Gobama!

I woke up at 5.30am today to the alarm on my mobile phone. As I tried to disable the beep, I noticed an unread message that had come in at 1.39am.

Instinctively, the sympathetic nervous system kicked in. The adrenaline and psychological mechanisms started to brace the body for a fight or flight response. The muscles tensed, the heart beat faster, the breathing and perspiration increased and the eyes dilated all because of an innocent-looking icon of a sealed envelope illuminated on my phone......waiting to be opened.

Not one to savour suspense, I immediately pressed the 'read' key and came upon a message that consisted only one word and ended with an exclamation mark. "Gobama!" Talk about anti-climax.... although I had a fleeting thought of grilling the sender at a more earthly hour later, I could hardly resist smiling into my phone.

The sender was none other than my long-time friend and good brother, Pat Palazzolo. An ex-colleague who has become a firm family friend and confidante, Pat is an airline captain based in San Francisco. He must have sent the message at 9.39am (SFO time) when President Obama was inaugurated as the next Commander-in-Chief.

I know how Pat feels about Obama. I know how my other American friends feel about Obama. I know how the world feels about Obama. His inaugural speech after being sworn in as the 44th US president, was a sobering assessment where America stands and a vision of what it can become.

"Today, I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time," President Obama told a crowd estimated at two million people, gathered on the National Mall in front of the Capitol. "But know this, America — they will be met."

What strong words of comfort from a charismatic leader in the face of uncertainties! Call it coincidence or divine orchestra, the recent US Airways crash into the frigid Hudson has given me a very powerful visual of America balancing precariously on the wings of a huge jet floating on the river.

It is a good visual because like Capt. Sullenberger, I believe President Obama will steer the country and in turn, the world safely onto dry land.

So help him, God. Indeed.

The Americans Have Decided

History is made today.

My girlfriend, who exercised her first voting rights in this presidential election, is estastic. A Singapore girl married to a New Yorker, she had contemplated moving back to Singapore with her family in tow had McCain won instead.

Obama is now the 44th president of United States. He has broken the ultimate race barrier to become the first African-American to hold the highest office in the land. But what strikes me most about him is not his race, although that has been played out in virtually every media coverage or report about the election.

To me, he stands for the courage to dream and believe. From humble beginnings and a dysfunctional family..........yes dysfunctional, President-elect Obama has shown us that nothing is impossible when you believe. As a student in Jakarta, he was asked to write an essay titled "My dream: What I want to be in the future". He had written "I want to be a president". Check out the link here

While I do not agree with all of his positions, I believe America might be happy to finally see the change they have been waiting for. Like my girlfriend and her family.