Following the American presidential election campaign, one feels as if he were watching an exciting match of football, boxing or wrestling or even a play. It is as if one were on the floor of the stock market, watching figures rise and fall. When the Athens Olympic Games were over, a friend of mine who enjoyed watching the athletes display their talents said they would never again be a place generating disappointment.
A journalist was once asked his opinion about the two presidential candidates and who he thought was the better choice. He replied, “Thank God, only one of them can win.”
We Arabs care a great deal about the American election, betting on this or that candidate as if the election would give us a savior to provide magic solutions for our problems. But we seem to forget one basic fact -- that not a single American election has ever provided our nation with anything positive.
A friend asked sarcastically: “Why should the American candidates spend so much money campaigning while they could do what people in developing countries do?”
In those countries, Parliament will be summoned for a special session lasting at the most half an hour. The country’s constitution will be amended so that the president can serve for life, leaving office only when he is dead.
This would save the country and its people a lot of time and money. To be sure, no sane person in any Western country would ever have come up with anything like that.
By the way, the American constitution is the oldest written document of its kind in the world. Since it was first written more than 200 years ago, it has been amended 26 times and one of those kind of thing has never happened in any Arab country.
