Wednesday, November 18, 2009

barry, brother Mark and his wife, meet in Beijing

November 18, 2009

Updated

Seems barry made his family top priority upon arriving in China. He met with his half-brother Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo and his Chinese wife of one year, Liu Xuehua. They live in Shenzhen (hour’s train ride from Hong Kong) but had flown to Beijing for the meeting.

See here for background info on Mr Ndesandjo and his book: Nairobi to Shenzhen.

Dreams From My Father excerpt re: meeting Mark.

Left, Mark Ndesandjo, U.S. President Barack Obama's half-brother. Right President Barack Obama

Source: UKTimes

As for their visit:

MARK: My big brother, you know I think he was on his way to see the President of China. He came directly off the plane, changed some clothes and then came down and saw us. And he just gave me a big hug. And it was so intense. I’m still over the moon on it. I am over the moon. And my wife… I think she is still recovering. She is his greatest fan.

What did they talk about?

All I can say is, we talked about family, and it was very powerful because when he came in through that door, and I saw him and I hugged him, and he hugged me and hugged my wife – it was like we were continuing a conversation that had started many years ago.

Mark had been at the Inauguration but barry had met him previously while he (Mark) was studying at Stanford. The encounter wasn’t what barry expected. ["Dreams" excerpt.] He found his brother to be comfortable in his skin, without illusions of who their father was – meaning he didn’t fit in barry’s narrative so there were no future meetings as far as the book went.

What did barry say about Mark’s book?

It’s no secret that my father was a troubled person. Anybody who’s read my first book, Dreams of My Father, knows that, you know, he had an alcoholism problem and that he didn’t treat his families very well. And, you know, so, obviously, that’s just a sad part of my history and my background.

But it’s not something that I spend a lot of time brooding over.

No he broods over the horrible racist upbringing he had at the hands of the typical white person family, who didn’t abandon him and made it possible for him to be president.

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