Dreams of My Father

It may be Barack Obama's first book, but boy its a good one . ( Abridged version) Perhaps one of the most important things we can learn , whether we become Presidents or just preside over the garbage,  is to JUST do what he has done - tell it like it is .
Barack has certainly done that in this great book . In travelling the road with his sister in a territory that is not his own , the images are punchy and powerful . None less than the very light outlines of his father and his GF (from his adopted mother's point of view) .  We share so much of him and his normal distracted family in that journey ------thanks mate !
As a resilience planner I was especially interested in the ways his father and grandfathers struggled to understand and be part of a better future .esp the resourcing issues
Even though we think we westerners think we know about the land bits,  we have got a lot to learn .( Despite all the talk about environmental protection, the west has gone backwards ,  believe me,  in the last few decades )
If we truly learnt ( understood and responded) to the lessons the Obama family touched on in their tough worlds , the whole world would be a totally different place.
 As we learn though BOTH  we and they STILL groan with the weight of a world that we know could be so much better .
But not all is hopeless . We will never stop greed and self centredness,  but  the reflections on Africa reminded me that we westerners have no excuse for falling for  the dumb sentimentality and quickfix about environment that plaques our recent history .
We could be doing a lot more to make life easier for rural people . Too many people though,  now rush in a waste the opportunities for resilience creation that have been ours now for decades .More here

According to his adopted mother , Obama's forefathers reasons for ignoring the Christian faith were because of its perceived "weakness" . If that was true ( and it makes sense at one level ) Obamas forefathers won't be the only well motivated members of history to fall for the temptations of raw power .
I just hope that a new generation of thinkers follow someone like Nelson Mandella who has tested both sorts of power and can now testify to that hideous strength of tough love- that real power in weakness.