As insignificant as 107,000 people living on just over 100 square miles in the Caribbean Sea may be, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has Obama’s back. In this week’s Searchlight Newspaper:
PRIME MINISTER Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is endorsing Barack Obama for the President of the United States.
“I will say this to our American brothers who are here. I don’t mind being undiplomatic and saying Ralph Gonsalves supports Barack Obama,” said Gonsalves on Wednesday at the official opening of the National Insurance Services building.
Dr. Gonsalves said that he has friends and relatives living in the United States and he has explained to them why they should support Obama.
“He has a remarkable quality. He doesn’t simply inspire people…He draws out of people that which is good and noble in them, that which people may not yet know they possess. That is why he has been able to get persons who normally would not want to vote for an African American. He has gotten into their minds and souls and he has looked at them and they themselves. He has touched their goodness and even the contradictions which exist in them, and shown them they must allow their goodness to triumph and that is why I support him.”
He’s not the only one. We’re all watching. Waiting. Impatient.
In market squares and street stalls amid breadfruit, mangoes and plantains there are Obama tee-shirts and key rings on sale. His name featured in dozens of songs this Carnival. We gather around the television to watch the debates and rail at the lies and mudslinging tactics of his opponents. To say we’re invested in this election would be an understatement.
I was in Barbados this weekend and of the 3 televisions in the house there was at least one turned to news coverage of the election at all times. The family friend I was staying with spoke of “holding her breath” in anticipation of November 4th and the anxiety she feels waiting for the outcome. She likened the American public in the 2004 election to woman with battered wife syndrome, wooed by promises and ignorance into going back to the man who has treated her so badly. As a region we are waiting, hoping that the people have the good sense to finally throw the bastard out.
We want to believe. Show us.
