'He's for the Whole World'

Dispatches From Washington Post Foreign Correspondents

Tuesday, January 20, 2009; 2:58 PM

People around the world marked the American inaugural tradition with song and dance, and quieter reflection.

Nairobi

Crowds of students -- future doctors, politicians, engineers and others -- gathered hours early on the sprawling green lawn of Nairobi University, where three big screens were set up to broadcast the inauguration of Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan.

The mood was celebratory. Homeboyz Entertainment, a group of deejays, would be on later. Red, white and blue ribbons were tied to big white canopies. Vendors sold postcards of Obama and the words, "I do solemnly swear." A young man walked around hoisting a homemade sign that read: "From Black Power to Barack Power."

Engineering students Ntabo Maranga and Wycliffe Ogega said they felt a sense of relief that the day had finally come. Like many young Kenyans, they said they identify more with Obama than with their own aging political class, which they hoped Obama would shake up by example.

"His election has already offered a great challenge to leaders here, through his values," said Maranga, 27.

In particular, students said they hoped Obama would shame politicians into rising above tribalism.

"When people speak of Obama, we don't say he's Luo Obama," said Ogega, 27, referring to Obama's Kenyan ethnic group. "We say he's Kenyan. We hope he will help us see each other as Kenyans instead of certain tribes."

A group of young women studying for an exam in diplomacy echoed that idea.

"We hope he'll be able to straighten out some politicians of this country -- give them a straight deal on issues like graft," said Judith Ngandoki, 27, who is studying for a master's degree in international relations.

Not far away, Kadiro Ganemo, an Ethiopian immigrant, suggested that such hope stretches beyond Kenya.

"He's not just for Kenya -- he's for the whole world," said Ganemo, 28, who is not a student but joined the celebration because he didn't want to watch alone at home.

He confessed that he had not believed Obama could be elected, given the racism that exists in the United States. When the results came in, he said, he cried, as he expected he would again later Tuesday. "Maybe Africans can unite like people in the U.S.," he said.

-- Stephanie McCrummen

Anjuna, India

Esprito D'Souza, 27, hates television. But on Tuesday afternoon, he was trying to rig up a set to watch Obama's inauguration at his family's Whole Bean Cafe "because I like his face. He's warm. He's peace-loving. Maybe now we can stop feeling like the whole world is so war-torn," he said.

His family's vegetarian restaurant in Anjuna, a beach enclave in the southern state of Goa, not far from the city of Mumbai, caters to Indian honeymooners, foreign hippies and newly rich Russians searching for sun. But since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai late last year, fewer tourists are coming.

Many families here abandoned rice and cashew farming in favor of buying a moped to rent to tourists, or managing a wheat grass or tofu burger cafe for visitors also eager for yoga, oil massages and cheap rooms. But many Goans are now deeply in debt, he said.

He hopes that Obama will end the war Iraq and that terrorism will decrease as a result, especially in places such as India.

"We're desperate for peace, hungry for it, I would say. We believe Obama can make miracles. That's what we are praying for in India: that Obama can clean up Bush's mess," D'Souza said as he prepared a soy cappuccino for a visiting American, Emiko Fergusson, 27, a vegan with dreadlocks who was taking a coffee break during her afternoon volunteering at an animal shelter.

Fergusson, who is from Rochester, N.Y., has been traveling around India for nearly a year and has no immediate plans to return to the United States.

She worries that the expectations for Obama are too high and that there is too much pressure on him "to solve everything right away."

"But I also feel proud to be an American again," she said. "All of my adult life Bush has been president. It hasn't been easy traveling around the world as an American. But today, I feel like something truly new is starting."

-- Emily Wax

Beijing

Obama would not be speaking until well past midnight here, but a boisterous crowd had already begun to gather at 7 p.m. at a Mexican restaurant called the Saddle Cantina in a Beijing neighborhood thick with bars popular with expats and Chinese. The Americans were noisy; the Chinese customers, fewer in number, were quieter.

"Obama promised Americans he would protect American trade and U.S. workers, so maybe we will have arguments with the U.S. on trade issues," said Bono Cheng, 35, a private equity manager, sipping a beer and telling his friends that the U.S. economy was in such bad shape that Obama would have little control over it. He marveled at the nearly 2 million Americans that CNN said began lining up for the event about 5 or 6 a.m. in Washington.

About 11:50 p.m. Beijing time (10:50 a.m. in Washington), television cameras showed Bush and Obama coming out of the White House and climbing into black limousines. Customers in the packed restaurant stood watching a large flat-panel screen on the wall.

University student Zhou Yongfu, 21, who was eating a taco, said he had come to practice his English and to "feel the atmosphere" of the inauguration.

"I'm surprised that so many people stand in the street and that they do so voluntarily," Zhou said. "Obama pays attention to detail. When he goes to the car, he opens the door for his wife first. In the U.S., it's always ladies first. I guess it shows that you should start with a small gesture."

John Holden, managing director of Hill & Knowlton and a member of the American Chamber of Commerce's Board of Governors, cheered. "It's no longer pro-trade Republicans and anti-business Democrats. It was Clinton who signed the WTO deal. Now it's about how to seal a deal with China that's short-term, long-term and medium-term. It takes some imagination to imagine a China that doesn't look like it does today," Holden said. "And we're seeing this incredible man who gets it."

As the motorcade arrived at the U.S. Capitol, the Americans at the Saddle Cantina began taking photos and speaking Chinese to their friends. The noise was deafening. Barely noticed, an old man stepped into the restaurant in a dark blue Mao suit and cap, his lined forehead lighted by the television. He stared at the screen, seemingly mesmerized.

"I don't know why tonight there are so many people in the bar, but I had heard that today Obama succeeds Bush," said Xiao Bao, 71, who has been selling straw decorations for 16 years. "There are a lot of people there. Americans are quite democratic. The president must make sure a lot of people are satisfied, this is quite good. But how can they tell is he is a good or bad president? He has barely begun to work."

-- Maureen Fan and Zhang Jie

Bogota, Colombia

In Colombia, which has the largest black community in Spanish-speaking America, Afro-Colombians gathered in offices and restaurants to watch. Cesar Garcia, an Afro-Colombian who served two years in Congress, said Obama's rise to power served as a signal to Colombia's poor and marginalized black community that it, too, could achieve.

"The fact that a black man rose in the United States -- coming out of nowhere -- shows that, as Obama has said, yes we can," Garcia said as he prepared to watch the inauguration in Bogota. "People here see it as an opportunity."

Sen. Cristobal Rufino, also an Afro-Colombian, called the inauguration "a message to the world, a message of inclusion" that would also serve as a message to Colombia's highly stratified society. "For us here in Colombia, this is a message of hope," he said. "It is a hope here in Colombia that may inspire the government, and even the same Afro community."

-- Juan Forero

http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/public/gGWdjc