2008 What a year for the World

As UBPA we join the millions of people worldwide who have celebrated the victory of Barack Obama for the top job in the United States of America. We congratulate Obama on his victory as a person. We are convinced that indeed in him the US will achieve the change he stood for in the elections. We remain optimistic that his administration will do things differently. We are hopeful that the Africa - US relations will strengthen under his leadership. It is common cause that post apartheid South Africa did not enjoy a particularly good relationship with the US under the Bush administration and we hope that the Obama administration will change all that.

We hope that the Obama administration will stand for less hostilities in the world. We wish to see the total pull out of all the US troops in Iraq and perhaps an apology to the Iraqi people for the unlawful invasion led by the Bush administration. We wish the new administration will follow South Africa in adopting a two state solution in the Middle East. We hope to see better working relations between the US, Cuba and Venezuela. In every effort the Obama administration embarks on, as the people of the world and the youth of South Africa we shall be watching and ready to lend a helping hand whenever required to do so.

South African youth have important lessons to learn from Obama's victory. We are fast approaching a national general election in 2009. The lesson we can learn from Obama's victory is that the vote of young people can change the course of history. Reports reveal that Obama inspired a largest vote turn out, particularly from the youth in decades. The youth of 2008 in America spoke to change the course of history. In south Africa come 2009 we hope that the youth of South Africa will do the same and go out to vote for the leaders they entrust their aspirations and those of the country in.

Obama's victory will go down in history book as an event that changed the course of history worldwide. For many years it will be likened and even remembered in the same vein as South Africa's first democratic election in 1994. Obama As UBPA we salute you and the young minds of the US in this day and age.

Thulani Nkosi
Chairperson and Co-head of the Education Cluster at UBPA, 2008