WORLD REACTS TO OBAMA's WIN

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_elections_world_view
World reacts to Obama’s win
PARIS
– Barack Obama’s election as America’s first black president unleashed
a renewed love for the United States after years of dwindling goodwill,
and many said Wednesday that U.S. voters had blazed a trail that
minorities elsewhere could follow.People across Africa stayed up all
night or woke before dawn to watch U.S. history being made, while the
president of Kenya — where Obama’s father was born — declared a public
holiday.In Indonesia, where Obama lived as child, hundreds of students
at his former elementary school erupted in cheers when he was declared
winner and poured into the courtyard where they hugged each other,
danced in the rain and chanted “Obama! Obama!””Your victory has
demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to
dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” South
Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, said in a letter of
congratulations to Obama.

Many expressed amazement and
satisfaction that the United States could overcome centuries of racial
strife and elect an African-American as president.”This is the fall of
the Berlin Wall times ten,” Rama Yade, France’s black junior minister
for human rights, told French radio. “America is rebecoming a New
World.”On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a
bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes,” she said.In Britain, The
Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon landing in
describing Obama’s election as “one giant leap for mankind.”Yet
celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces
global challenges as momentous as the hopes his campaign inspired —
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the
elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a global economy in
turmoil.The huge weight of responsibilities on Obama’s shoulders was
also a concern for some. French former Prime Minister Dominique de
Villepin said Obama’s biggest challenge would be managing a punishing
agenda of various crises in the United States and the world. “He will
need to fight on every front,” he said.

Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to
improve badly damaged U.S. ties with Russia. Tensions have been driven
to a post-Cold War high by Moscow’s war with U.S. ally Georgia.”I
stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn
anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the U.S.
administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations
with Russia,” Medvedev said.Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly
popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration
for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government’s chilly rift
with the continent over the Iraq war.”At a time when we have to
confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes
in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world,” French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said in a congratulations letter to Obama.

Poland’s
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski spoke of “a new America with a new
credit of trust in the world.”Skepticism, however, was high in the
Muslim world. The Bush administration alienated those in the Middle
East by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism
suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib
prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide.Some Iraqis,
who have suffered through five years of a war ignited by the United
States and its allies, said they would believe positive change when
they saw it.”Obama’s victory will do nothing for the Iraqi issue nor
for the Palestinian issue,” said Muneer Jamal, a Baghdad resident. “I
think all the promises Obama made during the campaign will remain mere
promises.”

In Pakistan, a country vital to the U.S.-led war on
the al-Qaida terrorist network and neighbor to Afghanistan, many hoped
Obama would bring some respite from rising militant violence that many
blame on Bush.Still, Mohammed Arshad, a 28-year-old schoolteacher in
the capital, Islamabad, doubted Obama’s ability to change U.S. foreign
policy dramatically.”It is true that Bush gave America a very bad name.
He has become a symbol of hate. But I don’t think the change of face
will suddenly make any big difference,” he said.

Obama’s victory
was greeted with cheers across Latin America, a region that has shifted
sharply to the left during the Bush years. From Mexico to Chile,
leaders expressed hope for warmer relations based on mutual respect — a
quality many felt has been missing from U.S. foreign policy.

Venezuela
and Bolivia, which booted out the U.S. ambassadors after accusing the
Bush administration of meddling in their internal politics, said they
were ready to reestablish diplomatic relations, and Brazil’s president
was among several leaders urging Obama to be more flexible toward Cuba.

On
the streets of Rio de Janeiro, people expressed a mixture of joy,
disbelief, and hope for the future.”It’s the beginning of a different
era,” police officer Emmanuel Miranda said. “The United States is a
country to dream about, and for us black Brazilians, it is even easier
to do so now.”Many around the world found Obama’s international roots —
his father was Kenyan, and he lived four years in Indonesia as a child
— compelling and attractive.”What an inspiration. He is the first truly
global U.S. president the world has ever had,” said Pracha Kanjananont,
a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck’s in Bangkok. “He had an Asian
childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a
truly global president.”

[Author]

November 7, 2008 at 10:05 AM