Thanks to Svetlana!

I was shocked when I read your blog entry "Why I Stopped Blogging"! I mean... No! I got the idea of this by you and you somehow showed all of us how we can efficiently deal with new media tools, showed us what other search engines exist apart from Google, what other (to that date unknown) tools there are on the web and so on and so forth!
But it is not time to complain, I am sure you have your reasons, as you mentioned it in your entry.

No, I would like to thank you for the semester with us, that you dealt with us so patiently, even on this early Tuesday morning!

Thanks A Lot!
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/thumb_149/1179390533k3VOh8.jpg

MoZ: Can One Do Justice To Barack Obama In Only One Session?

(www.libraryjournal.com)


Finally, we´re getting to talk about US President Barack Obama! He is actually one of the main reasons why I (and many others, I suppose) chose this particular seminar "Presidential Elections".
Save The Best For Last!

The question is: Can one do justice to Barack Obama in only one session?
I mean there is so much to talk about, he has already done so much that is worth discussing and we have got only 90 minutes for this? We are doubtlessly a powerful and efficient class and we will face the challenge! Can we do it? YES WE CAN!

I am really looking forward to tomorrow´s session, it will be fun experiencing "YouTub-ing", present our blogs and share experience with this.

As preparation for class or in retrospect, you might want to watch this:

MoZ: Yesterday Email, Today Interconnectivity, Tomorrow ???

Since I signed up on Twitter, I discovered that a new level of Web pace and interconnectivity has been reached (although I am a bit late ;) ). Twitter offers a list of "Trending Topics" and Google Chrome OS is ranked in the first place. Google Chrome? Why the hell is Google Chrome, a more or less ordinary browser ranked on top of the list??

But one has to be precise: it is Chrome OS! This is not the browser, it is an operating system, as the abbreviation indicates. Google is building up a rivel to Microsoft´s Windows!
Now I do not want to talk about Google Chrome OS, what it is in detail, who it developed and what it can do or whatever, my focus is on the pace the online world has been taking the last years.
When emailing became popular and accessible for the vast majority, everyone was astonished the world over. Then instant messengers and social online networks appeared - that was the next stage. In a previous blog entry, I reported about Google Wave, a new web interface that allows real time emailing, editing, working, chatting and so on and so forth. This is real interconnectivity. Twitter even took this to the next level: there are so many people involved that any rumour anywhere in the world is transported to an online community that spreads this rumour further. I think it can be called a Ponzi scheme.
The reason why I mention this is that Google Chrome OS, being ranked in the first place, caught my attention on Twitter. I get new information and rumours via other sources, but Twitter can do this a lot faster.
Here is an example how such a rumour can be spread: http://www.massenpublikum.de/blog/?p=1134
It is about Michael Ballack, a German soccer player, who might join the HSV and leave Chelsea London. This man in the link listened to some guys in a train, lawyers and mentors of soccer players, and he directly twittered this rumour! This caused quite a stir as you can imagine. Just a day after that, all the big newspapers reported about this - maybe this is just a newspaper hoax, but this example vividly shows how amazingly fast the Internet has become!
If we call the status today "interconnectivity", what will it be like in 5 or 10 years time?? "Beam Me Up, Scotty?"


(http://cenblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/beam_me_up_scotty.jpg)

!!Kal Penn for Obama!! - The White House Sitcom

Hey guys,
I´ve known this fact (call it disturbing, astonishing, amazing, boring, surprising or whatever) for several months, but as we were talking about Obama, his personality and charisma in class today I directly thought back to that: Kal Penn is about to work for Barack Obama in the White House - as a "full" member of staff.
For those of you who do not know him: Here is first of all a picture - that is him (taken from http://www.emeriandjonahscloset.com/ejc/aj/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kal-penn.jpg).
Looks quite serious, doesn´t he?? A young serious man who can take his tasks and fulfill them!
Hehe - yes! But...


But there is also another side of Kal Penn (not that negatively connotated as it may sound now):
He used to work as an actor - okay, nothing special, you may think, but!!
Most of you might know him from the series Dr. House (I love it by the way, alothough I liked the first two seasons best). He played the young Dr. Lawrence Kutner working for Dr. House´s team. After being invited by Obama to work for him, the figure Kutner had to commit suicide as both jobs at the same time were incompatible. This was the more serious part of his work, but now let´s turn to some movies he made that are even less compatible with his future job:

They are still quite unknown here, but one must have seen them. It is firstly Harold & Kumar - Go to White Castle and secondly the sequel to it: Harold & Kumar - Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
In these movies, Kal Penn (which is actually only a stage name; his real one is Kalpen Modi) plays Kumar, a weed smoking, lazy young man who is forced to study medicine by his father. His purpose in life is having fun and smoking as much weed as he can get, together with his friend Harold (a Korean man - also a weedhead, but a little bit more reasonable), alone or with his Jewish friends. This is what it look like then (taken from flixster.com:



Now the question: Can such a man really take such a responsibility and work for the White House? At first glance he can absolutely NOT - I mean he is a weedhead who does not do anything with his life!
But: Barack Obama will not have chosen an unreliable man to work for him who could crash all his previous work. By the way - what is Modi´s job then? He is supposed to be some kind of a mediator between the American government and Asian immigrants and artists. He does not expect to get special treatment, but he would like to be regarded as any other member of staff and he does not want to take advantage of his former career as an actor.


Here is an online source reporting about this, but there are many other comparable ones, just google it, since you know how search engines work :)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aFXnt_hqV._8&refer=muse

If you are interested in his movies, here is a trailer of the first movie where they try to get some burgers at White Castle ;)




This is an interview with Kalpen Modi; at first summarizing what he has done so far and then he talks about what his tasks are in the White House, and he is not only a "weedhead". Check it out!

Moment of Zen

This is the latest Moment of Zen:
"The Bradley Effect - Still A Threat Today?"

As you can see, this blog entry deals with the question of wether the Bradley Effect nowadays can still influence the election results in comparison to the number in the polls before or not.

In the run-up of the 2008 elections, many experts and political scientists were wondering if Obama could still fail although he seemed to be uncatchable for John McCain. They drew analogies to the election campaign of Tom Bradley in 1982 who really lost this election although he was superior to his opponent according to the polls before.
I think that this question is legitimate, because also in the 2008 elections a black politician fought against a white one. Obama showed that he did not fail due to the Bradley effect, but that he won almost as predicted. Why has there not been this special effect? Well, I do not know the ´82 elections for the gouvernor in California to that extent as I got it in Obama´s case, but I still think that first of all the politician has to "reach" the population and have fantastic ideas how to improve politics, economy, environment and so on and so forth. Secondly, this man must have a great charisma and authenticity to make the people trust him. I do not know if this was the case more than 25 years ago, but Obama had these character traits and political abilities - that is why he won.
Furthermore, TIMES HAVE CHANGED (but still, Obama calls for a further change ;) ):
I am of the idea that the vast majority of society has become much more liberal and open to new ideas and cultures, so that a black man can become the world´s most powerful man.
Nevertheless, one is absolutely NOT allowed to forget what has happened in history (especially WW2). Here in Germany the right-wing parties gain strength and one really has to fight against this to prevent these parties from winning seats in the German Bundestag.

But let us get back to America now: As I can judge the matter, Tom Bradley lost because many many voters only stated their support for this candidate, so that no one could accuse them of racism and other related things. When casting the ballots they voted according to their real opinion.
As mentioned above, one has to recognize that times have changed and that most of the people really concentrate on the candidate´s progam and his working abilities. It won´t be long till the world has the first female president - society is open for that! Liberality and Open-Mindedness!

In conclusion, to answer the Moment of Zen, one can say that the Bradley Effect is not a threat anymore in the "Western civilized world". But in contrast I think that this could happen in the Middle East (where ballott-rigging is a daily occurence: see blog entries below!) or in Asian countries, if a candidate does not correspond to the "regular" view. Censorship also looms large in this case.

Sincerely, see you in class!

What Kind of Tech User Am I??

Well, I did the test mentioned in the title and the result was that I am an Ambivalent Networker:
If you are an Ambivalent Networker, you have folded mobile devices into how you run your social life, whether through texting or online social networking tools. You also rely on ICTs for entertainment. At the same time – perhaps because of the volume of digital pings from others – you may sometimes find all your connectivity to be intrusive. You are confident in your ability to troubleshoot your various information devices and services.

Well, I think that this matches pretty well, because I think that I would be able to "survive" without my cellphone, TV, Radio, etc. Concerning the Web, it would be somhow difficult as it takes such a big part in life: it nearly replaces all the old media devices, you can watch TV online, or via a DVB-T stick, you can listen to the radio online, read newspapers, even local ones!
But, as I have already mentioned in a blog entry before, what do we actually do online? If we do not have to do any reference work for university, everyone of us has got his 4 or 5 webpages (email, YouTube, studiVZ, maybe amazon and ebay) and that is it! And how often do we sit in front of the monitor and think "Maaan... it is so boring, why does not anything happen??" - but then, there might be an event of a world-wide interest, such as Michael Jackson´s death (Rest in Peace, Jacko). Then we have got something else to do, because we try to find out the circumstances (in this case) and all that is connected to this event.
I was impressed by the extent the media reported on MJ´s death: Each and every headline looked the same: "Michael Jackson is dead!" There were even special programs on CNN and BBC so that the regular shows were not broadcast to report about Jackson...

But let´s get back to the test: I am pretty happy with the result, because I am sure that I can manage my life without all this technical stuff... at least temporarily ;)

My online behavior has not changed by taking this class very much, but I have to say that now I am much more active concerning blogs, blogposts, comments and stuff like that! Thanks Svetlana! :) I have always been somehow interested in blogging, but I have never taken the step. Now I see that it is pretty easy, does not take much time, and sharing thoughts with others and getting opinions of other people can actually widen your (mental) horizon and be much fun!

So guys, don´t be afraid of new things, especially technical devices! And tell your parents and grand-parents who might be frightened of them!

The Iranian Electoral System

Hey folks,

in addition to my blog entry about ballot-rigging and if it can only occur in the Middle East, such as probably happened in Iran as I mentioned this example and as we are supposed to write something in addition to last session, I decided to write this entry about the Iranian electoral system and want to compare it to the American one. I hope that I can write in “Plain English” ;)

Firstly, the biggest difference in these two electoral system is the degree of the power of each president. Whereas Obama is regarded as the “most powerful man in the world”, the Iranian president Ahmadinedschad is only ranked second – behind the “non-elected theocracy”, in this case it is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. HE is the most powerful man in Iran and he has got the decisions to make, comparable to Obama: He calls the different ministers into office (e.g. foreign and defense minister) and he has got the control over the important and “trend-setting” decisions for the country of Iran. This man is not elected as the president, as mentioned above, but in his case, it is an appointment for life.
The president´s power in contrast is restricted. He is Head of Government and elected for four years. He has to make proposals for the candidates of the ministries and these proposals have to be accepted by parliament. Ahmadinedschad was finally elected and he fulfilled the conditions to become president: He is Muslim and between 25 and 75 years old. Women actually are allowed to run for president by law, but their candidacy has never been accepted by the “ruling clerics” so that they had to give their business up.
Now the question is: Who is allowed to vote? That is pretty simple and comparable tour German and American electoral system. Everyone being at least 18 years old. All in all this makes a sum of over 46 million eligible Iranian voters. It is important that all Iranian people are allowed to vote who fulfill these conditions – also those living abroad: another similarity.
The last important fact is that the president is elected directly by the population and he only needs a simple majority (>50%), not a majority of two thirds or something. Here the electoral system is some kind of, I do not want to say “primitive”, but very simple. I think, we like our electoral system better, because we are just used to it – but if you have a closer look at the Iranian one, one has to say that it does not sound that bad actually, if you can directly vote for the president! But then, there is of course the danger of ballot-rigging (see my entry about that down below ;) )!

I hope I did not get the Iranian electoral system wrong! Please feel free to comment on any mistakes!

Moment of Zen

Breakdown - How dependent is the Web on Google?

On May 14th the Internet users could not reach Google due to a routing-problem. This includes not only the search engine which many users think Google is only! But Google is much more than only this search engine: have a look at this German webpage http://www.drweb.de/magazin/google-dienste-kann-alles-weis-alles/ and you will count more than 70 tools that Google offers! There are the ones everyone knows and others that not everybody knows that they belong to Google , but they are as important as the popular ones.

1. Of course there is at first the search engine. If Google Search is not accessible, many users do not know how to handle other search engines and probably they do even not know where to find and how to use them!
2. Then there is YouTube. Did all of you know that YouTube belongs to Google?? If Google Search does not work, YouTube does not either. At first glance this does not sound, well, disturbing. But how many of us do have their 4 or 5 webpages they visit daily (mailaccounts, newsfeeds and probably YouTube and so on) and if one does not work, that is quite annoying!
3. blogger.com: Many of us have their blogs on blogger.com or blogspot.com. These pages also belong to Google! If Google broke down we could not post our Moments of Zen and other blog entries, and we would not receive points for that! You see, the Web is dependent on Google to a really high degree, it has also got far-reaching influence on the daily "offline" life!
4. There are probably some of us sharing their collection of photos on Picasa. This page cannot be accessed and if you used photos from Picasa in your blog entries or on your webpages, then these photos will not be shown, just because Google has broken down!
5. Do not forget Google Earth and Google Maps!

These are the most important Google tools that we get into contact with frequently, but there are others, such as Google Analytics and Google AdSense, which, if they cannot work properly due to Google´s breakdown, are responsible for the deathless loading times of web pages - everyone has experienced this at least some times and one always wonders if his or her PC has got a virus or something so that the pages cannot be loaded properly!
But it is all (of course not always, but often :) ) up to Google!

The continuative question now is: What can we as Internet users do against this dependency on Google? "Nothing", many will think. But a first step could be to try out Microsoft´s new search engine Bing! This shall not be advertising, but one has to ´fight´ against Google´s monopoly!


Try it out, folks!



annotation by the author: I used the names of Google and its tools this often and repeated them volitionally to show to what extent Google influences one´s online web behavior! Not that anyone accuses me of a bad syntax or of a ´narrow´ and restricted lexis! ;)

Moment of Zen

Ballot-Rigging - Only in the Middle East?

The Iranian population re-elected their president Mahmoud Ahmadinedschad with about two thirds of all people with voting power. Before, experts had seen his rival Hossein Mussawi and Ahmadinedschad on the same level - that is why the election result is astonishing (in the negative sense). Directly after the result obtained official certification, Mussawi accused Ahamadinedschad for ballot-rigging. He also claims that his election campaign was sabotaged: he was active on facebook which was blocked -according to Ahamadinedschad´s party this happened due to "supernatural" circumstances-, but with regard to the blocking of the mobile communications network in several areas in Iran, one can assume that this is obviously ballot-rigging.
Many politicians say, that this country missed a chance of opening towards the Western world and breaking out of the incrusted structures. The re-elected president also stated that he would not accept the conditions of nuclear arms reduction, but even to continue building them! This is a slap in the face of the Western countries trying to bring freedom to the country, first of all the USA.

We have heard many times that manipulation, sabotage and dictatorship are a common thing in the Middle East - just regard Saddam Hussein! He was finally overthrown, but Mahmoud Ahmadinedschad seems to take the same traits as Hussein. Now it is America´s job as the "world police" to calm the rumours there - not only America´s job of course, but of all the Western countries fighting for freedom and autonomy for Iran.


Now the question is: Does ballot-rigging only occur in the Middle East or is it possible that the American or German elections become sabotaged?
There were rumors that there was a ballot-rigging in the 2004-elections when Bush won against John Kerry, but nobody could ever prove this suspicion.
Here is a video that shows in a funny way how ballot-rigging worked in 2004 (here it is in Florida) so that George W. Bush could be re-elected. But keep in mind: The subject-matter of this video is obviously NOT funny! It has got a serious background!




You see: ballot-rigging is not only a thing that occurs in the Middle East, it is also ´there´ in the US and probably in Germany! There were the same rumors in the 2008 election and "The Simpsons" also picked this topic up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aBaX9GPSaQ
They parody, but as mentioned above, it is also the case here, that the serious background remains the same! KEEP THIS IN MIND!! Otherwise you numb yourself to these processes and it is up to us to keep a clear mind to distinguish what is right and what is wrong!

Best wishes!

Social Networks Online and Offline - in how far do they differ?

Good evening again!


this is the Moment of Zen for this blog entry: Social Networks Online and Offline - in how far do they differ?

It is my personal opinion, maybe you have got another perspective on this, I would appreciate if you left a comment about your own view below my blog entry!

I use StudiVZ and facebook to get in contanct with people online, so there I can find my peers and they build my social network online. But what is interesting is that the people I have added as "friends" there differ completely! On StudiVZ I have got my friends from my former school, now from university, from sports clubs, other institutions from everyday life and so on, I think you can imagine. Of course some of them are there on facebook, but most of them are those who I met during my stay in Australia. Consequently one could say that I have got two social networks... one on studivz, one on facebook...
the problem is that facebook has not been that popluar in Germany as StudiVZ, but the interest in it grows exponentially. At the moment there are about 2.5 million German facebook users online.

What is as important is the following: I have got nearly 300 friends on StudiVZ and some of them I even do not really or speak to regularly! Why are they my friends there though? Does not make sense, does it? You know each other from seminars or something else and then you add this person as a friend on StudiVZ; out of these 300 I am in close contact with about 20 to 30 at most!
That is the difference between offline and online networks: one has got a whole load of friends online, but you do not get in close contact with most of them when being offline. It is easier to just write a short message online and see how anyone is going, but is thhis essential?? I don´t think so... friendships, if you want to call them that, can also find an end pretty easily if the other one does not reply to these messages!

I prefer the offline social network! What do you think?

Moment of Zen

Social Networks Online and Offline - in how far do they differ?

Mitchel Cohen - No Spray

Good evening everyone!

When I heard that a political activist came to our university to deliver a guest lecture about Barack Obama and his politics, I thought about anything, but Cohen being also active in environment protection!
I did some reference work and found out that Mitchel Cohen is a co-founder and coordinator of the NO SPRAY! organization. This organization fights against the spraying of toxic pesticides on fields or anywhere where plants grow that people will consume. And he even goes a step further and connects the guest lecture with his organization as he relates their work to the "biological" steps Obama faces in his politics. According to Cohen, Obama does not fight against genetic engineering of plants, fruit and vegetables, but he even endorses it! This goes completely against Cohen´s point of view. One can understand that he feels crestfallen as he set his hopes and desires in Obama. No Spray has been fighting against this pollution and usage of pesticides since 1999 and they are disappointed again and again.
Here is an example: "Thousands Exposed to Poison by Government´s Aerial Spraying"
http://www.naturalnews.com/z022434.html
It is an article by Rami Nagel about this above mentioned usage of pesticides that not only the plants but especially people are exposed to! Check it out, it describes the incidents very well!

By the way, you can also find this article and a comment on this on the organization´s own web page where you can also donate to support them. By doing this you make sure that they can have more influence on politicians so that they will change their policies to a more healthy way of living.
Then Mitchel Cohen will also be content with Barack Obama.


Here is the web page of No Spray!
http://www.nospray.org/index.shtml

Google Wave

Hey,
now I am going to discuss the Moment of Zen:
In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?

In this moment right now, we have several tools to communicate online, such as instant messengers (ICQ, AIM...), emails and their specific programmes (Thunderbird, Outlook), online chatrooms, web-based telephoning (Skype) and so on and so forth...
You can use all these tools and programmes at once, but you need a whole load of tools.
Google will revolutionize this: Google Wave combines all these tools mentioned above and forms ONE specific web interface.
This platform allows it for each user to communicate with others either synchronous (at the same time, see instant messaging) or asynchronous (email). But that is not all: Wave tends to real-time communication. This does not only cover chatting, but also collaboration concerning documents and photo editing. Collaboration? Yes! Users can work together on one project, but they do not have to sit together around one table. That IS the next higher level, isn´t it?? I am completely astonished by this...

By the way: the name "Wave" derives from this collaboration. Each user working on such a project can see the the design steps other used made to finish their process with the aid of a replay function.

Internet really becomes more and more and more and more and more interactive; to May 28th, 2009 I could not imagine this being possible - but I was disabused ;)

Here you can check out the whole presentation of Google Wave by its developper Lars Rasmussen in San Francisco - don´t get deterred, it´s a quite long video! :)

http://wave.google.com/

Moment of Zen

Hey Guys,

this is my new Moment of Zen I am going to discuss above. According to our last session when we were discussing "New Media" I found a new Internet tool being able to make the Web-communication more interaktive. The question is:

In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?

Moment of Zen

Comparison of Elections: US President vs. German Federal President

Hey guys,
today the German Federal President has been reelected and I think this is a good basis for comparing the differences in election systems with regard to the use of new media devices.
One can regard the Federal President as the most powerful political figure as he represents the country in the world and can actually unseat the Federal Chancellor.
The use of new media devices was nearly imperceptible. There was not a real campaign, but the reason for this is, in my opinion, that the people may not elect the president itself. Another important factor is that the Federal Republic has been existing for exactly 60 years - it was founded in 1949. That is why there were several articles about the election always in connection with the "anniversary". But one did not stumble across a huge campaign - you have to be really interested in politics and willing to search for articles on the Internet. In contrast to this: there were several "shows" on TV which concentrated on the election - but not on the Internet!!
I found this page concerning Obama´s visit in Dresden in about a week:

http://www.dresden.de/obama/index.php


Over the last week, there were actually more articles on Internet pages discussing Obama´s visit, which sights he will visit, how the Secret Service is concerned with his security and so on and so on and so on and so on..... :)

This is the YouTube video showing the Federal President Horst Köhler being reelected (for those who are actually interested as one cannot elect him personally):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMbMfocqpP0

Moment of Zen

Hey Guys, here is my new Moment of Zen:
According to last week´s lesson, I chose on the qustions of got from you:
"Do you think the Teletubbies have an educational function as ´Sesame Street´?"

Well, as I told you in my presentation, there are lots of negative aspects of TV, such as violence and crime influencing the children´s attitude towards violence in reality; but on the other hand, there are positive aspects as well, such as the educational function. This is represented by the CNN Newsfeed at schools, or, as mentioned above, by the Sesame Street. Children can communicate with their peers while watching and with the characters on TV, such as Samson and Tiffy, with the aid of symbols, songs and so on. There you have a ´real´ language, that children can learn something from.
Transfered to the Teletubbies, one has to say, that is is absolutely NOT the case. They do not have a real language apart from the speaker, they communicate with their own one and they only call their names... that is all of communication in this series - and there is a danger for children, especially for those sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours and whose parents do not care for them. They might adopt this language and have difficulties to get rid of it.

I think that the Teletubbies absolutely have NO educational function and should be abandoned from TV!
But find out yourselves if you consider them as worth watching for you child in the future:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiaLOzP1lCA

Unreliability of the Internet

This is my new Moment of Zen!

Our modern world does not work without computers, cell phones, emails, the web.... what if all servers are shut down or break down?? What would be the effects on the economy, politics, the daily-life?
We could see it on April 21st, 2009, when the clients of the German Telekom could not use their cell phones for talking for only a few hours! All based on a break down of the servers due to a software problem. Subsequent to this power failure they were allowed to send short messages the following sunday for free! This reveals how important new media devices are for our society and it also underlines the dependence on these devices.

I came across such an unreliable moment when I tried to find information about "Tailrank" for class... I used several search engines, such as ask.com, but Google as well, and they showed comparable results. The first entry was linked to the website "www.tailrank.com". "Well, sounds good, I should find information there", I thought without having a clue what ´Tailrank´ could be. But what happened? I clicked on the page, and it said: "Tailrank is taking a Gliding Lesson - We´re doing a big DB upgrade... should be fun :)..." They have been doing this upgrade since Tuesday, April 5th, when will it be finished??

This is such a case of the Unreliability of the Internet. There are of course other sources helping to find out what ´Tailrank´ could be, but I expect not to get these information at first hand! But that is in turn good about the internet: if one source does not work, there are enough others absorbing the losses so that there is always a way to gather information. So far so good.

But what if there is a "Web-Apocalypse"?? That´s a topic for the next MoZ ;)

Obama - Hero or Zero?

Today, Obama has been in office, the Oval Office, for exactly 100 days. It´s time a for résumé, isn´t it?
All in all, he gave 514 election pledges, which is quite a lot! How many of them has he already fulfilled, how many has he failed, which of them haven´t been touched at all?
Due to introducing himself as "The Saviour" and being introduced as such, Obama has quite a heavy burden. He is a man of great charisma, congeniality and enthusiasm. But saving the world is not a question of these character traits, words have to be followed by actions! He promised to reduce wars, fight against the global economic crisis, improve the climatic situation in the USA as well as worldwide etc etc…
Obama started his presidential term fulminantly, he has been present not only in media but also and especially physically all around the world, i.e. his attendance at the NATO summit in Europe and his further journey to Turkey and China. But nevertheless it becomes apparent that Barack Obama is not a supernatural miracle, but more a man of earthly character. He has kept his pledges concerning climate and energy – the USA have changed their attitude to the understanding of the climatic disaster, but nevertheless the present legislative initiatives are not sufficient, but of course this needs time to be fulfilled!
A big promise was the closing down of Guantanamo. Obama wants to close this prison down, but at the same time he has not declared what is to be done with the prisoners. This is more an act of a symbolic character!
The American nation has to remain patient and uncomplaining; they may not expect miracles!In contrast to the Bush era people are now more interested in politics again which is the basis for a successful engagement and teamwork in solving the crises ahead. Obama cannot spirit them [the crises] off – he is absolutely dependent on the people´s support and help. There are so many obstacles on his way that it won´t be easy to put things back on track. But if he has the support of the American nation, he can and will be successful! but if several of his attempts fail, he will lose this support and is “just another politician” – that´s how society works… But - does Obama still get support by the Amercan nation? I found this public-opinion poll published by the Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/28/baracks-in-the-basement/

According to this, Obama is the second least popular president in the last 40 years. Inexplicable! Can you imagine why that is the case?

Considering these first 100 days, one has to say, that “he [Obama] really has changed the tone” (Tina Brown) and that he has already done a lot. But at the same time, it is still a long and winding road. The biggest problems are the global economic crisis and the climatic desaster; the USA have changed their attitude to the understanding of the climatic disaster, but nevertheless the present legislative initiatives are not sufficient, but of course this needs time to be fulfilled, as said above. Many pledges haven´t been touched yet, but with regard to those too crises of a worldwide concern, it is absolutly understandable. In my opinion Obama will make his way and his poll numbers will rise.

Here is the video I took the quote by Tina Brown from. It´s a conversation between Bob Schieffer as host, Tina Brown (The Daily Beast) and Bob Woodward (The Washington Post) on the show “Face the Nation”. They also sum up the first 100 days – to what extent to they agree on Obama being successful? Find out!




Best Wishes

Introduction

Good Morning Ladys & Gentlemen!

This blog has just been created and there is not a typing mistake in its title - that´s wanted…

On this platform Presidential Elections in the US will be discussed - facts that hit the nail on the head and facts that hit the nail in the broadest sense. What this is? That´s a surprise!For I´d like to focus only on the essence, the important things, pre-selections to topics being worth discussing have to be made! Others can feel free to talk about issues of no importance…

Since the American Elections play an important role on this blog and the Obama election in particular, I´d like to do a résumé on his first 100 days.

This leads directly to the first Moment of Zen: Is Obama really the "Hero" as he has been described, shown and presented by new and old media devices? If he is not - has he failed in his challenge?

It will be interesting analysing his achievements up to now.

This is a video by Amnesty International posted on YouTube on Jan 15th, 2009, before Obama was actually inaugurated; it is a rather ironic view on the expectations, but nevertheless it has a serious content, don´t forget that!

Also visit the AI-website: www.obama100days.com !

Best Wishes!