OBAMA'S INDONESIAN YEARS. The Los Angeles Times has another in its continuing series of ground-breaking articles about the life of Barack Obama. This one covers the four years he spent in Indonesia as a child. It's really unfortunate that the question of Obama's religious background is so fraught because of America's present international conflicts. The Indonesians interviewed in the story -- a few childhood friends and primary school teachers -- recall Obama being Muslim, which is something his campaign has denied, and if we were living in a normal period in history we'd understand that the reglious experiences of an expatriate child in a foreign nation and mixed family are part of that child's efforts to assimilate to the foreign culture in which he finds himself, and into his changed family, and mean nothing except that all children mimic the behaviour of those around them and try to please their parents. The only way such experiences are fair game in a political contest is if we decide that the new criteria for selecting a president should involve a close examination of who they were at age six. Which is, of course, ludicrous.
More interesting are some of the local color facts in the story, such as the way Obama used plastic bags over his shoes to keep out the mud when it rained, is remembered as having worn a sarong, and had pet crocodiles, a turtle, and an ape from New Guinea at home. The one politically relevant thing about Obama's years in Indonesia is that they probably helped foster within him an organic sympathy for traditional cultures and gift for transcending the difference between self and other. I suspect that you can see the legacy of that in his political instincts to treat people on the right with respect, and in his broader effort to speak to what all of us share in common with eachother, rather than those things that divide us. That is the natural approach of an expatriate child looking to make friends abroad -- find the human universal amid the chaos of cultural difference -- and also the approach that has made his candidacy so compelling.
This passage also speaks to a little something we call character:
Obama was taller and better dressed than most kids in classes where shoes and socks were still luxuries, so he stood out from the start. As an African American, and the only foreigner, he suffered racial taunts and teasing but never turned to violence. "At first, everybody felt it was weird to have him here," Dharmawan said. "But also they were curious about him, so wherever he went, the kids were following him."
In "Dreams From My Father," Obama describes coming home one day with an egg-sized lump on the side of his head because he had challenged an older boy.
The boy hit Obama with a rock, so his stepfather brought out two pairs of boxing gloves and sparred with him. "You want to keep moving, but always stay low � don't give them a target," he coached Obama.
Instead of using his fists, Obama gained respect � and friends � by using his imposing stature to protect weaker children against the strong, Dharmawan said.
You can read the whole piece here.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
