World Reactions to Obama Win Increase: Young and Old Cheer Historic Victory

``A hundred years ago, he would have been a slave. A hundred years on, he is the president. That's massive,'' T. K. Kurien, president of strategic programs at Wipro Ltd., India's third-largest software services provider, said by telephone from London.

``A new broom sweeps clean,'' said Wu Ruiling, 69, a retired teacher in Shanghai. ``The new president may introduce concrete measures to fix the financial crisis. Once things improve in the U.S., the world improves and China improves.''

``I hope that President Elect Obama will be able to resist the protectionist pressures from Congress that he'll feel pretty heavily,'' said Chris Patten, former European Union commissioner for external relations and Britain's last governor of Hong Kong. ``For China to get better off does not mean America getting worse off.''

French President Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated Obama in a letter released publicly, saying the outcome ``resonates well beyond your borders.''

``Your stunning victory rewards a tireless commitment to serving the American people,'' Sarkozy wrote. ``It is also the crowning achievement of an exceptional campaign whose brilliance and high tone demonstrated the vitality of American democracy to the entire world, while keeping them spellbound.''

Faisal Ali al-Mutawa, chairman of Bayan Investment Co. KSCC, a Kuwaiti financial services provider, called Obama's victory incredible, saying it proves he's ``an extraordinary person.''

``Am I worried?'' he asked in a phone interview from Kuwait City. ``Yes, because he is untested as far as foreign policy and its complexity is concerned, especially in our area. If there's no orderly withdrawal from Iraq, there will be chaos in our region.''

Ren Zhengxian, 37, a rickshaw driver in Beijing, said he didn't know if Obama would be able to change the U.S. for the better. ``We don't know what he'll be like,'' he said, watching Senator John McCain's concession speech in a bar. ``Clinton was friends with everyone. Bush has started wars and now the U.S. economy is so bad. We just don't know if he can change the U.S.''

``It's America showing some maturity,'' said Greg Ryan, 38, a financial planner in Sydney, Australia, adding Obama will be a more ``peaceful'' president than George W. Bush. ``America's gone too far down that world policeman thing.''

Obama's victory is a ``generational change'' and he may take global warming more seriously. ``That's the big picture isn't it, the environment. The war over water is going to be bigger than the war over oil in the long run.''

``Obama winning the election shows just how much the U.S. has changed,'' said South Korean Kim Sang Hyuck, 32, watching the results on his mobile phone in downtown Seoul. ``When I was studying there in Philadelphia nearly 10 years ago, there were still pockets of racism. I never thought then that the U.S. would choose an African-American president.''

Obama's victory ``carries with it hope for millions'' of Americans and people of ``African descent both in the continent of Africa as well as those in the Diaspora,'' Kgalema Motlanthe, South Africa's president, said in a statement.

Yasuhiro Nakasone, 90, who served as Japan's prime minister from 1982 to 1987, said the Bush administration had ``got into a rut'' and that Obama offered ``hope.''

``The public will feel a sense of freshness,'' said Nakasone, whose office waiting room in Tokyo is adorned with a picture of him strolling with the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan at Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, chief executive officer of Asia Plus Securities Pcl, Thailand's third-largest broker, said many Thais think Obama will reduce tensions in the world. Still, others preferred McCain because they saw him as being more committed to free trade.

``A lot of people who are not focused on exporting to the U.S. wanted Obama as president,'' he said. ``People are tired of Bush, they want more peace talks, more words of negotiation rather than pointing weapons at each other. Obama's character is very appealing.''

Pongsak Assakul, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok, said an Obama presidency will slow trade.

``It's known that the Democrats are more anti-trade and they are trying to protect the jobs in the U.S., so there could be some sort of reaction or delay on free-trade agreements and negotiations,'' he said. ``It will affect the whole world. More protectionism will happen under Barack Obama.''

Rosa Chiquichano, 61, the only Indian in Argentina's national parliament, said Obama's victory gives hope to minorities the world over that change is possible. ``This is a great opportunity,'' she said. ``I hope he will help start a new order based on equality, solidarity and preservation of natural resources.''

Jacques Santer, 71, a former prime minister of Luxembourg and ex-president of the European Commission, said Obama's victory marks ``a historic change which shows that the United States is an entirely exceptional power, completing a fundamental social revolution in the space of two, three generations.''

Anwar Ibrahim, 61, Malaysia's opposition leader, said that while Obama represents a new face, there's some concern about his refusal to rule out pursuing extremists in Pakistan.

``I've met many Muslims who say when it comes to Middle East politics, his rhetoric on Pakistan is as strong as condescending, but still he represents this different face in the administration,'' he said.

``A new face offers Europe a new chance to remarry America,'' said Wolfgang Ischinger, 62, a former German ambassador to the U.S. ``That's the good news. The bad news is that this outburst of Obama-mania does create expectations which no president can possibly fulfill. Sooner or later there will be some disappointment on the way.''

66% of Young Voters Went for Obama: What Minorities and Black Americans Are Saying About the President Elect

Ross, cast her own vote near her home in Pittsburg. She walked home with a flag in her hand and a song on her lips. Hallelujah, she sang, over and over. Hallelujah.

"It's like Martin Luther King's dream coming true. Because he said it was going to happen," she said. "We've came a long way. A lot of people are still narrow-minded, but we have come a loooong way for him to come this far. People have woken up."

Across the Bay Area, black citizens of all ages and classes shared Ross's elation. For some, the happiness was tempered by bitter experience; others were too overjoyed to see anything but hope. Jean Carey, 44, an administrative assistant in Oakland, recalled her brothers who died before seeing these days, but also the aunts in Texas who, at 90, managed to get out and vote today.

"I started thinking about all of my relatives who couldn't have done this, and I started getting really emotional and crying," said Carey, weeping again at a boisterous celebration at the Everett and Jones restaurant in Oakland. Across the room, Benten Brown, 62, hoisted a sign that read, "This day is for Dr. King and all those who fought and died for the equal rights of all people."

"I'm a Jim Crow baby," said Brown, who said his grandfather was a slave in Georgia. "This day is an incredible feeling for me and everybody."

Those who study race and politics said there is little in history that serves as a comparison for Tuesday's events.

"It's the second Emancipation Proclamation. This is about their really feeling American. This is about their claims to citizenship," said Fred Harris, director for the Center on African American Politics and Society at Columbia University.

Black Americans have seen enormous changes in the 40 years since The Chronicle published Johnnie Marie Ross's story under the headline "A Ghetto Eulogy." Lashawn James, 29, said that when his mother was born in South Carolina, most blacks were denied the right to vote. Today, her son has an MBA from Stanford and is working at a private equity firm in Oakland.

"To look from where she was to where we are now is what makes this very special. Because of the sacrifices she had to go through to put me where I am," he said.

His friend and classmate, Sean Haywood, 30, said the election of Obama "means we are all justified in dreaming bigger from now on. It doesn't necessarily mean everything is attainable, but it means we certainly have the right to dream."

But does this election fulfill King's dream?

"We're so far away from fulfilling (King's) dream that it's tragic," said Shelby Steele, a scholar on race at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "The reality on the ground is that the black-white achievement gap is worse than it ever was, 55 percent of all federal prisoners are black, the illegitimacy rate is over 70 percent. So the reality is there is no parity between blacks and white."

Nevertheless, many people see hope in Obama's election.

"To me, Obama's election is a step forward in the direction I think we need to go," said Jim Sleeper, a lecturer in political science at Yale and author of "Liberal Racism: How Fixating on Race Subverts the American Dream."

To Sleeper and some other academics, the election of Obama is the latest step in a long journey for black Americans, from the end of slavery and the beginning of the civil rights movement, through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Shirley Chisholm's run for president in 1972, Jesse Jackson's runs in 1984 and 1988, and President Bush's appointments of Colin Powell and then Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state.

"There is a generational change," Sleeper said. "I think it will have a profound effect. The president of the United States ... it really is somebody people see as embodying America."

Obama Brother Found in Kenyan Shack by Italian Vanity Fair

Will the younger brother of Barack Obama come to his inauguration as president of the United States if he ends up being elected in January 2009? At least, the young, 26-year man is alive and doing as well as can be in Kenya according to some reports from the Italian version of Vanity Fair.

"Obama’s brother lives in a Kenyan shack
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama’s lost brother has been tracked down in Kenya. George Hussein Onyango Obama, aged 26, was found by journalists from the Italian edition of Vanity Fair. He reportedly lives in poverty in a shack on the outskirts of Nairobi.
He has the same father as the U.S. senator, Barack Hussein Obama, but a different mother. Her name has been given as Jael.

The youngest of Obama’s half-brothers says he lives on less than a dollar per month in a 2m x 3m shack. Its walls are decorated with posters of famous footballers and a calendar featuring exotic beaches. The magazine also noted George has a newspaper picture of his brother.

He has only met his famous brother twice. Once when he was five and then in 2006 when Senator Obama visited Nairobi. George admits their meeting was very brief and cool.

Can Barack Obama Move beyond This Controversy and Win the Nomination over Hilary Clinton?