Obama's Indonesia homecoming falls flat
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Obama should also have taken a trip down memory lane. A peek into the house where he was raised by his American mother and Indonesian stepfather would have done the same as it did for Clinton when she brought television anchorwoman Barbara Walters to the Midwest suburb she once called home. It gave her a human connection to millions of viewers. This would have done the same for Obama, but on an even larger scale.
Obama is one of the great orators of our generation, his multi-ethnicity represents more Americans than most Americans, and his entry into the White House amid two wars and a financial crisis couldn't have been more perfectly timed.
Or so we thought. The past two years have seen failed promises and fading hope. And this trip to connect not just to his personal past, but to a Muslim world that seems farther away from the US electorate than ever before, presented the useful opportunity to help close that growing gap. But State Department officials allegedly felt that an extended trip would amount to grandstanding at a time when millions of Americans are out of jobs.
Ironically, one of the most poignant moments in Jakarta was initiated not by the US but by their hosts. On a day largely sapped of high emotions, the Indonesian government gave Obama's anthropologist mother, who died in 1995, the highest state award for her years of research to help empower Indonesian rural women. What she also did was empower the boy growing up in her own house whose vision as much as his background has inspired many.
What comes next is the cold reality. With Obama back in Washington and the same challenges from two years ago still sitting on his desk, he must find a way to reconnect and re-inspire as he did before. That could include India, which Obama backs in its bid for a UN Security Council seat.
Indeed, a new world order continues to beckon. David Cameron came to China last week, demonstrating a closer-than ever relationship with China. And, just the week before, President Hu Jintao caught global attention when he signed fresh deals in Paris that includes a landmark exhibition at the Louvre next year of artifacts from the Forbidden City.
We live in a more closely entwined world, but that doesn't mean it's any less complex.
The author is a CCTV News Presenter and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador. james@james-chau.com
