Person of the week.

It would be perverse not to name Barack Obama. Leaving aside all narrowly political considerations he emerged from a raw presidential election as an authentic leader of a nation whose character is changing rapidly. More, he is actually himself a symbol of that change; born of an English mother, an African father and brought up by a devoted grandmother in Hawaii. The often -used term “melting pot” to describe the variety of European races that once emigrated to America can now be taken to refer to a unique nation of blacks, browns and whites who have the opportunity to show the world how to live peacefully and productively together.