Change seems suspiciously possible

I am of the long line of cynics who said that he won only because he was the better choice when compared to the ancient McCain who had shed the last bit of his reformist Republican skin by choosing Palin as his running mate. I still feel that he has promised too much or rather the people's expectations out of him are too much. His detractors will laugh at every one of his failures in thinly veiled racism. His supporters will find that his long road to recovery is indeed very very long, much farther than the euphoria of his historic election win will carry them.

Yet when the President of the most gung-ho unapologetic nation on the face of the earth clarifies that "America is not at war with Islam!", it means the world to a lot of people. The millions of Muslims who are leading their normal lives away from the stagnation of terrorist camps, crude Sharia law, oppression of women all of which have unfortunately become the dominant image of Islam now have concrete proof that a significant power in the world sees the truth. They are glad that at least some important people in the non-Islamic world understand their dilemma and are ready to seperate them from the other nonsense that happens in the name of their religion. 

Obama says he wants peace between India and Pakistan but only when he swings a bat with the mercurial Brian Lara, does it become a much more believable statement. A casual analogy of Lara as the Michael Jordan of cricket is not too far off the mark indicating that he has more than a passing interest in the matter. The President of a country which historically hasn't looked beyond its self-contained world of Hollywood, cable TV and football (The kind that the rest of the world doesn't care about) taking a crack at something that is so un-American, is a paradigm shift towards making America more sensitive to the world around it.

As far as his policies go, I am an eternal cynic so there is absolutely no chance of me turning into a raging 'Oba'maniac, but here is one case where I wouldn't mind being forced to eat my words.