AS the world celebrated the victory of Barack Hussein Obama as the President-elect of the United States in Chicago last week, some 7,000 kilometers away, a long-haired woman was also basking in the happiness. She is Maya Kassandra Soetoro-Ng, Obama's younger sister.

That night, in an apartment on Beretania Street in Honolulu, Hawaii, Maya was preparing the funeral of their grandmother, Madelyn Dunham. Affectionately called 'Toots' she passed away one