Book Review - The Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

Audacity of Hope - Barack Obama

It has been quite some time since I read a book completely ! I have so many books in the half-read stage that I think ... when I finally get back to them .. I will have to start each one from the beginning !!! Anywayz ...

Never underestimate the power of a title !!! :) I was intrigued by the title of this book ... !!! Never thought hope could be audacious ! :) Ended up choosing to buy this book instead of "Dreams from my father" which is supposedly better.

Before I put my thoughts regarding this book , I must say I am handicapped in my review by a couple of things

-- I don't follow American politics so I am not sure exactly how the "timing" of this book's release affected his presidential dreams and hence how calculated / slick the contents of this book are !!! :)

-- It follows from the above that I obviously cannot gauge how his real life veers from the said content of this book ..... on his stands over various problems ....

So ... about the book ... I found the writing lucid in a chatty style and definitely readable. Obviously it focuses entirely on America .... what comes through is the author's love for his country and a sense that he is doing his best in a job that poses myriad challenges especially to one's belief's and morality.

The chapter on the machinations behind American politics is interesting ... especially regarding the hardening of political stances. I feel it is something that happens all too frequently in India .. and the middle path seems more and more obscured .. since it is a path that gives no political gains !!!!

The main theme is that the author comes across as someone who embodies the American middle-class dream and is not too politically correct .... which is refreshing. Yes for most of the issues a neat middle-of-the-road path is taken but the reasoning behind the said stances are nicely portrayed. It is easy to identify with since it feels like the author is just a regular guy ... and so ... the book contents seem eminently believable ..

There is an absence of jingoism and acrid bashing , still he manages to paint the Republicans in a not-so-good light and is candid about his views upfront ... that he leans towards democratic ideals being a democrat himself !! :)

Nevertheless it obviously finds an echo somewhere in America ( and the world ) or I don't think this book would have been so popular so as to find itself even on the Pune streets !!! :)

There was a vague sense of deja vu on some topics and that was because I realized that some challenges that America faces have been highlighted in my recent read - "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman including the oil dependency woes and competition for jobs from across the world and US's foreign policy.

My take would be - read only if interested in American political machinations and to learn something about the American president !! Otherwise the other challenges/viewpoints can easily be read in other books or articles on the web.

If I had to pick the best statement in this book it would be - "In the world's greatest deliberative body ..... no one is listening" .. which happens when someone wants to explain / introduce a new bill.

Quotes/Statistics/Learnings/Points from the book "Hot, Flat and Crowded"

Some key points that I liked from the book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman

1. A certain connection between work, achievement and accountability has been broken. America thinks it can borrow its way to prosperity.

2. US has been mortgaging its future instead of investing in it.

3. If all Americans could compare Berlin's luxurious central train station today with the grimy overcrowded Penn. st - it looks like US lost World War II

4. De-forestation in Indonesia and Brazil is responsible for more CO2 than all the world's cars, trucks, planes , ships and trains combined. About 20% of the global emissions.

5. Average cow expels 600 litres of methane a day !!! Methane is a deadlier greenhouse gas.

6. Difference between the earth being an ice ball and it being comfortable for living is only 6 degrees. Today our earth has fever.

7. America has invented a system of living on cheap fossil fuel foundation.By 2030 instead of one America and half in Europe there will be 8-9 America's

8. Through oil purchases American is helping strengthen the most intolerant, anti-modern, anti-western, anti women's rights and anti-pluralistic strain of Islam , which is propagated by Saudi Arabia.

9. American oil strategy seems to be - Maximize demand, minimize supply and make up the difference by buying as much as we can from people who hate us the most !

10. 1st Law or Petropolitics - the pace of freedom and price of oil move in different directions.

11. Larry Diamond - Of the 23 nations that derives a clear majority of their export income from oil and gas - not a single one is a democracy.

12. Edward O Wilson - Destroying a tropical forest and other species-rich eco-systems for profit is like burning all the paintings in Louvre to cook dinner

13. We are the only species that no animal or plant in nature depends on for its survival , yet we depend on the whole web of life for our survival.

14. Energy at its most basic is the capacity to do work.

15. The most frequent and difficult question we get from China is "If it is so good, why aren't you doing it?"

16. The green issue particularly the climate change does not pit have-vs-have-nots -it pits present against the future - the unborn grandchildren. The future can't lobby , organize or protest.

17. Oysteins Dahle - Socialism collapsed because it did not allow the market to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because because it does not allow the market to tell the ecological truth.

Review of "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas L. Friedman

I have read both "World is Flat" and now "Hot, Flat and Crowded" and I think this book presents a bleaker future in store for our future generations unless we clean our act. By "we" he means the Americans ofcourse ! :) The book contents can be really summarized in his title "In Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America". He considers this a watershed moment for both the energy predicament as well as America's vision/moral/leadership crisis.

a. Hot - Refers to the global warming - which apart from climate touches food , fuel as well as forests !

b. Flat - The numerous upheavals in the market that have created a more level playing field for the world to compete and hence join at the same table where US feeds. ( I would recommend reading "World is Flat" by the same author to understand more on this ). This means lot more people living like Americans

c. Crowded - the burgeoning population growth ; and hence more people competing for the same resources on Earth.

He believes today's America is in a defensive position post 9/11 and has lost focus. He uses the phrase "Where birds don't fly" to capture this and says that this is a place where people do not mingle , friendships are not established, ideas are not kindled , trust does not get built and freedom does not exist. Such an America cannot play an important role in the world nor can it use its own potential in ways that would benefit the world and itself.

One of the causes is America's playing of "dumb as we wanna be" game and "we will get to it when we get to it" instead of resolving problems. This has led to a "sub-prime" nation that is incapable of handling a multi-generation problem like the energy crisis.

Where the book takes off is that - it is not a mere rhetoric on global warming by simply expounding the problem , it tries to identify solutions that could work within the framework of business. This is the crux of the book. It is here that he espouses a need for political consensus , collaboration with local government bodies, communities as well as NGOs and help business to earn profit as well.

One thing that he makes clear is that there are no quick fixes to this energy crisis, and only long term solutions can help. A combination of taxes, incentives, regularisation are required to make the energy innovation lift off and reach escape velocity. He stresses the need for the young who need to be taught to use their skills and earn without needing to harm the environment.

Green technology is first an innovation challenge and not a regulation challenge since first and foremost a cheap, easily renewable and transferable energy technology is required. Companies instead of challenging regulations should see them as a way to knock out competitors.

A chilling chapter is on the Petro-dictatorship where the enormous amount of money being pumped into the oil producing countries is strengthening and giving power to rulers who are not democratic and who have not earned their leadership by actually working towards building economies and educating their people. The dependency on oil makes Washington bite its tongue on women's rights and makes China go into partnership with murderous African dictatorship in oil rich Sudan.

He takes head-on the question of countries like India and China feeling unfairly penalized on their carbon emissions ( Kyoto protocol ) especially after decades of carbon emissions by the West , just when these economies are growing. He says that while the sense of unfairness is understandable there is a choice for such countries

a. Continue feeling unfair and build economy on dirty fuels giving America the time it needs to come up with clean energy solution and thereby allow US to sell it to them at a later date [when they are choking in their polluted air !!! ]

b. Or try to beat America towards a greener future and hence be in a position to reap benefits from it in myriad ways - economic growth, cleaner air , continued rich bio-diversity , healthy population

He believes Energy Technology is going to be a big industry as big as or even bigger than the IT pie. He would like America to grab this opportunity but he does not think America is doing enough towards this. He thinks USA needs to set an example to the rest of world to follow towards a clean energy system. For US , it is not just an opportunity but a test. America has a moral responsibility since it consumes more.

Towards the myriad benefits he gives some good examples including one where the US Marines-Corps in Iraq gains in multiple ways when they tries to reduce the large and vulnerable fuel line logistics which were easy targets for bombing with usage of solar panels.

All in a very well researched book which hits the target.