Just for fun: what do the people shown here have in common? I have a hunch that these people, all in civil service of their country, are the vanguards of a changing time. Barack Obama, Achmed Aboutaleb and Johanna Sigurdardottir are representatives of groups within their countries population, of which membership used to be the guaranteed ticket to exclusion from power.
But now times are different. Barack is the first black president of the USA, Achmed the first Moroccan mayor – of Rotterdam – in the Netherlands and Johanna the first homosexual prime minister – of Iceland – on the planet.
I am quite chaffed with developments like these. They counteract the reactionary policies the pope still tries to spread through his flock, for instance. Measuring from BenDick16 Nazingers ideas, the clock should be firmly turned back. He makes terrible remarks about homosexuals and very casually, he rehabilitates some crazy bishop who notoriously has strong anti-Semitic sentiments and a faulty sense of history. However, most people in the real world don’t seem to care. They choose black presidents, foreign mayors and appoint homosexual government leaders.
On top of the unmistakable “progressiveness” and “liberalness” which the rise of today’s Baracks, Achmeds and Johannas are indicating, there is another obvious reason to like what is happening.
The glass ceiling, that has served as justification for the failure of minority-group members since I can remember, must have gone up in smoke. No black, Moroccan or sexually alternatively inclined person, can blame anyone or anything else for not being successful any more. These excuses have become void. To name just one example: if Obama can make it as a president in the USA, any Afro-American should be able to see that success is possible, despite the colour of ones skin.
Times are changing all right. And to my opinion, they are changing for the good. With high profile minority members like the three above as role models, anyone can understand that competence supersedes ethnic or cultural background. We are slowly moving towards more merit and less pedigree. And for a rabid Autonomist like me, it is music to the ears.
