Despite the saber rattling of Russian President Medvedev the day after Senator Obama’s election as president, one shouldn’t get the impression that Russians haven’t been moved by the meaning and symbolism of his rise to prominence.
In fact, according to this editorial from Vedomosti, one of Russia’s leading business dailies, the reality of a President-elect Obama is a strong signal to Europeans and Russians that it’s time to get with the program – and confront their own prejudices.
“With Obama’s victory, the societies of other countries with large racial and ethnic minority populations, in particular France and Britain, will reconsider the possibility of electing non-White leaders.”
“The majority of ethnic Russian citizens in our country are against someone of a different nationality heading the government. Russia has yet to internalize the possibility of the emergence of a ‘non-Russian’ and non-Eastern Orthodox president. … However, beginning today, the question of skin color and the access of ethnic minorities to government control will recede into the background.”
EDITORIAL
Translated By Yekaterina Blinova
November 6, 2008
Vedemosti – Russia – Original Article (Russian)
The projected victory of Barack Obama has been met with great emotion in a majority of the world’s countries. McCain’s victory would have meant a continuation of the U.S. policies of previous years. Obama has persuaded his fellow citizens and most of the world that he will be an agent of change – especially Europeans. Almost 70 percent of French and 73 percent of Spaniards, had they suddenly the right to vote in the United States, would cast their ballots for Obama … with only 8 and 11 percent for McCain, respectively.
Perhaps the greatest outpouring of joy over the U.S. electoral outcome has been in Kenya, Obama’s ancestral homeland. Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has declared the 5th of November a national holiday. Minority rights advocates around the world consider Obama’s victory a sign of their own success. It’s no accident that the former president of South Africa and anti-apartheid crusader, Nelson Mandela, was one of the first people to congratulate Obama. The dark-skinned candidate’s victory over candidate McCain, a White male and Anglo-Saxon Protestant, has become a symbol for many around the world.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated and English-language foreign press coverage of how the world perceives our nation.
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