Americans want Barack Obama to become their 44th President. If he is elected, America will teach to the whole world what being progressive really means. It’s pathetic that in 2008, we, Mauritians, can only think of electing a Hindu Vaish as Prime Minister (except for Bérenger’s brief spell…) But, to put things in perspective, even France is not yet ready for a black or arab President.
Of course, no one can be 100% sure that Obama will be President as the election is done by an electoral college. To paraphrase this succinct and precise article:
It’s the Electoral College that matters in presidential elections.
It’s a collection of electors chosen by the Democratic and Republican parties in each state who then choose the president; 538 electors are spread across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Each state and the District of Columbia gets a minimum of three. Larger states are given more, based on their total number of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. You can calculate each state’s electoral votes by adding two (the number of senators) to a state’s number of House members. California, the most populous state, has 55 electoral votes. Wyoming, the least populous, has three (along with six other states and the District of Columbia).
But
The newly elected House would vote for president on Jan. 6, with each state’s delegation getting one vote. Because Democrats are likely to maintain their majority, the House likely would elect Sen. Barack Obama. The Senate would vote to elect the vice president, likely Sen. Joe Biden.
Whether Obama wins or not, I would like to see a change in the way we, Mauritians, think of politicians. We tend to forget that politicians are elected by us to implement whatever they announced in their electoral programmes. They should be held accountable. If they are not performing, they should get a proper kick in the backside.
But, first and foremost, they should not be chosen because they “represent” a specific ethnic group but because of their competence, vision and, for the old ones, their track record. Young people should be given a chance to do things instead of being only crutches.
Any early signs of Mauritian Obamas yet?
US elections are the most complicated in the world… :(
A Mauritian Obama… LOL :D
In Mauritius, politics is synonymous for corruption…. :)
No sign of any Mauritian Obamas, these Mauritian politicians all want power and they are nowhere near this guy in terms of intelligence.
ohhh come on stop glorifying this man, i do agree that he is a competent fellow [or seems to be], but still glorifying him as if he is some sort of messiah doesn’t sound too good :p.
Anywayz may the most competent win [he does inspire a lot btw]
Seeing the way Paul is juggling between Jeeha and Dullo doesn’t sound like we’ll have any kind of Obama soon. I think its the existing politicians who want to perpetuate this ethnic thing because they’ll be the first one to be kicked out if they are judged on capabilities.
Steven Obeegadoo?
Mauritian Obama… As far as i know, Mauritians enter politics for their own selfish motives… this is their first priority them comes the country… So having a Mauritian Obama is quite difficult… but yeah not impossible… maybe there is some1 out there who might change the way we look at Politics… :)
Will Mauritians remember the campaign of Barack Obama? Will they be able to quote him in say 3 months? I doubt it considering that they can’t even quote Martin Luther King’s inspirational speech.
There won’t be a sign of a Mauritian Obama because the environment to host such an entity is hostile (by that I mean dumb.)
Ah! It feels like the 2nd coming of Christ on Earth!
Celebrate my fellow citizens of this world! Is Obama more popular than the Beatles? We’ll see…
A Mauritian Obama?
Yes but how and when? And why should we? To show that we ‘vote’ like Americans? What point should we make to the rest of the world? What differentiates us from Western politics is that we’re still deeply Asian or partly African in some way or the other, but we don’t think THINK like the West.
We don’t live in the West, we just copy their lifestyle and try so hard to emulate them (which is totally wrong)…but what do we think is best for our tiny island nation? Anyone wishing to improve the lot simple by taking Obama’s win as example? It so happened that 95% of Blacks vote Obama, 66% of Latinos (Schwarzenegers’s ‘brownies’) did the same but mind you 90 percent of McCain’s voters and 61 percent of Obama’s were white nationwide. I leave it to you to judge what happened during these elections… and we’re in 2008!
In fact, I was not really referring to having a clone of Barack Obama here. I’ll quote myself:
See?
I agree to some point.
Let’s witness the ‘wind of change’ he promised over the next four years.
Dude
What is this picture about when its not even mauritius…
I look back and my heart aches for what this country is… has become…
We are Not an arc en ciel society and never will. Ask your people to stop dreaming.
cheers
We’ll have to become a Nation one day. Might take time though…