Here's a piece I came up with that indicts
the baby boomers as being largely responsible
for the credit crunch. The boomers have made the pursuit
of their self-interests their highest priority at the expense of
the generations that have succeeded them. If one has to
wonder how this whole financial disaster came about in the U.S.
then it wouldn't be a stretch to implicate the "Me Generation's" ethos
of instant gratification, spend now and let someone else pay later.
I think this mentality really lies at the root of much of the problems --
economic and social, that we're facing today.

Whobama

As I was walking home tonight a poster caught my eye that announced "Come Celebrate Obama's Victory Party." My gaze caught the smaller text below that read "organized by the African-Canadian community." It seems as if Obama is all but declared the winner before the Americans have even gone to the polls. The victory celebrations have jumped the starting gun it would appear and this smacks of presumptuous overconfidence despite the onslaught of daily polling data that suggests an Obama win is a foregone conclusion.
I think that before everyone who's pro-Obama congratulates themselves, a closer scrutiny at their candidate of choice is in order. With all of that out of the way, if I lived in the U.S. I'd probably vote for Obama -- but not without some reservation.
What I can't shake and want to get beyond here is the sense that Obama's presidential run is as much (if not more ) about identity politics than anything to do with policy. If one were to look past his dynamic veneer, and -- let's face it -- his "colour" -- then we might discover that he is another well-briefed, skilled politician with carefully-rehearsed responses and an oft-repeated buy-line promising some sort of unspecified "change." It's a no-brainer to conclude that Obama is far more suited to be president than Bush and arguably better than McCain, and after the Bush debacle, it will take a certain degree of courage to inherit the daunting mess that has been left behind. Yet the honeymoon with Obama persists and the tough questions are not being lobbed his way. This is precisely the time to be demanding to see a semblance of a coherent blueprint from Obama, or will it become one of these consensus-made, patchwork blueprints that will have to placate every special interest group that put him in power? Perhaps he's shrewder than he plays at. He is certainly trying to communicate the image of being the cross-partisan healer --- the one who transcends the ugly, nasty, rumour-plagued world of party politics and emerges as an iconic figure for a nation -- and a world -- on the cusp of hard times. But perhaps that's all the presidency is, -- a substitute for the monarchy that the American's thought they had so proudly vanquished in their war or independence. Ronald Reagan was certainly a figurehead for a conservative revolution in the U.S. He was backed up by whip-smart albeit dangerous ideologues who were later recycled in the Bush administration -- the Rumsfelds, the Cheneys etc. The Republicans have made a high art of using the presidency as a mere smoke and mirrors distraction for the masses while the real behind the scenes power brokers go about their business of running the show. However the Democrats -- the party that always insists on its ethical superiority than the former (something that isn't that hard to achieve I might add) look like they're borrowing from the enemy's playbook -- never to repeat a Gore or a Kerry. Wow'em with some of that Obama magic and they might forget about everything else. Or at least be more receptive to the administration's agenda.
It's time to really examine King Barack before his coronation. There are those within his camp that are simply proud of the fact that they have the chance of electing the first "non-white" president and this seems to preclude any further consideration of the details of his plans. It would seem to me that these same people who are more inclined to support him just for the symbolism alone -- are ironically and unwittingly making race the issue here. The real question should be "Who is Obama and what does he believe is best for America? "
I fear that the American obsession with "novelty" and "celebrity" has now permeated the political culture. Take for example, the respective candidates campaigning on late night talk shows. It's all ratings-generating show biz and one presidential candidate is just another prop in the routine of late night talk show land. The American worship of the movie star politician probably started with JFK and it certainly was manifest in Reagan while Bush played the straight-talkin' rube but now, with instant polling numbers and a media-fed, globally-connected YouTube generation making or breaking the latest trend at the click of a mouse, it seems that the image of the celebrity politician is more manufactured and pre-formatted than ever. This is not to suggest that Obama is generic -- although underneath the electricity of his appeal -- his message might be. Has the YouTube generation bought into the mere symbolic importance of Obama as president and ignored the rest? Could any other candidate get away with sounding like a Republican on some issues and still maintain the adoration of the many on the other side of that ledger? A demographic who may lack any critically informed political ideas of their own but have fairly inculcated values about race and identity. These young Obama supporters are products of a post-modern education system that has steeped them in doctrinaire credos of one-world togetherness and gender and race consciousness without a solid, basic foundation in Civics, Economics or History for that matter. In other words, they don't get the wider view but instead prefer to hyper-focus on affirmative action and same-sex marriage -- which are much more exciting and attention-retaining than economic policy, foreign affairs, trade relations and line-item vetoes.
Obama may in fact, bridge an important divide, and perhaps his "symbolic" presidency may have the power enough in itself to re-direct America (and the world) onto a wiser and genuinely better course. One can only hope so. But what if he turns out to be a modern-day Icarus? What if the colossal weight of expectation that is being downshifted onto his shoulders proves to be too much? What if cracks appear in his polished surface? what if he appears "human" even at times "ineffective"? How will the disillusionment translate itself?
Perhaps Obama is the tonic that is needed right now, but I can't help thinking that he is virtually untested in handling the reigns of leadership in government and he's about to take on the biggest and most unruly reigns there are. Even a turn at Vice President might have had a more humbling effect on him and given him a more gradual preparation for the top job, but in the end, his dynamic flair combined with his race hastened him to the top of the ticket propelled along by a critical mass of guilty, liberal supporters who want to see a black president first and a substantive set of policies second. Fortunately, it seems, that Obama is capable of delivering on both, but his transition into a "great" president, won't be seamless.

I've been busy getting back into political cartooning lately. The state of the affairs is almost a call to duty for sharp-eyed satirists it seems. These are a few of my latest takes on the situation in the U.S.

There goes the Economy...

Like most observers, I've been anxiously following the news about the financial meltdown in the U.S. and I can't help but feel that we're all standing on the crumbling precipice of an historical shift that is about to sweep us all over the edge. Of course, I could be reading too much into the fearful speculations of the news media. Perhaps it will be another false alarm -- like Y2K -- unnecessary anticipation of what turned out to be a non-event. Yet, somehow, this feels different,-- more real and pervasive. We have been told to brace ourselves for a looming lean-spell that is being billed as a "deep recession" -- "experts" are throwing buzzwords around that imply that this has uncanny resemblance to the crash of 1929. What is one to believe amid all of this panic and dread?
At an individual level, it feels so abstract and removed from our day-to-day realities. A mass-scale defaulting of high-risk mortgages and the subsequent collapse of major U.S. investment banks sounds like some kind of "doomsday" scenario that is too far beyond our control to even contemplate . People of my generation remember living through the end of the Cold War -- a time that was unimaginable prior to when it actually happened. A rapid succession of smaller events built up to the collapse of the Soviet Union and it took us all by surprise, yet still, our lives in the west were not noticeably altered. We continued to live lives on credit and ignore the wisdom of our elders --about thrift and not spending more than you earn. An entire society bred in the instant gratification ethos of the boomer generation. Self-interested entitlement and a rejection of the values of the generation of the Great Depression that warned us about the need to make sacrifices and defer our own pleasure. We've all grown up in a culture of such heedless excess that many of us couldn't conceive of the lifestyle of our more cautious forebears.
At the end of the cold war it was predicted that western capitalism had won out in the end and thus market values had been vindicated. There were some who declared that if history was defined by the Marxian struggle of class, then the ultimate ascendance of free-market capitalism meant the "end of history."
We live our lives against the backdrop of bigger events that frame our more mundane concerns, so why should we be so fazed by yet another one of these larger, unfolding global crises? Anyone with an informed understanding of historical trends(or common sense) could have anticipated the train wreck of the U.S. banking system. Eight years of an unregulated financial sector that was given carte blanche to enrich its shareholers with whatever means possible combined with pathological avarice and a sense of invincibility proved to be the toxic ingredients for a long-simmering brew. This whole crisis ought to translate as a lesson in political economy for the public. It demonstrates how an untouchable financial elite who have been allowed to play by a different set of rules (in this case, no rules) without parameters, or prudence and blindsighted by insatiable power and greed -- have wiped out the hopes and destroyed the lives of the many. I wonder if this is enough to pull the curtain back from in front of the American public's self-focussed gaze and reveal the raw, ugly essence of the dogma of American privilege that they have been duped into swallowing. I wonder if they'll be able to make the connections and discover the source of their forthcoming woe? It is perhaps too optimistic to credit the American public with such sophistication and sense but at least some of that anger and frustration will translate into electing Obama in November. In the eyes of an outsider who will nonetheless be effected, this all reads as some form of karma.
The U.S. electorate handed an inept, callous administration a second mandate to fine-tune its ideologically-driven agenda. Now we're reaping the harvest as it were. In a sense, this wild de-regulation didn't start with the Bush administration, but let's just say that it was certainly aided along with his presidency.
It may take a few generations to recover from this. We have all been violated by this and it seems that anger is not enough, a whole process of reckoning is needed -- on the global scale,on the societal scale and on the individual scale. Will we continue -- as a species, as a population, to live in a collective form of denial? While the planet is dying and the lifestyle of consumption and convenience that we've only ever known becomes more inaccessible to most of us, will this be enough of a clarion call to consciousness? One hopes so, but perhaps it will take another generation -- the true inheritors of our mess -- to take up the cause of real change. But by then it might be too late.