Obamania & other things American in the 51st State
Just got back from holiday Down Under last week. And as my blog will show, when I go on holiday, I really holiday. No blogging, no cellphone, but I could not resist responding to emails and facebooking – some addictions cannot be overcome in one holiday. So yes, I may be three weeks past the Obama celebration but from the looks of the Australian media, every day there was some fresh Obama news.
When the American election results were announced, I was in an airport lounge in Perth awaiting a connecting flight to Sidney. It was one of those annoying moments of being the only black person within vicinity. The highly friendly Australians kept coming to congratulate me. I think I must have had about twenty people who came to shake my hand and tell me how happy I must have been, ‘Obama has won, good job,’ one said. I did not exactly work on the Obama campaign and to be honest, while I am sure the Obama family is delighted – as are many Americans, Australians, and the Kenyans who were home and got a public holiday- I doubt very much that Obama’s election will make much of a difference to my life, as an individual and as a South African.
The poor guy has too many domestic problems to deal with to be focusing his energy on a foreign country that has neither the problems of Afghanistan or Iraq nor the trade clout of China. So while I am genuinely happy that a person who does not think General Motors is a US Army general in Iraq will be president of the world’s sole superpower, I wonder what would have happened if I had responded to all those characters in Perth who came to wish Obama and me joy at our newfound presidency with an, ‘actually, I was hoping McCain would win.’ Not that I was but one thing I know is that McCain’s presidency would have given me much more material to write about on my blog. I mean, the man had Palin tipped as VeeP. You have to see the possibilities of that for a blogger – and therefore the slight disappointment I feel, my affection for Obama, ‘chelle and the kids notwithstanding.
I called my mom (on a public phone) to tell her I would be with her soon and she greeted me with a whoop – ‘Obama has done it my baby, Obama.’ OK mom, I will see you in a few hours. I was later to see the full extent of my mom’s Obamania when I got to her (she has bought all bio’s on Obama and the recent one on Michelle and will interrupt her newspaper reading so I too can read a story on Obama – which in Australia, was every day till I left). Among some of the headlines – he has gone to lay some flowers on someone’s grave; he had a conversation with McCain; he is worried about public scrutiny on his private life (then may be he should have considered another job if he really was worried?); and more recently – possibilities of Hillary as Secretary of State. Then there was that delicious (sorry Msholozi, couldn’t resist) cartoon in the Herald. It had an old white man reading the paper about Obama’s win while standing next to a young black man. OWM comments, ‘back in my day, the only thing a black man did was to clean up after the white man’, and the YBM responds after looking at the paper, ‘looks like nothing has changed much.’
But while the lefties in Oz were delighted at Obama’s win and the righties (who in Oz are known as the Liberals) were quiet on it, they found something to make a noise about. Sometime back, Oz premier Kevin Rudd was said to have had a conversation with Dubya. In the conversation Kev 747 (his nickname from the Oz media for his jetsetting skills) suggested to Dubya that insofar as the economy is concerned, instead of just involving the big gun Western nations, it might be necessary to call a meeting of the G20. Unfortunately, according to the leaked tape, Dubya, in the sunset of his eight year presidency, still was unaware what the G20 was. The media had a field day with this – can’t understand why really, may be it was a slow news day – and then the Oz opposition party came in. They asked Rudd whether he had leaked the tape to which he answered in the negative. Then they wanted an investigation done to find out how the tape was leaked. And then when Kev 747 got his way and the G20 meeting was called and was about to begin in America, political commentators from the right kept talking about how important it was for Rudd to apologise to Bush once he got America. How it would save his political future blah blah blah. This was the most important thing the largest opposition party in Australia found to talk about for two weeks in a country that is undergoing a recession.
I get my impression of a nation from the news that the country feeds its people and in Australia where headlines news started either with the leaked tape or Obama, you will all have to forgive me if I think Oz is the 51st American state.
