If you don't know what happened today, you need to come out of your cave, rock or whatever it is that you've been trapped in or under.
Barack Obama will be sworn in office in January, 2009 and he will be the 44th President of what's still the world's greatest superpower today. Oh, did I mention he is also the first African American to accomplish such a feat?
Obama's now-famous campaign slogan, Change We Can Believe In, is a testament to his historic candidacy and the belief he has instilled not just in America, but perhaps around the world. As a product in today's multicultural world, those in my generation knows no geographical bound and I often pride myself on being at the very least, open and aware to various cultures.
Today, however, I found out what it really meant to be "diverse." In Kenya, the government announced a public holiday for Obama as people danced and sang. In the UK, people watched the election in theaters and some expressed hopes that one day a Black Prime Minister may be the face of all Britons. In Pakistan, people expressed high hopes for Obama to improve the West-East relationship in the region. In Russia, where recent disputes have possibly launched the second Cold War, President Dimitri Medvedev expressed hopes to work with President-elect Obama. In Shanghai, offices stopped to listen to his acceptance speech as people hopes he will bring on a new age of partnership between the two giant gorillas of the world's fate.
I do not believe McCain would be any less of a leader had he won today. However, the world today paints a very different picture than when McCain served his country. Today, oil and stock has replaced missiles as weapons of mass destructions (well, in most part anyway) and the world is so separated that communication is no longer valued, only hostility and self-preservation. In times like these, we do need a leader whose background gives him a first hand experience at the different cultures in the world so that he may work with them in the future.
Obama is no Jesus Christ. He does not walk on water, then turn it into wine and god knows he has been dragged through the mud and shown weaknesses during this gruelsome election. But I belive his campaign has started something new. For starters, young people now are much more engaged in politics and it will certainly serve us better to have the "future" take part in the present.
More importantly, there is hope. The world is still too heavy a burden and perhaps too damaged to be carried even on Obama's shoulders, but I think he has started soemthign special and the belief that "anything is possible" will ripple through the world and encourage more changes for the better. There is no magic pill for the trouble we have brought onto ourselves today, may it be the economy or the environment, but I think the sense of hope has been rekindled.
In a desperate world, it seems that the hope of not just America, but the world rests in Obama's hands. I think, however, this shows how starved we are for a real change in the world...Leaders who does not rule with just their own prosperity in mind, but those who are willing to work together.
So, if a black man who grew up in an Indonesian orphanage and has the middle name "Hussein" can go on to be the president of United States, who's to say that someday you and I can't do something truly world-changing.
This, I think, is more powerful than any one of Obama's rhetorics or speeches. This is the most powerful attribute of his legacy.
Now, let's hope the changes that we believe in can turn out to be changes we see.
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