This sentiment has been uttered all over the world. Nairobi, Cairo, Paris, Montreal, London—you name it. The presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama, has energized the world, provided hope and brought the possibility of change.

Graphic: Ledelle Muhammad Bush’s edict that you are “either with us or against us” harms more than just our true enemies. During the current Administration, Somalia has been openly bombed four times, and the U.S. has supported Ethiopia’s incursions into the country.

As much as this is about his “everyman” appearance, the expectations are much more than skin deep. For the world, the last seven and a half years of George W. Bush, and his habit of brandishing strength without accountability, have been dispiriting and deadly.

Bush’s edict that you are “either with us or against us” harms more than just our true enemies. During the current Administration, Somalia has been openly bombed four times, and the U.S. has supported Ethiopia’s incursions into the country.

Somalia is on the brink of a disaster as severe as the Darfur genocide, a situation in which we still remain all talk and no action. The Sudanese government is taking full advantage of one caveat of the “with us or against us” edict, wherein providing the U.S. intelligence on suspected “terrorists” slows our response to genocide at their hands.

For Africa and its Diaspora, the last several years—and decades for that matter—have been filled with elusive promises of progress. Overly publicized aid packages allegedly solely for the benefit of Africans are filled with conditionalities and perks for U.S. and multi-national contractors. Government officials promote these aid packages by estimating that over 80 percent of our aid dollars come right back to the U.S. each year. Bush’s “greatest achievement,” the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), saves fewer lives than it could due to a ban on women’s’ health clinics and a brokered deal with pharmaceutical companies stopping the purchase of generic drugs. Bedtime stories of individual achievements result in avoidance of holistic debt cancellation and calls for real reform of our foreign assistance programs.

The people of the African World want to be dealt with fairly without the duplicity experienced with multiple prior administrations. They have grown tired of the U.S. denouncing one dictator, only to unequivocally support the dictator next door. Notions of moral superiority and cultural pre-eminence are translucent.

Our international policies have mirrored our domestic policies—the economic race to the bottom has helped a select rich few in our country and all over the world. Remember Katrina? We saw Blackwater on the streets of New Orleans even before rescue teams arrived.

Unlike many of my colleagues in Washington, I don’t believe the citizens of the world who are celebrating the Obama victory necessarily have a false sense of what an Obama presidency might mean in their lives.

Most people outside of this country understand our political processes better than we do. They understand the influence corporations have, and they know that our media focuses on superficial topics at the expense of significant issues.

While one man can’t change the giant we call government, maybe his “everyday stature” can inspire individuals to demand change for the entire world.

(Nicole C. Lee is the executive director of TransAfrica Forum. This column was distributed by the NNPA.)