(no subject)

[zana16]

I thought this was kind of cool...

Dear friends,

I spent the very early hours of this morning sitting in front of a tv with about 10 Rwandan friends who stayed up the whole night to watch all the results come in. They screamed and cried tears of joy and pride when Obama won.

But surprisingly, their favorite part of the whole evening? McCain's speech!

They watched in wonder and amazement as McCain spoke highly of Obama and said that we need to now come together as a country to support him. They said "Can you believe this?? The loser is now supporting and congratulating the winner! He is telling America to come together as one country to support the new president, even though he lost!! Could you imagine if something like this happened in Africa!! Only in America!!"

Friends from across Rwanda called me all morning to say congratulations- and some just screamed into the phone and I couldn't understand a word of what they were saying.

On the other hand, there is a great deal of suffering and violence going on across the border in Congo right now. Today's victory and celebration of freedom provides a stark contrast to the daily reality of brutality and oppression in so many places in Africa.

Living in a country free of violence is such a luxury.... we should never forget how truly lucky we are.

Love from Kigali,
Elizabeth

Comments

[cosmorific.livejournal.com]

That is both beautiful and sad. Sad mainly because I wish that were the case in their country, too, especially after all they've been through.

[zana16.livejournal.com]

It reminded me of how much we take our stability for granted. When the whole Bush v. Gore thing went down in 2000, nobody was really afraid it wouldn't end peacefully. Newsweek had a cover saying something along the lines of will this tear our democracy apart, and people laughed cause how could it? It's just politics.