Obama Closes the Circle

Published in Ara
(Spain) on 26 July 2015
by Carme Colomina (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Ken Woodhouse. Edited by Danielle Tezcan.
“There’s a reason why my name is Barack Hussein Obama,” the president of the United States said last week to a group of Kenyan entrepreneurs during a visit that he said was “personal” for him. The only time Obama saw his father, he was ten years old, during a brief stopover in Hawaii, but the figure of the U.S. president is marked by a long search for his identity. It was like hearing the Obama who, on June 4, 2009, appeared at the American University in Cairo to deliver a speech that sought to bring to an end the antagonism between Islam and the West. Then, too, he began recalling his full name, his childhood in Indonesia hearing the call to prayer at the mosques and the importance of the Muslim community in the United States. It was the period when the world was still in love with the recently elected president. There were no Arab revolts, no war in Syria, no Islamic State group. There were just the problems inflicted by the belligerent politics of George W. Bush. Obama recognized then the error of Guantánamo and of torture, and experts compared that 50 minute speech in the Egyptian capital with that of John F. Kennedy in Berlin in 1963. Later, however, came reality. The world was not how Obama expected. And he was not the president the world had imagined.

The Democrat leader has taken nearly six years to write his own international agenda. That of his first term was monopolized completely by Hillary Clinton, while the president battled with the economic crisis, the intransigence of a Republican Congress and the poisoned inheritance of Bush’s two wars. But the lame duck has got into gear. After the latest electoral defeat in the autumn, with both chambers against him, Obama decided that the time had come to write his legacy. “I’m not finished,” he warned at the end of 2014 in the subject of the email that he sent to supporters after the press conference in which he announced the re-establishment of relations with Cuba. Since then, the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, the opening of diplomatic relations with the Castro regime, the negotiations of free-trade agreements with Asia-Pacific and the European Union and the latest trip to the African continent – to the “newest and most promising frontier of limitless opportunity,” as President Uhuru Kenyatta told him – demonstrate that Obama has decided to shape his own international legacy; to return to being an inspirational president; to wipe out the disappointment of the African continent with the first African-American president of the United States, who up to now has had a rather poor balance in a region dominated in recent years by China. Obama speaks of peace and negotiation but is building the foundations for new global bilateral commercial relationships and starting with the opening up of new areas of competition, above all with Beijing.

He still has 18 months of his presidency remaining. Released from the desire to be the president of consensus and bipartisanship, Obama’s strategy now is to challenge his critics, those who have declared him the president of a United States that has resigned from its role as world leader. Obama says the hour to free himself from “the imprisonment of the past” has arrived.

The White House, in addition, is preparing a plan to close the Guantánamo detention center, according to Reuters last week. A “national imperative,” which became the great unfulfilled promise of his administration. The military prison, where 116 people are still detained, is one of the disgraces of his term in office: the proof of his incapacity to promise justice and end the abuses of the fight against terrorism.

Obama needs to close the circle. The return to the discourse and the commitments that have been buried in recent years and that of a hopeful United States who chose the first African-American president in its history, now that the reality of social and economic inequality, arbitrary police violence and street protests demonstrate that the idea of a post-racial North American society is still far off. It is the final great step: to overcome prejudice and racism. “The black president some worried about has arrived,” was the title of an article in the Washington Post two weeks ago which explained how the discourse of Obama against racism, discriminatory language and the old symbols of slavery has become more and more strident. Obama’s legacy will be written for the new alliances of the United States in the world but also for how to manage to transform North American society.


Obama tanca el cercle
“Hi ha un motiu perquè el meu nom sigui Barack Hussein Obama”, deia el president dels Estats Units la setmana passada a un grup d’empresaris kenians durant un viatge que anunciava com a “personal” per a ell. L’única vegada que Obama va veure el seu pare tenia 10 anys, durant una breu escala a Hawaii, però la figura del president nord-americà està marcada per una llarga recerca de la identitat. Era com sentir l’Obama que el 4 de juny del 2009 apareixia a la universitat nord-americana del Caire per pronunciar un discurs que pretenia acabar amb l’antagonisme entre l’islam i Occident. Aleshores també va començar recordant el seu nom complet, la seva infantesa a Indonèsia sentint les mesquites cridant a l’oració i la importància de la comunitat musulmana als Estats Units. Era encara la fase d’enamorament planetari amb un president acabat d’escollir. No hi havia revoltes àrabs, ni guerra a Síria, ni Estat Islàmic. Només el mal infligit per la política bel•ligerant de George W. Bush. Obama va reconèixer, aleshores, l’error de Guantánamo i de les tortures, i els experts van comparar aquells 50 minuts de discurs a la capital egípcia amb el de John F. Kennedy a Berlín l’any 1963. Però, després, va venir la realitat. El món no era com Obama esperava. I ell no era el president que el món havia imaginat.
El líder demòcrata ha trigat gairebé sis anys a tenir una agenda internacional pròpia. La del primer mandat la va monopolitzar per complet Hillary Clinton, mentre el president es barallava amb la crisi econòmica, la intransigència d’un Congrés republicà i l’enverinada herència de les dues guerres de Bush. Però l’ànec coix s’ha posat en marxa. Després de l’última derrota electoral de la tardor, amb les dues cambres en contra, Obama va decidir que havia arribat l’hora d’escriure el seu llegat. “No estic acabat”, advertia a finals del 2014 en el tema de l’e-mail que va enviar als seus col•laboradors després de la roda de premsa en què va anunciar el restabliment de relacions amb Cuba. Des d’aleshores, l’acord sobre el programa nuclear de l’Iran, l’obertura de relacions diplomàtiques amb el règim castrista, les negociacions dels tractats de lliure comerç amb Àsia-Pacífic i amb la Unió Europea, i l’últim viatge al continent africà -a “la nova frontera de les possibilitats il•limitades”, com li deia el president Uhuru Kenyatta-, demostren que Barack Obama ha decidit encarar el seu llegat exterior. Tornar a exercir de president inspirador. Esborrar la decepció del continent africà amb el primer president afroamericà dels Estats Units, que ha tingut fins ara un balanç més aviat pobre en un territori conquerit els últims anys per la Xina. Obama parla de pau i de negociació però està posant les bases per a unes noves relacions comercials globals, des de la bilateralitat i a partir de l’obertura de nous espais en competència sobretot amb Pequín.
Encara li queden divuit mesos de mandat. Deslliurat de la voluntat de ser el president del consens i el bipartidisme, l’estratègia Obama ara és desafiar els seus crítics. Aquells que l’havien declarat el president d’uns Estats Units dimitits del seu paper de lideratge global. Obama diu que li ha arribat l’hora de deslliurar-se de “l’empresonament del passat”.
La Casa Blanca enllesteix, a més, un pla per tancar el centre de detenció de Guantánamo, segons publicava la setmana passada l’agència Reuters. Un “imperatiu nacional” que es va convertir en la gran promesa incomplerta de la seva administració. La presó militar, on encara hi ha retingudes 116 persones, és una de les vergonyes del seu mandat. La prova de la seva incapacitat de prometre justícia i acabar amb els abusos de la lluita contra el terrorisme.
Obama necessita tancar el cercle. El retorn del discurs i els compromisos enterrats aquests anys i el d’aquells Estats Units esperançats que van escollir el primer president afroamericà de la seva història, ara que la realitat de les desigualtats socials i econòmiques, la violència policial arbitrària i la protesta al carrer demostren que la idea d’una societat nord-americana postracial encara queda molt lluny. És l’últim gran pas: superar els prejudicis i el racisme. “El president negre que preocupava a alguns ha arribat”, titulava el Washington Post en un article de fa quinze dies on explicava com el discurs d’Obama s’ha anat fent cada cop més contundent contra el racisme, el llenguatge discriminatori i els vells símbols de l’esclavatge. El llegat d’Obama s’escriurà per les noves aliances dels Estats Units al món, però també per com aconsegueixi transformar la societat nord-americana.

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