Bible and American President

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Barack Obama, the 44th President of United States is the first US president to swear on the Bible that Abraham Lincoln used for his 1861 inauguration.

In the US, presidents are not constitutionally required to be sworn in using a Bible, though most presidents have traditionally used one to take oath of office.

It was George Washington, the first president of United States of America who began this practice. He borrowed a Bible from St. John’s Lodge No. 1.

Chester A. Arthur in 1881 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, were some exceptions as they did not use a Bible.

Similarly, when Kennedy was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson assumed the job of president and took the oath of office aboard “SAM 26000”- Air Force One in 1963. Since there was no Bible in the plane, he used a Roman Catholic missal (contains religious services).

The popular choice till date has been George Washington’s Bible. It has been used by Warren Harding, Dwight Eisenhower and George W Bush.

Some others like Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton have opted for personal Bibles. While Nixon used two Bibles belonging to his family, Clinton chose his grandmother’s.

The Lincoln Bible, an 1853 Oxford University Press edition, will be on display at the Library of Congress from Feb 12 to May 9 as part of an exhibition for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

No matter what the rule says, the presidents continue the tradition to finish the oath of office with the words “So help me God”.

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.