PrintFebruary 8, 2010
Obama's moving day
In just a matter of weeks President Obama will be going to Indonesia for a visit. If the future former president was planning a pilgrimage to pay homage to his statue in Jakarta, he may need a new set of directions. According to a story in The New York Times.
A recently erected statue of President Obama as a 10-year-old boy will be removed from a public park here, city officials said Friday, bowing to vociferous criticism on Facebook just a month before Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit Indonesia.
In a telephone interview 46 year old Heru Nugroho who created the Facebook group said.
“We Indonesians don’t even pay enough respect to our own heroes, people who contribute to our country,” he said. “Then suddenly, you build a statue of a person who’s contributed nothing to Indonesia. It’s only because he lived here when he was little.”
The statue which depicts happy young Barry in a T-shirt and shorts with a butterfly balanced on his left thumb will be moved to the school he attended as a child in Indonesia.
Should Mr. Obama be nervous about this little setback? If the people of Indonesia can remove his statue because he hadn’t contributed anything to their country, how long will it be before the Nobel Prize Committee comes knocking on his door?
Phil Boehmke / philbepreston@yahoo.com
