Nov 12th, 2008 :
Finally, Americans decided. Nov 4th, 2008 … a historical landmark for United States of America (USA). President-elect, Barack H. Obama will be sitting in the Oval Office at the White House come Jan 20th, 2009.
For the 1st time, since America achieved its Independence in 1776, an Afro-American becomes the No. 1 Chief Executive of the No. 1 Superpower of the World.
World wide, many people rejoiced ; not only because of his origin but for the fact that, a predominantly white nation, had put discrimination and prejudice aside. They rallied together, wanted “Change” and make their votes count.
Obama will inherit a nation drowned in a financial crisis, high jobless rate and various economical challenges. Will he and his team be able to steer US and indirectly, the world out of this crisis ? People has high expectation on him, will he be able to live up to it ? Only time will tell.
This reminds me of the movie Deep Impact, released in 1998, starring Tea Leoni as the main character and Morgan Freeman, casted as the President of the US (as you know, Morgan Freeman is a Afro-American too). The plot tells about a kid (Elijah Wood’s character) who discovered that a comet was on its path to collide with Earth, 2 to 3 years before impact.
So, naturally … the US government prepared for this Armageddon-type consequences … built underground cities, screened/shorlisted a selected group of people with certain skillsets/talents to be the ‘underground’ citizens, pipelined food supplies & basic amenities etc. with the hope that once “the dust settles”, they still have sufficient human resources to rebuild the country.
To cut the long story short, the comet was split into 2 halves. The bigger half was vapourized when the astronaut team sent by NASA, decided to do a Kamikaze by blowing up the comet together with themselves, using the nukes they have on board.
However, there was nothing that can be done and the much smaller half blazed through Earth’s atmosphere and crashed into the sea on US’s Atlantic seaboard. Well, those of you who had watched the movie … all hell break loose …. gigantic tsunamis swept through their cities and flattened everything on its path.
The final scene showed Morgan standing in front of a devastated White House, giving a speech of encouragement to the surviving citizens, a speech of hope, and a rallying call to rebuild the nation .
Now, picture this scenario ….10 years later (in 2008), the US had been devastated, this time not by a comet, but by the financial meltdown. The president, a Afro-American (just like Morgan Freeman) standing in front of a huge crowd, promising ‘Change’ and a better future for the country and its people. Making quotes from Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., his acceptance speech (on the night of Nov 6th) calls for all Americans to face this adversity together as One.
Quite coincident isn’t it ? A fictional scenario from a movie and 10 years later, a similar but factual event.
Wow ! .. if movies can foretell future leaders & future states of countries, then Deep Impact has definitely left its impact.
Hmmm …. I wonder which movies should I take note of … to foretell what will happen in 2018.
With such high expectations on Obama’s shoulder, I wish him well and hope he will be able to keep his promises to its people and to the world. I sincerely hope that he will not suffer the same fate as our very own Pak Lah, who won a landslide victory in 2004 but suffered a 180 degree reversal in fortunes, one term later (in 2008).
