President Obama and the Grand Dame of Parliaments

In President Obama’s recent address before the British Parliament, in front of both the House of Lords and the Commons, the president celebrated the history of one of the longest and strongest alliances in the world — the United States and the United Kingdom. It is an alliance that agrees wholeheartedly with the principles of respect for human rights, public freedoms and democracy. The speech called for leadership rather than hesitance on the part of the U.S. and Western European countries, despite the fact that the world is overrun with difficulties such as the financial crisis, terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, environmental changes, high rates of hunger and global poverty. The speech concluded that unity is possible through the uniting of their ideals, rather than dividing over their differences. He pointed out that what distinguishes the United States and the United Kingdom is their belief in the rights of the individual, the freedom of the individual and the rule of law, which has permitted the grandson of a Kenyan cook in the British army to become the president of the United States and stand before the British Parliament, despite the fact that Kenya was a former British colony.

These statements were affirmed by Obama’s visit to H.M. Queen Elizabeth in Buckingham Palace, where — according to the Daily Telegraph on May 28 — the queen supported friendship and unity. At the same time British Prime Minister David Cameron — according to The Independent on the same date — called for the continued support of the West for poorer countries through a meeting of the G-8, which took place in Deauville, France. It appears that the biggest challenges the world faces are the financial crisis, the increased role of China as a new and powerful leader and the West working to restore the momentum and the spirit to its international role in the world. This is a stark reminder to the U.S. president of the truth of his direction and precarious situation in the world — a situation that has arrived at the doorstep of the government of the biggest country in the world that has led the world and was for a long time a symbol to immigrants as a land of opportunity.

These alliances and efforts in the one of the darkest periods of Western history, one that has worked through the chains of colonialism and old empires, should give some light to the Arab world. It has begun the first steps toward change and freedom to achieve growth and a new future. The Arab world possesses the will to live, to act and to act with the world, without orders or mandates over the self, the conscience or the will, and to have free opinion in the decisions at present and in the future.