Name? Kamala Harris
Westphalian identity? United States of America
Age? 56
Why is she in the news? Not only will Kamala be the first female vice president of the U.S., but she will also be the first Black and first South Asian vice president(-elect).
Why do we care? As you know, one of us is a US American woman who has many times had to attempt to explain the (mis)actions of the current Commander in Tweet. So we would be lying if we didn’t acknowledge the relief that gripped us this week with the Biden/Harris election.
Why should you care? Because like us, you probably breathed a sigh of relief when Nevada finally finished counting votes and Pennsylvania flipped. Because like us, you know that the U.S. is a crazy big country with crazy big influence on climate change, peace negotiations, the global economy, pandemics and more. This was not only an election about the US president but also a referendum about the future of the Paris Agreement, nuclear weapons treaties, free trade, the JCPA, NATO and basically multilateralism in general.
Who else cares? The more interesting question here is who is pretending not to care? World leaders who have yet to acknowledge the Biden/Harris win (e.g. Putin, Bolsonaro, Kim and Xi to name a few) are likely to see rougher relations with the U.S. in the next four years as they continue to hold onto their memories with President Trump.
Any further comments? We couldn’t have said it better than Kamala herself: “Black, Asian, White, Latina, Native American women–who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight. Women who fought and sacrificed so much for equality, liberty and justice for all…All the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century…I stand on their shoulders…While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”
