Obama is both the product of a particular background, and an example of how background can be transcended, writes Abdel-Moneim Said Philosophers and social scientists have long disputed the role of the individual -- and more specifically the individual leader -- when it comes to the dynamics of change. The dominant view is that political and social leaders are prisoners of prevailing circumstances, ideas, political forces and institutions. It is these that shape their beliefs, reactions and policies. Yet no one has taken issue with the notion that, even if we take this view as a given, circumstances can arise in which the individual plays a pivotal role in shaping the world. This applies to periods of rapid transition, when developments come so fast that the world has no time to pause and take a breath, and to times of upheaval, when the most contradictory possibilities seem to have an equal chance of prevailing. All it would take for one outcome to triumph over another is for a special type of person to push things in this direction or that. History is filled with evidence that individuals of great force and genius can leave an indelible mark on the way the world moves forward, or backward. The personality of any US president will always have an impact on the course of events. It is said that president Gamal Abdel-Nasser was in the habit of scrutinising photos of any new incumbent in the Oval Office in order to assess how good the "chemistry" would be with the new American leader. The results? Positive with Kennedy, negative with Johnson. Barack Obama seems a particularly remarkable case. Of African American origin, he came to power against all expectations and at a time when the US's ability to steer the world, both strategically and economically, had plummeted. When he took office the global economy was gripped by crisis, US forces were mired in three wars -- Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism -- the prognoses of which were at best grim. US-led alliances in NATO and subsidiary organisations were falling apart, and Washington's bilateral relations with other major powers such as Russia and China were exposing some very raw nerves. In short, the new American president had to deal with the legacy of the Bush era, the fallout from its folly and aggression. Political science devotes a great deal of attention to psychology. There are numerous studies of the personalities of political leaders and the psychological triggers that are pulled when they encounter one situation or another. Of course, political leaders do not make decisions on the spot. They generally consult their advisors and allies first. But in doing so a specific conceptual map will kick in to determine the types of questions they ask. Charting this map, drawing the topography of a particular leader's world view, is a long term project. The time has not yet come to undertake such an endeavour vis-à-vis Obama, though it is still possible to pinpoint a number of key features that can help us come to a better understanding of the man who addressed the Muslim world on 4 June from Cairo University, and who President Hosni Mubarak met on 18 August. Obama is the first "global" president, in the American sense of the term. His father was a Kenyan citizen who came to the US to study at the University of Hawaii. From his father he acquired his skin colour, as well as a sense of pride and self-respect. His father was not a descendant of the human cargo brought to the Americas in chains, many perishing along the way. He came to the US with his head held high, as a university student, proud of his heritage, proud of his country's struggle for independence and proud of his own tribal affiliation. In Dreams from my Father Obama recalls a story his grandfather once told his mother about belonging to the Luo, a Nilotic tribe that migrated to Kenya. It filled the young Barack with great pride to learn that his distant ancestors came from the banks of the same river that gave birth to one of the greatest civilisations in history. His imagination soared over the Pyramids, to the gold-plated war chariots, the double-crowned Pharaohs and the imperious and beautiful Queens Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Although Obama later learned that his father's tribe's origins were in the region of the White Nile, a part of Sudan quite remote from Egypt, in his fertile imagination his father became a tribal elder, a prince of chieftains in a distant land where destiny might summon Obama, too, one day. Yet reading Obama's autobiography one cannot help but be struck, too, by the unease and confusion the young Obama felt towards his father who, after completing his studies in Hawaii and then at Harvard, returned to Kenya to take part in the dreams of change and progress there but never gave his son the opportunity to know him as a father or a human being. Undoubtedly this is why Obama reduces his father to a collection of impressions. Obama's father may not have become a tribal elder but his son is now president of the United States. His journey to the White House was paved by another link in his global background, formed by his mother's second marriage to another student, Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia. It was an association that granted him access to another experience of Third World struggle. If Obama's natural father was politically affiliated to the African liberation leader Jomo Kenyatta, his stepfather was linked to Asian independence fighter Sukarno. In his early youth Obama imbibed both wings of the Afro-Asian national liberation movement. But while his father was involved in one of the movement's more successful chapters, as a youth in Indonesia he witnessed how post-independent developing nations could fall prey to dictatorship, corruption and stagnation. The US influences the entire world and the world, in turn, affects the US. Obama would have certainly learned this first hand through the aegis of the two students who married an American English teacher, his mother, who then went on to obtain an MA in anthropology. Nor should one underestimate the importance of Hawaii. The last of the states to join the union (in 1964), Hawaii's location in the middle of the Pacific made it a halfway point between the US, where Obama's mother's family came from, and Asia, from where his stepfather originated. Obama's upbringing brought him into direct contact with people from a panoply of ethnic and religious backgrounds. The guests at his inaugural celebrations were all shades of colour and from all religions, divinely revealed or otherwise. Dozens of different languages could be heard. An Indonesian sister of his was there with her Chinese husband, as were five brothers and a sister from Kenya, each of whose spouses came from a different religious, ethnic and linguistic background. The newly sworn in president was not just familiar with the problems of the Third World, the issues of the Middle East included, he was connected to them personally. He is also aware of how inadequately the world handles complex issues. What most helped to hone this awareness was the opportunity he had to receive the best possible education in the US. After graduating from Panahou School in Hawaii, an elite private preparatory school founded by Christian evangelists in 1841, he moved to California to attend Occidental College and then, two years later, transferred to Columbia University where he obtained a BA in political science. He was later admitted to the prestigious Harvard School of Law from which he obtained his J.D. ( magna cum laude ), after which he was elected the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. This combination of international background and excellent education helped forge a character capable of both understanding and sympathising with the varied problems facing the world. The career of a young man, who only learned about his father relatively late in life and who moved between various continents, families and cultures, could have taken a very different course. He could have decided to content himself with life on an idyllic island in the middle of the Pacific, combing golden beaches and deep blue water. Indeed, as you read his autobiography you half expect the protagonist to end up either as a prophet or a mass murderer. Instead, he became the president of the United States. The American story in which he played a part offered the means and institutions that could allow an African American of decidedly international background and with a funny sounding name to American ears to enter the White House. When Obama introduced himself to the Islamic world from the podium of Cairo University it seemed as if he was encountering a world with which he was familiar though not a part. It was a world to which he could offer himself as an example of someone who had achieved the seemingly impossible. In spite of racism in the US, armed with a cause, a keen intelligence and an acute intuition, he had been able to go where no black man had ever been. At the same time, he made it clear that his achievement was not a purely individual one, but rather a culmination of the experience of all African Americans as they worked together to pass one milestone after the other on the road to freedom and equality. Barack Obama did not deny Arab, African or Asian people's right to resist. What he did was to point to other ways rights can be wrested from the hands of oppressors, the ways epitomised by the likes of Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. He realises how desperately the Arabs and Palestinians need respect and dignity, but he also observed that such needs can be obtained at the individual, and even the collective, level through a constructive struggle towards the acquisition of knowledge and awareness, human development and personal advancement. Obama did not reach such insights suddenly, after having crossed the threshold into the Oval Office. They are the fruit of a lifelong process of reflection upon, and coming to terms with, a mixed racial background in a predominantly white society. It is this that has made him such a multifaceted and pluralistic character. Obama has issued no blank cheques. He has vowed to help those who help themselves. What he learned from his social and political experience, from his father, whom he met only briefly, and from his mother with whom he lived most of his life, is that people have the power to make things work against odds that might appear insurmountable. When Obama meets with Arab leaders he knows very well what they want from him. But there is another side to the matter; indeed, several possible sides. If political problems could be resolved in a court of public morality perhaps humanity would be spared endless woe. Unfortunately, reality is not like that. The most one can do is to try one's best to alter reality bit by bit and, instead of bringing everything down, to build on what can be built upon. Obama's story exemplifies another useful trait. He refuses to content himself with the wisdom he has already gained or to rest on his laurels. He is constantly striving forward. The young man's perpetual searching for his father, yearning for recognition, haunted by the sense that there is no time to waste, will offer much to those who are ready to do their part in the service of higher goals and nobler principles. Obama has spread his nets wide in the hope of finding opportunities to pursue. One of the areas on which he has focussed his attentions is the Middle East, where he will do his utmost to succeed. But he cannot succeed alone. If he is to stay the course he needs others to respond to the hand he has extended and to provide the tools needed to progress towards peace and stability. If it transpires that the people of this region have other priorities, than he might be forgiven for eventually throwing in the towel and leaving them to their own devices. That said, as far as the Middle East is concerned, it is impossible to understand Obama and his relationship with the region without also having an understanding of Washington, another story entirely.
