Let me be (I hope) one of the first Filipino bloggers to congratulate President Barack Obama.
Awhile ago, many of us took notice – and rejoiced – when Barack Obama won the US Presidential elections to be the first African-American to lead the nation. It was a culmination of an obsession and a fascination of that occasional season where we, non-Americans, delight and revel in an election and a right that isn’t ours.
Sen. Ed Angara, who put geopolitics into play, may have articulated the message best: Barack’s mother was from Hawaii, Sen. John McCain was detained as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, so the vote has a lot to do with Asia.
The “message to the world,” as Ding Gagelonia points out at FV – and with the same appreciation and admiration expressed by Pat Mangubat – brings out something sad… but then again, true.
I’m not anti-American, but I am a non-American. I do not have the same Constitutional rights given to an American citizen to vote every four years for an American President. Yet as the world rejoices over the victory of President Obama, I’m a bit more pensive. As a non-American, what exactly do I have at stake with this milestone in American history?
Nothing.
There’s a certain fascination – sometimes even bordering on epal – on non-Americans like myself to make a big fuss about what the international community has at stake with a US Presidential election. There have been many questions asked to both Obama and McCain over the course of the 2008 US Elections by us non-Americans: what’s their policy on outsourcing? How will they improve foreign relations with other countries? What’s their favorite color? What’s their stand on reproductive health? What will they do on their first 100 days in office?
