Ohio America!

That was pretty much my reaction when I was clicking 'refresh' every 10 seconds on the US election page on CNN working fervently today.

I've had an interesting relationship with the US of A. The first time I was there as a kid, it was a great place to be - Full of adventure, interesting people, cool spectrum of culture and of course, home of Disneyland.

Somewhere along the way, I got disenchanted. Clinton-esque America was more about the antics of the president than what actually got done. And then there was George are-you-kidding-me Bush. By the time he got elected to his second term, I had pretty much given up any admiration for what it meant to be an American.

Then, today marked a turning point in my belief in the American system. From Martin Luther King, to Rodney King, and now (King) Obama, leader of the free world.

The 'coronation' of an inexperienced, young black man, is in my opinion, exactly what the US needs to show that in these turbulent times - that the US is willing to accept that it's gone down a solitary path into the valley of despair, and try and make things right again.

What happens next is any body's guess, but I'm predicting:

in the near future

• an ideas summit (ala Kevin Rudd) to gather ideas and consolidate leading thinkers from all over America
  
• more pain for Financial America as Obama 'listens' to a panel of Economists on how best to solve the current crisis which in turns leads to some real bloodletting before the healing can begin
• A staggered Iraq pullout with a turn towards attention in Afghanistan and renewed interest in capturing Bin Laden

in the slightly more distant future

• Sarah Palin tries (unsuccessfully) to gather support to run in 2012
• A bias towards blacks in prisons starts reversing as more young black men are inspired by the new leader to strive towards a loftier goal
• There'll be less of these idiots who use extremist religious views to scare people into thinking their misguided ways
  

To be honest, I don't know how long America will be on top of the economic charts anyway, I'm fairly sure countries everywhere have already started the complex 'uncoupling' of their economies away from being dependent on the US.

A study some time ago (2007) suggested that there wasn't any evidence that Asia was decoupling from the Western nations. I'd say that unless the turmoil hits China and India a little later than we'd expected, the fact that their forecasts are still 9.5% and 7.75% while the Western-oriented economies are in Reverse gear should definitely spell 'decoupling' in bold letters.

Ohayo America ! Huan Ying to the new world order !

Ok. Enough of that. I'm way behind on my posting of leisure activities. Post to follow.