Time for Change

It is no longer business as usual, 

but that may be a good thing.

Many in this country voted for change.  There will be many changes in Washington, DC that people of all political beliefs will be closely watching and should be closely watching. Perhaps this tumultuous time will inspire more people to take action in new and positive ways. 

Stay informed:

Read a newspaper. Websites and newscasters use DRAMA!!! to get your attention, especially on slow news days. When something is in writing, you can analyze and process it on your own.

Look at issues from both sides. Don’t rely on only The Huffington Post or The National Review. Look at both and do a little research. Try to find the reason behind the newest appointee or proposed legislation. You may change your mind or you may become even more committed to speaking out.

Research topics at https://www.aclu.org/ . Even if you disagree with the ACLU’s stand on a topic, this site has plenty of links to research and to ways to get involved.

Let your Elected Officials know what you want:

http://www.senate.gov

 http://www.house.gov/ (Be careful with this site. It sends me to the wrong representative based on zip code – It isn’t the person on my ballot – so make sure you know who your rep is!)

Notations On Our World (W-End Edition): On Community Service & Giving Back On this #MLKday2017

The Corporation For Public & Community  Service here in the United States has just published its'  its' Public Engagement & Outreach Plan.    It is available by clicking here.   

One of the key dates before us here in the United States is Monday January 16 as we all honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.    We launched #Outsiders do to our part to help change the Conversation about our World.   January 16, 2017 will be an opportunity for all to work to make a difference by spearheading opportunities to make a difference.     To register an event or to find an event to serve in, please click here.    

Notations From the Grid (Thursday Edition): On the #Russia Hacking Hearing, #Syria & Other Thoughts

The Washington Post this morning reported on the hearing convened by Arizona Senator McCain as some US Senate Members were not ready to cross swords with the President Elect:


This is as halfway around the World, a very problematic development occurred in Syria:  The lack of water in Damascus as the war continues despite a supposed nationwide ceasefire:



The past 24 hours has also seen some interesting shifts in the media landscape as Megyn Kelly has decided to join NBC News, Tucker Carlson (who had a stint at CNN, founded the Daily Caller and now also works for Fox) will take over her slot and as Medium (that We here at the Daily Outsider consider a partner) has gone through a restructuring.  

As our team continued its' daily assessment of our World, we were blown away by what we saw at  the New York Times regarding  Brazil which we will be pursuing throughout the year to assess the impact of austerity on the ordinary faces of the largest country in South America.   

   

On the Virtual Prowl Some #WednesdayWisdom

As our team worked away on the network today, the team decided in the spirit of the Twitter #WednesdayWisdom Hashtag to share some "Wisdom" from our archives  which we hope is of interest:

On The Virtual Road @ CES2017 In Las Vegas: Get Ready for Your Week in Las Vegas with These CES Fun Facts

Once again, our World will be blown away by the gadgets that will be rolled out by the leading lights in the tech world this week in Las Vegas. As we keenly await some cool rollouts (Faraday with the car to beat Tesla; LG coming out to outhome Google Home), our team thought all might enjoy this from the Consumer Electronics Association that is as good a guide on the happenings. This is a show that has been going on for 50 years!!!

CTA - Get Ready for Your Week in Las Vegas with These CES Fun Facts: New Year’s Day may be the official start of the near year, but it also means we are one day closer to CES 2017! On Thursday, the doors to the world’s largest consumer technology trade show will open. But before you board the plane and head to Las Vegas, check out these fun tidbits about CES.

An #Outsider Newsflash: President Obama Participates in the Armed Forces Full Honor Review Farew...

View of the Week: As The World Awaits the Trump Administration

Happy 2017!!!

In 17 days, America will have a New President.     For our first edition of "View of the Week" for the new year, our team chose the first notations from the Fortune's  Geoff Colvin for the new year captured the essence of the first 100 days of the incoming Trump Administration: 

JANUARY 3, 2017 Topic A for business leaders worldwide is the presumed avalanche of pro-business actions about to cascade from Washington soon after the new Congress is sworn in today, and especially after Donald Trump is inaugurated in 17 days. But how much of it will actually get done? And when rhetoric becomes statutory reality, what surprises will be buried deep in the bills that are enacted and rules that are imposed? The scope of what may be about to happen is vast. Here are the big themes that business leaders will want to monitor, especially between now and May 1, the end of Trump’s first 100 days: -Obamacare repeal. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised that the first Senate vote of 2017 will be to start dismantling Obamacare, but that move could be largely symbolic. The details of the Republicans’ vowed “repeal and replace” policy are from complete; the process will be extremely complex. Repealing without simultaneously replacing Obamacare could be bad news for employers, forcing them and their workers to take action with little idea of what might come next from Washington, or when. -Regulatory rollback, especially on Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Financial stocks rocketed after Trump’s election on expectations that he’d end Washington’s war on Wall Street. Some deregulation looks inevitable, and courts are already chopping away at the extraordinary structure of the largely unaccountable CFPB. But even some conservative policy wonks favor higher capital requirements for big banks as a step toward avoiding another financial crisis. -Corporate tax reform. Candidate Trump proposed slashing the corporate tax rate to 15%, which looks highly unlikely, but some reduction from today’s stratospheric top marginal rate of 39.1% could well happen. The real action would be on the accompanying changes intended to broaden the tax base by eliminating sundry deductions, credits, and other deals. -Infrastructure. Trump proposed a trillion-dollar program funded partially by private investment. The important questions are how drastically that number will be reduced and, as always in infrastructure programs, how much pork must be dispensed to secure passage of actually useful projects. -Confirmation of cabinet appointees. The Democrats don’t have enough votes in the Senate to block Trump’s appointees, but they can make the confirmation process long and painful for some of them, conceivably even unearthing information that would turn a few Republican senators against one or two of them. That’s important because the Treasury, Energy Department, Labor Department, Justice Department, HHS, and other executive departments are where much of the deregulatory and pro-business action will take place. The broad outlines of the next few months look clear, but Congress can’t pass broad outlines and agencies can’t implement them. An epic lobby-fest is already underway to shape the details, the precise language of coming changes, which will determine the winners and losers as the Republican-controlled government gets to work. That’s what leaders need to focus on now. We also hope all enjoy these thougths on leadership  as we begin a new year here at the Daily Outsider:

Notations From the Grid (Special New Years' #2017 Edition): On the #Obama Years

Happy New Year!!

Our team has been on the "prowl" as we have been assessing our World and gearing up for what is bound to be a very exciting, engaging and "hopefully" more peaceful World in 2017.    As the pivotal date of January 20, 2017 approaches, The Obama White House issued its' 8th & Final Retrospective on the Obama Presidency which we thought all might enjoy as we await the new Era here in the United States.    Please enjoy!!

THE WHITE HOUSE    In Review: The Obama Presidency As the year comes to a close, White House staff looked back at a few of our favorite moments from the past eight years. President Obama's top speeches, as chosen by his speechwriters President Obama's top moments in the digital era The President's filmmakers pick their favorite White House videos The White House's top moments in the digital era First Lady Michelle Obama's Top 10 Let's Move!Moments Looking back on eight years of letters to the President The most memorable We the People petitions

On The Eve of #2017....

On behalf of all of us here at The Daily Outsider, we wish you and your loved ones a joyous new year as we say to all:

Onward to 2017 with all its' possibilities!!!

As The New Year Dawns: A "Virtual Gift" To Enjoy!!!

Please enjoy these stations courtesy of Pandora--onward to the New Year w/all its' Possibilities:

Here’s your perfect soundtrack to ring in the New Year with the biggest hits of 2016.

2016 New Year’s Eve Party Pop 2016

Reggaeton 2016 Country 2016

Rap 2016 R&B 2016

Hunters Point, San Francisco CA (Bus # 54)

A man so tall,

lean as a reed,

a large afro-topped head,

on a long strong neck,

like the Sequoia of his land,

engaged me,

in a conversation,

after I offered a salutation,

'twas one early morning,

with the fog racing back home,

a tingling cold chill,

a true Hunters Point early morning,

been here a long time

said he,

way back in time,

when them I-talians left,

is when I left the other side,

to come and live this side,

the other side being the North ridge street,

this side being Albatross street,

we were the Hill dwellers,

and everywhere it was ebony,

we policed our neighborhood,

and no nonsense was entertained,

this has always been a dormitory neighborhood,

even after out yonder that shipyard closed,

a mother walks hurriedly,

her phone is missing,

a teenage daughter,

borrowed it while she napped,

a bus comes uphill,

the #54,

and out comes the daughter,

mother, mother, mother,

she calls out,

she proffers the phone,

the mother is happy and annoyed,

don't do that shit no more,

goes the annoyed side,

mother I......

the daughter pleads,

the annoyed mother has daggers for eyes,

the daughter is mollified,

endures the walk of shame,

by the third stride,

the happy mother returns,

mother and daughter,

are planning what to have for dinner,

a Pacific-islander,

sits side by side,

with another from another island,

two passengers from the north pole,

two passengers from the East,

bid farewell to three from the South,

at a bus stop,

a young boy,

yields his place to a senior,

on the bus rolls,

ama-gonna-whip-yo-ass N....,

this from a junior high school girl,

to another on the roadside,

apparently a spill over,

from an unresolved school scuffle,

perhaps over a locker,

or could it be a boy,

the whispers made the rounds,

the junior high school boys,

as well as some of us,

reacted indifferently,

to this sudden tirade,

at Hunter's Point,

one finds,

true meaning,

to words like,

family,

life,

fending,

mending,

bending,

fulfillment,

and America.

The Green Card, the American Green Card!

A young woman by the statue of Liberty,

looks up way up,

the point of interest,

both physical,

emotional and the flaming torch,

a square card was pressed hard,

in her shaking palms,

as if in supplication,

or in pious adoration,

to a being larger than life,

perhaps in coming here,

she was overtaken,

by an overwhelming realization,

that subliminal moment,

spurred by a green card!

She had finally got it,

she belonged,

she could claim

and most of all she could be claimed,

a sense of completion egged itself in her,

a new self was filling her inner core,

somehow she knew,

the meaning of belonging,

with it came,

the powerful sense of purpose,

she resolved to play her part,

from then on,

each step and each move,

were executed with calculation,

a green card,

is a path to citizenship,

a sexual citizenship,

an intellectual citizenship,

a mobility citizenship,

a skills citizenship,

a dignity citizenship,

a physical citizenship,

an accomplishment citizenship,

no contract motivates like that one.

Text-book America, Hollywood America meets Street Level America; An African Immigrant’s Testimony

Five years gone by, it seems like yesterday. It was a hot July with the sun’s dancing beams reflecting fiercely off plane fuselages, that I landed at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport. I reminisce about that day. I also reminisce about the firsts, the onlys, the forevers and the lasts. It was my first time in Washington DC; it was the first time I was scared to leave my own apartment on Michigan Avenue right in the middle of Washington DC for fear of getting lost; it was the only time when I made up my mind to experience what it means to actually get lost; it was a gamble I never regret. Truly, I got lost! 

I missed my stop and ended up in Baltimore. It is at Baltimore Union Square that I met an officer who gave me the right directions. This person, also told me he had served as a Marine, part of a Corps that served in Uganda! imagine my reaction to this revelation. My take back home is that there is always “The Quiet America.” You guessed right, I am fixated to Graham Greene novels. This fixation will be the subject of another blog. But, suffice it to say that an Irish-Ugandan educator (whom we grew up calling our white daddy, because he was initiated by my father into our clan) taught me how to read these kinds of books. 

Where was I? Ah! Yes, I managed to get my way back to my apartment and as if a veil had lifted I immediately started figuring out streets, addresses and which means to take. I have since traveled to different American cities (Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Oakland…) and I am comfortable in all of them. Last week I got a friend who was visiting from Los Angeles on a train and we traveled to three cities in the Bay Area in Northern California i.e., Dublin, Richmond and Pleasanton. As we were travelling we shared our experiences of what it meant to be New Americans from Africa. We touched on many things Africa has given to the world yet they are unsung. We decried the seeming tendency for African leaders to miss in the action. But, we also cautioned ourselves from taking the long view when we were actually comfortable in the arms of America and did not really know what was on the ground in Africa. It was this latter remark that made me reflect about my own life as events raced like a film running in fast-forward review. 

Three long haired young girls were speaking animatedly with three other boys. All were in their late teens or late tweens. I caught parts of their conversations and heard  “………Kamusta……….Salamat…………nognog.” This last one must have peeked my ears. When I next heard it,  I immediately looked at the three boys for reaction. None showed any outward sign of reprehension or bitterness. In fact they also said it fluently in Tagalog ( a major language in the Philippines) too. I later knew that they were children of US Army officers stationed in the Philippines and were in the U.S. on vacation.  

Behind our seat were four pairs of couples with luggage and perhaps so tired after a long flight. They were  coming from the San Francisco Airport and I imagined they were looking forward to one, two, three days of sleep. May be.  I caught parts of what they were saying: “…………I’m going to say this right off the bat………………….I will bite the bullet and be your first……………………..home stretch….…”  This reminded me of the subtleties that textbooks on America don’t say about American people. Hollywood only paints a picture of villains vanquished by the good. 

In Hollywood films about America, the homes are big, food is aplenty, workers come back home after a hard day’s work and watch TV. The streets are well swept, the grass islands are well manicured, shopping malls fill up with shoppers and the address signs are all in place. But…….the tossed salad version is different. The street level America calls for reaching out and negotiate how to share space with others. One has to have appropriate intercultural competences or learn them very fast. The expectations of one’s task role or relational role behaviors must be spot on. Text books nor Hollywood can teach these unless one gets to interface with Americans blunders, sorry's and thank you's to boot.