Very Rococo

Originally posted February 2008 on Annual Gymkhana

From CNN.com:

Kosovo has formally declared its independence from Serbia and become the world’s newest state in a move opposed by Serbia and Russia but backed by many western governments.

Kosovo has been under U.N. supervision and patrolled by a NATO-led peacekeeping force since the end of the three-month war (in 1999), in which NATO warplanes pounded Serbia to roll back a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” of the province’s Albanian population under former President Slobodan Milosevic.

The disputed province is dear to the Serbs — Orthodox Christians who regard it as Serbian territory. But it is equally coveted by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians — Muslims who have a 90 percent majority. Two years of talks on its final status ended in failure last December.

Read the full, official story here.

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Revelers did laps around midtown Manhattan earlier today in celebration of Kosovo’s declared independence which came late last night.

Cars passed blaring their horns, people hung out of the windows and stood up through the sun roofs waving flags and t-shirts — many had taped the Kosovo flag on their car bonnets. Some held up placards which read “Thank You America.”

Originally posted February 2008 on Annual Gymkhana

Campaigners hastily taped blue promotional leaflets to telephone booths, bus stops and traffic lights in a last-ditch canvassing effort for their candidate, Barack Obama.

However, the steady stream of voters who passed into the Riverside Park Community building on 135th and Broadway had long decided who would get their vote in the Super-Tuesday election.

“My vote is Hillary,” said Ms. Celeste Contrearas, translated from Spanish to English by her aid. “I asked my friends and everyone from my church to vote for her.”

According to a recent poll conducted by Survey USA Clinton is the most popular Democratic candidate in New York with 56 percent of the vote. Obama is in second position with 38 percent, but will have to do more than depend on the three percent of undecided voters if he is to gain ground on Clinton in the Senator’s own state.

In a neighborhood where Hispanics account for 40 percent of the population, West Harlem seems like readymade Clinton territory. Clinton is popular with the Latin community and many believe Obama realized the importance of the Latino vote too late in the campaigning process.

Clinton’s win in the Nevada caucus, where she took 64 percent of the vote, was the first indicator of her popularity among Latino voters. Since then Obama has been scrambling to gain ground and make himself better known in Spanish-speaking communities.

“I like her policy and I like her husband’s policy,” said Ralph who declined to give his family name, but voted for Clinton. “Barrack? I don’t know anything about him. I mean it looks good to see his brown skin there, but I got to have more than that.”

A survey of early afternoon voters outside the Riverside Park Community, which asked people why they voted as they did, rarely returned answers that went beyond the rationale of “just liking” the candidates. But every vote for Hillary because she is well liked was matched with one for Obama for the same reason.

“Hillary has been here before, she needs to go home,” said Mr. Garrido, an Obama supporter. “We need someone who’s going to make change. We need someone who’ll fight for the people at the bottom and I think he can do that.”

Obama’s message of change and the duality of experience presented by the Clintons were cited as other principal reasons for pledging support to the respective Democratic candidates.

While some voters admitted to voting for Obama because he is black, Mr. Abraeu, a “moderate” Democrat who championed the changes made by Giuliani in the neighborhood, voted for Clinton.

“I’m sorry, but the negro guy, they don’t take care of the white people only black black black,” said Mr. Abraeu, who is white. “And how you want to put a black guy in this and all the black guys are going to be around him? What will they do about me?”