As of now Barack Obama has secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination for the presidential elections in November 2008. This much was never in serious doubt since Super Tuesday in March. It would not be correct however to believe that given the unpopularity of the Iraq War and George W Bush that a Democratic victory is a sure thing. Nothing can be further from the truth. Obama has  avery tough fight on his hands and can use evry vote he can cadge out of a reluctant electorate. For ...

There is an air of confidence in the Obama camp; and this air of confidence is premature. I watched the interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, and I felt that the magic touch which enabled Barack Obama to connect with his audience was just not there. The hectic campaign season has perhaps taken its toll. It would be utterly wrong on the part of Barack Obama to assume, given the unpopularity of the Iraq War and the state of the economy to assume that victory is just round the corner. While it is ...

It is always a difficult task to write the life of a living writer, and that too the biography of an opiniated and at time infuriatingly controversial, but highly talented writer, like V S Naipaul. Partick French has succeeded in doing just that:A narrative of the lfe of V S Naipaul from the sugar cane fields of Trinidad to the hieghts of Nobel fame and glory. The World is What it is covers the life of V S Naipaul from the vantage point of uncovering the man behind the books, it is reverntial...

The great writer and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison wrote once that "White skin notwithstanding, Clinton is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person could ever be elected in our childrens' lifetime". With this kind of endorsement, it is hard to fathom the fact that his wife hasd dropped to single digits as far as Arican-American vote is concerned. The real reason for this fall is not hard to find. The highly negative campaign she ran against Obama made many believe that she...

The great writer and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison wrote once that "White skin notwithstanding, Clinton is our first black president. Blacker than any actual person could ever be elected in our childrens' lifetime". With this kind of endorsement, it is hard to fathom the fact that his wife hasd dropped to single digits as far as Arican-American vote is concerned. The real reason for this fall is not hard to find. The highly negative campaign she ran against Obama made many believe that she...

It looked as though all was lost for Senator Barack Obama, just a few weeks back. How he faught back. He won very convincingly in North Carolina winning nealy 93% of the Afican-American vote and nearly 40% of the rest of the state. Those who said that Obama can win only small and inconsequential states will have to reassess their early opinions. Even in Indianna, the Lake County votes have still not been counted as I write and it is likely that Obama may even win there. Hillary Clinton has not w...

Barack Obama's   speech on race and racism has quite honestly triggered an avalanche of interest in the whole issue of slavery. I recently bought Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship: A Human History and having read this wonderful book would like to share my thoughts with the bloggers on this site. Dr Rediker is currently the Professor of History at the University of Pittsburg and has taken his Ph D from the University of Pennslyvania. He is a noted maritime historian an...

The recent speech by Senator Barack Obama raised once more the spectre of race and slavery in the USA and indeed, in other parts of the world. On this anniversary of the Jamaican Slave uprising of 1768 I would like to reflect on this issue from a historians perspective. Race, I must add is too important an issue to be left only to social workers and politicians. The rise of the Atlantic Slavr trade was made possible by a combination of 3 factors: First, the interniecince watrfare among the...

Race as a political issue exploded in a big way due to the indiscreet sermons of the pastor of the United Trinity Church, Rev Jermaiah Wright. The US media is aghast at the observation of the pastor that racism is alive and truly well in the USA. The liberal media that has thrived on the general atmosphere of political correctness is unable or unwilling to face up to the reality of racism in the social and political life of the USA. Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia in which he ...

Race as a political issue exploded in a big way due to the indiscreet sermons of the pastor of the United Trinity Church, Rev Jermaiah Wright. The US media is aghast at the observation of the pastor that racism is alive and truly well in the USA. The liberal media that has thrived on the general atmosphere of political correctness is unable or unwilling to face up to the reality of racism in the social and political life of the USA. Senator Barack Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia in which he ...

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In politics it does not always  pay to play fair and square and by now the Illinois senator, Barack Obama, must have realised thatrunning a positive civilised campaign against the likes of Bil and Hillary Clinton does not yeild the desired results. The senator himself blames the "kitchen sink" campaign of Hillary and her surrogate number 1, Bill Clinton. I think the camapign was far far worse. Take the 3 a.m. telephone advert, for example, it insuniates that Obama does not have the necessa...

The US Secretary of Defense, Bill Gates shares a quality with his more famous name sake:studied understatement is his way of speaking and this rhetorical choice was in full dispaly when he announced to the media recently that the NATO is in danger of becoming irrelevant in Afghanistan. There were howls of protest from the NATO capitals, but no one who follows the incresingly dismal news from Kabul can be in any doubt ablut the truth of Bill Gate's statement. The biggest mistake that George Bush...

This is Barack Obama addressing a rally in Rhode Island, one of the 4 states headied for the primaries on March 4, 2008. So far he has run a very positive campaign stridently putting forth calls for change in an increasinly bitter politicaldiscourse. John Mccain, the Republican front runner, is trying to focus on the Iraq War in the hope of whipping up a patriotic fervor that will help swing votes in his direction. From all accounts the American people have gotten sick of the war and want t...

Senator Barack Obama is facing flak over a picture showing him in a turban.  Until the 1960's the US was a country in which almost every self respecting individual would be found wearing a hat. And there is nothing wrong in it as the head dress is a part of the sartorial get up of any culture. In fact most parts of the world would probably interpret a bare head as a gesture of rudeness and unseemly behavior. Covering the head for prayer, in church and other ceremonial situations is still ...