USA vs. Europe : Hurt feelings

Most opinions expressed by Europeans about the USA are negative. Europeans feel that people from the USA are stupid, dumb and shortsighted. It could be the case that these feelings are the product of our anger and concern over the USA's superiority in many matters. For example, their army is the mightiest in the world. Even more importantly: they are not afraid to use it. We might feel that Europe is taking the backseat in global politics. It seems that the USA only deals with Europe when they want, not because they have to. Despite our feelings that we are important, we are not.

We express our dislike over Hollywood, their lack of culture and stubborness to accept certain truths. Their internal fight over creationism is ludicrous to say the least. But fair is fair, their culture has pervaded most other cultures. Coca-cola, McDonalds and Hollywood are everywhere. Besides these, what some people might call despicable export products, they boast an impressing array of great writers, philosophers and scientists.

This complaining might be some sort of acceptance of this situation, so besides the absence of this mindless and boring monologue from Europeans there might be long term benefits for Europe. I dare to say: it is time for Europeans to stop complaining about the stupidity of the USA, and focus on our own strenghts. The diversity in Europe could be bundled into a power equivalent to the USA.

Without a power that can constrain the USA and can have a dialogue with, the USA will continue their aggressive global policy. Global warming and the "axis of evil" are prime issues. It might also be good for the average USA citizen. The feeling of superiority and being god's chosen is dangerous. Having to acknowledge another superpower, equaly 'civilized', might force them to rethink their lifestyle and convictions. I will go into this "god bless America" later with more detail.

Obama might change trans-atlantic relations, but I do not believe he is more than an aestatic change. It might sound different and more likable, but the result will be the same. Obama cannot, even if he wants, make significant changes to the USA's global policy. His electorate will not allow this, and every effort will be blocked. While he might not act as Bush, which is a huge improvement, the difference might only be less idiocy.

Ofcourse I believe Obama's slogans: "Change can happen" and "We can do it". Change can happen, and we can do it. But who is we? I somehow doubt this is more that the USA...

Winds of change

Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, bringing hope not only to the American people but to the whole world. But he has not an easy task, as he will have to correct all the policies of the Bush administration which sunk the country in one of its deepest economic crisis, involved it in an unjustified war which has taken thousands of lives and which has destroyed the reputation of the United States around the world. Many didn't believe that Obama would be elected, and they had enough reasons to think that. The country still has an important conservative basis and racism is still an issue. But Obama was smart, he never played the racist-card and he focused his campaign in proposing concrete ways to deal with the mess Mr Bush has left, instead of focusing on attacking the rival candidate, as McCain did. The number of reasons that made McCain lose are many, such as his age, his terrible choice of running mate, his support of the war in Iraq, between many others.
But the fact is that Obama won by an ample margin (Obama 338 electoral votes, McCain 161), and now he, John Biden and all their staff will be in charge of cleaning up Bush's mess. The Democrats also performed well in the Senate election, although they didn't reach enough seats to have a comfortable majority.
The eyes of the world were in the American election, here in Europe it was possible to see posters with Obama's image, Obama action figures in the stores and a lot of enthusiastic people disposed to change their perception of the United States.

But Mexico, had to turn its attention to a national tragedy. In the same day of the US election, an airplane carrying the Secretary of Interior and other government officials crashed in the heart of Mexico City. There were no survivors, and the Mexican federal government is now facing a huge crisis. Some speculate it could have been a revenge by one of the leading drug gangs whose main leader was captured some weeks ago, but I consider that very unlikely as all the airplanes belonging to the federal government are always protected by the army.

Se habla español (Spanish spoken here)

45 million people speak Spanish as their first language in the United States (without counting the illegal immigrants!). If the undocumented workers were also counted, the figure would undoubtedly rise. Now that the election day approaches in the USA, this figure shows the importance of the Hispanic voters, who may actually decide the election.
Both candidates have done something which is not uncommon in that country, advertising their campaigns in Spanish throughout the media (watch Obama's ad in Spanish), (there are 55 TV networks and more than 500 radio stations that broadcast in Spanish in the USA). They have also been very careful on the issue of immigration, which of course is very sensible to this large group.
But as El Pais (Spanish newspaper) reports (see article in Spanish), by year 2050 the USA could be the country with more Spanish-speaking people in the world, title hold now by Mexico with more than 100 million speakers. So the melting pot theory, which states that the USA is a country formed by immigrants coming from different cultures who use the same language (English) and form a new culture (The American) is rejected by this stunning figure.
Of course someone could argue that many of those Spanish-speaking people also speak English, but for most of them the language spoken at home and in their social groups remains Spanish.
So both candidates should draw more attention to this target group of voters in the final weeks of the campaigning stage or assume the consequences...