Abroad, Many Hope for ‘New Chapter’

[Trooper]

President Barack Obama reached out to the world in his inaugural address on Tuesday, pledging to help the people of poor nations make their farms flourish and clean waters flow, and promising that America would “play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.”

The world listened with a mixture of optimism and caution. From Kenya to London, millions gathered around television screens in public squares, cafes and living rooms to watch Mr. Obama accept the mantle of American leadership, and with it, take on the hopes of a world battered by war and recession.

While there was jubilation that a difficult era, marked most profoundly by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the wars that followed, might be drawing to a close, there was also skepticism that one man, no matter his aspirations, would be able to bring about such sweeping change.

In Mexico City, thousands gathered to watch Mr. Obama in offices, restaurants and on the streets. Some people were so moved they wiped tears from their eyes. Car horns sounded as Mr. Obama finished his address, although in such a traffic-clogged capital it was impossible to know whether the sounds were celebratory or more functional in nature.

“He was speaking to the whole world,” said Rodolfo Sosa-Garcia, an economist who tuned into the speech from his office in Mexico City. “Obama represents hope not just for America but for the world.”

But others felt Mr. Obama had not said enough about how America would change its global approach under his leadership. “For me, as a Mexican, as a foreigner, it lacked a message,” Manuel Barberena, the president of a Mexico City market research firm, said of the speech.

The symbolic significance of an African-American being elected to the nation’s highest office resonated widely, especially with those whose lives have been marked by oppression. In Puerto Tejada, a violence-wracked town of 45,000 in Colombia, sugarcane-cutting descendants of African slaves were given Tuesday off to watch Barack Obama’s inauguration on a giant TV screen, and celebrated with dancing and singing, The Associated Press reported.

“The people here see themselves represented in Obama,” Mayor Elver Montano said. “President Barack Obama could us help a lot, promote dialogue, give resources and money to help improve people’s livelihood.”

In Caracas, Venezuela, reactions to the inauguration included a range of emotions. “I felt immense envy,” said Daria Carmona, 60, a secretary at a school products company.

Why envy?

“Envy,” said Ms. Carmona, pondering the word for a few seconds, “because we do not have a president with the capability of leaving power in such democratic fashion.”

Indeed, even as Mr. Obama was being sworn in, the police were using tear gas in Caracas to disperse antigovernment protests on Tuesday. President Hugo Chávez used the transition in Washington as an opportunity for some parting barbs against Mr. Bush. “He is the most repudiated president in his own country and the world,” said Mr. Chávez while campaigning in the eastern state of Anzoátegui. But he also sounded more conciliatory at times on Tuesday.

“From here we salute the people of the United States,” said Mr. Chávez, emphasizing that he hoped Mr. Obama’s presidency would “mark a change in the relations of the United States with the countries of the third world.”

Messages from other world leaders — most of them congratulatory — poured in.

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed Mr. Obama’s ascendance as a “new chapter in both American history and the world’s history.” In Paris, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said he had sent a message to President Obama saying: “We are eager for him to get to work so that with him we can change the world.”

But in Tehran, where many newspapers did not judge the inauguration to be front page news Tuesday, Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said he would await the “practical policies” of Mr. Obama before passing judgment on his position on Iran, the official Irna news agency reported.

In Europe and elsewhere around the world, celebrations began hours before the inauguration. In Paris, a party at the ornate Hôtel de Ville on the banks of the River Seine was followed by less formal merriment around the city. At Queen, one of the city’s best-known gay clubs, live television footage of the new president’s triumphant parade was shown to a thumping back-drop of music by Grover Washington Jr. British cities, including Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds and London, also offered big-screen viewings of the inauguration.

In the stately stone villa that hosts the German-American Center in the historic university town of Heidelberg, Germany, projection screens and televisions were set up on three floors and rock bands played for a mix of young Germans and Americans.
Matthias Weyland, 29, who works for an environmental organization, said he felt a bit overwhelmed after watching President Obama’s address. “We Germans are not used to things being quite so emotional,” Mr. Weyland said. “Generally I don’t have much hope for party politics, but this time I’ll wait and see. I found it very good in the speech that he included so many groups, not just different nations, poor nations, but within society, different religions — Muslims, for instance.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped the Obama era would be built on a broad international agreement that “no single country can solve the problems of the world,” a hope built in part on the perceived unilateralism and bellicosity of the Bush years.

But there was a sense, too, that Mr. Obama would seek changes from America’s allies in handling international problems, like the war in Afghanistan, where European countries are under American pressure to increase their troop levels in the American-led coalition fighting the resurgent Taliban.

“I think there will be big change, but there will also be demands, and Europeans are going to have to say: ‘Yes, we can’,” David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, told BBC television.

That sentiment was echoed by Pope Benedict XVI, who sent a telegram to Mr. Obama saying: “At a time when so many of our brothers and sisters throughout the world yearn for liberation from the scourge of poverty, hunger and violence, I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding, cooperation and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life, which God wills to set for the whole human family.”

Kenya, the birthplace of Mr. Obama’s father, was swept by Obamamania on Tuesday. Kenyans threw parties, held feasts and packed around television sets to celebrate the ushering in of a man Kenya considers one of its own.

In Kisumu, in western Kenya, thousands of people gathered in the town’s main park to watch the new president be sworn in on movie theater-size screens. There was singing and dancing, vendors hawking Obama calendars and even an Obama imitation contest with Kenyans vying in heavily accented English to do their best to sound like the new president.

In Kogelo, Obama’s ancestral village, cows and chickens were slaughtered and people beat on goatskin drums. Men in black and white colobus monkey wigs hollered the new president’s name. From now on, village elders declared, every Jan. 20 will be Barack Obama Day.

In Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, some of the nicest hotels in town were booked for Obama parties. One banquet room was decorated with Kenyan and American flags and cloth printed with Obama’s face and Kiswahili sayings. The moment President Obama completed his oath of office, the guests jumped to their feet and sang out in unison, “Thank God!”

In Hong Kong, the inauguration took place after 1 a.m. and, amid the economic gloom, some expressed skepticism about the likely impact of a new American president.

“I am less than convinced the Obama effect will be so quick or so significant,” said David Eldon, the former chairman of Asia and Pacific operations at the bank HSBC.

But in Indonesia, Mr. Obama’s boyhood home, the interest was keener. “We feel that he is an inspiring figure,” said Enda Nasution, a prominent pro-Obama blogger, “so we hope, without being naïve, that the world will change,” Reuters reported.

In the Middle East, Israel hastened to pull its troops out of Gaza by the inauguration. The day was hailed by President Shimon Peres of Israel as “a great day not only for the United States of America, but for the entire world.”

“I pray here in Jerusalem that Barack Obama will be a great president of the United States. If he will be a great president of the United States, he will serve all humankind, all nations and all persons,” he said.

But there has been concern in Israel that President Obama will prove a more demanding diplomatic partner than President Bush, a theme underscored by Mr. Obama’s inaugural message to the Muslim world.

“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” Mr. Obama said.

In Lebanon, many who watched the inaugural speech seemed excited by it, and said they felt the new president represented a great improvement over Mr. Bush. Some said Mr. Obama was signaling a new openness to the Muslim world. But they were all deeply skeptical about his ability to change the basic direction of American policy, especially regarding the Israel-Palestinian dispute.

For many, the three-week war in Gaza, which caused tremendous anger throughout the Arab and Muslim world, overshadowed the inauguration.

Dana Moukhallati, 23, watched the speech with a crowd of other young people at the Captain’s Cabin, a smoky bar in west Beirut. “I think it’s good if he’s true to his word,” she said. “Things can’t get any worse. It was a charismatic speech. But most people in Lebanon are not too excited. They’ve heard this kind of thing before, and they want action.”