Gadgets Philippines – July 2019

84 JULY 2019 http://www.gadgetsmagazine.com.ph

ambitious young man who wanted to prove to

the world what an African can accomplish.

But it was his going back to his father’s hometown

in Kenya and meeting his half-siblings that

provided so much emotional investment in me.

Note that Obama is the only child of his parents.

He has half-sisters and half-brothers from both

sides. His “homecoming” exposed him to the

bright and dark side of having — and living —

with extended families. He saw how his father,

through stories from aunts and uncles, worked

his way to earn a name in public office. He saw

the perils of living in a country where security is

almost non-existent. More importantly, he saw

how this side of him values familial relations.

While the book is about his father, Obama paid

respect to his mother and gave us a picture

of someone who would get up at four in the

morning to force feed him and teach him his

lessons so he could catch up.

From a reader’s point of view, I believe that

the experiences he had with his father’s family

somehow made a huge impact on how Obama

became a leader, while his mother’s parents

BOOKS

Dreams from My Father:

A Story of Race and Inheritance

People close to me know very

well how much I admire former US

President Barack Obama not only

as a leader but as a human being.

Like many of his supporters, I find

him amiable, extremely likable

and, at one point, even faultless.

Then I stumbled upon his memoir titled “Dreams

from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”

I had read his other book first, “The Audacity of

Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American

Dream,” but the former is the one that I have the

most vivid recollection of its contents—because,

in this book, Obama didn’t hold back.

“Dreams” is basically just about Obama’s life

long before he became the 44th President of

the United States of America. It traces his roots

as a mixed-race American, although these days,

people seem to forget that he is also half-white

not just half-black. His mother’s name is Stanley

Ann Dunham, an anthropologist who lived a

nomadic life in three countries.

The death of Obama’s father, Barack Hussein

Obama Sr., a Kenyan senior governmental

economist, prompted him to discover the life he

never experienced with this parent.

When Obama was only 2 years old, his father

walked out on them, while the family was living

in Hawaii. He lived in Indonesia when his mother

married a government employee.

Obama grew up as a typical teenager who lived

a precarious life. He had tricks up his sleeves and

was once a constant worry to his grandparents,

whom he lived with most of his life.

However, angst and all, Obama was always

brilliant in school. While it showed that at

one point he didn’t know what to do with

his life, this uncertainty didn’t diminish his

aptitude for learning. When he overcame what

most adolescents experienced, the period of

indecision and lack of direction, the young

Obama returned to Hawaii and graduated from

Punahou School in 1979. In the US, he did well

at Occidental College and when his brilliance

started to get noticed, he studied at Columbia

University and aced law school at Harvard.

These are the things Obama’s father would have

wanted to accomplish for himself. He was an

helped shape him as a person with a good heart.

In the book, his grandparents often reminded

him to look at himself first before passing any

judgment or that things aren’t always about him.

Obama chose to become a community organizer

in Chicago. He gathered local residents and

campaigned to promote common interests in the

community. It was a path that brought him closer

to people and led him to the White House.

More than the recollection of his journey as a

young man in search of his identity, Obama

showed how gifted a writer he is. The prose is

lyrically written as if the words came from an

unknown receptacle of vocabulary. The way he

wove through the narrative jumping from one

period to another is seamless.

I find it remarkable how someone like former

President Barack Obama hurdled, with such

class and poise, all the adversities of being

born mixed-race. He didn’t just conquer the

almost insurmountable feat of leading the most

powerful nation but he also displayed his heart

by incessantly being kind to everyone. It was

this and his leadership style of intelligence and

compassion that endeared him to me.

I have this habit of hugging a book I truly love

right after I turn the last page. I did it with “Dreams

from My Father” and it took me a while to dry the

tears in my eyes.

Words by Marlet D. Salazar

NOTABLE QUOTES

“You might be locked in a world,

not of your own making, her eyes

said, but you still have a claim on

how it is shaped. You still have

responsibilities.”

“My identity might begin with

the fact of my race, but it didn’t,

couldn’t end there. At least that’s

what I would choose to believe.”

“Change won’t come from the top,

Change will come from mobilized

grassroots.”

“Beneath the layers of hurt,

beneath the ragged laughter, I

heard a willingness to endure.

Endure—and make music that

wasn’t there before.”