I thought Barack Obama was the mostest popularest American leader among foreigners since, well, anybody.

Weeeeelllll, maybe not so much...

Indonesian authorities said Monday they are considering a petition to tear down a statue of US President Barack Obama as a boy, only a month after the bronze was unveiled in Jakarta.

The statue of "Little Barry" -- as Obama was known when he lived in the capital in the late 1960s -- stands in central Jakarta's Menteng Park, a short walk from the US president's former elementary school.

Critics say the site should have been used to honour an Indonesian and 55,000 people have joined a page on social networking website Facebook calling for the statue to be removed.

[...]

Members of the "Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Menteng Park" group on Facebook say Obama has done nothing for Indonesia.

"Barack Obama has yet to make a significant contribution to the Indonesian nation. We could say Obama only ate and s (expletive) in Menteng. He spent his subsequent days living as an American," the web page says.

To be fair, he only lived there for a while after his mom married some guy and dragged him there when he was a little kid, and I don't think he ever had Indonesian citizenship, so it's not exactly like he owes them much of anything. Plus, it's not like he asked to have the statue put up.

On the other hand, we were told repeatedly by certain people (*cough* "Grown-up Barry" *cough*) that the fact that he had lived in a certain Muslim country (*cough* Indonesia *cough*) would endear him—and by extension, the rest of us—to Muslims around the world.

What I'm trying to say is that if you'll excuse me, I think I'm gonna go grab a schadenfreude-flavored pudding cup.

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:43 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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