Cap Phantom

The power of black community is rising constantly with black leaders proving their leadership qualities and mettle. The success of black community is entirely based on the positive efforts of black entrepreneurs, black CEO’s, black executives and black business leaders around the world. Their success and vision have inspired the growth of blacks not only in USA but also in the rest parts of the world as well. Here, we’ll highlight the achievements of Barack Obama, who has dominated the political scenario in the US.

The rising success of Mr. Obama has proved that sky is unlimited for those who know how to make a world of their own. Democrat Barack Obama of Illinois has been running the country’s presidential elections, soon to be held this year in US.

For reaching on the top of this electoral battle, he has to beat arch rival Hillary Clinton in the Democratic nomination and Republican John McCain in the general election. Obama would be the country’s first black president if he wins the election.

In 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama first shot to fame with his roaring speech in which he talked about his personal story in concern with the traditional American ideologies of independence and desires.

Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a White mother, won with a huge margin a few months later. After his election, Obama became a major attraction of the media industry. In 2007, he declared his candidature for the US presidential election in a rally held in South Carolina. A senator for Illinois, Obama worked on several issues such as AIDS education and prevention with the Republican colleagues.

Early Life

Named after his father, Obama was only six when his parents got divorced. Later his mother married an Indonesian and he moved to Jakarta. In his four years of life in Jakarta, Obama practiced Christianity and attended secular Catholic schools, though his father and step-father were Muslims.

Later, he moved to New York to study political science at Columbia University. In 1988, he joined Harvard Law School and became a famous lawyer. He practiced civil rights laws. There, he met his future wife, Michelle, with whom he has two daughters.

Barack Obama is not a political candidate but he is the hope of many people who know how to fight destiny to make the right path of success.

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To any true blue American, I am sure that this imagination is inconceivable even in their wildest of dreams. Unfortunately, for an Indian, forget dreams, even in reality our sensitivity does not move an inch in the event of occurrence of a similar scenario, which is just about to happen in India. It is nothing but most disgraceful that while our faint hope (or hollow rhetoric, if you will) of cleansing the extant Indian political system is wilting in front of our eyes, we are letting it happen as thoroughly hypocrite spectators. It comes as a blatant slap on the face of the already fractured judicial system and fragmented political structure that an extradited underworld don, Abu Salem, who is accountable for plotting and murdering hundreds of people in one of the most gruesome blasts in Mumbai in 1993, has the audacity to join politics, by contesting in the impending Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. More pathetic were the ‘arrogantly shameless’ statements that were scripted in posters in Mubarakpur promoting Salem’s candidature (Hum pakke Hind hain, seene mein sher ka dil rakhe hai, agar saath mila aapka to rukh toofan ka more sakte hain, vatan ki abru bachayenge, hum ek khushal Bharat banayenge).
The more I read this, the more I’m bewildered by the audacity of the man, an audacity which arises from our very own home-grown apathy.But then there is nothing surprising as Indian politics anyway was always a haven for criminals (According to reports, almost one-quarter of the over 540 people elected to Parliament in 2004 face criminal charges). But in this editorial, I am not referring to just any other petty criminal. Here, I am talking about a person who has been accused of being one of the masterminds and has been held responsible for the logistics and cold blooded execution of one of the biggest serial blasts in India, which not only killed hundreds of innocent people, but its aftershocks culminated into blood-spattered communal riots (wherein there was a complete massacre of countless people that once again brought back memories of almost forgotten wounds, the sense of constant suspicion and recurrent insecurity). I reiterate, I am talking about a man for whom the CBI spent three torturous years of sleepless nights and won one of the best executed cases in history; and that too against the established lawyers of Europe. This is the same man who has been on a run for years, and who even had plastic surgery done to conceal his identity. And when that man today conceitedly claims to have substance in him to lead a country of a billion, the popular media, which is assumed to be the conscience keeper of the common man, has willingly and deplorably underplayed this grave news by carrying it in the inside pages in form of a tiny story – this sufficiently indicates that there is something inherently and terribly wrong with our sense of ethics and justice.My anger is not against Abu Salem merely, for I know that he is just another coward who is following suit like his predecessor politicians in order to save his neck. My anger is also against the very lawyers who actually advised him to get into politics. Shame that they call themselves lawyers!
My irritation is against the silence of the polity and even the Election Commission, which never spares an opportunity to showcase whatever little it has achieved. My anger is directed against this deafening silence, which is holding each and every citizen to ransom.What more, amidst this conspiracy of silence – of the polity, the regulator and media – unmindful of probity and morality, dangerous political parties like Apna Dal (This is the same party that has supported Bablu Srivastava, another mafia don, and thankfully lost in the last Lok Sabha elections) are eager to associate themselves with Salem and reap political capital (cheap publicity) out of this issue. The party president, Sonelal Patel, has blatantly stated that his party is open and not averse to promote Dawood Ibrahim and other criminals as well, if they abandon the crime path and aspire to do social service by joining politics. If not for the grave consequences upon an under-developed state like Uttar Pradesh in particular and Indian polity in general, this entire episode would be achingly amusing!Well known sociologist Max Weber had lamented that ‘freedom and democracy are only possible where the resolute will of a nation not to allow itself to be ruled like sheep is permanently alive.’ USA celebrated this month for having crossed the 300 million population mark; ironically, around 300 million Indians live below the poverty line. The will seems dead, freedom further so, and if illiteracy, unemployment and poverty are all that our criminal politicians have been able to provide the majority of our countrymen till date, pray tell me what democratic difference remains between us “intellectuals” and Max’s sheep?

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From May 15-19, the Pontifical Academy of Science is presenting a study week on the topic “Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development.” Most of the speakers are internationally known as vehement supporters of agro-genetic engineering. Some of them are in close contact with genetic engineering companies or even work for these firms, such as, for instance, Eric Sachs of Monsanto, the worldwide biggest supplier of genetically modified seeds. So how did it come about that these supporters of genetic engineering are meeting in the Vatican?

Organization and leadership of these days of study is under the direction of Ingo Potrykus. He became famous as the inventor of “golden rice,” a genetically modified product that is supposed to counter a vitamin A deficiency. It recently made headlines in China and the USA as a result of questionable testing on children and adults. The majority of the board from the Golden Rice Project will now gather together there.

In November of 2000, Pope John Paul II spoke out against the release of GMOs. During a mass attended by approximately 50,000 farmers, the pope stated that the use of genetically modified plants to increase crop yields is against the will of God. But apparently, the Vatican has now changed its mind.

Toward the end of 2003, there was a conference at the Vatican on the topic of genetic engineering. It was organized by the “Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.” Its president is known as a proponent of GM technology and during the conference he urged the use of genetically modified food to help find a solution to the world-hunger problem, which he called a paramount goal of the Vatican.

Of course, one question would be whether the Vatican would be willing to haul its gold bars out of the cellar and give them to the hungry. Then the people would have everything they need.

In any case, things have gone so far that the “Pontifical Academy of Sciences” invites supporters of genetic engineering from research and science to the Vatican gardens. This is a clear signal to the global public.

One solution to this dilemma would be to ask all GM proponents to eat only GM foods for 2 or 3 years. Perhaps then, we could see more clearly whether GM products are good for all people. Furthermore, most GMO proponents are Christian. And yet, we can read in the Bible, the following story of creation: “And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.” (Gen. 1:30.31) So, if it was good, why do we now have to improve it?

Can it be that genetic engineering is not meant to improve God’s creation, but to serve the profit drive of certain large companies? But then why is the Vatican now helping this effort?

 For more information go to www.Universal-Life.cc  or call 1-800-846-2691.

In answer to the question with which the first part of this article ended, I say, why should we not further indulge ourselves towards our own obliteration? Why shouldn’t we do what the Americans ask us to do? Do we deserve better than our current conditions? To explore the above questions we first have to explore the current scenario. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2009, Pakistan stands proudly with the ranking of 139 out of 180 countries. We share this position with three other countries including Bangladesh. Considering that one of our neighbours stands second last and another is at 168, maybe we should rejoice. As far as the accuracy of the CPI is concerned, it is none of our concern, what concerns us is that in an index of 180 countries we stand 139th, assuming that this position is alarming, what should Pakistan do from now onwards? But to answer yet another question, we first have to explain how we managed to get the coveted position of 139? We will now deal with each of the above questions along with new ones arising from the answers.

The whole world probably knows about Pakistan by now but even so I would like to give a small introduction. On 14th August 1947, after many sacrifices Pakistan came into being. Today, according to the government sources it has a literacy rate of 56%. Its founding leader known as Quaid-e-Azam (The great leader), Mohammad Ali Jinnah, gave Pakistan the motto “Unity, Faith & Discipline”. Today, even though East Pakistan is now known as Bangladesh, (incidentally it shares the coveted 139th place in the CPI with us), the West part is still very much Pakistan. Our great leader envisioned a democratic state. Today, Pakistan still stands a democracy, withstanding four military rulers and three constitutions. The ideology behind Pakistan was freedom for the oppressed Muslims. Today, Pakistan stands as the sixth largest population in the world with over 168,000,000 people, of whom we suppose that over 90% are Muslims. The first war with India took place in 1947, Kashmir was the issue. We have had a total of four wars with three due to Kashmir and one led to the creation of Bangladesh. As promised the history of Pakistan has been kept short.

Moving on, the first topic under consideration is literacy. Currently the rate of literacy is 56% as given in the Pakistan Economic Survey 2008-09. Even if we were to take the information provided by the relevant authorities to be factual, which in reality might not be that factual, 56% is not enough. What does high illiteracy breed? I can tell you that literacy breed’s development and it is the opposite of illiteracy. Pakistan as unique as it is, faced a peculiar problem due to high rates of illiteracy amongst others, a rise in the authority of Islamic clerics better known as Mullahs. This problem not only hit the rural areas it started urbanizing rapidly. As illiteracy was already rampant in the country, the Mullah’s, were no better. Those uneducated clerics did what they have always done best, hinder any kind of development and ensure that change is considered blasphemous. Gen (R) Musharraf, in order to gain political leverage, let a religiously oriented coalition of a political party loose on the province of Frontier, I am assuming he let them loose as he was no doubt extremely powerful back then. The people of the Frontier have always been inclined towards religion more than the other provinces, hence prone to impressionability. What this coalition, after coming to power, achieved manifested itself in the later years of his regime, sympathy for the Taliban at the grass root levels. Though it should be pointed out illiterate clerics corrupt Islam. ‘Islamization’ as the word has been coined is completely wrong but that is another topic. And it took a long time for the masses to realize that the so called Taliban would inflict misery upon them, after being targeted and losing lives.

After attempting to establish that illiteracy begets a distorted and a corrupt religious core within a community, through a live example, we move briefly to the other aspects of illiteracy. When in nation elects a certain person into the highest office it has and is left with no choice but to remove the person forcibly due to high levels of corruption before the designated time is over, it is assumed that the nation would have learnt a lesson. Pakistan repeated the same mistake four times as a nation. Either the whole nation has bad memory or there is high levels of illiteracy within the nation it could also be blamed on stupidity on behalf of the nation. As it is rumoured, the head of Pakistan is one of the most corrupt people in the world, it’s just a rumour. Something irrelevant but interesting is that the Bush government ran for two consecutive terms, maybe illiteracy is a problem in the USA as well, but those are just random thoughts. Coming back to the topic, surprisingly most Pakistanis are up to date on all current affairs, may it be a rickshaw driver or the barber, everyone has an opinion, which does make one wonder. So who is suffering because of illiteracy? The politicians, the rich, the Americans or the week and feeble men and women of Pakistan? The answer is simple enough if we but look for it.

Unity, Faith and Discipline, a term coined by Jinnah. It encompasses everything a nation requires, if the nation is educated, if not, honesty should be added. There is a general feeling amongst the people of Pakistan that good virtuous men no longer exist. It is a natural phenomena, after having successive failures for governments, may it be military or civilian. Pakistan is currently struggling to keep its four provinces united. Every province feels enmity towards the only fully developed province, is this feeling of enmity justified or not is not the question, the question is why there is this feeling in the first place. People have been wronged, steps have to be taken to right all those wrongs incurred. What actually led to all of this chaos within Pakistan? The answer is yet again simple, politics. Democracy or no democracy, the common man is never heard in Pakistan, which has eventually led to this chaotic situation, it is what some people believe. The ideology of Pakistan was freedom for the oppressed Muslims, today due to the instability and constant threat of terrorism, Muslims, who account for over 90% of the Pakistani population, are fearful of practicing their religion openly. Who would have imagined that in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Muslims would be scared to offer prayers in Mosques? That is the current state of affairs.

What does all of this have in common with corruption? It has turned Pakistan into a country that totally relies on the term survival of the fittest. Every individual pushes forward for self interests. Pakistan is losing the virtue of being a society, let alone a good society. People don’t care about people anymore. This evil has also sprung from illiteracy. Those who have attained power are not willing to forgo it, hence snubbing any attempts for development as is evident in most of the rural areas of the country. The heads of certain families rule over a number of tribes with an iron fist, no education no development, probably the closest form of bonded slavery in today’s world. Again those few who attain power go through any lengths to maintain that power. It is always at the cost of the week and feeble. So how did we get to the coveted position of 139th in the CPI? It would be safe to assume that corruption begets corruption. Our corrupt leaders through the decades have been motivated by the assimilation of power and blinded by riches, through the decades they have been armed with illiteracy and discord, through the decades they have distorted the very infrastructure of Pakistan so much so that now Pakistan is no longer recognizable. So we thus establish that the continuous deterioration of the infrastructure Pakistan has led it to be in its current state, as far as corruption is concerned.

World politics, power struggles amongst the corrupt politicians, a frame of mind which accepts the survival of the fittest as the only rule of life has had its impact on the weak and feeble of Pakistan. Are the weak and feeble as innocent as they claim to be? The answer should be no, if for once they stood up for their rights, they could make a difference. A difference for themselves, a difference for the new generation. The people of Pakistan are humans and they should be treated as such. It is no doubt a fact that they have erred, once too many, but still they deserve another chance. They deserve a chance to be understood, just as the Americans deserve a chance to be understood as well. An American is a very good man/woman, there should be no doubt about that, it’s the American government that is playing havoc with the world. A normal Pakistani is a very good man/woman as well, so who is the bad guy in Pakistan? Some say it is the politician, others say it is the army, many say it is foreign intervention, whereas everyone believes it is the terrorists. Thus we conclude with answers to the first two questions, should Pakistan obliterate itself? No, Pakistanis deserve a chance especially since the common man has started to show the revolutionary instinct. The common man has finally started to stand up for himself. The week and feeble have realized that they are human as well, the ‘realization’ is another topic which will be discussed some other time. The second question being related to the Americans, for a change the Americans should be asked to step in the shoes of Pakistanis and then tell us how they feel.

Bill Clinton was neither the first musical president of the United States nor the only one. Both Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon were excellent piano players.

People were surprised to learn that the former President, Bill Clinton, plays the saxophone. But, several other Presidents of the United States of American were musically gifted, as well.

There are many former presidents who knew how to play instruments. They include:

* John Quincy Adams, who played the flute

* Thomas Jefferson, who played the violin, cello and clavichord

* Abraham Lincoln, who played the violin and harmonica

* John Tyler, who played violin

* Benjamin Franklin, who played both the violin and guitar

* Ronald Reagan, who played the harmonica

* Chester Arthur, who played the banjo

* Franklin Roosevelt, who played the piano

* Richard Nixon, who played both the piano and accordion

* Harry S.Truman, who played piano

* Woodrow Wilson, who played the violin.

Quite a few political leaders in the USA and abroad have been music lovers and accomplished instrumentalists. This supports the empirical belief that there is a relationship between intelligence and music.

Harry Truman once said about his music, “I missed being a musician, and the real reason I missed being one is because I wasn’t good enough.” He was president from 1945 to 1953.

The one who encouraged his love of music, reading, and history was his beloved mother, Martha Ellen Young. The young Truman was taught piano first by his mother, and then by a music teacher she hired to give the boy two lessons a week until he gave it up. Each day, Truman said, he awoke at 5:00 a.m. and practiced for a couple of hours before going to school. His mother showed disappointment when he decided, at age 15, to stop playing. His lessons became too expensive for him to continue, so Truman stopped taking them.

In 1945, his spouse announced that it was time for him to stop playing the piano. This was because someone published a picture of him playing the piano with an attractive, young Lauren Bacall perched on top of the instrument. At that time, Truman was Vice President, and the country was aware that he was a skilled pianist. He was known to have proficiently played music from famous composers including Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin, just to name a few. Many people believed he could only play music like “Missouri Waltz”, but in reality he didn’t care for that type of music.

Actually, Truman thought about becoming a concert pianist when he was young. Even though he did not pursue his dream, he always kept a piano in his homes. For the rest of his life, Harry S. Truman played the piano for his friends, but he also played because it gave him a sense of peace. Former President Richard Nixon performed for Harry Truman once while making a visit to the White House.

In one of his most often quoted statements about his piano playing skills, Truman said that his choice was to be either a politician or a piano player in a whorehouse. He joked that there was very little difference. Other sources quote him as saying, “More than likely, if I hadn’t been President of the United States, I’d have ended up playing piano in a bawdy house.” His statements prove how much he loved to play the piano.

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