Revolution of a Grandson of Chefs

In its name, entire villages have succumbed, even gotten lost in the infinite darkness. They lost their way behind illusions that were fueled by minds fermented by their evil hearts. The word revolution was losing its aura of libertarian redemption; the rebels managed to seize it, even turn it into a trap, cages for opportunist rogues. They stole its historic fight in the setting of the people, altered the sought-after idea of social change to make it the fuel for vile and perverse dictators.

On the grounds of actual reports, we argue that a more productive revolution does not exist than that of the society of opportunities the United States offers. Sixty years ago it was unheard of to see white men seated on the same bus as their black countrymen; a cordial handshake between citizens with different colors of skin was nearly a sacrilege. Before Apr. 15, 1947, black talent was unable to access major league baseball until Jackie Robinson did so with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the now extinct Ebbets Field Stadium, New York, in a game against the Boston Braves. This singular event in the annals of sports opened the doors for many athletes from around the world to gain entry to the big leagues. The feat contributed to the extraordinary changes that would develop in later decades. All groups have managed to get beyond those odious barriers and build a range of possibilities that are born with the consent of the free democratic game; a revolution without killing anyone, without destroying the individual freedom or the rights of minorities.

Recent history tells us of an exciting event in the struggle for emancipation. A few days ago U.S. President Barack Obama toured the European continent. An event scarcely highlighted by the influential media very powerfully caught our attention. It was the president’s speech before the British parliament. For the first time, the chambers of the Lords and Commons were united in the old building of Westminster Hall to hear an American president. They dressed like medieval princes, donned their finest jewelry to rant with the old black student from a suburb of Chicago. Only historical figures like Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth and the South African leader Nelson Mandela had had the honor of giving a speech with the chambers altogether.

And to think that the one who delighted them in his monumental speech is a grandson of Kenyan cooks, descendants of those humble peasants of the Lou tribe, who left Sudan on the White Nile to reach Nyangoma. They sowed the fields and served their British masters in the stately mansions, then went with their families to sleep in their huts of palm. Now someone who traveled genetically in time from the back of the hut to the distinguished English palace is giving lessons to the descendants of his former tormentors. Let us know if the event is not truly revolutionary; a man who broke all barriers of ethnicity, gained access to education, even becoming an advantageous student at Harvard, later to become president of the most important nation on the globe. Is this not the show of success, of personal commitment along with a system of freedom and equality of opportunity that works, in which millions of people grow up without being condemned for thinking differently or having different skin color?

With all its defects, American democracy has attributes not possessed by the regimes of communism. It is true that in them there is the possibility to prosper, but only while losing freedom and becoming a robot that so morbidly supports contemptuous regimes. Individual thought is suppressed so that the pack of rabid dogs may reign.

Venezuela deserves a separate mention. Here we are suffering a true nightmare of 12 years of constant torture. They looted the country on behalf of a revolution of thieves and miscreants charged with the desire to steal everything from it.

Democracy is the expression of freedom. It is not the fancy of someone who wants to think for all; it is the answer of thought in the face of tyranny. In that game of ideologies we believe that the American experience, with all its imperfections, is far superior to what totalitarianism can offer.