Monday, December 15, 2008
Shouldn't it be Kool-Aid?
Dude's a leader:
The election of Barack Obama has inspired one French entrepreneur to create a new soft drink. The maker of Obama Soda says he hopes his beverage, and its namesake, will inspire young people living in some of France's grimmest housing projects by giving them a little taste of the American dream.... (emphasis added)
It is not clear from the story -- this is, after all, NPR -- what Jean-Jacques Attisso means by "the American dream." What is clear is that he is an inspiring and impressive person who really ought to be an American. Read the whole thing, or, in the alternative, just this:
In front of some small shops that include a halal butcher and a grocer advertising African specialties, Attisso stops some younger tweens on their way home from school. They all seem more optimistic than their older neighbors.
"I love Obama cola. This is the first time I've tasted it," says Muhammed Cherki, 11. Cherki says he's sure he could become president of France — but that he'd rather be a chef or the mayor of Hollywood.
When Attisso tells him that African-Americans couldn't even sit down in the front of a bus 50 years ago, Cherki replies that now Obama doesn't need the bus — he's got limousines.
"A chef or the mayor of Hollywood"? Pretty funny. I respectfully suggest that these are French aspirations wrapped in American optimism. Maybe, after all, Mr. Attisso does indeed understand the American dream: It is the gospel of individual opportunity, and there is nothing more inspiring.
CWCID: Jungle Trader.
2 Comments:
By 
commoncents, at
Mon Dec 15, 05:18:00 PM:
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By 
, at
Mon Dec 15, 06:41:00 PM:
"French entrepreneur"? Thought that might be an oxymoron by now. After four years of Obama, France might be where we'll have to go for a remnant taste of the "American dream."
