"And to all those who are watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world - our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared". - President-Elect, Barak Obama
About a month or so ago, a good friend of mine was having coffee in a little cafe in France with a friend whose shy five-year old daughter had an important question tugging at her mind the same way that she was tugging on her mom's pants. Finally, with some insistent urging from mom, she asked her big question:
"If you are American, why aren't you black?"
Such is the influence had by Obama on even the youngest generations off US shores. To those who think that Americans living abroad have "lost touch" with things back home and thus have some kind of "skewed" perspective on things, rest assured that those of us living abroad often have a crystal clear view of our country and culture.
As it happens, I live in a highly international, highly politically-charged town in which I see, first hand, the way in which the perception of America - and Americans - affects important international public policy decisions. The way it affects diplomatic relations with other countries; the way it affects funding for humanitarian and other international efforts; and the way it affects everyday relations with people on the street.
I have no expectations whatsoever that Obama, let alone anyone, will be able to simply "wave a magic wand" and fix it all. And among all the hype and high hopes, I imagine that a great many people will be profoundly disappointed by his "performance" over the course of his coming term. Yet I will be the first to admit that I did not place my bets on Obama for his position on single issues of greater or lesser importance, but rather for his potential to restore the hopes, dreams and passions of the American people and the long and terribly detrimental international credibility of a country that has so much more to offer.
Any good business leader will tell you that even the best business plan will ultimately fail in the absence of a cohesive, dedicated and motivated human resource team. You are nothing without your people; so too, for a nation. If those you encounter abroad, those with whom you negotiate are in an undeniably interdependent global world, those living, working and studying under your flag see you as neither credible nor intelligent. It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, pro-business or pro-worker, you will ultimately fail.
In a country with 20,000 registered US voters, and in a city where hundreds of volunteers used Skype to call voters in the US asking their support for Obama and where election night parties sold over 600 tickets in the first three days, America may well have been right here. No longer able to beat the jet lag-combined with the election coverage time change, I went to bed last night before knowing the results ... only to be awakened at 5AM this morning by someone wandering down the street yelling "Obaaammmmaaa! Obaammaaa!" And as I turned on the TV from bed to see if it was true, I couldn't help but feel a bit like a little girl at Christmas.
The Promise: For Many Abroad, an Ideal Renewed
Ethan BRONNER, NY Times - It's hard to overstate how fervently vast stretches of the globe wanted the election to turn out as it did.
0 comments:
Post a Comment