Culture, Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Images, Politics

Another sort of touch

9 Comments

The British queen placed a royal hand around the American First Lady’s waist, who graciously reciprocated, and a million words and images were launched in the world media on that historical moment.

How come we never got to see  this other Touching Moment in London involving another Obama? Thanks to Dilip Simeon, who was sent this by a friend, I received this picture of what happened when Barack Hussein was entering 10, Downing Street on April 1, 2009.

There he is, a British police officer joyously breaching protocol while ushering a black American president into the British corridors of power. As the caption in the forwarded message said – “the two brothers couldn’t resist the historic moment!”

(Reuters/Toby Melville)

That’s it for now, folks.

9 thoughts on “Another sort of touch”

  2. Oh, thanks! Anand. We who live in the subcontinent and do not get to read the stuff you do, only talk about what new yorkies have chewed and thrown out. new york times is not our daily fare; we make do with other things.

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  4. Touching moment and great post. But a small quibble, Nivedita. Could we all get over the “middle name Hussein” thing, please? Whether uttered as an expression of barely concealed derision by the FoxNews-Coulter-ish rightwingers, or as the underlining of against-all-odds historic triumph, to me the root message seems common – a reminder of his subaltern (and even Muslim) roots.

    The American people have spoken resoundingly – that they think of the middle name Hussein as being as irrelevant as if his middle name was Sidney or Walker or Jefferson. It is just the media and associated commentators who keep obsessing or thinking – Wow, barack HUSSEIN obama is POTUS! I could understand the sentiment being expressed after the Iowa caucus win, or when he clinched the nomination, Nov 4, or Jan 20th. But he has been POTUS for over 3 months now. Let’s move on.

    I know you (and any other non-rightwingers who use the middle name) probably don’t mean it so, consciously or even, I daresay, subconsciously. Regardless, I think it would be wise to just call him the way he has almost always called himself – Barack Obama.

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  6. Gaurav, I meant only to distinguish the ‘other’ Obama from Michelle, by using what I see merely as his full name, rather like saying Mohandas Karamchand. If Hussein is one of his names, it is, and how it is used/misused is not relevant for me at all. By the way, you do know that Barack is an Arabic name too?
    And if for some reason I did mean to underline his “subaltern (and even Muslim) roots”, as you suggest, surely that would have been a perfectly legitimate exercise also – a cop on guard sort of slyly getting in a quick hand-shake with a visiting head of State – that wouldn’t have happened if those roots weren’t still visible.

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  8. Fair enough, Nivedita. Maybe I have gotten so sick of the derisive use of the middle name (Barack Hussein Obama bows to the Saudi king…. Barack Hussein Obama sits silently as Ortega trashes America…. Barack Hussein Obama will take away your guns), that I over-reacted. Peace.

    The name Barack is indeed Arabic. Or specifically, he was given the name with its Arabic meaning (blessing) in mind. It has hebrew origins too, with common roots as Baruch(pronounced Barook, not like the Gujarati town :)) which means roughly the same, as he mentioned in a speech to AIPAC I think.

    Funnily enough, despite the commonality with the word baruch, the actual word Barack/Barak in hebrew means something totally different – lightning. Hence the name Barak for the missiles, which you might remember from the Tehelka Arms scandal.

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  9. Rohit, fabulous visual. I didn’t realize Obama reached out first, and as for that moment when the cop’s hand hangs in mid air while Brown walks past…! Thank you.
    Gaurav, thanks for this – didn’t know Barak has a Hebrew meaning too.
    Blessing/lightning as self/other in West Asia! Brilliant.

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