Response On President Obama’s State Of The Union Speech

by

Jodi Mahardi

Houston, February 3, 2010

The situational background surrounding the State of the Union Speech given by President Obama is unlike any that his predecessors have done. Domestically, the impact of recession is still strongly felt by many Americans, eventhough the worst has passed. According to the President, one of ten Americans still cannot find work.

For this he already has a concrete plan in place to create jobs through the building of infrastructure projects, cutting taxes for small businesses, creating export opportunities, discourage companies to send job overseas, and making sure that the stimulus bill will create jobs for Americans.

What is interesting is his warning that right now America’s global domination in technological R&D are getting challenged by others such as China, India and the European Union. In his State of the Union Speech President Barrack Obama states : “that these nations aren’t playing for second place. They are putting more emphasis on math and science. They are rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs”. 

From my perspective it is clear that the President has a vision and a plan to tackle this challenge. He understands the connection between climate change and technology of the future. He fully grasps the fact that there is a significant increase of global awareness on the impact of climate change, and that it has presurred governments all over the world to take a more constructive role in international cooperation to mitigate climate change. Any country that can develop clean energy products or technologies will reap the promising profits that can be gained. It is his vision that America should be the leader in the development of clean energy.

He emphasised the importance of educating and developing internationally competitive American workforce, through reforming the education system in America that is more able to accomodate math and science a larger share of its curriculum. Through this he hope American workforce will be a leader in the R&D of clean Energies and clean technologies.

To achieve this goal,  in the International Stage America has finally taken the driver seat in fighting climate change. This effort could be seen in the dramatic reversal of US stance (compare to previous administrations) in the last UN Climate Change Convention in Coppenhagen which has become more in sync with the international community. 

From now on the most important is that America must keep its commitment in order for the world to look up to the US as a leader in the fight against climate change and in the development of clean energies and technologies. America must remain proactive engaging other major industrialised and developing countries, such as the major European countries, China, India, Brazil and Indonesia to joint effort in lowering global emission level by a specific target and timeline.

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