I am preparing lunch while trying to stay abreast with the election results. 297 electoral votes for Obama. Seems that I can throw the veggies into the wok without the risk of burning them to charcoal.
Please help spread the word that communism died twenty years ago. Just yesterday, I received an email that Obama is an evil communist. I guess we will find out whether he also eats small children in the coming four years.
PS: Uh oh, control of the House too. Having seen Barrack Obama coming onto the stage in Grant Park, I think he knows the expectations laid upon him and the many responsibilities that await him. But his daughters had pure joy in their eyes, and that was wonderful to see too. Lol… a prep talk is underway. To lean back and blame others is not going to be an option during the next four years.
Off to eat dessert.
It is very interesting to read the next day commentaries for a political event you actually went to. The analyzing, spinning, and criticizing. In the end, very little of what the person said and what happened is transported to the greater public. This makes me glad that I went to the Siegessäule, although I didn’t see as much of Barack Obama as people watching his speech live on TV (it was broadcasted live throughout Germany with simultaneous translation).
[The view was limited. Lol.]
I saw and listened to my fellow spectators on the way to the Siegessäule, to the people standing around me during the speech, and to people’s reactions afterwards. And of course, I heard Barack Obama’s speech. I didn’t see him though. It was very crowded, people stood close together, and I was standing very far away from the stage. A glimpse of him on a large video screen was all I got.
Some commentators in political forums wrote that they suspect the crowd was large because there were live performances by two bands before the speech. Lol! Do you really think people in Berlin come out in the hundreds of thousands (estimates range from 200,000 to 250,000 people) just to listen to relatively unknown bands playing cover versions? I didn’t realize that they were live acts until the singer tried to rouse the crowd by screaming “Berlin!” through the microphone. All he got was a short stunned silence. Most people were not listening to the music but chatting with people around them. The sound quality of the music was also relatively bad. It was a different sound system than for the actual speech, which I was able to hear loud and clear.
It was interesting to see who came to listen to Barack Obama. They were mostly young people of the intellectual type. Students, young professionals in business garb directly from the office, and most surprisingly quite a large number of young families with their children. Also a relatively large percentage of tourists and visitors. I had thought that the turn-out would be small, because a lot of Berliners have left the city to spend the summer holidays somewhere else, but tourists from all over Germany and Europe filled the gap. There was also a relatively high percentage of black people, more than you would see on a normal day walking down a street in Berlin. When Barack Obama mentioned his Kenyan heritage and his father, there was cheering and I saw some Kenyan flags being waved.
And to set some of the speculations straight that I have read on the Internet, the people in front of the Siegessäule listening to Barrack Obama understood English, they understood what he said. His speech was also broadcasted live on local radio with German translation, and people not speaking English had the opportunity to listen to the translation on the radio, but where I stood, no one needed to.
Why did people come to see him speak, and was it preposterous for a presidential candidate as opposed to an elected president to come to Berlin? Let me first say that people in Germany and Europe fully understand that Barack Obama hasn’t been elected yet, and that Senator McCain may turn out to be the next president of the United States. Would they like to see Barack Obama elected? You bet. I don’t think it’s a secret that the present American president is disliked by most people in Europe, and a lot of that dislike rubs off on Senator McCain. In Europe, party affiliation has traditionally a much higher importance than in the US. That said, I would also have gone to a speech by Senator McCain, but I don’t think that many of the people standing around me last evening would have done the same. People in Europe want to see change in American foreign policy, and John McCain does not represent that.
However, it wasn’t a rally by fervent European Obama supporters either, far from it. I think, most people were like me, they so far had only heard edited sound bites of him and wanted to judge for themselves what the potential next American president is like. I think curiosity and wanting to make him feel welcome in Berlin were the main reasons why people showed up.
The main interest in Germany is in Barack Obama’s plans for foreign policy. It went down well with the crowd that he called himself a fellow citizen of the world. People in Europe know full well that the next American president, whoever he will be, will always put American interests first, but even if interests and opinions differ, I got away with the message that Barrack Obama will care about the rest of the world, that he will listen to what people outside of America think, and will, even if opinions differ, leave communication channels open and don’t resort to open disrespect and insults, like the last administration did.
He would also ask other democratic states around the world for more assistance, and the how’s and why’s of that is where I see the most potential for difference in opinions between Germany and the US. I hope Senator Obama would be more open for discussions than the current administration.
In line with the above, I don’t think it was assumptive for a presidential candidate to make a speech in front of a big crowd (his biggest so far) in a foreign country. Yes, the speech was in large parts a campaign speech, as much directed to the people in Berlin as to American voters, but people outside of the US are as interested to hear what the potential next American president has to say as Americans, for the simple reason that America’s policies will affect them. We can’t vote for or against him, but we at least want to hear what lies ahead should he be elected. Senator Obama mentioned the interconnection in many areas of today’s world, and it’s good to hear that at least one presidential candidate is aware that the world moves closer and closer together, and even the United States does not operate in a vacuum. Americans have been and will be affected by what goes on outside of their country, and the rest of the world will be affected by American policy. In that respect his speech in Berlin was appropriate. Maybe it wasn’t the way things got done before, but times are changing, rapidly. I would love to see Senator McCain come as well. If a presidential candidate visits foreign countries, it doesn’t say that he doesn’t care about domestic issues.
Barack Obama’s visits were undoubtedly intended to show American voters that despite his lack of experience in the international arena, he can make a good figure abroad. I think he proved that. It would be nice to be able to judge Senator McCain’s abilities in that respect as well.
Senator Obama’s speech touched on a lot of issues, it was a well thought out, but it was not a crowd pleaser. He didn’t say “Ich bin ein Berliner”, we got to hear “I love America”. Not that I am saying that he should have repeated President Kennedy’s famous sentence, nor that Senator Obama should not love America. It was all appropriate for the circumstances, it was a very good speech, but it wasn’t a historic one. Go here for a full transcript or here to watch it.
Barack Obama’s speech was full of visions for a better world, and it was interesting to see the different reactions from people standing around me. A few cheered, but the majority was silently asking “how?”. Yes, we all want to see a world in unity, looking out for people less fortunate, but people in Germany will wait and see how much of it is fluffy talk and how much of it will lead to concrete policies, should Barack Obama become the next American president. People here know as well as the people in the US that campaign speeches are full of promises that are not always held. The speech had very few details, and I am hoping to hear more specifics as the actual election comes closer. An American president who works together with allies to make the world a better place is a vision I like very much, but I am old enough to know that it won’t be easy.
See, Europeans are more similar to Americans than everyone thinks. We are as jaded about politics as you are. I hope that will change. It may surprise you, but I will make a vote recommendation for Americans reading this: GO VOTE! For Barack Obama or John McCain, it doesn’t matter as long as you are voting at all. I think it is a great privilege to live in a democratic country, and not only have we the right to vote but the responsibility. If you do not participate in the most basic form of democracy, may be you don’t deserve to live in one. The voter turnout for the last federal election in Germany was 77.7%. Try to beat us!
[People going home]
Also see the short video I posted on youtube and in the previous post.
