Barack Obama, Senior, would of course have had a passport (as a British subject), since he’d have needed one to travel to the U.S. Even if Ann Obama had not at that time travelled outside the U.S., she’d have had no trouble getting a passport. So that would not have been a problem.
There is no evidence that “money”, or lack of, ever stopped Stanley Ann Dunham from doing anything, or from traveling back and forth, or from going to school anywhere. ( Ditto for barak, I never heard of barak needing money for Columbia, Harvard, private Catholic school, etc. nor of barak ever needing money or needing a job).
Not ludicrous at all. I remember the 1960’s very well, and at the time, I was intrigued by Africa, and I wanted to go to Africa. On the other hand, I had absolutely no desire to go to Indonesia(which also is a place where Stanley Ann Dunhan went to. IF Stanley Ann Dunham would go to Indonesia, Java, and Pakistan in the 1960’s, hellholes that they were at that time, then there would be no other place else in the world that could be called “ludicrous”, and in fact, Africa back then, was considered to be an exotic desirable place to travel to. In 1961 , it was not “ludicrous” at all for a normal American to want to visit Africa, it was a common dream. Africa at that time had beautiful things, natural sights, animals, etc. to see and to experience.
That would not have been a problem. Babies did not need passports then. Ann Obama would just have needed to go to the US Embassy in Nairobi, register young Barack’s birth there, and have his name added to her passport.
(That’s all hypothetically speaking, of course – there’s no evidence that she did that.)
What’s ludicrous is that Ann Obama would have wanted to travel to the other side of the world late in her pregnancy. She no doubt would have been very interested in seeing Kenya, but in 1961 around the birth of her child would not have been a good time.
I have no idea what evidence you would expect to see from this. (I also don’t know why money is in quotes in this sentence.) Like I said, her parents supported her later in her life. The New York Times did a story about her recently and one source indicated they probably helped her financially at least into her 30s, when she was in Indonesia. So the fact that she could not have afforded this trip on her own does not mean it was impossible on those terms.
Again, I have no idea how you expect to have heard about him needing money. It’s not like he was filing financial disclosure forms as a teenager. His grandparents obviously paid for his schooling in Hawaii. He wrote that he did have some student loans, and it’s very likely he received some financial aid at college, but neither of us knows how much.
Were you eight months pregnant at the time? That’s what makes the trip ludicrous. There’s no evidence Ann Dunham went to Kenya at any time, but the idea that she and her husband made a hasty trip there late in her pregnancy is absurd.
I shouldn’t go down this rabbit hole, but is there a reason you insist on referring to the president’s mother by her full name? Stanley was her legal first name, but for very understandable reasons she went by Ann. And the president’s name is Barack, not barak.
Geeez! Why the heck would anyone want to stop in Chicago?
NO. In 1961, people traveling from Hawaii to London, would have taken a Boeing 707 jet, not a prop, and there was absolutely no need at all to stop in Chicago - in 1961 there was daily nonstop flights from LA to NY.
It was less than 2 days total (not 5), with definite intermediate stops only in LA, NY, and London.
This is a poor excuse for a strawman. We are talking about a trip of more than 10,000 miles, and this stuff is usually discussed in the context of a trip when she was about 8 months pregnant with a return trip shortly thereafter (although the OP did not specify that that had to be the case here). In that context, the idea of the trip is ludicrous.
Susanann, let’s stop distorting what other posters say. Marley23’s point is not that she was pregnant, but that it was very late in her pregnancy. It would in fact have been extremely unusual for any woman, let alone an 18-year-old, to travel so far at such a late stage in her pregnacy, especially to someplace in the third world.
Except as others have pointed out, flying was much more expensive back then than it is now. You’re correct that flying was more “civilized” back then; while I have no personal experience, as I wasn’t born until '72 and didn’t fly until the mid '80s, I’ve heard plenty of other people say the same thing.
However, the reason for all the amenities of flying in the early '60s and the indignities you listed about modern air travel (except for the TSA) is that post-deregulation, flying is cheap and within the reach of lower-middle-class and even working-class Americans. Flying is like bus travel now because its as affordable and wide-spread as bus travel. It simply wasn’t so in 1961.
In short, not only would people on welfare or food stamps back then almost never flown, but even a factory worker or office clerk would have counted his air trips on one hand.
Barack Obama Sr. went to Indonesia??? What, to visit his ex-wife and her new husband? Seriously?? I’m sure everyone’s dream vacation in exotic lands includes a stay with the ex and the new guy…
IIRC, the prez recounts almost no contact with his natural father until much later in life. His father dropped by for a month when he was 10 (so 1971?), and he first visited Kenya while a community organizer in Chicago, so his mid to late twenties.