World Peace

President Barack Obama was recently in Australia announcing the permanent deployment of some troops at the top end of Australia. (I am in Australia).

Listening to him answering questions, all I could think to myself was that he is one exceptionally intelligent president, a far cry from his predecessor. I really like Barack Obama, yes I know the people in America are hurting economy wise at the moment. And he may not be very popular. But I really like the man, especially when listening to him being questioned about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He mentioned that he would be pulling all of the troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. He mentioned how he was against the Iraq war all along.

More details can be found here.  This is a war that has dragged on for 9 years. A war that has resulted in many deaths. A war which was based on lies. And a war which was not easy for a president to end, especially when there are infrastructure companies and oil companies who stand to profit from America staying there, and no doubt they would have been lobbying for America to stay there. So I think he deserves credit for that.

In addition, he said he was committed to withdrawing the American troops from Afghanistan. He said they could not withdraw straight away, but they would withdraw, acknowledging that they would be leaving a less than ideal situation.

I believe these two things will ease the deficit that America is running up, and could help the economy in the long run. It is also worthy to note that President Obama has not started any new wars so far during his presidency. If he loses, I think it will be due to unemployment levels in America. I do think his performance on the issue of World Peace has been good so far.

I grew up using Apple IIe computers, I currently use an iphone and Macbook Pro, and have always had a keen interest in Technology. There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a visionary in the tech space. I think to a large extent, he was a rather private person, but I am sure he had a very spiritual side to him, he had spent some time during his earlier years in an ashram in India.

Below is an amazing quote from Steve Jobs which was the basis for an Apple commercial, which I like very much.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

I have seen a number of his speeches and interviews over the years, and there is no doubt that the man was an intellectual giant. He was adopted out shortly after birth, yet not only did he go on to build Apple Computers, after being kicked out, he later returned at a time when Apple was experiencing a lot of trouble and went on to turn it into the biggest company in the world.

Another great speech of his, which does talk of our mortality, was his Stanford address. In particular, I like the bit where he says

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.