theSun | TUESDAY JANUARY 20 2009
news without borders
the Obama era
ing overhead, and Secret Service
agents manning key spots includ-
ing on the frieze atop the Lincoln
Memorial.
About half a million people
were expected to brave the bitter
cold for the two-and-a-half hour
spectacle, unlike any ever seen
before to mark a presidential in-
auguration.
A sea of people had crowded
onto the National Mall, a long strip
of grass, divided by the reflecting
pool, which celebrates a seam of
American history, by connecting
the Lincoln Memorial to the Wash-
ington Monument, honouring the
first president George Washington,
more than 1.6km away.
Obama called in his speech
to the crowds for a new spirit of
national sacrifice to overcome war
and economic crisis.
“In the course of our history,
only a handful of generations have
been asked to confront challenges
as serious as the ones we face right
now. Our nation is at war. Our
economy is in crisis,” he said.
“I won’t pretend that meeting
any one of these challenges will
be easy. It will take more than a
month or a year, and it will likely
take many,” Obama said.
“But never forget that the true
character of our nation is revealed
not during times of comfort and
ease, but by the right we do when
the moment is hard.”
Out of the middle of the crowd,
a toddler, bundled in a baby-blue
winter jacket and waving an
American flag, was lifted into the
air like an offering, then placed on
a man’s shoulders as thousands
around her sang and swayed with
John Mellencamp singing Pink
Houses.
At times somber, the concert
was also unashamedly patriotic,
with Springsteen and folk pioneer
Pete Seeger, 89 and dressed in a
flannel shirt, leading a foot-stomp-
ing, crowd-pleasing version of the
progressive American anthem
This Land is Your Land.
And pop megastar Beyonce, af-
ter blowing a kiss to the future First
Family, led the crowds in a stirring
chorus of America The Beautiful to
end the event surrounded by the
constellation of stars who had paid
tribute to Obama and the nation.
“It is overwhelming to see this
happen,” said Linda Marshall, a
school teacher from Obama’s
hometown Chicago who marched
with Martin Luther King Jr and
other civil rights leaders as a
teenager in the early 1960s.
“Martin Luther King
spoke here. And to have
Barack come and stand in
those same shoes, from
Lincoln, to MLK, to Barack
Obama...” Her voice trailed
off. “This is history. I
couldn’t have imagined
hoping for a day like
this.” – AFP
9
President-elect bringing
‘strong message’ to ailing banks
WASHINGTON: The incoming
US administration and Britain on
Sunday planned urgent and more
sit on any money that they get
from taxpayers,” Axelrod said on
Sunday on ABC’s This Week news
nomic downturn in 70 years.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
said details of the package would
forceful moves to reopen the programme. be announced “in the next day or
world’s clogged credit arteries Obama, who takes office two.” Axelrod, who said Obama’s
and Barack Obama prepared a today, is considering setting up a team would discuss TARP in the
“strong message” for banks after government-run bank to acquire days after today’s inauguration,
he takes over the US presidency bad assets clogging the financial said the aim was to get credit
this week. system, a person familiar with the flowing to businesses and families.
Zainon Obama’s senior adviser Obama team’s thinking said on “That hasn’t happened with the
Ahmad: David Axelrod said there would be Saturday. expenditure of the first US$350
changes in the use of the second In London, media reports said billion (RM1.3 trillion),” he said.
Reality half of the $700 billion (RM2.5 Britain was poised to guarantee There would have to be more
check not trillion) Troubled Asset Relief Pro- “toxic debt” worth up to £200 transparency. “No one can really
just yet gramme, or TARP, meant to clean billion (Rm1.1 trillion) in a second tell you where the money went,”
out bad assets from the financial bank bailout designed to boost he said. “We have to make sure
pg 12 system, saying the use of the first lending. Government officials and the money doesn’t go to exces-
half was ineffective and poorly bank chiefs spent the weekend sive CEO pay and dividends when
accounted for. in talks, said a finance ministry it should be going to lending.”
“(Obama) is going to have a spokesman, seeking a solution to A government-run “aggrega-
strong message for the bankers. a credit freeze crippling industry, tor bank” is among options being
We want to see credit flowing small businesses and homeown- discussed by the US government.
again. We don’t want them to ers struggling in the worst eco- – Reuters
Indian artist has brush with his fakes
MUMBAI: Acclaimed Indian art- than 30 of his early paintings, the artist lion) at a Christie’s auction in London
ist SH Raza (pix) inaugurated a wrote in the newspaper. last year.
show of his paintings in New “When I reached the gallery and “I was stupefied and stunned ... I will
Delhi at the weekend – only started looking at the canvases on the turn 86 next month. At this stage of my
to find most of the exhibits walls, I was stunned,” Raza wrote. “As life, this was the last thing I wanted to
were fakes, the Mail Today I moved from one canvas to the other, do – grace an exhibition of my own fake
paper said. I realised that the works were just not paintings,” Raza wrote.
Paris-based Raza had mine, they were all fakes.” The gallery, which closed the show
contributed some Raza, regarded as one of India’s shortly afterwards, said it had been
drawings to the foremost artists, is best known for his duped. Indian art has boomed in the
show at a well- abstracts and brilliant colours. past five years, driven by fast-paced
known gallery His works have commanded high economic growth that encouraged the
that had put prices internationally, with a painting newly-rich to chase after symbols of
together more going for about £1.3 million (RM7 mil- affluence. – Reuters