2008-11-06

The G'Obama Effect

My beloved better and brighter female companion is an educator at an inner-city elementary school. Though annoyingly apolitical, she had an interesting story about what happened in her class.

She began. "A little boy said something interesting in class today."

Distracted I asked her to hang on. A free kick was just awarded to Juventus. I had to watch Alessandro del Piero knock a beauty into the back of the net for Juventus against Real Madrid.

Blissfully satisfied I said, "Proceed."

"Why are you ruled by sports?"

"I'm not ruled by sports. It just governs my behavior."

With rolling eyes she replied, "Can I speak now?"

"What's for supper?"

"Chicken."

"Chicken? I had a shish-taouk for lunch."

"Too bad."

"What kind of chicken?"

"Caribbean style."

"Will that agree with Lebanese?"

"That's enough Commentator."

"Ok."

"So anyway..."

"What vegetables are you planning to cook?"

"Your mother made rapini with roasted garlic."

"Can I have a doughnut after?"

Exasperated she walked away. "I'm starting supper."

"Ok, ok. What happened?"

And so she continued.

She told the story of a five year-old black student who asked her if she knew Obama had been elected. "Miss Jennifer, did you they had the vote for the President and the winner was Obama?"

Sensing his happiness and grasping the importance of the event, she took fifteen minutes to talk about what a President and Prime Minister was, where America and Canada were located on the map and so on. Whatever the "so on" was.

"What do you know about politics?" I joked.

"Please. I don't have to talk or blog about it in abstract terms to a kindergarten class."

"Oh, I beg to differ. I'm pretty sure Asian kids already know how the electoral college system works. I won't even get into what Italian kids know. Education starts at an early age," I retorted pounding my fist into the palm of my hand.

Wisely ignoring me Miss Jennifer put an end to the conversation. "It was so interesting to see how kids can be interested in something like politics."

Indeed.

There is romanticism and even concern for some people regarding his election, but this is the Obama effect in a practical, real world situation. In a different country to boot.

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