It is just 7 Days when Obama takes over as the President of the USA. With his black Kenyan father and white American mother, his upbringing in Honolulu and Jakarta, and his Ivy League education, Obama dustbins issues of race as non issues, echoing the inaugural address of John Kennedy, “I wouldn’t be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation" Obama has been praised as a master of oratory on par with other renowned speakers in the past such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His “Yes We Can” speech, which artists independently set to music in a popular video produced by Will.i.am, was viewed by 10 million people on Youtube in the first month, and received an Emmy Award. Many commentators mentioned Obama’s international appeal as a defining factor for his public image. Obama established close relationships with prominent foreign politicians and elected officials even before his presidential candidacy, notably with then current British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he met in London in 2005, with Italy’s Democratic Party leader Walter Veltroni, who visited Obama’s Senate office in 2005, and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also visited him in Washington in 2006. Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of both of his books; for Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008. In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it referred to as “the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments.”
Barack Obama was born on Honolulu in 1961. His mother was of English and Irish descent. Obama’s father was from Kenya. His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii, where his father was a foreign student. They married in 1961; separated when Obama was two years old and divorced in 1964. Obama’s father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. After her divorce, his mother married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro who was attending college in Hawaii. When Soeharto came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the Obama family moved to Indonesia. There Obama attended local schools, such as Besaki Public School until he was ten years old. He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama’s mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for five years, and then in 1977 went back to Indonesia, where she worked as an anthropological field worker. She stayed there most of the rest of her life, returning to Hawaii in 1994. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995. Of his early childhood, Obama has recalled, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me ? that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk ? barely registered in my mind.” In his 1995 memoir, he described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind”. At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his “greatest moral failure.”
“He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind”. What a weak character? Do all people like him resort to these? What if his weaknesses get exposed while he is on chair?
If India were on the same level as US on the Resources to Population ratio, it is highly likely we may not have had the sceptre of corruption tainting the word “Indian” as you not so subtly put… Of course this is my personal take, and I believe India is still the land of more equality that US…
Eka, I did indeed his victory as a success of the american immigrant mentality which i loosely translate as equal opportunity to all, transcending the nay sayers… yes it is indeed a sign of democracy being healthy and alive…. but i do have my reservations at the hype…to take ur own words, why such a hype? precisely because there is so much of discrimination? I do agree that he has all the qualities that you write about. But i want to view him as yet another President, but one with lots of promise AND NOT as one who was supposed to not be there!!!!! As for charisma, Rajiv Gandhi too had it.. just that he was not a dalit!!!!! and, speaking of Mayawati and Laloo I have more regards for them than Obama ..simply because I am unable to equate the system in US with that in India… where one has to be really really capable/charismatic to take a whole nation along with them..minus the media hype…corruption notwithstanding…
Osho (Fake or True) : Coz even a kid can say, ”I love Obama” . that makes him gr8. Its not whether he can deliver or not, but that will he make a more focussed attempt than most or not, or is he capable of that or not. And Kush, the world might fall out with him, that’’s nothing new. What matters is how the world will act if he is able to pull it off. All this reminds me of Sahir Ludhianvi…
Everybody wants to get a bit of the sunshine. People praising Obama think that they are doing a great job, but hardly realise that they are just becoming a victim of the greatness that is imposed upon them by global media. Be original dudes. Even a kid can say: I love Obama.
You knw it is the media here and everywhere but in the US that sees it as some kind-a revelation or something. There have been straight on reports in US papers that it was a success of a well engineered advertising campaign. It was the money that went into the campaign that won him the election. Well, that aside, I honestly feel that the world will soon fall ottta love with him coz he wears the proverbial crown of thorns.
Prabodh, yes, we had K.R. Narayanan adorn the post of President and a very honourable man , he was. But one wonders how much impact he had on the common man on the street. On the other hand we have Mayavati, who from the anonymity of being a teacher in a small school, has swayed the masses in the electoral field. A journalist friend of mine vows that she and Laloo’’s contribution to making the voices of the dalits heard is huge. Personally, though , I feel that the lack of integrity and the corruption that surrounds their personalities, takes away huge chunks from their larger than life images that they have tried to create for themselves. They cannot be seen as great , if it is their own self interests that they have been serving, under the guise of upliting the down trodden. My personal take, of course.
To my mind, it does indeed speak a lot about the Americans, that from the time a black man could be seen only working in the cotton fields of the whites, they have gone beyond their prejudices to elect Obama to the post of President. And it goes to the credit of Obama that he refused to play the colour card throughout his campaign. The times are difficult and his presidentship is definitely not going to be a cakewalk. But the man has charisma and if one had been following his debates and speeches, he does come across as a calm, sincere and with a sense of intergrity. I don”t think he stooped even once to vitriolic personal attacks, nor was he provoked to losing his cool. They are great attributes. It is also to be hoped that having seen and lived in a part of the world not as glossy as the U.S.A,although when very young, he will have the world view vision not to commit the kind of mistakes that his predecessor did. I , for one am his fan.
Prabod well ! I meant nothing, though this person truly intrigues me. But the point was just to share the biography ofr this seemingly good man, aspects that are not well known, etc. But yes, i do appreciate the way he conducted his campaign; refusing state fundimng and collecting 700 million $… now dont sneak abt a conspiracy theory there, for there indeed is none
It is something like the rags to riches story, only, this man never looked behind, he thought his plans with intelligence and dexterity, and then implemented them with telling effect.
Well… what exactly is the point you intend to make? Is it one of rising against all odds, or is it about US being the great leveller of racial discrimination???? To me, his test is yet to be… the fact that he is president incumbent is not his success, but that of the great US immigrant theme…. success stories like his abound in our very own India… but very few may know those stories or write about them….
Nice post …. Thanks for sharing.