What a week!

I woke up Monday morning to news that Lewis Hamilton became the youngest driver to win the F1 Championship, and the only black person to do so. I watched his dramatic finish on the last lap of the Sao Paolo race and hoped that it would be a sign of things to come a few days later in the States -- close but a win nonetheless.



As I was sitting nervously on the sofa outside of Shangri-La's Shang Palace, watching CNN Live on my laptop, waiting for Grameen Foundation CEO, Alex Counts' luncheon talk to begin on Thursday 5 November, Barack Obama's White House bid was looking more like a landslide. At 12:04pm Hong Kong time, EO sent me the sms that I'd been wishing for all year: Obama won.

Starting his talk, Alex Counts summed up the significance of Obama's win: Just as a microfinance loan to a poor villager changes the way she and her community see her from helpless victim of circumstance to empowered entrepreneur, Obama's win has allowed Americans to see themselves once again as fulfillers of the American Dream rather than voiceless and disenfranchised citizens.

Will.i.am's new song "It's a New Day" expresses what a lot of Americans are feeling:



We're going to be really busy now. Many new days ahead, with many more new dreams to make real.