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For the past 21 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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This website includes selected articles from this week's edition of the Filipino Express. Not all the stories published in the printed version appear on this site.
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People of Color Rejoice as Barack Obama Wins Presidency
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NEW YORK– “There is no more doubt. There is no more worry. The American Dream is real. The American Ideal is alive,” read one placard hoisted by a young Asian- American man on Tuesday, November 4 at Times Square, where a crowd gathered moments after the United States of America stunned the planet by electing Senator Barack Obama as its first colored chief executive. It is a moment never before seen in any part of the world where the majority of citizens are white.
In a historic election with a record-breaking voter turn out, Mr. Obama decisively defeated republican candidate John McCain for the highest office of the land, garnering more than the required 270 electoral votes–a product of a near-perfect campaign that in the beginning many thought futile.
The victory appears to have cemented the country’s legacy as a land where equality and democracy spring eternally. It has, if anything restored America’s place in world affairs. Locally, however, the moment is more personal. For Filipino-Americans like all people of color in the country and the world, Obama’s victory is their own triumph.
“Obama’s win shows that Americans today look beyond race to decide if a person is qualified or not,” said Roland Rosales, a teacher from Queens. “It is a great win for humanity,” he added.
“It’s inspiring,” said Manny Miguel, a senior from CUNY who voted for the first time. “I am so proud to have voted and proud to be an American.”
The impact of Mr. Obama’s win resonated all over the world since it came in a time when Europe struggles with racial violence, and other parts of the world deal with bigotry. In Indonesia, where Mr. Obama spent parts of his childhood, people danced on the streets upon hearing the news of the victory. Even folks from the Middle East watched the returns closely and erupted in simultaneous jubilation when CNN projected Mr. Obama as the winner.
Alona Terry , a Filipino- American working in Egypt wrote in an email: “ Everyone here is happy of Barack’s win. We all felt connected to him. Arabs, Persians, Filipinos, Indians, we all felt related to this African-American man.”
“He is a global man,” said Ben Panchot of Manhattan. “He represents all colored people. And now he is the leader of the most powerful nation on earth.”
However, with Mr. Obama’s unprecedented achievement and global impact, it is necessary for the president-elect’s team to keep things in check. As of now, the country and the whole world’s expectations are too huge for one man to live up to. That is why in his beautiful victory address delivered in Chicago moments after his win, president-elect Obama reminded the nation that the change he promised during the campaign will not happen overnight. He said it may take years for the people to reap the benefits of his governance. It is perhaps his way of keeping things in a realistic perspective.
Obama said in his speech: “The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.”
Nevertheless, many people believe that his victory alone fulfilled the most important promise–that of people of color be given equal opportunity. “He is the President of all colored people now,” Panchot added.
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CHICAGO – Ting Joven Giovanelli and her husband Ben Giovanilli walked six or seven blocks to get past thru three layers of security at the Grant Park in downtown Chicago, Illinois Tuesday (Nov. 4) night. They were already very tired after waiting for hours. But everything came back to life at about 10 p.m. when the jumbotrons of MSNBC and CNN flashed on their screens “BARACK OBAMA ELECTED PRESIDENT.”
“Suddenly people went crazy, screaming and jumping for joy. Black and white, all strangers to each other, were hugging one another with tears in their eyes. We were crying and hugging every one. Emotions were let out without inhibitions.”
The sight of people unleashing their pent-up emotion has been unheard off and unseen in local political lore. Maybe the only comparable phenomenon was the tears of joy shed by a beauty contestant who just won the Miss Universe title. Or perhaps, by those Filipino people at EDSA in 1986 when they cried with happiness after Marcos agreed to step down from power. Or maybe, the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Ting Joven Giovanelli, a Chicago Filipino American community leader and a former Sen. Hillary Clinton supporter, was among those lucky ones to get a coveted ticket to the Chicago Election Night gathering organized by the Obama campaign. As soon as Sen. Barack Obama chose Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate a few months ago, Ting embraced the Obama-Biden ticket and volunteered to help the campaign. She also gave a “small monetary donation.” Her volunteer effort paid off when she was given a ticket to the Election Night gathering at Grant Park that was estimated to number 200,000.
Initially, Ting was asked to become a Field Director of the Obama campaign in battleground states. But she declined because of her prior commitments. She was later asked to join a phone bank team, by making phone calls from her Chicago home to voters’ houses in Pennsylvania until Election Day.
Ting said, “The Obama campaign even sent her emails asking her to make phone calls two hours before closing of the polls. Unfortunately, we were already at Grant Park waiting in line for the big event.”
The last-minute emails sent out by the Obama campaign must be so massive that even my friend, Ronnie M. Estrada of San Jose, California, who is also an Obama volunteer, even told me that at about 3 p.m. Chicago time on election day, he was still being asked to make phone calls in battleground states.
Of course, because California is two time zones away, it is only 1 p.m. at their Pacific Standard Time, the Obama campaign was telling volunteers there that there was still plenty of time to make those phone calls. This phone call instruction was circulating even if Mr. McCain was trailing so far behind Mr. Obama in various polls.
Ting believes Mr. Obama won because of his sincerity and because Americans are now voting “color-blind.” By running “an excellent campaign,” Mr. Obama proved his detractors wrong that he “lacked experience.”
For her part, another Sen. Hillary Clinton-turned Obama supporter New York business executive Loida Nicolas Lewis said among the reasons that carried Obama to victory was his theme of “hope and change to Americans frustrated with the past eight years of President George Bush’s incompetence, cronyism and arrogance.”
Attorney Lewis, who also contributed to the Obama campaign and had also asked her family and friends to contribute to the Obama campaign, said when “economy kerplunked and Obama showed he had the calm and wisdom to seek counsel instead of running around with confusing signals as Sen. McCain did,” there was no more doubt that Mr. Obama was the change Americans needed.
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