Barack has won! And while it seems the Americans are celebrating something close to salvation, the world at large is surging with the energy of it all, if not because of the much wanted `change` that he might lead but just the cosmetic effect of an African-American in the `White` House is grand enough.
From Tokyo to Nairobi to Berlin to São Paulo, Barack Obama`s victory has given people a reason to cheer. The international audience has immense expectations from the new American president and how the world will be run during the next few years — and realistically so, as what the world has experienced today should create a shift, no matter how slight, in America`s perception of and management with the world at large.
Indian student Venkat Ananth believes Barack `will end this stupid needless war in Iraq.` `His was not a political campaign. Barack Obama has actually led a movement on the American soil.`
While Gabrielle Ostuni, a 24-year-old Italian student of political economy, thinks that `America lost its moral legitimacy during the Republicans and has been reduced to a military superpower only.` `I hope that Obama will withdraw American troops from Iraq which has been the foremost cause of European resentment toward the US, and also that he will work to improve America`s image in West Asia.` `Obama will also be good for America`s economy where they need more infrastructure and production-based investment.`
People laugh as they hold a sign of Barack Obama in Florence, Italy.
Polish lawyer Konrad Popławski believes America needs to `end its expansionist policy of taking debts, wherever they can, as the whole world starts to suffer from it...from Obama, I expect less unilateralism and a significant shift in the style of presidency.`
With continual American expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq and in the region at large, south and west Asians have vital stakes involved in an Obama presidency which seeks to negotiate with groups without pre-conditions. Nurullah Rahimi (name changed to protect identity), a 29-year-old Afghan journalist, prefers `a quick impact solution to stop civilian casualties in Afghanistan.` `Obama is keen on deploying more ground troops in Afghanistan which is the right approach at this point in time...the roots of the `Afghan` insurgency is in deed across the Afghan border itself and I think Obama is more enthusiastic on combating it.`
This might not be the best case scenario for Pakistan — and the world at large — considering Obama`s impatience with the country on countering terrorism, and might just evolve into a continuation of the largely Republican and unilateralist attitude which the world clearly wants a break from.
`I want to hope that Obama will withdraw American troops wherever in the world they are posted and leave the world alone, especially the Arabs. After all, who supported the Taliban? Who supported Saddam Hussain? And who unconditionally supports Israel?` Jasmine Kazandjian, a 32-year-old Lebanese-Canadian auditor and a victim of Israeli incursions inside Lebanon, said.
A Lebanese man watches US President elect Barack Obama on a TV screen in Lebanons Sidon city. — AP
With several expedient policy decisions taken by various American governments over the past few decades that have viciously backfired and have left the world, including the US, to suffer from them, Jasmine`s skepticism regarding a meaningful departure of American interference from the affairs of the world is only realistic.
It is a general assumption that as the keeper of the hot-seat changes from Republican to Democrat, America`s foreign policy takes on a more progressive position, while this is `hardly always the case`. In show of that, Obama has been rallying for if not a withdrawal than a drastic troop cut from Iraq, a `gesture` which has been hailed by the world at large but `he is unlikely to challenge the oil oligarch`s control of Iraqi oil-fields because that stabilises the US`s oil-hungry economy,` South African journalist Michael Schmidt said.
On the other hand, several are of the opinion that just the fact that an African-American has become the president of the world`s sole super power is `very important.` `It means he has had to deal with prejudice at several levels, if not every day of his life, and it should ideally make him more sympathetic and open to the plight of others,` says Canadian author and poet JonArno Lawson. `But, unfortunately, nobody really knows who he is or what he`s all about, or who he`s really indebted to...you don`t really get to be so powerful in the States without being indebted...so you`re never really dealing with the finest human beings once you reach the upper echelons of American politics.`
It will be interesting to see if and for how long the seemingly optimistic pro-peace democrat in Obama will be able to resist America`s hidden centres of power; mainly the `military-industrial complex` (which often compels American foreign policy to take a warmongerish stance) and the state bureaucracy itself.
`Yes, an Obama presidency will give people of colour cause to celebrate around the world, but we`ll see what tune they hum after Obama invades his first country!` Schmidt said.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.