Loved this one:
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Colin Powell's Endorsement of Barack Obama
It was interesting to hear of the endorsement of Barack Obama by General Colin Powell. I've always had a great admiration for Colin Powell for several reasons. He was a man of principle and truly an American man of the world. With his foreign service experience, he, more than anyone else in the government of the US know more about what's going on in the world and has the greatest sense of things that went wrong and how things can get better. His endorsement of Barack Obama might not do much to the polls as I suspect that many on the far right conservative side would view this as a race card, even though Powell denies this. There will always be the question, what if Obama was white, if Powell would endorse McCain instead. I think the answer would've been no. But in this elections everything is a factor and though I don't believe race was the reason why he got the endorsement, the racial tinge of the election campaign sensitizes everyone. The claim in McCain's ads trying to link Obama to terrorists was very disconcerting and a terrible charge given 9/11. One can only ask the question if this would've been issued if Obama was white. On the campaign trail, there is always the mention of Barak's middle name, Hossein, which has some asking questions regarding his ethnicity, trying to determine if he is Arab. Raising such issues only incorporates the question of race.
Colin Powell, a Republican, was always independent minded but always a good soldier. I thought he served the Republican party well and even when he was asked to run for president, I may voted for him, not because he was black, but because I thought at the time the country needed someone to improve the image of the US as a world leader and General Powell was the best choice. When he was asked, he was going to be up against Bill Clinton. Guess what? Black people would've voted for Bill Clinton at that race as he was widely loved and respected by them and the economy at that time was very strong.
What I think made another difference was the embarrasment caused by George W Bush in having General Colin Powell deliver the fateful presentation to the UN about Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction. We all know those were never found and questions as to if it was an excuse to invade Iraq still abound. It has been noted that right after the terrorist bombings of New York, the neo-conservative Donal Rumsfeld in a meeting with Colin Powell and other cabinet menbers, made the suggestion to go into Iraq. Colin Powell, aware of the neo-con hype and the hawkish nature of these politicans, rolled his eyes up as to say "here we go again". I guess someone was listening as soon after the "intelligence" came into play and the US began its war with Iraq even after the full knowledge that Al Quida operated its bases in Afghanistan and the Taliban were the supporters of such efforts. We amazingly are still dealing with the fact that its Afghanistan was underfunded and undermanned as a target of the war and of more significance was Iraq. Both wars continue to drag on costing billions of dollars each month.
My view is that Colin Powell's endorsement is signalling the way for the whole world to celebrate the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the US. Should Barack win, the whole world will celebrate. It still sees the efforts in Iraq as one for the control of oil in the Middle East, especially since the very premise of invading Iraq was never substantiated. Barack Obama means a break from this and a way to begin the healing process. For obvious reasons, right wing neo-cons continue to ask for "victory" in Iraq which does not ressonate with the world at large. From this election campaign, there is no doubt that what John McCain wants is for the war to continue. The rest of the world wants it to stop. To ask for it stopping to mean not until the US wins means it drags on, killing the US economy as it continues to do. Think of how much progress could've been made with the 10 billion dollars spent each month on this war.
This is about an African American endorsing another African American. Its about a distinguished American, a former Secretary of State, a former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff endorsing the best candidate he thinks American needs at this time with the premise that the country needs a generational change.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Complainers
I was reading an article where someone pointed out that in the military, "a griping soldier is a happy soldier". I don't know what is the exact meaning of that phrase but I think it means that a griping soldier is really just pissed off at the little stuff that he/she encounters and really likes being in the military. This makes me think of the work place, organizations etc. You always will find people complaining. Some don't complain at all, seemingly to just do what they're told. Others seem always disgusted but don't say much. Others complain all the time. The test I think is to see what happens after a time.
Isolate your people mentally and observe them for a month or even a year. If the guy who is not complaining is still around, you have the best, even though you'll have to check on him all the time to make sure he's alright. He's the guy who is just focused on what he/she has to do and is not looking around. This guy is the one to turn to when you just want to get something done. He's the guy that will do as he's told.
Now the guy who's not saying much and always seem disgruntled is really not happy and will go as soon as the opportunity comes. Don't invest much in him. He'll leave. He's just internalizing what he's thinking. He's thinking that this job/organization sucks, the people suck, the environment suck and all he wants to do is get out of there.
The loud complainer who's still around is the one who is your most productive. "Productive", you say? Yes, productive. You'll get your money's worth out of this guy. Look at what he complains about. While others might shut up, he might be complaining about a problem the organization has that if not fixed can lead to its downfall. Of course he/she might be saying things that may not be wrong but listening to him would give you clues as to what's going on and what needs to be fixed. You'll know when she is bee-essing, but only if you really listen to her. In essence, they're complaining because of what they would like to see change for the better (really their better). The trick is to make them not spread too much venom. They might be too vocal and what they have to say may not be taken too well by others. Some might agree and become disgruntled, turning into the guy in the second category mentioned above. Others might just begin looking at your loud complainer and hope for their departure. Lose the loud complainer and you can find yourself out of touch. The thing to do is to bring your loud complainer in and give them a place where they can say what they want. Listen. Don't argue back or anything. Just let them vent. From them you can start getting proposals as to how changes can be made. If the changes made become fruitful, you might just have gotten yourself an ally. If not, then you can always say that they were not right. This can have the effect on quieting things down a bit, but you can still deftly keep the info flowing as you really would need it. As the adage goes, the noisy door gets fixed.
Isolate your people mentally and observe them for a month or even a year. If the guy who is not complaining is still around, you have the best, even though you'll have to check on him all the time to make sure he's alright. He's the guy who is just focused on what he/she has to do and is not looking around. This guy is the one to turn to when you just want to get something done. He's the guy that will do as he's told.
Now the guy who's not saying much and always seem disgruntled is really not happy and will go as soon as the opportunity comes. Don't invest much in him. He'll leave. He's just internalizing what he's thinking. He's thinking that this job/organization sucks, the people suck, the environment suck and all he wants to do is get out of there.
The loud complainer who's still around is the one who is your most productive. "Productive", you say? Yes, productive. You'll get your money's worth out of this guy. Look at what he complains about. While others might shut up, he might be complaining about a problem the organization has that if not fixed can lead to its downfall. Of course he/she might be saying things that may not be wrong but listening to him would give you clues as to what's going on and what needs to be fixed. You'll know when she is bee-essing, but only if you really listen to her. In essence, they're complaining because of what they would like to see change for the better (really their better). The trick is to make them not spread too much venom. They might be too vocal and what they have to say may not be taken too well by others. Some might agree and become disgruntled, turning into the guy in the second category mentioned above. Others might just begin looking at your loud complainer and hope for their departure. Lose the loud complainer and you can find yourself out of touch. The thing to do is to bring your loud complainer in and give them a place where they can say what they want. Listen. Don't argue back or anything. Just let them vent. From them you can start getting proposals as to how changes can be made. If the changes made become fruitful, you might just have gotten yourself an ally. If not, then you can always say that they were not right. This can have the effect on quieting things down a bit, but you can still deftly keep the info flowing as you really would need it. As the adage goes, the noisy door gets fixed.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Barak and Hillary, Ah Wah Ah Gwan?
For those of you who are Caribbean challenged, the heading simply means, what's going on. Now lets get down to it. There's a reason why a political election is called a race. Like everything else, there's the match up where the odds of one team or individual is weighed agains the opponent. Polls or odd makers decide on external circumstances, what the past history of the teams have and make their predictions. If one is to base the outcome on the polls, then the team that has been deemed the loser should just go home and give up the match, right? You know the answer, it ain't over till its over. Until the big bad team wins, they did not win. Barak Obama was given the lead by all the pollsters and it almost happened. Early results on the race began to show that but it didn't take long for Hillary to take the lead and kept it until the end. Hillary won!
What went wrong? One has to remember what Hillary's husband had said a while before, "its the economy, stupid". In the end, this is what made the difference. Of course, the misty eyes and the almost tears might have helped too. I still remember when my mother cried to me for hitting my brother. Even though it was an accident since we were rough playing and he ran into my elbow with his stomach, she still cried to me after he went down, holding his stomach from the blow to his solar plexus. I felt like the worlds biggest murderer even though we were both staring in disbelief at her. I would've given her the belt to beat the crap out of me instead of those tears. So don't count out those tears. The thing is however, its the economy too. Most of the voters when polled after were talking about being under or at the bring of financial disaster with high credit card bills and barely if at all able to pay their bills. Don't tell this to a Republican but during Bill Clinton's tenure, the country enjoyed good times and a very strong economy. It enjoyed a time when the budget was balanced and the economy was expanding. In comes George Bush and it was all over. It wasn't GB's fault regarding 9/11 even though the conspiracy theorists down the block and in the barber shops would say different. What was the problem reminds me of the girl in the beauty pageant, Miss South Carolina. She was absolutely right that people in the US can't locate the US on a map because many people in the US don't have maps. Maps are boring if you're not using it to go somewhere, right? So GB, not knowing the difference between Afganistan and Arkansas, took the US into Iraq. The Taliban were in Afghanistan allowing Osama and Al Quida to train. By the way, they're still there.
From all of this, we now have a situation where the dollar is now weak and we're going through the massive housing crisis that promises to shut the country down, according to my barber shop friends. Billions and billions of dollars we should be enjoying and which should be used to develop the country and help with some of the crises we now have are being used to blow people up and put ourselves where we can be blown up as well.
Meanwhile people are broke, either barely holding on to their jobs or are quite dissatisfied with it. There's the hysteria about illegal aliens who are hated because they're cheap and want to bring down the high prices paid to Americans for the same jobs.
This race promises to be exciting and already it is. When you see me watching it instead of sports you know that something is different to say the least. I watched as South Carolina was run over by Barak Obama but the underlying theme from the media was how much race was a factor. Indeed, many Blacks voted for Hillary but they don't make up the majority of the population. Many whites went to the polls. Maybe what this was saying was that the majority of White South Carolinans are Republican and whether Hillary won or not didn't matter to them.
So we move on. Super Tuesday, February 5, would be an interesting time. I'll go out there and cast my vote and you won't know who and don't think you do. In the long run, come November, America won't be the same. I don't care who goes in there, as long as we get out of Iraq and continue the business of living life in the pursuit of happiness. Both are as difficult as they appear simple but it has to be done.
God me love dis country! (I don't think I need an interpretation, do I?)
Iain
What went wrong? One has to remember what Hillary's husband had said a while before, "its the economy, stupid". In the end, this is what made the difference. Of course, the misty eyes and the almost tears might have helped too. I still remember when my mother cried to me for hitting my brother. Even though it was an accident since we were rough playing and he ran into my elbow with his stomach, she still cried to me after he went down, holding his stomach from the blow to his solar plexus. I felt like the worlds biggest murderer even though we were both staring in disbelief at her. I would've given her the belt to beat the crap out of me instead of those tears. So don't count out those tears. The thing is however, its the economy too. Most of the voters when polled after were talking about being under or at the bring of financial disaster with high credit card bills and barely if at all able to pay their bills. Don't tell this to a Republican but during Bill Clinton's tenure, the country enjoyed good times and a very strong economy. It enjoyed a time when the budget was balanced and the economy was expanding. In comes George Bush and it was all over. It wasn't GB's fault regarding 9/11 even though the conspiracy theorists down the block and in the barber shops would say different. What was the problem reminds me of the girl in the beauty pageant, Miss South Carolina. She was absolutely right that people in the US can't locate the US on a map because many people in the US don't have maps. Maps are boring if you're not using it to go somewhere, right? So GB, not knowing the difference between Afganistan and Arkansas, took the US into Iraq. The Taliban were in Afghanistan allowing Osama and Al Quida to train. By the way, they're still there.
From all of this, we now have a situation where the dollar is now weak and we're going through the massive housing crisis that promises to shut the country down, according to my barber shop friends. Billions and billions of dollars we should be enjoying and which should be used to develop the country and help with some of the crises we now have are being used to blow people up and put ourselves where we can be blown up as well.
Meanwhile people are broke, either barely holding on to their jobs or are quite dissatisfied with it. There's the hysteria about illegal aliens who are hated because they're cheap and want to bring down the high prices paid to Americans for the same jobs.
This race promises to be exciting and already it is. When you see me watching it instead of sports you know that something is different to say the least. I watched as South Carolina was run over by Barak Obama but the underlying theme from the media was how much race was a factor. Indeed, many Blacks voted for Hillary but they don't make up the majority of the population. Many whites went to the polls. Maybe what this was saying was that the majority of White South Carolinans are Republican and whether Hillary won or not didn't matter to them.
So we move on. Super Tuesday, February 5, would be an interesting time. I'll go out there and cast my vote and you won't know who and don't think you do. In the long run, come November, America won't be the same. I don't care who goes in there, as long as we get out of Iraq and continue the business of living life in the pursuit of happiness. Both are as difficult as they appear simple but it has to be done.
God me love dis country! (I don't think I need an interpretation, do I?)
Iain
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Welcome
The other day I started writing to one of the other blogs in this group (http://iainadams.blogspot.com, http://iaintech.blogspot.com) and as the thoughts flowed, the fingers worked and soon I had a screen full of . . . well, stuff. Tempted to delete the whole thing I decided that this writing of the so called "new" term every person under the age of 30 seem to be using at will, "random" would get its own home afterall. Who knows what might lie inside of this potpurri of musings. Its here I'll get the chance to open up myself to you. Do let me know your thoughts and be nice! Afterall this is random stuff and that should be understood.
Here we go!
Iain
Here we go!
Iain
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