obama myanmar
According to “The Economist,” four African countries would support McCain. Why?
Algeria, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia poll as favoring McCain versus Obama. (Along with two non-African countries – Iraq and Myanmar). The rest of the world favors Obama. I’m wondering what political issues lead these 4 countries to support McCain. (World chart is located here: http://www.economist.com/vote2008/
That is interesting. Did you look at the percentages though? In the countries going for Obama, the closest contest was in Zimbabwe, where it was Obama 60% and McCain 40%. In contrast, in the African countries going for McCain, the largest margin McCain had was in Sudan: 55% McCain to 45% Obama. So in reality it is more like most of the countries broke decisively for Obama, and a few African countries leaned toward McCain.
Why those 4 leaned for McCain might depend on local factors. One thing that might be a consideration is that president Bush has actually done much to help Africa. Whereas linking McCain to Bush hurts McCain in the US, some African countries, particularly those who have benefitted from Bush’s policies might see that as a reason to support McCain. Bush has, for example, done much to combat AIDS in Africa, and Namibia has an enormous problem with AIDS.
It should also be pointed out that the poll is likely not very accurate. It shows Obama leading McCain 81% to 19% in the US! I’m not sure how this was conducted. It looks like you just vote on the site and you have to be a member of the economist. In much of the world – particularly Africa – this poll is not necessarily going to reflect public opinion. It is going to be wealthy who are voting here. In places like Algeria, the wealthy likely see Islamic terrorism as a serious threat (more so than the average person may), and so they may think that McCain will be tougher on terrorism (if that is, they hold the same assumptions as a lot of Americans do). In Sudan, the elite may see Obama’s African heritage as making him more likely to take a tough line against Sudan on Darfur. I also am not sure what Sudan’s relationship with Kenya is. If it is hostile, that may be a big factor. Ditto for DRC. Not that long ago DRC was involved in large wars which involved many other African countries in the region. I don’t think (from a quick wiki search) that Kenya was involved, but it may have provided support or been friendly with enemies of the DRC, like its neighbor Uganda.
Interesting!
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The 10 Stories of 2011 that Changed the World (World Citizen, by Frida Ghitis) It’s too soon to know how the events of this fast-fading year will ultimately reshape our world, but the upheaval we witnessed in 2011 will most assuredly keep future historians ponderously occupied. It was a year that will have mattered in many ways, many of which we don’t yet fully understand, but that clearly represent a turning point. Ten events in particular reshaped the global landscape in 2… |
