'Cynicism is the recourse of cowards'
Barack Obama's faith in hope and change has been battered by bitter experience. But it still flickers. Just.
With serving world leaders long gone, the former President arrived at the Glasgow climate talks on Monday to galvanize a final week in which talking must cede to decisions. Obama's presence was meant as a sign the US is back leading climate change efforts. And as a private citizen, he could be even more scathing about Russian and Chinese leaders' failures to show up than President Joe Biden.
Obama is still a popular figure internationally. There may be no one better at
crystallizing a challenge in words. But he is still an ex-politician, and he can do little to answer the biggest questions facing the US delegation in Scotland. For instance, will Congress actually pass more than $500 billion in green energy measures critical to US credibility? And will former President Donald Trump -- who just re-upped his claim that climate change is a hoax -- or a like-minded Republican win the White House in 2024 and trash climate pacts?
Obama's speech was rather stark. He bemoaned the Republican Party's "four years of active hostility towards climate science" in a now-familiar rebuke of his successor. He worried that global politics can't handle saving the planet. And he warmed to his new theme that hashtag protests and virtue signaling don't forge change -- winning elections and persuading skeptics do. "We can't just yell at them or tweet at them. It's not enough to inconvenience them by blocking traffic through protests," Obama said.
The ex-President still sometimes seems to be working through his own political journey, and questioning whether the intoxicating sense of possibility he conjured in 2008 is still viable, especially after Trump tried to obliterate democracy.
"There are times when I feel discouraged, when the future seems bleak, and I am doubtful that humanity can get its act together before it's too late and images of dystopia start creeping into my dreams.," Obama said in Scotland.
"And yet, whenever I feel such despondency, I remind myself that cynicism is the recourse of cowards. We can't afford hopelessness."
The world and America
Ethnic Tigrayans are being swept up in a wave of arrests in Addis Ababa.
Nicaraguan state agents are following critics abroad, allege exiled dissidents.
And an alleged US Capitol rioter has turned up in Belarus.
Meanwhile in America, 11 White jurors and one Black juror heard testimony about the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
A CNN poll revealed a new low in public approval for Biden.
And musician Travis Scott will cover funeral costs for fans who died at his ill-fated Astroworld concert.
Back in the USA
Donnerstag, 11. November 2021
Barack Obama: 'Cynicism is the recourse of cowards'
