The audacity of hope (2)

The transfer of power in the US, with the inauguration of President Obama, is a world-resounding event and will have positive effects not only in America but all over the world.

Looking back at the past 30 years one would surely note that political life in this period was dominated by the extraordinary events in Iran in the late 1970s and especially with the installation of an Islamic regime in 1979 to replace the Shah, a key US ally.

These events created a new balance of power in the region which eventually affected not only the Middle East but also the international scene in a wider sense.

Now since oil in the Middle East is considered of strategic importance to the US, the events in Iran created a frenzy in the American media which resulted in such a popular sentiment, that in the 28 years before Mr Obama's election, five of the seven Presidential elections brought to power conservative administrations which pursued a very aggressive foreign policy, culminating in wars to protect what they construed to be US interests.

The high point of this policy was reached following the events of 9/11 with the institution of the 'war on terror'.

Only the present financial crisis may be said to have turned this frenzy into some kind of normality.

Now that this era of fear may be said to be receding, it is possible for the left and the progressive movement to start reorganising itself.

In Malta a similar sentiment of nationalism may be said to have been experienced following the unfortunate events of 1980, when Libyan patrol boats stopped Malta's offshore drilling for oil. Since then the popular majority has voted, except in 1996, for the Nationalist Party. A new durable progressive majority may only be created when the geo-political situation changes. In the meantime, left-wing and progressive individuals should continue to organise themselves so that our country would not lack good leadership when the time comes by putting the interest of Malta first and foremost.