Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:13 hours 14 min ago
Trini places Obama photo atop Mt Kilimanjaro
Published: 8 May 2009
Dr Frederick Sabga with his Obama poster.
More than six months after his election victory “Obamamania” celebrations are still taking place across the globe. Barack Obama became the first African-American US president after he defeated John Mc Cain in the November polls. A picture of his face stood tall atop the highest mountain in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro while he was inaugurated last January.
Trinidad-born Dr Frederick Sabga and a few of his friends recently travelled to Tanzania to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. Sabga said during his visit, he was inspired by the people’s reaction and excitement about Obama. He added that the expression of hope and change encouraged him to place a picture of President Obama on top of the highest mountain in the world, Kilimanjaro, as a symbolic act of appreciation of Obama’s achievement.
He said this action was quite significant because in addition to Obama inspiring the people of US, he also inspired the world. Sabga described his stay as inspirational and the people of Africa as very friendly and excited about Obama. “Everywhere we went this man was revered,” he said. Sabga described his climbing experience as brutal, cold and wet. He added that it took them about six days just to reach one of the peaks of Kilimanjaro. Despite the challenges, Sabga said he just wanted to put Obama along with T&T on top the world in Africa. He said probably his next adventure might be the great wall of China.
Dr Frederick Sabga and his T&T flag.
Why are you making Obama the
Why are you making Obama the priority in this article. Why didn't you make the point that a Trinidadian was so proud of his nationality that he flew our country's flag at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro? You put a picture of him flying his Trinidad & Tobago flag at the end of the article as though it was something you stuck in at the last minute before this was published. So sad.
I am sick and tired of all the Obama praising taking place in Trinidad & Tobago. I'm a huge Obama fan but it sickens me to see how some of you act when his name is mentioned. He is NOT your President. I wish you could show the same amount of enthusiasm for Trinidad and Tobago's politics.
I recall reading an article a few months back of some foreigner flying our flag at the summit of a Mountain also, because he was proud to have lived in Trinidad and Tobago. Is this the new thing to do?
I will never understand Trinidadian/Tobagonian journalists.
Powerful comments. But is
Powerful comments. But is not just journalists or those who play journalists although journalists have a much larger audience.
I cannot count the number of comments I saw in various online forums where Trinis seemed giddy with joy anticipating the failure of T&T to successfully host the then upcoming Summit of the Americas. I have yet to figure out what exactly what is the pleasure in seeing your own country fail. Maybe the gratification is sexual. Granted I openly said I expected foreign professional 'rioters' to test the TTPS but I also said I hoped they would get their behinds kicked and sent home.
The really sad part is that I suspect that the majority of Trinis reading this article about the Trini and the Obama picture will find nothing wrong with its thrust or its afterthought of, 'he had ah Trini flag too? Stick dat someplace at de end ah de article eef it have room'. People have become so indoctrinated into believing 'foreign, good'; 'local, not so good', that too few people question that premise. Let's not even mention the government's apparent whole scale embrace of that concept.
In a speech before the American election then candidate Obama said the US needed to have a frank and open discussion about race. I think Trinidad and Tobago needs to have its own open and frank discussion about what I call 'self hate'.
I read the guardian to get a
I read the guardian to get a balance view of what's happening in Trinidad but recently the reporting seem to be off center.
If the writing is done by high school students learning the business, I can forgive but if the writing/reporting is done by a "paid" journalist there is no forgiveness for the crap that I'm reading lately.
This would have been great reporting if it was written differently.
The reporting sucks at
The reporting sucks at times, that's true. Makes you wonder if all the writers had was a 3 month on the job training.Either the pics do not go with the article or the other way around.
All jokes aside, it could have been worse and Dr. Sabga could have placed a pic of Manning atop Mt Kilimanjaro.