Obama’s Taste Of Lincoln

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January 20 is etched in the history of the United States as a new era of responsibility. A new president is sworn-in and the day is looked forward to as a new beginning. Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of United States, has not just many promises for the world but many firsts to his credit too.

He is not only the first African-American President but also the first US president to swear on the burgundy velvet Bible that Abraham Lincoln used during his 1861 inauguration.

According to a news report, Obama is said to have been “deeply honoured” to have the first use of the Lincoln Bible since the Civil War to “provide a powerful connection to our common past and common heritage”.

“Obama has drawn inspiration from Lincoln, who faced the toughest challenge as a president with a nation divided by Civil War.”

His “extraordinary inspiration” is visible in the selection of his team too. He has inducted a number of political rivals, including Hillary Clinton, into his cabinet, which is a strategy reminiscent of the “team of rivals” approach of Lincoln.

That’s not all, a self-professed follower of Abraham Lincoln, Obama also went on to have on his lunch menu the food eaten by Lincoln after his inauguration. And thus based on the tastes of Lincoln, seafood stew, pheasant and duck with chutney, and apple cinnamon sponge cake made way to the table.

The president in his swearing-in ceremony warned the nation of the tough times while pledging hard work. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America – they will be met.
“On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

In a divided world, where fear, scare and insecurity have taken a toll, Obama is a ray of hope. Wish peace and faith spread beyond the inaugural speech…

It’s Wikipeida’s Day

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Wikipedia turns 8 today.

The free, multilingual encyclopaedia, launched in January 15, 2001, is currently the most popular general reference work on the Internet.

The articles, said to be about 12 million in count has 2.6 million in English.
The volunteers around the world have written collaboratively on these articles, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone who can access the Wikipedia website. They remain anonymous too. “Consequently, Wikipedia “makes no guarantee of validity” of its content.”

Wikipedia.org was opened on donated bandwidth and server and its first article appeared on January 16.

UuU, said to be the oldest article, contains the earliest surviving edit on the Wikipedia.

When Time recognized “You” as its “Person of the Year for 2006”, the magazine listed websites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Wikipedia as media that allowed users to interact with the web by uploading and publishing their own comments, videos, pictures and links.

According to studies Wikipedia is among the ten most visited websites worldwide. A good portion of the searches made on Internet is related to academic research and about 50 percent of search engine traffic to Wikipedia comes from Google.

No wonder, Wikipedia’s audience have shot up to 9.5 million from 6.3 million.

The Indian Confidence

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The confident Indian consumers are quite optimistic about the economy picking up in the near future. The global economic recession may have bred insecurities in jobs, relationships, shares and business. It may even have made the day to day needs a little expensive. Yet, Indians sure believe that the domestic market is large enough to support continued growth.

A study by The Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence showed that India ranks foremost in consumer confidence as investors have been safeguarded by India’s relatively nascent financial markets. Indians are “the most optimistic lot globally who think that their country will be out of the economic recession in the next twelve months,” said market researcher Nielsen.

“Despite the global economic recession Indians seem to be quite confident of the economy picking up in the near future.”

“They believe that the global recession will have limited impact on India where the domestic market is believed to be large enough to support continued growth.”

“In such conditions it is the fast developing markets that are turmoil-proof with their consumers appearing to be more optimistic,” said Nielsen.

The survey showed that 16 per cent respondents said they considered job prospects in the country “excellent” while 59 per cent felt job prospects were “good”. Also, 75 per cent respondents were upbeat about local job prospects over the next 12 months.

“Though the conditions might not be as great as they were in the past few years, the growth opportunities in India are better than most other countries at the moment,” the report added.

Interestingly, India’s concern about terrorism topped the list when the survey was conducted in October 2008, ahead of the terror attacks in Mumbai. And still it ranks as a major concern along with the economy among the Indian consumers.

Help Yourself : Chapter Of Life

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A self-help book comes in print. It becomes the best seller. The book shows us the things we know and guides us to follow it. It is a source to help you to lead a better life. Many read and follow the book to be better human beings and to be able to improve their life. But many others turn critics and ponder on as to why it had to sell when there is nothing new in the book.

Agreeing with the critics, when put to think, you would be the first to comment, “The writer has just written all that we know.” But still you do not put it to practice.

You are right when you say you know it all. The only difference is – these are the simple lessons of life you do not take into consideration as necessary. Instead, you love to find fault with others, and read the book with enthusiasm hoping to improve your own life.

You are blind to your imperfection. You do not even take time to think, “Maybe I went wrong somewhere?” Indeed it is human tendency to feel jealous and indulge in self-pity when you miss a great opportunity; or when going gets tough. Yet, often you do not mend your way. You like to complain and hold someone else responsible for your mistakes.

The chapters of life are very simple.

– Love yourself first, before anything else.
If you learn to love you, as who you are, loving others will follow soon. You may be talented, skilled and extremely efficient; but you feel your friend or sister is doing better. In this unwanted competition you fail to see your achievements. You lose out to yourself, giving others an opportunity, to further pull you down.

– I came alone, I will go alone. Others are needed for my existence.
Often you are faced with situations where you are all alone. When you fall sick, you are the only one who can take care of your body. Family and friends act as support systems, which help you to recover. This is just one example. There are many that you face on a day to day basis.
The moment you realise the significance of your existence, you will learn to depend on yourself before looking out for someone to depend on. This will help you to become stronger to face tougher situations.

– Look at the positive side of things.
There are times when, whatever you lay hands on becomes hard to achieve. You refuse to give up, and fight back, because you know that you are gaining in the process. If you stop seeing the glass as half empty, you have miles to go. But always remember to be positive, read, write and spread positivity around. You will feel good and happy too. Even people you come across will be happy to have you around.

– Learn to accept the situations and people as they are.
You will never have an answer for, “Why this happened to me?” You do not have that much time to ponder and brood over it. The best solution then would be to accept it the way it is, and learn to adjust and accommodate yourself to every situation.
For example, you work really hard on your office presentation that could decide your promotion. It is well received and appreciated by your management and co-workers. But when the promotion list is out, your name does not appear in it. You feel miserable, sad and unhappy. You wish not to return to the office anymore. When you do not have a job in hand, instead of creating a scene in public, think and act.
Accept the situation as it is. And continue to be a part of it, till your turn comes – a new job if lucky, otherwise change your outlook and work for the organisation.

– It is easier to change the way you see things than change the situation or people.
You may question “Why only I need to change, when others are not making any attempts?” Simple, you have to live in the situation with the people. Of course, it is easy to teach children the book of life, but once you are in the path of being an adult or adulthood, making attempts to teach is futile.

Self-help is the best help for a successful living. A little change in your attitude with a minor adjustment to the environment, you will find peace of mind and happiness taking the reign of your life.

Published in ezine.com