The view from the global streets

The news of Barack Obama’s re-election as US President did not quite bring the world to a stop on Wednesday.

But from fruit-sellers in the heart of Africa to anti-austerity protestors on the streets of Athens, there were plenty of ordinary people willing to take a minute out of their day to express an opinion on it.

Like Angela Banda, who was selling her fruit in the morning rush-hour in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and declared her pride in the success of an American president with family roots in Kenya.

“Days are long gone when Africans were seen as second class people,” Banda told AFP. “This is a great moment for us Africans.” Her compatriot Michael Kaumba was planning to toast the triumph of “our” president with a glass of “Obama”, the local firewater that was rebranded when Obama became the first black US president in 2008.

Not all Africans are committed Obama-philes however. For Stephen Langa, the director of Family Life Network, a Ugandan anti-gay lobby group linked to US evangelists, Obama’s re-election is bad news.

“While on the one side Obama has promoted democracy, good governance and rule of law, on the other side they are pushing things like homosexuality and abortion, and bullying developing countries to take positions they do not want to,” he told AFP in Kampala.

“Those people here who are supporting Obama just because he is black are people who don’t know all the facts about what he is doing— it is a shallow approach.” Across the Atlantic, Venezuelan taxi-driver Wilmer Cedeno also declared himself an Obama-sceptic.

“Whoever’s in power, American military intervention in the Arab world will continue,” the 28-year-old observed before setting off for his night shift. “Obama does not take these decisions for himself.”

For Vera Kornilova, a 65-year-old part-time office worker in Moscow, who grew up in fear of a nuclear confrontation with the US, Obama’s trump card is the charm of his wife Michelle.

“He’s more favourable to Russia, friendlier, more open (than Mitt Romney),” Kornilova said. “Even his wife is very kind, smiling. I like her a lot.” Ahmed al-Qassim, the owner of a photo shop on Tahrir Square in the centre of Baghdad, has not succumbed to the charm of the first family.

“I think that, whoever is the president, the US is an aggressive country who puts itself in the position of the world’s policeman. So, Obama or someone, really, I don’t expect anything positive from the US.”

Um Mariam, an Iraqi housewife and mother of four, has more time for Obama as a person, but shares her compatriot’s doubts about American commitment to Iraq since its troops were withdrawn during Obama’s first term.

“He deserved to be re-elected,” she said. “However he doesn’t have much influence on Iraq. But he’s fair to his people. Having said that, I don’t expect anything good from the West.”

“Since the US withdrawal, the situation has worsened in Iraq. There is no safety, people die in attacks. Iraq is a rich country, but Iraqis don’t get the benefits”.

Pakistan gave Obama an electoral weapon in the form of the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden but the US leader has since become unpopular there as a result of continuing US drone attacks against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban. Islamabad stallholder Asif Mehmood, 34, said he feared an intensification of the strikes now that Obama has won a second mandate. “Muslims should do more to try to influence US policy instead of just waiting to see who wins the election and listening to what he says,” Mehmood said. Across the border in Afghanistan, from where Obama is expected to withdraw US troops during his second term, indifference reigned. “For me it really doesn’t matter,” said Nasrullah, a mobile phone retailer in Kandahar.

Posted in: Rest of World