UNITED States presidential hopeful Barack Obama is much like international reggae icon Bob Marley, according to Ephraim Martin, a native Jamaican who raises funds for Obama’s presidential campaign.

“Bob Marley had mixed parents, Obama has mixed parents. Bob Marley wanted to change the world through reggae music, Obama’s campaign is built on a message of change,” Martin told the Sunday Observer in a telephone interview from his office in Chicago.

“He is in a unique position because he can relate to people on both sides of the fence. He can relate to black people and he can relate to whites. He knows what it is to be discriminated against as a black man and now, there are some black people who think he’s not black enough,” Martin continued.

Martin, who is a former news photographer from St Thomas, Jamaica, published similar sentiments in the May 2008 issue of his International Reggae & World Music Awards magazine. For the past 27 years, he has been staging the annual International Reggae and World Music Awards in Chicago. He credits himself and his colleagues who appeared on a television programme called Straight Talk, with encouraging Obama to run, first for the US Senate and now, for the presidency. Straight Talk’s primary target audience comprise politicians and business people, said Martin.

“We were encouraging him all along the way. There were others, too, but I think our programme was very forceful,” he said.

Martin and Obama met on the campaign trail back in 1999, when Martin’s wife Justice Shelvin Hall was vying for a seat in the Illinois Appellate Court. She later won the appointment.

Since then, Martin and the members of Martin’s International Culture Associates have individually been raising funds for the Democratic presidential candidate. So far this month, they have raised an estimated US$20,000 from the Caribbean community across the US.

One means of soliciting funds is to send email messages like the one below:

“To my family, friends, fans and associates,

I am on the battlefield working hard in support of Senator Barack Obama to change not only Washington and our country, but the political process and our international policies. I am pursuing a personal fund-raising goal for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; part of which is to make a statement that ordinary Americans working together can make a real difference and change Washington, Wall Street and the United States of America!

Will you take a quick moment to visit my Obama page and consider making a donation?” His page is at my.barackobama.com.

“Back then, there was such a forceful grassroots movement going on for him but it wasn’t out in the public. Blacks were sceptical because they thought he wasn’t black enough for us,” he said, pointing out that black Americans pay more attention to race whereas Jamaicans weigh class more heavily.

There is an estimated 125,000 Jamaicans residing in Chicago.

We need someone who won’t take sides but who can relate to the world. Someone who can love Israel but respect Palestine also, and Obama is the only one who can do that.