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Feeling nostalgic? Follow this link to some of our favorite posts throughout the campaign. And here's a list of some of the press attention we received.

For a continued daily fix of global perspectives, please turn your attention to Global Voices Online.

The video is primarily critical of anti-immigration politicians from the Danish People's Party, who yield a great deal of power as part of the Conservative government coalition, and have been known to say things like, “Islam is a new totalitarian plague sweeping Europe.”

After a few thousand views on YouTube, critics apparently managed to get YouTube to remove the video by repeatedly flagging it as “inappropriate”. It has since been moved to Blip.tv and has also been re-posted on YouTube by others.

Click to play

On Konflikten.dk, bloggers Troels Heeger and Søren K. Villemoes deliver a scathing attack on the video and its creators, calling it “pathetic amateur video-art by two professional cry babies”. They say:

… Det er i øvrigt også komisk, at Obama som forandringens budbringer åbenbart ifølge de to apostle har en rolle at spille i dansk indenrigspolitik, når de samtidig har gennemkritiseret Bush-administrationens indflydelse på Fogh-regeringen. Men det er naturligvis noget ganske andet…

Many have applauded the initiative and re-posted the video, including the blogger Provo. But even on this blog some commenters were less than enthusiastic.

“Border-Collie” says:

Lad os håbe, Obama har noget bedre at lave. Altså hvis vi endelig skal tro på, at den påtænkte modtager af budskabet faktisk hedder Obama … hvilket er mere end tvivlsomt. Men hvad fanden, kunstnerisk frihed og alt det der…

“Vogter60″ says:

Jeg tror Obama skal koncentrere sig om Amerikansk politik, ellers ender han måske med at blive lige så ” Populær” som den afgående præsident.

Both Larsen and Holdt are well-known in Danish media. Rune Engelbreth Larsen is a columnist for a Danish national newspaper Politiken, and Jakob Holdt is a photographer who received international acclaim for his photos of poverty in America in the 1970s: American Pictures

Here are two separate media initiatives asking for global citizen input on video about the world's most talked about election in history.

WorldFocus, a Thirteen/WNET television program in the USA and Ground Report are asking for videos to be submitted before the end of today. In her own video announcing the project, Ground Report's Rachel Sterne, asks for videos like the one below from Singapore.

On Reuters, a new project called Postcards to the President, combines professional street interviews by Reuters correspondents with videos uploaded by YouTube users around the world. If you have videos you would like to add to the Reuters lineup, simply upload them to YouTube and tag them “PostcardstoPresident”.

One person who has done this already is French artist and YouTube user “bernardodegalves”.

Another is French poet and musician “MickeyZero79″.

Nervous about the election yet? Here's a triple dose of McCain favoritism brought to you from bloggers around the world.

1) Mexican actor, singer, and devoted Catholic, Eduardo Verástegui has been campaigning against Obama and for McCain on the basis of his anti-abortion and “traditional family value” beliefs. Numerous videos explaining his views are in circulation on the internet, including the one below. While Christian media rejoice, New York Latin culture blog, El Daily Remix, wish he would just stick to acting and stop interfering with women's rights.

Obama has rejected accusations made against him on “partial birth abortion” on the website, Fight the Smears.

2) German blogger “Hans Fritz” (aka Jan Becker) was an exchange student at a high school in Texas many years ago. He makes a film of his “homecoming” and talks to students of Tom Bean High School about who they think people in their community will vote for. Guess who.

Don't miss Hans Fritz' humorous take on the last presidential debate (where candidates “decided not to bomb Germany”).

Untitled from Jan Becker on Vimeo.

3) On Global Voices Online, Onnik Krikorian links to two separate blogs that each examine the general preference for McCain over Obama among citizens and politicians in Georgia (the country) and the Caucasus region.

From Social Science in the Caucasus:

McCain, of course, is popular in Georgia for having said “Today we all are Georgians” during the recent conflict. He has also previously visited the country, and apparently a missile was fired at his helicopter as he was flying over South Ossetia. His willingness to stand up to Russia, directly, makes him understandably popular in Georgia.

Looking at the statistics for visitors to Voices without Votes we can see that a large number of readers are coming to us via search engines with queries like “obama arab”, “is obama an arab” or “obama is arab”. In case you are one them, please spend more than a few minutes on this website. Shoe fetish people, you're in the wrong place.

On South Asian blog Desicritics.com, Aditi Nadkarni based in Ohio, writes a tremendous post on the racism surrounding the McCain/Palin campaign, including the fervent use of Obama's middle name “Hussein” to hint at some form of Arab or terrorist connection.

The “Hussein” paranoia has led some very Christian people to forget how many times the word “Barack” appears in the bible. The military “terrorist fighting” Americans in their patriotic zeal, have also forgotten that an Arabic first name did not stop the likes of Omar Nelson Bradley from being one of the main U.S. Army field commanders during World War II all those years ago. Now, while it is very disturbing that people would suddenly grab at a middle name to establish Arab ancestry and “terrorist inclinations”, what bothers me even more is that nobody, not the media, not the candidates, not even the usually outspoken members of the blogosphere have the gumption to at least try and dissociate the mere “Arab” epithet from “terrorist”.

England for Obama suggests there should be a citizenship test for the entire planet that requires everyone to learn a bit of history and world culture: “Lessons in Humanity”…

That way, no one would come up with the illogical association made not only by that “crazy lady” (as SNL calls her) at a McCain rally but implied by McCain himself, to wit: “Arab = Muslim = Terrorist.”

What many Americans don’t realise is that there are Arabs of many faiths, including Christians.

Jordanian blogger, Naseem Tarawnah on Black Iris, thinks “race has never played this big a factor in a US election” and questions the scientific accuracy of the so-called Bradley-effect the media keep discussing in spite of Obama's leads in the polls.

The blogger himself, however, is not entirely sold on Obama as a candidate.

My reluctance to get on the Obama bandwagon has mostly been due to the fact that he has this seemingly cult-like following. He is seen as this messiah of change, and is described and depicted as almost prophet-like. I have a problem with anyone who puts that much faith in a single politician, especially an American president. If the on-going history of America has shown the world anything, it’s that change (in the positive sense of the word) is not a big factor in a US presidency. So I am constantly astonished by any Arab who is entranced by Obama and have to constantly remind myself that most of the fan base in this part of the world comes from a particular more-westernized demographic and have been swallowed up by the wave of US election culture that is dominated by Obama. Everyone is entitled to their own perceptions but I remain realistic to the degree of change that is expected with either candidate in the Oval Office.

Today's links are a little heavy on the Obama-side, but end in song and dance.

1) I find it fascinating how excited non-Americans can get about following U.S. elections. On SixFifty, British blogger Malcolm Clark shares a letter to a group of friends he met in Zambia that explains his passion for Obama:

I have closely followed every little twist and turn of the election campaign; staying up late at night to watch live on screen the events unfolding, and tracking the conversations and first-hand experiences of activists via websites and blogs.

(…)

It is humbling to see people get so involved, to see the process of - in Obama’s words - “brick by brick, block by block, calloused hand by calloused hand, we can change the world”. And it also fires me up: both to want to take part, and also to try and apply those lessons to my job and to political activity in the UK in general….

2) England for Obama aren't impressed with Sarah Palin's comments on Obama's tax plan on CNN.

Seriously. This is the sort of talk that makes one think Americans are living in a parallel universe. One in which Barack Obama is a ’socialist’; in which giving a tax break to normal people, as opposed to millionaires, is ’spreading the wealth’; and one in which the notions of socialism and spreading the wealth are horrifying/disgusting/unpatriotic/insert derogatory adjective of your choice here.

3) And finally, via Arab-American blogger Will, on Kabobfest, a link to yet another Obama music video in Spanish. The full lyrics are on Fosforo.net.

“Cumbia for Obama“

Ya es hora para un cambio, no podemos esperar.
[It's time for a change, we can't wait.]
Unamos nuestras banderas, juntos vamos a votar.
[We'll unite our flags, together we'll vote.]
Niños, padres, y ciudadanos, desde las sierras hasta el mar
[Kids, parents, and citizens, from the mountains to the sea]
En el mundo del futuro, todo vamos a contar.
[In the world of the future, our votes will all count.]

1) Havana-based blogger Circles Robinson Online says Cubans in Cuba are watching the elections intently, and seem to be favoring Obama because they think he is most likely to loosen the U.S. travel restrictions on Cuban relatives who want to visit the island.

“I’m living in Cuba, not the United States, but even so I’m tired of the US presidential campaign. It’s been going longer than the last three TV soap operas combined!

There has been extensive coverage here, with entire round table programs dedicated to the subject and almost daily reports and opinion pieces in the newspapers.

Most Cubans made up their minds on who they favor shortly after the Democratic Party primary ended. Not that people are enamored with either of the two major parties, but they at least see a ray of hope for improved relations under Obama. This means a lot for many families divided by the Florida Straits and politics.”

2) On the British-South Asian group blog Pickled Politics, Shariq, muses on the origins of conspiracy theories, like the one that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's biography, and says he thinks conspiracy theories happen when people feel distrust conventional media, and come up with alternative formulations.”

He draws parallels to conspiracy theories in the Muslim world:

“Just like the [U.S] right wing machine has taken legitimate grievances and turned them into wild speculation, the same thing has happened in the Muslim world. This really hit home to me after the bombings in Pakistan. Rather than finally realising that the Pakistani Taliban/Al-Qaeda do not discriminate on nationality or religion and are willing to butcher innocent civilians, talk has turned to yet more conspiracy theories. I’m not sure what the solution is but I think its important to realise that this is a problem and is standing in the way of making progress.”

3) Finally, 24-year old Zeinoba blogging at Egyptian Chronicles is displeased with the sexism on display in the attacks on Sarah Palin. Her post is in response to a rumor that someone is producing a new porn film with a Sarah Palin look-alike.

“Maybe Hilary Clinton would have suffered in the same way if she had won the ticket of the democrats. Some people still can’t remove the fact that she is woman in the first place before being a politician, and for them being a woman is a weakness point they can mock as they want !!’”

* Photo of flag display at Havana Airport taken by jorge6880

Finally, at right, I attempted to entice Brendan into some premature triumphalism plus some gratuitous Hilary-bashing but he graciously defended her hard work and loyal supporters with a few well-made points.

(apologies for the variable technical quality in Part B due to the so-called ‘Harbour Bridge road surface'. But really, it's a lame excuse so I've sacked my useless production team to ensure standards are maintained for next week's inaugural Cabpoll Face-Off !).

UPDATE: Brendan would also like to notify any American expats and others interested in US politics that Democrats Abroad offer a range of services, resources and contacts in addition to balloting and registration information. You're welcome to visit their website.

After three debates involving the Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin candidates, the one subject that has not come up is immigration. - Greg Siskind's Blog

Ironically, though, Escobedo said, the election's outcome could hinge on how each candidate frames immigration and how many Latino votes he can win in four swing states: Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado and Florida. - Nuestra Voice

Some people just can't get it right. If it's not news anchors refering to Obama as Osama it's Getty Images referring to a David Alan Greir poster for his new show “Chocolate News” as a campaign ad for Obama. The two look nothing alike.

The crime of LWL (Living While Latino). One out of ten Latinos are questioned about their immigration status.

Bravo to Sheriff Dart in Illinois for look out for the people rather than the rich.

Sheriff Dart had enough. He declared that he no longer was going to evict innocent people for the mortgage companies. That didn't go over very well with the Illinois Bankers Association who accused Dart of being in contempt of court for ignoring the eviction orders.

On the opposite side we have Sheriff Steve Bizzell who asks “when will we [whites] be the minority?” This wonderful man also said “Mexicans are trashy” and they're “breeding like rabbits.” It's at least promising to report on the positive actions of Sheriff Dart, but Bizzell shows us we have still have a ways to go.

Bizzell is also the star of Migra Matter's article Elizabeth Dole's problem with racist ally (also available at The Sanctuary) where we learn that Dole's embracing of the anti-migrant camp has her in with a man that has stated “Mexicans are dirty.” This is a close race and Dole is fearing she'll be booted out by Kay Hagan.

David Neiwert, at Orcinus, has been doing research on Palin's associations with the Alaskan Separatist Movement and members of the John Birch Society. Check out the report here.

Nezua brings voters in to the Obama camp one cerveza at a time. Check out his latest post on a conversation he had while relaxing with some good food and spirits.

Check out Manny's Barack O' Lantern at Yes We Carve.

1) Immigration in the nation

It's Columbus Day in the United States today, and pro-migrant “Guatemala-inspired” blog Citizen Orange can't help remembering the “ethnic cleansing and genocide”, linking to several Native American websites. About the election, Citizen Orange writer “symsess” is wondering why neither Barack Obama or John McCain have addressed immigration in the presidential debates so far, given the importance of Latino votes. He rounds up links to others who are wondering the same.

2) Cabpoll 08

In Australia, a Sydney cab driver with a very cool video blog happens upon a Kansas native who now works with Democrats Abroad in Sydney. Adrian Neylan of Cablog writes:

Yesterday I chatted with Brendan, a Democrat Abroad volunteer living in Sydney. I started proceedings by giving ‘ol John McCain a friendly back-hander before we moved onto the Democrats absentee voting campaign and Sydney's strong support for Obama.

Here's the first of three videos from the Cablog post:

3) Did he have to be French?

My last pick isn't really election focused, but on a day when everyone is talking about the Nobel Prize in Economics for New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, it seems relevant to link to Superfrenchie's post complaining about an American pundit who accuses the Nobel award committee of being “euro-centric”:

So an American doesn’t win this year’s Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, and some pundit declares the awarding committee “biased” and “euro-centric”!

Euro-centric? For the record, the U.S. has 308 Nobel Prizes. More than any other country (France has 57). My guess at the time was that the fact that a Frenchie won bugged them real bad.

I soon got confirmation when Frenchman Le Clezio won the Literature Prize.

Can't get enough of Voices without Votes!

“I know it’s crazy, but maybe it isn’t as crazy as it sounds,” wrote the blogger when he first suggested the idea in February. The New York Times now seems to think it's a possibility in an article this week, and American radio host Rush Limbaugh has also echoed the idea.

Jindal was born in Lousiana to Punjabi Indian parents. He used to be a Hindu, but converted to Catholicism after high school.

In his post, Singh argues that if Barack Obama wins the nomination of the Democratic Party, John McCain will end up looking “very old and very white”.

He reasons:

Jindal is both young and brown, and the novelty of putting him on the ticket might mitigate the novelty of a Barack Obama presidency somewhat. It would certainly generate a number of “isn’t it inspiring?” types of stories and editorials in newspapers and on cable news — lots of good press for McCain and the Republican party as a whole.

Second, McCain desperately needs to motivate the base — the really conservative members of his party — and one way he can do that is to pick someone for the Vice Presidency who is himself a thorough social conservative. Jindal, as we’ve already established, fits the bill, what with his opposition to abortion in every instance (“no exceptions”), his opposition to Stem Cell research, his support for the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools, his support for a constitutional amendment banning flag-burning, and his pro-gun outlook.

Although Singh, concedes it's unlikely Governor Jindal will be selected, his closing comment in a post submitted to Voices without Votes via a reader today, is an open question: “….perhaps we’re due to have our first Punjabi Vice President.”

More than 75 comments have been posted by readers of Sepia Mutiny, debating the likelihood of this event, and whether or not it's fair to characterize Jindal as a Punjabi if he doesn't identify himself in this way.

One reader writes:

I will appear nude on [Sepia Mutiny] if he is picked. There is no way any sane adviser would recommend Jindal to McCain. Nothing against Jindal, its just not a good fit. I say Crist has it.

Another retorts:

It makes sense. The VP is the ‘attack dog'….I'm sure if the Republicans have Jindal on the ticket, any talk of racism/bigotry against Obama would be zero. He should take it if asked. If McCain loses or wins, Jindal would be a viable presidential candidate in 2012 or 2016 or sooner.

Photo above is by Flickr user Marc V. Genre.

Mexican-American Miguel Orozco in California has created a website, Amigos de Obama, that features a downloadable reggaeton tune in MP3 that can even be used as a mobile phone ring tone (listen here).

The lyrics in Spanish to the sexy Caribbean beat, go:

Listen to me people, it's time for something different…
What we need is a new presidente
How do you say it? What is he called?
OBAMA! OBAMA! (repeat)
Mexicans, what is his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Puerto Ricans, what is his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!
Peruvians, what is his name?
OBAMA! OBAMA!

Amigos de Obama also reaches out to Latino voters in the United States with a music video of Mexican mariachis lauding Obama.

Colombian singer Andrés Useche wrote a song for Obama, while he was volunteering with the grassroots group, United for Obama.

And finally (via The World Wants Obama), Jamaican reggae artist Cocoa Tea and Trinidadian-Grenadian, The Mighty Sparrow have each produced irresistible new tunes about their presidential candidate of choice.

Cocoa Tea sings: “‘This is not about class nor color, race nor creed. It’s about the changes, that the Americans need.”

Mighty Sparrow's lyrics dig deep into policy and personal history. His message: “The respect of the world that we now lack, If you want it back then, vote Barack!

Obama is a person of color, like us, and therefore he knows the hard reality of discrimination. He speaks from the heart about the history of African Americans' struggle against racism, a struggle which we greatly admire and with which we identify. So then, why are so many Latino votes going to Clinton?

I must begin with my own experience. We went to Obama to ask him to take the initiative in sponsoring a ‘private' bill in the Senate in favor of 35 families in Illinois who have children, minors who are North American citizens Some of the families were themselves North American citizens, registered voters who vote with the goal of preventing fathers and mothers like me from being deported and separated from our children. Both Obama and his aides met with us and with Congress member Luis Gutiérrez. Promises were made, but Obama chose not to take notice of us. Truly, I believe so many supported Clinton because, like me, they expected more of Obama.

It is not the case [however] that Clinton's position is any better. In point of fact, the heritage of Bill Clinton's administration is the Latin American Free Trade Agreement and the anti-immigrant laws of 1996, the two primary sources of the crisis afflicting the Latino Immigrant community.

Both Obama – who told us his vote was a matter of ‘tactics' – and Clinton voted in favor of the border wall. Clinton declared herself against drivers' licenses as well, but Obama favors them. In their most recent candidates' debate, both Obama and Clinton expressed strong support for an integrated immigration reform package. Neither of them has mentioned the Latin American Free Trade Agreement or other North American policies [toward Latin America.]

I am trying to understand. The African American community has come through a very long and hard struggle, and it is a matter of great pride [for them] that an African American has a chance to be elected President of the United States. Obama has organized a marvelous coalition of whites and blacks, and has given an energetic push to many young people.

In sanctuary I saw how certain people attempt to divide our people, and I did what I could to resist that. I felt strong support from many in the African American community. Never did I feel so secure as when 50 African American pastors came to pray with us. I felt a sense of surprise when the great minister Louis Farrakhan came to the church to speak for us, and with us.

But the reality of our people in the United States is also, in a certain sense, different from the African American reality. When Obama says, “There is not a black America and a white America, but one America,” he is not speaking of us.

For us ‘America' is not one country but an entire hemisphere. Those of us born in the United States or who became citizens through naturalization maintain our ties with our countries of origin. They are perhaps North American citizens, but they also continue to be Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, etc. At the same time, we are both the original peoples of the continent and part of the African ‘diaspora.'

The ‘Movement for a New America' is a coalition of whites and North American African Americans, with Latinos invited in at the last moment, and no mention of Latin America. We admire this coalition, but in truth we are not part of it. That is why it disappoints us a little.

Do not forget that what happens in the United States affects us a great deal in Mexico, Latin America and the Antilles. As the old saying goes, “when the United States catches a cold, Mexico gets infected with pneumonia.”

In the not-too-distant future, African Americans and Latinos could be, together, a majority in the United States. In order for this new majority to become a positive reality in the United States and serve the good of the countries to its south as well, we will have to understand each other better if we are going to grow together.

Translation © 2008, IPA, all rights reserved. Included by permisson of El Diario / La Prensa.

“Barrack Obama is great for Africa, especially Kenyans! He will show black people all over the world that whatever we set our minds to we can achieve: Hell we can even be the president of the United States if we want to be.”

I am sure that a lot of people share these sentiments. They think of Barrack Obama as a powerful symbol of what is possible and what we can achieve as Africans.

In my opinion this is highly flawed thinking for a number of reasons.

We Have Nothing Left to Prove

Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Kwame Nkrumah, the Mau Mau, Martin Luther King, Steve Biko, Oprah Winfrey, Richard D Parsons and many others are among the high profile people who have shown that Africans and people with super-melanin-skin can easily dominate and excel, even in areas where they previously didn’t or even when there are seemingly insurmountable odds. This is not to mention the millions upon millions of black people who have come before us and had all sorts of achievements in sports, arts, science, medicine, philosophy…..Name it, and there is an African who did it and did it exceptionally well. And even with it’s very high AIDS rate, Botswana is one of the more prosperous nations on Earth and so we even have countries that run pretty well.

In short, ladies and gentlemen we have nothing left to prove. If you need another Ellen John Sirleaf, another Oprah Winfrey or another Barrack Obama at this stage of your African life, then the problem isn’t with the lack of role models. The problem is with you and your unwillingness to dig deep and find them.

Ellen John Sirleaf

We are Not In Control of the Symbol

At the core though, the deepest problem is that we have absolutely no control or say, as African people,over Barrack Obama and his life. We did not fund his campaign: white corporate America did that. We are not the ones who are in control of the propaganda and the image of Barrack Obama that is presented to the world: the American corporate-political power base is in charge of that. Most importantly, we are not in control of his actions. A lot of American corporations and banks are investing in Obama right now and should he sit on the seat in the White House, they’ll expect their investment to pay dividends.

Is this really the type of man that we should put on a pedestal to display to all the young people of Africa? A man over whom we have no control, no say and has never and will probably never act in our interests or those of our children.

Stop Being a Grouch, Let Barrack Be the Symbol that Africans Need

I know there are a few of you who are probably thinking, “You know what, I don’t care. I will support Barrack and what he stands for. As African people we are beaten down every day of our existence and we need someone like Barrack to lift our spirits. After all, in Africa we don’t have heroes.”

Oh really? Is it that we don’t have heroes or that we simply do not value them or cherish them the same way the West does. Could it be that the difference between a JohnF Kennedy and a Tom Mboya isn’t their significance to society but rather the way they are presented to their respective societies.

Wangari Maathai

Magnification Principle

If there is one thing that I absolutely love and adore and respect about the West, it’s how they celebrate their past and the icons that shaped their past. Here in Australia, there are museums and centres that have been built all over the place to celebrate the ongoing history of a nation that is less than a few hundred years old. They have tourist centers where you get tours of the areas where the Aussies first landed. There are movies,books, short films and papers written about great Australians such as Ned Kelly. This constant over the top celebration is something I have observed in almost all Western countries.

Where the heck is our Mau Mau museum? Where is the government funded movie about the life and times of Robert Ouko and even Desmond Tutu for Pete’s sake? (Exclude the ones made by non-Africans, though they are fabulous).

We Have Had, We Have and We Will Continue to Have Heroes

The fact of the matter is this: We have had, we do have and we will forever have heroes. Whenever there is a challenge or an obstacle and someone acts against it in spite of their fear, that’s a hero. Wangari Maathai is a hero: that woman has gotten more taunting and abuse than even I could ever hope to handle. The people in the Kenyan countryside who are taking people into their homes and communities with no regard for tribe are heroes.

The only question is, as the situation in Kenya dies down, will we take a moment to celebrate and cherish these heroes? Will we write books about their courage? Will we create museums in their honour? Will we tell our children stories about their heroism? Or will we just go back to business as usual complaining about the lack of leadership and role models in Kenya.

If we are not willing to learn from Africans who do the right things well, then what gives us the right to absorb an icon who isn’t even ours. I think if I could sum up my point in one sentence it would be:

Desmond Tutu

If you want to earn the right to prop up Barrack Obama on a pedestal, then first celebrate, cherish and elevate the icons and heroes in your own backyard.”

If we don’t do this, we will fall for anyone who gives us as Africans any form of hope or uplift, no matter who they are and how empty their effects will be on our lives.

Be blessed and bless others,