Barack Obama, the mixture of cultural struggle for U.S. presidency

It was a ritual on Wednesday night for Barack Obama: after one day debating on taxes, death penalty or any other controversial issue, he went to a meeting of the committee. "

Legislators and lobbyists, both Democrats as Republicans, left side of the policy to meet to ... his weekly game of poker. It was a chance for Obama, then a legislator from Illinois, to socialize in the midst of the letters and cigars (or, if it, cigarettes). It was also a way for this son of a pastor of goats Africa, that lawyer educated at Harvard, author and professor, to show that it could be just another of the boys. This was not new to him.

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He had already navigated by shares of exotic Hawaii and Indonesia, for the privileged halls of Cambridge and the streets destroyed by poverty when the Chicago boy, a student and a young man. Along the way, Barack Obama, now a rookie as U.S. senator and Democratic challenger for the presidency, left determined to do things he says that will work in the White House: reduce distances, make connections, forge alliances. "Barack knows what he must do to fit and has the ability to do this," said Senator Terry Link of the state, his friend of long standing and occasionally host of poker. "He tries to win in places where no out."

His half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, sees things differently: "He moves between two worlds," she says. " 'That is what he has done a lifetime." From the beginning, Barack Obama mixed cultures. His father, also named Barack Obama, was a student with black bag of studies that traveled from their small village in Kenya to study at the University of Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was white and had only 18 years when they met in a class of Russian. Barack - "blessed" in Arabic-was born on August 4, 1961.


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The marriage lasted little of their parents. His father left the family to study at Harvard when his son was two years, returning only once. Obama wrote so poignant about the visit in his memoirs - recalling the ball of basketball that his father gave him, the discs they played for African dance and presentation of Dave Brubeck who saw together. Obama, then 10 years old, never saw his father. At the time, Obama's mother had married again, with Lolo Soetoro, another university student.

Life in Indonesia

They moved to his homeland, Indonesia, dragging Obama, in the season with six years for a land of delicacies such as meat, snake and grasshopper, where he had a pet monkey, named Tata and where there was the harsh reality of poverty and diseases of the third world. After four years, Obama returned to Hawaii, first living with his mother, then with his maternal grandparents, all coming from Kansas.

Today, Maya sees traces of three in their half brother. From her mother, she says, "he pulled the ability to make connections, to keep open mind ... His taste for adventure, his curiosity and his compassion. " From his grandmother, Mandelyn: "his pragmatism, his balance, his ability to stay focused even in the midst of chaos." From his grandmother, Stanley: "his love for the game. My grandfather ... envisaging their lives with great pleasure and enthusiasm and a great sense of possibility. "

In Hawaii, Obama was typical. And atypical. He was a student with scholarship for studies in prestigious Punahou School, a private academy where he was an "intelligent but not overly intellectual," says his half-sister. He was campy, laugh at ease and not imported to display. Obama-then known as Barry - had something to rebel. A friend remembers that both were suspended in the seventh series of play and make bets at school.

The boy gorducho that colecionava magazines in the comics Spider Man and Conan, Brittany, grew and became an adolescent who heard of the jazz saxophonist Grover Washington and Earth, Wind and Fire, who ran the old Ford Granada the grandfather, played golf, poker, sang in the choir and joined Ka Wai Hello, the school's literary journal.

Obama also loved playing basketball and this is why it was called "Barry O'Bomber." He liked to make a special move with the left hand. During his last year at the time the school won the state championship. Obama was a fierce competitor and a friend sensitive. His friend, Mike Ramos, says he lost several baskets during games of improvisation, "Obama was the guy who said: 'continue playing, do not worry. She vai come '. "

Racial Issue

"We also had a hand in introspective Obama, the face of dealing with its origins outside birraciais. Despite being in a racially mixed group of friends, he and two others among the few black students from Punahou were weekly in what became known as "ethnic corner." "He was more concerned to learn from each other than to be the only place where we felt safe," says Tony Peterson, one of the three. They discussed namoros inter-racial, education and "will see a black president in their lives."

Peterson and other colleagues say that Obama never spoke of turmoil that reveals in his memoir, "Dreams of My Father", in which he wrote about his difficulty in accepting their own racial identity and use of drugs - including marijuana and cocaine - to "take the question of who I was on my head. "

In a 1999 article by writing to the Punahou Bulletin, Obama said, one of the few blacks at school, "I probably questioned my identity more than most. As a child of a broken home and a family of relatively modest, I had much resentment of what my circumstances justified and not always canalizei these feelings of particularly constructive way. "

First job

Obama arrived in Chicago in 1985, with a university degree, a map of the city and a new job - organizer of the community. Initial Salary: $ 13 thousand per year (including money for spending on automobiles). Obama, who had worked in New York for a brief period after they form the University of Columbia, knew little about the policy, which was hard game in Chicago. But the fact of having lived abroad had given him experience as a foreigner and a natural empathy with people of power and money, says Gerald Kellman, the man that hired.


Working for the Developing Communities Project, Obama organized black churches in the industrial district of South Side, an area damaged by the loss of steel plants and factories.

The task of Obama was mobilize the residents to promote change, is making a lobby for a centre of training for jobs, is demanding more parks or removing asbestos from homes. "He seemed to listen well and learned fast," says Kellman. He says he did not like Obama of confrontations with people. But when the subject was negotiating conflicts, it was very good. "Obama has become close to many of these organizations-aged women to be her mother." This boy was very bright-I should not say boy, this man was so brilliant, but he did not impose it on you, "recalls Loretta Augustine-Herron, one of the founders of the community project. "He was direct and smooth ... He explained things in a way that does not let anyone offended. "

Women liked it very much. They the reprimiam when he ate only salad of spinach for lunch, laughed when he showed his steps to dance ( "Do you not lacked confidence, I can tell," says Augustine-Herron) and playing on their punctuality and seriousness. "If we apressarmos, Obama face of a baby will fera," they cutucavam to each other while running for a meeting with him. Yvonne Lloyd says that the Obama prepared to deal with bureaucrats, saying, who they were approaching, guiding them in saying - and offering criticism: "He was there, trying and doing strength," says Lloyd, who has 11 children. "He in energizava. When you have been owner-to-house to life and everything we did was create children, you do not know much about the outside world. He taught us. " And if there is something he did not know, he discovered. " 'Let me find the respect' was his favorite words," says Lloyd, who still called Obama of "my little boy magrelo."

Family

Obama continued around his half-sister, Maya, who visited Chicago during the summers. When his father died and she was just a teenager, Obama, almost a decade older, took a parental role, leading it to visit campuses of schools. Obama was also improving their skills as a writer, writing short stories and vivid on pastors and communities that are desintegravam, inspired by his experiences in Chicago. He showed the companion to the organiser Mike Kruglik, who was impressed by how he captured the atmosphere of the streets.

"I could not understand how he had time and energy to do this," he says. In three years as organizer, Obama has become increasingly aware of the limits of what could win and it was becoming increasingly pragmatic, says Kellman. The experience of his father as a civil servant in Africa was a story that served as an example. "He had this notion that his father was too idealistic and not practical enough ... and had not achieved what we wanted, "he adds. (Obama later wrote that his father-who was killed in a car accident - had died "a bitter man").


Obama said in his memoirs that during those years in Chicago he "left the greater isolation" felt that when he arrived and discovered that share stories of life with people he gave "a sense of place and a purpose to which aspire." He was ready to go-ahead for the school of law from Harvard. But he promised would return.

Studies at Harvard

Obama came to Harvard older than many of his fellow class, diving into a kind of incubator of the elite North American-future judges of the Supreme Court, leaders of the Fortune 500, U.S. senators and presidents. Former colleagues of class and teachers remember him as an intellect capable of mature judgement, a conciliator who was able to see both sides of an issue. "He was not someone you just wanted to read the annotations him or her voice heard," said Charles Ogletree, professor of law at Harvard who was mentor to Obama and other black students. "You wanted to hear you thinking. There was something special in him. "

The school of law had many people try to overcome the focus of competition, but that was not the style of Obama, says Laurence Tribe, a professor it engages as a research assistant. "He was not only focused on claims or results," says Tribe. "He often gave credit to others for whom he had done the work." Tribe asserts that Obama was able to deal with very intelligent people "in ways other than those irritava, he learned to move in those circles. Causou little agitation and managed to do things. "

Obama had two crucial moments in Harvard. One was during the first summer where he worked in a large law firm in Chicago and met another student who had been trained in law at Harvard, Michelle Robinson, who would become his wife and mother of his two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Another was a personal triumph: Obama reached the headlines when he was elected the first black chairman of the Harvard Law Review, perhaps the most prestigious legal publication in the country. "For us it was really a big celebration, a real milestone," said Earl Martin Phalen, a colleague of class black. "But we did not have the same meaning for him ..."

Life policy

He assumed an attitude of not hitting the chest of pride, something like "look for me, I am the first." He was aware of the historical significance, but understood that there was responsibility. With the graduation, Obama became valuable to the market. Offers of senior positions appeared to him.


He chose another direction. Back in Chicago, Obama joined a small firm of civil rights, campaign and has created a class of constitutional law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Chicago. In 1996, he was elected to the office in Parliament representing state Hyde Park-South Side in the region that includes the university and some very poor neighbourhoods. Obama later write that he believes policy as a "sport of direct contact and is not imported nor with the cotoveladas nor with the blows that sometimes received from his blind spot."

But in Springfield, the state capital, he was known for his pragmatism, which was beyond the divisions between parties, working with other Democrats and Republicans. Obama helped to change the laws on death penalty, ethics and racial profile, and won-tax credit for poor workers. But it failed in its campaign for universal health insurance. As a newly arrived in the atmosphere of closed club of Springfield, Obama also found contempt. Some legislators initially thought he was a little arrogant. "It took a while to prove that he was a face of truth," says state Senator Kirky Dillard, a Republican who appears in a commercial campaign for Obama.

"In the first two years, there was healthy skepticism," he said. That was especially true among his fellow legislators african-Americans. "The roots of Obama and his style - he avoids the rhetoric used by some racially colored black politicians - have long raised debates on their racial identity. Some black leaders and commentators have questioned whether he is "black enough". Obama says there was never questioned about it being black. "If you look at african-american society, you are treated as african-American," he said in an interview to the programme "60 Minutes" of CBS, this year. "And when you're child in particular, is once you start to be identified. At least it was so I felt comfortable for me identify, if not the core of who I am. " Being a black man shaped the lives of Obama so undeniable.

Paper and identity

In his book "The audacity of hope", he says that the senator be spared some of the "esbarrões and bruising" that many black men support. But also wrote that he had faced "the ritual of mesquinharias", including security guards who followed him in department stores, white couples delivering the key to the car with him on the outside of restaurants, confusing it with the manobrista. "I know how it is when people tell me that I can not do something because of my color and I know the bitter taste of black pride swallowed." But, throughout his life, from his childhood in Hawaii to the days of legislature in Springfield, Obama has maintained a racially mixed group of friends and political allies.

As state senator, some of his closest friends were white suburban and rural legislators. Obama also found a powerful ally in Emil Jones, the chairman of the Senate, a Democrat of the old-guard from Chicago known for breaking agreements, punish their enemies and to have several members of his family in payroll. Already counting on three years of legislative career, Obama, tireless and ambitious, challenged the Republican Bobby Rush, a veteran who had an approval rate of 70% and deep roots in the community that datavam of decades ago when he was a "black panther ".

During the campaign, Obama was persecuted by the same question: if he was "bold enough" to the district. His academic credentials matter little to some voters who felt that the Rush understood better. Obama escorregou ugly, losing the primary by 31 percentage points.


When he came to the celebration of victory, the election had already been decided in favor of Rush. "Barack was seen as someone from outside," says Link, the state senator. "He was not one of the boys." He does not desanimou. Two years later, he would start to plan your next step-a campaign for U.S. Senate. At the time, he had a network of friends and people that supported in Springfield, including his fellow poker, who saw similarities in the way he addressed the work and play.

The player

"He was a player calculista," says Link. "If he would play a hand, he knew it would be a hand he had chance to win. The same occurs in politics, too. He vai do not be done. "

Some calls it "The Speech" - a speech of 17 minutes at the opening of the Democratic National Convention that has made him a star. Obama was little known outside Illinois when he was chosen to make the important pronouncement. But he was impressed John Kerry, the Democrat appointed to the presidency, after the senator from Massachusetts had heard him speak at an event to raise funds for the party and the two have campaigned together in Chicago in the spring. His appearance at the convention July was followed by an old saying to Broadway: Barak Obama rose to the stage as an unknown, but it emerged as a star.

Comentaristas and politicians were Zooming with talks on its future-and mentioned as a possible candidate for presidency. But there was something first. Four months later, Obama, with the help of a few blows of luck, won the post in the U.S. Senate with a huge advantage over the second placed. He became the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.


Since then, he has had the touch of Midas: two books best-sellers, a Grammy for having written one, the magazine covers, appearances on TV, invitations and more invitations. In last fall, Obama has become one of the biggest attractions in the year 2006, rising to palanque candidates with Democrats around the country. Even President Bush understood the enormous popularity of Obama. When the senator was at a reception at the White House after being sworn, Bush warned that people would be with him in sight, only expecting a slide.

The announcement

From the moment that Obama emerged in the national scene, the question has been: he candidates to the presidency? No, no, no, he replied. Absolutely not. After two short years in the U.S. Senate, the man who was an obscure legislator recently, reversed its course. In a stormy day of February, Barack Obama returned to Springfield, the steps of the Old Capitol, where his hero Abraham Lincoln was legislature. He was making another major speech. He announced that if candidataria the presidency.

Controversial issues

Abortion - Are you in favour of the right to abortion
Gay marriage - Deixaria each state decide. It is against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Global warming - wishes to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, with mandatory limits
Control of arms - People voted to let manufacturers and dealers in weapons vulnerable to processes. It supports tighter restrictions
Public health - Advocates total coverage for children and that help employees pay for insurance
Immigration - People voted for some on the border with Mexico and upholds legality to illegal immigrants, provided they speak English and pay taxes
Iraq - was against the invasion. Advocates of the withdrawal of all combat brigades by March 31, 2008
Research on stem-cells - Support the reduction of restrictions on federal funding of research with embryonic stem cells -
Taxes - Supports $ 80 billion in discounts for low-income workers and elderly

Bolivia condemns attempt to murder of Evo

The government of Bolivia in this Friday denounced an "attempt to magnicídio" against President Evo Morales, who presumably would be carried out at the airport of Santa Cruz by the opposition.

The police on Thursday arrested two men who portavam weapons in the vicinity of the airport, but a few hours after they were put into freedom for Justice of Santa Cruz.

"On Thursday two people were arrested portavam a weapon of war, a mauser rifle with telescopic sights, and 30 cartridges, 30 projéteis of war, with lethal effect powerful in the hands of two people who were very close to the axis of displacement the president ", informed the Justice Minister, Juan Ramon de la Quintana.

"We condemn the country and the world that behind these actions to attempt to magnicídio there is a plot, a sinister plan whose real power still know, but know the motives. But this puzzle-the conspiracy is already beginning to be assembled," he added .

The government reported earlier attempts of attacks against Morales, but this is the first time that prisoners are supposed involved loading arms close to the president.

"They are going far, far too who should respond to this political project (the government) in the scenario of the political debate and not in the field of lawlessness, crime," added the minister in an interview with an issuing state.

Ramon de la Quintana criticized the release of suspects involved in the attack, ordered by prosecutor William Torres.

The minister described the decision as assembly of a structure of masking in Santa Cruz, where the rich Bolivian department focuses part of the opposition right to Morales, who is of indigenous origin.

Santa Cruz adopted in early May autonomy in relation to the federal government in a referendum seen as a declaration of war in opposition to government plans to introduce socialism in the country.

Will Smith and Charlize Theron promote new movie in Moscow

The Hollywood stars, Will Smith and Charlize Theron come a red carpet on the night of Thursday to promote his latest film at its premiere in Moscow.

Trajando black suit, Will Smith danced alongside the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov Oscar winner of the international festival of cinema in Moscow, which was opened with the showing of the film it and Charlize Theron, the comedy Hancock, where Smith is a superhero alcoholic.

"I love being here. This city has a lot of energy," said the Reuters indicated to the actor Oscar, while dançava on the stage.

Created 30 years ago, the festival of Moscow will give his award to a primary, 16 films that include work independent of Albania, Russia and Israel.

"I rendo tribute to the festivals of film," Theron said to journalists in Moscow before the event. "You create space for films that, by normal routes, would not have a very long time of life."

The actress, awarded to the Oscar for his performance in Monster - I wish Killer, 2004, walked the carpet using flowery dress in shades of purple.

The festival lasts one week and is a cinema of the Soviet era between two casinos, with a view to a statue of the writer Alexander Pushkin. During the event, the Japanese actor and director Takeshi Kitano vai receive an award by all of his work.

The Russian cinema is reconquering popularity and higher ticket at home, following the economic boom that has lasted ten consecutive years, driven by record oil prices.

The government states that the Russian film production companies have profits of $ 900 million in 2011, almost twice as what was achieved last year.

After boycott in China, Sharon Stone signs with jewelry

Sharon Stone was in a party promoted by Damiani jewelry this Thursday in Beverly Hills. The actress will be the new face of the brand, representing the collection of diamonds and Must Masterpieces.

The good phase of Sharon comes soon after she suffered intense boycott in China, then to comment - in transition to the Cannes film festival - that the earthquake that killed around 68 thousand people in the country was a result of a 'negative karma'.

The statement traveled the world and Sharon also has been criticized by several American and British newspapers, like The Sun, who said the actress was "irresponsible".

In the event, Sharon refused to comment on the incident, but said he is "sending good vibrations and will soon be announcing its new projects." The increased production that the actress was involved in 2008 was the film Mermaid Island, but the producer - of Chinese origin - resigned after the controversy.

Amy Winehouse free themselves from suspected tuberculosis

Amy Winehouse found itself free of the suspicion of having contracted tuberculosis. What acometeu the English singer was a lung infection, as noted by the examinations made in the clinic in London, where he is admitted from the day June 16.

The doctors who are treating Amy since she suffered a fainting in last Monday, desconfiavam that the singer had contracted the disease - mainly because it is an evil common among addicts and alcoholics.

The spokesman, Amy Winehouse, Chris Goodman, confirmed to the press that the author of the hit Rehab was not infected with the TB bacterium.

"What she has is a lung infection. She went through tests to detect tuberculosis and they were negative," said Goodman to People.com.

Amy internando and is still receiving treatment. The doctors responsible for their case soon will judge whether it is able to meet its future commitments: a show at the Glastonbury Festival and a presentation of the concert tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Goodmand said, "they love to do the concerts, she always wants to do these things, but it has to listen to doctors in the first."

Rapper Jay-Z faces criticism because they present a festival of rock

Jay-Z and the organisation of the festival, Glastonbury, England, has faced harsh criticism for the presence of the American rapper as one of the main attractions of the event - which is the tradition of a rock festival. Jay-Z finds the controversy "ridiculous".

The rapper, who was present at Glastonbury in the next day 28, told the BBC that it is time to embrace the hip-hop and differs from "old ideas".

The presence of Jay-Z in Glastonbury was announced in February this year and since then has provided very substrate for discussions.

"I never spent for anything like this before. We are in 2008, whats up mentality is a very old, the world does not more so," the rapper desabafou.

Until the music personalities like Noel Gallagher, the Oasis guitarist, considered wrong rapper for the escalation of the festival.

Perguntado by the BBC to comment on Gallagher, Jay-Z said "will not abraçarmos what is new, then how can we progress?".

Jay-Z, which divide the main stage of the second of the festival with Kings of Leon and The Verve, said the criticism signal "barriers" that separate different musical genres.

The rapper, fans of music in the world today do not think more so. "I hear all kinds of music and is as it should be, so that world has done: mix cultures," said Jay-Z.

Rihanna was introduced in the 'Today Show' in New York

The singer Rihanna, who is in New York to promote the seventh of its single disc Good Girl Gone Bad, this morning attended the programme network NBC's Today Show.

Rihanna was presented in the morning, to the public that lotava the Rockefeller Center in New York. The show opened the series of concerts of the summer programme.

Using a dancer dressed in black, with a hat-driver, Rihanna sang hits like Please Do not Stop The Music and Rehab, his partnership with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.

Rihanna was born in Barbados, and became famous with his third album, Good Girl Gone Bad, which brings the success Umbrella, one of the biggest hits of last year.