Barrack

Here is the text of Obama's acceptance speech which you can access here.

He is a phenomenal speaker with a magnetic appeal. I have not ever really paid a lot of attention to understanding American politics. Normally I simply decide whether I like the president or not. I like Obama.

But what I find strange in US politics is the formation of the parties. It seems inconsistent to me that the Republicans are, in my obviously oversimplified view, a combination of Free Market & Conservative Religious Thinkers, and the Democrats seem Protectionist but Liberal.

Listening to Obama, I find myself thinking... I wish South Africa had someone like him standing up and willing to lead our country. Then I listen to some of the things he is saying and I think... eish, no way.

This is partly due to my fairly recent change of perspective regarding partiotism and nationalism which I am starting to view in a more and more cynical light.

Viewing a world from the perspective of one with fixed borders that define who you are depending on the completely random event of birth seems a massive but surmountable barrier to human progress.

The topics he touched on, very briefly, included immigration, energy, oil dependancy, education, character bashing politics, jobs migrating overseas, tax havens, the war in Iraq and a number of other things.

I don't know. I still like him.

An American recently said to me that who is president does not in fact matter all that much... that the country is driven by the people and the economy.