OPINIONS
OPINIONS
The World of President Obama
44th President of the United States of America
By The Ambassadors
Staff
This interesting segment presents the new world of US President Obama and his family through sixteen selected photos.
Ms. Anjali Helferty carries a cut-out of U.S. President Barack Obama along Rideau Street in Ottawa on 18 February 2009 to welcome him during his visit to Canada.
President Obama's extended family demonstrates multicultural roots and reflects the diversity of the country he leads. He was born from the inter-racial marriage of a poor Kenyan father from the countryside, who won a scholarship to the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Ann Dunham, a white woman born in the Midwest. Following their divorce his mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian, giving Barak an Indonesian half-sister, Maya. This photo is from Maya's December 2003 wedding in Hawaii to Konrad Ng, a Canadian of Chinese decent. Others present in the photo are President Obama's wife Michelle and daughters, Sasha and Malia, his grandmother Madelyne Dunham, and Konrad's family.
President Obama with Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, 76, who is old enough to be his father.
Under the gaze of Abraham Lincoln's statue, then President-elect Obama and his wife appeared at the inaugural celebration on January 18, 2009 at the Lincoln Memorial. Hundreds of thousands witnessed the celebration, and millions watched on TVs with actors and luminaries reciting Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. The new president told the crowd,
"What gives me the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you, Americans of every race, region, and state who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there."
For nearly an hour in June 2009, in a speech at Cairo University, President Obama made an impassioned plea to seek a new beginning between the U.S. and the Muslim world. He devoted 1,030 words of his 5772-word speech to the situation between Israelis, Palestinians, and the Arab world. Violent extremism was second (884 words), and economic development and opportunity third (544 words). When communicating to the Muslim world, he stated "The Holy Quran tells us: Be conscious of God and speak always the truth. That is what I will try to do--to speak truth as best I can." He then went on a tour of the Pyramids of Giza with Dr. Zahi Hawass, and enjoyed taking a photo in front of the Great Sphinx. Distinguished cartoonist Toughan published a cartoon after Obama's election depicting him as a beautifier of America's image worldwide.
The Latino-American Judge Sonia Sotomayor smiles alongside President Obama on May 26, 2009, who picked her for the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a classic example of the "American Dream" - a child born to poor Puerto Rican parents who graduated from Princeton and Yale Universities. She served as a prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney and in commercial litigation before being elevated to her most recent job as federal appeals judge. Her father had only a third-grade education when she was nine years old, and she developed juvenile diabetes. Her mother raised two children on a nurse's salary, sending them both to a Catholic school.
President Obama arrived at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh on June 3, 2009, where he was honored by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud with the country's highest honour - the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit.
Barack Obama's pet Bo is a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria to the president's daughters Malia and Sasha.
First Lady of the US, Michelle Obama, took the unusual step of hugging the Queen as she attended a glittering reception at Buckingham Palace ahead of the G20 summit on April 2, 2009. The move is a departure from what is considered appropriate protocol when meeting Queen Elizabeth II.
President Barack Obama meets his paternal grandmother, Sarah Hussein Obama, at his father's rural home in Siaya, Kisumu, Kenya during his 2006 visit to Kenya, when he was a member of the U.S. Senate. President Obama received a hero's welcome during an emotional family reunion in his late father's hometown.
Barack and Michelle Obama dance on a replica of the presidential seal at the Commander-in-Chief's ball at the National Museum Building in Washington DC on inauguration night. There were 10 official balls and scores more unofficial ones to commemorate the historic occasion.
Vice President Joe Biden looks on as the left-handed President, Barack Obama, signs executive orders to close down the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention center on January 21, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington D.C.
President Barack Obama meets with Venezuelan leftist leader Hugo Chavez for the first time at the Summit of the Americas on April 17, 2009 in the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Chavez offered the US president as a gift a book by Eduardo Galleano entitled "The Open Veins of Latin America."
President Barack Obama poses in a candid photograph with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao, alongside representatives from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and the UK at the G20 meeting in London on April 2, 2009.
President-elect Barack Obama paints a wall during a visit to Sasha Bruce House, a shelter for teens, in Washington, DC on January 19. Barack Obama started as a community organizer on Chicago's South side and has promised to continue his involvement in the life of the city after he takes office.
President Obama shakes hands with Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi before a dinner at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy on July 9, 2009.
