Obamaguration

Today the history was made. It is a cliche, but it is also true. A black man became the most powerful man on Earth. Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. His inauguration was televised and watched around the globe. Here in Canada we're all smitten by him. Judging by the reactions everywhere else, he has awaken hope of global proportions. He spoke of hardship, promised crisis and struggle, and still everybody cheered. In the past I witnessed great demagogic speeches of Yugoslavia's Tito, sheer madness of Milosevic's utterances, I learned of the quiet wisdom of Gandhi's orations. But none of them, except maybe Nelson Mandela, managed to inspire the entire world the way Obama did today. It could be thanks to the fast and wholesome reach of the modern media, but I prefer to think it's because of his message of hope and change we all craved through eight long years of Bush.

Obama is a great speaker. If nothing else, we're up for four years of coherent and well delivered speeches. Although I still think he's a bit hip-hop for a president, now it's up to me to get used to it.

The only thing out of tune during the inaugural ceremony was Aretha Franklin. "The Queen of Soul" she may be, but now that's just an honorary title. She can't carry a tune any more! It was painful listening to her squealing before millions of people. For everybody's sake, and the sake of her reputation, I wish her irrecoverable voice loss.