Saturday, August 16, 2008

Foreign Confidential....
The
Indonesian-language edition of Barack Hussein Obama's autobiography,
Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, is titled Menerjang Harapan: Dari Jakarta Menuju Gedung Putih--Indonesian for Assault Hope: From Jakarta to the White House, or, more popularly, Jihad: From Jakarta to the White House.
An American Expat in Southeast Asia broke the story almost a year ago; but the fawning mainstream media have ignored it. Atlas Shrugs refocuses attention on the story and provides insightful commentary. Click here
In
the process of renaming Obama's book, the Indonesian publisher not only
inexplicably eliminated the word audacity, but apparently combined the
Indonesian words for assault, or attack, and hope--menerjang harapan--
to convey the message of a hopeful struggle for power--an assault on
Washington--in a way that would appeal to masses of Muslim readers,
including anti-Western militants. The Indonesians have interpreted the
coinage as jihad.
An American Expat explains:
to read it.
A
correct translation of the title of Obama's book would have been
"Keberanian Harapan: Pemikiran Untuk Meraih Kembali Impian America"
which translates into "Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming The
American Dream". However, the title for the Indonesian translation of
Barack Obama's book is "Menerjang Harapan: Dari Jakarta Menuju Gedung
Putih" which translates into "Assault Hope: From Jakarta to the White
House".
The problem with direct translations is that often times
they never make sense. The words "menerjang" (assault or attack) and
"harapan" (hope or expectation) make sense when used separately, but
used together, the term "menerjang harapan" makes no sense in
Indonesian. But while the term makes no sense, it does however present
a mental picture to the native Indonesian speaker, the imagery of a
"hopeful assault" a "struggle for victory" or to put it more bluntly, a
"jihad", or as the Indonesians see it, Obama's "jihad" for the White
House. For the native Indonesian speaker, this figurative language
creates a mental image whereas the translation of the book's title can
actually come to mean "Jihad: From Jakarta To The White House".
It
does not get much more frightening and absurd than this: Nearly seven
years after the jihadist Al Qaeda attacks of 9/11, the presumptive
Democratic candidate for President of the United States is associated
with jihad--Islamic holy war--in a positive way--to jihadists. How sick
is that?
In light of apparently authentic documentary evidence
that Obama is a dual US-Indonesian citizen--his troubling "Barry
Soetoro" school registration certificate in Indonesia lists his
citizenship as Indonesian and his religion as Muslim--the astonishingly
audacious White House hopeful, The Anointed One, also known as The Candidate of Change, clearly owes the American people an explanation about this latest obamanation. Did he approve the title change? When did he know about it? What, if anything, did he do to prevent or correct it?
How
could Obama's publisher, Crown, a division of Random House, have
allowed the Indonesian publisher to get away with a ... terrifying ...
title twist? Publishing lawyers are appalled....
Troubling Ties
Obama
has yet to come clean about his school certificate, even though
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is a hotbed of
Islamist terror and separatism. The US is not ready--nor should it ever
be ready--for a dual-citizen Commander-in-Chief with possible political
and legal ties to a county that US military forces may one day have to
attack in order to wipe out Al Qaeda-associated bases and cells.
The
Audacity of Hope is Obama's second book. Crown paid him an advance of
$1.9 million against royalties for three books in all. The advance is
non-refundable provided Obama delivers the books pursuant to the terms
and conditions of his contract with Crown.
The title of The
Audacity of Hope was derived from a sermon delivered by Obama's former
pastor and adviser, Jeremiah Wright, who has infamously blamed--and
damned--America for 9/11. He has also published Hamas propaganda, and
honored Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite
and America-hater.
One wonders: will Obama's third book be called Conquest of America?
POST SCRIPT:
Obama was born a Muslim according to Islamic religious law, which
traces religious identity through the father (in contrast with Judaism,
which traces Jewish identity through the mother). Obama's Indonesian
classmates recall that he practiced Islam; and his African relatives
have described him as a Muslim. Obama's Kenyan cousin, opposition
leader and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, has sided with Islamists
seeking to impose Islamic law in Kenya.
http://chinaconfidential.blogspot.com/2008/08/indonesian-version-of-obamas.html
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