Haven’t written a lot in the past few weeks. We’ve seen each other often since the beginning of October, temporizing I guess the need to write. But I still want to mark today in a special way. You’ll tell me we’re not Americans and ask, maybe, why bother with the results of the US presidential election. Fair question.
Not only am I not an American, but I haven’t lived in North America for more than a decade. As for you, you were born in Asia and have a French father.
Nevertheless, I strongly feel we should celebrate Obama’s victory. At least, to make up for those who have no idea of what’s going on in this world.
None of my Chinese college students knew the election was today and when I mentioned the fact, none showed interest. As for my local colleagues, they went about their business and whenever they had free time, they shopped on the web. I tried to poke their curiosity and asked around for opinions. None came.
I’m at a Beijing Internet café right now. It’s almost empty. The girl at the table next to mine is chatting with friends on her computer. They’re discussing shopping, as far as I can see.
So, I’ll celebrate by myself writing to you, until later a few acquaintances join me to talk about politics.
You see, as a non-American, I am impressed by the ability of the US to produce deep transformations and to surprise us. At a time when criticism of that country’s policies – in foreign affairs as well as at the economic level – is raging, it manages to remind itself of the values it keeps saying it stands for despite actions and decisions that have highly contradicted that stand. It has the capacity, the flexibility to look at itself and to question its own trends. This is so rare.
For non-Americans, Obama doesn’t represent the final solution to the financial crisis, the war issue, or any major problem with consequences beyond that country’s borders. I don’t think anyone thinks that an election by itself can solve such complex issues. Obama inherits a chaotic situation and it might take years before stability is restored on so many fronts.
My amazement stands more on cultural grounds. Obama has an international identity. From a mixed Muslim-Christian background, with family roots in Africa, raised in Asia, educated in America, he reflects elements found in immigrants, in minorities. This polyvalence, this mirror image of so many communities channeled into one single man has succeeded in attracting a majority of American voters. This is where I’m astonished. There are not many places where this could happen.
When I look at you, my grandchildren, this is what I see. A globalization of the genes, of the cultures, of the origins and the places of belongings.
Your parents offered you a suitcase for your fourth birthday. Many would find it perhaps a ridiculous gift for such a small child. But you were so proud and happy, dragging the suitcase all over the house. Because you already know what it means to move, to change continents, to express yourself as you glide from one culture to another, adapting your behavior, and fitting in your values and beliefs inside a single suitcase in a way to lightly cross frontiers, bringing your ideas along to expose them to various settings, eventually bringing them back transformed wherever home is at a given time.
This man, this new American president, he’s a hint of what the future is becoming, more people like you embodying a multiplicity of emergences, blends and beginnings. An intelligence, in the sense of a sensitivity, woven from a diversity of threads. And we owe the Americans the pleasure of showing us such a person in a position of utter leadership.
This is a victory for you, my children and grandchildren. And the children after that. A recognition. The opposite of denial. It is a clear statement about who we are.
Whatever tomorrow holds, this has been done. It cannot be erased. And this is the day of our celebration. For all of us, fully alive strong entities made of nomadic fragments.
Laolao
Not only am I not an American, but I haven’t lived in North America for more than a decade. As for you, you were born in Asia and have a French father.
Nevertheless, I strongly feel we should celebrate Obama’s victory. At least, to make up for those who have no idea of what’s going on in this world.
None of my Chinese college students knew the election was today and when I mentioned the fact, none showed interest. As for my local colleagues, they went about their business and whenever they had free time, they shopped on the web. I tried to poke their curiosity and asked around for opinions. None came.
I’m at a Beijing Internet café right now. It’s almost empty. The girl at the table next to mine is chatting with friends on her computer. They’re discussing shopping, as far as I can see.
So, I’ll celebrate by myself writing to you, until later a few acquaintances join me to talk about politics.
You see, as a non-American, I am impressed by the ability of the US to produce deep transformations and to surprise us. At a time when criticism of that country’s policies – in foreign affairs as well as at the economic level – is raging, it manages to remind itself of the values it keeps saying it stands for despite actions and decisions that have highly contradicted that stand. It has the capacity, the flexibility to look at itself and to question its own trends. This is so rare.
For non-Americans, Obama doesn’t represent the final solution to the financial crisis, the war issue, or any major problem with consequences beyond that country’s borders. I don’t think anyone thinks that an election by itself can solve such complex issues. Obama inherits a chaotic situation and it might take years before stability is restored on so many fronts.
My amazement stands more on cultural grounds. Obama has an international identity. From a mixed Muslim-Christian background, with family roots in Africa, raised in Asia, educated in America, he reflects elements found in immigrants, in minorities. This polyvalence, this mirror image of so many communities channeled into one single man has succeeded in attracting a majority of American voters. This is where I’m astonished. There are not many places where this could happen.
When I look at you, my grandchildren, this is what I see. A globalization of the genes, of the cultures, of the origins and the places of belongings.
Your parents offered you a suitcase for your fourth birthday. Many would find it perhaps a ridiculous gift for such a small child. But you were so proud and happy, dragging the suitcase all over the house. Because you already know what it means to move, to change continents, to express yourself as you glide from one culture to another, adapting your behavior, and fitting in your values and beliefs inside a single suitcase in a way to lightly cross frontiers, bringing your ideas along to expose them to various settings, eventually bringing them back transformed wherever home is at a given time.
This man, this new American president, he’s a hint of what the future is becoming, more people like you embodying a multiplicity of emergences, blends and beginnings. An intelligence, in the sense of a sensitivity, woven from a diversity of threads. And we owe the Americans the pleasure of showing us such a person in a position of utter leadership.
This is a victory for you, my children and grandchildren. And the children after that. A recognition. The opposite of denial. It is a clear statement about who we are.
Whatever tomorrow holds, this has been done. It cannot be erased. And this is the day of our celebration. For all of us, fully alive strong entities made of nomadic fragments.
Laolao
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