Cheers for Obama are heard around the world
People in Kenya, Iraq and as far away as Indonesia who feel a kinship with Obama watch the inaugural and join Americans in the celebration.
By Erika Hayasaki, Edmund Sanders and Paul Watson
January 21, 2009
Reporting from Jakarta, Indonesia, Nairobi, Kenya, and New York -- Revelers slaughtered goats in Kenya. Partygoers danced at elegant balls in Indonesia. Bar patrons kept eyes fixed on television screens in Lebanon. And schoolgirls wearing hijabs squealed and waved U.S. flags in New York while a crowd did the electric slide in Atlanta.
It was America's moment, the swearing-in of Barack Hussein Obama, the nation's first African American president. But Americans shared the event with the world Tuesday as people gathered from Las Vegas to London to Kabul, Afghanistan -- inside casinos, at restaurants and on street corners -- to witness this chapter of international history.
A hush fell across parts of the globe as the 44th president of the United States placed his hand on the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration, and took the oath of office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Inside New York City Hall, where 2,000 people had gathered to watch on a big screen, a blind man nodded his head and broke into a wide grin, a Republican war veteran in a wheelchair clapped, a gay rights activist wept, and a black seventh-grader jumped to her feet and screamed. Jean Golden, 65, a social worker, stood in the back row, singing "God Bless America."
In other parts of the world, there was a feeling of kinship for this president, whose roots lie beyond America's shores.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/inauguration/la-na-inaug-world-watches21-2009jan21,0,4166715.story
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