Barack is the talk of Rio

Barack Obama is a very frequent topic of conversation these days. Maybe it’s just that people know I am both American and that I have limited language abilities. On election day more than half a dozen people said to me: “Hey Jim – election day – Barack Obama!”

Since then Obama’s face has dominated the news magazines at kiosks all over town.

I picked up a newspaper on Wednesday (pictured) that had the headline: “OBA!!!MA” This is a play on words. “Oba” means WOW! The sub headline reads: “The world celebrates the first black president of the USA and the end of the Bush era.”



I thought it was especially nice to use a photo of Barack and Michelle kissing.

Luiz and I are a long way from our time in Turkey a few years back when we were confronted in a café by a local Turk shaming us with the day’s newspaper featuring photos from Abu Ghraib prison. Luiz was thereafter Brazilian when asked, and I occasionally said I was Canadian, if the situation felt dicey.

It feels good to be proud to be from the States for a change.