Kenyans Pray for Obama Victory

Although most of Barack Obama’s most passionate supporters obviously live in the United States, there are also many of them living in other countries. Especially Kenya is heavily pro-Obama.

Obama’s biological father was Kenyan, and Obama still has many relatives living in the African country. Kenyans, obviously, know this and are rooting massively for an Obama victory today. In some villages, they have even come together to pray for such a victory.

In Europe too, most people heavily favor Obama. Most believe that Obama will reach out to Europe more than George W. Bush did during his infamously unilateral and even arrogant presidency, and they believe that Obama will put the United States on a course similar to Europe’s: a true welfare state, in which the government takes care of those who cannot or do not take care of themselves.

Of course there is another reason why many Europeans support Obama: they believe that his victory would mean that racism is dealt a decisive blow. Despite available evidence to the contrary, Europeans generally believe that Americans are more racist and xenophobic than they are. An Obama victory could change America for the better in that regard as well.

In the Middle East too, many millions hope that Obama will win, believing that his policies will be less “anti-Arab” than those of George W. Bush and, they believe, John McCain. For them, Israel and the war in Iraq both remain prime issues; Obama, quite some of them believe, will be more willing to listen to the Arab world and to break with Israel when his sense of justice, from their perspective, tells him so.

At the same time, those living in hotbeds like Georgia, Iraq and other countries in troubled regions support McCain because they believe that the Maverick from Arizona will be more likely to protect them when they are invaded by a major power like Russia.

But most of the world is undoubtedly rooting for an Obama victory. There is something wonderful about that for it unites the world and it improves the relationship between the rest of the world, especially Europe, and the United States considerably, but also something highly hypocritical and even troubling.

The hypocritical part is this: while Europeans believe that America is a racist society but that Obama could change that to a significant degree, they never seem to wonder why it is that most immigrants and their children do not feel welcome on the old continent. Not one minister of the Netherlands, or his parents, was (were) born in a different country. If we were less racist and more open to ‘newcomers,’ and more likely to vote for a ‘non-white’ politician, this would most certainly be different, for we have some highly talented non-white politicians in this country.

The troubling aspect is this: one almost gets the sense that they expect something of Obama they should expect of no leader. They think that he can transform American foreign policy to such a tremendous degree, that he will be able to deal with all or at least most problems in the world and, for instance, finally help the Palestinians and Israelis come to a peace agreement.

This is, of course, highly unlikely for a variety of reasons, one of them being that this is a regional, not American problem. America can assist, can encourage, advise, but Palestinians and Israelis themselves will have to agree on a deal. They have the last say.

Also, one feels that many foreigners think that Obama will behave like a ‘citizen of the world.’ A man who happens to be America’s president. His goal, many seem to believe, should be to take care of ‘the world’ as a whole, and implement policies that serve ‘the world’s’ interests.

Sadly, this is not how it works. Obama should not and cannot behave like a ‘citizen of the world.’ His first and foremost goal should always be to protect America’s interests, regardless of what this means for the rest of the world. Secondly, it is not always clear what ‘the interest of the world’ is exactly. The world consists out of very different countries with different peoples, who have different cultures, values and interests. Seldom to never is ‘the world’ united about anything. Obama cannot change that, neither should it be expected of him.

But – today marks an important day, and if Obama wins, tomorrow will be a day of celebration worldwide. The disappointment will undoubtedly follow later. For now, it’s party time.

Assuming Americans do what the pollsters tell us, namely vote for Obama in what could very well be a landslide victory (which I do not suspect).