Barack Obama's 'lost' brother found in Kenya

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."

...Embarrassed by his penury, he said that he does not does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation.

"If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed," he said.

For ten years George Obama lived rough. However he now hopes to try to sort his life out by starting a course at a local technical college.

He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi.

The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".

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I would like to see Obama respond to this story. If it is true, it really makes a person wonder. If he knew his half-brother living in those conditions, why didn't he help him? It seems the guy wants to a technical college and those schools don't cost much over there. I bet tuition isn't any more than $100/month. I paid for a lot of my sister-in-law's tuition in Costa Rica. If this story is true I think it is very damaging to Obama's character. Unless, of course, there is some unknown detail like the brother is a drug addict or alcoholic. It would then make sense for the senator to let his brother learn in the school of hard knocks.

Those of you that have traveled in the third-world will know what I mean. On Maranatha Mission Stories Dick Dirkson once described a person who goes on their first Maranatha trip as coming home with their suitcases half empty because they give away most of the stuff they brought with them. I chuckled when he said it because that is exactly what happened to me on my first Maranatha trip.

A person's heart just goes out to these people that are in so much need. I never wanted to create a situation where my in-laws became dependent on me but I have always tried to help them in getting education and starting up new businesses. We also looked into buying a house for my wife's family but they didn't want to live where we could afford to buy a home for them.

This story really destroys my image of Obama. He has fallen from his pedestal. I hope either we discover the story isn't true or he has a good explanation for doing nothing for his own family.

I think there are hints there that the brother might be an alcoholic or something, given that he's saying he now plans to get his life together. More to the story, not time to rush to judgement yet.

That is what I originally commented. If he were a drug addict or alcoholic it would make sense that Barak not send him money. Barak has been so defensive about many accusation made against him, I think this is one that would be could to clear up. I have an alcoholic brother too - as did Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

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Umm, so, an alchy or a druggie don't need tah eat? Don't seem like one can buy too many groceries with only a dollar a month - no matter where one lives...

I al'ays give the alchy and the druggie a coupla bucks. Who knows but what the coming night is his or her last nite on this good earth and that coupla dollars provides his or her last bit of comfort before passing on. Well, I s'pose ifn

I only made $4,000,000 last year and had to lay out a million or so just to swing a deal on my new house - I guess I'd think twice 'bout bein' so loose with a dollar here or a dollar there...

after all, a dollar here and a dollar there and pretty soon we're talking real money.

:-o

What kind of facts needs I be waiting for - before I sez a man oughta pick up the bill for some good threads and shoes for his brother? mebbe even throw in a few dollars for some hootch once in a while... y'know, tah put some warmth in the brother's belly.

Aw, c'mon, I'm just bustin' y'alls chops

An alcoholic or drug addict will only seek help when they hit "bottom". That is, what they believe to be bottom. That term in relative. If I have a brother that is alcoholic (and I do) and I want to help him, the best thing I can do is help him reach his bottom. If I send him money so he can buy food I am prolonging his bottom. Thus I am actually hurting him more than I am helping him. In most cases, alcoholics would use the money to buy more booze and not food.

My brother-in-law got into drugs. He was my wife's brother in El Salvador. I had been helping him financially prior to that. I cut him off completely and horrified my mother-in-law. I explained to her that he had to hit a bottom but she thought I just hated him. Within a couple of years he was murdered in a gang killing. She told my wife that his death probably made me happy. She completely misunderstood "tough love". I was doing to him what needed to be done to bring about repentance. She continued to feed him, give him shelter and bail him out of jail. She was enabling him.

From what I understand, Barack's other siblings live in the UK and he has one other brother in Kenya who is a small business owner. Apparently none of them are helping out the little brother either. Although since they don't share the same mother they may not care - but that is another judgment call we can't make.

>>An alcoholic or drug addict will only seek help when they hit "bottom". That is, what they believe to be bottom.<<

It’s a matter of to will and to do. It’s got more to do with a denominator that it has to do with a “bottom”. And, without debating whether an addict has to seek help or no – is debatable; there is always self-motivation :-)

>>That term in relative.<<

Bottom, yes? not addict?

>>If I have a brother that is alcoholic (and I do) and I want to help him, the best thing I can do is help him reach his bottom.<<

There’s that term again, yes? Why not just bust his kneecaps? quicker, yes? THAT’s what I’d call “reaching bottom”.

>>If I send him money so he can buy food I am prolonging his bottom. Thus I am actually hurting him more than I am helping him.<<

Good grief. That sounds more like cheapskatism than it does help. Must be some sort of “audacity of ‘bama”.

>>In most cases, alcoholics would use the money to buy more booze and not food.<<

Not so, Shane. An alchy’s gotta eat, same’s anyone else.

>>I explained to her that he had to hit a bottom but she thought I just hated him.<<

There’s that “bottom”, again. Sounds like an AA mantra... like I said, “Bust his kneecap.”

>>Within a couple of years he was murdered in a gang killing.<<

If he was involved in gangs – his problem was more intense than simply doin’ drugs.

>>..."tough love". I was doing to him what needed to be done to bring about repentance.<<

Sorry, your in-law paid the ultimate price, but – “reaching bottom” and “tough love”, eh? Sounds like he got both. :-o

Sometimes, tough love sounds more like screwU. (don’t take this as a personal indictment – I’m just venting against all those I’ve heard quote that bit of philosophical arcanery)

>>She continued to feed him, give him shelter and bail him out of jail. She was enabling him.<<

Mebbe, she was simply being Xtian.

>>From what I understand, Barack's other siblings live in the UK and he has one other brother in Kenya who is a small business owner. Apparently none of them are helping out the little brother either.<<

Perhaps, they believe that it is your monie$ and mine – that should be sent to little brother – rather than theirs. Blood always tells, doesn’t it?

>>Although since they don't share the same mother they may not care - but that is another judgment call we can't make.<<

But we can make the judgement call that someone making $4,000,000-plus a year could slip a sawbuck and a coupla ones into an envelope, attach enough stamps tah get it to Kenya, Nairobi, or wherever and double little brother’s cash flow, yes? – instead of fixating on the number of houses someone else owns; like, who counts after owning five of 'em, anyways? Anyway,

just exactly, which, then, between our Prez candidates - is out of touch?

Just listen to me, anarchist jasd! – and here I thought it were the wishy-wonk liberals and moderates who advocated minimal decency; y’know, feed the world, and all that...

Okay, okay, chill guys...

I am an alcoholic myself. My mother practiced tough-love with me and that is why at the age of 16 I took my last drink - 23 years ago. Tough love works. If she had choose to enable me I may still be drinking in living in her basement today. However because so many people fail to understand that, if that is indeed what is going on with Barack and his little brother, it stands to reason why Barack wouldn't want to get into a public discussion about it. It may be better for Barack that the public view him as a cheep-skate than one trying to raise his brother's "bottom".

>>I am an alcoholic myself. My mother practiced tough-love with me and that is why at the age of 16 I took my last drink - 23 years ago.<<

I am not one who is terribly sympathetic with the so-called diagnosis – alcoholic. I spent thirty years of my life putting away a quart of scotch a day on top of the wine and the beer. No excuse other than stupidity. One day it came to me that 30 is a nice round number and quit – on a dime. It was the same with a four-pack a day smoking habit. Stupidity – until I encountered the notion of a nice round number. Not so much a fact of my acquiring wisdom, or receiving tough love, or reaching bottom, or any of those other ‘terms of invention’ – just a simple ‘to will’ and ‘to do’ – same as your self-initiative that sought the means to take another path.

I was always able to keep myself supplied with a choice of the best of poisons. No other’s sawbuck and a coupla one$ were required to help me lead a rather normal life with its attendant rewards. However,

that said, there is literally no excuse for a man earning over $4,000,000 a year to resort to such canards as the aforementioned faux-clinical terms to practice cheapskatism re his own blood.

>>Tough love works. If she had choose to enable me I may still be drinking in living in her basement today.<<

C’mon, Shane, you were a 16-year old kid.

>>However because so many people fail to understand that,<<

There is no love, “tough” or otherwise, involved in seeing your little bro’ living on a buck a month. Sheesh!

It is a left-handed attempt at rationalizing to excuse ‘bama’s principles – or lack thereof – re his finances vis-à-vis his little brother

>>...if that is indeed what is going on with Barack and his little brother, it stands to reason why Barack wouldn't want to get into a public discussion about it.<<

The qualifier “if” obtains. Indeed, it is not even established that his little bro’ is either an alchy or a druggie. It is we who hypothesize. That said,

c’mon, Shane, ...a buck a month!? I bet ‘bama put more in the offering plate at ol’ Jer Wright’s temple of propagandizement. (might help account for the 10,000 square-foot digs of his pastor) Methinks, mo’ bettah, some of those dollar$ might have found their way tah Africa.

>>It may be better for Barack that the public view him as a cheep-skate than one trying to raise his brother's "bottom".<<

So, what may have prevented ‘bama from helping his little bro’ by means other than monetary? The portrait of ‘bama practicing a form of, whazzat? “tough love”, yes? is disgusting.

Of course, that is simply my very humble opinion.