Pablo Ouziel: America needs a Guarantor
Pablo Ouziel: America needs a Guarantor
By Pablo Ouziel
In an interview with The Washington Post on November 11, 2003, George Soros said that removing President George W. Bush from office was the "central focus of my life" and "a matter of life and death." He said he would sacrifice his entire fortune to defeat President Bush, "if someone guaranteed it".
Again in 2006, during an interview with Charlie Rose, when Charlie asked him about that particular statement, with the following question; "You would have gladly given away ninety percent of your fortune in a minute?" Soros replied; "One hundred percent, because I think it would have made a tremendous contribution to mankind."
According to Forbes Magazine in March 2007, George Soros´s net worth stood at 8.5 billion U.S dollars and placed him as the 80th richest man in the world, surely this sum should be enough to creatively remove President Bush from office. I am surprised that in a country which prides itself on its entrepreneurship, intellect and creativity, where garage start-ups with tiny financial sums are part of the corporate culture and many have gone on to become world leading multinationals, there are no entrepreneurs available to draft a concise and effective strategy to guarantee George Bush's removal from office, supported by Soros's 8.5 billion dollar fund.
Great institutions and organizations have been born and bred as part of the American dream, a dream which George Bush is rapidly replacing with a vision of war, destruction, carelessness, genocide, poverty, and the much dreaded police state more commonly attributed to dictatorial states but definitely gaining ground in America's formal democracy.
Of course on Bush's obtuse vision of the world hinges America's credibility, world leadership, free thought and the ability for future creative entrepreneurship, all necessary attributes to sustain Americas real influence in world affairs.
Soros brilliantly emphasized this reality during his time with Charlie Rose with the following words; " People I think don't really realize how much power and influence we have lost, in how short a time, and how really dismal the direction in Iraq is, that everyday you see the situation deteriorating, so this could have been avoided with a different leadership."
Perhaps those entrepreneurs whose quest of building powerful corporations have been realized, people like Gates, Jobs and Schultz can remain in their high horses enjoying their success and expanding their know-how to other markets, but maybe those younger ones out there working on their start-up plans for the corporations and organizations of the future, should look at the world for what it is, and expand their minds to place Bush in our historical time period.
Maybe with this analysis in motion, the 'stream of consciousness' will flow in America's future leaders and their five-year plans asking for venture capital or grants, will become visionary strategies to guarantee the ousting of Bush and the continuation of the great American dream.
If Americans wants to continue being a source of inspiration to the world, a rapid change of mood is required. Granted all evils will not be removed by ousting this president, much work needs to be done within America's reality in order for it to become what it has so eloquently preached. But there can be no doubt in my mind after studying the recent history of America since 2001, that Americans are being short-changed by their political and financial leaders and that the rest of the world is suffering from Americans' lack of 'political will'.
Just like a good plan to raise venture capital or secure a grant would require good leadership and strategy, together with solid advise from seasoned professionals, ousting Bush and defending the American dream, will require committed activists with a solid strategy and the guiding hand of lucid intellectuals.
People like Noam Chomsky, Norman G. Finkelstein, Howard Zinn, Tim Wise, Jeffrey Sachs, James Petras, Ramzy Baroud and Edward S. Herman could be amongst the list of advisory board member for such a quest. After all, looking at the current state of the world, this seems like the time for coming together. Edward Said in 1993 expressed in a very clear way that this day could maybe arise; "I feel we all have different audiences in different constituencies. Just performing acts of routine solidarity, or mindless loyalty, strikes me as not interesting, not important. Although there may be a time for it."
If I was an American entrepreneur or an American activist I would jump at the chance which Soros has put on the table and would work on the plan to guarantee the ousting of Bush. After all, how many times in your life do you get the chance to spend 8,5 billion dollars to put a derailed society back on track, and all of this without having to focus on financial profitability. However, since I am Spanish and the Spanish empire has long vanished, all I can do is point out the facts, hoping American colleagues will decide it is time to act.
-Pablo Ouziel is an activist and a free lance writer based in Spain. His work has appeared in many progressive media including Znet, Palestine Chronicle, Thomas Paine¹s Corner and Atlantic Free Press.