Foreign Policy Blogs

Obama Win "In the Stars," Say Nepalese Astrologists

I’ll let this article, published by Indian news wire Sify, speak for itself:

“Kathmandu: They made predictions – some with success and some without – about the end of the country's royal dynasty and the end of the Maoist insurgency. Now Nepal's cosmopolitan astrologers are predicting a victory for Barack Obama.

According to Nepal's leading soothsayers, Republican candidate John McCain's younger opponent will win the November 4 polls, not due to the republican's running mate Sarah Palin but thanks to the democrat's stronger stars.

Santosh Vashisht, who is also the spokesman of the Nepal Astrologers’ Council, says McCain, whose sun sign is Sagittarius, was born under the shadow of the evil Saturn, which would reduce his chances of winning.

Obama, on the other hand, enjoys the blessings of Taurus and Jupiter, which have boosted his prospects of victory…

…While the presidential campaign can ignore the Nepali astrologers, it can't however afford to dismiss the Nepali diaspora residing in the US, whose number is nearly 150,000. In a report from Washington on Monday, Kantipur, Nepal's biggest daily, said Nepalis residing in the US were rooting for Obama, wooed by his pledge for greater education and healthcare funds for the middle and lower middle class.

“Someone like Obama will be able to understand our problems,” said Babu Ghimire, a Nepali resident with two children. “Save a few, the majority of Nepalis in the US belong to the low and middle income groups…”

 

Author

Melinda Brouwer

Melinda Brower holds a Masters degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She received her bachelor's degree in Political Science and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received a graduate diploma in International Relations from the University of Chile during her tenure as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She has worked on Capitol Hill, at the State Department, for Foreign Policy magazine and the American Academy of Diplomacy. She presently works for an internationally focused non-profit research organization in Washington, DC.