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My Brother’s Keeper

August 20th, 2008
By JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor

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GeorgeObama.jpgAssuming the identity is valid (and there seems to be little thus far to indicate that it isn’t) then Vanity Fair in Italy has apparently located Barack Obama’s long lost (or not so lost) half brother, George.

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate’s half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

“No-one knows who I am,” he told the magazine, before claiming: “I live here on less than a dollar a month.”

We can leave for another day the question of whether or not this should be an issue in the presidential election, but I think we can rest assured that it will. It seems that George has been living for some while in a shanty town outside of Nairobi in a six by nine foot shack. He’s not in contact with any of his family and lives by his wits in a town where street violence is the norm. He also claims that he doesn’t mention his famous brother in conversations because he is “ashamed.” (It’s unclear if he meant he was ashamed of his brother or embarassed by his own impoverished conditions.)

Why does this matter to the presumptive Democratic nominee? Because if you found out that an elected official, running for high office and the multi-million dollar recipient of book deals, etc. was keeping his mother in a cut-rate old folks home eating Alpo, you might not think very highly of him. Having a brother living in such conditions is certainly not much better.

But was George really a “long lost” brother of Barack Obama’s? Perhaps not.

He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi.

The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a “beautiful boy with a rounded head”.

Of their second meeting, George Obama said: “It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger.”

So Obama knew of his brother’s existence as recently as two years ago and the guy remains living in misery in some crime infested, dirt road shantytown? There may indeed be more to the story than meets the eye. Perhaps George prefers no contact with his famous sibling and prefers not to accept any charity? That has an odd ring to it, though. Expect some questions to be put to Obama over this one.

UPDATE: Some good comments and e-mails coming inon this one. Among the more interesting was this question:

If Obama is elected, would the secret service be required to protect George Obama? Would the requirement be affected by the half brother status as opposed to a full blood brother? Or would that fact that George isn’t a U.S. citizen or resident affect the requirement?

An interesting question indeed.

(Photo by Guy Calaf, Vanity Fair, Italy)



This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 11:37 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Kenya, Family, Barack Obama, 2008 Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 15 Comments

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    How's McCain's old wife and children doing? Just thought I'd ask :-)
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    • v
    Well, that's becoming a campaign issue as well, isn't it? As I said, this sort of thing plays into the campaign story.
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    I think there's something fishy with the timing of this piece, by Vanity Fair. Most certianly not news. They share the same father, but were not part of the same family.
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    And actually, Chris, the reports are that McCain's first wife still has a good relationship with him and that she's been well taken care of financially.
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    just .02. It's one thing to leave one's own mother to waste, or father who one has had a relationship with. George Hussein Onyango Obama, Obama's step-brother was his father's responsibility, not Obama's, I think. Obama's father would be the one to see after his children.

    The Obama brothers' father was an educated man who seems to have not been able to 'stay' with the families he fathered. He appears to have left many dependent people in the breach over his lifetime.

    The picture of George is very heart-rending. I hope he can avail himself to the help given in his country by various humanitairan and religious groups. There is much there. It is not what some people call "a dark continent" in that way. There are people to help. Hopefully the Vanity Fair people with their vast resources for gaining entry and contacts will have told George about additional ways and means.

    I was just thinking as I read Jazz's post, a good many children, as we know, no matter which country, when abandoned or neglected by the father, are left with at least one corner of what one would hope to be a stable family architecture, collapsed on top of the family. It is a long road to digging out.

    The protector of the family that is recognized (feared/respected) by other men, predatory, and otherwise, is then missing for the sons in particular, but also for the daughters. They are on their own, then in the world and are vulnerable to being pulled into all mannner of activities to survive.

    I think this situation belongs to the father in the first water. I do know that people in foster-, step, half-sibling families tend to one another through common interests and relationships most often, not by mere blood.

    I also see that how one far more well off sometimes helps those of the extended family who are not, is by footing the bill for education.

    But again, this is something the Obama brothers' father would normally have seen to.


    dr.e
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    I agree with Dr. E that Obama's father bears responsibility, but I can't help but feel profound shock that Barack Obama wouldn't have tried to help his blood relatiives more given that his father abandoned that responsibility. That's assuming the story is true, which of course I don't know- I'm only describing how it affects me if it is. I say shocked because I do consider Obama to be of high moral character even though I often disagree with his beliefs on morality. This leaves me thinking that I guess I just can't relate to his family experience at all; I can only conjecture what I would do in his situation, and I personally can't imagine not seeking out these abandoned half siblings if I knew of their impoverished condition.

    Which then makes me wonder if that is the real damage that this story might cause- reminding a lot of Americans of how different Obama's life story is than our own. Intellectually I don't think that's a reason to vote against him, but I think most of us are dishonest if we don't admit that our gut feelings do influence our support or opposition to candidates.
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    I think it's also worth noting that George isn't a "step-brother" which, in strict terms, would imply that his relation to Barack was by marriage only. Having the same father makes them half brothers and blood relatives. And while I certainly agree that the responsibility should have fallen on the father and mother first, when that support network failed, you would think that a person in the Obama family's position would have reached out to give him at least something more of a life. Well, that's my take on it anyway. Obviously not everyone thinks of the term "family" the same way or regards obligations to such the same.
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    Plus I find it hard to believe that Obama wouldn't have considered the possiblity that this type of a story would come out at some point, such as the current one about Cindy MCCain's seldom mentioned step-sisters.
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    • v
    I imagine that McCain's old wife and kids and Cindy McCain's stepsisters aren't living on $1 a day in a tin hut surrounded by filth.

    Just a guess of course..
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    • v
    Total non-story. But when that that ever mattered in politics?