This guy just has things falling into place for him. 1st Black American Pres, 1st Black American Pres to win the Nobel Peace prize. Would be so unbelievable if it was a Hollywood movie.
I'll give (those of you who have time to read) a story about Obama. When he came to Kenya in 2006, all that most of us knew was that he was a Senator, who happened to have a Kenyan Dad. At some point, I thought the story was so far fetched as they were referring to him as a Kenyan. Really, we all know he's not Kenyan but the press were presenting it that way. So Obama comes into the country with a lot of media attention directed towards his 'homecoming'. He had been down this way before but it was really low key.
So the guy comes in to the country and the only person that meets him is an Assistant Minister. The President didn't even bother to meet him at the airport, as is customary with Africa. The issue was that, Obama's roots are from my tribe (Luo). The current President is a Kikuyu. For some reason Luos and Kikuyus have not gotten along for as far as I can remember.
Obama did his thing in Kenya and had a lecture he gave at the Nairobi University. He was incredible the way he spoke. He held nothing back in talking the truth about the Kenyan Government and what they do wrong. Loads of Government officials got agitated by this. Someone went as far as refering to him as a 'lowly Senator, who has no power where he comes from'. I particularly remember during the question and answer session of the lecture, one student asked Obama, "If you are given the chance to ran for President of the USA, would you take it?" Obama replied, "First of all, they don't 'give' you a chance. You have to work for the oppurtunity to get that chance." Sure, people laughed at the truth behind that answer. He then went on to say he wasn't thinking of running for President.
Kenya had an election in 2007 and when the results were disputed, people were killing each other here. Neighbors who had lived together for years turned on each other. It was horrible. It would have been the Rwandan Genocide all over again in a different country.
2007–2008 Kenyan crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Due to the tactical location of Kenya, the US was not going to let that happen. George Bush stepped in. I remember seeing Bush on telly saying (in your best W impression), "Now I'm gonna send Condi....as I call her......down there to set things straight." Sure enough, he sent 'Condi' down here and politicians were told to get their act together. Somehow they worked things out and, thank God for George Bush intervention. Koffi Anan later came in and became 'the people's hero'.
Now the thing is that Kikuyus and Luos hadn't forgotten what happened after the election. When Obama announced he wanted to run for President, the division was pretty clear again. Due to the fact that Obama has Luo roots, no Kikuyu wanted him to win the election at any level. Kikuyus supported Clinton, then they supported McCain. Luos supported Obama from start to finish. When he won the Presidency of the USA, a lot of Luos breathed a sigh of......I don't know what to call it.....but it was victory for the Luos somehow.
Needless to say Kenya is in a pretty f!@#$d up state right now. Obama is keeping clear of any visits back here. We all look forward to the day we see him on Kenyan soil as the American President. We still support him in his decision to only come back here when the current Government cleans up its act. Recently he sent a letter to certain Government heads telling them what they need to do or face consequences.
Everyone has an opinion on the merits of Obama winning this award. There are some things humans need to believe in sometimes. Its more than the politics and war and promises that still need to be fulfilled. Sometimes people need to believe in something when all else in their lives is not happening.
Obama winning this award may be criticised by many, but there are many people out there who just don't care what the critics say. They are just happy he won it.