I had great expectations from India’s first women president and as Pratibha Patil occupies her position, I can’t help but mourn a great loss. No, I dint expect her to be a rocket scientist or something else but there could have been certain dignity surrounding her candidature. As I see her giving her victory poses I cant help draw parallels with the US elections at hand where the president actually does have powers. There too the question seems like their world does not need able leaders but people who “represent” something, (race, gender?).
This time around there will be “history” made in US too.. They’d either have a black President or a Female President. The real question is: would that make a difference to the world that we live in today? Would US stop the war in Iraq? Would the Trade restrictions (suppressive) be lifted on imports and implemented on exports? As for war in Iraq and numerous other nations, US and allies are non-committal. It’s precisely what Naom Chowmsky said about politicians: (not a direct quote but the gist) they go same schools, join same secret clubs, party with the same crowd and come back and join different parties, they are all essentially the same. Its just like Kyoto protocol which was ratified by neither the Bush or Clinton administration.
Essentially they are all the same so what difference do we expect from our President who actually holds no powers? Nothing! Only a little bit dignity is all we want (maybe a good PR dept may do the trick)
And we are just robbed even of that…