The Golden Boy

In honor of President Obama’s Nobel Peace prize the city of Jakarta, Indonesia erected a statue of Obama depicted as a child. Obama had spent a period of four years there when he was growing up and lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. The statue cost $10,000 and was donated by a handful of local donors as well as a charity organization dedicated to helping intercity kids. The people there felt it would be nice to have the statue depicting Obama as a child rather than as a president to give hope to the children in the area. This seems a little bit to me like more of a tourist trap than anything else. Some grad students from the area were lined up to take a picture with the statue after the unveiling. I feel like Indonesia is just grabbing onto a celebrity figure that happened to live there for a few years rather than trying to inspire the people. However this is probably not the first or last country to do something like this. Obama is highly praised all around the world and it is no surprise that people want to create a lasting image of him; let’s hope he keeps up the good work and they don’t end up regretting the decision.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/10/indonesia.obama.statue/index.html