The New World

James Fallows travels to Indonesia:

“Where you from? Australians?” one of the policemen asks. It is the most likely guess for people who look like us in this part of the world. Amerika Syarikat, I reply – “the United States.” We used to live in Malaysia, and after our struggles with Mandarin the Malaysian/Indonesian language feels practically like our native tongue.

The officer pulls himself up to attention and with a huge smile gives us a snappy military salute. “America – very good!” he said. He lowers the salute and says “Barack Obama!!” with a big thumbs up.

Obviously Indonesia’s a bit of a special case here since Obama’s lived in Indonesia. But still it’s a nice reminder that we have a real opportunity to re-enchant the world with the United States. It’s an opportunity that’ll be swiftly squandered if we don’t get the policy right, but it’s an opportunity we should seize.