Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Obama small deed

Obama Helped Stranger 20 Years Ago



Oct 05, 2008
The Norwegian newspaper VG has reported a truly amazing story about a newly-wed trying to get to Norway to be with her husband, and the stranger who helped pay an unexpected luggage surcharge.
The blog 'Leisha's Random Thoughts' has translated the story:
It was 1988, and Mary Andersen was in line at the Miami airport checking in for a long flight to Norway to be with her husband. When it was finally Mary's turn, she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness.
"You'll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway ," the man behind the counter said.
Mary had no money. Her new husband had travelled ahead of her to Norway , and she had no one else to call.
"I was completely desperate and tried to think which of my things I could manage without. But I had already made such a careful selection of my most prized possessions, " says Mary.

As tears streamed down her face, she heard a 'gentle and friendly voice' behind her saying, "That's okay, I'll pay for her."
Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before. He had a gentle and kind voice that was still firm and decisive. "The first thing I thought was, Who is this man?"
Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that radiated from the man. He was nicely dressed, with brown leather shoes, a cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants, says Mary.
She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her.
Who was the man?
Barack Obama.
Twenty years later, she is thrilled that the friendly stranger at the airport may be the next President and has voted for him already and donated 100 dollars to his campaign:

"He was my knight in shining armor," says Mary, smiling.
She paid the 103 dollars back to Obama the day after she arrived in Norway . At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker in Chicago , and had started his law studies at prestigious Harvard university.
Mary even convinced her parents to vote for him: In the spring of 2006 Mary's parents had heard that Obama was considering a run for president, but that he had still not decided. They chose to write a letter in which they told him that he would receive their votes. At the same time, they thanked Obama for helping their daughter 18 years earlier.
And Obama replied. In a letter to Mary's parents dated May 4th 2006 and stamped "United States Senate, Washington DC ' Barack Obama writes:
'I want to thank you for the lovely things you wrote about me and for reminding me of what happened at Miami airport. I'm happy I could help back then, and I'm delighted to hear that your daughter is happy in Norway . Please send her my best wishes. Sincerely, Barack Obama , United States Senator'.
The parents sent the letter on to Mary.
Mary says that when her friends and associates talk about the election, especially when race relations is the heated subject, she relates the story of the kind man who helped out a stranger-in- need over twenty years ago, years before he had even thought about running for high office.
UPDATE: Also, remember this was 1988, when 100 dollars was quite a bit of money, compared to today's value.
Truly a wonderful story, and something that needs to be passed along in the maelstorm of fear-and-smear politics we are being subjected to right now.

Friday, November 21, 2008

All the best to the two girls


Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz is the incumbent Chief of the Women's wing
and Dato Seri Sharizat Jalil is the incumbent Deputy Chief. So they
have decided to have a go at each other instead of adhering to the
compromy agreed earlier on. Shahrizat supporters do not want to
wait that long till June, 2009 and Kamiliah had pressured not to bow
down to all the understandings that had been reached amongst the EXCO.

In the recent General Election, Shahrizat lost to a younger woman, in accepting
to challenge Rafidah, she must have thought that her chances are and will be
better against an older woman. If young is strong and old is weak, than she had
decided on a risk which she can gain rather than lose. But if more nominations
means strong and less nominations means weak, she has to turn the table around.

Best of luck ladies. The men used to say BMW (best man win), but in this case of
BMW (may the BEST MOTHER WIN). Hopefully the women members of UMNO
can unite quickly after the contest to face the daunting task of winning the next GE.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

AMERIKA SYARIKAT BOLEH

Barack Obama telah berjaya didalam pilihanraya Presiden
di Amerika Syarikat dan akan menjadi Presiden Kulit Hitam
Pertama Amerika sebagai Presiden Amerika Syarikat yang ke
empat puloh empat (44). Apa yang hendak diperjuangkan oleh
President Elect Obama ialah AMERIKA SYARIKAT BOLEH.

Pertabalan Barack Obama akan berlangsung pada 20 hb Januari, 2009.
Sejarah Besar Dunia akan di cipta dalam masa 76 hari lagi.


Monday, November 3, 2008

CONGRATULATIONS YAB Dato' Seri Mohd Najib

Congratulations YAB Dato' Seri Hj Mohd Najib bin Tun Hj Abdul Razak for winning the UMNO's Presidency without contest. Under the UMNO election rule, anyone contesting the President's post must obtain at least 30% of the nominations from the 191 UMNO divisions. As at 4-11 pm on the 2nd of November, 2008 - YAB Dato' Seri Hj Mohd Najib had obtained 134 nominations.
YBM Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had obtained 1 nomination. By the end of the day, YAB Dato' Seri Hj Mohd Najib would have secured another 5 more nominations bringing it to a total of 139 nominations from 140 UMNO divisions. Even if YBM Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh gets all the balance nominations, he still will not qualify. There are another 51 UMNO divisions to complete their meetings and one foresees that the President's nomination will go to YAB Dato' Seri Hj Mohd Najib bin Tun Hj Abdul Razak. Congratulations to Pak Lah for making a very wise decision not to contest the President's post. Now UMNO can and should unite under the new President to move forward to champion the cause of the Malays and Malaysians.