In an op-ed at the beginning of Barack Obama’s second mandate as president of the United States, I put forward some demands expected from the different constituencies of the people of the United States and from the rest of the world.

As the second fourth year deadline is approaching and the Democrats, prospectively with Hillary Clinton, and the Republicans with Jeb Bush are sending each other into the competition for the successor to the first black president of these United States, it is fair to evaluate how the president has succeeded in meeting those demands.

I asked him to visit Haiti; but that did not seem to be on his agenda before the end of his mandate. He did go to Jamaica though and he had a ball:

"Greetings massive! Wha ah gwaan, Jamaica? It is great to be in beautiful Jamaica, not only because I am proud to be the first president of the United States to visit in more than 30 years, but because I just like the vibe here."

Haiti’s tumultuous four years under President Michel Martelly did not create momentum for the most powerful head of state on earth to comb the debris and visit with Haiti. The opposition to President Martelly has erected barricades, burning tires almost every day, disturbing business and preventing school children from running a normal course of studies and scholarship.

The picture of the first black president with his family visiting the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere will not be a poster to be framed by children, not only in Haiti but also for children all over the world! Poor Haiti, you have once more missed the opportunity of the century!

In spite of the visit to Jamaica, the Caribbean did not fare better in the American presidential agenda. Jamaica, just like its sister islands of the Caribbean, is in shambles, with the ratio of debt standing heavy on the growth level of the economy of each one of them.

The only two countries with low debt ratio in the region are Haiti and Guyana; and they represent basket cases. Migration to Canada, England and the United States constitutes the staple vision of the Caribbean workforce, with the Diaspora not ready to come back and bring with them their brain gain.

A laureate’s glory should be placed though on President Barack Obama’s head for breaking the long and bizarre ice of the tropics between the United States and Cuba. President Obama has defied the Cuban Diaspora to implement a policy of friendship with Cuba that was long overdue.

President Obama is right, it was 30 years ago when the interest of the United States were in sync with the people of the Caribbean. This was under President Ronald Reagan – still so decried by those who hate the American Republican foreign policy agenda. Will President Hillary Clinton or President Jeb Bush do better? We will have to wait for the next four years to make this judgment.

In the meantime, the black agenda in the United States has been all over the news and in the social media. I have not in my whole life in the United States seen so much preoccupation around the issue of police brutality against ordinary citizens. The Facebook chatting of most friends and parents in the states is constantly around the issue of the black and white dichotomy.

Concerning the youth vote, the president has failed to come clean with that constituency, explaining to them the era of the good jobs of past years is over. China’s full employment policy has sponged most of the jobs from the western world into its territory, producing with precision and excellent prices the orders sent through the internet for designs made in London, Paris or New York.

The solution for the American kids – in fact for kids all over the world – as I have explained in my op-ed, Required Reading, les miserable de la modernité, is to remain in school as long as possible up to the doctorate level and apply resilience and creativity to become an entrepreneur designing the gadgets of tomorrow.

The presence of the first black family in the White House did not seem to make a difference in the lives of the majority of black or white people in America. The United States is continuing its ordinary life of disdain or lack of concern for the black population’s contribution to the business of nation building, where the rich patrimony of the ancestors would be shared by all, equitably.

Yet in spite of this hoopla the United States is living a lasting period of peace. The news and the editorial page of the New York Times reminds me of the Eisenhower era when the United States was innocent and peaceful. Last Sunday’s listing of pleasant news includes titles such as:

• A new Whitney lets New York City poor in

• Utility vs. homeowners over solar power

• Police unions facing public anger, rethink how to address shootings

• Technology that prides itself on taking action, not just collecting data

• Participatory budgeting opens up voting to its disfranchised population.

The Times could title itself ‘All the good news that’s fit to print’.

Another laureate crown should be placed on President Obama’s head for leading an exemplary family life in the White House. His wife Michelle, as well as his two daughters (and the dogs), are picture perfect models of what a decent home (black or white) should aspire to. No drama, no surprise, just plain folks occupying the highest and most coveted home on the earth, (of course after the pope!) and leading by example with decency.

It looks like the United States is converting itself a larger Sweden, where life is peaceful and happy with no news but good news, with the dog sleeping on the veranda, the lawn finely mowed, the children happy playing in the garden and the barbecue hot and spicy, ready to be digested.

The news is not that good in the rest of the world. Africa is still a basket case, where even in South Africa, the country of Nelson Mandela is converting itself in a land of xenophobia where brother blacks from other parts of the black continent are being clubbed by South African hoodlums for the simple reason of migrating to South Africa where life seems better.

Italy and its shores close to Libya are the recipient of boatloads of human cargo as in the slavery era but this time it is a voluntary trip because misery in the homeland can be no longer he suffered. ISIS and its ugly head are menacing nations and their patrimony as it spreads all across Muslim Africa because basic human rights have not been respected. It has found a fertile land to grow and destroy the remnants of civilization.

The United States is leaving Iraq and Afghanistan as works in progress, not having achieved a lasting peace. Nation building has not been the agenda since pere et fils Bush, it has not been on the agenda as part of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy initiatives. The Taliban will continue to spread its ugly message of hate against women, infidels and anything that looks like or sounds like western civilization.

The Hispanic vote could be gratified that President Obama has tried to solve the difficult issue of illegal immigration in the United States that concerned mostly the largely displaced Hispanic population due to drug war and insecurity. Latin America is still in turmoil after the displacement of the drug lords from Columbia. Mexico and the rest of the region are paying the price. Hordes of refugees are seeking better skies in the United States. Yet President Obama has not been able to deliver as in the era of the Gipper who could club congress to vote his way!

The title of Obama the Great, around AD 2016 will not be bestowed on the president of the United States. He has failed most of the constituencies set out in my op-ed at the beginning of his second term: the Hispanic vote, the black vote, the youth vote, the white vote, the rest of the world and the United Nations. His victories have been light, with a passing grade for Cuba in foreign policy abroad and affordable healthcare for domestic policy at home.

The next president of the United States, whether Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush, will have to do better to build a peaceful world abroad and a richer one at home.

• Jean H. Charles, LLB MSW, JD, is a syndicated columnist with Caribbean News Now. He can be reached at: jeancharles@aol.com and followed at Caribbeannewsnow/Haiti. This is published with the permission of Caribbean News Now.

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