Elections

Yesterday a small group of ExPats crowded around a friend's TV in the middle of the South Pacific to watch Barack Obama be elected as the next president of the United States. I have never been so proud...way to go America! The sense of hope and optimism was palpable. Although I wish I could have been in the states just to experience the electric energy that we saw running through the crowds as we watched the coverage on CNN, I am nevertheless thankful that despite being nearly 6000 miles away from home, I was still able to vote in this historic election. I also loved this newspaper clipping that someone sent me back during the build up to the election. Pretty profound...

Here on the Rock, we had our own local elections, the biggest of which was for governor (basically like the president of AmSam). You can only vote if you've lived here for more than 2 years, which rules out most of the ExPats since for the most part we're here on 2 year contracts. On election day there were tents set up all over the island from the various candidates handing out free plates of food. In addition to all the races for representatives to the Fono (legislature), there were four tickets running for governor/lieutennant governor--the incumbant and three challengers. Since you have to get more than 50% of the vote, there will be a run-off in 2 weeks to determine the winner. It's down to Togiola (the current gov.) and Utu. We'll see how that goes.

Eni Faleomavaega just got re-elected to his 11th term as the American Samoan representative to the U.S. Congress. He has been representing the territory in this capacity since 1989, so he's no stranger to the political scene. Here he is on The Colbert Report...awesome.