Vote For Me, I Don't Know What I'm Talking About.

Listening, as i normally do, to the Today program on Radio 4 this morning, i caught an item on Herman Cain, the prospective U.S Presidential candidate.

The item was about how Mr Cain had had difficulty talking about President Obama's recent policy on Libya, when asked by interviewers.
You can read about it and see a video here.
If you can't be bothered to wade through that, the main talking point was that Mr Cain had pretty obviously no idea what he was talking about.
He fumbled and fudged his way through the questions. He couldn't talk about any specifics concerning the questions he was asked. He even had to question the interviewers to make sure in his mind that they were talking about the same topic.

Here's a quote from when Mr Cain was asked if he supported President Obama's actions on Libya.
Cain: "President Obama supported the uprising? Correct? President Obama called for the removal of Gaddafi. Just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing before i say 'yes i agree', or 'no i don't agree'.
He then went on to say: "I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reasons - no, that's a different one"

It is obvious that this man, who don't forget wants to become the President and Commander In Chief of the most powerful country in the world, doesn't have a clue about a very important topic of recent U.S foreign policy.
I, for one, find this to be rather scary and also extremely worrying.
If you don't know about the important topics of recent foreign policy, what hope is there that you know anything about any of the smaller, but equally important, issues that affect your country and possibly the rest of the world?

This interview comes hot on the heals of another prospective U.S Presidential candidate, Rick Perry, not being able to name the three main agencies of the U.S Government in a televised debate.
See the video here.

All this is very funny to look at, especially from over here in the UK. But, as i said earlier, this is frightening stuff. In little over a years time, one of these men could be President of the USA!

It is, of course, quite possible that Cain and Perry may well have had their campaigns seriously damamged by these huge gaffes and quite rightly so. It's also quite probable that they will give up, if not now, then fairly soon.

But, this does beg the question, why did they think that they were qualified enough to run for President in the first place and also, why did people feel that they were good enough to do so and then support and give substantial amounts of money to them?

I realise that these two men might not be representative of all the candidates and i sure hope that there are better men still left in the race. But, it does make you wonder about the quality of political candidates and not just in the USA either. We see examples like this across the world.
Maybe, in the end, we get the candidates and politicians that we deserve?

The whole political system seems to be weighted heavily in favour of the well healed, well connected and well educated. It's almost a throwback to times past where only the Lords of the manor etc were allowed into Parliament/Government and the ordinary folk were kept out.

So, we end up getting political candidates who may have money and connections, but who have no real knowledge. Candidates like Herman Cain, who rely on advisors to tell them what to think and say. So much so, that when they're asked a question that they haven't been briefed on, they can't answer it.

Personally, i'd rather have a politician who knows their own mind, says what they really think and actually knows what they are talking about. Even if i don't happen to agree with what they say.

I'd vote for that.

Now look what you've gone and done.

Two stories in the news recently have caught my attention and, for me at least, they both show the possible and potential dangers when certain stories get into the mainstream media.

The first, which you may well have guessed already. Is the story of Pastor Terry Jones, of Gainsville, Florida.
I'm sure that we all are pretty familiar with this story now. If you have no idea what i'm talking about, you have either been living under a rock, or out of range of the worlds media. Lucky you, i say.
If this is the case, i suggest you search Google for the answer.

I think the aspect of this particular story that surprised many people, was how a Pastor of a very small congregation (approx 30) can suddenly have the worlds media beating a path to his door?
I suspect the answer lies in the way that other people got involved, or involved themselves, in this story. The very fact that the President of the United States of America and one of his most senior officials felt the need to speak about, or even speak with Pastor Terry Jones, is bound to attract attention. I don't intend to speculate here as to why President Obama decided got involved. Although, i have my own theory.
The last i heard, Pastor Terry Jones, had thankfully decided not to go ahead with his original protest.

The second story, which i heard about on the radio this morning, concerns a young 7 year old girl.
Apparently, the girls parents had been allowing the young girl to cross the road outside of the family home, on her own and then to catch a bus to her school. Nothing too much wrong with that i guess? Especially, when it was explained, by the girls mother, that the road was a very quiet one and that the young girl was very happy with the arrangement.
I know that some people might argue with the girl's parent's decision. But, for the purposes of this blog post anyway, that's an argument for another day.

Well, the local Council got to hear about young girl's arrangements. I have no idea how.
The Council then decided to send a letter to the girl's parent's, effectively telling them that they were not looking after their daughter properly and that they should stop the arrangement forthwith.
My understanding is that the local Council have now backtracked on their decision. Probably because of all of the media coverage and bad publicity for the Council, that this story has generated.

Now, at first glance, it may appear that both of these stories have had happy and probably sensible conclusions. But, in both cases, the damage had been already done before the story concluded.

For example, the parents of the young girl will now have to change their arrangements anyway. This is because every potential child molester and pervert in the UK, now knows that a 7 year old girl might have been standing, on her own, at a quiet bus stop on a country lane. The parents cannot now take the chance of letting their young daughter catching the bus on her own.

The story of Pastor Terry Jones has far more serious consequences. Apart from the fact that many people have already died in demonstrations, around the world, about Pastor Jones and his threatened Koran burning. There are also far longer lasting potential consequences as well.
Because of the world wide media coverage that this story has generated, millions more people now know of it than ever would have done. If certain people had just ignored the mad ramblings of a small town preacher, a world wide problem may well have been averted. Because that is what this has now become, a world wide problem.

Try as the world's media might, to try and brush this whole sorry episode under the carpet. The damage has now been well and truly done.

We all know what happens when allegations are made in the media about certain people, or events. Whether these allegations are correct, or not doesn't matter to many people. They see the original story and that's what sticks in their mind.
I can think of many examples where people have been exposed for an alleged "crime" and it's turned out that the person has been totally innocent of that reported "crime". But, that person has been tainted because of those allegations and often for many years to come as well.
Yes, the newspaper, or whatever, will publish an apology, at a later date. But, nobody sees that, or takes no notice of it.
Once again, the damage has already been done.

And, that's where we are now with both of these stories.

In one, a little girl has had her journey to school changed forever, to protect her safety.
In the other, the USA and potentially the whole western world has had it's reputation damaged and future security threatened.

And all to try and fill up the 24 hour news programmes. Or, because some people just can't keep their mouths shut.

The Internet For Peace

New YouTube video.



The Internet as a force for good & change.

Barack Obama & the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ok, so i'm British & therefore some may say that i have no right to talk on this topic, or that i'm biased. But.... WTF?!
I can't see how it's possible for somebody to win the Nobel Peace Prize when they haven't really done anything yet. Yes, i agree & can see that Barack Obama is genuine in his aim to bring peace to troubled parts of the world. But, he hasn't done that yet. In fact he's barely touched the surface on this subject during his 11 months in office.
So far i've seen no real progress in bringing peace to the Middle East, or Afghanistan, have you? If anything, the problems in the Middle East have grown worse & the Israelis & Palestinians are further apart now than they were in November 2008.
You can't award a prize of this stature & standing on the promise of things to come. That just devalues what is, usually, a well respected prize. Yes, there have been some strange awards in the past & there will always be argumaents about the deserving nature of the recipients. But, for me at least, on this occasion the awarding committee have made a big mistake.
I truly hope that Barack Obama will one day be worthy of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But, for me, that time is not now. Here's hoping that day will come.