Breaking: The business conference website "TED Talk" tried to suppress impressive speech by US multi-millionaire Nick Hanauer who makes convincing case that rich citizens should pay more taxes

By Patrick 

You may not have heard about the "TED Talk" conferences, and you also may not have heard about multi-millionaire Nick Hanauer, but all this is about to change.

When a multi-millionaire explains in a brilliantly delievered speech that rich people should pay more taxes because businesses demand a strong middle-class to grow and prosper, and that rich people alone do not create jobs, then such an opinion is viewed by some people in the USA as being so outside the range of acceptable opinions, that they apparently feel compelled to suppress it. Facts which in many other capitalist countries are regarded basically as universal knowledge are considered by some people in the USA as so shocking and "partisan", that they apparently do not want other people to be bothered by them.

So what happened? On March 1 this year, venture capitalist and multi-millionaire Nick Hanauer, who was the first nonfamily investor in Amazon.com, gave a short speech at a "TED conference" which received a standing ovation. "TED" (their motto is called "Ideas worth spreading") has an extensive website where afterwards many of the speeches from these conferences are published, but the speech by Nick Hanauer did not make the cut - despite a complaint by Nick Hanauer himself.

At their blog, "TED" today explained their reasons:

Here's what actually happened.

At TED this year, an attendee pitched a 3-minute audience talk on inequality. The talk tapped into a really important and timely issue. But it framed the issue in a way that was explicitly partisan. And it included a number of arguments that were unconvincing, even to those of us who supported his overall stance. The audience at TED who heard it live (and who are often accused of being overly enthusiastic about left-leaning ideas) gave it, on average, mediocre ratings.

At TED we post one talk a day on our home page. We're drawing from a pool of 250+ that we record at our own conferences each year and up to 10,000 recorded at the various TEDx events around the world, not to mention our other conference partners. Our policy is to post only talks that are truly special. And we try to steer clear of talks that are bound to descend into the same dismal partisan head-butting people can find every day elsewhere in the media.

We discussed internally and ultimately told the speaker we did not plan to post. He did not react well. He had hired a PR firm to promote the talk to MoveOn and others, and the PR firm warned us that unless we posted he would go to the press and accuse us of censoring him. We again declined and this time I wrote him and tried gently to explain in detail why I thought his talk was flawed.

So he forwarded portions of the private emails to a reporter and the National Journal duly bit on the story. And it was picked up by various other outlets.

And a non-story about a talk not being chosen, because we believed we had better ones, somehow got turned into a scandal about censorship. Which is like saying that if I call the New York Times and they turn down my request to publish an op-ed by me, they're censoring me.

Today, Nick Hanauer's speech has been published at youtube, and you really need to check out this "mediocre" and "explicitly partisan" speech yourself. Again it has been proven that in the age of internet, the free flow of "inconvenient" information is difficult to stop, and this short, but amazing speech has now started to go viral, because its content and message is simple, straightforward and compelling:

Nick Hanauer has been around for a while. He recently published the book "The Gardens of Democracy: A New American Story of Citizenship, the Economy, and the Role of Government" and has given numerous interviews, for example to an ignorant Neil Cavuto on Fox News and to the US Progressive blog.

The "National Journal", which originally broke the story, reported in an update that TED-curator Chris Anderson took issue with some of the statements by Nick Hanauer, and also thought that the speech was "out and out political", as he wrote in an email message to Hanauer on May 7, and that TED therefore could not publish the speech on their website.

But this argument is weak, as for example Ezra Klein observed in a comment at the Washington Post which he published a few hours ago:

To my ears, Hanauer framed the issue in a way that was explicitly nonpartisan. The only mention of either party comes at the beginning: “If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down,” Hanauer says. “This idea is an article of faith for Republicans, is seldom challenged by Democrats, and has indeed shaped much of the economic landscape. But sometimes the ideas we’re certain are true are dead wrong.”

My impression is that the statements by Nick Hanauer in this speech were simply too hot to handle, as the assertion that rich people need to pay extremely low taxes is seen as a "quasi-religious dogma" by many US-politicians, and certainly not just by Republicans.

Nick Hanauer's speech has now caused a sensation, and several media outlets like the "Atlantic", the "Washington Post" and the "Huffington Post" are on the case, which is good. But it would be even better to have an open and frank discussion about the role of the middle-class in the USA, as this would be one really important step in the right direction. The message by Nick Hanauer is as simple as it is true: It's the middle-class which drives a capitalist economy, and not the very rich people. In the USA, this is not any different than in other capitalist countries - and I can confirm Nick Hanauer's opinion by my own observations, living in a country in which the middle-class always has been very strong. Businesses only employ new people if there is strong demand for their products - and this demand needs to come from the middle-class.

Finally, here are some of the slides from Nick Hanauer's speech:

Protests in a democracy do not need to turn into bloody battles - The example of "Occupy Frankfurt"

By Patrick

The Occupy-movement has moved out of the headlines these days, which they "occupied" several month ago in the wake of their extensive protests, mainly in the USA. At these protests, we witnessed a lot of vicious police actions which predominantly happened in several US-cities, as well as in other countries. We saw clip after clip of shockingly brutal, unnecessary, unwarranted police actions at OWS-protests (see for example this shocking compilation of incidents here), and it was incredibly depressing to realize that this is apparently what "democracy now looks like" in parts of the Western world. It was simply unbelievable what we saw during these OWS-protests.

If peaceful protests are being violently crushed in such a way on a routine basis, then there is not much which distinguishes the Western world from autocratic regimes. The disregard that members of the police showed for free speech in particular is still hard to believe. It is a sad state of affairs if for example the police actions against demonstraters in Russia are quite hard to distinguish from the police actions against the Occupy movement, with Russia being a country which currently could be called at least "partly-autocratic."

So this is a hot, controversial topic, and while it's not my goal to "lecture" anyone, I also don't want to miss the opportunity to show that it "doesn't necessarily have to be like that." I am very concerned about the state of democracy in the Western world, and in the US in particular, and as far as brutal police actions are concerned, I believe that a general agressive attitude, most likely combined with massive prejudices against protesters and a growing militarization of the police are to blame. In addition it is apparent to me, from what I have seen in countless video clips, that the level of training of the police forces seems to be very poor. "Beat them, crush them, punish them" appears far too often to be the preferred method of "problem solving" by cops when they are being put into difficult situations, like (left-wing) mass protests. This is not the type of behaviour which should be acceptable in modern democracies.

I am not saying that everything is perfect over here in Europe. Over the years, we have had a fair share of violent police actions on numerous occasions, in many countries. Just recently, in September 2010, a disastrous police action took place in Stuttgart, Germany, when foolish conservative politicians ordered the police to forcefully clear a piece of land full of protesters, many of them teenagers, with one pensioner getting permantly blinded after he got hit in the face by a stream from a police water cannon. The protests were directed against the construcation of a new main train station in Stuttgart, as the project is hideously "over-engineered", far too expensive and also very damaging to the environment.

Back to Occupy: My point is that, right now, there are profound differences of how the Occupy-movement is being treated in Germany by the authorities, compared to what we have seen for example in the USA. This, I believe, is noteworthy. Granted, the Occupy-movement in Germany is rather small, which is not surprising as the economic pressures in Germany are not very significant right now. Unemployment is on a 20-year low, and in contrast to some of the Southern European countries, Germany's economic growth is going strong.

However, that doesn't mean that German Occupy-movement has been invisible. After protests in October 2011, a large permanent OWS-camp developed right in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) in the center of Frankfurt, the city which is the German "banking capital", with the headquarters of many of the largest German banks in walking distance from the ECB.

There the camp still remains, and right from the start the behaviour of the occupants of this camp has been described as "examplary" by the local authorities, who in turn quickly legalized the camp, with no final "end date" determined yet. So far, it has been a very peaceful "co-existence" between the protesters and the surrounding banks and businesses.

But Occupy-Frankfurt came into the headlines today: A larger coalition of mainly far left-wing groups had the idea to stage a "four-day event" in the center of Frankfurt, where the headquarters of Germany's biggest banks as well as the ECB are located, effectively trying to shut down business in the city center from today till Saturday, May 19 - called "Blockupy", the "European days of action". Interestingly, Occupy Frankfurt, the camp itself, does not seem to play a significant part in all this, despite the "Occupy" label, as established far left-wing groups seem to be the main organizers.

The local authorities did not agree with a chaotic shutdown of the city which was supposed to last for several days, and therefore partially banned the planned proceedings, in a very controversial decision which nevertheless has now mainly been confirmed by the courts. It also did not help the organizers that just several weeks ago, on March 31 this year, an anti-capitalist demonstration which included a larger militant "black block" group in Frankfurt got violent and gave the authorities reason to believe that there could be even more violence during the "Blockupy" events (see also the slideshow on this page). In order to learn more about the mindset of the militants, watch this video in which the "black block" people explain how they view themselves and how they justify their actions. They basically regard their militant actions as "theatre" in order to get larger exposure for their cause - but completely ignore that fact that mindless violence only helps to discredit any legitimate cause, as it gives the "other side" the chance to lump the peaceful protesters together with the idiotic actions of the militants (see here for a particularly nasty example of the actions of the "black block" during the OWS-protest in Oakland).

Some pictures from March 31, 2012 in Frankfurt:

 

 

From news reports, we know that the occupant of the Frankfurt camp were deeply unhappy with the violence during the protests on March 31, and strongly condemned it. This is interesting, as the people in the camp were apparently irritated that their peaceful cause was somehow "co-opted" by militant protesters. They stressed afterwards that peacefulness is the main element of their political philosophy.

Part of this (partial) ban concerning the "Blockupy" protests from May 16 to May 19 is the provision that the occupants of the Frankfurt camp are obliged to leave the camp for the next days and can only return after "Blockupy", due to security reasons. So the police went into action today and removed the occupants - temporarily. The occupants of the camp were not happy, of course, but I still found it interesting to see that even such a hostile police action did not result in ugly scenes, as both sides showed a large amount of respect, civility and tolerance towards each other - virtues which sadly have been missing in so many OWS-police actions we have seen in the past. Today, the police in Frankfurt could have used a heavy-handed approach, but they chose a different path and promised the occupants right from the start that there will be no charges if they let themselves get carried away by the police peacefully. As it turns out, there were only relatively minor disturbances, for example when quite a lot of paint was used by the protesters, but the policemen and policewomen were rather unfazed and consequently started to wear protective "white overalls."

Below is an excellent clip from an Italian website which shows precisely what went on today during this police action in Frankfurt:

Here are some pictures from the Occupy Frankfurt facebook page regarding the events from today - click on pictures to enlarge:

More very good pictures of the police action against Occupy Frankfurt from yesterday can be found at this website from Seattle.


Here are some of my own pictures I took today (I wasn't there when the occupants were removed, but I was there before and afterwards) - click to enlarge:

Some shopowners as well as some banks are boarding up their windows, as violence is expected to take place during the next days:

Some of the streets surrounding the ECB have already been closed by the police:

During the next days, about 30.000 people are expected to turn up for the protests in Frankfurt, and the police expect about 2.000 militant protesters to take part. Let's hope that ugly scenes can be avoided. In any case, it's refreshing to see that the occupants of the Frankfurt OWS-camp as well as the police today displayed civility and reason. Bloody battles help nobody - and intelligent police forces and intelligent politicians will try to avoid them, whenever possible. Let's hope that wisdom will prevail.

+++

UPDATE:

I would like to point out that the Occupy-movement in the USA and the militant anarchist were also at odds with each other - as shown in the following clips during the Occupy Oakland protests, and there were certainly many more examples:

Weekly Roundup, May 8-14, 2012

by BlueberryT

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Mitt Romney’s Hypocrisy on Human Rights

This turned out to be quite a week for statements by idiots inserting themselves into issues of national importance.  It started out with Mitt Romney criticizing the Obama Administration’s handling of a highly sensitive human rights issue in China, the detention of civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng.  Romney sprang into pretend-action, which is to say that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut while Secretary Clinton was in the midst of negotiations to ensure Chen’s safety and broker a deal for him to leave China to study in the U.S.  But Romney had to play Mr. Tough-Guy.  He told China in no uncertain terms that if he were President, they had better respect human rights or else!  He also chastised the Obama Administration for mishandling the situation despite acknowledging that he didn’t how they had handled it, called it a “dark day for freedom” (feeling a bit hyperbolic, Mitt?), and made other inane jingoistic pronouncements.  Sunnyjane noted the hypocrisy of Romney’s statement about human rights, in light of his support for radical GOP policies and actions that abridge and undermine the civil rights of Americans here at home.   In my opinion, Romney’s response and uninformed criticisms of the President smack of some desperation to make himself seem relevant, tough and leader-y, even though he clearly did not know the facts.  A pitiful performance; and not his last of the week, either, as we shall see.     

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Meet The Real Bristol Palin

How can you tell when Bristol Palin herself writes something?  Hint: if it’s spelled correctly and doesn’t use words like “talking sh*t,” it’s probably not Bristol.  In typical Palin fashion, Bristol Palin’s ghostwriter (or Sarah, using Bristol’s identity?) inserted herself in the middle of the national dialog about gay marriage, admonishing President Obama not only for his historic statement in support of same-sex marriage but for having taken his daughters’ concerns on this subject into account.  Yes, you read that right: Bristol Palin has the audacity to advise the President about family values and the importance of raising children in a household with both a mother and a father.  Bristol – who is famous ONLY for being an unwed teen mother (who has been pregnant at least twice); who has denied visitation to her sons’ father and publicly described Levi as a “gnat” and insulted him on national TV in front of her son; who has raked in megabucks as a non-abstinent spokesperson for abstinence; who has writhed seductively in front of TV audiences; and who most recently talked about living with her then- boyfriend in a “trial marriage”… well, the hypocrisy is off the charts.  Patrick’s post focuses on the real Bristol – her self-described history as a “slut” and “stoner” who was sexually active when she was 15; her foul language and bigoted responses.  The post includes a lot of background material showing the true Bristol Palin, and believe me, she has no business offering any advice to anyone about anything.  What a loser.    

Friday, May 11, 2012

Mitt Romney’s Mean Streak

Last week, people thought it was odd for Ann Romney to describe Mitt as “wild and crazy,” as though that were a good thing that would endear him to the American people.  Little did we know that the interview scene was orchestrated to try to get out in front of a Washington Post article, which revealed that 18-year old Mitt was the ringleader in a vicious assault by five teenagers of a younger, non-conformist, vulnerable student.  Mitt also thought it was funny to trick a sight-impaired teacher into walking into doors, and called out “atta girl” to a then-closeted gay student (but claims homosexuality was not on his radar screen).  While teenagers can make mistakes and learn from them, 65-year old Mitt implausibly denied even remembering this “incident” and appears to be no more compassionate today.  His claim to not remember, denial that he attacked the boy because he was gay and worse-than-non-apology made things even worse: “I don’t remember the incident” (while laughing) and “If anyone was hurt or offended…obviously I would be very sorry and apologize…”  WTF is that supposed to mean?  The problem is not just this incident that took place when he was 18; it is that Romney is still a person who preys on the vulnerable, has little empathy, and lies through his teeth as easily as he breathes.     

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother’s DayTribute: Anne Dunham Obama Soetoro

Sunnyjane offers a warm portrait of the remarkable woman who shaped Barack Obama into the man who would become our first President of color.  Stanley Ann Dunham was an unconventional woman who intuitively and naturally embraced diversity.  She was an eager explorer and citizen of the world who was drawn to other cultures and their people.  She was a trailblazer who combined her study of anthropology with then-innovative initiatives to promote women’s craftwork such as batik (now commonly marketed worldwide, but then certainly not) and other pathways to economic advancement for women, including what is now known as micro-credit.  She was a single mother to Barack during the years when she was completing her undergraduate degree – that cannot have been easy – and raised him and his sister Maya to appreciate and respect other people, their cultures and values.  She also raised him to navigate the challenges of being a biracial boy in often unaccepting and even hostile environments; she knew he would have to be able to handle difficult situations.  His mother really set high expectations for Obama, and at the same time helped him develop the compassion, calm demeanor and work ethic that have served him well in facing the daunting challenges of his presidency.

Some Comments and Links:

JCos:  When a paranoid hardliner like Nixon shows a better understanding of relations with China (forty years ago!) than the current frontrunner for the GOP nomination, it says alot about how deeply the party has fallen into the Abyss.  

Maelewis:  The people who are opposed to gay marriage, equal rights for gays or any other form of human decency and respect wouldn't vote for Obama anyway.  [Later:]  I am not judging Mitt based on what he did as an 18 year old kid… It's how 65 year old Mitt Romney reacts to the story today. He's not sorry. He wasn't sorry about putting his dog on the roof of his car. Ann tried to explain away Seamus's runs by saying that the dog ate turkey left on the counter. They are defensive about the story, not sorry.

Sunnyjane:  As Thomas Jefferson said about people worshiping no god or twenty gods, "it neither breaks my leg nor picks my pocket" if two people of the same gender decide to marry.   

AKRNC:  The hypocrites who are so willing to trample on the rights of homosexuals use the excuse that it somehow devalues their own marriage.  Are they referring to their first, second or third marriage as in the case of Newt Gingrich?  I never hear them speak of outlawing divorce yet if they want to pretend that homosexuals being granted the right to marry somehow lessens their marriage, how can they overlook divorce and the ease of which the same is granted?

Yknott:  Back to Bristol.....when did she become an expert on marriage and parenting?  Bwahahaha!

Linda1961:  Mittens' "defense" is that he did dumb things in high school.  So did I, and probably most American teens.  But my dumb things never harmed anyone, and neither would most pranks.  The worst thing about Mittens is that he doesn't seem to understand, even today, that what he did was wrong.  

Leadfoot_LA:  Bristol Palin 1862:  "Blacks are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about Slavery"

Sleuth1:  To paraphrase a tweet I saw, Bristol is just jealous that some kids have two loving fathers and hers doesn't have any.  Really, it's stunning how she can't recognize the irony and hypocrisy of everything in that blog post.

Annes_123:  A mother who trashed her son's dad and chooses to raise him by herself depending on funds coming from temporary "hollywood" life - the teevee show.. not getting any education, no job..and then trying to tell the world how a "real family" means a mom and dad - sticks it right to that little boy.

AzureGhost:  We're starting to see a pattern with Monsieur Romney, and it ain't a pretty one. Is mean to animals - check.  Doesn't treat people with respect - check. Has no feelings of regret for bullying someone at school - check.  Has no comprehension of the everyday struggles of the average American - check.  This isn't someone we want to lead America.  Hell, this isn't someone we'd want to lead a scout troop.  The country would be steered into the nearest iceberg with this guy at the helm, and then he'd hog all the lifeboats for his rich buddies.  Must. Not. Happen.

NJfan:  I don't think Bristol writes her own blog.  It's either Sarah or her ghost writer doing it for her.  I think Sarah sometimes takes over the blog, hiding behind Bristol, to take her cheap shots at the President and whoever else she may be pissed off at.  Bristol is too inarticulate and too dumb to have an independent thought of her own.  Bristol's style is more like saying she's giving us the "finger" like she did on DWTS.  I don't think she'll ever cut the apron strings from Mommy Dearest.  Like Louie said "the shit doesn't fall to far from the asshole."

Silver_desert:  President Obama was very fortunate to have such an unconventional mother who didn't cling to the role of being the traditional one that society seems to expect.

Here’s a good post from our friend Nomad on the strange lies of Mitt-R-money.  

BellPeppery linked to Leah Burton’s post onPoliticususa.  

HopeforAmerica posted a link to video of Scott Walker talking about using a “divide and conquer” strategy against unions.  

How did I ever miss this gem: Sarah Palin wins Worst Mother Award (H/T CaliGirl22)  

Lillibird offered us this gem.  

Mother of a President: Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro - Happy Mother's Day

by Sunnyjane

Stanley Ann Dunham was born the only child of Kansas parents who grew up, as her son once said, in the dab-smack, landlocked center of the country, in towns too small to warrant boldface on a road map.  It was 1942, and the country had been at war in the Pacific and Europe for a year.

Ann's father enlisted in the Army after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  When the war ended, the Dunhams became something of a peregrine family, i.e., a group of people who tend to change their location frequently.   After five moves to various mid-west and western states, the Dunhams settled in 1956 in Mercer Island, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.  It was most likely at Mercer Island High School that Ann began her journey toward nonconformism during the Eisenhower sweater-sets-and-bobby-socks era.  Two teachers there taught their students the importance of challenging the norm and questioning authority. Those lessons no doubt made a significant impression on Ann Dunham and the path she would follow, and consequently, had a great impact on the life of her son, for Ann proved to be both resilient and liberal.


On to the 'Land Perpetuated in Righteousness'

Even though his daughter had received early acceptance at the University of Chicago, Stanley Dunham chose to move the family to Hawaii after Ann graduated from high school in 1960.  But rather than experiencing a period of culture shock, Ann immediately enrolled in the University of Hawaii and,  unlike some we could name, embraced the multicultural environment of the country's newest state.

Barack Obama, Sr.

It was at university that she met Barack Hussein Obama, an intelligent and engaging student from Kenya, and in something of a guess-who's-coming-to-dinner moment, took him home to meet her parents.  He was described by the head teacher at the exclusive Christian school he attended in Kenya as very keen, steady, trustworthy and friendly.  Concentrates; is reliable and outgoing.  While the Dunhams may have seen and appreciated these qualities in their dinner guest, neither they nor Obama's parents were  happy when he and Ann married in February 1961.

Obama did not tell Ann that he had been married previously to a Kenyan woman until sometime after they were married.  And while he assured her that he and the woman were divorced, this turned out to be untrue.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961, six months after his parents were married.   His mother was eighteen years old, his father twenty-five.

The Obamas' marriage seems to be one of practicality, rather than a dedication to living as a family.  Soon after the birth of her son, Ann took him with her to Seattle to live while she attended the University of Washington. Her husband continued his studies at the University of Hawaii where he earned a BA in economics.  He left Hawaii in 1962 to attend Harvard University.


The Mother Begins Her Unconventional Journey

Perhaps because her childhood had been one of moving from place to place, combined with her high-school -acquired lessons in nonconformity, Ann Obama became what her son later called a combination of being very grounded in who she was, what she believed in. But [there was] also a certain recklessness.


Ann returned to Honolulu in 1963 and resumed her undergraduate studies at the University of Hawaii, majoring in anthropology.  She filed for divorce from her husband in early 1964; he did not contest it.  Her parents, Madelyn and Stanley, helped with two-year-old Barack while she completed her education, earning a B.A. in June 1964.  The senior Obama received his M.A. in economics from Harvard in 1965 and went back to Kenya.  He returned to Hawaii to see his ten-year-old son in 1972; it was the last time Barack Jr. saw his father, who died in 1982.  By the time Ann filed for divorce from Obama, she had already met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian who was also studying at the University of Hawaii.  She and Lolo were married in 1965; after Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, Ann and her son followed after she finished her studies for her M.A. several months later.  [Note:  During research for this post, I found many confusing discrepancies regarding the dates on which Ann  received her B.A. and M.A. degrees, and in which subjects.  However, Alice Dewey, Ann's friend, colleague, and the former chair of her doctoral committee at the University of Hawaii, said in a March 2009 interview, Despite some reports that she majored in mathematics, she majored in anthropology here at the University of Hawai‘i (BA 1967, Department of Anthropology, prior to the MA and PhD).]


The Early Indonesia Years: 1966 - 1970

Ann and six-year-old Barry arrived in rural Jakarta to find a completely different but fascinating world.  While her husband was advancing in his career as a government relations representative for Union Oil Company, Ann taught English and was an assistant director of the Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia Amerika (LIA)–the Indonesia-America Friendship Institute.  President Obama wrote about his rich life in Jakarta in his book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of  Race and Inheritance, describing the markets as the hawkers, the leather workers, the old women chewing betel nuts and swatting flies off their fruit with whisk brooms.  Of his introduction to the food, he said, dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy).  There was a menagerie in the backyard: chickens and ducks running every which way, a big yellow dog with a baleful howl, two birds of paradise, a white cockatoo and finally, two baby crocodiles.  Because he had to attend the local Indonesian-language school, the President recalls of his mother that, five days a week she came into my room at four in the morning, force-fed me breakfast, and proceeded to teach me English lessons for three hours before I left for school.

Ann became less and less interested in her husband's business and his rise up the corporate ladder, preferring instead to explore the surrounding villages on a motorcycle to learn more about the people and the country in which she and her son had found themselves.  In 1968 she became a co-founder and active member of the Ganesha Volunteers (Indonesian Heritage Society) at the National Museum in Jakarta.  With her advanced education behind her, Ann Dunham would put into practice what she had learned, and she did so with a passion.





The Pragmatic Dreamer 

At its heart, anthropology is the academic study of humanity, dealing with all that is characteristic of the human experience.  The discipline covers the evolutionary origins of the social and cultural organization of human societies as well as individual and collective forms of human knowledge.  Ann Dunham seems to have had little interest in just collecting stories and taking photos for a coffee-table book. Rather, she set out to make a difference.  



Although she was interested in all of the regional crafts of Java, Ann's real interest was in the locally produced  batiks, an artistic cloth design technique that had been introduced to the area sometime between the sixth and seventh centuries. A natural love of textiles drew her to this fascinating art that was made both for everyday wear and to be sold in the local markets. Ann not only wore batiks herself, but started a collection that consisted not of expensive and rare cloth, but what the local women were producing for their own families.  Maintained by her daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng, part of Ann's collection was displayed at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. in March 2009: A Lady Found a Culture in Its Cloth: Barack Obama's Mother and Indonesian Batiks.

In the Java culture, only the women can produce batik, and Ann saw in this fact an opportunity to enhance their livelihoods.  As Janny Scott said in her excellent book, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, women were playing a critical role in keeping poor households afloat. But Indonesian government policies and programs would not reflect that reality until there were more data to prove it.


Scott goes on to explain the sophistication and complexity of Ann Dunham's professional life as an anthropologist and pioneer working from the "bottom up" for AID and the Ford Foundation, a real pioneer who played a leading role in creating the whole field of micro-lending in which poor women were lent "seed money" to start their own businesses.

Ann was fluent in the national language and had deep friendships with the villagers, who had actually seen her give birth to her daughter, Maya.  She worked with the Ford Foundation as a program officer for women's livelihoods, as well as for the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. She also worked with Bank Rakyat (People's Bank) in Indonesia, getting them to widen a small loans program for farmers into microloans. The Bank Rakyat program was one of USAID's most successful projects there.


Richard Patten, a friend and economist, said in a Time magazine article in April 2008 that Soetoro was largely responsible for the success of that program, which is now No. 1 in the world in terms of savers, with 31 million members, according to Microfinance Information eXchange Inc., a microfinance-tracking outfit.

A Mother's Legacy

When she died of cancer at the age of fifty-two in 1995, Ann Dunham left her son neither a multi-million dollar trust fund nor a gold-paved road to prominence in business or politics.   She left him, rather, an inherited sense that he must help those who may not be able to help themselves, and to fight for what is right.   Even when he was very young, his teachers saw Barack Obama's leadership qualities.  He would be very helpful with friends. He'd pick them up if they fell down, one recalled. He would protect the smaller ones. 
  
Maya, Barack Obama's half-sister, said of their mother, She cried if she saw animals being treated cruelly or children in the news or a sad movie—or if she felt like she wasn't being understood in a conversation. She did rigorous fieldwork. Her research was responsible and penetrating.  She saw the heart of a problem, and she knew whom to hold accountable.


END NOTE

President Barack Obama,
44th President of the
United States

It is virtually impossible to give a full and detailed portrait of a person's life -- even one taken far too early -- within the confines of a blog post.  I chose instead to focus on as much of the whole person of Ann Dunham as possible within those limitations.  She lived to see her son well educated and well-rounded, with a sense of purpose.  It is somewhat ironic that while she was helping the people of Indonesia improve their lives, her son was helping people seven thousand miles away in Chicago improve theirs as a community organizer.  She would not live to see him enter, and succeed so prominently, in politics.


And while this post is dedicated to his mother, there are  three other women in Barack Obama's life who deserve Mothers Day recognition: his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who helped without complaint to raise him; his wife, Michelle, the fantastic woman from Chicago who keeps him grounded; and Marian Robinson, his mother-in-law, who has always been there for his children.


As well, Happy Mothers Day to all mothers in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, India, Japan, and Turkey, who are celebrating this important day on May 13, 2012. 


Acknowledgement

A great Thank You to NightEditor1 who suggested a post on this fascinating and remarkable woman to me.  As always, I hope it meets expectations.

Update:

  

The marriage of Michelle and Barack, October 18, 1992

The President and Marian Robinson, election night 2008






Update #2

This is a wonderful video: A Mothers Day Tribute to Michelle Obama.  http://youtu.be/jg9tgmobh78