GETTING READY TO EXHALE IN RHODE ISLAND - USA

Watching the polls results, has been a roller coaster ride. When Barack Obama was projected to win Pennsylvania, I cried. When Senator Obama was projected to win Ohio, my eyes widened. I yelled "yyYesss!!" We haven't reached the 270 electoral votes, but we are looking better and better.

I have been so anxious. I couldn't bear thinking having George W Bush finally leave the administration of this country and then having John McCain have his bunch continue wrecking my heart. We are looking good right now.



I was driving down Turner Road in Middletown, Rhode Island today and drove by something I found interesting. I had to turn around and go back and asked these children their permission to take their picture. These children were enthusiastically calling out to cars as they were going by and yelling "Honk for Obama" and they had a tally sheet laying on the driveway keeping track of how many "thumbs up" they received and how many "honks for Obama" they received. They asked me if their picture would be in the paper. I said "no" I just wanted to take their picture. We had a little chat and I promised to honk and give them a thumbs up when I drove away.


I had to take a look at what is being written around the world....

ADDOSTOR, Egypt

Obama Unites the First and Third Worlds,
Christianity and Islam, the Poor and the Rich

Translated By Ahmed Massoud

30 October 2008

Edited by Louis Standish

Egypt - ADDOSTOR - Original Article (Arabic )

An American with African roots, a Christian with Muslim origins, a wealthy man from a poor background. Is there any citizen more universal than Barack Obama to govern the country that governs the world?

It's good enough for Obama that his competitor is John McCain: a Republican, a fundamentalist, an American cowboy, an old man, an agent for the oil companies and the successor of Bush. The reasons to reject McCain are endless, but these are not the only reasons to support Obama, who looks to be a better presidential candidate than it can be believed.

Movies have always shown a black president in the White House, but no one imagined it would happen so fast as it’s happening now. When the famous TV star Oprah Winfrey said that she will support Barack Obama, a lot of people thought that this was just a kind of symbolic support given to Green or other third-party candidates, and it was thought that Obama was nothing more than a test candidate who wanted to open to black Americans a small window to the outside world, but Barack has astonished every one and has got only just a few more steps to reach the dream.

The astonishing consensus for supporting Obama's by America’s friends in Europe and its enemies in the Middle East is not unusual or some kind accident, as the unusual mixture of races, religions and social classes that make up Obama makes everyone feel that they are attached to him in some way, as the African origin do not mean just Africa but also the Third World, especially when adding in his half-sister Maya, the product of his mother and her Indonesian father. Also, the links between his Muslim origins and his present Christian beliefs in the unfamiliar name (Barack Hussein Obama), symbolically bringing together followers of the two greatest religions in the world. Obama is not just linked to the Third World, as his mother was a white American from the state of Kansas, who raised him by herself since he was two years old. So it's not difficult for anyone to find something attractive about the Democratic candidate.

But the most important thing about Obama's nomination is the rare way he ascribes change in form and content. The motto "change" in his electoral campaign is not just a platform for economic and tax reformations, but it is a glimmer of hope for everyone, that anything can be possible: it is possible that America can have a president from the minority, even from the most unlucky minority, the African-Americans who came to the new world as slaves, later to become first-class citizens, with one even possibly becoming president. If Obama is elected, he represents a change as he will be a Democratic president, one of the few in the last 30 ears excepting Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, while there have been three Republican Presidents: Ronald Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. These Republican presidents have shown America’s aggressive face, while the Democrats – despite every thing – can be defined by their engagement among minority and civil rights organizations that back the Democratic Party, and one that even fights for the poor, the same organization that Obama once chaired himself in Chicago during the 1990s. He is also just 47, meaning he is still a young man and if we look at the ages of American presidents, change rarely comes too far from young men. And yes we can say that America is a country of organizations, but the prospect of the president and the idea of a leader are very effective in American culture, especially when that leader has a charismatic personality that flows out of the TV screen.

The most important item in Obama's platform is the tax increase on incomes more than 250,000 dollars a year, which is about over ten percent of Americans, in order to aid social programs and pensions for the other ninety percent. This can be seen as social privilege in Obama’s capitalism, differing from the unhelpful Republican capitalism that has had a destructive impact on the world in modern times.

Now what about when they said Bush was for democracy in the Middle East? It has become clear that the Republicans have deceived the people here and they have renounced the change for democracy when their true intentions were revealed, and the Democrats will not be worse than them. At least the Democrats are promising to pull out of Iraq, while McCain says that they will stay there for a hundred of years.

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Folha, Brazil

Obama Wave Reaches Brazil

Source: Watching America

By Eliane Cantanhêde

Translated By Caroline Martinez

04 November 2008

Edited by Louis Standish

Brazil - Folha - Original Article (Portuguese)

Both the Planalto Palace* and the Itamaraty** are visibly pulling for the victory of Barack Obama in the American elections. Brazil prefers the Democrat due to his multilateralism and also for the symbolism of having a black man as the president of the largest democracy on the planet.

The information comes from Eliane Cantanhêde, columnist for Folha and Folha Online, who says that the Obama “wave” has reached Brazil.

“President Lula himself has revealed his opinion. He said that Obama would be to the United States something like what Chavez was for Venezuela, what Lula himself, a union leader, was for Brazil, what the indigenous leader Evo Morales was for Bolivia and what the Bishop Lugo was for Paraguay. A great novelty. An extraordinary factor.”

Cantanhêde, affirms that the great fear is that a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress will transform the United States, especially in the midst of this crisis, into an excessively protectionist country.

According to the columnist, despite the preference for Obama, Brazil likes John McCain’s more open stance with regards to ethanol. “May the American people vote well, and may the best occur not only for the United States, but also for the world. A world that is in crisis,” she says.

*Seat of the Brazilian Government
** Headquarters of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs


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11-04-2008 18:14

Goodbye Bush, Hello Obama?

Source: Korea Times.co.kr

International students at Yonsei University watch special coverage of the U.S. presidential election at a global lounge center on the campus, Tuesday. Ballot boxes were opened in Seoul last night. / Korea Times Photo by Bae Woo-han

Premier Han Says Not Much Will Change Whoever Wins US Election

By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter

Seoul officials said Tuesday that not much will change no matter who wins the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 4. During an interpellation session at the National Assembly, Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said that whoever wins Tuesday's election, Korea-U.S. cooperation and alliance will remain strong.

Lawmakers asked Prime Minister Han and also Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan questions on a range of issues including foreign policy, security and inter-Korean relations.

They wanted to know how Barack Obama from the liberal Democratic Party views the Korea-U.S. alliance and what possible changes he might bring, should he win the White House.
One legislator speculated that if Obama prevails, one could expect Washington to embrace a different North Korea policy.

Prime Minister Han replied, ``Whoever becomes the next U.S. President, the North Korea-U.S. diplomacy will start on the basis of firm South Korea-U.S. alliance."
One lawmaker asked Minister Yu whether an Obama presidency would result in Seoul and Washington having divergent views on North Korea. This year, both President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President George W. Bush have favored a conservative, hawkish approach toward the Stalinist country, though both have arguably softened their stance in recent months.

Yu forecast there won't be any significant problems or changes under the Obama presidency.
``Basically, the Obama camp also actively supports strengthening the bilateral alliance. They also support our North Korea policy of resolving the nuclear problem through six-nation discussions. Policy-wise, we don't think there will be any significant problems," Yu said.

The foreign minister also said that in order for the U.S.-North Korea relations to improve, specific steps for denuclearization ― and Pyongyang's strategic resolve to follow these steps ― must be verified. Washington would also want to see Pyongyang address other issues including human rights abuse in the North, Yu said.

Answering questions about inter-Korean diplomacy, Prime Minister Han also told lawmakers that building another inter-Korean economic zone, similar to the existing Gaesung Industrial Complex, is ``a very good idea."
Rep. Yim Tae-hee from the governing Grand National Party is proposing introducing a bill that would create an inter-Korean industrial area in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, which is located just south of the truce village of Panmunjeom.
``We will support it as much as we can," the prime minister said.

michaelha@koreatimes.co.kr

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Le Potentiel, Congo, The Democratic Republic of

Barack Obama:
Candidate of Africans

Source: Watching America

By JOSEPH KAPWASA

Translated By AIME PINGI

4 November 2008


Congo, The Democratic Republic of - Le Potentiel - Original Article (French)

The skin color of the black senator of the Illinois Barack Obama, the candidate for the race for the White House leaves few people indifferent, especially in Africa. Numerous Africans see in his candidacy a chance for the future of the black continent. But this is not the opinion of the pessimists who believe that the nomination of Obama in the White House would be beneficial only to the Americans.

It is a real debate between the Africans pro-Obama and those who observe the behavior of the African leaders, and who do not hesitate to make the analogy.
In close past, the African continent has known shady periods and continues to undergo fatal consequences as a result of the elections required by democracy. Personalities, who just yesterday were in power, were demonized and seen prevented from running for the head of several countries.

Kenneth Kaunda, Allasan Dramane Ouattara and so many others bore the costs of not having the required nationality. Their previous history having been questioned, their candidacies were purely and simply rejected on base of constitutions made to fit the countries.

It is because the question of nationality raised many debates. To go for the presidency of the Republic in certain countries, it is necessary to have not only parents of the same nationality, but also grandparents. This is nevertheless a drift which no one had the courage to denounce. Even human rights NGOs did not raise the problem. Just like accomplices.

Today when Obama, candidate for the presidency of the Republic of United States of America holds favorable measures to succeed George W Bush, all of Africa is lined up behind him to support his candidacy.

Associations and groups of support have been constituted in Africa to say that Obama was their candidate, because of his African father. These groups of Africans thus remember his previous history and see in him, more of a Kenyan than an American.

Proof that if, just for fun, we asked these Africans to choose Obama as president of the United States, they will certainly not think twice to grant him their votes. But would it be the same if Barack Obama was trying to become the president of the Republic of Kenya? Here also, the answer would be spontaneous. Kenyan politics would have certainly rejected him for a single reason: the origin of his mother. The nationality would have been refused to him under pretext that he is not 100 % child of the soil. His candidacy would be rejected.

Today considered wrongly, or perhaps rightfully, as a héro, Obama transcent all the splits of colors or origin. That is the lesson that Africans have to learn from this American presidential election, even if the American Constitution is very different from those that African conceived for and by the strongest who do not hesitate to do everything to remain a president for life.

Whatever the results, the Africans should remember the example which give the United States are setting today by accepting the candidacy of the one that a good fringe of the population considers as a valid candidate for the future of their nation.

It is thus time that the African leaders understand that the people need only their well-being no matter who the person who would preside over their destiny is, provided that this one showed skill and credibility.

The criteria of origin, race or any other consideration hiding evil intent of those who want to perpetuate their power in African countries are behind the regression of the African people and of the whole of the continent while the others think of conquering space.

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