American Views Abroad

 
There is a tongue-in-cheek article Electing to Leave: A Reader's Guide to Expatriating on November 3 by Bryant Urstadt at www.commondreams.org/views04/1103-29.htm. 'So the wrong candidate has won, and you want to leave the country. Let us consider your options.'

A second article Ten Reasons Not to Move to Canada by Sarah Anderson can be found on Common Dreams or accessed at www.ips-dc.org. A journalist from Georgia emailed asking if there is anyone from his state abroad he could interview who left the US because they were so dissatisfied with the political direction the country was taking.

Wounds are open and sore today and being abroad doesn't make the pain any less. Still, if anyone is seriously thinking about this option, keep two things in mind. First, you will be very easily recognized, at least the first few years, by body language, accent, or lack of language skills. Second, if you think living abroad removes you from being confronted by US politics, nothing could be farther from the truth. For months now I have had a running dialogue on the Iraq War and the US elections with -- and this is only one example -- a very soft-spoken organic farmer at my neighborhood open-air market. He has been passionately interested in the Electoral College and how undemocratic it seems; the religious right in the US and how, say, those citizens in Ohio who were recently interviewed on German TV have come to such viewpoints; the relatives of fallen US soldiers and how they are coping with their loss and how come this does not have more of an affect on the direction of US policy in Iraq. The German media gave this election tremendous scrutiny. On Election Night I could switch from CNN, which I found rather boring and too politically correct, to the BBC, which had a somewhat jovial man behind an enormous map trying to explain the Electoral College, to NBC (filtered in on this night by another channel) which, compared to the sleek, state-of-the-art design of some German TV stations looked dowdy and old-fashioned. The two public German TV channels were reporting live from Washington. They sent over their top election night people, but added another touch. They called each other by their first names which is not the norm here and, dare I mention this, were dressed differently than they would be on a German election night. The one had a dark blue shirt with dark red tie. Well done. The other had on a checked shirt with a stripped tie and left me musing if this was to give him a more heartland touch. They also had a prominent woman journalist running a talk show from a 'in' pizza place in Washington. I felt very much at home. All day yesterday the news on the radio accurately and neutrally detailed the situation in Ohio. However, once the dust settles and reality sets in, I am bracing myself.

- posted by Gloria @ 11:25 AM