I've spent the last 3 days of this week being congratulated by one person after another on my new president. My only response is, "he's not my president!" There aren't too many people with whom I can have an engaging conversation at work. On Monday one of the doctors was saying she loves Obama and thinks he'll be the best thing to ever happen to America. When asked why, what makes him great, I got the same answer I seem to get from everyone over here. "He's brilliant, such an eloquent speaker, gives people hope." While I don't argue with the fact that effective leadership involves intelligence, powerful oration and the ability to motivate and inspire I think the fact that to what end that leader may direct us is infinitely more important. That question never gets answered over here.
The infatuation may be short lived. The front page of Thursday's paper reported of the upwards of 100,000 jobs that could be lost in Ireland when Obama's tax plan takes effect. Currently, companies the operate over-seas receive tax breaks but Obama wants to bring jobs home and plans to make it fiscally impossible for companies to continue operating over-seas. This will not only effect American economics as companies will not be able to afford the labor force it currently employs and will consequently suffer losses in productivity but the economies of some of the poorest countries where the majority of employment is via American contracting. Think of India where AOL, DELL and other technical support is routed through. It would be a devastation from which those people could not recover. And if you think tech support is bad now then wait until you have a 2 hour que on the phone because of the cuts in personal. That is just one example and probably not even the best one.
On a side note. Dana's been talking to a lot of foreigners trying to learn English and met some Iranians. To her shock they told her that they love George W. Bush and where hoping McCain would be elected because they thought he'd be like Bush. They said all the Iranian people loved Bush. Funny, that's not what you here on BBC or CNN.
3 comments:
Nobody has any better answers over here Matt, trust me. He is my president now though so the kids and I are praying for him and this lost nation! Good stuff-thanks!
This country deserves Obama (or McCain for that matter).
Please update this blog asap and don't pretend you're too busy with your cozy European schedule.
So, what needs to happen in the political arena in order for you come back to the blogging world? How does it feel to be back in the US?
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