By Eef Gerard Van Emmerik

MY GENERATION has come of age during the Asian financial crisis, the war on terror, the climate change crisis, and now the worst recession in a century.

Despite growing up in an environment that could have encouraged cynicism, the United States election last year and MrBarack Obama's victory show we still believe very much in heroes.

Confounding expectations that youth are politically apathetic, American youth cast their ballots in unprecedented numbers on Nov4 - 19per cent more than during the last election in 2004, the Harvard Institute of Politics estimates.

American youth seemed solidly behind Mr Obama. So too, young people here, as a YouthInk poll of 141 people last year showed.

One reason young people identified with Mr Obama: He was running on an uplifting message of hope, which appealed to our idealism. A vote for him instead of veteran politician Mr John McCain was seen as a vote for a new future.

Plus, young people like to cheer on the underdog.

The meteoric rise of Mr Obama, who will be sworn in as America's 44th President tomorrow, is inspirational, and his background, romantic.

His late father was from Kenya and his mother was American. Born in Hawaii, he moved to Indonesia at the age of six after his parents split up to live with his mother and Indonesian Muslim stepfather. He return to Hawaii at the age of 10 to live with his maternal grandparents.

Since winning the election, Mr Obama has been named Time magazine's Person of the Year and has graced the cover of numerous publications, including People, the Atlantic, and even a Marvel Comics edition of Spider-Man.

But is there such a thing as a superhero politician?

The American and global public seem to think so. They seem to have conveniently pinned their hopes on Mr Obama, despite a general disenchantment of late in politicians.

But that was then and this is now, and political reality is kicking in, with conflicting priorities for this soon-to-be leader.

Will environmentalists, thrilled by MrObama's promise to focus on alternative energy, vilify him for turning his focus on the nation's economic crisis?

During a democratic primary debate, he had also stated he was 'a stalwart friend of Israel's', and considered it one of the US' 'most important allies in the (Middle East) region'.

But his words sound out of touch now that Israel is at war with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

On Dec30, pro-Palestinian activists picketed outside his Hawaii vacation home. One carried a sign saying: 'Change US foreign policy. Yes we can.'

But will he change his stand?

If he fails to live up to his promises as president, what will happen then?

The greatest irony would be for his fans to become disenchanted with the man they put into power to fix their disenchantment with politics, and to turn on him.

How realistic is it to expect one man to fix the world's problems - war, a global financial meltdown, global warming?

These problems, among many others, call for more than one man to put his shoulder to the wheel. And expectations that the wheel will roll along should be tempered.

The fact is, change is not just about saying, 'Yes, we can' but declaring, 'Yes, we did'.

The writer, 20, has a place to read law at the Singapore Management University.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on January 19, 2009.