Word: obamas
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...bronze statue of a 10-year-old Barack Obama, shod in sneakers and holding aloft a butterfly, quickly turned into a tourist attraction. Foreigners flocked to the public park in Jakarta to honor the U.S. President, who lived four years of his childhood in the Indonesian capital. Locals visited, too, but they weren't as pleased. "Indonesians mostly came to protest," says park groundskeeper Yunus. "They didn't want the statue here." Less than three months after a local Obama fan club raised $10,000 for the monument, it was quietly moved in February to a nearby school where Obama...
...calls himself "America's first Pacific President," Obama's planned visit to Indonesia is being heralded as a homecoming. Millions of Indonesians consider Barry Soetoro, as he was once known by his Indonesian stepfather's surname, an honorary citizen. But even as Obama takes a trip down memory lane (followed by a visit to Australia), the fate of his boyhood likeness underscores his, and America's, growing image problem across Asia. Soon after Jakarta city workers used the cover of darkness to relocate the young Barry's statue, top U.S. diplomatic envoys were in Beijing to repair foundering relations with...
...Asia Asia's increasingly assertive leaders are demanding that the U.S. recognize the continent's growing economic and geopolitical clout. Many feel that Obama, despite his personal ties to Asia, isn't giving the region the respect it feels it merits. An editorial in the Bangkok Post - the leading English-language daily in Thailand, a nation that is usually dependably pro-American - summed up the prevailing sentiment: "Mr. Obama's promises about restoring U.S. interest in Asia ... have proved so far to be more talk than substance...
...Obama has spoken persuasively about Asia's significance. Last November, on his first visit to the continent as President, Obama vowed to address a perception that the George W. Bush Administration had overlooked Washington's Pacific allies. "I want every American to know that we have a stake in the future of this region," Obama said in Tokyo, "because what happens here has a direct effect on our lives at home." But since then the Obama Administration has dropped the ball on promoting U.S.-Asia trade, neglecting to implement regional free-trade pacts. "We do hope that [Obama's Asia...
...Indonesia Matters Indonesia deserves just that. Obama's trip is crucial for introducing Americans to a country that may not evoke much beyond earthquakes and tsunamis but is nevertheless key to U.S. interests. A 17,000-island archipelago, Indonesia boasts the world's biggest Muslim population. It is also the world's third largest democracy (after India and the U.S.), proving that Islam need not be the enemy of political freedom. Back when Obama lived in Jakarta, where his American mother was an anthropologist and aid worker, Indonesia was ruled by a dictator and mired in poverty. Today...