Editorial #08

THE HINDU EDITORIAL 

With just days remaining before his stint कार्यकाल  in office draws to an end, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the American people one last time in a soaring उड़ने वाला speech that highlighted his administration’s top achievements and warned his fellow citizens about rising economic inequality, simmering सिहर racial जातीय divisions and regression वापसी into intractable असभ्य partisanship. Although he will demit छोड़ना office with one of the highest approval ratings in recent history, to get to the door he will have to step across the debris मलबा of the Democratic Party, which suffered a debacle पराजय in the November general election. No wonder that the 44th President of the U.S. used his final address to urge Americans to rebuild trust in democratic institutions by reducing the corrosive संक्षारक influence प्रभाव of money in politics and breaking the logjams गतिरोध of congressional dysfunction शिथिलता through grass-roots activism. Mr. Obama knows that the polarisation धुर्वीकरण of the electorate turned even more bitter over his policy agenda. While there were a few areas where he faced relatively less resistance from Capitol Hill, including his aggressive positions on drone warfare युद्ध and domestic mass surveillance, his most seminal लाभदायक policy achievement, the passage into law of the Affordable Care Act, was only by a sliver of a majority. And he was rebuffed प्रतिघात on agenda points closest to his heart, including common sense gun control reform.
Mr. Obama has built an impressive legacy विरासत spanning domestic and foreign policy. Inheriting विरासत में मिलना  an economy buckling under a severe economic recession, he sprang into action early on in his first term and passed numerous pieces of legislation to buoy the sinking assets of American enterprise. As he pointed out in his speech, today the unemployment rate is near a ten-year low and the U.S. economy is growing again. In foreign policy Mr. Obama was justified in claiming points for the Iran nuclear agreement; on his watch Cuba was finally brought in from the cold, and the death of Osama bin Laden closed the page on a turbulent अशांत chapter of terror on U.S. soil. Mr. Obama, however, was less effective in detente अमन with Russia and China, and his relatively soft approach imbued them with the impunity दण्ड से मुक्ति to challenge Washington across multiple arenas. Yet it is not so much the score that Mr. Obama gets for his achievements and failures that he will be remembered for as much as the man that he was. The U.S.’s first African-American president will be remembered as a thoughtful Commander-in-Chief, a leader who strived प्रयासरत to provide a progressive template for being, and a man of the 21st century who was as comfortable with social media and popular culture as he was sensitive to searing दिलो को भेदने pain of victims of gun crime or racial hate. He will be missed.

VOCABULARY 

1. Stint                         कार्यकाल
2. Soaring                    उड़ने वाला
3. Simmering               सिहर 
4. Racial                      जातीय
5. Regression              वापसी
6. Intractable               असभ्य
7. Demit                      छोड़ना
8. Debris                      मलबा
9. Debacle                    पराजय
10. Corrosive                 संक्षारक
11. Influence                  प्रभाव
12. Logjams                   गतिरोध
13. Dysfunction             शिथिलता
14. Polarisation               धुर्वीकरण
15. Warfare                     युद्ध
16. Seminal                     लाभदायक
17. Rebuffed                   प्रतिघात
18. Legacy                       विरासत
19. Inheriting                   विरासत में मिलना
20. Turbulent                   अशांत
21. Detente                      अमन
22. Impunity                    दण्ड से मुक्ति
23. Strived                       प्रयासरत
24. Vearing                      दिलो को भेदने