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Obama Good for the World

Written by Ernest Waititu
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
In one of Barack Obama’s pictures taken in Kenya, the U.S. presidential candidate is pictured beside his grandmother in Kogelo village in Siaya carrying on his back a sack half-full of some undisclosed contents. Because of the simplicity, humility and accessibility the man in the picture exudes, the image will forever be engraved in my mind. Perhaps more than any other picture of Obama I have seen, the picture best depicts the Obama the world will encounter in Obama the president. It is a picture that seems to invite us to be part of him, to look at the man and see ourselves in him. Ultimately, the U.S, the cultural melting pot of the world, has a chance to give the world a true citizen of the world – a man whom we all can claim a part of. From Kenya where Obama’s father was born, to Indonesia where Obama’s step father originated and where Obama spent part of his childhood we all can find something to identify with in the presidential contender. From the United States southern states of South Carolina and Georgia to the northern states of Ohio and Michigan Americans residents can all find a part of Obama that reminds them of them. The candidate is as black as he is white. Contrary to the picture painted by the Clinton Campaign, during the Democratic Party primaries, that Obama is elitist, poor Americans will find many of their life challenges to resonate with Obama’s. His mother, while bringing up Obama, used food stamps to feed her family. Now food stamps are coupons issued by the US government for the purchase of food. They are a Federal government’s program which supplements the food-purchasing ability of low-income households to help the poor avoid starvation. Young school-going Americans and indeed millions of students around the world will find inspiration in Obama’s education journey through Columbia and Harvard. In Obama’s education students, will find motivation in the fact that a poor boy from Hawaii, who had no political dynasty behind him could, through schooling, end up ruling the most powerful country in the world. Besides having sound policies, there is something hip about Obama, which makes him so appealing to young Americans across the party divide. In addition to millions of these young Americans being attracted to the ballot to vote, Obama’s inspiration has turned young Americans to fervent campaigners for change, who have managed to convince many of the old guard including their parents to cross over and vote for Obama. During much of the party primaries in the U.S., I was working in the eastern African region with four young American journalists – three from the Pacific North West City of Seattle and one from my former state of Ohio. The four, all of them white Americans, are ardent supporters of Obama. Besides supporting Obama they had managed to influence some of their parents who had been undecided on whom to vote for between Clinton and Obama to not only vote for Obama but to also volunteer in his campaigns. For them, America has an extraordinary chance to elect a young and visionary president like Obama. What's more electing a young president, my American friends say, will accord them an opportunity to have in power a president who grew up like them: broke in college, taking student loans, surviving by the day. In Indonesia, where Obama spent part of his schooling and grew up with an Indonesian stepfather and sister, Indonesians will take pride in the fact they made their contribution in nurturing the leader of the world’s most powerful country. For the whole lot of people who have dreams of rising from humble beginnings to achieve big dreams in America and indeed around the world they have Obama to look up to. When Obama won the Democratic Party nominations some weeks ago the Washington Post interviewed a 62-year old Indian house wife. More than anybody else she captured the world’s reaction to Obama’s win: "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," she said. “"A black president of the U.S. will mean that there will be more American tolerance for people around the world who are different." If Obama’s record and campaign is anything to go by, the Washington Post reported, he will be better for the whole world. He is willing to talk to the so called rogue nations such as Iran and Syria in the Muslim world. Such an attitude is likely to make America and the world a better place to live as places and people that have been seen as terror-prone are likely to embrace America more. And while his middle name has earned him a lot of bashing from some U.S. critics, it may also turn out to be a plus. For Muslim World, to have an American president whose middle name is Hussein is likely to be such a heartwarming thing. Now, according to Islam, Hussein was a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, an imam and a martyr who fought tyranny. For the black people around the world, Obama is testimony that contrary to some schools of thought that seem to suggest that we are a race a rung lower than the rest, that there is nothing second-rate about the color of our skin and the brains underneath. For us in Kenya, we all can claim a part of the man from Siaya. After all, he has some of his roots here at home. And what makes him more like many of us in Kenya is not just that he has his roots here but rather the fact that he was born of a regular Kenyan like many us. As he told the Democratic Convention in 2004 he is a son of a man who grew up “herding goats, [who] went to school in a tin-roof shack.” For the fact that we can all claim a little part of him, Obama is most suited to preside over the United States – the most international country around the world in terms of makeup, and a country whose policies impact every corner of the world. Obama's election is the surest way to reclaim the image of America not only as home to all peoples across the world but also as place where dreams of people of whichever origin can come to fruition.