The Hope Is Already Fading

So much for hope and change:

He's from the same family that produced President-elect Barack Obama. He shares many of the same hopes and dreams. He's even got the same name.

This Barack Obama, 26, a cousin who was named after the president-elect's Kenyan father, was elated when someone with African roots rose to the world's most powerful job.


"I felt I could do anything," said the lanky student, whose buddies now call him "the President" after his famous U.S. relative. "I felt anything is possible."

There is no question the U.S. president-elect's victory has encouraged countless Africans to reach for new heights. But as the euphoria over his election begins to fade here, young Africans are beginning to see his inspirational story as bittersweet.

As the American Obama's success is institutionalized in pictures hanging in schools and buses and in speeches in parliament promoting change, many are coming to see his against-the-odds accomplishment as something that was really only possible in the United States.

In Africa, money, ethnicity and family connections still count more toward success than does hard work. Bribes usually trump talent; corruption tops integrity.

Gee, that sounds just like Chicago. No wonder Obama did so well in so short a time.