One fact that stood out in ever sharper relief as the world hurtled at full speed from one crisis to another disaster over much of last year is how woefully bereft the peoples of its nations are of visionary leadership.
Be it the political and diplomatic arena or business, finance or economics, the world found itself at the mercy of small men with even smaller consciences—Lilliputians who couldn’t see beyond their noses, brazenly and arrogantly pursuing greed and going about guarding their own selfish, narrow interests and imagined fiefdoms.
The result, of course, is for everyone to see and suffer, whether they live in Seattle or Suva: probably the worst economic downturn ever whose full-blown effects are yet to hit home.
There’s been an unprecedented erosion of wealth, a great portion of which simply vanished into a black hole; there’s been mindless violence in Mumbai, Gaza and many other places across the world that left thousands of innocent, common people engaged in the increasingly difficult business of living with dignity dead, maimed and their families devastated and scarred for life… the list is nauseatingly long.
It’s hardly a wonder that 2008 has already earned its place in modern history as one of the most forgettable years in recent decades. But 2008, indeed, was the culmination of years of poor leadership that either actively encouraged or simply looked the other way as runaway, laissez faire policies gave the small men with even smaller consciences the unbridled impetus to indulge in acts of shameless greed.
Equally unthinking and callous were the so-called leaders that relied on flimsy, imagined or fabricated intelligence to firstly attack sovereign nations on highly suspect grounds and then not realise they were barking up the wrong tree even years after they were at it. And this is despite the loss of thousands of young lives of their own nationals and the still small voices of common people who counselled saner, peaceful alternatives.
This deep frustration at the lack of meaningful, trustworthy and visionary leadership was undoubtedly one of the most significant factors at play at the world’s biggest political spectacle as it unfolded in the closing months of last year—the presidential election in the United States.
President Barack Obama’s election to the world’s most important office has come on the back of hope of not just millions of Americans but also billions of people across the world.
The story of his rise to the presidency of the world’s most powerful nation has all the alluring ingredients of the makings of the great white hope for the world’s masses.
He is young, intelligent, academically well qualified, a superlatively engaging orator, has no unwieldy political or administrative baggage, has a non-controversial and squeaky clean image—and of course, he is black. 
He has redefined the proverbial colour of hope—from the hitherto great white hope to a new great black one.
Some commentators have criticised the world media for concentrating too much on his colour. But these critics are missing the whole point. It is his being non-white that has been the very rallying point for not just millions of coloured people but legions of the quintessential underdog—irrespective of colour, creed, nationality and race—to believe in themselves and resoundingly say to the world in no uncertain terms that good leadership is essentially colour blind—only as it should be.
Before he has even embarked on his long journey in global leadership, Obama is already a powerful beacon to the underdog; a symbol that says it can be done, a story that suddenly brings a billion dreams into the realm of possibility. 
Which makes him perhaps the only world leader today who most people would trust to put the world’s affairs back on the rails, his young age and relative inexperience notwithstanding. He is perhaps the only leader who most people around the world would trust to push the reset button to reboot the financial system as it were. Or to bring fresh approaches to dealing with decade-old problems that have plagued the world’s geopolitical hotspots.
And it is this gigantic burden of hope that Obama will have to almost single-handedly shoulder as he makes his way through the first few months of his presidency in a world that is at one of its worst turning points in history.
In less than a week after his inauguration, he has shown both the intent and  resolve to take on these gargantuan problems.
One of his first actions on becoming president was to wind up the Guantanamo Bay detention centre operations.
If that made him look too much like a pacifist, he had strong words for Pakistan—long ignored by the Bush Administration as the epicentre of global terrorism. He said aid to its near bankrupt economy would be inexorably tied to the steps it takes to curb terror, especially in the wake of the Mumbai carnage.
He also sent a clear message to it that India had a great friend in the United States and his deputy Joe Biden even went to the extent of talking in terms of military action if Pakistan failed to curb terrorist activity on its soil.
He has kept the world guessing and even drawn criticism from some quarters for his long, studied silence on the Israeli action on Gaza and some of his early remarks that he made before the inauguration. But as the president of the world’s most powerful nation and one who rides on the hopes of billions, he cannot continue to remain silent on the issue for long and will take a position sooner rather than later.
With only a few days in office (as this issue went to press), we have seen little from him by way of any fresh policy on the financial crisis except an expression of displeasure at the allegedly irresponsible way the bailout money has been used so far by the resuscitated banks.
Probably at no stage in recent history has the world been faced with an instance where it has simultaneously been plagued with such gigantic problems with the hope of resolving them resting almost exclusively on the shoulders of a young, not-so-experienced black man whose greatest wealth and strength is the goodwill of the world’s teeming billions.
Only the coming months and years will prove what returns the world’s investment of hope in Obama will bring.