Obama's Mother to Receive Award in Indonesia
The Jakarta Post reported earlier this week that Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta plans to posthumously award the president's mother in honor of "her tireless efforts in the field of economic anthropology."
Dunham lived in the capital of Jakarta from 1967-1971 along with her husband, Indonesian Lalo Soitero, and a young Barack Obama.
The award will be presented this October at a conference titled "Local Wisdom Global Solutions," where Former Vice President Al Gore and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammud Yunus are expected to serve as keynote speakers, according to the Jakarta Globe.
Wiendu Nuryanti, head of the conference steering committee, told the paper that the award would be given to Dunham for her dissertation on microfinance in Central Java. She claimed the timing of the announcement, just weeks before the president's scheduled visit to Indonesia, is pure coincidence.
"The award will be given to honor his mother's work as an anthropologist nd we have been meaning to do it during the conference. Coincidentally, Obama is scheduled to come here, so we will use the chance to tell him about the award, " said Wiendu.
Wiendu also told the Jakarta Globe that the university hopes to personally brief Mr. Obama on the award during his trip to Indonesia next month.