The untold story of Obama's mother

The untold story of Obama's mother

The President's formative years are well documented, but only now are his mother's exploits in Indonesia coming to light, reports Judith Kampfner

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

The shadow puppeteer flicks his wrist as he beats a stumpy stick against a wooden box and begins a dramatic introduction to a story about Kunti, a mother who fights for social justice. This is Pucung, a remote Indonesian village where skeletal leather puppets, some of Indonesia's best-known handicrafts, are made. The character has a mass of black hair. Ann Dunham, too, was famous for her shock of black hair, which she claimed came from a trace of Cherokee blood in her veins. Barack Obama's mother also did more for social justice in her adopted Indonesia than her son's accounts suggest.

"What is best in me, I owe to her," the 44th US President acknowledged in the second edition of his memoir Dreams From My Father. But Dunham has been little more than a footnote in his extraordinary story. In the preface, Mr Obama wrote: "She travelled the world, working in the distant villages, helping women buy a sewing machine or a milk cow or an education that might give them a foothold in the world's economy."

But he chose to highlight a dreaminess in his mother. "She gathered friends from high and low, took long walks, stared at the moon and foraged through local markets for some trifle, a scarf or stone carving that would make her laugh or please the eye." There is more than a hint of superficiality; a sense that his mother was a hippy chick.

What Mr Obama's narrative omits is any detail of how Ann Dunham was an economic anthropologist and that for 30 years she devoted herself to studying rural enterprise in Indonesia. She took on projects as a development officer with the Ford Foundation, the US Agency for International Development and the Asian Development Bank, pioneering micro-credit projects that extended small loans to the rural poor.

Dunham's legacy both as a scholar and a mother whose influences would shape her son will finally receive wider prominence later this year when her PhD treatise, which took 14 years to complete, is published by Duke University Press. A feature-length movie about her life, Stanley Ann Dunham: A Most Generous Spirit, goes into production next year.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/the-untold-story-of-obamas-mother-1787979.html

Much I did not know. Thanks IG. :hi:

It was a fascinating story of her anthropology work and her efforts in securing micro loans for the people. Ann Dunham was a woman of great substance. Sad she died so young!

Thank you!

How lovely. She sounded like a wonderful person that we would all like to meet, and now in a way we'll get to.

The President must be so proud of her.

I find her to be a fascinating person.

I find her enigmatic - I want to understand better how she was able to leave him behind.

more about her. She sounds fascinating and I'm sure Barack didn't like the fact that she traveled and had her own life. Women aren't allowed to do that in this here patriarchy. He was all concerned with a father who deserted him.

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:eyes:

:eyes:

and :rofl: at some people

:eyes:

See, he had the makings of the sexist monster he is all the way back then!!!

:evilgrin:

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you need love? I have plenty to give....come on lemme hug you... ahhhhh!
feel better now?

nothing about how PO felt and feels about his Mom.

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writing sentences???? What a cute picture.

negative to say about the President and well into disgusting, asinine bullshit.

:puke:

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you're claiming. disgusting really. and children who are abandoned by either parent often fixate and fantasize to some degree on the absent parent.

He concentrates on that part of his life an awful lot but still loves his Mom.

I have always thought that his Mother had much more to do with his rounded thinking process then his Father ever did. She was truly a pioneer in her environment and did more good then most of our $$$$ millions do overseas! She reminds me of Jimmy Carter's Mother who volunteered in India in the last years of her life! What marvelous women they were and what a great influence they both had with bringing up such great sons!
:fistbump:

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For example:

I read your post and am replying to it. Simultaneously I'm hoping that somebody in John Salazar's district in Colorado will call him about health care reform. AND I'm wondering what to make for dinner tonight.

See how easy that is? Try it.

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We have several fine vintages of hemlock, which is very good when a little wormwood is added, it allows one to face oblivion with just the right amount of bitterness.

Or, if you're a more straightforward gentleman, might I suggest the vial of Cyanide? It tends have the effect you want in just one shot. (a pity, it would be nice to get return customers)

If you don't like "superficial" threads why did you even click on it/them? There are plenty of 'substantive' ones from which to choose. Yelling isn't going to cure what ails you but 'hide thread' might. Oh, and calling DUers "You fucking people" isn't going to help you either, imo.

Oh crap, I guess this is a 'superficial' post in a 'superficial' thread by one of those named as "You fucking people", me!

Awaiting more incoming YELLING!

:rofl:

:shrug:

"Huh?" reaction but I couldn't resist responding to the second as it was truly bizarre, lol.

Tell me friend, how exactly does calling things "a crock of shit" or referring to things as "goddamn feel good pieces of shit" combined with the ever-popular "puke" smiley convey "depth?"

Do you actually have something to say, or is all this just an outlet for someone's frustrated misanthropy?

:tinfoilhat:

We can't even read a thread about the President's mother without someone implying his a sexist who hates his mother or someone saying they hate seeing pictures of the Obama family. Sometimes when I come here I feel like I am on a repuke website.

lately. I guess it is because we will get some kind of Health care bill, and the Rethugs will look stupid once again.
The thuggish one do not give up...ever.
We just have to keep beating them back.

:shrug:

Hope things get better for you.

no sarcasm - I'm sincere.