19/01/2009 11:27:19 am
Dreams From My Father. As President-Elect Barack Obama reaches Washington DC by train, following in the foot-steps of Abraham Lincoln, I am finishing his first book. Written before he had any political top-level prospects, it is very straight-forward.

He is no less a fascinating person after one has read this book. After all, he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, studied in Los Angeles, worked in New York and then Chicago, and had relatives in Kenya. He used drugs, searched for a meaning, worked extra at construction sites.

He comes across as intellectual, emotional and observant. He never fails to reveal his weak spots or failures. The result of doing such a journey, with so much self-scrutiny, must be a deep knowledge of one self and a clear picture of where one stands.