The better angels of our nature

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By Brendan John Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-01-13 15:29

Excitement is building towards next week when several million are expected to cram DC's National Mall to watch Obama take the helm. Adding to the occasion, he's chosen to place his palm over the Bible Abraham Lincoln used back in 1861.

Commentators are calling this a link to logic and honor; a symbol of his vision to serve as a change maker.

Others more cryptic are calling it a bad omen and fear already his days are numbered referring to how Lincoln passed away.

Obama is the 44th President and in Chinese the number four often equates with death. The same day he was snapped dipping down in Hawaii comparisons to JFK were also being murmured.

Definitely many are spooked here about the incoming administration and what it means particularly when in the lead up to the election China often cropped up in debates.

But let's stop here - if anything is going to be buried it's not the man, nor the vision but the past!

Obama was elected on a platform of change. The creation of a "cleaner more energy-efficient global economy" is what deserves attention. It's more than just a part of one 47 year-old man's vision. It's a global science-led movement that's been snowballing for years.

Obama is the muse - take away the man and the mantra still remains.

Reading the tea leaves in his most recent book, "Hot, Flat and crowded", Thomas L. Friedman, took 344 pages before he cut to the chase and boldly stated, "the crucial question of this book is actually two questions: "Can America really lead a real green revolution?" and "Can China really follow?" Everything else is just commentary…"

Well the US under Obama is obliged to lead this "green revolution" and looking at his astute cabinet selection gives observers hope his country will. China also will be hoping that the US and other developed nations continue to assist concerning its pollution and energy affairs.

Rather than playing to the crowds and trying to stop American companies from transferring technology and jobs to China the "green dream team" of Obama must nurture a transformation away from traditional fossil fuels and blue collar jobs into more sustainable green collar industries.

One question to be asked though is if Obama leads the US down a 'green mellow brick road' how can China be assisted to follow along? Would the option of trying to threaten a boycott of Chinese goods to cut down carbons or an introduction of their own carbon tariff on Chinese imported products work if China doesn't "get with the green program"?

From watching Obama speak and listening to American voters at rallies there is huge potential in playing this card. Fortunately showing some restraint in response to such a question posed during one rally Obama mentioned, "If we want to improve our economic situation with China, first of all we have to look at ourselves in the mirror. The reason I say that is that we've been living beyond our means...."

Good point. While China's energy demands are growing it has been estimated that the average American consumes five times more energy than the average global citizen and 10 times more than the average Chinese.

Elsewhere at the first Democratic primary presidential debate of the 2008 election, he also showed an element of pragmatism and respect referring to China as, "neither our enemy nor our friend. They're competitors."

In many respects China and the US are competitors, but in many fields the US is years ahead. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reminded us last week that China's still a developing country with a per capita GDP trailing behind more than 100 other countries.

But still if it is a competition China finds itself entering into with the US under Obama, then it's a great thing actually to see the world's two biggest carbon polluters striving desperately to clean up their act!

This is going to give support to other governments internationally to get on board and it's going to assist in the allocation of capital to fund and drive this global green - revolution.

And so at this time of great expectation and exaggeration and the possibility of even more division we may well be served to remember sincere Honest Abe and the words he spoke when addressing a nation - back then - also at loggerheads with itself.

Those words also reflect a straining world today, which, if not managed correctly could lead to calamities just as horrendous as the then US Civil War he was referring to.

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."