If the joyous celebrations taking place on the streets of American cities on Saturday are any indication, Americans can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that a “normal” politician now occupies the highest office.

Americans have all the more reason to celebrate over the weekend given the fact that president-elect Joe Biden is a decent man known for his honesty and integrity. “Sometimes…the good guys win,” sci-fi author Stephen King wrote in his tweet over the weekend.

Americans were not the only ones celebrating Biden’s victory. Soon after television networks announced that Biden won the state of Pennsylvania and Nevada on Saturday morning, bagging 26 Electoral College votes and bringing his total to 279, a huge collective sigh of relief could be heard from all corners of the globe.

After four years of nightmare, starting this week a large portion of the world’s population will wake up to a semblance of normalcy and soon after, on Jan. 20, 2021, when Joe Biden sits at the White House, we can be sure that not every The New York Times headline and CNN chyron will report of a fresh scandal.

Even for non-Americans, Trump’s rhetoric and actions have been a cause for concern.

Early in his administration, soon after Trump made his threat that he would unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangered the United States, even people here in Southeast Asia began assessing the real possibility of a nuclear winter.

Then there was the decision by Trump to order a strike against Iran’s top military commander, Qasem Soleimani. Later when it became known that the downing of a Ukraine International Airlines flight was the result of an error made by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard when launching a retaliatory attack against Soleimani’s killing, we could not help but think that World War III was imminent.

And then there’s the US trade war with China, which spilled over into other issues, from the South China Sea dispute to the crackdown on Chinese technologies companies like Huawei. The tension has worn down countries in the region, including Indonesia, to a point where Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has repeatedly maintained Indonesia’s neutrality principle. Not since the end of the Cold War have tensions run this high.

Much of the world’s problems will remain and Biden will face an uphill battle in attempting to resolve them. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, we need to be realistic about what the US president-elect can accomplish. Big questions also loom about what he will do with Iran, North Korea and Russia.

But if there’s one thing that we can be sure of once Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20, it is that we can stop doomscrolling and go on about our lives.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia