Barry Soetoro
Nov 6th, 2008, in Opinion, by Guest WriterBarry Soetoro aka Barack Obama’s Indonesian connection.
Former Menteng student now US President
Obama Barack has been democratically elected President of the US.
Quite an about face for the best democracy money can buy, in view of the Bush presidential se-lection.
But of course, corruption, collusion and nepotism is the sole monopoly of the Third World – or so the deluded denizens of the West repeat to themselves as they hug their knees, rocking back and forth – reminding themselves of how they uphold human rights equally across the board, entirely devoid of double-standards and totally oblivious to race, creed or religion.
Barrak Hussein Obama II was born to a white American Ann Dunham and Kenyan Barrak Hussein Obama Snr, in Nyang’oma Kogelo now in Kenya.
Here the Indonesian link starts.
Ann Dunham married in 1967 Lolo Soetoro, a Javanese, whose own father, in 1946 was killed along with his eldest brother were killed, after which the Dutch army burned down the family’s home. Soetoro fled with his mother into the countryside to survive. Incidentally yet more proof of Dutch war crimes – delibrate destruction of civilian property outside the scope of battle.
Pak Lolo Soetoro was an army geologist then later a government relations consultant for Mobil Oil. Obama describes Soetoro as well-mannered, even-tempered, and easy with people.
Barry Soetoro in Indonesia with mother Ann Dunham, step-father Lolo Soetoro, baby-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng.
From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in Jakarta. Age six, Obama attended the Catholic Primary St Francis di Assisi. Much was made of the lie he was educated in a Madrassa – or more accurately a pesantren – this of course was totally untrue. Obama Jnr later attended Model Primary School, Menteng and was registered as a Muslim – as his father was Muslim.
In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies. My mother wasn’t overly concerned. ‘Be respectful,’ she’d say. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I would close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words.
One of “Berry’s” childhood friends was Adi who often visited “Berry’s” 16 Jalan Haji Ramli house. Speaking volumes of Dutch “development” at the time the road was of this established middle-class neighbourhood was a dirt lane where Obama used to wile away the hours kicking a soccer ball.
Adi recalled Obama and his friends wore plastic bags over their shoes to walk through the muddy street during the rainy seasons.
Neighborhood Muslims worshiped in a nearby house, which has since been replaced by a larger mosque. Sometimes, when the muezzin sounded the call to prayer, Lolo and Barry would walk to the makeshift mosque together, Adi said.
His mother often went to the church, but Barry was Muslim. He went to the mosque,” Adi said. “I remember him wearing a sarong.”
Obama spent most his spare time hanging out with Adi and other friends at the home of Yunaldi Askiar, a classmate. They used to play a kind of fencing game using sticks, kick a ball up and down the narrow dirt lanes or go swimming in the river behind the school, said Askiar, 42, a car mechanic.
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,” Israella Dharmawan, his first grade teacher said. “But also they were curious about him, so wherever he went, the kids were following him.”
His friends enjoyed playing tricks on Berry: Harmon ASki recalled,
“Sometimes we’d say, ‘Barry, do you want a chocolate?’ And we’d give him a chocolate. The next day we’d give him a chocolate again. The third time we’d give him terasi (fermented shrimp paste) wrapped up like chocolate. Obama didn’t get mad. He would laugh it off.”
Ann Soetoro moved to Yogyakarta, while Obama Jnr studied in Jakarta. She was inspired by Jogja village industries, which became the basis of her 1992 doctoral dissertation.
“She loved living in Java,” said Dr. Dewey, who recalled accompanying Ms. Soetoro to a metalworking village. “People said: ‘Hi! How are you?’ She said: ‘How’s your wife? Did your daughter have the baby?’ They were friends. Then she’d whip out her notebook and she’d say: ‘How many of you have electricity? Are you having trouble getting iron?’ ”
Dunham-Soetoro became a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in women’s work. Later, she was a consultant in Pakistan, then joined Indonesia’s oldest bank to work on what is described as the world’s largest sustainable microfinance program, creating services like credit and savings for the poor.
Obama in Hawaii with Maya and Ann and maternal grand-father, shortly after leaving Indonesia.
In his tellingly-titled Memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his Indonesian interlude as “one long adventure, the bounty of a young boy’s life”. But he also recalls being troubled by the poverty around him: “the empty look on the faces of farmers the year the rains never came,” and the desperation of the disabled beggars who came to the family’s door.
“The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel,” he writes. Obama and his mother thus we were very well acquainted with the harsh realities of indigenous Indonesians.
Fermina Katarina Sinaga, recalled yojhng Obama in her class: in the common task of class to write an essay titled “My dream: What I want to be in the future.” Obama “wrote ‘I want to be a president,’ ” she said. During a later writing assignment on family, he wrote, “My father is my idol.
The Indonesian connection for Obama and all that shaped him proving once again all things Javanese and indigenous Indonesian the bedrock for the towering monuments built on the foundations of a great civilisation.
1,047 Comments on “Barry Soetoro”
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Oigal says:
Oigal is running scared now.
‘The fact that your original assertion was so pathetically weak that you have to continually try and distract the discussion by strawman agruements and red herrings is what is pathetic.Still waiting to see what your take is on the other highly scientific papers published by your oft quoted Regent University?
Nagh…Ross, You have supplied nothing but hatred and bile from sources that would make a rational person cringe. In your obession, you have become just a boring little stalker, good for few laughs but nothing new to add except more bigoted, intolerant view from Ross World. Fact is, I find you boring and insignificant and see little need to encourage your bile further. yawn..zzzzzzzzzz. Keep your self promoting of your blog going Ross, I fully encourage the modern era version of basket weaving.
If you come up with something that does not bore us all, I will be sure to have a few more laughs at your expense.
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Ooops, Funny what you find this was in my oz paper that arrived today..
Good week for lesbians who conceive through donor insemination: their children grow up well-adjusted.
A study begun in the 1980s followed 150 lesbians planning to have children. A report online in Pediatrics detailed the psychological progress of 78 of their children, interviewed when they were between 10 and 17. Overall, the children had healthy psychological adjustment. They were rated higher in school performance and lower in social problems than children from the general population. There were no behavioural differences between children whose lesbian parents were together and those whose parents had separated.
Pediatrics
2010;doi:10.1542/peds.2009-3153 (Gartrell N, et al)The article was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which I grant you is no creationist university so that may be a problem for some. However for what it is worth Total 2008 Citations: 36,158*
PEDIATRICS is among the top 2% most-cited scientific and medical journals.
PEDIATRICS is the most-cited journal in the field of pediatrics.
*2008 Thompson Reuters
You see Ross, that’s a reference..Any way “YES WE CAN!”
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Ross says:
Poor Oigal. Off on a stroll along the dyke, when we were debating shirt-lifters and incest.
He’ll introduce anything rather than answer the question.Anyhow, let’s leave him to dream his horrid dreams of whatever perversions he thinks are as acceptable as normality, and consider Odinius, whose style is somewhat more sedate -most of the time.
So the normal family unit, man, woman, children, is a fairly modern construct?
How else did our distant ancestors reproduce? It sure as hell wasn’t through the sordid practices of homosexuality. -
Odinius says:
Ross,
Historians and archaeologists note that the nuclear family first became widespread in 17th century Europe. Before that, various forms of extended families where the norm, in Europe and elsewhere. They still are in much of the world. These extended families ranged in structure and the morals and norms attached to them.
You don’t have to look farther than Indonesia to see diverse family forms. Look at the Minangkabau, for example. Quite different from “one man, one woman, 1-4 children.”
Hence, the nuclear family is not “natural,” but a social and historical construct. It’s very functional, but it’s still a construct.
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realest says:
Odinius Says:
Well, we’re talking about whether incest is legal, and incest means sex. Since there’s no 100% sure method of birth control, having legal incest sex means making incestuous procreation legal. This is what’s threatening, from an evolutionary perspective.
With regards to adoption, this is already possible in most Western countries. Single parents can adopt, after all, or have surrogate children. So can gay couples. The thing is, it’s no evolutionary threat provided there’s no actual procreation by incestuous couples. It is likely considered a moral hazard by community standards, though. Given that fact, and that in most countries there are more couples that want to adopt than children to adopt, a brother and sister combo aren’t, realistically, going to be able to adopt a kid.
1. If we’re going to blame incestuous couples for retarded kids, then countries like Japan could blame homos for a decreasing population(let’s use Japan coz every other country is pretty much overpopulated).
2. Incestuous kids remains a by-product and steps can be taken to create laws in prohibiting procreation by incest couples. We can’t ban extramarital sex for HIV, can we?
3. In most countries, being gay is a moral hazard by community standards. -
Ah you are warm and caring human being Ross, 🙂
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Thank you, Oigal. I’ll have a Heineken, please.
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No worries Ross, although I was sure you would have preferred a Fruit Cocktail..
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And I’ll buy you guys a much-needed plate of otak2!
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Allow me to paraphrase myself:
People who oppose gay adoption/homosexuality should just be honest about it and admit that the reason is because their own, subjective sense of morality–often but not always based upon religious beliefs–says it’s “wrong.” That’s a valid position to take, but the attempts to establish that this is a general, objective “truth” are pretty unconvincing.
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Allow me to dissent.
Man and woman were made for each other. We fit perfectly, and by doing so we are enabled to produce more people with the same congenial charateristics.
Those ‘men’ and ‘women’ who flout this situation, which is Nature’s way, or God’s, if you like, of continiung the species, are not quite right.
Just as somebody with any other physical or mental handicap should seek help to live as normally as possible, so too should they.
There is obviously a cure, for some of them do seek help and do resume normality.
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Ross… I swear to god I tried it. It didn’t work. I had my daily straight tea, twice a day (!) when I was in china. No se pudo.
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Or is it because the effect of the cure was neutralized by the “queer water” I drank during a gay pride somewhere?
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Ross, Can you honestly not see how intolerance such as yours in this issue virtually mirrors those you so oft (with justification although I question your “cure” for that as well) rant and rail against namely the FPI and other Hard Line Islamists.
The very line
Those ‘men’ and ‘women’ who flout this situation, which is Nature’s way, or God’s, if you like, of continuing the species, are not quite right.
virtually paraphrases the justification these groups use to abuse the rights and lives of others, although you can insert Christian/Shia/other into the space currently occupied by homosexual.
No doubt that some (most?) are just ignorant thugs but you can be sure that many like you honestly believe that by persecuting others they are preserving the morals and soul of the nation. If fact, they will tell you they are just enforcing natures and gods rightful way of things (Let’s not forget, that according to Muslim tradition we are all born Muslims just that some of us stray from the right path but we can be “cured”).
Therein lies the trouble when certain people take it upon themselves to decide what is God’s or Natures way. It remains the height of arrogance if not sadly amusing to think that God or Nature needs some bearded ranting twit or some sanctimonious expat to make things right.
You or I may not like it but the world seems to get on just fine without us. A Christian who rubs snakes in his spare time whilst chatting with God or someone who prefers their own sex is far less a threat to you and I than those who live and breathe intolerance/hatred in the absence of logic.
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Aww Ross, you have me blocked from your Blog..proxie issue or something and there was so much fun to be had there
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Oigal said:
No doubt that some (most?) are just ignorant thugs but you can be sure that many like you honestly believe that by persecuting others they are preserving the morals and soul of the nation. If fact, they will tell you they are just enforcing natures and gods rightful way of things (Let’s not forget, that according to Muslim tradition we are all born Muslims just that some of us stray from the right path but we can be “cured”).
There is indeed something you can call “radical logic.” Part of that logic is the absolute conviction that when “they” do x, it’s 100% wrong, but when “we” do x, it’s 100% right.
…and, of course, that x and x are “totally different,” even though the only thing that changes are the proper nouns.
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Oigal, proxy issue if that was the problem should be fixed now, so you can knock yourself out…
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Ah thanks Patung..I assume you mean that literally 🙂
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Oigal, your comments would assuredly stimulate debate.
In fact, I’ve been a little perplexed, if not distressed, at your absence, and hope whatever this ‘proxy’ problem may be, that it is not also denying others a chance to dispute the pearls I’m casting for your benefit. -
Winmar says:
Ross, surely you’re taking the piss? You can’t really think homosexuality is something that can be “cured”!
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Oigal Says:
….. to you and I than those who live and breathe intolerance/hatred in the absence of logic.
i dont see how inserting a dick to where i shit or putting a dick into where i eat is something natural. i can understand if it’s based on liberty, but logic …..
If turtles are born with an instinct to run towards the sea and swim out, i’m pretty sure(based on this discussion) that some humans have zero natural instincts at all.
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Actually it’s quite natural. You see, to get the dick aroused, you just have to rub it against something, by moving it back and forth. Some people use vagina, some people use hands, some people use inflable doll, and some people use arsehole.
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Oh, I forgot mouth.
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Ross, surely you’re taking the piss? You can’t really think homosexuality is something that can be “cured”!
Ross had a whole topic on that, any future talk along these lines will have to take itself over there thanks, or folks can take it up more directly with him here, back to BS, Barry I mean.
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Yeah, the tangents have gotten boring. Bring on the birthers!
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jengkoluva says:
ow, interesting stuff, but i dont gettit, what’s homosxuality got to do with BS?
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As Patung says, jengkoluva, it’s very tangential, Barack having declared last month American Homo Month, but if you want to open up a debate on my new blog, come on over.
I’d been about to respond to Oigal’s long but polite post of a few days ago, but been busy with my blog, which is even more fun.
Patung is right, B. Husein should be pursued here, not everything else.
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Brandon says:
NOWHERE in the constitution does it define a “natural born citizen” as requiring 2 parents who were citizens. That would have ruled out many of the first 15 or so presidents, and not all of them were born at the time of the constitutions ratification.
How many of you can provide your original (hospital copy) birth certificate? I can’t, it was lost in a fire and the hospital no longer has it. Does that mean I’m not a citizen? I still have certified copies from the Palm Beach County Office of Vital Statistics, but it doesn’t name the hospital.
The truth is Obama haters are grasping at straws trying to justify their hate.
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The truth is Obama haters are grasping at straws trying to justify their hate
Indeed Brandon indeed, some of the stuff here is just plain bizarre. I can understand the dislike of the man’s politics but some of the best conspiracy stuff is a hoot!
However, try and pin down actual things he has done that is outside pretty much mainstream policy is harder for them to do. Universal Healthcare? Hardly the end of the world and pretty much basic stuff for most nations, not even good socialist stuff as the government outsources it to private companies.
Personally I prefered McCain but he was so old it was a monty the scary Palin would get to be Prez and that would be Freddy K nightmare stuff.
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Ross said:
The nuclear family is fairly “unnatural,” by historical standards, as it’s a relatively new development. It’s something we’ve constructed socially and institutionalized. It’s a very good, functional institution, but it’s not something that descended from the heavens at the dawn of time.
With regards to differences between straight and gay parents, apparently there’s little difference in terms of child psychology or other markers of well-being. Studies show, once you control for things like standard-of-living, pre-existing medical conditions, stability of the parent couple and so on, there are no statistically significant differences in these regards. Instead, the general problems associated with adopted children are the best predictors of those childrens’ well-being.
e.g. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58O3MK20090925
People who oppose gay adoption should just be honest about it and admit that the reason is because their own, subjective sense of morality–often but not always based upon religious beliefs–says it’s “wrong.” That’s a valid position to take, but the attempts to establish that this is a general, objective “truth” are pretty unconvincing.