I met Bill Clinton some years back. I admired his presidency. I admire his character, I admire what he is doing for HIV/AIDS through his Clinton Foundation, but I am still against Hillary Clinton becoming the next Secretary of State.
As I have said before, the US needs a fresh approach in foreign affairs. Hillary Clinton possesses zero experience. She was a sour loser after the primaries, she did very little to support Obama, why should she be rewarded with a cabinet post? Again, her campaign for this position is also worrying me. There is Swahili adage that says, ” a tin makes the loudest noise”. For me, she is an empty tin.
Click here to read an article by Toby Harnden giving 10 reasons why Hillary should not be the next Secretary of State.

Daschle is a classy, well-liked politician that commands respect from both sides of the isle and I am so glad to see him back after republicans from all over the country converged on South Dakota in 2004 to make sure he lost his seat after he was viewed as an “obstructionist” by the republicans for trying to stop the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act” in 2001 that offered a $1.4 trillion tax cut to mostly wealthy Americans. Fast forward to the situation in 2008…….need I say more?

Just glad to see Daschle back.

The Secret Service has investigated the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho making the suggestion of a free public hanging of Mr. Obama. In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Mr. Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus. In a Maine convenience store was a sign inviting customers to spend a dollar to join a betting pool on when Mr. Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Mr. Obama was attacked. The since taken down sign cheerfully closed with “Let’s hope we have a winner.” In Denver, a group of men with guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Mr. Obama and sparked fears of an assassination plot during the Democratic National Convention. Just before the election, two men in Tennessee believed to be skinheads were charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Mr. Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedos. In Milwaukee, police officials found a poster of Obama with a bullet going toward his head on a table in the middle of the police station.

The Secret Service also cautions that the public should not assume that any threats against Mr. Obama or his family are due to racism. However, cases of racially hateful graffiti, not necessarily directed at the Obama family, have emerged in numerous reports across the nation. I guess the public is supposed to believe that this is just an unfortunate coincidence. Chatter among white supremacists on the Internet has increased throughout the campaign and since Election Day. But again, that’s just another one of those coincidences that doesn’t necessarily mean any racial hostilities are fermenting.

With the selection of Mr. Obama as the first black president, racists and white supremacists are using the belief of anonymity to post some serious hate on the internet. There are lengthy discussion threads about what will happen now that Mr. Obama has been elected as our next president. There are a number of white nationalists and patriots who inhabit these sites making derogatory postings with racist slurs.

The Secret Service cautions that the public should not assume that any threats against Mr. Obama or his family are due to racism.

Many of these people aren’t going to do anything they say. In many of the investigations already concluded the consensus was that there was no credible threat to Mr. Obama or his family. Most of these people are pretty toothless. But the behavior of these people and the sudden upsurge in racist slurs should be a concern to anyone with a genuine interest in the condition of race relations. It is true that none of these people may pose a threat to the Obama family, but many of these people may not hesitate to take their wrath out on the nearest or most convenient person of obvious African American descent.

I would expect that if anyone was to put together a message on the internet or anywhere else saying that he or she is going to go down to the local school and kill all the people there, that person would find his or her self under an FBI microscope and facing some kind of charges, if for nothing else for making somebody in law enforcement do some work. America has a rich history of people following through on their racial hate. We also have a history of blaming the victims of racial animosity for being attacked and defending themselves. People who try to get protection from being harassed, people who try to take their concerns to law enforcement, are dismissed with a roll of the eyes. Nooses are just pranks. Threats against our black president-elect don’t need to be taken seriously. And when people are attacked for having the same obvious ethnicity as our first non white president it will be nothing but a weird coincidence of ethnicity.

Still, surprisingly, Mr Obama has made some foreign policy committment to Africa - e.g. assistance with funding for ARV for HIV patients. Something for Africans to be optimistic about though it’s not quite the equivalent of visa-free travel to the US that many were secretly hoping for in Kenya.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the Pastor who posted the message: “Barack Obama is a Muslim, This is a sin against the Lord”. Check out the video below:



While I’m certain that all Christians don’t mirror the feelings of this pastor, I bet there are those that do. Even if you set aside the lunacy of the sentiment that having a different belief is a sin, I wonder why this pastor insists that President Elect Obama is a Muslim. One of the sore spots of his campaign involved his long term relationship with and attendance of a certain Christian pastor’s church. Why the continued assertion?I suspect perhaps this pastor is simply misguided, so blind by his own interpretation of the Bible, that he can’t see what’s in his heart. I believe that there, in each and every human being is the knowledge that we are all connected (like it or not), that we have (or should have) the powerful ability to think and reason - despite what is written, and that if you do believe in a higher power (and it is your right not to), that such power would not encourage this type of separatism.

President-elect Barack Obama spoke via video conference (earning green kudos for low carbon communication) to attendees at the Bi-partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles two days ago and his address was a clear message that with him at the helm the US will be seriously committed to addressing climate change. He made some of the same statements he's been issuing on the election trail, and post election that we blogged about here. But this 4 min clip is really worth checking out to gauge his committment. This guy sounds serious about doing things!

Obama said that although he would not be making the trip to Poland in December for the next round of UN Climate Change talks, he would be following the outcome:

“Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather in Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet. While I won’t be President at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one President at a time, I’ve asked Members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there.”

It will be interesting to see how the talks play out in his abscence and whether the Bush administration will acceed defeat or still try to remain obstructionist. They won't find any more support from Canada or Japan this time around, surely?

Also interesting was his mention of nuclear power and intimating that nuclear safety would have to be addressed: “We'll tap nuclear power by making sure it's safe.”

The official Obama Energy Plan says: “However, before an expansion of nuclear power is considered, key issues must be addressed including: security of nuclear fuel and waste, waste storage, and proliferation.”

As one commentor said - if addressed means solved, then expansion is out of the question any time soon!

No mesmo dia em que Obama confirmava a condição de vencedor, os noticiários internacionais abarrotavam de notícias terríveis sobre África. No mesmo dia da vitória da maioria norte-americana, África continuava sendo derrotada por guerras, má gestão, ambição desmesurada de políticos gananciosos. Depois de terem morto a democracia, esses políticos estão matando a própria política. Resta a guerra, em alguns casos. Outros, a desistência e o cinismo. Só há um modo verdadeiro de celebrar Obama nos países africanos: é lutar para que mais bandeiras de esperança possam nascer aqui, no nosso continente. É lutar para que Obamas africanos possam também vencer. E nós, africanos de todas as etnias e raças, vencermos com esses Obamas e celebrarmos em nossa casa aquilo que agora festejamos em casa alheia.

On the same day that Obama was confirmed as the winner, there were plenty of terrible pieces about Africa in the international news coverage. On the same day of the victory for the majority of Americans, Africa was still being defeated by wars, mismanagement, and the excessive ambition of greedy politicians. After having killed democracy, these politicians are killing their own politics. The war remains in some cases. In others, there are flinch and cynicism. There is only one real way of celebrating Obama in the African countries: it is fighting so that more flags of hope may rise here in our continent. It is fighting for the African Obamas to win too. And we, Africans of all races and ethnicity, will win together with these Obamas and celebrate in our house what we now celebrate elsewhere.

Some people disagreed with that view and considered it a comparison between apples and pears. Mozambican sociologist Patricio Langa replies saying that Couto was comparing 300 years of the establishment of democratic institutions in the US with two decades in Africa, and pointing out that the idea of predatory elites is a widespread and unfortunate defect of reasoning. He mentions a book by Patrick Chabal and Jean Pascal Daloz, “Africa Works: Disorder as a political Instrument” as the academic background of such arguments. The blogger concludes:

Perguntem aos americanos quantas guerras antecederam a sua democracia secular, quantas pilhagens houve até desenvolverem instituições credíveis (e mesmo assim caíram na maior crise corrupta do sistema bancário); quantos políticos desonestos se descobrem hoje na terra do tio SAM; quantos corruptos são denunciados e tantos outros escapam; perguntem aos americanos como se lida com os lobbyistas. Aí veremos que o problema não reside apenas na condição genética de político africano. Não estou a sugerir com isto que a África tenha que passar pela mesma trilha. Estou simplesmente a sugerir que África devia ser analisada por seus próprios termos. Não existe nenhuma possibilidade de se pensar num Obama africano, assim como é absurdo pensar-se, ainda que se faça, numa África que são os EUA.

Ask Americans how many wars there were prior to their secular democracy, how much looting took place until they developed credible institutions (and even then they fell in the greatest corrupt crisis of their banking system); how many dishonest politicians are uncovered today in Uncle Sam's land; how many corrupt people are denounced and how many others manage to escape; ask Americans how to deal with lobbyists. Then we will see that the problem is not only with the genetic condition of African politicians. I am not suggesting that Africa has to go through the same paths. I'm simply suggesting that Africa should be examined by its own terms. There is no possibility of thinking about an African Obama, as well as it is absurd to think, although it has been done, about an Africa that is the USA.

Angolan blogger Koluki follows the surreal trail to “try to imagine an Africa that was the United States of Africa,” which would be a country with the following characteristics:

1. Os EUA Africanos estariam independentes ha’ mais de dois seculos e nao teriam existido guerras de libertacao contra o colonialismo durante decadas. Caso, por alguma razao, tivessem existido ‘movimentos de libertacao’, estes tenderiam a perseguir os seus objectivos atraves de protestos, marchas, boicotes, cancoes e sonhos, sendo pouco provavel que se organizassem em exercitos armados.

2. Os EUA Africanos teriam adoptado uma Constituicao guiada por ideais libertarios, tanto em termos de liberdade economica como individual e nao teriam seguido estrategias de desenvolvimento socialista lideradas por ex-guerrilheiros marxistas ou maoistas coadjuvados por poetas e romancistas e aconselhados por acessores estrangeiros.

3. Os lideres dos EUA Africanos, independentemente da sua raca, etnicidade, genero ou origem geografica, nao seriam simplesmente apontados e ‘entronados’ em posicoes governamentais ou empresariais com base na sua militancia partidaria, mais antiga ou mais recente, mas teriam que, no primeiro caso, concorrer a eleicoes regulares sancionadas pelo sufragio universal, tanto a nivel do seu partido como a nivel nacional, em condicoes de igualdade com qualquer outro candidato elegivel e, no segundo caso, demonstrar as suas capacidades e competencias atraves de resultados positivos observaveis e aprovados pelos ‘shareholders’ das suas empresas ou, dito de outro modo, teriam que ‘subir a pulso’.

She then asks if Barack Obama would be elected the president of the United States of African, and answers: “YES HE COULD!”

Burma experts and observers predict that both incoming Obama-Biden administration and democrat-controlled congress are likely to maintain current Burma policies in general, based upon the candidates’ past statements/comments, and bipartisan supports given to Burma resolutions in congress. Thus, the democracy campaigners and lobbyists for Burma residing in Washington will still have easy access to sympathetic ears in both White House as well as in the congress.

Many exile Burmese democratic oppositions and activists had expressed their appreciations to current President Bush and particularly, the First Lady Laura Bush for their high profile support for Burma, and particularly calling for the release of its pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. And their staged visit made to Thailand meeting with pro-democracy activists residing along border areas, on their way to Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics.

Recently released prominent Burmese opposition leader, U Win Tin, urged the President-elect Obama to extend his ‘change’ mantra to his impoverished country, help pressure the current military government to honor the results of 1990 elections that his party had won in landslide.

And further on, he also cautioned the incoming US administration not to make compromise with current military leaders, and asked for continuation of current economic sanctions and proactive pressures on Burma. However, the effectiveness of such sanctions had been a long running debate between pro-sanction democratic activists and pro-engagement lobbyists of both Burmese and expatriates alike.

Although Burma issue will not be listed as top of priority for incoming Obama administration foreign policy, nevertheless, it will get proper attention due to its high moral ground on democratic principles stated in his first election victory speech.

Hence, Burma will still be under the administration’s foreign policy radar screen, with the help of DC based Burma campaigners and lobbyists pushing the same old strategies that so far have failed to produce any positive results of either to remove the regime from the power or pressu- -red them to engage with democratic oppositions for genuine national reconciliation process.

What remains to be seen is, whether the new US administration would follow current Burma policy labeled as ‘an old wine in the new bottle’ or pursue alternative policies be marked as ‘a new wine in a new bottle’?

I joined my colleagues Professor Mick Cox and Mark Duckenfield at an LSE Ideas meeting with London’s international media to talk about the US Elections. They both seemed to think that the game is up for the Republicans thanks in large measure to the “the economy stupid”.

As Duckenfield explained, McCain has spent years arguing against regulation and government spending. Those are the two measures that the US people seem to want now to cure the current crisis and they are exactly what the Bush White House is doing.

As Professor Cox said, the Republicans used to win a lot of ‘values’ votes. But who cares about abortion or gay marriage when you can’t pay your mortgage?

As for Obama’s race. Well America has changed say the two LSE experts. And anyway, Obama is not a traditional black American politician. He is of mixed partentage and his blackness is Kenyan. And don’t forget the swelling Hispanic vote which seems to be swinging to its natural class-aligned preference for the Democrats.

The current agenda just isn’t working for the Republicans under these conditions. Voters always blame the incumbants for economic crisis (watch out Gordon). And the obsession with national security slips down your priority list when you might lose your job. Not even Iraq is really playing as a big factor anymore. And we all thought that would be THE issue for 2008.

My suggestion was that Obama’s campaign has given him more stability at this unstable time. The fact that he is a very safe, studious and serious candidate now helps. But it also helps that he built his whole campaign from the bottom up, largely through grass-roots Internet campaigning.

I think this has given him a spread of committed and engaged support that will sustain him through any short-term blips between now and polling day.

Obama would never have got onto the Democrat ticket without New Media communications. It gave him access to new and diverse support that enabled him to reach out beyond conventional political organisation. Add that to his formidable Chicago political machine and we can see that he is reaping the rewards.

Depois de uma campanha desgastante e após um dia de grande movimento eleitoral, o país escolheu seu novo presidente. Um líder concebido pela própria força do povo, carregado de carisma, que foi capaz de contaminar o país com seu discurso de mudança e união do povo - a despeito de sua falta de experiência administrativa. Um dia após o pleito, todos os jornais propagaram a boa nova. O país ainda celebrava a escolha, o fim do continuismo. Demonstrava, em cada face, o significado real da palavra “esperança”.

After an exhausting campaign and a very busy election, this country has chosen its new president. A leader designed by the strength of its people, who is full of charisma and was able to infect the country with his speech about change and unity of people - despite his lack of administrative experience. The day after the election, all the newspapers brought the good news. The country also celebrated its choice, the end of the political status quo. The real meaning of the word “hope” was shown on everyone's face.

This was on Monday, October 28 2002, as Brazilian blogger Marmota notes, and Brazil had just elected its thirty-fifth president: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former trade union leader and a founding member of the country's Workers' Party. If we look at class rather than race, those elections changed history too, and the images of the huge mass of people waiting for Obama at the night of November 04, 2008 at Grant Park in Chicago actually reminded many Brazilians of Lula's arrival at Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, a little more than six years ago. Looking at what has happened in Brazil since, Marmota says that Obama may want to look up to Lula to find out how to deal with people's overwhelming hope and expectations of immediate changes:

As comparações, evidentemente, só fazem algum sentido ao analisarmos dois elementos. Um é a euforia pós-vitória; outro é o regime de governo. Em nossas democracias, o poder está nas mãos de um cidadão eleito pelo povo; este, ao lado de seus partidários, só consegue governar após uma criteriosa composição de equipe, onde o escolhido distribui o poder entre confiáveis e competentes. Ou não. Pois diante de tamanha expectativa, há o risco da decepção naqueles cuja confiança foi depositada com tamanho fervor. Provavelmennte, entre as próximas decisões a serem tomadas pelo novo presidente dos Estados Unidos, a mais óbvia pode ser pinçada desta nação dos trópicos: para não acabar com as crenças e esperanças alheias, certifique-se de que está cercado pelas pessoas certas.

Of course, these comparisons only make any sense when we look at two elements. One is the post-victory euphoria, another is the government system. In our democracies, power is at the hands of a citizen elected by the people; Together with their supporters, he/she can only rule after a careful composition of their team, in which the elected person distributes power to reliable and competent people. Or not. Well, when facing such expectations, there is a risk of disappointing those who had completely trusted them. Probably, among the next decisions to be taken by the United States president-elect, the most obvious ones may be pinched from this tropical nation: in order not to put an end to people's beliefs and hopes, do make sure you are surrounded by the right people.

The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has managed to reduce poverty, expand its internal market and the country is even in a better position to endure global financial turbulence. However, his achievements have been marred by corruption schandals - exactly what Brazilians wanted to change. Journalist Victor Barone interviewed Lula in 2003, right at the beginning of his first therm in office, and asked him if he feared he would disappoint his electors. He says Lula replied: “I believe there it only makes sense for a person like me to reach the presidency if it is to make a difference never seen.” The blogger says those days he believed good intentions could save the world, nowadays he fears they can not:

É que há algo que não me sai da cabeça, uma relação entre o Lula de 2003 - fiel depositário da esperança da população brasileira por mudanças reais no âmbito político, econômico e social - e o presidente Obama. Pupulam pela imprensa e pela internet odes ao primeiro presidente negro da maior nação do planeta, do maior império da história moderna, quiçá de todos os tempos. Confesso que Obama fascina, meche com nosso imaginário, nos faz pensar que a humanidade pode avançar deixando de lado anacronismos como o racismo. Mas, então, penso em Lula e faço uma relação entre o desencanto político de milhões de brasileiros e o que poderá ocorrer na América e no mundo se Barack Obama falhar em sua missão de guiar os destinos dos EUA rumo a um futuro menos belicista e egocêntrico.

There is something that I can not get off my head, the link between the Lula of 2003 - trustee of the Brazilian population's hopes of real changes in the political, economic and social spheres - and President-elect Obama. The media and the Internet are full of odes to the first black president of the greatest nation on Earth, the greatest empire of modern history, perhaps of all time. I confess that Obama fascinates, lets our imagination go, makes us think that humanity can move forward leaving behind anachronisms such as racism. But then, I think of Lula and make a link between the political disenchantment of millions of Brazilians and what might happen in America and the world if Barack Obama fails in his mission to guide the U.S. towards a less bellicose and egocentric future.

Even the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself could not avoid comparisons. At a Mercosur meeting last Friday, he said that Barack Obama's election in the United States “began in South America,” mentioning the leaders that com from the poorest backgrounds, such as Evo Morales (Bolivia), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay) to become presidents and his own election in Brazil:

“Eu sempre tomei cuidado para não opiniar sobre as eleições em outros países, mas no caso dos Estados Unidos eu não me contive e fiz questão de dizer que gostaria que Obama ganhasse. E tudo isso começou na América do Sul. Obama é mais um passo disso”.

“I have been always careful not to express my opinions on other countries' elections, but in the case of the United States case I could not hold myself and had said I'd like Obama to win. And it all began in South America. Obama is another step forward.”

According to news outlets, the President Lula is negotiating a private meeting with president-elect Barack Obama before the G-20 Washington summit on 15 November. Blog do Savarese gives Obama a hint:

Apesar dos pesares, talvez o rapaz devesse pedir uns conselhos pro tio Lula.

Despite everything, perhaps the guy should ask Uncle Lula to give him some advice

Photoart by escrevo Logo existo

If only these things were taught in school.

Until our schoolbooks are rewritten to reflect a more complete and accurate version of our existence and contributions to this country, it is up to us, parents, aunts, uncles, friends and mentors to teach it, embracing our African oratorical traditions.

President Obama was elected in what some call a landslide victory of 53% to 46% - and I admit, the gap is larger than anyone could have expected. However, we can’t forget that 46% of the voting population supported Senator McCain. It’s all speculation, but we can draw some reasonable conclusions from that fact. It seems that nearly half of the country was still drawn to the negativity that McCain spewed and it also stands to reason that some portion of his supporters were still uncomfortable with the idea of a black president.

I don’t say all this to deny the undeniable fact that a large portion of Americans are ready to set aside racial bias, but only to draw our attention to the work that still needs to be done. We have more bridges to build. McCain began that process with his concession speech, but it is still difficult to forget that he accused President Obama of being a terrorist, a communist, etc.

I’ve also heard stories from other friends here in the U.S. Some went to work elated on Wednesday, only to be greeted with a solemn, oppressive hush over their offices. Some overheard conversations of their co-workers expressing their absolute anger, dismay and disappointment.

It is absolutely their right to have supported whichever candidate they wanted, but because of our country’s history, the question of why, will linger. I’d like to hope that they disagreed with policy and not the color of the candidates skin.

In any case, we can’t deny that this election brought all of us here in the U.S. just a bit closer. We had an opportunity to look at each other in a new light, to work with people we may not have even spoken to otherwise. This is progress.

The bonus for me is that this election also brought people of African diaspora closer. I hope the lines of communication continue to open. I hope that we embrace the concept of self-help. I hope that we realize the borders of our communities stretch wider than the 20 blocks surrounding you. I hope that we become a united, proud, self-sufficient, re-connected people.

“When Henrique began campaigning, asking residents to join him in a dream of a better city, his supporters started calling him their Barack Obama. The name stuck, and a campaign jingle followed — set to the funky Rio beat. His popularity soared.

Crisscrossing town in a caravan of family and friends, Henrique meets and greets everyone in town. On the streets he is a crowd favorite, but as we see in the piece, when election day arrives in Brazil, Henrique finds even more obstacles to overcome in trying to make history in the Baixada.”

More and more Brazilians are looking to the elected president for inspiration. There is Gilson Rodrigues, a community leader nicknamed the “Obama of Paraisópolis” who acts as a dwelling association president in one of the São Paulo's slums, and blogger Lílian Portalupp [pt] comments on yet another Obama impersonator in Rio de Janeiro, a driver who has been acting as the real Obama in Brazil and thanking people for their votes:

E não é que temos um Barack Obama em pleno Rio De Janeiro? Trata-se do motorista da rádio Globo, Rinaldo Gaudêncio Américo, de 36 anos. Por onde passa, Rinaldo é comparado ao presidente eleito dos Estados Unidos. E ele aproveita esta semelhança para brincar com o povo nas ruas. Enquanto o futuro presidente americano monta sua equipe de governo, o sósia só quer saber de comemorar com o povo a expressiva vitória do democrata. Convidado para um churrasco numa laje, na Tavares Bastos, Obama fez a festa. Sentindo-se o próprio presidente eleito, ele não parava de fazer promessas entre um petisco e outro.

Can you believe we have a Barack Obama in Rio De Janeiro? He is Radio Globo's driver, 36 year old Rinaldo Gaudêncio America. Wherever he goes, Rinaldo is compared to the elected president of the United States. And he takes the opportunity to play with people on the streets. While the future U.S. president assembles his government team, the lookalike only cares about people's celebrations of the clear victory of the Democrat. He was invited to a barbecue at Tavares Bastos square, where Obama partied. Acting as if he was the elected president himself, he did not stop making promises between a snack and another.

 José Luis Tchê [pt] publishes a picture of a Obama from Minas Gerais. According to the blogger, 40 year old Gerson Januário de Almeida was spotted by American tourists in Brazil. He was surprised at first, but is proud of it now:

“Percebi que as pessoas falavam de mim, mas não fazia idéia do que fosse. Até que o tradutor me explicou que elas me achavam parecido com o candidato à presidência dos Estados Unidos”, diz Almeida. De acordo com o sósia, no trabalho, na padaria e no açougue próximos a sua casa ele é chamado de Obama. “Gostaria de participar de concursos de semelhança física e eventos por dinheiro e não por vaidade”, afirma Almeida, que trabalha como funcionário público e não descarta a oportunidade de seguir na “profissão de sósia”.

“I noticed that people were talking about me, but I had no idea of what it was about. It was then that the interpreter explained to me that they thought I looked like a candidate for the presidency of the United States”, said Almeida. According to the lookalike, at work, at a butcher and at a bakery shops near his house, he is called Obama. “I would like to participate in contests of physical similarity and events for cash, not for vanity,” said Almeida, who works as a civil servant and has not dismissed the opportunity to follow the “lookalike profession”.

Fernando Jorge goes further to point out that Obama would have ever been born, if it weren't for Brazil. Comparing pictures of the Kenyan Barack Obama, the elected president's father, and Brazilian actor Breno Mello, who played the main character in the Oscar winning movieOrfeu Negro (1959), the blogger discovered a striking resemblance between the two. The blogger retells below a piece of history from Obama's biography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance:

 Pois bem, nesse ano de 1959, uma jovem americana de dezesseis anos, extremamente branca, sem um pingo de sangue negro, chamada Stanley Ann Dunham, nascida no Kansas, resolveu assistir em Chicago ao primeiro filme estrangeiro de sua existência. Foi ver o Orfeu Negro, só com atores negros, paisagens brasileiras, música brasileira, história brasileira. Ela saiu do cinema em estado de êxtase, maravilhada. Adorou aqueles negros encantadores de um país tropical e logo admitiu:
“Nunca vi coisa mais linda, em toda a minha vida.”
Depois de tal arrebatamento, a jovem Stanley embarcou para o Havaí. E ali, aos dezoito anos, ela se tornou colega, numa aula de russo, de um jovem negro de vinte e três anos, Barack Hussein Obama, nascido no Quênia. A moça branca do Kansas, influenciada pelo filme Orfeu Negro, entregou-se a ele e dessa união inter-racial, nasceu em 4 de agosto de 1961 um menino, a quem ela deu o mesmo nome do pai e que é agora, aos quarenta e seis anos, o primeiro candidato negro à presidência dos Estados Unidos.

Well, in that year of 1959, a young 16-year-old American girl, very white, without a drop of black blood, called Stanley Ann Dunham, born in Kansas and settled in Chicago, went to see a foreign film for the first time. It was Black Orpheus, with black actors, Brazilian landscape, Brazilian music, Brazilian history. She left the theater in a state of bliss, wonderful. She loved those black people from a charming tropical country and once admitted:
“I have never seen a more beautiful thing in all my life.”
After such a frenzy, the young Stanley embarked to Hawaii. And there, at 18, she became a student in a Russian language class with a young 23 year old black guy, Barack Hussein Obama, born in Kenya. The white woman from Kansas, influenced by the Black Orpheus movie, fell for him, and from that interracial union, a boy was born on August 4, 1961, to whom she gave the name of his father and who is now, at 46, the first black candidate running for president of the United States.

However, the new generation of Brazilian Obamas is yet to be born. Obama is the fashionable baby name of the moment throughout Kenya, and there are no doubts that, after the victory, there will be some Obama babies in Brazil too. Rubens Fortes [pt] wonders who will be the first:

“Em qual estado vocês acham que vai ser o resgistrado o primeiro bebê com o nome de Obama? Ou será que ganha Baraque?…
Ou, pior, algum genérico, tipo Obrama, Barraque, Barate, Barato Obrama…

“In which state do you think the first baby called Obama will be from? Or is it going to be Baraque?…(as pronounced in Portuguese). Or even worse, something generic like Obrama, Barraque, Barate, Barato Obrama…

Brazilian political experts are hailing the election as a victory for Brazilian interests, even though the Republicans would have favored more trade with Brazil, citing that as a negotiator and diplomat, Obama will be better for the world as a whole. Lula changed his tune and is now supporting Obama as the best choice, and he expressed hope that Obama will be able to increase relations with Latin America, make a peace agreement in the Middle East and lift the embargo on Cuba. I love you, Lula.

In Sao Paulo, the college Faculdade da Cidadania Zumbi dos Palmares, whose student body is composed of 90% black students, had a special celebration in honor of Obama's victory. Students said that Obama's win was a victory against racism and is a great inspiration for people of African descent.

In Rio, vendors downtown were already selling Obama tee-shirts the morning after his victory (via Globo):

Update: Folha de Sao Paulo has an interesting story out about why Obama could not be elected president of Brazil, and Extra has a bizarre story about a Carioca Obama impersonator who walks around Rio pretending to the American president elect, featured here in front of Barra Shopping.

-It is the end of a dark circle
- It won't be easy to forget
-What will happen to Bush?
- What Bush?

Republishing the cartoon above from a local Portuguese newspaper, Diário de Notícias, Frosado is hopeful that Obama will indeed bring changes:

Como se diz aqui, Bush já não “existe”. Quanto ao futuro, só podemos esperar. Oxalá Obama consiga capitalizar o entusiasmo que conseguiu agregar à sua volta, entre os jovens e pelo mundo inteiro, para a paz e a prosperidade, tão necessárias ao mundo actual. Pessoalmente eu tenho esperança, sem grandes triunfalismos, claro.

As they have said here, Bush no longer “exists.” As for the future, we can only hope. If only Obama manages to capitalize the enthusiasm he kept around him, among young people, around the world, for peace and prosperity, so necessary in the current world. I hope so personally, with no great triumphalism though.

On the other hand, tunku from Malaysia is not very hopeful:

there is so much hope on obama that he will bring changes but knowing the zionist behind the white house administration, it won't happen.the changes will be just good for them not for the rest of the world.now we will see the real obama.

Marcos Tchôla says Obama will represent the interests of any imperialist president, regardless of whether the color of his skin is “white, brown, pink or orange.”

When it comes to Brazil, the blogger is actually worried:

Em meio a campanha e a todas as besteiras que os candidatos prometem e inventam li uma opinião do novo presidente que me deixou preocupado. Ele acredita que a Amazônia - o pulmão do mundo- é área internacional e que o Brasil não tem condições de cuidar de seus interesses sozinho. Com isso ele já antecipa de forma sutil, mas real, o desejo de fincar pé - através de uma base militar na região- para proteger que acha ser dele também. Há algum tempo atrás cicurlava na internet um e-mail que mostrava que nos livros americanos a área da floresta não aparecia pertecente ao Brasil. Esse fato foi no governo Bush!

During the campaign and among all the nonsense that candidates promise and come up with, I read a viewpoint of the new president that got me worried. He believes that the Amazon - the lungs of the world - is an international area and that Brazil is unable to care for it on its own. With this, he anticipates a subtle but real desire to set his foot in, through a military base in the region, to protect the area he believes belongs to him too. Some time ago there was an email making the rounds on the Internet showing that in American books, the forest did not belong to Brazil. This was during the Bush administration!

Green activist and writer and economist from the UK, Derek Wall asks whether things will get better under an Obama presidency.

Well now he has won my fear is that he will disappoint ‘hope', I remember an inspiring young politician who over turned right wing rule and promised that ‘things can only get better', he never convinced me but if there had been a blog o sphere the bloggers would have worshipped him. Obama is no Tony Blair, however my fear is that he will have neither the intention nor the power to break with neo-liberalism, sadly the American dream which is pretty much every one else nightmare will continue…I hope I am wrong!

From Thailand, Jing Reed says that the U.S. and the entire world have at least one reason to celebrate this victory - it is the end of the Bush Era:

Tonight's victory proclaims the end of the dark years of the Bush regression. Obama's victory speech was inspiring and eloquent, as befitting a President of the U.S.

Carlos Serra, from Mozambique, had predicted Obama's victory and now predicts changes:

os fatalistas estruturais dirão que nada irá mudar na história americana, que Obama será, apenas, mais um presidente ao serviço do Capital e do predadorismo militar. Os optimistas estruturais dirão que muita coisa irá mudar, que Obama irá introduzir uma página substancial de Estado social no livro do neo-liberalismo e reduzir o predadorismo. Mas escutem: nunca a história avança com as grandes coisas, mas com as pequenas. A história muda quando, no sovaco da vida, germinou uma diferença, pequena que seja. E Obama é essa diferença, a sua eleição foi e é essa diferença. Ele vai ser uma diagonal entre as duas teses. Pouco a pouco, contra racistas e racializantes. Com África inteira dentro dele, cumprindo seu destino queniano. N'Kosi sikeleli Africa!

The structural fatalistic people will say that nothing will change in American history, that Obama is, simply, another chairman to serve the capital and military predators. The structural optimists will say that many things will change, that Obama will introduce a substantial page of the welfare state in the book of neo-liberalism and reduce predators. But listen: history never moves with the big things but with the small ones. History changes when, in the armpit of life, a seed of difference germinates, even if a small one. And Obama is this difference, his election was and is that difference. He will be a diagonal between the two theses. Little by little, against racists and racialists. With the whole Africa inside of him, fulfilling his Kenyan destiny. N'Kosi sikeleli Africa!

I have seen young people (and been) politically excited over big issues like Apartheid, war, pollution, and poverty but I have never sensed such a thorough-going thrill reverberating around a generation as we have witnessed on our TV screens and in the streets in the last days.

The only act who could have trumped Obama was the Queen. The whole crowd strained to see her and buzzed at her very presence. But what was the first question asked by a student in the debate in front of Her Majesty? It was, of course, “what difference will President Obama make in the world?”

It’s a question we are all asking.