The U.S. Elections

This election season I gained a sense of how detached from the rest of the world some parts of Africa are. I have been able to vote in only 2 presidential elections in my life and I was in developing countries during both.

During the 2004 elections I was studying abroad at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Everywhere I went I found stickers that said "Gelme Bush" (don't come Bush). They didn't particularly like him then and they didn't want him to come to the NATO Summit that was held there in June of that year. Everywhere I went, as soon as someone pegged me as American, the first thing they said was "Bush or Kerry?".

During this election season I found myself abroad again only in a different country on a different continent. Unless I was in a government office or at a school I would rarely hear anyone ask me who I was voting for. The piece of news that was being broadcast on every major news outlet worldwide and the people seemed totally oblivious or indifferent on the subject. At first this seemed odd but the more I thought about it it makes perfect sense.

Most people here don't have anything above local programming, not everyone watches the news, and very very few people read the newspaper; so how would they even find out about what is going on? They don't get the news, their friends don't get the news; if they don't talk to anyone else, where are they going to get this information? The biggest concern in most households is, whether or not they are going to be able to feed their family this week. Why would they think about whether or not the person elected in a foreign country has a sound economic plan or foreign policy?

The difference is a lack of information about events outside the immediate area. In 2004 I was in a highly resourced university full of highly-educated professors and students with aspirations to become doctors, engineers, and educators. This year I am in a poorly resourced rural village where an overwhelming portion of the adult population did not graduate from high school and kids are more concerned with what happened on "Generations" than they are in how world events impact their lives.

Today I found out that Barack Obama was officially the president-elect at 11:30 EST (6:30 am South Africa time) via a CNN Breaking News e-mail. Thanks to the internet I knew at about the same time as the rest of America. A large portion of South Africa lacks access to the internet which I access through my cell phone. However, many people here have phones with internet access which they appear to use mostly for downloading music, videos, and ring tones; How many of them were using it to find out the results of the most significant election of this century? I would wager not too many.

I was asked if I was happy at the results of the election today only by my parents, principal, a Department of Education executive, and a few teachers. But really, other than whether or not I am happy with the outcome of the election, how many people in my village really care who won?