Obama's Brother, Where Art Thou?

Pirated CDs are ubiquitous in Guangzhou, but one of the best places to buy the latest Hollywood flicks or TV series is on the second floor of Computer City (电脑城dian nao cheng--the market above the McDonald's on on the corner of 体育东路tiyudonglu and 天河路tianhelu). When I reached the top step, a woman kitty corner from the staircase jumped off her stool and yelled "DVD?" I nodded. She quickly led me into a room full of boxes down the hall. I didn't see any DVDs in the room right away so I hesitated. She said "hurry" and pushed me, as if she was boarding a subway train at 6:00p.m. After I spoke some Chinese, the man squatting on his hams said, "奥运奥运aoyun aoyun" (Olympics Olympics). He said the 城管chengguan (city management) were especially vigilant because of the Olmypics. He said he had to keep everything hidden and that if I were Chinese, he wouldn't have let me in. He was loquacious, talking about everything from the corruption of Taiwan's former president Chen Shuibian to the brilliance of Michael Phelps to the economies of China and the U.S. This led to a list of his dislikes about U.S. president George Bush. He then asked me what I thought of Barak Obama. I said that I liked him and that either he or McCain would be better than Bush. He sat up straight, smiled and asked, "Did you know that Obama's brother is living in Shenzhen and that he's married to a Chinese woman?" Now that I hadn't heard (and he was shocked I hadn't). When I got home, I researched it online and it's true, but not exactly like he said. According to Michael Sheridan's (sensationally titled) article, "Barack Obama's brother pushes Chinese imports on US," it's Obama's half-brother. He runs an "internet -based" company and has a "long-term Chinese girlfriend," not a Chinese wife. Read more here.