Beyond the glib of rights and duties, false notion of patriotism and shamelessly fake veil of religiosity; we as a nation under one flag are a failure as long as  people live a generation at the door steps of our judiciary waiting for a fair hearing. 

For ages, the socio-political and religious flag-bearers have professed the notion of  justice as a cardinal virtue. whether it was Greek philosophers who wrote treatise on their notion of justice or the people of GOD who accepted HIM as the ultimate source of justice; as a society, the deep rooted commonality has always been the pursuit of justice. 

Today, it is sad to see justice treated as a whore, dispensed at the mercy of the people who can afford it, pimped by “eminent”  lawyers in the harems of a governmental palaces rotting from within. 

The fundamental reason for this decay is the modern interpretation of justice and its dissemination as an end in itself. The constitution may be the supreme law of the land, but it is at the service of those in power; changed, brutalised, abused, interpreted and exercised at the whims and fancies of a few crooks who do not flinch for a moment to sell their conscience for a seat of privilege. 

I know this rant is not a solution, but I also know that story of mankind is replete with examples where injustice, falsehood and the blind-sighted belief in ones invincibility has always triumphed by the ultimate truth, by justice, by an order that derives it wrath from justice and that rules with mercy.    

However not every action to do with Israel involves bombs and blood. Here is a clip of a peaceful pro-Israel rally in NYC. Its heartening to hear Sen. Chuck Schumer say that Israeli missiles are preceded by sms to its victims. 

My thoughts after reading the article and watching the video are best summed up by the following verse of the Qur’an 

“Remember how the Unbelievers plotted against thee, to keep thee in bonds, or slay thee, or get thee out (of thy home). They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.” Al-Anfal 8:30

Many in America grew up at the receiving end of racism, many, like Chris Rock, grew up listening to stories of noose and niggers. After all, America has always found itself divided between those whose forefathers came on the Mayflower and between those who came in chains, enslaved and traded for a bottle of rum.

A black man with a middle name as Hussein could have barely gotten into an all white bar till a few years ago, today finds himself measuring the drapes of the White House.

Running for the most coveted job in the country meant Barack Obama was up against the racial history of America, against the best political machinery of the Democrats i.e. the Clintons and against the Republican Party headed by the man of the military, John McCain and the woman of god, Sarah Palin.

Two years ago, when the potential candidates were testing waters of presidential campaigns, I believed that America was not ready for a black man to head the country. Two years later I stand corrected.

Obama in many of his stump speeches said that he felt a righteous wind behind his back heading into the Election Day. Of course the financial meltdown, two long drawn wars, ‘courteous press’ and an exceedingly unpopular Bush helped the wind in his direction. However, it is important to note that Obama, against all odds, finds himself as the leader of the free world, partly because of a well thought out communications program, executed relentlessly, with discipline and to perfection.

The communications program (political campaign) of Obama reflected a utopia that any communications program hopes to achieve; a simple message, a great messenger, a consistent strategy, its relentless pursuit and bringing the stakeholders into the fold of the program using the latest tools of communication.

Message

The overarching message was simple, paraphrased it would read like, “we are going through tough times, the Bush administration has let us down, I will bring about the much needed change with YOUR help”. The message had simple words like ‘Hope’, ‘Change’, ‘ Believe’, ‘Yes we can’; words that a common man could associate with and that reflected the need of the hour. The message clearly defined Hillary as a Washington insider and McCain as ‘McBush’. I heard Obama say this more than 95 times on TV that McCain had voted 95% of the time with the Bush administration. His talking points included an end to Iraq war, a stronger middle class, and a responsible and transparent administration.

Obama did not allow his surrogates to get lost in the simplicity of his message. The campaign saw fewer gaffs from some of Obama’s very high profile surrogates.

Messenger

In a couple of attack ads, McCain portrayed Obama as messianic and a celebrity. To Obama’s advantage and to the delight of his supporters, he came across as both. Obama for many was the modern day Demosthenes (a renowned Greek orator and Statesman). Political pundits acknowledge that he was the best speaker seen in American polity since JFK. He had the power to move people, move them to action and make them believe in the “audacity of hope” (penned a book by this name).

At the time of crises, he showed calm, restraint and authority. When he was down in polls, his aides claim he was collected as ever, and when he clinched the Democratic Party’s nomination, his jubilation was measured.  He faced the issue of race in the campaign head on; he successfully defended himself against guilt by association and against charges of “palling around with domestic terrorist” (Reverend Jeremiah Wright & William Ayers attacks).

When he started his campaign, for some African Americans he was not black enough. For many evangelicals in the bible belt of America he was a Muslims. For many “Joe the Plumbers” he was a Socialist. Obama, refused to let these characterizations deviate him from his message. He  showed the character to withstand character assassinations and the resolve to manage his boat (campaign) while faring in rough waters.  

Method

Obama started his career as a community organizer in south side Chicago. He understood the power of enabling people and organizing them to achieve a common goal. He understood the principle of kaizen and perhaps his entire campaign was the living embodiment of the “Blue Ocean Strategy”.

He used the internet, the web 2.0 tools to reach out to the electorate which had remained aloof from any kind of political participation till now. Obama was on Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, reaching out to young eligible voters to volunteer in his campaign. He asked people to contribute in small donations, as low as 5 dollars to his campaign online. This allowed him to raise money from a lot of people outside of Washington beltway and the Hollywood elite. His belief that small people can be a part of something great translated into a USD 700 million war chest to fund his political campaign. He used mobile communications and email to reach out voters creating a database of an army of young, dedicated voters who canvassed for him bringing traditionally Republican states into play. He even courted high schools kids advising them how they could convince their parents to support him.

The Republican operatives always conceded that Obama’s ‘ground game’ was a never before seen phenomena and far superior to that of John McCain’ s. Obama’s internet army was akin to Bush’s evangelical base that helped elect him to two terms. The ability to use the internet effectively, reaching out to people that had in the past few elections remained the “unlikely voters” in the end gave a thumping victory to Obama.

Yes the election of Obama speaks volumes about America as a nation. Yes it took once in a lifetime economic crises and unprecedented military engagement to sway people towards Obama. And yes Obama will remember everyday before sleeping on the Lincoln bed that he owes a lot of his sweet dreams to an excellent presidential campaign led by some of the sharpest communications professionals. The question is, can we design and execute such communications program for the interests we represent. Well the answer comes from Obama’s campaign slogan. Yes we can.

Both explain very distinctive sociological makeup of the successful people in their respective countries. Shoaib is the epitome of indiscipline, masochistic sportsperson drunk on the misconception that the world (in this case Pakistan cricket) cannot live without him. One failing after another from Shoaib, compounded by the incoherence of the local cricketing fraternity and the inability of the administrators to put the system above its input has led to the creation of what Shoaib is today. 

I believe the entire country is suffering from the same inability to put the system above its stakeholders and hence, you find Musharraf, or the 2/3rd that are trying to impeach him are no different than what Shoaib Akhtar represents. 

The other is the case of a society that is even today looking out for a ‘mai baap’ or a ‘King’ to lead their inadequately supported and falsely reassured aspirations. Hence, the country has largely not being able to come out of the hereditary claims of a particular clan to the Indian throne. Sachin represents the society where people know that they are good, but never realize when they have run out of their relevance to the space they represent. No matter how many injuries, to every muscle or bone in the body, as long as you hit one century in 10 tests, you still got the game.

Just look at the careers of Govinda (the actor and not the politician), Saurav Ganguly, most politicians with bent backs, and Ram Gopal Verma  and you will get my point