What are people saying, you ask?

We start with America's northern neighbor and the path that took Canadian travel writer Daniel Sturgis around the world before settling and marrying in Rabat, Morocco. With his global perspective, Sturgis surmises an easy victory for Obama today, doubting any significant number will vote Republican:

If people around the world were going to vote for the American president, I'd wager Obama would win with at least 90% of the vote.

In Africa and the Middle East, it would be pushing 100%, with only a few extremists voting for McCain because he would be better for the hate-America campaign.

A 27-year-old female Michigan resident, also from Rabat, Morocco, writes as Kaoutar and listens to Democrats and Republicans at Michigan State University. She suggests the Middle Eastern perspective on the election does not necessarily agree on the best man for the White House:

What they believe is that the Republican policy is what is needed in the Middle East. It’s not that they are happy with the situation there, but that, according to them, the problem with Democrats is that they are “flexible” and that solving some problems, like the Syrian presence is Lebanon and Saddam’s rule (both of which ended during Bush’s presidency) need “firm actions,” like those the Republicans, rather than the Democrats, are able to take.

…I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Obama though, the candidate I personally think is more likely to make the right decisions.

Another Moroccan blogger, Ibn Kafka, believes both candidates have similar foreign policy platforms, arguing Obama would be hawkish on Israel and Afghanistan to McCain's Iraq, and both of them would pressure Iran and shut down Guantanamo.

Does all of this mean that I wouldn’t vote, if I were entitled to? Certainly not: I’d vote for Ralph Nader, of course, provided that I lived in a state having him on the ballot. Otherwise, I’d vote Obama, extremely reluctantly - the fact that Al Gore would probably act as his adviser on global warming issues would convince me that there is a small difference - although one should remember that the Kyoto protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions was ditched by the Clinton administration, with Gore serving as vice-president.

Oh and yes: of course, it’d be a nice symbol to have an Afro-American president, but the only thing he has in common with Martin Luther King or Malcolm X is the colour of his skin. And I must say that I am afraid that his honeymoon with foreign media and countries could undeservedly deflect much of the criticism that his policies would otherwise warrant.

In Rwanda, an anonymous blogger and Obama fan writing under the moniker amazedlife, is nervous about the election:

I pour over maps on the internet, willing more states to turn blue, even though what is blue already is probably enough.

It gets dark at 5:00 p.m., now, and I keep thinking maybe I should buy one of those full-spectrum lights, although I think an Obama victory tomorrow could carry me through many dark evenings.

I'm arranging a steady stream of activities to keep me from chewing my own fingers to nubs tomorrow night.

Some take the middle road, such as this Ethiopian blogger who merely offers wishes of Happy Election Day:

This post is dedicated to our friends and readers who have put so much hope in the elections today in the United States. Inside and outside the country.
So, have a happy Election Day.

Este post está dedicado a nuestros amigos y lectores que tienen tantas esperanzas puestas en las elecciones de hoy en Estados Unidos. Dentro y fuera del país.
Que tengas un feliz día electoral.

The rambling Sandmonkey in Egypt says it simpler in a post titled, The End is Here:

OK, what are you doing? GO OUT THERE AND VOTE!

Flying to the southern terminus of Africa, Paul and KerryAnne of Cape Town Daily Photo shout-out to their approximate 50 percent American readers of their South African blog and offer hope for winds of change in the election:

We are watching the unfolding of your elections with keen interest - the outcome will certainly impact us, and the rest of the world too. Our wish is that today would herald a new era, and a change that we can believe in.

So if you haven't already, do go and cast your vote, and help make a little bit of history.

Coming full circle, we return to Daniel Sturgis, the Canadian expat living in Morocco:

If a President McCain pledged that any Americans remaining in Iraq hoped to be treated as temporary guests, Iraqi people would have a hard time swallowing it. But if a President Obama spoke the magic words of withdrawal and friendship, they just might. That's the key difference. Obama has a chance to do a lot of symbolic good at a time where it's sorely needed. The times of animosity, go it alone, with us or against us, stay the course and other pigheaded Bushisms needs to come to an end.

With McCain, it might come to an end politically.

But with Obama, it will come to an end politically and symbolically. That is why Americans who love their country, who hope their children can travel the world without claiming to be Canadian, or who hope for a better tomorrow, should vote for Barrack Obama.

From France, Patrick Sabatier points out that John McCain has a tough task ahead of him because his basic philosophy on the economy, fewer regulations and less transparency on financial transactions, are at the very core of the current failing of the finance giants of Wall Street.

” Il y a quelques mois encore, le candidat républicain déclarait au Wall Street Journal “être en toutes circonstances favorable au minimum de régulation”. Mardi matin encore il expliquait en Floride “ne pas aimer les réglementations excessives et inutiles”. Sa colistière Sarah Palin promettait dans le Colorado que le tandem républicain allait résoudre la crise en “dégageant la voie pour le secteur privé en en écartant le gouvernement”. Propos en parfaite contradiction avec la politique suivie depuis des mois par l'administration républicaine et assez irresponsables puisque pratiquement tous les économistes conviennent que le krach des géants de la finance de Wall Street est la conséquence directe de l'absence de contrôle, de réglementation et de transparence de leurs activités, dont McCain reconnaît lui-même qu'elles tiennent plus de la table de jeu au casino que d'autre chose. Mais les candidats républicains ne peuvent ni dénoncer la politique passée de Bush, ni applaudir sa politique actuelle, sans auparavant abjurer leur credo ultra-libéral.”

A few months ago, the Republican candidate stated to the Wall Street Journal that he was under all circumstances in favor of minimal regulations. Tuesday morning, he was still explaining in Florida that he was against excessive, useless regulations. His VP Sarah Palin promised in Colorado that the Republican tandem will solve the crisis by moving aside the government to make ways for the private sector. Unfortunately, those statements are in perfect contradiction to the strategy followed by the Republican administration for a few months and quite irresponsible because practically all economists agree that the current crisis in Wall Street is a direct consequence of the absence of control, regulations and transparency for the activities of these financial giants. McCain himself recognizes that their activities are closer to gambling at the casino than anything else. However, the Republican candidate cannot denounce the politics of the past by Bush, neither his current policy without denying their ultra conservative credo first.

Mariane Enault from France argues that although one may think that this argument is only reserved to Europe, it is the same old debate all over again: interventionism vs laissez-faire. She explains each candidate's basic philosophy.

McCain argues that the foundations of the economy are sound:

“la crise bancaire, “ce n'est pas la faute des Américains”. Pour lui, les coupables sont tout trouvés, “les intérêts particuliers, la cupidité, l'irresponsabilité et la corruption qui ont miné le dur labeur des Américains”. Il promet s'il est élu “de mettre fin aux abus”. En la matière, le républicain se veut plutôt rassurant. “Les éléments fondamentaux de l'économie sont solides”

The banking crisis is not the fault of the American people. For him, the culprits are obvious: “particular interests, greed, irresponsibility and corruption have undermined the hard labor of Americans”. He promises to “put an end to the abuse.” For that matter, the Republican wants to be reassuring: “The basic elements of the economy are solid”

Democratic candidate Barack Obama has a different view:

“De quelle économie parle-t-il? Je pense que [McCain] ne comprend pas” [..] Obama souhaite ainsi renforcer l'autorité des organismes de régulation, restructurer le secteur des agences de régulation et améliorer la transparence du marché. En bref, une réglementation “qui protège les investisseurs et les consommateurs”.”

“What economy is he talking about ? I think he [McCain] does not get it.” He (Obama) wishes to reinforce the authority of a regulating agency, restructure the sector of regulating agencies and improve market transparency. In short, regulation that protects “investors and consumers”

Martin Even from Belgium notes that the economic crisis does not affect only the US. He writes in Jeune Afrique:

“Au Capitole, le sénateur de l’Illinois vient de parrainer et de faire voter, dans l’indifférence quasi totale des médias, le Global Poverty Act, qui engage les États-Unis à participer aux Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement adoptés par l’ONU en 2001.”

On Capitol Hill, amidst the complete indifference of mainstream media, the senator from Illinois supported and pushed to pass the Global Poverty Act, which commits the United States to participate in the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) proposed in 2001 by the UN.

interview the most certain act in the fight against AIDS is to maintain monogamous relationships. The advice was seen as seen as ironic coming from a former President who was impeached by the House of Representatives (and later acquitted by the Senate) for perjury and obstruction of justice involving an extra-marital affair he was having with a 22-year-old White House intern.

Speaking of politics, the former President later failed to admit that Barack Obama was ready for the highest office of the United States. This has fueled reports that Clinton is still angry over Obama defeating Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States.

Win or lose, Obama will find himself most often compared to Bill Clinton, the country’s last Democratic President. In Israel, Aron’s Israel Peace Weblog noticed something familiar when Obama recently sat down for an interview with the conservative paper, the Jerusalem Post.

No one in my quadrant of the political spectrum is ever going to be elected President. So my key criteria for a “good” President are: compassion, worldliness, intelligence and political savvy. Obama seems to have all of these in abundance. Although I don't agree with many of the details of his positions, the more I hear him speak the more impressed I am. He is the savviest and most intelligent politician the Democratic party has produced since Bill Clinton, and I mean that as a compliment. He may not be super progressive, but he seems to be on the correct side of the fence on all important issues. And the more I see him, the more I feel he has the same human empathy and care for people that Clinton did.

Finally, Clinton’s policies against Osama bin Laden have again made waves. Saisi Duni, from Kenya, reports that a new book by the journalist Lawrence Wright claims that the U.S. military strikes to hoping to cripple the Al-Qaeda network in east Africa after the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania had the opposite effect.

The Clinton administration’s failure to strike back effectively in 1998 helped make it possible for al Qaeda to carry out the massive attacks on New York and Washington three years later, says the book titled The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Wright describes as “ineffectual” the US retaliation for the August 7, 1998, bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Less than two weeks later, 13 cruise missiles were fired at a factory in Khartoum that the United States believed was being used to develop poison gas for use by al Qaeda. Simultaneously, 66 cruise missiles were launched from US warships in the Arabian Sea. Their targets were al Qaeda training camps near Khost in eastern Afghanistan. The twin missile attacks were given the code name “Operation Infinite Reach.”


“We really want to showcase this success story so that we can energize the American people and people in high levels of government to understand this is not only an important partnership, but also an investment in even greater economic development and real opportunities, not only for people in Rwanda, but people in countries all through Africa.”- Senator Frist, US Republican Senator.

Indego Africa is an artisan trade intermediary that has successfully built a partnership between African communities and volunteers. Its business model is geared to “leverage the talent and productive energy of African communities into effective entrepreneurial endeavors that help to foster social development.”

Indego Africa achieves its main objectives of alleviating poverty and chronic unemployment in Africa by providing reliable income, developing job skills, and affording access to export markets, with the goal of creating and supporting sustainable businesses.

As a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit, Indego Africa sells handicrafts designed and made by artisans who work with its partner organizations in Africa. Indego Africa partners are existing community groups in African nations dedicated to teaching employable skills to their communities. Indego Africa handicrafts will be sold in their country of origin, in retail stores in the US and Europe.

Indego Africa recently received the Skandalaris Award for Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Washington University in St. Louis, U.S.

Share This