Obama Mania

Pic from Washington Post

I still can't get over that tingling sensation that spread from my scalp to my finger-tips when it was announced that Obama had won. How could I, so far removed from the shores of America, be so affected ecstatically by this historic win? I am not alone; millions of people who have little or no connection with America were whooping with jubilation and joy. Never mind if American policy on various global issues doesn't change under him. Never mind if he continues to think of American interests first. The fact remains that the impossible has happened; that an African-American would dare dream the impossible dream; that anything is possible in the "land of milk and honey". Martin Luther King had dreamt of that a long time ago;

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

What struck most of us is that the America that we have known for so long, the America that proclaims herself as being a multi-racial melting pot, but practices double-standards in her dealings with her minority people; the America where the blacks seem to excel only in sports and entertainment, and nothing else, has changed. It is an America that will become a beacon of hope to countries where minorities have been treated with contempt or as second class citizens. That is the message loud and clear that minorities around the world heard and rejoiced. Citizens of the world will point to November the fourth, 2008 as the day when the most powerful country in the world showed that "all men are created equal".

Obama’s first public words after winning the election on Nov 4, 2008:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place
where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our
founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our
democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Read this in the New York Times