Obama, the New Tutankhamen of the World
Riyadh, June 4th, 2009
Salaroche

I knew that today the White House would be live-streaming Obama’s speech from Cairo in its official Website, so this morning I sent the link via email to some of the people in my office. I also personally mentioned to a few others that I encountered in the halls that I would be showing that live-stream on the large screen in one of the computer labs on the second floor.

My mentioning Obama’s speech in Cairo to my colleagues, however, was not something I did out of a spontaneous impulse. I did it because I knew in advance that most of the Arab World would be watching that speech with attention and particularly because I knew some of my Muslim colleagues were a bit anxious to hear what Obama had to say to them.

In the end only five of them showed up briefly at the lab but, as a couple of them told me, most of them would later go home to watch the Arabic translation of the speech on their TV sets. That way they would understand 100% of the speech, not just the 70% or 80% that their English-listening ability would have allowed them to understand at the lab.

I watched the speech in its entirety and I thought it was good. I had read articles about how Obama had prepared for it and what kinds of people he had consulted with to write it, so I had already gathered enough info to have a fairly good idea of what approach he would take and what kind of topics he would address in it. There weren’t any surprises for me in that speech; only corroboration of what others had hinted he would say.

Later on I walked back to my hotel to drop my things and then went out looking for a place to grab a bite to eat. As usual, everyone I met was rather welcoming. I spoke to some Bangladeshis and Pakistanis working behind the counters at some restaurants and, as usual, I exchanged some light personal info with them, like what country they were from, the length of my stay in Saudi Arabia and other things of that sort. Along those lines, I asked them whether they had watched Obama’s speech and invariably they answered yes. They invariably gave me a thumbs-up for Obama as well.

Some time later I chose a restaurant where to have lunch and ordered some grilled chicken with a cucumber-tomato-cabbage salad on the side. As I was sitting at the table the owner of the restaurant came to sit nearby to watch a TV news program. He asked me if I needed anything else and I said “no thank you,” but I took the opening to inquire about his origins. He told me he was from Peshawar, that area of Pakistan located near the border with Afghanistan, right beside the Swat valley and the town of Mingora, where there have recently been some deadly clashes between the Taliban and the Pakistani security forces.

I asked him if everybody in his family was OK and he said yes. Then I asked him if he had watched Obama’s speech and he again said yes, this time with a little spark in his eyes. A couple of seconds later he told me the same short litany I’ve been hearing since I came to Saudi Arabia “he’s a good man.” Yes, I said, he’s a good man.

In Cairo there were people in the streets holding banners that said “Obama, the new Tutankhamen of the world.” There were people wearing t-shirts that said the same thing too. That’s quite a flattering analogy for Obama. Tutankhamen was a boy-pharaoh worshipped almost as a god by 1324-BC Egyptians. A very significant reference, given the high expectations that millions of people across the world have vested on Obama.

As expected, the speech was not florid or uplifting, but tended mostly towards the practical side of the matters he talked about. He tried to be as specific as possible about the issues at hand without promising anything in particular about how to work them out. He addressed the question of Palestine and Israel head on, but with respect to all parties involved. The same goes for the issues of terrorism, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, democracy, women’s rights and the economic aspects of globalization. All those issues he addressed in a rather straight-forward manner.

He sounded like an honest, intelligent man, fully aware of the complexity of the questions laying on his table and fully intent on doing the best he can to solve them. He sounded like someone who really means business when it comes to accomplishing what he set out to do as president of the United States, the most influential country in the world.

Salaroche