As the general election is coming near, in Namibia, and all of you are looking and deciding who to elect as the new President, please do so with an open mind.

I am assuming that most of you that are reading this blog, or on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, are mostly those of you, who were born around the late 1980’s and or early 1990’s.

So, the stories about the apartheid system and oppression may only be known to you because of what you have been told or read in school. And now, you look at certain issues and then you think that everything is going so wrong. That SWAPO as the ruling party has done this wrong or hasn’t done enough. But from an outside point of view, Namibia is one of the best countries in the world, and only four of the best in Africa, Botswana, Ghana, and South Africa being the other, with great political stability, economic fast growth, and steady rising per capita income.

Some of those things that you feel your current leaders may not be doing fast enough are just minor politics, which happen everywhere. It’s not always the ministers or government officials that must hold those elected in power accountable, but the people themselves. And you, the people, must hold those you elect responsible and accountable, and you can surely do so through your writings and speaking up. Complete transparency is only achieved through people, but only when everyone is involved in the process.

As US President Kennedy once said; “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. In short, that simply means that don’t just sit back and wait for the government to do everything for you. You have to initiate and do whatever it is that you want to achieve in your life, without solely waiting for the government to do it for you.

And regardless, Namibia is a great place to live; one of only a few places where you guys, since after independence in 1990 have grown up and are still growing up without war (the Caprivi case was just a little ditch compared to what could have happened to the whole country). So, Pohamba and Company, must be doing something good because they have continued to make Namibia a great place to live.

There are many things in regard to economically and politically growth that must happen in order to help make a country an even better place for all, and it won’t happen over night not even after 20 years; it has taken the US nearly 200 years, so give your current leaders your utmost support; create and write blogs; or news columns, and speak up.

They are listening, even when you think they are not. If you see or experience that something is wrong, call them up, ask to speak to them and tell them what you think. They will pick up the phone and speak to you. Or write to them. You just have to stop standing on the side line, complaining about issues, but are not doing anything to help effect good governance.

For a Namibian born living in the States, I’m very happy with how the government of Namibia is running. The only bad thing that could happen from here is, if someone else comes to power and starts acting like some of other African leaders, who may cause discomfort, and interrupt the current flow of peace and stability in the country.

Look back and think; since 1990, you have enjoyed nothing but complete tranquility, peace, and prosperity, and then decide, go out, and vote with a clear mind whether you want to keep the same process of peace, economic growth and progress going forward strong.

So, you created an account and have a profile on Facebook, Twitter, RentersQ, hi5, Bebo, Laatie, YouTube, Welated, MySpace, LinkedIn or wherever else online, and now what happens?

What is that you generally post on your profile? What kind of stuff do you post on your status update? What kind of groups and fan pages do you select to join? How do you behave online and what else do you do on any of these sites, the social media that you wouldn’t want people to know about you offline?

One thing for sure, and this is for everyone, everywhere, is that you should learn and know how to use social media to advance your career and make your life better; learn how to create and promote yourself by knowing what to, and not post on your profile, so you can one day get your dream job, or get into the college that you’ve always wanted.

In 5 – 10 years, it’s predicted that paper resumes and CVs will be a thing of the past; your online profile will become your real life resume when you apply for any job or to any college. So, remember that anything you post online, whether it’s your status update or those pictures from last night’s clubbing or pool party, the kind of pictures you wouldn’t want your parents, wife, husband, or kids to see, are automatically indexed and archived for search by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Be aware that your next employer and or college admission officer will certainly research you online; and your status updates data, including your posted photos maybe the things that may prevent you from getting whatever it is that you want.

When you go out, there are always those who randomly snap pictures with their camera phones and the next day you log onto your Facebook account, someone has tagged you in a photo, in which you appear in a compromising position, which you had no idea was being taken. So, be accountable for your social behavior online as you do offline.

Just because you hit the delete key on your keyboard doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve actually deleted your previously posted status updates or photos. They are never deleted permanently. Once you post them online, they are instantly streamed over the Internet and Internet search engines automatically index them for future search by anyone, anywhere.

So, be smart, stay informed. Completely fill out your online profile on any social networking site with your employment history as you would do in your resume, just the employer name, your job title, and a brief summary of your job responsibilities. This information will be crucial when you apply for a new job anywhere, because your next employer will likely do a search on you and that would help him or her make a fast informed decision on hiring you.

Use the social media for fun, but at the same time, use it to help advance yourself, your career, and your life; so that you may get what you want one day.

Life is all about competition, and everyone is out for him or herself.

Disclosure: I’m the creator of Welated, RentersQ and Laatie.

This past weekend, CNN.com launched its newly redesigned Web site. Its user interface (UI) feels good, and everything else, except its font face and size both look horrible.

The font size is even smaller, didn’t seem to have used the standard 2pt size (no, it’s not my browser settings), and the font face is ugly, they should have simply used “Verdana,Arial,Helvetica” as the font face, to generally match most of other sites’ text display.

And, what’s it with the logo centered in the middle of the site pages? That just takes away from the whole site concept; its look and feel. They need to shift that logo back, far to the left corner.

It’s been over ten months since you were inaugurated to the office of the Presidency of the United States. In general, if you were a baby, you would be about 10 months now, still crawling, still trying to figure out who’s who, and what’s what. However, your responsibility as President does not require on-site job training, it doesn’t require you to figure out who’s who and what’s what, it requires actions. And, actions must be now.

I have always been one of your biggest supporters. I have always been one of your biggest fans. While I was a student at The Ohio State University during the election campaign, we at OSU, rallied for you, endlessly. And even if you were not elected as President, I would still support you, I would still rally behind you, because of whom you are and what you stand for. Yes, you have inspired me and millions of other people around the world, and more and more people everywhere are looking up to you. More and more kids around the world want to be just like you.

However, there comes a time when you have to stop selling, you have to stop talking, and start putting your words and promises into action. Mr. President, the time is now to start enacting and signing bills into law. Yes, not too long ago, you signed the gay rights bill into law, and you have signed a few more bills into law, such as the equal-pay bill, the bill reversing abortion funds ban, and a few other bills, however, we need more bills signed into law.

Yes, I applaud you for averting what could have been the greatest economic disaster in the history of mankind, by signing the stimulus bill into law, but given the fact that you have the backing of the majority in both houses of the representatives, you should be able to quickly wrap up many proposed bills and especially, the current issue at hand, the health care reform.

I don’t just want to complain about the things you haven’t done yet. No, I also want to thank you Mr. President, for working behind the scene to heroically help free the captured American sailors by the Somali pirates and the release of the American journalists by North Korea.

Yes, I understand the implications of you achieving such a historic health care reform, given the fact that you are facing the greatest challenges from both sides of the aisle, and mostly from the far right and the severity of the opposition from the health insurance industry. But you must not look back, you must not give in, you must act now, urge both of the houses to pass a health care reform bill, but it must have a public option. You must not sign it if it does not have a sweeping public option plan.

During the election campaign, you have brought so much hope to so many people. Yes, we were all flooded with all kinds of threats from within and outside. Threat elevations at airports and public venues became an everyday thing. We were faced with the war in Iraq, and the never-ending war in Afghanistan, followed by Hurricane Katrina, and then the Great Recession. Yes, we were all in need to hear something positive, something uplifting, something joyous, and you brought that to all of us, and we embraced you, we welcomed you into our homes, and we confirmed that at the voting booths, when we voted “Yes, We Can”!

Yes, Mr. President, you have inherited a lot of garbage from the previous administration. Most of us don’t even think about that, or don’t want to think about what you had to do when you came into Office. But you already knew what you were getting into when you took and accepted the challenge. So, that should not have been a surprise to you. Thus, Mr. President, now is no longer a time to keep speaking and rallying, now it’s time to start proposing and signing bills into law.

And most importantly Mr. President, now is no longer the time to continue asking me to donate to your Organizing for America campaign in your weekly email updates, the recession has hit me, I don’t have any more money to keep donating to your Organizing for America’s cause. I’m not even sure what Organizing for America does with the money donated to it. I thought the election campaign was over? But right now, Mr. President, it’s time to start executing all that you have promised to do during your election campaign rallies.

Yes, you’ve engaged and lifted some travel restrictions to and from Cuba. You are talking to Iran and North Korea, but we need more, for the people here at home.

And while you are at it, Mr. President, please look carefully into the immigration bill. In Silicon Valley and elsewhere in America, there are many companies whose combined annual revenue are more than $52 billion, and currently employ over 500,000 Americans. These companies, such as Yahoo!, Google, and many others, were partly founded and developed by immigrants, and most of these companies have and continue to help lead America as the next frontier in technology and energy.

Mr. President, there are many legal immigrants who have come to America, and continue to migrate to the United States, and most of them leave their families and everything they love behind, including myself. We come to America for one reason only, to make our dreams come true and realize our potential. Not all of us come to America to milk the system, but we come here equipped with ingenuity and with our own ideas. We come to America to create, develop, and reap the fruits of our own labor; the American dream, and in the process, we create large and profitable companies who pay hefty taxes and employ thousands of Americans. We come to contribute and make a huge impact to the American society and the world. We come to change the way business is done, efficiently.

However, most of us, the legal immigrants of the United States (weren’t we all at one point or another), always fall under the spell of not having seed money to develop our innovative ideas. As an immigrant, to fund a startup, you have to work twice as hard just to prove yourself, more than your native colleagues. You’re likely not to have the needed startup capital to help fund and grow your startup business. You are likely not to be able to go to the bank and apply for a loan simply because you don’t have the required credit scores, given the fact that you have just arrived in the U.S. and your social security number was just recently issued, and you haven’t established yourself in the country longer enough to qualify for a bank loan.

Most of us don’t bring utilities for use as collateral for bank loans, and then again, most banks don’t recognize technology startups as a qualified industry for bank loans. Since, we are new in the country, we weren’t born here and don’t have families and friends who may help fund our start-ups, compare to those who were born and grew up here, who have families and friends, when needed, can request for help to fund their startup ideas. Our sole reliance to secure seed money falls to venture capitalists, who in turn are already overly crowded, overwhelmed and flooded with many different business plans. Thus, only a few of us end up able to start and grow our businesses.

Mr. President, please see if you can help set up a special fund, for all legal immigrants, who have viable business plans in order to get funding for their startups. The SBA does not help that much, since even going through the SBA, you still have to go through a bank to get an SBA loan. In all, most of us who come to America, legally, with a dream to create and grow our viable businesses end up not realizing our business dreams. Only a few of us, create those companies who have and continued to make a huge impact to the American Economy.

For the war in Afghanistan, as I have written on this topic before, please don’t send any more US troops to Afghanistan, instead work with the government of Afghanistan and Pakistan to negotiate and politicize the Taliban to become a political organization, whereby they will become a political organization and participate in a general election and eventually become part of the Afghanis’ members of the parliament. That’s the only way there would be peace in Afghanistan and would be able to root out the members of the Al-Qaeda organization out of Afghanistan.

The poll number shows that almost half of Americans now feel a bit jittery with your current leadership. Some are those who may be listening to the foolish talk of the GOP mouthpieces, the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin alike.

However, not all of us do. Some of those polls may be biased, due to the fact that they may not be scientific, thus we cannot completely rely on them. As most of those who were polled may be those who lean towards the right, or simply those who pay attention to what those fools; Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh, are saying, and may be a small percentage of those who voted for the other guys. However, the fact is; we cannot ignore their voices and that they should not go unheard. Please Mr. President, if you start signing more bills into law, then maybe, just maybe, their voices would calm down.

Mr. President, you do not want to wait until the third year of your presidency to start fulfilling your campaign promises. If you do, then you will be a one-term president, because by then, almost all Americans would be weary of your inaction, and will surely not vote for you again for a second term.

So, please Mr. President, stop talking, and start signing some bills, not just bills, but they must be the most relevant bills into law. The kind of bills that help make a great impact in the lives of all Americans; the bills that more Americans would appreciate you for as the President.

Thank you Mr. President, and thank you for giving America, once more, a positive outlook from an international perspective!

To dream is to wish, to wish is to set a goal for yourself of what you, no body else, but what you want to be doing or become at some point in your life. No matter who you are, where you are from, or what you are, you too can dream, you too can make a wish, and set a goal for yourself, whatever that might be, and act on it. You can’t just dream and make a wish, you have to act on it, and do whatever it takes to make it happen.

Just sit back for a minute, and ask yourself; what is it that you really want in your life? What is it that you need to do in order to get what you want? What does it take and how long will it take for you to get it? Then make a move; go get it.

The only difference between you and the guy next door who is living his dream, the guy who you be starring at, dissing and hating, it’s because he did whatever needed to make his dream and wish come true, while you haven’t. You simply sat back and watch it go by, you got lazy, you got scared to go out there and make it happen.

Don’t stop dreaming, but don’t just dream and wish for things to automatically happen for you the way you want them, you have to do whatever it takes to make it happen. No body else can do it for you but you.

You only get one chance in life, so make every minute count!

This is an article from TechCrunch, detailing how in the early days Hotmail exponentially grew from the power of viral expansion loop, as detailed in the book “Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves” by Adam L. Penenberg. See the video below;

PROVED: (October 17, 2009; 8:23 PM ET): My initial analysis, as listed far below, on this whole thing has turned out to be precisely right. CNN.com is reporting now that “Charges are expected to be filed in the Colorado balloon case in the near future” (Read More at CNN.com).

UPDATES: (October 16, 2009; 5:58 PM ET):  As it turns out, this could be a sick hoax, for a parent to use a kid for a 15 minutes of self-promotional fame. However, it’s being reported that Colorado’s Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden sees no hoax in the balloon boy Falcon. Based on everything (read below), then it is possible that Sheriff Alderden may be working with Richard and Mayumi Heene for a possible personal gain, pay-off. Because none of it makes sense. And that’s why, it’s very important that the law enforcement brings in a new investigation team to forensically look into this bizarre event.

INITIAL POST: (October 16, 2009; 12:33 AM ET): The family, whose son was thought to have floated away in a helium balloon today, has been in the reality TV show, Wife Swap. According to CNN.com (read more here or read it here), Richard and Mayumi Heene and their three sons were featured on the ABC show “Wife Swap,” in which the mothers of two often opposite families switch places for two weeks.

Based on their home videos as shown on CNN today, it shows as though the family tends to like being in front of the camera. And that could possibly mean that the dramatic events with their son thought to have been accidentally floated away in the helium balloon could have been a tactical and purposely staged hoax to help place them in the center of the media and more cameras, which is what has transpired all day, today.

It doesn’t make sense. If the boy was playing outside while his dad was filling up the balloon, how did he end up hiding in the attic all that time when everybody was looking for him? What was he doing up there in the attic all that time?

Every parent generally knows where his or her kids usually play, and if their attic is also their playground, then that should also had been the first place they should have looked.

The Heene family appeared on two episodes of ABC's "Wife Swap."

If this ends up to be a hoax, which I am certain it will, then severe charges and fines should be inflicted upon the mother and father, Richard and Mayumi, which should include child endangerment.

All the resources and manpower were put to use today in the search of the boy, while the father and mother might have purposely known where their son was all along.

Some people would do almost anything just to get their 15 minutes of fame, even when there are children involved, let alone when everybody else is caused to panic and worry about the possible fate of the boy.

If this ends up as what I think it would be, then this has to be an awful sick hoax and Richard and Mayumi would have to be the most senseless pathetic parents in the world. I hope I am wrong about this.

Someone needs to really look into this, because it just doesn’t make sense.

Adam Smith, Scotland (1723-1791)
David Ricardo, England (1772-1823
Thomas Malthus, England (1766-1834)
John Stuart Mill, England (1806-1873)
Karl Marx, Germany (1818-1883)
Leon Walras, France (1834-1910)
Alfred Marshall, England (1842-1924)
Thorstein Veblen, USA (1857-1929)
John Maynard Keynes, England (1883-1946)
Irving Fisher, USA (1867-1947)

More at Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

History tells us that many men and women who have previously been awarded this most prestigious award, The Nobel Peace Prize, from Gandhi to recently Ahtisaari, have done extraordinary things to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize Award. However, one might even ask what did some of these, such as Al Gore, do to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize Award, just because he (Gore) has been an adamant critic and produced the film for the climate change?

How about Desmond Tutu, what did he do to deserve the Noble Peace Prize Award? Just because he rallied and marched on the streets, preaching and speaking up for the end of South African Apartheid rule? How about Martin Luther King Jr, who simply preached against violence and equal rights for all, and then he too was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? How about Maathai, the Kenyan Environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize for planting trees and speaking against the destruction of trees in Kenya? Finnish former president Ahtisaari won the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize simply for architecting the Namibian Independence?

What is it that you actually need to do and achieve in order to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? What about Sam Nujoma, Namibia’s first and founding president, who has literally spent over 30 years, since 1960, fighting (some call it a bush war) against the Mighty South African Apartheid Armed Forces and literally caused to free Namibia in 1989? Which today, Namibia has become one of the only two most stable, both politically and economically, countries in Africa, the other one being Botswana, some of the only two countries in the world, where children are growing up without ever hearing the sound of a war gun or experience child labor exploitation? Does Nujoma deserve to win the Nobel Peace Prize? He didn’t do enough good for humanity?

For President Obama, the Nobel Peace Committee stated that the reason for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to him was for: “His initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and replace unilateral American action with international diplomacy and cooperation”.

Now, most of you are questioning Obama’s legitimacy for this prestigious award. Just like you have been and still questioning his legitimacy of his birth rights to be president of the United States. The nomination for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize were made just a few weeks, about two weeks, into Obama’s presidency, and now you are questioning what he did to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize Award?

Even if Obama wasn’t elected as President of the United States, he could have still been possibly nominated and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, simply for what he stands for and what he’s been proactively campaigning for, an end to unilateralism, and the beginning of working together to effective change on how the world perceives America, especially for the last 8 years of Bush’s international policies of “no negotiation”.

Most of you don’t travel around the world and experience the hatred sentiments of how some people, outside the US, feel about America. Some of you have never even left your hometown, or even crossed your state’s border, let alone have a passport and travel outside the US, to listen and hear the kind of talk from people who would trash the US policies, the kind of talk that makes you sick inside your stomach and there’s nothing you can do about it, simply because of the last 8 years of Bush’s policies of war first, and negotiate later, or may be not.

Obama’s message of hope that he has been preaching for the last 20 months is no different from what Gandhi, Mandela, Tutu, Gore, Ahtisaari, and other great Americans who have previously won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to effective change for peace and equality.

And seriousily; If Obama, when he became president of the United States, had continued on with Bush’s international diplomacy and polices, then we could have possibly faced a worldwide nuclear war; Iran vs Israel; Pakistan vs. India; and North Korea vs. everyone else, etc.

So, does Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, he does, he greatly deserves it. Even though he, himself, doesn’t even think he deserves it.

Instead of trash talking of what Obama did or did not do, may be you too should start doing something, do anything that may effective change in your area, neighborhood, town, city, state or country. You can do anything, whatever it is that may benefit your neighborhood, fellow countrymen, or on a large scale, humanity. May be, just may be, you too may one day be in the company of those great people, who have been nominated and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

And, surely, you too can use that $1.4 million that comes with it. Why not try it, instead of looking at who does what and does not do what?

Just like most of those who have subscribed to Obama’s campaign mailing list; here is a message Obama sent out yesterday;

Simon –

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I’d been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I’ve said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won’t all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award — and the call to action that comes with it — does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we’ve begun together. I’m grateful that you’ve stood with me thus far, and I’m honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

On October 2, 2009, I wrote and posted an analytical blog article (read it here) about the next possible phase of the war in Afghanistan. And today, October 6, 2009, the CBS Evening News entirely focused on the war in Afghanistan with news and  information seem to have been taken and expanded from my above stated article. See their news coverage here.

It’s nice to know that someone at CBS Evening News reads my blog, and I only wish that CBS Evening News could have attributed my writing or referrenced my article.

Obama as he meets with his top advisers, lawmakers, and generals, I believe he’s doing a good thing, thinking and analyzing everything thoroughly before he takes his next step. But the solution to end the war in Afghanistan is not to increase the US troops as Gen. McChrystal is asking, but to help politicize the Taliban into an unarmed political organization as my article states.

If Obama decides to increase the US troops in Afghanistan and continue to fight head to head with the Taliban, then this war will go on for another 12 years or more, without ever achieving the core objective; rooting out Osama bin Laden and his organization.