“I know Saddam poses no imminent threat to the United States, or to his neighbors…I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I knowthat an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than the best, impulses of the Arab World, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to wars. I am opposed to dumb wars. You want a fight, President Bush? lEts finish the fight with Bin Laden and al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism and a homeland security program that involves more than colour-coded warnings” Fall 2002, Barack Obama

Welcomes…almost every week there is a welcome is naaaaais! Carl, Isabel, Wendy, tumi, welcome to the weekly newsletter. Should you have any comments or suggestions please mail me or visit http://www.mondaymail.blogspot.com/, alternatively should you have no use for this please do let me know and I will remove you.

Yaw, I don’t know why you are getting so worked up about this infidelity thing, bra its been happening, it is happening and will continue to happen…Crime has been happening, is happening and most likely will continue to happen, but that doesn’t stop us from saying its wrong and that something needs to be done about it?! Very chuffed that the last email got a few feathers ruffled. Hopefully if u see ur mate, boss etc. crossing the line like /he is going to the shops to buy milk, you will have the inclination to say what u r doing is ka aaaak, then start singing “what goes around, goes around goes around comes all the way back around…”

Another beautiful day in Africa, well at least from where I sit, In the the words of Robert Nesta Marley, “Sun is shining the weather is sweet, makes me wanna move my dancing feet”. Hope all is well in your world, if not, trust u me, as long as u r breathing, as long as u can see a smile on a friendly face, as long as the sun is shining the birds singing, there is hope of a brighter 2morrow!

Speaking of a brighter tomorrow, that’s definitely what the world needs now. The world is in a pretty sensitive state at the moment (in terms of war etc.) and that’s all thanks to Mr. George W. Bush, some might argue otherwise and I would love to hear those views. Bush is definitely on his way out and in my mind so to the Republicans, enter the new regime, is it a ‘black’ man whose name rhymes with Osama, is it a female Bill??? Yip that’s right unless a huge curveball is thrown those are the 2 candidates that the democrats are going to put forward to run for the 2008 elections. For a while now Hillary Clinton had been seen as the face of the Democrats, but over the last few months, I cant really say a year, this man called Barack Obama has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons a bit.

He hasn’t just popped up, he has been around for a while but under the radar doing good work for the people of Illinois. His whole life has been dedicated to serving the people. There was a popularity poll conducted recently as to who the Democrats would like to see representing them in the race for presidency and it was a 2 horse race with Hillary ahead of Barack, but that’s not too bad considering he only made himself available for the race earlier this month.

Just a brief history about Mr Obama, born on the 4th Aug ’61 in Honolulu Hawaii, to Kenyan Born Barack Hussein Obama Snr and Ann Durham of Kansas. His parents split when he was still a toddler and he was brought up by his maternal grandparents. His pops returned to Kenya and his mom remarried an Indonesian man. His pops died when Barrack was 21yrs old. He didn’t really grow up knowing his real father, he only knew his father through stories and photographs. He has admitted to using coke and weed to help him deal with his issues when he was growing up. But it looks like he turned out just fine. His mother passed away from cancer in 1995. He studied at Harvard Law from 1988, in 1990 he was the first African American to be elected president of the Harvard Law Review (not sure what this is but its mentioned in everything I have read about him, so it must be beeeg). In 1996 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. Before and post this election his whole life has been dedicated to serving the people. His efforts have ranged from more recognition and support for war veterans, immigration laws, the war in Iraq, opposing what he termed ‘Paris Hilton’ tax relief which was a tax relief for billionaire heirs and heiresses, raising funds, peace in the middle east, encouraging people to take HIV tests and the list goes on.

He has written a couple of books one of those books, “Dreams from my father” (written in 1995 and then reprinted in 2004) which I guess is a narration of his childhood, earned him a Grammy award in 2006 for best spoken word album (it was also produced in Audio Book form). In 2005 TIME magazine listed him as one of the most influential people in the world.

I don’t know much about this man, but from what I read he seems a good natured sort, a lot of his speeches are about unity, be it republican be it democrat be u Muslim, be u Christian, be u white be u black. He in my mind may currently be the best person to unify America and I guess rebuild its credibility with the rest of the world. Why do I say this. His Father was Muslim (became an Atheist in later life), his maternal grandparents who brought him up were Baptist and Methodist, his mother believed religion to be akin to superstition, his pops was a black man from Kenya, his mother a white lady from Kansas. He has an half-Indonesian half sister who is married to a Chinese-Canadian. He grew up not knowing his pops, he is a Law student, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard nogal. He traces his maternal grandparents roots back to Native Americans. His name Barack is of Hebrew origins meaning blessing. Now that’s the whole of America captured in this man, religion, race, broken home, smart people, compassion and last but not least ability. .In Mr Obama, I think America has hope of reconciliation, hope of repairing the damage done by the Bush administration.

Here is another quote that I thought was pretty interesting. “Figures like Oprah, Tiger, Michael Jordan give people a shortcut to express their better instincts[…] I think its healthy, a good instinct. I just don’t want it to stop with Oprah, I’d rather say, if u feel good about me, there is a whole lot of young men out there who could be me if given the chance”
That’s me for another week. My thoughts are with all of you who may have something of significance happening this week, may it go as the universe plans it (always an easier way to look at things ;-)) I hope the universe’s plans and yours coincide, particularly those of you who are awaiting part II results, may the force be with you!

Don’t forget Wednesday 21st March is the beginning of Lent.

Birthdays
18th Susan, Lourie
22nd Lindsay, Anja, Victoria Mac
24th Kirsty N

Maximum respect