Dear President BARACK OBAMA

Congratulations on your successful first year.

Against all odds

In his inauguration speech President Obama informed America and the world: ‘Challenges are real. They are serious and many. And they will not be easily solved in a very short time.’

But he has accomplished much of what he set out to do and in a short time. St. Petersburg Times, the Pulitzer Prize-winning , fact-checking service reports in detail: http://www.politifact.com/

When he came to office he inherited a horrendous legacy of a country in crisis, and the collapse of world economy, and hate and anger at home and abroad.

In the one short year he has the financial institutes working, created transparency, travelled widely not only attending meeting after meeting at home and abroad, but has met world leaders in their own countries or at the White House to redeem the love and respect America had lost in the past few years. His representatives have gone abroad to renew good will and trade connections.

But the one year certainly seems a desperately long time to the opponents of President Obama.

The cry goes out: close Guantanamo but don’t bring the men we capture, our prisoners to our shores; get rid of Al Qaeda but don’t spend our money and don’t send out our soldiers; we want healthcare but don’t tax us; create jobs, but don’t anger countries from whom we buy what we can produce locally. One after another mealy mouthed screams continue.

Since the election it would seem the Republicans are keen to divide the country, it’s us and him. Smear campaigners work overtime, digging deeper and deeper. Hyper-hysterical media feed the public with out-of-context irrelevant and false information. What weird democracy is this!

Perhaps it would be easier for the Republicans and the Tea-baggers and the Christian Fundamentalists if President Obama did not have a exotic name, and if he’d been born in the boondocks in USA somewhere. And perhaps it would even be a little tolerable if he’d was a slave son. Adversaries and armed rebellions and assassination plots would be fewer.

Not a coalition for the betterment of the people but an ignorant, ‘demented, vindictive’ opposition to democracy is what I see.

Kindle

A quantum leap in reading.

In December 2009, on a no-special-gift-giving day, Don presented me with Kindle 2.

Imagine a hard cover 1cm thin and weighing 289 grams (10.2 oz) and readably squeezed into it 1,500 books. That’s my Kindle, a mean machine and thing of beauty. Slim, sturdy, comfortable and delicious to handle.

Within 45 seconds I purchased my first eBook, right on the device, wireless and no computer connection. Kindle works on the phone principle – 3G. I have another 349,000 titles to choose from.

Rotation of 15cm (diagonal) screen gives landscape or portrait viewing. Six different font sizes make for effortless reading. And the 16 level grey scale and 600×800 pixel resolution in the electronics paper is glare proof and easy on the eye.

Page turns back and forth, previous page or next page on the press of a button, and Kindle remembers and bookmarks the last page read. When it is reopened next it brings up the location. Built-in dictionary and access to Wikipedia allows looking up words on the reading page. Like pencilling in, highlights, notes and comments are made on the page. Books purchased and all notations are backed up by Amazon. Speech function will read book aloud and turn pages. Don’t expect a passionate, emotional human voice, just a friendly robot.

I am a great fan of Audio Books and Kindle downloads these too.

Recharging is fast and Kindle remains charged for about four days of avid reading, with wireless turned on, or two weeks turned off.

Besides books Kindle also gives access to daily newspapers, magazine subscriptions and blogs and has a built-in PDF reader. Browse the internet, send emails, do word processing on the machine and acts as a MP3 player. Kindle apps are free for iPhone and iPod.

A huge bonus for us writers – Kindle e-books CANNOT be passed on or re-sold after they are read. There is still hope I can move out of sleeping beneath the underpass.

Will I still buy physical paper books. Yes. My reading, like the octopus, has many tentacles and will grab on to every kind of reading material available. Nothing really replaces anything. ‘Everything just splinters.’

More at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015T963C