Sunday, July 27, 2008
Community Organizer Credits
the results of “HOPEfully"
At that historic homecoming in August 2006 Obama was greeted as a hero with thousands lining the dirt streets of Kogelo. He visited the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School built on land donated by his paternal grandfather. After addressing the pupils, a third of whom are orphans, and dancing with them as they sang songs in his honour, he was shown a school with four dilapidated classrooms that lacked even basic resources such as water, sanitation and electricity.
He told the assembled press, local politicians (who included current Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga), and students: “Hopefully I can provide some assistance in the future to this school and all that it can be.” He then turned to the school’s principal, Yuanita Obiero, and assured her and her teachers: “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."
...The letter [Principal] Obiero refers to - dated 22 June 2005, signed by Obama ... says: “I am honoured that you have decided to rename the Kogelo School in my name. The land that the school is built on was donated by my grandparents and I am proud to carry on the tradition of supporting the school.”
... 10 of the school’s 144 pupils are Obama’s relatives. ... Kogelo [is] the place where his father and grandfather are buried. ...
...he wrote in his 1995 autobiography, Dreams from My Father, that Kogelo occupies a special place in his heart as being where he reconciled the diverse parts of himself - American and African, white mother and black father. Obama wrote how he fell to his knees, sobbing, between the graves of his father and grandfather at the family compound.
“When my tears were finally spent,” he wrote, “I felt a calmness wash over me. I felt the circle finally close. I realised that who I was, what I cared about, was no longer just a matter of intellect or obligation, no longer a construct of words. I saw that my life in America - the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I’d felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witnessed in Chicago - all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away.”
...The situation in the school mirrors that of Kogelo village where the people live without water, electricity or access to proper healthcare and on average incomes of less than $1 a day.
...they ask for 8.2 million Kenyan shillings (approximately £65,000) to upgrade the school...
Recognize those highlighted phrases?
Well, $65,000 wouldn’t be too hard to raise—a couple of LimoLiberal fundraiser parties, with “colorful native dishes”, maybe some locals flown in to mingle with, some charming native music—*p00f* there’s yer school. Right? E. Z.
...Granting us access to the school and its records, Principal Obiero, 48, tells us: “Senator Obama has not honoured the promises he gave me when we met in 2006 and in his earlier letter to the school. He has not given us even one shilling. But we still have hope.”
Yet they remain diehard fans of the man who has put their rural community on the map and have even renamed the beer, called Senator, in his honour: locals now order “an Obama”.
...Mary Manasse, 40, who runs the Mama Siste Mini Shop selling staples such as bread and cow’s milk (packaged in old Coke bottles) says she has a photograph of Obama shaking hands with her on his 2006 visit.
“Back then I was looking after 40 orphans at the orphan centre,” she recalls. “We faced a desperate shortage of money and Obama told us that he especially liked special, dedicated projects like ours and wanted to help. We thought he would give funds to help our project but we got nothing. A few months later we were forced to shut down the orphan centre because of lack of funds. Just a million Kenyan shillings [£6,000] would have kept us going another year. I feel disappointed that he did not come through.”
..."Oh, but there will be a big party here when Obama wins,” [mango-seller Gladys Anyango, 60] adds. “We still have hope that he will bring electricity and build schools so the children have a good education. Maybe when he’s President of America, he’ll remember his roots and look after his community in Kenya."
They’ve been given “An Obama,” all righty.
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