Obama's brother sets the story straight

Last Updated: August 28. 2008 12:18PM UAE / GMT George Obama at a school in Nairobi near where he lives. Evelyn Hockstein for The National NAIROBI // George Hussein Obama has his brother Barack’s long face and narrow, penetrating eyes. He is tall like Barack and he has his deep, baritone voice.

But unlike his half-brother, who will accept the Democratic nomination for US president tonight in front of a television audience of millions, George Obama loathes the spotlight.

“I don’t like the publicity,” he said in an interview with The National. “I don’t talk much. I’m shy.”

Mr Obama lives in a small, one-room shack made out of corrugated metal in the gritty, impoverished Nairobi neighbourhood of Huruma, where six people were killed during political and ethnic violence that gripped Kenya this year.

An open sewer runs down the middle of the dirt street in front of his house. Inside his room, Mr Obama has a poster of his famous half-brother.

This week, over a lunch of fish and chips, Mr Obama said he has lived in this shantytown for the past few years by choice.

“I like Huruma,” he said. “I have lots of friends here. My neighbours are my friends. I’ve chosen to live here.”

Mr Obama is the youngest of Barack’s seven half-siblings, and he has the same father as the presidential candidate.

George Obama was six months old when his father died in a car accident. He was raised in Nairobi by his mother, who remarried a Frenchman and now lives in the US city of Atlanta.

Mr Obama said he has met his half-brother only twice, but has followed his career and would love to see him end up in the White House.

“He’s definitely going to be president,” he said. “I’d love to have a brother who is president. Having the most powerful person in the world as your brother would be great.”

The reclusive Mr Obama likes to keep his family life to himself. In fact, he only told a few of his closest friends that he is related to Barack Obama, according to John Kiruma, one of Mr Obama’s friends.

“Only three people in our group knew,” Mr Kiruma said. “He didn’t want to tell anyone. I was happy when I learnt. Having [Barack] Obama as his brother is a big deal.”

But Mr Obama, 26, is especially distrustful of the media after an article about him appeared in the Italian Vanity Fair. The story exaggerated his living conditions, saying he was destitute and living on US$1 (Dh3.67) a month.

The article implied that Barack, 47, had abandoned his half-brother. The Republican campaign picked up on this and used it to attack the presidential candidate, saying he does not care about family.

“They were portraying the wrong story,” Mr Obama said. “I’ve pretty much had a good life. I think I’ve lived OK. There’s not much I’ve lacked in life. I don’t live on a dollar per month, that’s not logical. I’ve never lived in the streets. Those guys were tarnishing the Obama name.”

Mr Obama, who is studying to be a mechanic, said he dislikes it when people compare him to his older brother.

“I am who I am, and he is who he is,” he said. “He’s my brother and I like what he’s doing, but I also like what I’m doing. I don’t think I’ll venture into politics. I just want to get into vehicle mechanics. I love cars.

“I also aspire to be someone great, but in my own department. I don’t think it’s good, the comparison part. The only comparison is maybe our eyes look the same.” Besides cars, Mr Obama also loves to play football, and he is involved in his local youth group. The Huruma Centre Youth Group cleans up the environment in the neighbourhood and organises sports events and dances for the youth in the community.

If Barack Obama wins the November election, George Obama said he might go to Washington for the inauguration, but he said he will not ask his half-brother for any handouts.“I want to make it on my own,” he said.

Arriving back at his house after lunch, Mr Obama was dejected to find a throng of Kenyan journalists waiting to talk to him. Although he hates the attention, Mr Obama said he would not trade his brother for anyone else.

“He’s my family, and I can’t deny that,” he said. “Whether I like it or not, he’s still my brother.”

Thanks for the link - you were right, that was a GREAT ad! I hope to see it nationwide!

Also from the same website you linked to:

Los Angeles blogger Juliette Ochieng has a lot in common with the man who might be the next president, Barack Obama. A lot.

Both were born to Kenyan fathers of the same tribe (the Luo) from the same province (Nyanza), and both of their fathers came as boys to America aboard the same airplane. Growing up, neither Ochieng nor Obama knew their fathers, who both abandoned their American mothers and left their American-born children behind. Both of their fathers returned to Africa in the early 1960s and became friends, bonding at Kenyan bars over their favorite drink — Scotch. Both Ochieng’s and Obama’s mothers contracted ovarian cancer. (Hers survived it; his did not). Both Ochieng and Obama were born in the U.S. in August 1961 — only weeks apart.

But for someone with parallel beginnings, Juliette Akinyi Ochieng is quite different: Evangelical Christian. Working class. Military veteran. Pro-life. Conservative Republican.

SNIP

In August 2006, Senator Obama toured Kenya, his first trip to his father’s nation. Thousands of Kenyans welcomed him, international media followed wherever he went, and glowing stories flowed forth.

One spot he visited was the recently renamed Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School in Nyang’oma-Kogelo, a village in equatorial western Kenya where Obama’s roots go deep: His father, Barack Sr., was born there. His 86-year-old step-grandmother, Sarah, still lives there in a brick shanty with a tin roof and no running water.

Almost exactly two years ago, Barack Obama visited the school built upon land that, decades ago, Obama’s grandfather donated. In anticipation of Obama’s visit, the school changed its name to honor the village’s most famous progeny, Barack Jr.

The school had only four classrooms. It lacked water, functioning bathrooms and even electricity. A third of its students were orphans. Its extreme need made Senator Obama’s speech there all the more riveting for the village residents.

“Hopefully, I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be,” Obama said. Looking directly at the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and her teachers, he added, “I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school, and I will do so.”

In the two years since, Obama has experienced a meteoric political rise, becoming the Democratic flag-bearer, authoring a best-seller and last year, with his wife, Michelle, earning $4.2 million. He bought a luxury home. Last year, he gave $240,000 to charities.

But apparently not to the Senator Obama Kogelo School. “Senator Obama has not honored the promises he gave me when we met in 2006 and in his earlier letter to the school,” Principal Obiero has told the London-based, conservative tabloid EveningStandard. “He has not given us even one shilling. But we still have hope.”

SNIP

But she was embarrassed by her fellow Luo-American, Barack Obama. She rushed to fill the financial void, forming a California nonprofit to funnel money to the African school. With a flair for drama, she named it “Save Senator Obama Kogelo School” and held a mini fund-raiser. She’s raised $3,500, so she’s a long way from the $750,000 she wants to raise within two years.

SNIP

IT’S NOT ABOVE HER PAY-GRADE, BHO!

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