The global reaction to the news that Barack Obama has been elected president is like a tidal wave. So far this morning, WORLDMEETS.US has posted about 30 articles from around the world – and the work of translating has only just begun.
One of the most moving tributes is this editorial from France’s Liberation, which says in part:
“Hope, at Last! For Heaven’s sake, for one hour, for one day, let’s not behave like blasé, cautious skeptics. After this already historic November 4th, let us admit that we’re caught up, almost all of us, in a sense of joy. For one hour or a day, let us speak with an enthusiasm that is now sweeping the planet. For a few hours, the Americans hope; for a few hours, the whole world feels better. Happiness? A new idea in America. Just imagine for a moment the opposite result: a stiff, conservative senator flanked by a mystical ignoramus perpetuating the brutal policy of George W. Bush for another four years. A moral nightmare, a political horror show.”
On the contrary: On this day of exception, the symbols clash with one another in the imagination. The ideal of Abraham Lincoln, the dream of Martin Luther King, the New Frontier of John and Robert Kennedy: four hopes interrupted, four prophets of reality sacrificed, who for a moment have been revived through the grace of the ballot. These are the symbols of an America that loves the future. The symbols of the America we love.”
EDITORIAL
Translated By Sandrine Ageorges
November 5, 2008
France – Liberation – Original Article (French)
Hope, at Last! For Heaven’s sake, for one hour, for one day, let’s not behave like blasé, cautious skeptics.
After this already historic November 4th, let us admit that we’re caught up, almost all of us, in a sense of joy. For one hour or a day, let us speak with an enthusiasm that is now sweeping the planet. For a few hours, the Americans hope; for a few hours, the whole world feels better. Happiness? A new idea in America. Just imagine for a moment the opposite result: a stiff, conservative senator flanked by a mystical ignoramus perpetuating the brutal policy of George W. Bush for another four years. A moral nightmare, a political horror show.
On the contrary: On this day of exception, the symbols clash with one another in the imagination. The ideal of Abraham Lincoln, the dream of Martin Luther King, the New Frontier of John and Robert Kennedy: four hopes interrupted, four prophets of reality sacrificed, who for a moment have been revived through the grace of the ballot. These are the symbols of an America that loves the future. The symbols of the America we love.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated and English-language foreign press coverage of the U.S. election
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US