The Menteng Kid: Barack Obama's radical youth
Well there's much excitement over here about 'the Menteng kid'--Barack Obama, Jakarta's own (on loan)--running for US President. As entertaining to locals is the hilarious (& privately horrifying) accusation that, while here at the age of 8, little Christian Barack Hussein of the 'curly eyelashes" was enrolled in a radical Islamic madrassa.
This school is not far from the arts institute, located in a posh residential area. If it isn't underwater next week, I think I may go visit. Mostly, I'd like to interview a student at SDN Menteng 01 (called 'SDN Besuki' in Obama's day), maybe an 8 year old in pink telling me, as many seem most eagerly inclined, why she loves Dora the Explorer. Sure, there are madrassas. But if anyone is indoctrinating public school kids here, it's the insidious triad of Dora, Hello Kitty, & Barbie.
Here are some facts from the Jakarta Post & history as Evan knows it. I'll try to verify these in person in the next few weeks. I'm not casting my vote here, but venal slander like this harms everyone.
* The "SDN" of the school's name stands for "Sekolah Desar Negeri" - that is: 'National Elementary School', by definition a secular, state-owned institution.
* In the 1960s, radical Communism was of enormous concern to Indonesia. Not radical Islam.
* The school then, as now, openly accepts students of all religions, including Barak, whose estranged father was a non-practicing Muslim from Kenya, & whose mother was a non-religious person from Kansas.
* It's said he was enrolled in this public school because his family could not afford the international school that most expatriate children attended.
* He was there for two years as a child.
Enough already.
It's all floods & fever outside here. Our taxies practically float away. Much discussion in the papers of global warming. It's quite the bubble we live in up here, looking down from our books & the 30th floor.
This school is not far from the arts institute, located in a posh residential area. If it isn't underwater next week, I think I may go visit. Mostly, I'd like to interview a student at SDN Menteng 01 (called 'SDN Besuki' in Obama's day), maybe an 8 year old in pink telling me, as many seem most eagerly inclined, why she loves Dora the Explorer. Sure, there are madrassas. But if anyone is indoctrinating public school kids here, it's the insidious triad of Dora, Hello Kitty, & Barbie.
Here are some facts from the Jakarta Post & history as Evan knows it. I'll try to verify these in person in the next few weeks. I'm not casting my vote here, but venal slander like this harms everyone.
* The "SDN" of the school's name stands for "Sekolah Desar Negeri" - that is: 'National Elementary School', by definition a secular, state-owned institution.
* In the 1960s, radical Communism was of enormous concern to Indonesia. Not radical Islam.
* The school then, as now, openly accepts students of all religions, including Barak, whose estranged father was a non-practicing Muslim from Kenya, & whose mother was a non-religious person from Kansas.
* It's said he was enrolled in this public school because his family could not afford the international school that most expatriate children attended.
* He was there for two years as a child.
Enough already.
It's all floods & fever outside here. Our taxies practically float away. Much discussion in the papers of global warming. It's quite the bubble we live in up here, looking down from our books & the 30th floor.
posted by Anne E. Campisi at 11:40 AM
1 Comments:
"Nothing but fever and ghosts in the water" -- an RT lyric.
Flooding in Tallahassee, flooding in Jakarta; to offer a stark contrast, here in St. Paul it's -7 (straight temp, no wind chill) at noon today.
Here's hoping you're keeping high and dry among the clouds there. I looked at some pictures in the Jakarta Post -- yikes.
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