Global opinions on the US Election

As readers of this blog know, this is my first election as a new US citizen! The NY Times yesterday had an astonishing story of new US citizens who traveled across the world from India to vote in this election in person because their postal votes didn't arrive in enough time for them to be safely returned. Of course, US democracy isn't actually "one person, one vote" -- electoral votes are apportioned to each state according to the number of senators and representatives so that the smallest states get three electoral votes. For seats in the House of Representatives, votes are apportioned according to the number of state residents, many of whom (children, non-residents etc) do not have the right to vote. So in NYC, ten votes represents 15 people. Then there is the Electoral College. The Electoral College consists of the same number of people as there are members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which means that a tiny state with a few hundred thousand people has the minimum three electors, New York and Texas have 31 and 34, and California has 55.

I might also argue that each US voter (and the turn-out promises to be higher this year) represents the wishes and hopes of opinions around the world. Take yesterday's editorial in the Guardian (UK):

Though we lack the vote, this is our election too. Such statements outrage many Americans and inspire others. But the rest of the world has not just lived this election. Our life chances and societies will also be shaped by what happens next Tuesday. The world has an interest in the outcome because, in spite of everything, America remains the world's pre-eminent military, political, financial and cultural power. America's standing in the world has been damaged during the Bush years. He has inflicted massive direct harm to many parts of the world through his military actions, has set back the quality of life on our planet by his indifference to climate change, international cooperation and the rule of law. He has been anti-Americanism's best recruiting sergeant and al-Qaida's too.

The world may not have the vote on Tuesday. But it certainly has a candidate. That candidate is Senator Barack Obama. If the world could vote on November 4, Mr Obama would win by a landslide. Polling shows him preferred in Egypt by two to one, in Poland by three to one, in Canada by five to one, in Brazil by six to one, in Britain by seven to one, in France by 11 to one and in Kenya by more than 17 to one.

He is not just the preferred choice of liberal Europeans. He is also the choice of the rest of the world, of all races and creeds - and of young people in particular. No buses crammed with lawyers would be needed to validate the accuracy of these votes. He commands this support, not only because he is not George Bush but because he personifies so much of what the world still admires about America. Americans ought to think about that. The world longs, perhaps unrealistically but palpably nevertheless, for a new America. Only Mr Obama can provide that.

AllAfrica.com has a special on the US Election, Who is Better for Africa?

The Guardian also printed a piece by Dr Judith Maltby endorsing Obama from a religious persepctive:

If Barack Obama takes possession of the Oval Office in January it will not be through a string of unlikely disasters but through the testing, in a grinding campaign, of a candidate who has fired the middle and progressive ground in American politics as no one has in decades. That is clear from listening to people, both town and gown, in the heartland of the midwest. He will also be the most theologically literate Christian in that office since Jimmy Carter. At such a transformational moment, perhaps Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Methodists, even the much-maligned (in certain Church of England circles) Episcopalians, can wrestle the word Christian back from the Christian right.

The Times of India "Sashi on Sunday" warns about 4 things to watch for as the US votes including the Bradley effect, the Electoral College, a last-minute surprise, and national fault-lines. But the article concludes:

If there is no last-minute surprise, I'm betting on Obama. He has done everything right in his campaign - coming across as calm, intelligent and presidential, whereas McCain has been erratic, impulsive and (in his choice of the woefully undercooked Sarah Palin as his running mate) irresponsible. If Obama were white, this would not even be a close contest. If he loses despite having run the most impressive presidential campaign in recent Democratic memory, it will only mean that the candidate of change has been defeated by the one thing he cannot change - the colour of his skin.

Allerseelen ("All Souls")

Stell auf den Tisch die duftenden Reseden,
Die letzten roten Astern trag herbei,
Und laß uns wieder von der Liebe reden,
Wie einst im Mai.

Gib mir die Hand, daß ich sie heimlich drücke
Und wenn man's sieht, mir ist es einerlei,
Gib mir nur einen deiner süßen Blicke,
Wie einst im Mai.

Es blüht und duftet heut auf jedem Grabe,
Ein Tag im Jahr ist ja den Toten frei,
Komm an mein Herz, daß ich dich wieder habe,
Wie einst im Mai.

Here is a version of the Strauss song sung by Jessye Norman.

For a few days, I'll be at the Seminary of the Southwest acting as an external consultant in a review of faculty for promotion. The weather is spectacular, and the hospitality wonderful. Once I can recover from a 7.30am flight, I'll enjoy the visit and be useful for colleagues. Here's a life-size statue of Barbara Jordan at the airport.

Durer's woodcuts of the Apocalypse (1498)

According to the NY Times, the National Gallery of Art has bought a set of 16 woodcuts of the Apocalypse made in 1498. “Only three other sets exist in the United States,” said Peter Parshall, curator of old master prints at the museum. “This is to printmaking what the Sistine Chapel is to the history of mural painting,” Mr. Parshall said.

Hospice Chaplains

“We are there to be there. That is the point. It is my job to stay when there is no answer.” The Rev. Kei Okada, hospice chaplain interviewed for an article in the NY Times on Hospice Chaplains.

Having returned safely from Michigan in the face of an incoming Nor'wester, and with the air turning cold, I'm grateful for everyone I've met over the past few days and thankful for the opportunities.

Google settlement with authors

The Google settlement with authors which must be approved by a federal judge before it takes effect, includes money for now and the prospect of money for later. There'll be at least $45 million for authors and publishers whose in-copyright books and other copyrighted texts have been scanned without permission. If your book was scanned and you own all the rights, you'll get a small share of this, at least $60, depending on how many rightsholders file claims. Far more interesting for most of us and the ambitious part of our proposal is the prospect for future revenues. Rightsholders will receive a share of revenues from institutional subscriptions to the collection of books made available through Google Book Search under the settlement, as well as from sales of online consumer access to the books. They will also be paid for printouts at public libraries, as well as for other uses.

The settlement of the lawsuits, which were filed in 2005, did not resolve the question of whether Google’s unauthorized scanning of copyrighted books was permissible under copyright law.

Third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, Oct 24-27, 2008

The Third International Congress on Islamic Feminism recently met in Barcelona. Here is the BBC report from the event. Asma Barlas of Pakistan says:

I have a friend who has been studying the interface between what he calls the Persian models and the Arabist models of Islam in the subcontinent and surprise, surprise: the Arabist models are misogynistic, authoritarian, unitarian and the Persian models are much more plural and tolerant.

This is a fight on two fronts - on the one hand we are struggling against the kinds of oppression dominant in Muslim patriarch societies and, on the other, Western perceptions of Islam as necessarily monolithic, and confusing the ideals of Islam with the reality of Muslim lives.

If we read the Koran as a totality rather than pulling out random verses or half a line, that opens all kinds of possibilities for sexual equality.

Norani Othman from Malaysia says,

Perhaps the only distinctive difference peculiar to Muslim feminists is that we are caught in the cross-currents of modernisation and a changing society, due to a modern economy on the one hand and the global resurgence of political Islam on the other.

Political Islam wants to impose a world view about the gender order that is not consistent with the realities and the lived experiences of Muslim men and women in contemporary society.

In these days when distorted views of Islam are being distributed in swing states, its good to be reminded of what Islamic women are actually saying.

Holy Family by Tiepolo

It is raining in Grand Rapids as I visit the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. And its good weather for a visit to GRAM to look at "The Legacy of Mabel Perkins" consisting of prints she bequeathed to the gallery including "The Holy Family in a Boat" by Tiepolo. In March 2008, the $75 million, 125,000-square-foot building became the first art museum in the country to receive a LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council in Washington. (LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and En­­viron­­mental Design, is considered the benchmark for green construction.)

Hitherto unrecognized in the Church of St John and St Mary Magdalene in Goldthorpe (also unnoticed by Pevsner) are two 15th C Sienese panels. They have now been identified as works of Sano di Pietro of Siena (1405-81), a pupil of Sassetta. Dating from the mid 15th century, the two gold ground panels depict an unidentified saint (possibly St James) and San Bernardino. They presumably originally formed part of a large altarpiece in a Tuscan church.

How the panels arrived at Goldthorpe remains a mystery. The most likely explanation is that they came from Lord Halifax, who paid for the building of the church in 1916. He may have acquired the Sienese paintings on a grand tour or they could have come from the family’s seat, nearby Hickleton Hall.

Paul and Sophie Auster at 192 Books

Went to hear Paul Auster and daughter Sophie give a book reading at 192 Books last night. It was done very well.

They acted out "the shocking yet tender resolution scene from Auster’s Man in the Dark. Set within a political fantasy, a 72-year old man’s live unravels one sleepless night as he’s prodded by his granddaughter’s questions about his relationships with his late wife and his daughter, who is sleeping upstairs."

Here's a video of such a reading.