world

I just cannot believe it! The result of the US presidential elections, though not definitive yet, is just incomprehensible, like a mini-singularity to me. I cannot fathom what it means for the USA or for the rest of the world…

Before the elections, the rest of the world still had faith in the American people. Its government might have been rotten but people had faith that Americans would realize the mistake they made four years ago (though arguably, they did elect the right president, it just turned out that the current one is not who they elected). It’s been four years of disastrous domestic and foreign policy and Bush seems to be re-elected with more votes than he was in 2000? This is just too much for me to comprehend and I’d better stop ranting about it before I become abusive…

The two bright spots for me: the way Washington, D.C. voted which is how it should have turned out and the fact that Barack Obama won a senate seat in Illinois.

Other people’s reactions echoing (more eloquently) my sentiments:

• Dunstan’s blog
• Backup Brain
• x180: James Duncan Davidson

• Fluxblog
• Walking through the stages of grief, I guess: Teaching the Indie Kids to Dance Again

Hopefully, there’ll be a really nice surprise in Ohio (though I’m not holding my breath). Somewhere in his cave, Osama must be laughing his ass off…

Music Box from the album Kick Up The Fire, And Let The Flames Break Loose by The Cooper Temple Clause

Currently residing in Paris, France, Nicole-Anne Boyer from WorldChanging says, in a recent essay:

… being Canadian, like the rest of the planet, we were disenfranchised from the current election on the future global order. Better luck in a different world.

Now, I can hear the rebuttals already. “What do you mean global election? There is no such thing because there is no global government.” Of course this is true. I’m being cheeky and hyperbolic. But it’s also true that our current institutions are a poor match for the world we currently live in. The fact remains that this election will have a material impact on the rest of the world, especially people living overseas. We do feel the brunt of these foreign policies in direct and indirect ways. I can no longer travel as care-free and safely to the places I once could just five years ago. The degrees of freedom in terms of my personal business have narrowed considerably. And this lack of say, this powerlessness to exercise my right to make certain decision-makers accountable, really pisses me and many, many, many people off. Over the long term, this democratic deficit is clearly unsustainable. The bottom-up dynamic will break the political dam.

Now, I wouldn’t especially consider Ms. Boyer powerless. After all, she owns a company, has access to the net and can voice her opinion on a popular weblog such as WorldChanging. Yet, she feels powerless when it comes to the result of the next US presidential elections. My own situation is different yet the same: I am a French national living in the US. While I am not as empowered as Ms. Boyer in the sense that what I write in this weblog doesn’t have as much of an audience as when she does in WorldChanging (and that is not even taking eloquence into account), I am far from being powerless when it comes to expressing my opinions. For both of us (and many others like us) to feel (and, to a degree, be) this powerless about the upcoming elections, speaks volume about the global frustration that people around the world feel about not being able to do anything about an election that might have a big impact on their lives. I have previously posted about that subject and the fact that, according a PIPA study, John Kerry would be the undisputed choice if the world was to vote in the upcoming elections.

Yet, I am lucky and so is Ms. Boyer when you consider the situation of someone considerably less empowered than us: how do you think an Iraqi farmer feels about not being able to express his opinion about who the next US president is going to be when his country has been directly impacted by the result of the previous election? Arguably, the last US election decided (at least partly) the fate of his country without him having a say in it. Why wouldn’t he think that he should have a say in who the next US president is going to be since it might seem to him that whoever is going to preside over the most powerful country in the world might have a bigger impact on his country than the local government? Even if I cannot vote, I can at least voice my opinion and try to convince people here to vote. I can somewhat influence the result in a small way. Can the Iraqi farmer do the same?

Ms. Boyer talks about September 11th, being one gigantic feedback loop, the logical consequence of policies dating back to the American-lead coup in Iran in 1953, the first and best definition of blowback, a sort of expression of opinions too long unheard. Considering how even people like Ms. Boyer feel about being impacted by US policies and not being able to do much about it, it is easy to see how anger and resentment can stem from this situation. It is also easy to see how for people who have no other way to express this anger, terrorism might seem an answer. Now, I am not trying to justify terrorism or make it acceptable. Terrorism is NOT an answer. As Ghandi once said: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Yet, it is relatively easy to understand how people could think aggression/retaliation might be the only way to make their world better. What they fail to realize is that attacking someone to protect you way of life is only a temporary solution, if it is a solution at all…

I guess all people like Ms. Boyer or I can do is help people who can vote make their minds up and VOTE.

Now, for the conspiracy theorists among you, some people would like to make you believe that Kerry cheated or that Bush was/is wired. Which one of the story is more credible is left for you to decide. Does it matter? Probably if either were proven true… unless this becomes a distraction from the real issues.

Christmas song from the album EP+6 by Mogwai

From Aaron Swartz:
Who would bin Laden vote for?:

Since Bush fans (including the New York Times and CNN) have been repeating that Al-Qaeda loves Kerry, going so far as to print up bumper stickers, I thought now would be a good time to investigate who Al-Qaeda really likes. [continued...]

I was thinking about posting something similar to this but, as usual, Aaron wrote about it much better than I could. And also, don’t forget to play Osama bin Lotto!

2+2=5 (The Lukewarm) from the album Hail To The Thief by Radiohead