| Author |
Message |
    
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 178
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 08:56 pm: | 
|
A drunk and a bigot - what the US Presidental hopeful HASN'T said
about his father...
By SHARON CHURCHER - Last updated at 22:51pm on 27th January 2007
The Daily Mail.
It is a classic story of the American dream made real: an
impoverished Kenyan goatherd rising to become a brilliant Harvard-
educated economist.
On the way he fights racial prejudice at home and corruption at work,
survives the heartbreak of a broken relationship and, despite it all,
leads the fight to rid Africa of its colonial legacy.
This extraordinary story is told by US Presidential hopeful Barack
Obama as he recalls the life of the man who inspired him to political
success - his father.
Mr Obama's book, Dreams From My Father, is flying off the shelves of
US book stores, exciting and astonishing readers in equal measure. It
is a bestseller, and no wonder - because the story just gets better
and better.
Mr Obama is already Democratic Senator for Illinois. Now he is in the
running to be the first black President in the country's history.
"My story is part of the larger American story," he declared in the
electrifying speech that won him his Senate seat just two years
ago. "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible."
Many believe Mr Obama is a serious threat to Hillary Clinton's hopes
of becoming the Democrats' choice for their next Presidential
candidate - and his lovingly written account of the debt he owes his
father, also called Barack Obama, will do no harm at all to his
Presidential hopes.
Indeed, by offering up a conveniently potted account of his personal
history in this way, he might even have made a pre-emptive strike on
those sure to pose the awkward questions that inevitably face a
serious contender for the White House.
Yet an investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed that, for all
Mr Obama's reputation for straight talking and the compelling
narrative of his recollections, they are largely myth.
We have discovered that his father was not just a deeply flawed
individual but an abusive bigamist and an egomaniac, whose life was
ruined not by racism or corruption but his own weaknesses.
And, devastatingly, the testimony has come from Mr Obama's own
relatives and family friends.
Charismatic and with movie-star looks, Barack Obama Jnr has managed
to steal some of Hillary Clinton's most influential supporters in the
two weeks since he entered the US Presidential race.
The 45-year-old lawyer depicts himself as a fresh voice for voters
tired of the divisive rhetoric and self-serving ambition of
established politicians on each side of the Democrat-Republican
divide.
His campaign to become the first black President is inspired, he
says, by his love of the country that allowed his father to triumph
against astonishing odds.
Barack Obama Snr started life with the advantage of being able to
read and write, but he also felt a profound sense of injustice. His
father was a cook for British settlers in Kenya, who demeaningly
called him their 'personal boy'.
Grandfather Obama sent his son to a missionary school but after
completing his education, the youth could find little work except
goatherding in his remote village of Nyangoma Kogela, in the roadless
hills of Western Kenya.
At 18, he married a girl called Kezia. But Obama Snr was more
interested in politics and economics than his family and his
political leanings had been brought to the notice of leaders of the
Kenyan Independence movement.
He was put forward for an American-sponsored scholarship in
economics, with the idea being that he would eventually use his
Western-honed skills in the new Kenya. At the age of 23 he headed for
university in Hawaii, leaving behind the pregnant Kezia and their
baby son.
Relatives say he was already a slick womaniser and, once in Honolulu,
he promptly persuaded a fellow student called Ann - a naive 18-year-
old white girl - to marry him. Barack Jnr was born in August, 1961.
Two years later, Obama Snr was on the move again. He was accepted at
Harvard, and left his little boy and wife behind when he moved to the
exclusive east coast university.
At the time, Ann explained to their son that his father had gone
because his meagre stipend would not support the family if they lived
together. But finance was the least of her worries.
Mr Obama Jnr claims that racism on both sides of the family destroyed
the marriage between his mother and father.
In his book, he says that Ann's mother, who went by the nickname Tut,
did not want a black son-in-law, and Obama Snr's father 'didn't want
the Obama blood sullied by a white woman'.
In fact Ann divorced her husband after she discovered his bigamous
double life. She remarried and moved to Indonesia with young Barack
and her new husband, an oil company manager.
Obama Snr was forced to return to Kenya, where he fathered two more
children by Kezia. He was eventually hired as a top civil servant in
the fledgling government of Jomo Kenyatta - and married yet again.
Now prosperous with a flashy car and good salary, his third wife was
an American-born teacher called Ruth, whom he had met at Harvard
while still legally married to both Kezia and Ann, and who followed
him to Africa.
A relative of Mr Obama says: "We told him[Barack] how his father
would still go to Kezia and it was during these visits that she
became pregnant with two more children. He also had two children with
Ruth."
It is alleged that Ruth finally left him after he repeatedly flew
into whisky-fuelled rages, beating her brutally.
Friends say drinking blighted his life - he lost both his legs while
driving under the influence and also lost his job.
However, this was no bar to his womanising: he sired a son, his
eighth child, by yet another woman and continued to come home drunk.
He was about to marry her when he finally died in yet another drunken
crash when Obama was 21.
Mr Obama's 40-year-old cousin Said Hussein Obama told The Mail on
Sunday: "Clearly, Barack has been very deeply affected by what he has
learned about his father, who was my father's older brother.
"You have to remember that his father was an African and in Africa,
polygamy is part of life.
"We have assured Barack that his father was a loving person but at
times it must be difficult for him to reconcile this with his
father's drinking and simultaneous marriages."
Said adds: "His father was a human being and as such you can't say
that he was 100 per cent perfect.
"My cousin found it difficult when he came here to learn of his half-
brothers and sisters born to four different mothers.
"But just as Africans find the Western world strange so Americans
coming here will find Africa strange."
Far from being an inspiration, the father whom Mr Obama was coming to
know seemed like a total stranger.
In his book, he attempts to put the best face on it. His father, he
writes, lost his civil service job after campaigning against corrupt
African politicians who had 'taken the place of the white colonials'.
One of Obama Snr's former drinking partners, Kenyan writer Philip
Ochieng Ochieng says, however, that his friend's downfall was his
weak character.
"Although charming, generous and extraordinarily clever, Obama Snr
was also imperious, cruel and given to boasting about his brain and
his wealth," he said.
"He was excessively fond of Scotch. He had fallen into the habit of
going home drunk every night. His boasting proved his undoing and
left him without a job, plunged him into prolonged poverty and
dangerously wounded his ego."
Ochieng recalls how, after sitting up all night drinking Black Label
whisky at Nairobi's famous Stanley Hotel, Obama Snr would fly into
rages if Ruth asked where he had been.
Ochieng remonstrated with his friend, saying: "You bring a woman from
far away and you reduce her to pulp. That is not our way."
But it was to no avail. Ruth sued for divorce after her husband
administered brutal beatings.
In fact he was a menace to life, said Ochieng. "He had many extremely
serious accidents. Both his legs had to be amputated. They were
replaced with crude false limbs made from iron.
"He was just like Mr Toad [from Wind In The Willows], very arrogant
on the road, especially when he had whisky inside. I was not
surprised when I learned how he died."
Ruth refused to comment on the abuse charges when we tracked her down
to the Kenyan school where she now works.
She said: "I was married to Barack's father for seven years so, yes,
you could say Barack is my stepson.
"Barack's father was a very difficult man. Although I was married to
him the longest of any of his wives he wasn't an easy person to be
around."
Mr Obama has acknowledged that his father grappled with a drinking
problem. But with a gift for words that makes Mrs Clinton's
utterances seem stiff and stale, he has turned it into another
component of the myth.
Drink, he says, like drugs, are one of "the traps that seem laid in a
black man's soul".
Mr Obama claims that he, too, has been racially abused, even during
his campaign for the White House.
His mother, Ann, decided that he should get an American education and
sent him back from Indonesia to Hawaii, where he was admitted to a
£7,000-a-year prep school, Punahau Academy, and lived with his
maternal grandparents.
And while there, says Mr Obama, he was tortured by fellow pupils -
who let out monkey hoots - and turned into a disenchanted teenage
rebel, experimenting with cocaine and marijuana.
Even his grandparents were troubled by dark skin, he says in his
book, recalling how once his grandmother complained about being
pestered by a beggar.
"You know why she's so scared?" he recalls his grandfather
saying. "She told me the fella was black."
Mr Obama says his soaring 'dream' of a better America grew out of
his 'hurt and pain'.
Friends, however, remember his time at school rather differently. He
was a spoiled high-achiever, they recall, who seemed as fond of his
grandparents as they were of him.
He affectionately signed a school photo of himself to them, using
their pet names, Tut and Gramps.
The caption says: "Thanks... for all the good times." He worked on
the school's literary magazine and wore a white suit, of the style
popular with New York writers at the time.
One of his former classmates, Alan Lum, said: "Hawaii is such a
melting pot that it didn't occur to me when we were growing up that
he might have problems about being one of the few African-Americans
at the school. Us kids didn't see colour. He was easy-going and well-
liked."
Lon Wysard, who also attended the academy, said the budding
politician was in fact idolised for his keen sportsmanship.
"He was the star basketball player and always had a ball in his hand
wherever he was," Wysard recalled.
Mr Obama was later admitted to read politics and international
relations at New York's prestigious Columbia University where, his
book claims, "no matter how many times the administration tried to
paint them over, the walls remained scratched with blunt
correspondence (about) niggers."
But one of his classmates, Joe Zwicker, 45, now a lawyer in Boston,
said yesterday: "That surprises me. Columbia was a pretty tolerant
place. There were African American students in my classes and I never
saw any evidence of racism at all."
Family members and acquaintances believe that the real cloud over Mr
Obama's life has been the discovery that his father was far from the
romantic figure that his mother tried to portray.
A family friend said: "He is haunted by his father's failures. He
grew up thinking of his father as a brilliant intellectual and
pioneer of African independence only to learn that in Western terms
he was basically a drunken lecher."
This ugly truth, say friends, has made Mr Obama ruthlessly determined
to use every weapon that he has to succeed, including the glossily
edited version of his father's story.
"At the end of the day Barack wants the story to help his political
cause, so perhaps he couldn't afford to be too honest," said Ochieng.
Significantly, it was only four years after his father's death that
Mr Obama travelled to his father's ancestral Kenyan village. There he
learned the full story of his father's life and met some of his
relatives.
One of his half-sisters, Auma, is now a council worker in southern
England, but some of his other relatives are still living in huts in
the village, without plumbing or electricity, farming a few scrawny
goats and chicken and growing fruit and maize.
They speak the tribal Luo language and depend on handouts from family
members who have emigrated to the UK and the United States for their
few luxuries, notably the transistor radios that they use to follow
Mr Obama's rocketing political fortunes.
He has positioned himself as a devout Christian (having found God, he
says, after years as an atheist) and in a new book The Audacity Of
Hope, timed to coincide with his campaign, he concentrates on his
manifesto for 'reclaiming the American dream'.
This tome contains one telling paragraph, in a section in which he
fumbles to try to justify his abrupt leap into the national political
arena: he is, he says, chronically 'restless'.
"Someone once said that every man is trying to either live up to his
father's expectations or make up for his father's mistakes, and I
suppose that may explain my particular malady."
Additional reporting: Rob Crilly in Nairobi and Gill Pringle in
Honolulu.
|
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 6987
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 09:32 pm: |
|
Boy, the smear campaign has started. If this is true, Obama has siblings alllll over the place and if he were to become president, these
Africans could organize a coup and take over the country. Heads up "authentics", there's hope that you may yet get your revenge so you better embrace ol light-skinned Barak. In any case, it was never more clear that Obama's history is not black America's history. heh-heh. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4251
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 09:36 pm: |
|
"A family friend said: 'He is haunted by his father's failures. He grew up thinking of his father as a brilliant intellectual and pioneer of African independence only to learn that in Western terms he was basically
a drunken lecher.'"
That says it all to me. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4252
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 09:41 pm: |
|
Oh lord, here you go with the tribalism again. Actually, the only problem I have with Obama is he SEEMS a bit too conservative on some issues concerning Black America. I'd like to see more of him before I make up my mind though.
|
Jackie
Regular Poster
Username: Jackie
Post Number: 390
Registered: 04-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 09:48 pm: |
|
Tonya :Actually, the only problem I have with Obama is he SEEMS a bit too conservative on some issues concerning Black America.
What do you mean too conservative ? Like what ? Just curious. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4254
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 11:09 pm: |
|
Jackie,
"In no other country on Earth is my story even possible."
First of all, I would say that that isn't true if I knew more about the "story" he's referring to. But, anyway, comments like this are what make it seem as though he feels America is no longer racist and we have already reached the point of colorblindness. Again, tho, I don't know enough about him to make that claim. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1693
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 11:24 pm: |
|
tonya: he is a politican trying to reach a broader electorate than one focusing on the veritable racism inherent in the U.S. Barack knows there is racism and has said so. But to admit that there is racism is not to say that the US doesn't offer the greatest opportunities than other countries.
In fact, the US probably does offer the greatest opportunities. Yes, I'm saying it! AND, it is racist as shit! What explains this contradiction? Well, it is the greatest for individuals....individual mobility is possible. But black people as a group will not secure great mobility, because this country's racism is institutional; individuals with luck, skill, and help can overcome this, but not an entire group!
What does that mean? That his story is probable impossible in other places outside of european democracies....I am sure people of african descent are saying the same shit in England...and France....
|
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4255
Registered: 07-2006
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 11:38 pm: |
|
"tonya: he is a politican trying to reach a broader electorate. . ."
I realize that, Yukio, that's why I'm willing to give the brotha a chance. We had this conversation week’s age. You probably weren’t here though. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4256
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 - 11:41 pm: |
|
And, Yukio, that would depend on one’s definition of “the greatest.” No?
|
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1694
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 03:11 am: |
|
tonya: indeed it would. But we are humans, and we logically compare our past experiences with the new ones, and from there draw conclusions that the new is better than the old.
This true for most immigrants, especially those from "third world" nations; the US offers jobs, freedom of religion[so they say], gender equality, and laws that do not explicitly discriminate against anyone...people in this country take basic things for granted, such as running water, plumbing, housing, television, access to the internet, etc....this is all comparatively speaking, of course. A white educated Brit., would say that this country has more opportunties b/c of its success after WWII, but claim that the U.S.'s culture is shit...LOL!
In other words, it is about what you couldn't achieve elsewhere and what you can achieve here, and how in touch you are with world history.
This is basic human behavior, and quite logical. Most people dwell within the mundane, and are mostly concerned w/gaining wealth not knowledge and cerebral rubbish that some of us like to envelope ourselves in. But the former are often WRONG, individualist, anecdotal, and ahistorical....but what can one do with the common person?
|
Moonsigns
Veteran Poster
Username: Moonsigns
Post Number: 1798
Registered: 07-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 08:23 am: |
|
I don't believe that he's just recently learned of his father's true character. Come on, the man literally left him. I believe he's just finally acknowledging it (publicly). It could possibly be a political game. |
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 182
Registered: 01-2006
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 11:31 am: |
|
If he is speaking of financial upward mobility based on intelligence/education, his story is possible in at least one other place, called Kenya and he should know that. He should read Wangari Maathai's autobiography.
I'm not sure what "his" story is either.
|
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4260
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 01:55 pm: |
|
Yukio,
all my mother talks about is the way things were lol. In other words, she thinks the old is better than the new. And most of the immigrants I know dream about the day when they can return home. They're here to make money yes but they plan to take that money back home... So, if the opportunities & wealth in the U.S. are so important, why aren’t they planning to stay here and make money for the rest of their days? These are both common and professional ppl, btw. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4275
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 07:56 pm: |
|
...I meant to say "talk," my bad. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4276
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 07:58 pm: |
|
CNN, NBC blame Obama "opponents" for smears advanced by media
Summary: Anderson Cooper, David Gregory, and Soledad O'Brien have all asked Sen. Barack Obama about smears leveled against him, purportedly by his political "opponents" or "enemies." But in each case, they did not name any of these "opponents." Indeed, by framing their questions in terms of political "opponents," they ignored the media's role in promoting these smears, and in some cases originating them.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200701260014
|
Nels
Veteran Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 752
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 09:20 pm: |
|
Jackie --
"Tonya :Actually, the only problem I have with Obama is he SEEMS a bit too conservative on some issues concerning Black America.
What do you mean too conservative ? Like what ? Just curious."
When "black" America finally realizes that the world doesn't owe them anything, then much more progress will be made towards their own greater recognition of heightened self-worth, dignity, esteem and merit. There are many of "us" out there who are not descendants of slaves, but that doesn't lessen the challenge that each of "us" face every day. |
Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 1125
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 09:42 pm: |
|
Barack Obama's father was "Niggerstock" like most African men from colonized countries. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1698
Registered: 01-2004
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, January 29, 2007 - 11:09 pm: |
|
tonya:
You would have to ask them. I suspect that they love their home land. But they aren't the immigrants of which I was speaking of, for they will not be, I suspect, interested in politics, and may not choose to naturalize and participate in the political process.
In general, however, Barack is tapping into the American Myth that the U.S. is a melting pot, wherein all can succeed through hard work. Thus, his rhetoric is most meaningful for immigrants who will remain here, the old immigrants who have over time garnered a modicum of wealth, anglos who like to pat themselves on their back for practicing "tolerance," and African Americans who, as John Ridley explained, have made a contract with the U.S. that blacks will be good citizens.
His position is the solid and safe mainsteam, for he will say that things need to be done [that is ending racism, gender discrimination, and the this present war], and at the same time, and this is most important, be optimistic that the problems of the U.S. will come to pass, BECAUSE, it is the tradition of this country, even at its most racist moment, to open up opportunities for the hardworking, the assidious, the committed...
Dahomeyahosi: Barack is an American attempting to do the unthinkable...become the first black president of the U.S., so while understand what you are saying, he is fundamentally concerned with this country, and intelligently tapping into its history of liberalism to buttress his campaign. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4284
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 01:06 am: |
|
Yeah, well, I liked how passionately he spoke on Katrina earlier today. He's an excellent speaker, very, very moving--(Hillary’s in BIG trouble)--so, if nothing else, his run for presidency should be a treat.
|
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4286
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 01:21 am: |
|
"When 'black' America finally realizes that the world doesn't owe them anything. . ."
They need OUR vote, we don't need theirs... they better act like they owe us something!
|
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1701
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 02:21 am: |
|
he is an excellent speaker; i wish I could speak like him, in fact. he reminds me of Malcolm, not in content, but the way he can explain complex ideas through simple analogy, and his posture always seems sincere, honest, and earnest...that is it, he has that subdued fire that Malcolm had...but he is not Malcolm; i am talking about style again, not substance!
Barack is extremely intelligent and genuine and fair...i would vote for him in a minute; he is our future, in fact. He is that twentieth first century black man, that is, he is African and African American [though, I wish he was more African and in touch with his father's culture].
I don't care what Stanley Crouch says. that he is not the descendant of slaves doesn't make him not an african american.
his political stance is african american; his delivery is a balance between a northern educated black religiousity, reminscient of the Frederick Douglas and Malcolm X.
I dont particuarly trust him, but I have never trusted any politician. the nature of the job requires compromise and negotiation. politicians have a place, though, as do intellectuals, the common man and woman, and the like.... |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4288
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 03:40 am: |
|
OMG!!! Yukio, I said the same thing a few weeks ago
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/19443.html?1167423781#POST7840 3
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/19443.html?1167423781#POST7841 7
He does have that Malcolm thing going on, I thought it was just me!! |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1704
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 04:29 am: |
|
we said similar things not the same...LOL! |
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 189
Registered: 01-2006
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 09:42 am: |
|
Yukio,
Barak is very charismatic and I'm certainly following him closely, though I don't think of him as African at all. It will be interesting to see if Barak can become the first multi-racial president. Some more waiting is certainly in order for the first black one.
Yes he is primarily concerned with America and this is logical. However it irks me when Americans speak of America as the only place when this or that can happen or the best country on Earth. It says that Americans have done really nothing more than buy into propaganda because few Americans have passports. In addition to that Americans have a world-renowned reputation for being ignorant of the world so they generally make baseless assertions (i.e. Bush when he said he didn't know Brazil had black people....and this is the president). Unless you know of the world it makes no sense to make sweeping conclusions about it. And if you haven't even taken the time to know your father's country it's hard to believe you know much of the world. |
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 190
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 12:32 pm: |
|
Pardon my stupidity for the post above. I forgot Barak is a politician and, whether he believes it or not, he is pretty much required to hype the U.S. as the greatest country on earth. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1705
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 12:56 pm: |
|
Dahomeyahosi: right on both accounts. He is not culturally African, but I think that his having an African father, or as they say in the street sperm donor, has some symbolic resonance, for me at least[i have always wanted to have the opportunity to learn first hand my people's culture...but this is another matter].
right. I do agree that "Americans have done nothing more than buy into propaganda." I was making the same point that this propaganda is what he is tapping into to garner support. I do not believe in this myself. I do think he does, unlike the most of us, have the opportunity to "get to know his father's country."
And that fact, gives me some hope. It is much more than African American going to w.africa, usually senegal or ghana kissing the ground, visiting the ol factories, and then snaring at africans because they do not cater to you [though i heard that alot of kenya who thought his presence there was a sideshow].
|
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 192
Registered: 01-2006
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 08:36 pm: |
|
Yukio,
It's a precious thing to know who your ancestors are and where they are from. I know how blessed I am in that regard and I think Barak has shown some natural curiousity to find out about his father's family. I hope he finds someone in his father's line he can actually be proud of. I think it's great that his father's father wanted to keep their family black. There must be someone else with integrity in a family with a man like that. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1714
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 01, 2007 - 12:36 pm: |
|
hmmmm...but if there was no white, then there would be no Barack, not the intellect the human being the product of love? self-hate? something? don't know!...i am a romantic! if its love, then it love...if its self-hate, on the other hand, then thats anotha story.... |
|
Email This Page