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Election Day Mania
By jeni | November 5, 2008
Living abroad during a historic U.S. election has been an interesting and enlightening experience when it comes to understanding the world’s perceptions of the United States. I’m only speaking for my experiences, which have been confined of course to Singapore and some of the other countries I’ve traveled in around Southeast Asia, but I do think what I’ve experienced is probably fairly representative of other American experiences at least in Asia.
So what do people in Asia think of the American election? I think they are like the rest of the world – they are fascinated with the United States and our process. Most of the time they wonder what the heck we are thinking, but they rely so heavily upon us in terms of both our economic and cultural impact they can’t help but watch what we do with baited breath.
One thing Singaporeans don’t worry about is keeping political beliefs private. I’ve had plenty of people ask me outright – who are you voting for? In the U.S. this is sort of a taboo subject – maybe less so with everyone getting behind their candidates, but in most circles it’s generally accepted that we don’t talk about politics or religion. Well in Singapore, that just doesn’t apply. People have absolutely no qualms about asking you who you voted for and why. And they don’t mind prying either. It’s just a cultural difference, but it can be pretty disarming at first.
It’s also interesting to watch world news sites and how they are reporting the election. We get CNN, Channel News Asia, and BBC World and I’m sitting here this morning flipping through the news sites watching the results roll in.
CNN is being very cautious about calling the states at this point, I think they’ve called seven states or so (9:20 a.m. Singapore time, 8:20 ET in the U.S.) while BBC world is already calling Obama as the winner. And Channel News Asia is currently telling me why the donkey is the symbol of the democrats. So maybe they don’t care as much as I thought. I think CNN is worrying about getting burned like they’ve done in the past, while BBC World just wants it to be over with. And Channel News Asia is just trying to make it interesting, so good for them.
Anyway, I’m bummed that I can’t be in Colorado with everyone waiting on the results, but at least I got my vote in a few weeks ago (THAT was a process, and I’m appalled that the Colorado absentee ballot for Americans abroad had the WRONG email address on one of it’s pages).
So if you’re in the U.S., enjoy the race! I know I’ll be glued to my laptop and the TV for the next few hours. Go Obama!
Edited to Add: Today we witnessed history! Yes we can and yes we did!
Topics: culture clash, tv | No Comments »
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