BRITAIN

BRITAIN

The Guardian, London, Nov. 5: The founding fathers would have been astonished by the very suggestion of a black president. Their failure to tackle slavery, which the best of them acknowledged was incompatible with the values of the American revolution, remains the largest stain on their legacy. But their success was to devise a constitution flexible enough to survive their own failings as well as those of future generations. And this despite obvious flaws like the second amendment’s right to bear arms.

Ignorance

The author Susan Jacoby argued this week that one of the greatest failings of the current American generation was ignorance. The overwhelming majority do not know who wrote the constitution or when, or that there are three branches of government, two of which will be changed today, or that there are nine justices of the supreme court. Amnesia, she argued, is one of the great banes of U.S. political culture.

But look at what has happened in this presidential race and it is not just about one man’s oratory. The intensity, emotion and length of this campaign, with a backdrop of war and recession, has re-educated millions. They include Hispanic and Latino Americans, traditionally antipathetic to elections, who by registering have learned a lot more about their rights than how to conduct a caucus or vote for a proposition.

PHILIPPINES

Manila Times, Nov. 5: The administration must pay attention to the warnings made by Dr. He Changchui, assistant director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific.

He tells the world that the economic meltdown now afflicting the globe is gripping mankind with “the twin crises of finance and food.”

The world, he warns, will be “far worse” than the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Black October of 1987 or the Asian Economic Collapse of 1997.

That is because the financial crisis is accompanied by “high food prices and food shortages, and the steady erosion of agriculture and rural economies.” He says.

Society’s bedrocks

“Food availability and affordability are the bedrocks of any society. During the Great Depression, Black October and the Asian Economic Crisis, food prices were at historic lows. No matter how dire the situation, food was still plentiful and cheap. Today, the story is different.”

The Department of Agriculture and the various agencies of the government as well as the private sector must do everything they can to restore our farming sector to the high productive level it used to enjoy during the Marcos years.

CANADA

The Toronto Star, Nov. 5: Americans yesterday reshaped their very history, born in freedom and slavery, by electing their first black president, in a gesture of reconciliation and redress that left many weeping with joy and relief.

In handing not only the White House but also Congress to the Democrats, they also rebuffed the powerful Republican neo-conservative ideology that has dominated their political life since Ronald Reagan first won election back in 1980.

Serial incompetency

Bush’s serial incompetency has badly discredited an ideology that was notable for its indifference to the United Nations and its preference for hawkish unilateralism; its conviction that small government, unbridled markets and tax cuts are the answers to every problem; and its massive defense spending.

And, of course, Obama’s victory marks a generational break from the long-dominant Boomer generation.