hope of salvation for millions of Americans resides. A reality no one has omitted to reveal. Shocked by the obvious, they now try to make comparisons that aren’t there.

Indeed, Algeria isn’t and never will be America. Besides, it had never pretended to resemble it. And if Algeria will never be the U.S.A., it isn’t because the country of Uncle Sam is an inimitable model; it’s just a model that we don’t want to be. The U.S.A. is a country of illusion, perpetuating a myth that has fallen apart long ago; that as the champion of Democracy. And if Algeria can’t be the U.S.A., it’s simply because each country has its own characteristics, its own traditions and its own conventions. Simply, each has its own system that governs its operations, the base of which is the state.

Certainly, we can envy the Americans at first, but when you know the downside, we say to ourselves “hna oua la houma.”2 We say that because there is more corruption in our country, more social unease in our country, more poverty in our country, more harassment in our country, more police blunders in our country, more crime in our country, less humanity in our country. In America, the hogra3 has taken on another dimension that could be exerted by the administration in the White House against other sovereign states. In fact, the main difference between our country and theirs concerns the level of packaging. And it is true that in this game, the Americans are several decades ahead of us. They know how to pass on their message thanks to the recourse of the men and women who control communication. That’s the principal fault of a country like Algeria that will always neglect that aspect.

1. The author incorrectly wrote “November 20th” instead of the appropriate inauguration day.

2. A translation of this phrase could not be found.

3. Hogra is an Algerian slang term that describes the authorities’ disdain for the people.