Our all new Ojamas for 2009-2010 are ready for pre-ordering! If you tried our original Ojamas, you'll be thrilled with the softer, luxurious cotton flannel fabric and improved sizing and fit for ladies in our new design. Throughout the year, we surveyed our customers and the two areas which stood out most were fabric and fit. You told us you wanted softer cotton flannel and that you wanted a better fitting garment for ladies, and that's exactly what we're delivering this year. An overwhelming majority of customers who liked the orginal design with the campaign logo said they wanted to see something more fun with our new President's face, and we've captured that in our new design as well.
Governance is a critical issue of the 21st century South Asia. It has assumed greater significance
in respect of Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan because of the strategic geo-political positioning
of these countries in the sub Asian region consisting of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran,
Russia, Central Asian Republics and China. This sub region has peculiar characteristics.
Read the full paper by Mumtaz Piracha at http://southasiagovernance.blogspot.com
To the best of my understanding, the US would prefer power-sharing between the PPP and the PMLN in Pakistan for the sake of continuity of the present civilian political setup and to ensure peace and stability at the same time; while the Pakistan military would prefer midterm elections to bring unity, cohesion and good governance in the country. Absolute power never suits Pakistan; it breeds corruption, maladministration and stalls progress and prosperity to the people at large, irrespective of whether it is the civilian government or the military rule.We need two-party system in Pakistan; one party in power and the other in opposition. The history tells us that military steps in whenever the party in power becomes unpopular with the people or with the military or with the US. There is no second choice. The party in power does not let the opposition play its role as a body to exercise checks and balances on the executive branch of the government and remain intact as a second choice. It is so unfortunate that every government in Pakistan, civilian or military, has invariably resorted to the same tactics aimed at taming the bureaucracy, judiciary, parliament, media and military. At this critical juncture, the long lasting solution lies in midterm elections under an interim multi-party national government with the support of the military and the independent election commission. It is only through fresh elections that the political parties/groups sitting outside the legislatures at the centre and the provinces can be inducted to bringabout national cohesion. Likewise, the representatives of smaller parties/groups in smaller provinces in particular can be given the opportunity to enter the legislatures with the support of the leading parties in the larger national interest. The general sense of deprivation in the smaller provinces especially in the rural areas can be minimized by the participation of the representatives of all parties/groups in the decision making of the federal and provincial governments.A truce and patchup between the PPP and the PMLN is not likely to work. That time has already passed. The leader of the PMLN, Mian Nawaz Sharif, is now heading a mass people's movement rather than a merely lawyers' movement. That difference needs to be understood by all that matter in the politics and power of Pakistan. At the moment, there is no check on the functioning of the government at the centre or the provinces. There is no will and no competence to address public issues. The whole country is beset with unbearably high inflation, widespread poverty, extremely poor law and order, economic stagnation or recession in the commercial and industrial sectors, absence of fair legal and social justice, political wranglings, sectarian, ethnic and religious divides of all sorts. Pakistan has today become a country where the values of its founding fathers are fading away to give way to greed, corruption, class conflict, religious intolerance, social and economic inequalities and non-participation of the people in the decision-making of the government at all levels. Even the political party in power does not engage its rank-and-file echelons in the decision-making process of the party and the government.As the Founder of the Pakistan's largest, most diversified and globally-searched Good Governance Forum, I call upon the US and its allies as well as the Pakistan military to help establish and strengthen the institutions i.e. parliament, judiciary and media to exercise checks and balances on the functioning of the executive. All the stakeholders have to act with absolute determination and indomitable will to put the country on its track as fast as possible.
Mumtaz A. Piracha
Founder & Moderator
Good Governance Forum
Karachi - Pakistan -- Good Governance Forum, founded by Mumtaz A. Piracha, is indexed on hundreds of search engines across the globe. It is the largest, most diversified and most global platform of its kind for the exchange of views, opinions and ideas of learned men and women from almost all walks of life. It is a non-political, non-ethnic and non-profit platform for exchange of views among the network members numbering 1000+. The actual number of our email readers runs into hundreds of thousands as our network members circulate emails of the forum in their social circles.It does not assume any liability whatsoever for the network members' views nor does it necessarily agreewith them. We respect privacy. Anybody can join in or opt out of the network any time by informing the forum via email.Anybody can post his/her comments by visiting the blogsite and clicking on the link COMMENTS on its home pageBlogsite: http://ggovernance.blogspot.comEmail: good.governance@gmail.com
We could get President Clinton or Hw Bush and we will knock until they know who we are in our country.We are America!
YES WE DID! YES WE MUST:
Þ Protect him from harm both verbal & phyiscal
Þ Stay "FIRED UP" by staying active
Þ Work Bi-Partisan to bring "Change" together
Þ Don't just bitch, get active and stay engaged
Þ Start and join a local "Change" group
Þ Be philanthropic, serve your community, state and nation
Þ Stick by Obama, STOP smears on the Right & the Left!!!! Hold yourself responsible as you hold Barack!
Join the future of this movement!!
http://change.gov/joinus
http://www.communityorganize.com
http://www.ourpresidency.com
http://www.usaservice.org
http://www.whitehouse.gov
Barack's DNC 2004 Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWynt87PaJ0&feature=PlayList&p=B1939005B8A4D4ED&index=188
Barack's DNC 2008 Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato7BtisXzE&feature=channel
Barack’s Election Acceptance Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wJ-2Zu_Iic&feature=channel
Barack’s Inauguration Speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4
I’ve heard over and over today, that Barack Obama is historic because he is the first African-American to be President of the United States. Personally I couldn’t care less if his skin was white, black or green. To me it’s an historic day because he makes me care, because suddenly millions of people all over the world care. We listened to his amazing speech, actually listened. We heard his words, not just casually caught a sentence or two from occasional tidbits on TV. He touches me, us, out here in the world, as well as in living rooms all over America. That is historic! At least it hasn’t happened before in my lifetime.
I just played a few minutes of Bush Jr, inaugural speech from 2001 on YouTube. On a factual level he said almost exactly the same things President Obama did. But he never reached me, never made me believe it. He said things like “Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens in every generation, and this is my solemn pledge; I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.” Sounds good, but not nearly as good as President Obama’s words;
“America; In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations”.
These are words to inspire, to reach out and grab you!! These are the words worthy of a President. I even watched Kennedy’s speech to compare but I wasn’t nearly as impressed. Perhaps it just wasn’t my era. Obama will surely be my Kennedy though, and for that I am truly grateful.
As I watched Bush’s speech I noted the comments below it. Apparently there are those Americans who will miss him. One person asked if those who claimed to hate Bush even knew why. I have to confess my main reasons are somewhat childish. I hate how his words belittle me, make me feel less worthy than Americans. I hate it when he says things like Iraq not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment, as if he thought there should be such weapons in every country and that he was disappointed there weren’t. Of course I know what he meant, but he never said what he meant. Instead he said the most atrocious things and the world suffered for it.
Now we finally have a US President who says the most wonderful things in the most wonderful ways and that, as childish as it may seem, is what makes Barack Obama historic in my mind. He makes me believe, and in doing so he changes me. That’s how you create miracles, how you make the impossible possible! That’s how you go to the moon! You make people believe they can.
Still, there are good reasons for caution, as many have pointed out. If expectations are too high it can create the illusion that the work is already done, that we can sit back and enjoy the ride. But I don’t think President Obama will allow that. Nor do I think the millions of unemployed or suffering Americans would ever believe that. But maybe his words can pull them out of their self-pitying slump so many Americans seem to be in at the moment.
Then again, out of some four hundred thousand votes on CNNs website, almost 40% thought the whole inauguration thing was totally overhyped. Maybe they’re right. Maybe our beloved Obama isn’t all that, after all… Time will tell.
But I will love him anyway. If nothing else I will love him for the beautiful words he says and for making me believe, if only for a day!
Also, thank God! or I should say; Thank Obama! the White House website is finally worth paying a visit to!!! The last one was so sad, all empty and boring. I just hope that maybe in the future they’ll make a little room for us non US citizens. We don’t have zip codes and I hate to have to lie on all of these forms and what not. Maybe in time…
Anyway, time for me to sleep, it’s almost one in the morning here now. It’s been a glorious, amazing, unforgettable day. I hope President Obama (I can’t write that often enough!!) and his family have a great evening ball-hoping!
Depression, recession, war, disease, famine, global warming and total financial meltdown of all economies worldwide and the list goes on and on…
Surely President Obama will wake up with a considerable headache for many days to come. But the key to all of these problems are one and the same; global cooperation across borders and beliefs. In today’s world everything is so interconnected that simply focusing on one thing, one nation or one solution is futile. We need to start thinking of ourselves as one race together on this one planet. Only with that perspective can any actual solutions be found. Thankfully President Obama seems to understand this very thing.
It won’t be easy of course, but then again nothing worth having comes easy. Perhaps this dive into despair is what’s needed for countries like the United States to begin to redefine themselves and their role in the world. We have changed greatly as a race, the past century. With this new millennium we face challenges never before imagined. To deal with this we need new ways of thinking, feeling and relating to each other.
The internet made the world significantly smaller, airplanes narrowed distances between us and the media forged new bonds across all boundaries. The global warming and diminishing energy resources will soon tie us even closer together, billions of individuals as we are, stuck on this tiny planet in infinite space.
To unite a world, the world needs to be inspired to unite. Bullying never works, people will always find ways to fight it. But to inspire such a complex thing as a world like ours, one must have a clear understanding of the path ahead, knowledge of the path behind us and awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of one’s own heart. Only at the highest peak can you make yourself heard by all, and the climb there is thorny to say the least. But I can’t imagine anyone with more promise than Barack Obama.
Insecurity, distrust and fear have spread like wildfire across the globe in recent years. Wars and painful conflicts seem present or unavoidable everywhere you turn. The US is no longer the guaranteed peacekeeper it once was and President Obama is not a miracle worker. No outsider can ever bring peace. But he can, and must, rebuild mutual respect. This does not mean nations will suddenly become eternal friends, nor will they trust each other blindly. But for diplomacy to work, some degree of trust is essential. This will be President Obama’s greatest challenge; to build bridges, within his own country and between many others.
If President Obama can manage to get people talking again, get them to move forward instead of this stagnated depression, no challenge is too great to overcome. This is a simple fact. There are some six billion of us here, there’s nothing we can’t do.
But making this happen, uniting enemies and reconnecting old allies, will require a very special touch, a fingertip sensitivity to what each and all need to hear. There are keys to unleash every human’s inner creativity. But we each have a different key, so anyone desiring to inspire, has to understand our differences and adapt. A challenge worthy of any hero!!
It’s a good thing our new President is young! He’s got time… I’m looking forward to his eight years in the White House and the subsequent (?!) decades in charge of a new and reformed United Nations!
Ojamas were featured on WPIX TV Morning News in New York Today. Watch the segment titled "Everything Obama."
During the horrors of Bush’s reign I slowly began to come to the dreadful realization that before long the world might actually find itself in the midst of a third World War, something that had seemed unthinkable for many decades. But the new millennia seemed to hold far more frightening scenarios than ever before imagined and the outcome of all these fears would rest in the hands of the future President of the United States.
For so long it felt like disaster was inevitable, as the hope of all civilized nations, the country that held so much promise, had begun to act so erratically, irresponsibly and impulsively. This was cause for great concern, since the world needed a unifying force more than ever before. The challenges we all faced could not be solved alone and the United States of America was the only potential candidate to unite an unruly world. But President Bush, supported, at least in the beginning, by large numbers of his people, made it clear that the US thought nothing of the rest of the world or the wisdom that had evolved within it.
Then suddenly there was a young Senator from Illinois with the strange name of Barack Obama. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve come since then.
When Obama won in Iowa, it was like the fog finally lifted after so many years of impenetrable darkness. There was hope and possibilities again, a chance at least for peace and prosperity. But going through my own blog posts, as they depict this incredible journey, I can’t help but marvel at the challenges he faced and obstacles he overcame. All of it converging on this day, in this moment in time, when I can finally write the words I have so longed to write; President Obama. It’s enough to take your breath away. But despite the fact that my belief in the possibility of this moment and my faith in this man has never wavered, I have to admit most days it did seem like an impossible dream.
Yet here we are. Today impossible has been proven null and void for all to see. Faith has finally prevailed over despair, commitment and dedication has prevailed over the age old prejudice of money and breeding, and the ethereal experience of hope became an actual beacon in the darkness.
Today millions all over the world enjoy the sensation of victory, the sweat aroma of joyous celebration. It is truly remarkable how many of us became personally invested in this campaign and shared in the struggles and woes of our fellow humans. Never before has the election in nation become such a shared endeavor for so many, so far apart!
Even though I’m unable to be a part of the celebrations in Washington DC today, I will be there in heart and spirit, for this day feels like it belongs as much to me as it does to the American people and others across the globe. It’s more than just the swearing in of yet another President. It’s the pinnacle of a collective journey, where accepted truths were tested and faith challenged, with victory the final outcome. It has been a journey so much greater than one man or one voice.
Barack Obama became the focus point of a world full of hope, dreams and fears and he carried it all without faltering or wavering. I have never been more proud of a single individual before, and elated that he has not yet allowed my belief in him to be in vain.
As countless Americans proudly, and rightly so, declare themselves winners, not just of an election, but rather winners of the battle against the hopelessness and crippling fear that has held the nation in its grip for so long, we should all remember the fragility of this victory. The celebration is well deserved and should be a moment worthy of the history books. But tomorrow the true test and challenge begins.
President-Elect Obama is inheriting so many problems that no other President had. He is among the most intelligent and highly educated President we ever had so I think he must have thought about the same what I am going to write here in brief for your feedback. The difference is, it is based on my observation and experience gained from working and living in Middle East, Africa, Asia and of course US.
Major Hot Points in the World:
There are two major areas that could blow up the big part of the world if President-elect Obama, like his predecessors, does not take a positive and unbiased action; Palestine and Kashmir. Before him, every one also wanted Peace but no one was bold enough to spell out the root cause of the issues and try to bring the warring nations to the table. It is time that we put our foot down and call a Spade a Spade.
The issues are highly complex. No one is willing to compromise. There are many things common among the parties Pakistan/India & Palestine/Israel. Will the history hold America responsible for what is going on in that part of the world? Will the history call us a silent observer or silent party to the problems in those countries? To mention few common areas;
· We as Americans always used UN/Security council to take any action. On the other hand, our biggest allies, India and Israel both occupy land of Kashmir and Palestine and refuse to implement the UN resolutions but we never raised our voice about their inaction.
· We pay each year almost four billions of dollars to Israel from our own Tax money, but we never question, where they are spending, on weapons or infrastructure.
· We gave nuclear technology to Israel and India to build their nuclear reactors and we never ask any question about their piles of nuclear weapons.
President-elect Obama needs to take the Lead and BRING LOVE, PEACE AND JUSTICE to that part of the world. If he succeeds, there will be peace in the world and history will remember him with the best words.
What Needs To Be Done?
Without going into details here is what I think he needs to do as the next President of United States.
1- Tell all the four warring countries, India & Pakistan, and Israel & Palestine to sit at the table to discuss their issues and come up with their solution, within a given time period. We should be represented in those meetings.
2- If they do not reach a decision,
a. US will recall its diplomatic staff
b. US will stop sending financial aid
c. US will get a Resolution passed by the UN to impose strict air, land and sea blockade, as we did against Iraq, Libya and Iran.
d. US will not allow any funds transfer to the country by a business or an individual
e. US will use armed forces of Muslim countries, if necessary, to bring peace and order in those countries.
3- Do not pay any Financial aid to any country in cash. Approve the amount for their specific projects that must be completed by American companies. It will generate more jobs and more business for Americans. The local population of the recipient country will see the result of the aid and will appreciate it. Our money will not go into the pockets of their politicians. Otherwise, we will continue losing money.
To some extent Barack Obama is the personification of the image of America being a melting pot. Obama’s heritage is as diverse and mixed as the population of the US. His father Barack Sr. is from Kenya, while is mother is from Kansas. After his parents divorced, his mother remarried a man from Indonesia. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2006, Obama underlined his ethical roots by explaining the get together of his family on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day looks like a meeting of the United Nations with people look a likes from Bernie Mac to Margaret Thatcher.
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The Pajama Program is a non-profit organization that provides new, warm pajamas and books to children in need in the United States and around the world, many who are waiting and hoping to be adopted. The program started with personal contributions from founders Genevieve Piturro, her friend Alice Clark, and their friends and relatives. The Pajama Program has grown nationwide and now receives contributions from generous supporters and fundraising events across the country.
One such event is the Obama Pajama Inauguration Charity Ball being held in Washington D.C. Sunday, January 18th. Hosted by reknowned actress, Carrie Fisher, the event begins at 7pm with a VIP Dinner in the Rotunda of the Ronald Reagan Building followed at 8pm by a Gala Reception in the Pavillion. Attire is black tie/ball gown or pajamas/nightgown.
A natural and perfectly complimentary patner, Ojamas Sleepwear, is co-sponsoring the event. Click here to buy tickets or make a donation. Be sure to bring your Ojamas with you or order yours today.
I'll be in DC and in the Inaugural Parade as part of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Group. Would be great to heae from other campaign workers who'll be in or at the parade!
Joan McKniff, mckniffj@yahoo.com, Sarasota, formerly ARS Paris
