The reaction here in Colombia to the election has been pretty much non-existent. Most people here were actually rooting for McCain because he had a slightly more favorable position on trade with Colombia than Obama. Every time I hear someone say that I want to scream at them "stop being such a selfish bastard!"...but I´m not sure how to say bastard in Spanish...I should get on that. Honestly, if McCain had actually followed through on his promise and opened up trade with Colombia it, like everything else here, would have only benefited the top 5% of income earners.
On top of that, Bush actually does not have a horrible reputation here. He´s buddy-buddy with their current president Uribe. Uribe is widely popular here (they´re trying to change the constitution so that he can be elected for a 3rd 4-year term) because he has made significant advances against Colombia's main guerrilla movement, the FARC. This means that foreigners like myself can walk the streets of Bogota and most other urban and/or Northern areas without the fear of being kidnapped and held for random...something I support!
Here in Bogota, I have really only had an enthusiastic reaction to the election from the other teachers who are mainly British and Australian. I´ve also received emails and facebook message from friends in Europe and Canada in support of our new pres!
I´m glad that now, for the first time in my adult life, I can be both proud of where I come from and proud of our newly-elected government. Since I´ve spent a good deal of the last 8 years traveling outside the US, I´ve had to separate the notion of being "proud to be an American" from that of being proud of our government. Living in Scotland, Ireland, and Australian, I´ve gotten my share of¨ "ooohhh, you´re from the US?? Well, nobody´s perfect!" comments. My reaction has always been to say that yes, I´m from the US, yes, some of us are intelligent, globally-minded, and even have passports and yes, I´m proud of where I came from but, no, I don´t support the current government.
Watching Obama´s speech on Tuesday night (which was f-ing voiced over in Spanish here on every channel so it lost pretty much all of it´s magnitude for me), I was really overcome watching Obama and his family walk out on stage. Seeing a family that was so different than the slightly older, white image of the "typical political family" and knowing that this was the new first family of the US, really made an impact on me. Listening to the dubbed-over speech and catching about one out of ever 2 or 3 words, it was Obama´s image, his confidence, his sincerity, his poise, his youth, and yes his skin color, all of which were in such sharp contrast to Bush´s that made me think "wow, this is the new face of the nation and it´s such a fresh image for the US...hopefully signifying a fresh, new start!"
Anyhoo, that´s all for now, besos!
Ivy
