The World Exhales

It has been a long 8 years since the community of nations around the world joined in unison to praise America. But today, that is exactly what happened. From cafe’s on the Champs-Elysees, to markets in Saudi Arabia, to the bustling streets of Asia, world reaction to the election of Barack Obama was met with a stunned pleasure that Americans had made such a bold decision.

In England, the elation was evident in the newspaper headlines. “The New World,” the Times of London declared on its front page, beneath a huge smiling portrait of Obama. “One Giant Leap for Mankind,” echoed the Sun.

In Saudi Arabia one blogger wrote, “Saudis … did not really believe in the American version of democracy. How could they when all the presidents of the so-called ‘melting pot’ were Anglo,” wrote Eman Al-Nafjan. “But now they are rubbing their eyes in disbelief.”

Liu Na, a high school teacher in Beijing, China, said “his victory proves that there is real democracy in the United States.” She added, “He is not from a family of profound influence…. Obama has a very international background, which represents America’s special situation; so many citizens are immigrants. He relied on his own hard work and abilities to go so far.”

“A lot of people told me they had tears in their eyes last night. I was one of them,” Randa Habib, a Jordanian writer and political analyst said. “I saw his speech. I was very moved. This is a lesson to us all, that blacks and whites in America can have such a shameful past between them, yet they come together and learn how to live together….There’s a feeling of hope that things will be right in America. Obama can make you once again respect the U.S. for its values and democracy and all those things we had forgotten about over the last eight years.”

“His [Obama’s] message is so powerful for Africans: Yes we can,” says David Monyae, an independent political analyst in Johannesburg. “If an African-American can do it and become president, then people in Africa think, maybe black nations can also do it, and achieve prosperity, and people who are struggling for democracy in Zimbabwe can do it, and those in power can do what is in their power to change their countries for the better.”

The day after 9-11-2001, a French newspaper declared that ‘today we are all Americans.’ It was a notion that did not last. President Bush’s failed policies eroded that sentiment. Until today. Now, once again, you can feel the excitement from every corner of the globe and suddenly it is back - today we are all Americans.

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