(C) Daily Telegraph
This image of Barack Obama and Dmitrij Medvedev may conjure in many minds visions of incompetence, scarce grasp of protocol, unprofessionality, bad taste or all of the above. For all the faults we attribute to the current US President, I wouldn't hold burger diplomacy against him.
Escaping the tedium of official diplomatic protocol is a welcome diversion from the early 20th century top-hat summits and, in certain circumstances, is a useful reminder of one's irrelevance in the greater scheme of things. And I am not talking about Obama's.
See, in the States the title of President is transitory, its holder hooked to a timer counting down until the next election cycle. Such volatility is bound to bake a lot of humble pie and I believe Obama realizes this fully. Not so many of his counterparts.
Presidents and Prime Ministers in many tin-pot countries don't just hold their titles, but imagine themselves being the title's embodiment. The Oxford Dictionary entry's earthly incarnation so to speak. There is hardly a developing country where office holders don't see the Constitution as their plaything and the country's GDP as their legitimate purse.
Just watch the gold and marble palaces springing up amid rampant destitution, private Presidential jets in countries with hardly one paved runway, let alone an airline. Kim Jong-Il's Hennessy crates obliterated, one hopes at least temporarily, his knowledge of running a befamined sinkhole of statehood.
I now want you to picture the contrast with the most powerful man in the world, running the world's military superpower and richest economy... having a burger. In a globalized world entering the information age, this message is more powerful than years of propaganda.
"I am the President and I don't need to prove it" the burger is saying. To a Westerner, this may be cheap. To the subjects of ostentatious thieves in countries where image is everything, it is a poignant message to see their own "El Presidente" brought down a notch from lavish state dinners in golden halls.
I certainly don't advocate such an approach to all foreign relations (treating Queen Elizabeth so would be an undeserved insult, unless she asked). Yet taking some would-be gods to a burger joint is a polite way of reminding them that for all their gold, medals and titles they're worth squat without legitimacy and good government.
It could always be bad taste, but I'd rather credit Mr Obama with more smarts than many allow him.
2 comments:
Who really cares? Where and what he eats is of little consequence to his irresponsible approach to Israel in general and Islamists specifically... The people who will be critical of this MC-D's thing will be the same people that won't pay any real attention to his foreign policy shortcomings.
I agree. It's a small but powerful act -- one that I think Stephen Harper could stand to emulate on a more frequent basis.
One has to admit that Harper's grand reception looked a little more unflattering in the wake of the G20 riots.
Not Harper's fault, but still relevant.
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