Well, an Obama victory has finally got me posting again! I've been watching the election progress on tenterhooks and I have no-one to discuss it with at home at the moment, so I'll post instead. I cannot ever remember an election in another country garnering so much interest. The US election is headlining every newspaper and news bulletin and I am glued to BBC News 24, which has continual coverage. I can't really figure out why we are all so enthralled, but I think it is because so much of the world feels the loss of the positive force that America can be on the world stage. It feels like that for the last 8 years, America has become the schoolroom bully that wants to dominate the classroom and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. Now there is a new classroom monitor and a real opportunity for change and development in the US and worldwide.
I think another element is that the worldwide depression has been triggered from the American sub-prime market and it has felt (from the outside) like the US government was prepared to let its own citizens firstly get into debt way over their heads and then gaily watch them slip down the financial plughole without even trying to do anything to help. Another strong memory of the last 8 years of the Bush administration for me is Hurricane Catrina and the appalling mess the US government made of helping its citizens. It was horrifying to watch this supposedly civilised, advanced country doing so little to help the acute distress of so many and the lack of support that was given to the local police and officials who were actually the ones trying to feed and evacuate people. It was a real contrast to the tsunami in Asia, where after 3 or 4 days, aid was reaching even the remotest region but with Catrina, America was refusing international aid, but still not reaching its own citizens after a week.
Obama will have a huge task ahead of him and an unbelievable weight of expectation. I wish him and his family the greatest of good luck in his (and their) new role.
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