Behind Asia's nice manners, tough lessons for Obama
Frustrating tour of Asia has left America with much to think about
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Barack Obama shows his skills in the Korean martial art of taekwondo to the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
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Barack Obama's first trip to Asia, which ended yesterday, has underscored two related truths about America and its 44th president. In his foreign dealings Mr Obama is long on charm and reason but – thus far at least – short on concrete results. And people don't listen to the United States like they used to.
To be fair, spectacular results were never expected from his eight-day visit that took in Japan, an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, China and South Korea. Mr Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, has described himself as "America's first Pacific president". But the reality is that relations between the US and the two largest Asian pacific powers are in a state of flux.
A more assertive government in Japan, for decades comfortable under the American security umbrella, is at odds with Washington over the relocation of a Marine base on Okinawa. In China, his most important stop, leaders of the emerging colossus showed they were in no mood to listen to lectures on human rights or the management of its economy.
Indeed, colouring everything was the shifting balance between the massively indebted and recession-plagued country led by Mr Obama, and an economically surging Asia, led by China whose cheap exports fuelled America's long consumption boom.
Against this backdrop, there was little likelihood of a breakthrough on climate change between the world's two biggest polluters. An agreement to work together on the issue is a long way from an agreement on action. Even yesterday's discussions in South Korea, considered the easiest leg of the trip, produced little new.
Inevitably, there have been complaints that Mr Obama has been too nice. His bow to the Japanese emperor, it has been objected, was too low and obsequious. His Chinese hosts were, naturally, formal politeness personified. But in substantive terms they kept the US president on a short leash, restricting access and coverage of his town hall meeting in Shanghai. For his part Mr Obama did not choose to dwell greatly on China's poor record on free speech and human rights.
Some commentators draw comparisons between Mr Obama and Hu Jintao's meeting and the 1961 summit in Vienna between another charismatic US president and a battle-hardened Communist leader. On that occasion John F Kennedy was put through the wringer by the Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev. Whether Mr Obama got similar treatment is unclear. But, noted David Gergen, a former adviser to both Democratic and Republican White Houses: "It would seem wise not only for President Obama but for all Americans to treat this as a wake-up call."
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Comments
But you got this oh SO wrong:
First of all, Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya:
Secondly, his Indonesian daddy was one of the butchers in Suharto's CIA-ordered massacre of over 500,000 leftists. His mama was a CIA agent who posed as a social worker to root out any remaining leftists after the massacre. So what Obama means by claiming to be a "Pacific president" should make any thinking person's skin creep.
Tough lessons for all of us, as J Hari points out the big money people rig and rule everything in the US, and not just in the US, the tendency is everywhere. I'll not go into the paranoia about Obama's birthplace, it seems he was American enough as senator, it just seems too much for some when he got "uppity" and got the presidency. Anyway GWB stole the last election from Al Gore and that didn't improve things much!!
The trouble is that the internationalists don't actually live anywhere in our reality, they flit about the globe, pampered in luxury, unable to conceive of anything other than more, and more, and more, money, power, control, sex, whatever. The little people get to wave their flags and die in sponsered wars which are either adventures or arguments between the rich. Just as the 1st world war was a family argument between European titled Heads of State, 9/11 was the product of youthful rebellion by OBL and his mates and the response by GWB in Iraq seemed more about finishing his Dad's business than anything else.
Expect more squabbles over resources as our overheated and polluted planet turns against our excesses.
Precisely because of the catastrophic consequences of Bush's term in office, voters wanted a complete change - and "democratically" elected Mr. Obama. Obviously, you found nothing to complain about during G.W. Bush's EIGHT years in power - so that says everthing about you.
reaching out to foreign leaders. Too late now perhaps for a humble pie approach, not a few countries have learned their lessons of the past , and are wary about American intentions. From now on, it's
"on equal-footing time" relationship between other countries and the U.S., if one wants positive results of any kind.
Goodbye, US. When you go down, you will look for goodwill in vain, because you crapped on people on the way up.
Thanks to the greed on Wall Street, the greed on Main Street, and the debacles that GW was able to perpetrate on an indifferent America, we now have as much influence on the world stage as Lichtenstein.
Well I for one have had enough; I'm mad and I'm not going to take it anymore - I'm going to get of my duff and do something about it ................I'm emigrating.
I've lived in Singapore since 1992 and it's been evident since then even that any western country that wants to hold its own in the coming world has to be as ruthless as the Asian countries. Ruthless, yes, because they have an aim and go for it. Manners and diplomatic words they have aplenty but underneath is a backbone and a real desire to achieve. Until western countries take on the same attitudes and compete they will continue to slide further and further into mediocrity.