WORLD> America
|
WORLD> America
|
|
World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-05 06:42 BERLIN – Around the world, throngs packed outdoor plazas and pubs to await US elections results Tuesday, many inspired by Barack Obama's promise of change amid a sense of relief that -- no matter who wins -- the White House is changing hands. As millions of American voters decided between Obama or John McCain, the world was abuzz with the sense of bearing witness to a moment of history that would reverberate well beyond American borders. "America is electing a new president, but for the Germans, for Europeans, it is electing the next world leader," said Alexander Rahr, director of the German Council on Foreign Relations.
"Tonight we are not going to sleep," said Valentine Wambi, 23, a student at the University of Nairobi who planned to join hundreds of other students in the Kenyan capital for an election party. "It will be celebrations throughout." The Irish village of Moneygall was also trying to claim Obama as a favorite son -- based on research that concluded the candidate's great-great-great grandfather, Joseph Kearney, lived there before emigrating to the United States. The entertainment at Moneygall's Hayes Bar, where an American flag fluttered outside window Tuesday, included a local band called Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys that has been winning air time with its rousing folk song "There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama." "We're not going to go mad with the drink," said Ollie Hayes, who runs the pub. "We just want to show Barack that we appreciate he's from here, to have some finger food and watch the early results come in with the media." In Germany, where more than 200,000 people flocked to see Obama this summer as he moved to burnish his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and websites. In Paris, among the more irreverent festivities planned was a "Goodbye George" party to bid farewell to Bush. "Like many French people, I would like Obama to win because it would really be a sign of change," said Vanessa Doubine, shopping Tuesday on the Champs-Elysees. "I deeply hope for America's image that it will be Obama." The election has also yielded the occasional prank. When 37-year-old Patrick Lindqvist woke up Tuesday in the southern city of Malmo, Sweden, he found six mock campaign posters for McCain planted just outside his house. "It's obviously a prank, but I have no idea who did it," said Lindqvist, who is not involved in US politics in any way. "If I had been able to vote in the American election I would doubtless have chosen a young black man instead of an old white man." |
