Throughout my travels on this big, lopsided planet of ours, I was surprised at how our new president mediated, to some degree, the way I talked to and interacted with citizens of other countries.
I can remember a time when Americans were admonished to try to pass as Canadians when traveling overseas. To some extent, I think that’s still applicable, but I felt no such stigma anywhere I went. Though I got a couple reactions that were downright cartoonish in their stereotyping (there was one guy in Egypt who loved to shout, “Hey, America! Howdy howdy! Yankee doodle dandy!” every time I and my friend Chris walked by) most people were really positive. And a lot of that positivity, I felt, was due to Obama.
In every country where people were excited to meet an American, it was connected to Obama. In England, I saw a guy wearing an Obama t-shirt. I held up my fist and shouted “Obama!” and he held up his fist and grinned in kind. I got plenty of “You American? Yes? Obama!!!” There was a Belgian guy in a hostel in Hong Kong who got especially excited.
I was also surprised at my own use of Obama as a positive avatar for America. Any time I found myself trying to talk to someone whose language I didn’t speak, and who didn’t speak English, my monologue went something like, “I am from America. You know, America? No? Uhh … Obama? Yes! Obama!” and was mostly met with happy enthusiasm.
There were those, however, who reserved their judgment and were measured in their responses. I got surprisingly similiar reactions from two very different people: one, a train station clerk in Amsterdam and the other, a papyrus salesman in Egypt. The man in Amsterdam said, “Yes, it is good that Obama was elected, but I will wait to see what he does with the office until I am happy.” The Egyptian noted, “Oh, Obama, you know he came here to Cairo? Yes, he makes many pretty words, but it is easy to make pretty words. Let us see what he will do with those words.”
Yes, people of the world, let us see what he can do with those words.
