Why is Obama's brother ashamed?

[RobMoney$]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1047399/Barack-Obamas-half-brother-discovered-Kenya-living-dollar-month.html


The youngest of Barack Obama’s half siblings has told of his shame about living in a shack and existing on a dollar a month whilst his brother plans to become the most powerful man in the world.
With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.
The difference in the men's lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.
“If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,” George told the magazine.
"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.
"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."



All I know is if a dollar a month could double my brother's quality of life I could probably find a way to afford to send it to him.
Barack Obama wants to completely redistribute wealth in this country but can't afford to toss his own flesh and blood a pittance to improve his lot in life?

[DroppinScience]

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obamas_hillbilly_half_brother

:)

[QueenAdrock]

Hell yes, y'all can!

[ms.peachy]

Ah yes, the Daily Mail, that well-known bastion of quality journalism.

[Bob]

Barack Obama wants to completely redistribute wealth in this country

no he doesn't

[RobMoney$]

Ah yes, the Daily Mail, that well-known bastion of quality journalism.


So what exactly do you not believe about the article?

[RobMoney$]

Hey DS, do you think George Obama is better off in Africa than America?

[ms.peachy]

So what exactly do you not believe about the article?

That it tells us very much about either man.

[RobMoney$]

That it tells us very much about either man.


I have full-blood sisters whom I'd never met until 3 years ago whom I've only met once.

If they had a financial problem or were living in squalor, I'd certainly do what I could to help them, be it money or helping them find employment so they could support themselves and their respective families.

...but I guess he'd have nothing to gain politically by helping them?



I mean a dollar a month. Hell, I've given more to perfect strangers on the street.

[ms.peachy]

My husband has a cousin who has a 27 year old son. Said son is an alcoholic, is chronically unemployed, lives most of the time on the streets, when he's not in jail for things like theft, assault, etc. Many family members have tried many times over the years to help in in many ways. Mr.p's aunt (who is in her 70's, never married or had children of her own) is quite wealthy and has paid for him to go to rehab and offered him ongoing support to turn his life around. But instead he likes to bitch to anyone who will listen about how 'that old bitch just sits on her money while I'm eating out of garbage cans' and 'my family they don't give a fuck about me, all they care about it their stupid houses and jobs and they don't give a shit if I sleep in a doorway'. He's the king of Everyone Owes Me Something.

My point is, what do we know about this brother from this article, other than he says that Obama doesn't give him any money? What kind of person is he? Are there choices he has made in his own life that have resulted in his destitution? Is he truly a victim of circumstance, someone with no power to effect change in his own life? Have other family members reached out to him in the past and been rebuffed? This 'news' article tells us nothing.

[RobMoney$]

I see your point.

..but can you get drunk/high on 1$ a month really?

It's kind of a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Is he addicted to something because he's depressed and self medicating because his life is a failure, or is his life a failure because he's depressed and addicted?

People hurt themselves for lots of different reasons. A lot of the time it comes down to the fact that people are just looking for attention. If Obama's brother did turn out to be an addict, could you really blame him? I'd be surprised if he wasn't, really, considering the circumstances he finds himself living in and the level his brother has achieved in life.

[Bob]

I see your point.

..but can you get drunk/high on 1$ a month really?

It's kind of a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Is he addicted to something because he's depressed and self medicating because his life is a failure, or is his life a failure because he's depressed and addicted?

People hurt themselves for lots of different reasons. A lot of the time it comes down to the fact that people are just looking for attention. If Obama's brother did turn out to be an addict, could you really blame him? I'd be surprised if he wasn't, really, considering the circumstances he finds himself living in and the level his brother has achieved in life.

so regardless of whether it's the chicken or the egg, obama's to blame for this. mccain '08

[ms.peachy]

..but can you get drunk/high on 1$ a month really?

It's kind of a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Is he addicted to something because he's depressed and self medicating because his life is a failure, or is his life a failure because he's depressed and addicted?


I wasn't necessarily suggesting that the man is an addict. I used an example of someone whose addiction is part of a longstanding, ongoing pattern of poor choices, unwillingness to take personal responsibility, and tendency to chastise others for not subisidising his existence.

I have no idea if this is the case with the half brother or not. He might be a fine upstanding fellow, I've no idea and the article certainly doesn't tell me. I notice it says he is no longer in contact with his mother, though - that makes me a bit suspicious, I have to say. If this is a man who is failing in life, not because he is trapped from birth in a poverty cycle but because he has difficulty sustaining relationships and is alienating his family, well, you know, I feel bad for the guy but you know, he's the only one who can sort that out really.

[NoFenders]

So, we have a guy who wants to save America from it's horrid ways, but can't even help his own blood get a better life for himself. Real American hero we got here. He ceratinly knows how to put his own agenda aside for the better cause. I should probably thank him. :rolleyes:



:cool:

[DroppinScience]

Hey DS, do you think George Obama is better off in Africa than America?

This question in and of itself is asinine and oversimplifying what is a very complex matter, but I'll bite.

Going back to your "slavery" thread, I never once suggested that Africans in Africa are better off than the Africans now in America. It was you who suggested that things like slavery -- while a grave injustice -- has in the long long loooooooooooong run actually led to a much higher standard of living for blacks in the U.S. than in Africa. I'm not sure what you're expecting us to think ("Thank God for the European slave trade so that centuries later we have comedians like Chris Rock and rappers like 50 Cent!" ?) of this, but that's your position.

I responded to you saying that there is no doubt that many blacks today enjoy a good standard of living (such as, say individuals like Michael Jordan, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, etc. and even the emergence of a sizeable black middle class), but this doesn't change the fact that there is an equally huge gap (and it's growing) among this population. So while a healthy black middle class is emerging (a positive development in the post-MLK/civil rights age), there is simultaneously a growing, crippling poverty among the black lower classes (and if you don't believe me, read Henry Louis Gates Jr's "America Beyond the Color Line" and watch the PBS special of the same name). The facts and figures are all there, the AIDS rates among blacks in the US is ON PAR with nations such as Uganda. Even childbirth mortality rates are alarmingly high.

When you boil it down, yeah I'll concede that OVERALL there are better conditions for blacks in America than most areas of Africa. But don't kid yourself into thinking it's vastly better. It's all relative.

And there's more answers than just "yes" or "no," Rob.

[Bob]

So, we have a guy who wants to save America from it's horrid ways, but can't even help his own blood get a better life for himself. Real American hero we got here. He ceratinly knows how to put his own agenda aside for the better cause. I should probably thank him. :rolleyes:



:cool:

but nofenders, george obama is the only cause of his own problems and he's the only solution, he can't be mad at someone else for not bailing him out?

[DroppinScience]

So, we have a guy who wants to save America from it's horrid ways, but can't even help his own blood get a better life for himself. Real American hero we got here. He ceratinly knows how to put his own agenda aside for the better cause. I should probably thank him. :rolleyes:



:cool:

I'm sorry, I didn't know Obama was also running for President of Kenya. How shortsighted of him.:rolleyes:

Obama's half-brother apparently has no contact with the rest of the family (doesn't talk to his mom, has only met his famous half-brother twice). Is there any indication that he wants help, be it from Barack or closer relatives? Is he obliged to? Even if Barack was sending him cheques, I thought you were against welfare and that people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps (boot not included).

[NoFenders]

but nofenders, george obama is the only cause of his own problems and he's the only solution, he can't be mad at someone else for not bailing him out?

He doesn't live in America.

:cool:

[Bob]

He doesn't live in America.

:cool:

ahahaha oh

[NoFenders]

I'm sorry, I didn't know Obama was also running for President of Kenya. How shortsighted of him.:rolleyes:

Obama's half-brother apparently has no contact with the rest of the family (doesn't talk to his mom, has only met his famous half-brother twice). Is there any indication that he wants help, be it from Barack or closer relatives? Is he obliged to? Even if Barack was sending him cheques, I thought you were against welfare and that people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps (boot not included).

He's not in a place of opportunity like the good ole U.S. of A. .

But hey, what does it matter right?? I mean, you would do the same thing.

:cool:

[NoFenders]

ahahaha oh

Maybe if you actually knew what you were talking about you'd understand.

:cool:

[Bob]

Maybe if you actually knew what you were talking about you'd understand.

:cool:

maybe if i knew what the hell you were talking about i'd understand

[NoFenders]

Exactly!!!

Maybe some day you'll understand. Get laid first though. I wouldn't want to ruin anything for ya.

:cool:

[Bob]

you're a swell guy nofenders

[Burnout18]

look what obama's brother did. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGi91b8a0M&feature=related)

[NoFenders]

you're a swell guy nofenders

The feeling's mutual bob.


:cool: