January 30, 2009

Don't mention the Luo!

The New York Times frontpages a long and peculiar story on the Kenyan election a year ago: Secrecy Surrounds Kenyan Election Poll. As you'll recall, controversy over the vote-counting ended with a 1000 people getting killed before a powersharing agreement in which the Kikuyu president gave the Luo tribe's paladin, Raila Odinga, the #2 job in the government.

The main point of interest to Americans in this whole story is, of course, that President Obama is half-Luo. Indeed, Odinga claimed during the fighting he launched, after one of Obama's calls to him, that Obama is his first cousin (which is dubious). But the New York Times never mentions the words "Luo" or "Obama" in the entire 1900-word article!

I suspect this is the beginning of a trend. We'll continue to hear more and more about the inner workings of Kenyan politics without ever being told why they are so important, kind of like how the New York Times devotes more coverage to Israel than to Mexico, without explaining why Israel is more interesting than the country next door.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our current president has more living family in Kenya than the United States (though perhaps not for long). His Chief of Staff is, and comes from a family of, dual US/Israeli citizens (though I doubt that in their hearts they put it in that precise order). The era of globalism is now in full swing.

Anonymous said...

What is interesting is that if you notice the disproportionate coverage of Israel in the Times, or in the rest of the media, you are accused of being “obsessed” with Israel or the Israel lobby. The fact that you would rather not hear so much about the Middle East and would much rather not by bothered by the troubles there, but that others constantly (and perhaps unnecessarily) focus on those troubles doesn’t prevent those so focused on that topic from accusing those less interested in it from being the ones “obsessed” with it.


Thus we have yet another classic example of double talk combined perhaps with a serious case of “projecting”. It could also be that those using the accusation of “obsession” are just pulling a fast one and are attempting to shut up those who don’t share the excessive interest in issues that shouldn’t be of such disproportionate concern.

J said...

Ah, to be a young tall Luo in an American university full of hot blondies !

Anonymous said...

I suspect this is the beginning of a trend.

-------------

Steve, maybe the GOP will recruit Obama's illegal alien aunt to run for a seat in the House.

The GOP Answer To Obama Stage 1 is a black Party Chairman:

Michael Steele: The Republican Party Does the Right Thing

Look for the GOP Answer To Obama Stage 2 to be the non-white candidate from Louisiana, Jindal.

By the way the new GOP House Whip is Jewish. And then there is Miss Alaska waiting in the wings.

Maybe they can find a gay Muslim to round out the replacement of white, Christian, male heterosexual types.

By 2012 the GOP should be festooned with non-whites, non-Christians, non-heterosexuals and non-males in the leadership positions.

See this is what the Republican Party must do in order to remain "vital" and "compete" on the world stage. Very much the same as what Sarkozy is talking about in France. The French people must remake themselves at the genetic level in order to... save themselves.

The clueless GOP conservative grass roots are hoping to block amnesty and "take back the Party" etc. Meanwhile the money masters of the Party are rolling out GOP 2.0 aka We Are The World.

LOL

Anonymous said...

"(though I doubt that in their hearts they put it in that precise order)"

Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?

Anonymous said...

"Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?"

Well, since Rahm E. chose to serve in the IDF rather than the U.S. military, I think we can safely assume that he prizes Israel over the U.S.

Anonymous said...

Here in the UK, the left wing media such as the BBC, and the Independent and Guardian newspapers focus obsessively on Israel vs Palestine, yet they take a strongly anti-Israel slant (with some diversity in The Guardian, which has many Jewish writers, some sympathetic to Israel).

They used to focus obsessively on South Africa during the apartheid era, too. I get the impression that besieged Western settler/crusader outpost states are a natural target for civilisational rallying effects, for or against - pace Huntington, the Western Left normally rallies against its own civilisation.

Anonymous said...

No doubt the ugliness of those "inner workings of Kenyan politics" will be well hidden. For anyone familiar with African politics, and considering that South Africa is the height of sophistication of such politics, this signals difficult ground for the NYT. However, they are probably much more trained at obfuscation than we can imagine.

Anonymous said...

"Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?"

Well we do know which country Rahm decided to fight for in Gulf War I. We don't need to see into his heart to know which one is more important to him - there's clear evidence.

Anonymous said...

Careful what you wish for, Steve. Considering that the NYT's coverage of Israel's foreign policy is far more skeptical than its coverage of Mexico's, are you sure you really want NYT shifting its attention to our dear, dear neighbors?

Anonymous said...

Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?

I'm not looking into their hearts. I'm looking at their actions.

Anonymous said...

"Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?"

At the risk of offending the easily or perpetually offended...

Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither [can] a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Anonymous said...

"Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?"

Yes, well, when your family surname was chosen to honor a relative killed while fighting Arabs in Jerusalem, you have worked as a civilian volunteer for the IDF, and you spent your teen years at summer camps not in the Upper Midwest but in Israel, I think it is not unreasonable to ask where your loyalties lie.

Or am I guilty of reading minds?

Anonymous said...

Who was it - Joe Sobran? - who said "Dual loyalty? I wish it were dual!"

Anonymous said...

You may not be interested in Israel Steve, but all of our oil suppliers in the region are interested in Israel. We need to keep abreast of what's happening over there regardless of whether we get involved or not.

Anonymous said...

"Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?"

Rahm Emanuel ran off to join the army, the Israeli Army...What's not to know?

Anonymous said...

"(though I doubt that in their hearts they put it in that precise order)"

Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?

So anon, remind us again, which army did Rahm Emanuel run away to join in 1991? ('Civilian volunteer' says wiki).

And what about Rahm's old man?

Wiki says: Benjamin M. Emanuel, a Jerusalem-born pediatrician, was a member of the Zionist organization Irgun.

"Goddamit Dad, can't you understand I'm an American! Why've you got to got to harp on about the old country all the time, Israel means nothing to me! And, come to think of it, as you are a zionist Irgun member why are you living in the US at all you loathsome hypocrite - dad."

Anonymous said...

Isn't it great to be able to see into the hearts of people you don't know?

What's great is not caring what's in their hearts, and judging them on what they do.

Anonymous said...

if you notice the disproportionate coverage of Israel in the Times, or in the rest of the media, you are accused of being "obsessed" with Israel

It's called chutzpah. The MO is to strike and then cry out in pain.

Teacher: Holocaust ad infinitum.
Student: Too much.
Teacher: You are obsessed with Jews!

Anonymous said...

Two reasons Americans support Israel:

1. It is, as Israel supporter John Derbyshire has said, an outpost of Westernism surrounded by barbaric Arab failed states and semi-allies.

2. It is seen as the guarantor of order in the Holy Land, which is important to several religions.

There are others, obviously.

Anonymous said...

The French people must remake themselves at the genetic level in order to... save themselves.

They love the "country" - the concept. A blank slate to project their own greatness and dreams. The actual people within the country are expendable and replaceable.

...But, of course, replacing the people who created the country in the first place will have no unpredicted consequences...

Anonymous said...

Well as the person who made the first post I'll just note that I didn't mean so much to be about Jews as about people of any stripe who put their particular ethnic group or another country above the interests of America. I have no doubt that Emanuel will do so, and I'm quite certain Obama will, too.

In the news this week, the Utah Senate just passed a resolution almost
unanimously
asking the federal government to allow the state to create its own guest worker pogram to "address Utah's need for both unskilled and skilled laborer's." This in January of 2009, in the midst of rapidly rising unemployment (yes, even in Utah) and the worst economy in decades.

I don't know about anyone else here, but this is the lovely image I see in my happier dreams these days. There's just no way to comprehend this insanity.

Anonymous said...

Thinking about zionists and Irgun members. Why is anyone who is a zionist and is old enough to travel/work away from their parents not living in Israel? Why would any zionist not just live abroad (in America) but raise a child there too?

Israel: too many sheep-shearers, not enough sheep.

Anonymous said...

Boy Steve, you cant keep your Israel obsession out of a post about Kenya.

Anonymous said...

Boy Steve, you cant keep your Israel obsession out of a post about Kenya.

FYI, I brought up Israel (in the first comment here) not Steve. And I did not bring it up as an "obsession," but in pointing out that we now have an administration where the two biggest players - POTUS, Chief of Staff - are of questionable loyalty to the United States and its citizens.

Anonymous said...

"FYI, I brought up Israel (in the first comment here) not Steve."


Read the post again. Steve did bring it up. You just brought up the dual loyalty thing which is really overblown. Obama is trying to be another Bill clinton without the sex, in other words more moderate. Emanuel is a liberal and like all other liberals, especially Jews , was against the Iraqi war.

Anonymous said...

Afganistan was the right target. I thought we all agreed on that. We just never got osama.