Something beautiful: Reaction from Obama's Kenyan family

[elizm]

Something beautiful: Reaction from Obama's Kenyan family
by anna
Fri Jan 04, 2008 at 10:01:01 AM PST
Just watching MSNBC right now, and they've got a reporter named Martin Fletcher over in Kenya right now. He just gave a report from Kenya - transcript after the fold - describing the joy felt by Obama's African family after his win last night. The report reminded me that the symbolic value of an Obama win can't be underestimated.

anna's diary :: ::
Here's the transcript:

Well I can tell you that if people are happy - if Obama's supporters are happy in the United States - they're ecstatic in an area in Kenya called Nyangoma-Kogelo, and that's the area where his family comes from.

They were listening to results on the radio last night because they don't have a television in their village. So they'd all kinda gathered 'round their radios waiting for the results - the family of Barack Obama. And they said when they heard that he won they all began screaming and jumping and dancing in the air and clapping each other on the back - you know, absolute ecstasy in the village.

You can imagine... This is the village where his father comes from, where his grandmother is living right now. And I spoke to his uncle by the way - I called his uncle - and he said, he pleaded with me actually - and if you don't mind, I'll do this now - he pleaded with me to pass on a message to Barack Obama. This is from his - this is from his uncle Sayid Obama, and the message is that the family here in Kenya - we are so happy, you make us proud, and we're praying for your success in New Hampshire . So that's the message from the relatives in Nyangoma-Kogelo, western Kenya.

It's really beautiful to me to hear this expression of joy coming from Obama's African family.

It's not just being felt in Kenya - but around the world. I took a brief tour around a few international news sites I follow. Obama's victory is front page news all over the world. Here's a small sample of screen caps.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/4/114210/2785/744/430474

[msongs]

1. any reaction from his American family? nt

[parasim]

2. God, I am so tired of this cynical shit. nt

[jefferson_dem]

4. Your hate-filled snarks have grown tiresome.

What's your point? Really.

[skipos]

5. Fuck off. nt

[Cha]

7. You're not very

good at selling your damn t-shirts.

[mahina]

8. Yes, thanks for asking.

His maternal grandmother called a mutual friend who lives on the North Shore and said, "Georgia, are you in town? Can you come over here and pinch me?"
She was one of the first women vice presidents of Bank of Hawaii, and is a super sweetheart. It was she and her husband who sent Barack and Maya to Punahou, where he went to high school.http://www.punahou.edu/page.cfm?p=2 We are super proud of him, to the max.

Aloha.

[Cha]

12. Thanks, malina! Punahou

looks a really NICE schoolB-)

[mahina]

17. Aloha zidzi, Punahou is an awesome school.

My son went there. I think it's one of the best schools in the country, and I pray for the day that ALL kids have that kind of education. Imagine how our society would change.
Aloha.

[Cha]

21. Ohhh, that's really

great! And good to know about the school..Aloha~

[BeyondGeography]

14. That's thread-worthy stuff!

Thank you for posting.

I'm so glad at least one of the people who raised him is alive to see this. He's so young and neither of his parents are still here...

[JDPriestly]

16. No wonder he keeps the corporate side of the famly kind of discrete.

This is the first I've heard that his grandmother was a bank vice president. Nothing wrong with bank vice presidents, but this is the first that I have heard it.

[mahina]

18. Corporate side of the family????

WTF?
Sorry, that is a really interesting read. It's a middle class job. But whatever.

[mahina]

19. The more I think about your comment, the stranger it seems.

What in the world do you mean? What is the reason you think you have discerned?

The word is discreet, by the way. OK.

[JDPriestly]

22. You are right. Wrong spelling for my meaning. Discreet is correct.

I really want to see Edwards become the next president. I do not think Obama is ready.

The press never gave up on Edwards' $400 haircut, but Edwards is the real guy from a working class family and a working class community. Obama is not. Obama was born into comfort. I really prefer Edwards. As far as I am concerned, Edwards is the real thing. This is the last chance for America to get set on the correct course. I think Edwards can steer us steady. I do not think Obama can at this time. I think Obama will make a great president in about 8 years when he has more life experience. I think Edwards is ready now. That is why I am so sore. Obama was always my second choice candidate although I liked them all. I am terribly disappointed that Edwards did not win in Iowa. Edwards is the most electable of all our candidates.

[mahina]

23. well, as mentioned, I am an Edwards fan also,

and strongly so. In fact the closest I've gotten to a dispute around here was defending Elizabeth; turns out they were talking about a different Elizabeth :)

But I have to say that as pained as I was about the hair thing, the experience thing is just as incorrect about Obama. Our individual lack of knowledge about a candidate does not constitute lack on the part of the candidate themself- people tell me Edwards doesn't have a platform on xyz, and I tell them he actually does, and how to find it.

They just genuinely don't know what isn't repeated on the news ad newseum. (he he.)

Anyway as far as being born into privelege, I have to say you really have this wrong. He was raised by a single mom with help from his grandparents. When his Mom, who was so dear to him, was dying of cancer, he was pouring over the insurance documents line by line and word by word because they were trying to deny her care. I think John Edwards would understand this very well and I hope his supporters do too.

He came from very modest upbringing. He had a scholarship to Punahou. The Makiki neighborhood, where he grew up, is working class. (Just because he grew up in Hawaii, doesn't mean he was priveleged. Somebody has to clean the pools, wash the sheets etc. at the hotels, and a lot of those folks live in this neighborhood.)

He does have the great advantage of a fantastic education, which was available to him due to the scholarships he won, as a result of his incredible brilliance. I realize that sounds kind of funny, but my son's dean was his dean, and I know a lot of people who knew him in school, and it is 100% true. Everybody knew he was going to make a difference in the world, and that is rare way over here in Hawaii.

He has the same amount of experience as JFK and Abe Lincoln did when they went to Washington. He was an Illinois senator before he was a US senator. The pundits act like state legislatures are nothing, but he did a lot of great work there. One of the laws he got through was to videotape confessions, because people were getting the stuffing beat out of them to confess.

Please know if the shoe was on the other foot, it would be hard for me too, but not so hard if our candidate was John.

His life experience of going from the top of his class at Harvard Law, to directly go work as a community organizer on the streets of Chicago for a tiny fraction of what he could have been paid in a heartbeat, tells me his heart was still in the right place then, and I know it is now.

Best of luck, aloha.

hey ps, a vice president of the bank makes something like 35-40,000, and here, that does not go very far. Although an accomplishment for a woman at that time, it's not super rich, it's middle class.

pps, photos of Makiki. No slum but it's working class for sure.
OK!

[JDPriestly]

24. Madelyn Dunham is the name of Obama's grandmother in

Hawaii. She probably was not rich, but she was well off enough to give Obama many advantages that Edwards did not have. I have a family member who is a bank vice president. Rest assured they do not make $35-40,000 per year.

[mahina]

25. Well I guess we've gone as far as we're going to,

Punahou education was on a scholarship, and wages here are not what they are on the mainland. But that is for another post.

[mahina]

20. So I took a look around,

and I notice that every post you've made lately is anti-Obama. I want you to know, I appreciate John Edwards, and I would never slam him. I respect him. I've donated to him.

I've never slammed Hillary that I can remember either, although I am not a supporter of hers. Just hoping you might consider the utility of being positive. I bet your candidate would agree.

[cali]

26. Wrong as usual. And another nasty smear

You are not a corporatist just because you work for a bank. Lots and lots of middle class people work for banks. And FYI, he talks about the maternal side of his family a lot- they brought him up.

[mahina]

9. Hey by the way

your link is broken.

[indie_voter]

15. Didn't you see his wife and daughters on stage last night? n/t

[quiet.american]

3. Thanks for posting!

After reading his book, Dreams From My Father, I can only imagine how PROUD they must be of him! I'm PROUD of him, even though last night he was not my first choice -- but I can't deny the history that was made -- and I don't want to! :)

[goclark]

6. It was the history that should make all people of good will

proud.

Proud to see that in America we can truly celebrate others.

No matter what race they are -- that is wonderful and that is what America The Beautiful should be about -- :bounce:

[Maraya1969]

10. That just makes me feel good. eom

[Cha]

11. What a unique time

we're living in right now, especially after the last 8 year nightmare that is almost over(that's where the hope comes in!)

[K Gardner]

13. Here's Obama in Italian... they portray him as a pacifist who

is against the war in Iraq.. a fresh face. I couldn't send you the link to the coverage of the Iowa Caucus, because they only put a picture of HUCK up there. I wrote them and told them we'd rather have Barack's pic up at Corriere. But here's their bio video of him.

http://mediacenter.corriere.it/MediaCenter/action/player?uuid=aaf0d29e-b960-11dc-aa63-0003ba99c667