Bruce Golding (left) and Barack Obama (right) are faced with the task of correcting economic fallouts not of their making.
In the preface to the 2004 edition to his 1995 book Dreams from my Father, United States president-elect Barack Obama spoke of himself as being "without organisational backing or personal wealth, a black man with a funny name, I was considered a long shot".
He was speaking of his victory in the Democratic nomination for a seat in the Senate from the State of Illinois.
Having won the seat and prevailed in white and black areas, both Chicago and the suburbs, there was renewed interest in his story.
So his book was republished in 2004 - interest in his political fortunes had skyrocketed.
His publisher's interest initially derived from his being the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Call for republication of the story in Dreams, as Obama politely tells it, was sparked by the likelihood or rather the possibility of his being the "sole African American - and only the third since reconstruction - to serve in the Senate."
All this is now history.
Possible accession
The unlikely outcome, a view almost uniformly shared, of his possible accession to the presidency of the United States of America, is now fact.
But with this outcome expectations have become stratospheric even as conditions have emerged to be in reality, the pits for the economy.
Just one piece of evidence of this is the response of native American Indians.
For instance Obama was, as Timothy Egan writes in the New York Times, "adopted into an Indian family in Montana last May, given the name Barack Black Eagle by the Crow Nation, Joe Shirley, Jr, president of the Navajo Nation says: All of Navajo Country came out strong for Obama."
Indians die much earlier than Americans in general; suffer more from diabetes, alcoholism, dietary problems, and higher rates of suicide. Of course, their outlook to the future has been generally bleak. At least some of their leadership sees Obama's victory as an example of the narrative of possibilities.
Comedian
D.L. Hughley, the African-American comedian who 'breaks the news' on CNN Saturday night as comedy, shares the same view with respect to blacks and their ability to "pull up their pants" - both literally and figuratively.
While from Wall to Main Street, to Detroit and sub-prime home-foreclosed, the hope rests almost solely with Obama. Admittedly, his 'team' is also considered.
How do we now make this leap to compare Obama and Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding?
We can't sensibly do this by their journey, capacity as orator or many other features of the two lives and personalities.
Unlike Obama, Golding's background appears more as required lineage than obstacles.
He was openly groomed for the top spot for years. Granted he slipped off that train for a brief moment but his pathway distinguishes him fundamentally from Obama.
Why the comparison then? Two things: their populations' expectations and tanking of the economy. These two factors are to a high degree very similar. But perhaps more importantly, it appears that informed Jamaicans including those who migrate and travel hold this view.
I had the pleasant experience over the holidays to talk with folk mainly from Jamaica but also the Caribbean diaspora in three separate countries.
Their views of life in 2008 and of 2009 to come were coloured by and centred around three issues.
Surprise, surprise, the first was the Wall Street meltdown and resultant global tough times.
Second were prospects for Jamaica against the backdrop of what they considered corruption and the fact that in their view 'bandooloo', drugs running, Ponzi and immorality were at the centre of Jamaican prosperity and individual success.
The third issue was their utter disappointment with the new JLP administration under Prime Minister Golding, especially in light of the fact that the party campaigned on the need for transparency and efficiency in government operations.
But they insist these three features provide the similarities that both Obama and Golding face. Neither leader had anything to do with the meltdown but both are expected to develop policies and programmes to counter it.
Jamaican 'bandooloo' is no different from the greed and legal fleecing of unsuspecting borrowers and investors in toxic assets Wall Street cobbled together as derivatives.
Finally, when they first began their campaigns for the top job, conditions were decidedly different.
I found these conversations interesting and thought I would share them with readers along with three comments.
Stimulus for Jamaica is difficult and we have never been able so far, to target the areas which avoid simple multiplier effects over to imports and foreign exchange shortage.
Can we for instance, manage to provision the tourism sector from our local farms? Will the levels of inconsistency in delivery and quality be overcome? Can we define inconsistency in tomato size, colour and texture as organic, pesticide-free, environmentally friendly and therefore better for health and more expensive?
Requisite changes
Can Golding and the JLP government, with limited majority in Parliament make the requisite changes it may think necessary for effective stimulus implementation and still be in a position to govern? Obama has his first challenge and has come to the unprecedented position of telescoping prior to inauguration, his intent to veto any negative decision on the remaining US$350 billion of TARP funds. Obama is coming in with employable unemployed, partially idle factories that can produce, plus huge resources of political capital - a population that wills him to succeed.
Does Golding have comparable assets? Not really. But tough conditions can render, transform ordinary people into great leaders. Only time will tell, I'm afraid.
wilbe65@yahoo.com