In a recent visit to the United States of America, I had the opportunity of gathering an overview of the contemporary life and activities in that country in general, from the viewpoint of a common man of India. The first thing that strikes you when you land in that country is that you have set foot in a vastly rich and resourceful country. It was the IAH, meaning the International Airport of Houston, where I landed at first. Except for the John F Kennedy International Airport, no other airport is named after a political leader. Airports in the US are named after the city of location. This reflects their objective approach to everything in public life.

I was driven home by Rajib, my son-in-law, in his swanky latest hybrid car, which runs on battery but shifts to petrol power only beyond a certain speed. It had facilities which included auto-gear shifting, in-built computer monitor with touch control to show details of how the car was running, GPS or Geo-Positioning Satellite, activated direction finder with map, hands free wireless telephony, etc. He went on showing me with school boy enthusiasm the EZ or toll free lane, the HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lane, the ubiquitous laser beam cameras that remain ever vigilant to enable the traffic police to remain invisible but ever alert. At the same time, I could not help but notice the clearly defined markings on the smooth road surfaces, the speed limit sign posts, road identity signs, junctions with 9 or 12 point light auto-control signals, all in strictly uniform patterns, colours, and strength. [Arriving soon after the hurricane Ike, I also saw some damaged signal bars and torn tiles from rooftops yet to be set right. However, these were fixed soon enough]. All signs, lights were placed in such a way that you could not to miss any while driving, and I felt that driving there needs more alertness and concentration. Then, reaching home, I also noticed the remote controlled dickey door of the car, the solar powered drive-in gate, and the garage door, and I recalled our troubles with manual gates. There, every house is provided with these facilities, which are available as readymade accessories.

Roughly speaking, geographically, the USA is three times larger than India and population wise, they are less than one third of us. So, as you drive on, you cannot but be amazed by the enormity of space, vast expanses that enable them to be build super broad highways, a maze of flyovers, sprawling housing colonies, leaving aside natural waterways, ranches, animal reserve parks, general parks, dog parks, vast play grounds, even within or close to the city limits. This reminds me of the words of Khaled Hosseini : “...years had passed since we had arrived in the US, and I was still marvelling at the size of the country, its vastness. Beyond every freeway there lay another freeway, beyond every city, another city, hills beyond mountains and mountains beyond hills, and beyond these, more cities and more people”. Speaking of the people, one can see them in all sizes, colours and attires. White, black, brown, yellow and in between races, abound in a totally integrated society, with equal rights and opportunities in the true sense of the terms. It is a wonderful sight and feeling of an advanced and modern society of a true democracy. Although there are areas where people of particular origin are more common [viz., Chinese, Vietnamese, Hispanic, Mid-East or South-East, etc], any citizen of the country can purchase a house in any of the residential areas, educate their children in chosen institutions, seek employment, or establish a business enterprise in any designated arcade on passing through the required formalities.

I was present in the US during the thick of the media coverage of the election campaign and the election of the 40th President, Barack H Obama. Nowhere was a sign of such a big four-yearly event to be seen. The gung-ho of banners, posters, processions, rallies and what not so common in India, were not there at all. Because in India anything may happen at any moment till the campaign was over; but in the US, everything proceeds according to the process known to everyone, and there is total transparency in the funding of the election, and the competence and qualities of the candidates. The media, of course, focused on the proceedings of day to day and state to state progress during the campaign. Television channels presented specific debates of the aspirants, replete with caustic criticism of each other, notwithstanding their camaraderie as citizens of a great democracy. In respect of criticism, the Republican camp was more up and doing; it appeared that the advances made in the state preliminaries by the Democratic candidate Obama, on his now well known call for “We can change. Yes, we can”, for the country and the world arena caused quite an apprehension in the other camp. He clearly won over high profile Hillary Clinton as the Democratic party nominee, to become the Presidential candidate. Even so, Hillary agreed to be the running mate of Obama for the Vice-President’s job.

At this point, the Republican candidate John McCain made the dramatic announcement of choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for Vice-Presidentship. Palin, being comparatively young, smart, and attractive, with a smiling face and sparkling teeth, generated a lot of unsavoury criticism from the opposite camp. At first, they bombarded her for taking upon herself a transferred responsibility of being in the family way and then, bearing a child to save the fair name of her unmarried daughter. Further, her bizarre statements on foreign policy had people questioning her qualifications for the high office of V.P. It however, died out soon, on account of her smart and vocal public appearances; her initial reservations and vacillations were soon replaced by more confident, strong and smart reactions before media and political rivals. The last doubts against her were erased after a TV channel arranged a face to face debate with her counterpart in the Democratic party, Joe Biden. Her outfit, hair style, and her first words, “Hi, can I call you Joe?” struck the right chord straightway with Biden as well as the media and public. She was more direct, self-controlled, and to the point than her counterpart in dealing with the questions put to her by the moderator. She came to be more acceptable and one and all took increasingly more interest in her. One of quotes attributed to her was “I can see Russia from my home”, [so, it would be easier to get oil from there, through her state, Alaska]. Although the strength of the Democratic party went on increasing, people’s interest in Sarah Palin, rather in her glamour, sustained and she became almost an obsession to a section of the media and to most young Americans, so much so that topics on her dress sense, her fashion designs, hairdo, spectacle frame, competitions on glamourous Sarah Palin look-alikes, even in bikinis, etc, are still seen in news magazines and the internet.

Besides their respective supporting political bigwigs, the candidates themselves were quite strongly critical of each other in the debates and public addresses in respect of their declared policies on economic slow down, housing industry fallback, banking crisis, oil and other energy sources, lay offs and unemployment, taxing structure, wars, terrorism, environmental issues and so on. The political scene there during the time was full of drama, with the biggest names lashing out at each other. Some of the quotes they made might go to the archives. Fox News made a list of quotes from the 2008 political season, that may never be forgotten.

By and large, the people there were fed up with the belligerence with which the Bush administration was said to have pockmarked the world, squandered the opportunity of crushing Laden and Taliban by shifting to adventure in Iraq, thereby embarassing the Asian allies and alienating the European friends, leaving the US economy in tatters, and letting US tax payers to fund huge bail outs, for rescue operations. Problems of global warming were ignored and avoided. At the same time, it was not difficult to foresee the defeat of the strong candidate Hillary Clinton from the Democratic party; even the whites did not like her as the media reports went by. “We are the ones you have been waiting for,” said Obama, when the last states in election made him the front runner over Hillary. The younger generation of whites voted for him overwhelmingly. So, I was present there, when history was made in the USA. I don’t think that this would be possible yet in any other country, this total and unhindered integration of all races into one whole nation. A man who even 40 years ago would not have been served in a restaurant, became the President of the US, the most powerful man on the earth. It reminds me of the book The Man by Irving Wallace, describing the then hypothetical event of a black man becoming the President of the US and the quagmire of problems he endured as the loneliest figure. Now things have changed and Barak Obama’s lean, well dressed, self – confident figure, his broad friendly smile, his oratory skills with clear cut, independent opinions on every issue expressed in his attractive, baritone voice, his multinational and multicultural identity and experiences, his love of family life, all contributed to his election to the highest office.

It is also of interest to all, that the leaders in the USA think and do in terms of national interest and international fall out, and not in terms of individual, sectarian, or party interest. Two incidents stand out in support of this view. When the controversy in the election of George W Bush and Al Gore went to the Supreme Court, the then President Bill Clinton suggested to Gore to withdraw the case, to safeguard the traditional compulsion of a new President, to be taken over on 28 January, and Gore did it. And although Hillary was Obama’s opponent within their party, the latter chose her as the most important and senior most cabinet member – Secretary of State. Now, the first few days of Obama as the President have gone quite well and on fast track, and he has declared that the hand of friendliness would be put forward to replace feelings of hatred and outrage. Is he not speaking in favour of peace and progress ?

Dr Amiya Mohan Das