Obama's election - Yay! or Yay!? My two cents why it’s an important step but why people overseas better calm down and take a moment to think themsel

God, I LOVE democracy!

So they made it – after all. And I’m both happy for the people of America, sneering at other – especially Asian – countries and concerned about Switzerland itself. Why’s that all?
Well, first, Obama’s victory in the U.S. doesn’t only mean a clear sign in overcoming racism and focusing in people’s talents. However, Obama hasn’t shown much more than rhetorics yet. It’s much more his person and what he stands for than his character and intentions which caught people’s attention and answered their hopes and wishes. Anyway, this doesn’t reduce the pondering weight of the argument – if it doesn’t even strengthen it: People actually put their hopes in a black person!
However, there are many more implications I personally take much more important. First, Obama isn’t a war hero! The days in which a democratic candidate gets chosen for his war efforts (Kerry anyone?) finally seem over. Second, Obama’s career and support doesn’t origin in the political cliques of Washington. This means that it was the very people that promoted him in the first place and that lobbies played a rather unimportant role. Indirectly, Obama’s success implies a rather severe defeat for the economic lobbies in Washington. This leads to the third and crucial aspect in my eyes: a shift in paradigm not only in politics but policy, maybe even polity! What can we expect of Obama changing for real? With Bush’s legacy, he’s actually bound to do better. Will he go as far as to introduce new old political principles? Maybe even a shift in economic paradigm? Might the era of neo-liberalism Reagan/ Thatcher introduced around 30 years ago (finally) come to an end? Will tolls and general taxation rise again? Will I stop buying my clothes in San Francisco of independent designers which actually get their designs produced in China? As convenient the delivery within a week is – it doesn’t really seem sustainable, now does it?

Next, it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that Asian countries haven’t answered to the historical election in the U.S. yet. I don’t want to go as far as to allege disgruntlement to them, but definitely surprise. There definitely has remained much more racism towards Africa in Asia than in the West: China is an obvious case and in Japan, black people generally get flattered more than being depicted as a sex symbol. Asian countries may also be rather concerned about the economic effects of the probable change in policies. It primarily was China that profited of the neo-liberal policy in the U.S. which led the big companies to outsource their productions into countries with low labour costs, Singapore that changed into a tax haven for rich Americans and India that’s slowly turning into a huge IT-department of Western companies. Obama promised to take measures to save and protect labour in the United States. That can’t be anything else than a disadvantage of those countries that have profited of the rich business-elite of America the most.

And this is exactly where my concerns about my own country set in: The neo-liberal policy of the last 30 years made American politicians and managers exploit their own country – for the benefit of others – like Switzerland. Just think of how many billions of savings have flood into the big banks of Switzerland, how many companies moved their corporate headquarters here. If the Americans start caring more about their own people again – there will be less for us. Of course, this thesis clearly implies political realism that the pie is given and doesn’t grow with common wealth. But the last decade of globalization has shown us that people don’t profit to the same extent around the world. In fact, that only the rich do while the poor get poorer – even in the mother countries of this globalization – which is strongly powered by neo-liberal ideas.