I was wrong.

I was terribly wrong.

What was I thinking about when making such comments?

In case you are confused, I am referring to my earlier column and comments to friends.

I had insisted then that Barack Obama, the first Afro-American to be elected president of the most powerful country in the world, would be good not only for his country but for the world at large.

I stated that Obama was a fresh scene on the world stage with tons of new ideas and determined to change and improve America’s image abroad. I also stated that Obama would not hurt a fly! This is what I am getting to: Obama not only hurt the fly but killed the “sucker” instantly with a single swing. Normally, no one would have said anything about this. But, this was no ordinary fly. This was a White House fly.

The Kenya-born senior Obama decided to name his son after him which loosely translated also means “the blessed one.”

How can the blessed one kill a harmless fly? How can a former civil rights lawyer kill a fly? It is not uncommon to see flies at the White House. They are confounding aides and even trying to feast on President Obama. The fly killing incident was recorded on television when Obama was being interviewed by John Harwood for CNBC and The New York Times. During the interview, a large fly kept orbiting around Obama’s head. After trying to swat it away, the fly landed on Obama’s hand. The president stopped and smacked the critter.

“I got the sucker,” the president boasted. This seemed an innocent killing in self-defence.

But, the killing did not impress the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” said a spokesman for PETA. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”

The animal rights group has since sent over one of its Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher contraption to the White House in the event of “future insect incidents.”

I wonder where PETA stands in regards to chicken, cows, pigs, fish shrimps and other delicacies everyone enjoys. So PETA members walk with magnifying glasses to make sure their feet don’t accidentally trample ants?

Do PETA members think it is okay to find a fly in the soup? They have a unique way of dealing with irritating flies in Australia. Tourists and visitors are fond of buying and wearing special hats to keep flies away. The other invention is a net you put over your head. You don’t expect Obama to wear this funny hat or cover his head with a net while doing interviews at the White House. PETA called the incident “execution” and wants the commander-in-chief to be more compassionate to even the least sympathetic animals. The fly saga is now all over the world thanks to television and You Tube postings. Obama never imagined the sort of buzz he would generate by pausing during a televised interview to display lightening fast reflexes and smash a fly that foolishly landed on his arm. A couple of weeks have passed since the fateful encounter. Today, people still talk about the incident and comedians are having a field day about this incident.