III) 2. How Did The World React ?

From Berouth to Beijing, the election of the 44th president of the United States has been followed with a lot of attention. A victory which concern the entire world.

Caracas
4th November, 23hours:
Edouardo sitting in a bar the "Memphis" watching televison...
"Whites people praising a Black man, I can't believe I would see this one day ! With him, it's going to change! Moreover his vice president his catholic!" The Memphis is dreaming: "With Obama Americans will stop to make wars, try to end with their savage capitalism...For the Venezuela it's time to be peaceful, this president Chavez who said that! But president Lula said even better, a world which elect a worker in Brazil, a bishop in Paraguay, an Indian in Bolivia, a woman in Argentina and tonight a Black president in the United States, is really going better !"

Gaza,
5th November , 1 a.m :
It's shooting everywhere. In a camp for refugees in Nousseirat, Ibrahim and Abdel, two students are zapping on tv: "We are waiting for Obama, we are expecting him to stop what is happening outside. For 8 years, we have only known the language of violence. Obama is going to help with new agrements and save our lives.

Moscou,
5th November, 8 a.m :
At the University Patrice-Lumumba...
"Wonderful", says a young student, "For Black people, the situation is really hard in Russia. I'm sure that Obama's victory will change mentalities."

Islamabad,
5th November, 10 a.m :
"Obama always said he was going to pursue Al-Qaidaand terrorits in our lands. But the American war in Afganistan, it's now here it's going to take place ! This 5th November really is a bad day for Pakistan!"

Mexico,
5th November, 11.30 a.m:
"This is a good news, a black president in this racist land! A good slap in the face of all these bastards from extrem-right who shoot immigrants when they arrive at the frontier! "

Cairo,
5th November 1 p.m:
"Change? Your're kidding me ? America is only interested in petroleum and they are going to do everything to have it ! The next president will be the same: once he has the power, he will do like the others !"

Racism Is Ba(ra)ck !

Racist incidents are increasing since the election of Barack Obama. A report from the Southern Law Poverty Center, an institute which studies this kind of phenomena, shows that hundreds of accidents happened since November 4th. It is mostly in the South, in the States that used to be very segregated, that it has really been on the increase : High school students singing « Kill Obama ! » in the school buses, burnt crosses laid down in the gardens of Barack Obama’s supporters, dolls embodying Obama hanged from the trees next to racist graffiti… The election of the first Black president of the United States doesn’t pleased everybody and experts notice that more and more people are surfing on websites advocating the Whites supremacy like StormFront whose server broke down just after the election because they were to many peopleon it . But we don’t have accurate statistics about the number of accidents since November 4th. According to Mark Potok, headmaster of the Southern Poverty Law Center, we are facing a serious « backlash » among the White community. He thinks that the accidents have started during the speech of Sarah Palin when some « Kill Him ! » were heard in the crowd. For Mr Potok the rise of the accidents is due to several factors : The rise of immigration which isn’t White ( the new estimate of the U.S Census Bureau (People Quikfacts) shows that White people may have a minority position in the U.S in 2040 . The increase of the unemployement. People think that with a black person living in the White House they have lost what their ancestors built. But this rise isn’t without precedent according to Mr Levin, indeed everytime the relationship between communities improves in the United States, there is always a « backlash », like the the Ku Klux Klan which fought back after the abolition of slavery. For the racists Barack Obama is just like an « Antichrist », insists Mr Levin.