RSSBarack Versus His Successful Bro
Gene Lalor | November 7, 2009
Another Obama-bro is in the news, not a philosophical brother but a true blood brother, one of the many progeny of the multi-wed, multi-divorced, very prolific Kenyan, Barack Obama, Sr.
Unlike another sibling, Malik (George) Obama who at last word was still living in a suburban Nairobi hut eking out a living on a few Kenyan shillings a month and who was recently hospitalized for possible cholera, http://bit.ly/2ktqRZ, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo seems to be doing pretty well for himself.
Ndesandjo, ”bears a striking resemblance to his brother. He is what Obama would look like if he shaved his head, wore a bandana, favored black T-shirts and sported an earring in his left ear.”
Give that time. Maybe in his second term?
Mark, a highly-educated man, has self-published a semi-autobiographical novel, From Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Novel of Love in the East, describing his life as a Kenyan expatriate in China as well as detailing his disturbing early years as the son of Barack, Sr.
As he says, “It’s a work of fiction, but there’s a lot going on in there that parallels my life. My father beat me. He beat my mother. And you just don’t do that. I shut those thoughts in the back of my mind for many years.”
His book is a remarkable contrast to the president’s highly-acclaimed best-seller, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, as well as his other blockbuster, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, which many contend were largely penned by good buddy and unrepentant domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers.
Much speculation has arisen that Dreams was more politically-inspired than a true reminiscence, a tall tale told through politics-colored glasses rather than an actual memoir.
What is certain is that Mark had a far different recollection of his childhood and of dear old dad than did Barack. It wasn’t until Barack’s election and inauguration that he was capable of overcoming his extreme bitterness and re-adopt his surname, Obama.
How those events were in any way related to being beaten by his father is something of a mystery.
In any event, both brothers seem to have an affection for pretentious titles but the similarities end there.
Mark’s recollection is of an abusive, alcoholic father who regularly beat him while Barack’s memory of dad has been described as “poignant.”
Nothing approximates this in Dreams: “I remember times in my house when I would hear the screams, and I would hear my mother’s pain,” he said. “I was a child. . . . I could not protect her.”
His novel’s protagonist, David, “falls in love with a beautiful Chinese woman named Spring but must still deal with the lingering pain of the violence he suffered as a child:” http://bit.ly/oZkJU.
Even as I wonder how an immigrant was able to finance his American education when natural born citizens have such difficulty getting help with tuition money, I wonder, too, why Mark suffered so greatly at the hands of Barack, Sr. and their dad was such an inspiration to our president.
Publisher’s Weekly gushed over Obama’s Dreams: “Obama’s not-unhappy youth is nevertheless a lonely voyage to racial identity, tensions in school, struggling with black literature, with one month-long visit when he was 10 from his commanding father:” http://bit.ly/Cj70
Is “commanding” the new PC term for child abuser?
I suspect one of the brothers is lying. More importantly, what would be the effects of repressed childhood abuse on the thinking and policies of a president of the United States?
Contributor's website: http://www.genelalor.com/
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