It's our problem too

Being on the other end of the planet from America, I can't wait for the elections to be over so we can move on to other subjects. I don't muchly care for the pro's and con's of who did what, or who said what, or whatever. It's not my country. There's nothing I can do to influence who gets elected, and I don't know enough about one versus the other to have an opinion anyway. (And with one foul swoop I have probably just lost my entire American readership!:) )

And yet it struck me recently that even though we're not American, whoever gets elected is likely to have an influence on us South Africans - whether we like being "dominated by a superpower" or not! :) Someone's foreign policy could get this country blacklisted, or elevated in status. Someone might find something they want to fight us for on our soil - no, we don't have enough oil to matter, but we DO have other things they may want. Someone may not like the fact that our dear president is buddy-buddy with folk like Mugabe and Aristide (most of us here don't like it either) - and may choose to force his hand.

It's not a pleasant thought, way down south here. That a group of people on the other end of the planet may have the biggest effect on us. That we could go the way of Sudan or Iraq - depending on the whims of someone in power on another continent. That we could go the way of 1980's Zimbabwe - sanctions creating queues for basics like petrol and sugar and cooking oil. That we could get kicked out and cut off from world organizations where the Superpower holds sway.

Scary. But true.

Seems the USA elections are everyone's problem after all.