Dancing in the street

Just in case any of you were wondering, the rest of the world was also watching the US presidential election with bated breath.  Needless to say, around lunchtime on Wednesday (when the election was called here in Malaysia) I swear I could hear the worldwide collective sigh of relief.

Tuesday night the US Ambassador to Malaysia was on our local radio station explaining the vagaries of the electoral system while colleagues and friends from Malaysia, China, India, UK, Germany, France and beyond were all ardently expressing their anxiety about a Romney presidency. 

As John Oliver (from the Daily Show) recently said, 'Barack Obama is running for re-election in quite possibly the only country in the world in which he could lose.'  How very true. 

In the run-up to the election the BBC carried out a 21-country survey of over 20,000 people and Romney was polling at a paltry 9%.
 
I've witnessed both of Obama's presidential bids from different countries and it would be impossible to overstate how closely the rest of the world watches us. Indonesia (a country that claims Obama for themselves) was keeping a particularly close eye and photos of students celebrating at his former school in Jakarta were plastered across this part of the world.  I did not encounter a a single pro-Romney foreigner during this entire election cycle.

When we went to Indonesia earlier this year, I felt more welcome there as a foreigner than I had anywhere else in a long time.  If you dropped in 'Chicago' you'd be given a broad smile, followed by a sage nod, 'ah yes, President Obama.'

Recently an American friend here in KL had a taxi driver who was informing him that, yes, he liked Barack Obama very much because he was a Muslim.  Funny how misinformation plays so very differently in different parts of the world.

As I said, the rest of world is utterly delighted (and relieved that it is finally over).  There was, quite literally, dancing in the street.