Obama inauguration looms

As the inauguration of Barack Obama hovers only hours away, it's a time for not only looking forward, but looking back.

As such, the New York Times has just run a series of essays on the individual cities where Obama came to be the man he is. First on the list, an essay penned by Endy Bayuni, the chief editor of the Jakarta Post. In "Obama's Indonesian Classroom," he puts Barack's childhood days in historical context, conjuring up images of Indonesia then - only shortly after the Year of Living Dangerously, with the fall of Sukarno and the rise of Suharto, still beset by mass poverty and in the grip of military control.

What a difference with the Indonesia of today. And what a difference between a little boy of 10 years old, growing up in Indonesian schools and living on the outskirts of Jakarta, and the soon-to-be leader of the free world.

If it were fiction, nobody would believe it. As Bayuni ends his essay, with a wish for Obama from the Indonesian people: Selamat.


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