Continuing with our coverage of the global reaction to President Obama’s inauguration, this article from Italy’s La Stampa fingers an issue that is sure to emerge again and again as America’s new president attempts to grapple with the challenges that confront this nation.
It’s the geopolitical elephant in the room: Has American adherence to the idea of absolute national sovereignty led to the crisis that our nation and the world confront?
For Italy’s La Stampa, Barbara Spinelli writes in part:
“America is at a crossroads. Its idea of absolute national sovereignty that recognizes no authority above itself has proven false and menacing. It is far from certain that Obama is worthy of this enormous and historic moment: the moment in which America, if conscious, will discover European post-nationalism, which recognizes that multi-polarity isn’t an evil plot of China, Russia or Europe, but is now the reality. But this is surely a moment that will allow for him to look high and above the horizon. This is his chance. This is the deadly typhoon that can either overwhelm him, or elevate him and render him great.”
By Barbara Spinelli
Translated By Enrico Del Sero
January 21, 2009
Italy – La Stampa – Original Article (Italian)
The emergence of Obama, not only on the American landscape but the world’s, confirms something all of us knew: when a strong enough person emerges, the landscape can change in a stroke.
A person who believes intensely in the common good without wavering or concerning himself with special interests can set in motion that which once seemed immovable. He may restore a sense of meaning to words and language, when it seemed all sense had been lost and that retreating into silence was the more dignified choice. Obama has put an end to this stagnation. He won by standing for hope, which rises unexpectedly when optimistic passion dies out, and – as the new president said at yesterday’s inauguration – when one is in “the depths of winter.” Perhaps the reason this is Obama’s moment is this: he has restored meaning to words. But that isn’t all.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated and English-language foreign press coverage of President Obama’s inauguration.
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