Jakarta Man Aims To Run A 'Sweet Home Obama'

Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock each year to the Virginia estates of George Washington, at Mount Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson, at Monticello. Now, a Dutch businessman in Jakarta is hoping a Nov. 4 victory for Sen. Barack Obama will turn a house where he once lived into a presidential landmark -- though on a much smaller scale.

Bartele Santema, who runs a string of bars in the Indonesian capital, already has a name for the cafe-museum he wants to open where Sen. Obama lived between the ages of 8 and 10 with his mother and Indonesian stepfather: Sweet Home Obama.

Mr. Santema says he is negotiating a deal with the owner, a 78-year-old retired Indonesian naval officer whose father rented the house to Sen. Obama's family. The businessman, who has offered to rent the rundown 1939 Dutch-style colonial bungalow for $500 a month, says he is a fan of the Democratic presidential contender. 'I hope one day Obama will come here and I'll meet him,' Mr. Santema says. 'That would be a great experience.'

In his vision, the place would become a Dutch-style coffee house festooned with Obama memorabilia, such as photos of 'Barry,' as the chubby schoolboy was nicknamed while in Jakarta. 'It's not a place we'd get drunk and drink beer,' he says. Instead, Mr. Santema plans to offer Barack Blend coffee -- a mix of Kenyan and Indonesian beans -- as a house specialty.

Tata Abubakar, the home's owner, says he hasn't decided whether to accept Mr. Santema's rental offer. Mr. Abubakar says an Indonesian man has offered to buy the house. But that would involve selling Mr. Abubakar's family home in the same compound, something he isn't sure whether he wants to do. Mr Abubakar's 1,200-square-meter compound, including both houses, is probably worth about $1 million, not including the Obama factor.

Mr. Abubakar remembers Sen. Obama as a child who disliked having his hair ruffled by adults. He also recalls an incident in which the young Obama lost a pet white poodle and cried for two days. But other than that, he was just the tenant's kid.

Syahrial, Mr. Abubakar's son-in-law, lives with his family in the house where Sen. Obama once stayed. He says he has received many foreign visitors since the Illinois senator chronicled his time there in his memoir, 'Dreams From My Father.' 'I'm proud, but also exhausted,' Mr. Syahrial says, smoking a pungent clove cigarette. 'If he wins, we might have to lock the doors.'

The Jakarta house is just one of several sites attracting attention from association with Sen. Obama. Many people in Indonesia -- which has more Muslims than any other nation -- are thrilled with the connection and overwhelmingly favor him, according to local polls.

'He was not the smartest guy in class but he was modest, open-minded and really diligent,' remembers Rully Dasaad, a former schoolmate at the Besuki Elementary School. 'I think his rich background and experience have given him a lot of depth and a broad view. . . . He is the bridge between America and the rest of the world, especially the Muslim world.'

Childhood friends say they are disturbed by some U.S. media coverage that labeled Besuki an Islamic 'madrasa,' or religious school, that taught the Quran and little else. 'This school was a normal public school,' Mr. Dasaad says. 'There were Chinese Buddhist pupils, Hindus from Bali, Christians and Muslims. Everyone was mixed up.'

Sen. Obama's father, a Muslim from Kenya, and his mother, Ann Dunham, met while studying at the University of Hawaii. When Sen. Obama was 2 years old, the couple separated. Ms. Dunham later remarried an Indonesian, Lolo Soetoro, a geologist, and the family moved in 1967 to Jakarta, at the time one of the poorest major world capitals. Sen. Obama lived in two houses in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii to be with his maternal grandparents in the early 1970s. The first house was in a village south of Jakarta.

When his stepfather landed a job with a Western oil company, the family moved to what was then an upscale part of town, renting a small house. But unlike other expatriates, Sen. Obama's family couldn't afford to send him to an international school. The area, though still relatively prosperous, is now rather run-down relative to Jakarta's gleaming office blocks nearby.

Just months ago, few people in the neighborhood had heard of Sen. Obama or knew where he once lived, says Mr. Santema, who spent a few weeks searching for the house. A recent visitor drew blank stares when asking for the home's current owner, but things soon became clearer: 'Ah, you are looking for Obama's house,' said a security guard. 'It's just around the corner, to the right.'

每

年都有数十万旅游者涌入弗吉尼亚州，参观弗农山庄的乔治·华盛顿(George Washington)故居和Monticello的托马斯·杰斐逊(Thomas Jefferson)故居。现在，印尼首都雅加达的一位荷兰商人希望奥巴马(Barack Obama)11月4日赢得总统大选，让他曾经住过的一所房子也变成总统故居──虽然规模要小得多。

在雅加达经营多间酒吧的桑特玛(Bartele Santema)已经小有名气，因为他想在奥巴马8岁到10岁期间与母亲和印尼继父一起住过的地方开一家咖啡馆：奥巴马甜蜜之家(Sweet Home Obama)。

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奥巴马在雅加达居住过的房屋



桑特玛说，他正在与房主就交易进行协商。房主是一位78位的印尼海军退役军官，他的父亲曾经将房子租给奥巴马一家人。这座破旧的平房建于1939年，带有荷兰殖民风格，桑特玛提出以每月500美元的价格租下这里。他说自己是奥巴马的崇拜者。桑特玛说，我希望奥巴马有一天会来这儿，那我就能见到他了，那种经历肯定很棒。

按他的设想，这个地方会成为一家荷兰风格的咖啡馆，以奥巴马的生平作为装点，比如说“巴里”的照片，巴里是奥巴马在雅加达上学时的绰号，当时他还是个胖胖的小男孩。桑特玛说，这里不会是让我们喝得烂醉、牛饮啤酒的地方，相反，他打算提供“巴拉克特调咖啡”──用肯尼亚和印尼咖啡豆调和而成──作为店里的招牌饮料。

房主Tata Abubakar说他还没有决定要不要把房子租给桑特玛。他说有个印尼人已经提出要买这座房子。但要是将房子出售的话，就得连他自家在同一座宅院里的住房一块儿卖，Abubakar对此还有点犹豫。这座宅院占地1,200平方米，不算奥巴马住的地方价值约为100万美元。

Abubakar记得奥巴马小时候不喜欢大人揉乱他的头发。他还想起一件事：小奥巴马丢了一只白色狮子狗，哭了两天。但除了这点印象，奥巴马对他来说只是房客的孩子而已。

奥巴马“故居”现在住着Abubakar的女婿Syahrial一家。奥巴马在回忆录《从父亲开始的梦想》(Dreams From My Father)中记叙了他在此地度过的时光。Syahrial说，从那以后，他家里来了很多外国游客。他抽着味道浓烈的丁香香烟说，我觉得很荣幸，但也累得够呛。如果他赢了，我们可能得把门全锁上。

这座房子只是因与奥巴马有关而吸引人们注意的几处地方之一。当地的民意调查显示，许多印尼人都为这种关系兴奋不已，并十分青睐奥巴马。印尼是世界上穆斯林人口最多的国家。

奥巴马在Besuki小学的同学Rully Dasaad说，奥巴马不是班上最聪明的，但他谦逊、虚心、非常勤奋；他丰富的背景和经历令他很有阅历并拥有广阔的视野……他是连结美国和世界其他地方的桥梁，尤其是穆斯林国家。

一些美国媒体报道将Besuki小学说成一所宗教学校，教授《古兰经》，很少教其他的东西。奥巴马孩提时代的朋友说他们对此很生气。Dasaad说，这所学校是一所普通的公立学校，这里的学生有来自中国的佛教徒，有巴厘岛的印度教徒，也有基督徒和穆斯林。大家都在一块儿。

奥巴马的父母在夏威夷大学(University of Hawaii)上学时结识。他的父亲是穆斯林，来自肯尼亚。奥巴马两岁时父母离异。他母亲安·邓纳姆(Ann Dunham)后来嫁给了印尼的地质学者罗洛·苏托洛(Lolo Soetoro)。1967年，他们一家人移居雅加达。奥巴马在印尼有过两处住所。70年代，他回到夏威夷与外祖父一起生活。他住过的第一所房子在雅加达南边的一个村子里。

奥巴马的继父在一家西方石油公司找到工作后，他们一家搬到了当时城里的一个高尚住宅区，租了一所小房子。但与其他旅居国外的人不一样，奥巴马的家庭没钱送他上国际学校。这片地方现在虽然依旧相对繁荣，但比起附近那些气派的写字楼还是显得十分破败。

为找这座房子花了几个星期的桑特玛说，几个月前，这一带还很少有人听说过奥巴马或是知道他住过的地方。最近有一位游客打听这所房子现在的主人，但人们对此却茫然以对，不过事情很快就弄清楚了：一名保安说，哦，你是找奥巴马住的地方啊，拐个弯右手边就是。