November 20, 2009 Obama's expatriate years*By* *Thomas Lifson*<http://www.americanthinker.com/thomas_lifson/> Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the crucial years Barack Obama spent growing up in Jakarta, Indonesia from 1967 to 1971, ages 6 to 10 in his life. These formative years, in which a child first spends significant time in the wider world beyond his family environment, must have taught him many lessons about America -- some of them very unpleasant, given the particular situation of his family.
It would have been brutally difficult for any child, including young Barry Soetoro as he was then known, to be uprooted from Honolulu, where his single mother raised him with her parents' aid, and plunked down in a completely different culture. But his family's circumstances were very different from other Americans' then living as fellow expatriates in the teeming and desperately poor third-world metropolis. In this set of circumstances lies a possible explanation for Obama's animosity toward corporate America and its executives. After being deserted by Barack Obama, Sr., Stanley Ann Dunham Obama obtained a divorce and then married another foreign graduate student, Lolo Soetoro from Indonesia. In 1967, Lolo needed to return to Indonesia and, according to *Dreams From My Father*, was conscripted to fight the communist insurgency. Afterwards, he took a job with Mobil Oil. However, the job was not a high-paying executive position such as was usually occupied by expatriate employees dispatched overseas. Instead, it involved smoothing affairs with governmental and other local entities -- very much a support staff function of the type performed by much lower-paid local employees. Relatively few Americans are familiar with the overseas lifestyle enjoyed by American corporate expatriates, particularly during the 3rd quarter of the 20th century, when the dollar was strong and America's companies were the unchallenged world leaders of most industries. In the long postwar boom, as -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
