This is a collective smile, thousands of miles long…
Take a look at these pictures of the big smile here and read about it from Christiane Amanpour here.
A paradigm shift my friends, a paradigm shift of biblical proportions…Read Thomas Friedman’s excellent article here and Judith Warner’s amazing piece here.
“We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” Barack Obama
Obama makes 1st mistake.Rahm Emanuel..
His father, the Jerusalem-born Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician and was a member of the Irgun, a militant Zionist group active during the British Mandate of Palestine.
what on earth has his father’s occupation, religion and political persuasion to do with his sons qualifications for the job.
why not focus on Rahm Emanuel and his achievements rather than the narrow minded negative view that this country has had to deal with for the last 8 years under Bush
In my opinion,it is Seismic shift..As Michele expressed appropriately, paradigm shift of biblical proportions…
Yes Mathieu!
Here’s some information on Rahm that might be considered relevant.
“Emanuel supported the October 2002 joint Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War, differentiating himself from all nine other Democratic members of the Illinois Congressional delegation (Sen. Richard Durbin, Reps. Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Bill Lipinski, Luis Gutiérrez, Danny K. Davis, Jan Schakowsky, Jerry Costello and Evans) elected in 2002.”
I have so much hope, that Obama will really be able to bring about some necessary changes; both domestically, and in dealing with the rest of the world.
I must admit, I am prouder of my country today than at any other time in my life.
TO ALL MY FRIENDS:
MOBARAK OBAMA!
C’est la premiere fois que j’assiste a cette euphorie generale,je n’ai jamais vu les gens submerges par cette vague d’espoir , conscients des realites et concernes par leur avenir.
Mes amis americains, CHAPEAU et felicitations!! Vous avez evite le retour vers l’obscurantisme le plus primaire et l’hysterie historique de la dame qui voit Russie de sa fenetre.
Mireille B.
Biblical is a good word, since in CA those who voted for Obama also voted to write discrimination into the state constitution by approving Prop 8. We can delude ourselves and pat ourselves on the back because our president elect has slightly darker skin while we await more war in the Middle East and more discrimination for our citizens. I hope I am proven wrong, but for now forgive me for spoiling your celebration party.
It is not surprising at all that some of those Californians who voted for Obama also voted against gay marriage. After all, if i am not mistaken, our new President-elect himself declared on several occasions that he could not support the right of same-sex couples to be married. As far as i can remember, his position on this issue looked and sounded practically identical to that of McCain. So, it’s hard to blame Obama voters for following their hero’s lead. If he were to take a strong stand in support of gay marriage all along throughout his brilliantly successful campaign, the fate of this dreaded Prop 8 might have been very different indeed.
However, we should not forget that just a few years ago a similar measure received almost 62% of the vote while this time it only managed a bit over 52%. So, progress is undeniable and – at least on this issue – our state seems to be moving in the right direction. What amazes me personally though is the fact that nearly two million more Californians voted for mandating a few extra square inches for chickens than for recognizing that every loving couple of adults should have equal right to get married.
Anyway, Irani, a healthy dose of skepticism is generally a good thing and therefore this one Californian has forgiven you already.
Congratulations to all of us who doubted the power of a democratic society (guilty as charged)! This election not only brought hope and inspiration back in my life, but saved my marriage as well:) Hope we all had a wake up call to put our priorities in order and start seeing a bigger picture of how things should work to benefit all.
Saving Shahrzad’s marriage sounds like good news; outlawing thousands of California recent gay marriages is not nearly as positive. Those of my gay friends who got married this past summer are not in the mood to celebrate somehow.
It is becoming much clearer now where most of those votes that were for Obama but against same-sex marriage came from. Apparently, more than 70% of black Californians voted for Prop 8 while Obama got well over 90% of our state’s African-American votes. That makes it even more obvious that Obama’s failure to support gay marriage rights helped the proponents of this discriminatory measure quite significantly. Their fear-mongering propaganda targeted black population, mostly through their churches, and unfortunately succeeded very impressively. Evidently, many of our African-American citizens, including the President-elect, still have much to learn about equality and fairness.
i somehow agree with my friend, Mark, about this whole issue of prop 8 but on the lighter side, i think even bigots should have voted against it because everybody deserves to experience some of the miseries of “marriage”…
You are absolutely right about that, Michelle, but unfortunately, most bigots don’t have a good sense of humor.
Michele, everyone but children!
“King’s I-have-a-dream crusade and the 1964 Civil Rights Act — the Civil War could never truly be said to have ended until America’s white majority actually elected an African-American as president”. I could´nt agree more with such a profound insight of historical porportion.
However, the greatest challanges that is facing the strongest person in this world, president elect Obama, are serious problems on a global scale.
Poverty, not less than a billion suffer from permanent malnutrition . 300-500 million people are facing gradual death due to starvation.
The enormous accelerating rate of over-population means constant malnutrition for not less than 2-2,5 billion and starvation for not less than a billion, by the end of 21at century.
In other words, our planet will be threatened by starvation and famine during the first century, taking into consideration the current state of affairs.
Insufficient health care for one third of the entire world population and non accessability to clean water for two thirds.In other words severe epedimic problems spelling global catastrophe.
Irreversable climate change due to pollution, thermonuclear energy, etc.
International relations, a non violent-free world without recourse to war.
Of course such problems need a very high level of effective international organization, taking it´s focal point of providing peace and harmony to our world.
“It will emerge as he grapples with the economy, energy and America’s role in the world. These challenges are so great that he will only succeed if he is able to articulate a new politics of the common good.”
Obama will succeed not where the white man failed to bring about sustainable developmental change for us human beings, but in the essence and quality of the set of values and norms he will adopt in order to facilitate a new world order which seriously addresses the problems facing man-kind beyound the 21st century.
I wish him luck and perseverance.
1 2
I agree with Omid that there is still much progress that needs to be made in our world : health, peace, sustainability, international cooperation, etc.
But actually in the developed world the problem in the 21st century might be population decline rather than population growth. If we have peace, health and shared prosperity the developing countries will follow suit. And if we don’t… Then less benevolent forces will keep population in check.
And linking climate change to thermonuclear energy…? Well I guess Omid would have to explain that one.
For population growth details see:
Annual world population growth projections http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpop.html
Demographic transition model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition
As the developing countries move towards industrialization they would require an increase in consumption and generation of energy and as we all know the whole world is going to run short of thermal energy, oil, gas and coal. How safe is then thermonuclear energy, even if we can have total control over the reaction process. “Chernobyl: The true scale of the accident”, in climatechange.com.au, –”Approximately 1,000 on-site reactor staff and emergency workers were heavily exposed to high-level radiation on the first day of the accident; among the more than 200,0001 emergency and recovery operation workers exposed during the period from 1986-1987, an estimated 2,200 radiation-caused deaths can be expected during their lifetime.
–An estimated five million people currently live in areas of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine that are contaminated with radionuclides due to the accident; about 100,000 of them live in areas classified in the past by government authorities as areas of “strict control”. The existing “zoning” definitions need to be revisited and relaxed in light of the new findings. — About 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children and adolescents at the time of the accident, have resulted from the accident’s contamination and at least nine children died of thyroid cancer; however the survival rate among such cancer victims, judging from experience in Belarus, has been almost 99%.
–Most emergency workers and people living in contaminated areas received relatively low whole body radiation doses, comparable to natural background levels. As a consequence, no evidence or likelihood of decreased fertility among the affected population has been found, nor has there been any evidence of increases in congenital malformations that can be attributed to radiation exposure.”
These are some of the findings included in the massive report, showing the effect of such an accident on the human beings habitat and consequently on their health as a whole.
Can we with certainty assume that thermonuclear energy is not correlated with changes in the world´s climate, the drastic increase in sea levels?
–
According to Omid Shahnaz:
…”among the more than 200,0001 [Does that mean 200,0002 – whatever that funny-looking number represents?] emergency and recovery operation workers exposed during the period from 1986-1987, an estimated 2,200 radiation-caused deaths can be expected during their lifetime.”
Personally, i think i can assume with reasonable certainty that for just about 100% of us the moment of our death – whatever the cause – will occur not exactly during but more like right at the very end of our lifetime. This is, of course, my personal opinion only and, as always, i do respect other points of view.