I gather you now very little about Northern European history to make these claims.;-) Premature prize or not, his strive for diplomacy is really the only way to create a sustainable solution. The fact that a Norwegian committee makes this decision now is clearly a strong signal it believes in the change and would like to encourage it.

If anything we should now focus on making sure the change happen, and do join the cause of a sustainable change for the future. Prize or no prize that is what matters at the end. Right?

... and your point is? You want to build a wall around the US or use the famous ostrich mentality and stick your head in the sound? It would be the convenient way for sure. Not very wise or constructive, but convenient.

We do live in a global world and our issues are profoundly global. The US will be far more safer my embracing change and engage in a discussion to reach a common ground. Conservatism has been tested throughout history and always, always failed. Pick up a history book and read about the centuries the countries in Europe have tested this to no avail.

We should stop living in the passed and start looking into the future for real solutions and change.

His presidency so far is definitely not a farce. He has some big not to say huge issues to tackle, which he has inherited, and too many thinks, as usual, as he should solve them for them in some weird almighty way.

We all have to participate in this change because he will not change the world, he can inspire us to make this change but WE will have to make this change and be willing to embrace a change to something better than opposing camps blaming each other and not taking any responsibility to take the first step. If you call yourself, Christian this makes absolutely no sense.

For example: Is wanting to change the health care system into something more human, fair and compassionate a farce? For once it is definitely one of the more profound Christian values which I gather you claim to go by based on your site.

Why does it anger you so much that he wants to create change and engage in a discussion? To me it is beyond ironic when you hear Christians oppose change as Jesus himself, the son of God, preached change and created change in a Jewish society and founded a new religion. Isn't that the ultimate sign that Christianity is about change?

In addition, I would be a bit careful about making statements as who does he think he is, when you as a Christian should obey the Golden rule: "Do to others what you would like them to do you." That is not a selective rule that makes you able to pick and choose who you are compassionate to. This goes for anything and anyone - regardless of ethnicity, nationality, religion or culture. Nor is this written anywhere in Islam or Jewism.

Too bad, there are still too many people out there not understanding that. It is not we against them. It is us as a global society against ourselves. We shape the future which we want to live in.

In my mind, we have to get beyond this childish, immature and convenient mentality of blaming everyone else but ourselves which leads absolutely nowhere. At least he tries. For that he has my fullest sincerest respect and admiration. or do you really think we will get anywhere closer to a solution by not trying to believe in a change and attempting something?

(Sorry for not posting the whole video and I will see if I can find it now so that the whole context is there.)

Nevertheless, who said that being a citizen of the world is the same as uniforming cultures, food, beliefs and attitudes? One of the biggest misconceptions I so often face. Think of any family. All its members has their differences. The individuality in the group is important as so is any group identity in the larger societies. It is time to kill this misconception and make it easy to way off this discussion with a wimp.

Continuing I really don't get this statement: "I don't know about you, but I think that in the human drama, we are tribal by nature and the "global citizen" push is to have everyone sprinkle love and fairy dust on everyone else so that our inherent and cultural differences disappear like magic." Who claims that global citizens is the same as all our issues are disappearing? ON the contrary we get more, but we will also get closer to the solution.

The nature of citizenships comes with both rights and responsibilities. For me what I do think accepting that we are a global society is so important as we start to realize we are co-owners of all issues (and rights), we see around the world. We have too many issues around the world that really require us to work together despite all our differences - culturally, ethnically, religiously and so forth. The first step is to accept that the global society is a fact and that we are all members of it - hence global citizen.

This "we and them" mentality is harmful for us all. We instantly shut ourselves out of walking towards a more shared future than fractioned. Why i think this is intellectual non-sense is because it is a cowardly way of walking away from the issues we have at hand. We should address them head on but together so that on one later can say that they were not part of the decision.

Yet I am not sure there is such a thing as absolutes or why we should strive for the absolutes. Maybe I am more a champion of the ideas of Plato about real world being an incomplete version of the perfect idea world. I have to look a bit deeper into t he Oxford Movement though to say anything about their ideas in general. :-)

Interesting and universal questions for sure. They are good leading stars. Ultimately it comes down to having or gaining an awareness on how your actions are affecting other people and if the actions are proportional, valid, honest and yet compassionate. Raising this awareness of the effect of your actions will solve most things and make it a better world. :-)

Oh, I just remembered a quote from my mom: "What this world needs now is hope and humanity..." I think it is an awesome quote.

Maybe, maybe not. I will grant you that it is a step in the right direction. That is for sure. I would still say there are some huge issues the US still faces as far as race is concerned...

I am not necessarily only talking about the black population, but rather acknowledging that we still make differences depending on who you are and what you are not. We have come a long way but the still around the world we see segregation in various shapes and forms which is the ultimate root.

The struggle of Martin Luther King Jr was civil rights for all individuals, regardless of religion, race, skin color and so forth. I wouldn't say that we currently have that equality in views upon all our fellow citizens of this world in this aspect.

I haven't seen the movie. I haven't actually seen a screenplay movie since 2006. Hmm. Maybe it is time now. :-) I really do believe that crisis bring out the human and compassionate side of us. It also guides and teaches us so much about ourselves. It is when you are putting yourself into rather harsh and challenging choices you really get to know yourself.

I guess it is that terrifying tickling feeling of stepping into unknown territory. We need drastic changes here especially as for mentality.

The challenges we are facing for sure requires optimism and dedication from all of us. People, like Carl Brashear, we all should have as role models for stepping up to the at first intimidating issues. We should change the world as a community. Only then will it be sustainable.

Maybe the cool thing about all this is that the crisis around us may actually be the one thing bringing us together.

Very true. I really do live with my heart as a guide. Maybe I do live too much with it as a guide, and maybe too much I do think about or consider the perception and the effects of my actions by/on others. It is a good and bad thing. Nevertheless I am what I am, and do not believe i should be anyone else.

The essence is that when it is so natural to loose that control, you know it is real.

... but hey it is so nice with control. More control for the people. *laugh* Just joking.

Very true and it is a nice verse. I guess I am not fearing the rocks. It is the unusual feeling of not knowing, not being in control. Dying on the rocks of love cannot be anything else than amazing. I guess I am a bit contradictory, but I guess anyone is in the quests of their lives.

Yeah grinding for sure. It is the weirdness of having to put faith into time and destiny, and not being able to control the situation. For me that is the challenging part. Not being in control. I usually am in full control. It is the feeling for trembling walking down a delicate path where any supporting wheels are gone or a non-existing "force-field". It is intriguing. It is comforting. It is challenging. But it is primarily a nice path. :-)

Yeah, it is indeed a tricky one. How do you escape your soulmate? It is like you said putting your faith in the trust. Taking that leap is tough, but so natural and genuine. I guess that is why it is terrifying or so challenging. You just cannot... You cannot build warehouses around your emotions even if you would like to sometimes. :-)

Yeah, they might not be accurate but still raises some very valid concerns about how we have implemented statism, and how many fortunate throughout history have abused their position benefitting from the suffering of others.

Yeah, the point that we have a very segregated society all over the world is the essential and core take away. Also I found his comment about communism as a failing option as very true. I had a discussion the other day with a friend about communism who claimed it was a working model. I found that hilarious when not even Karl Marx himself believed it to be a practical viable model in reality. Not to mention the complete collapse and failure of the Soviet Union. I guess too many people live in oblivion and in some naive quest of becoming rebellions turn to these extremes. Probably very similar reasons behind the (frightening) extreme right movements in Europe.

(Well I guess I should realize it is almost 1.30AM here and get off this computer.)

Since when is a note from Al Qaeda the same as saying the popularity is lower in the Muslim world than Europe? To me Al Qaeda is nothing else but a terrorist organization that really needs to be separated in any shape and form from the Muslim world. Not saying I approve of any of the methods currently used for eliminating their power.

As for the popularity of Obama in Europe, it really depends on where you are. Obama is probably more popular than the other alternatives, but I wouldn't say he is loved in the whole of Europe. It is the change people love. They want to and desperately hope to see something different, but they do not really believe Obama is as glimmering as media has been painting him to be. He however seems like the better choice right now.

Agreed. We need to start to broaden our visions here. We need more metrics than the simple ROI. Looking at this effort you would foolishly believe that that the ROI should be low. Ultimately efforts such as these are good for the economy not bad. We need to start recognizing that the growth in countries are more than just the flow of capital but the knowledge capital has a tremendous effect on the growth. This is so often forgotten in the debates about national growth. Why? It has been shown that national economy growth has more factors than the old models. Too few seem to be aware of Paul Romer's the New Growth Theory even though it is far from new.

It is an easier economical world if you do not take in factors that hard to measure such as the collective efficient knowledge of a country. Ironically increasing the average level of education in countries will also have a very positive effect on other issues in our society such as understanding of different cultures, ethnicity, religion and political differences. I guess that is something many people forget out of convenience or just pure reluctance.

It is important to realize that collecting nations (and the global society) is something good even for the economical crisis. A great deal of the economical growth in the US during the 20th century can be derived from the fact that they collected the predominant part of the scientific community around the effort to reach the moon. Many people tend to forget the goodwill effect of having a common goal to works towards and the positive spinoff effects it will have.

I think you also forget the effect the success in such an effort will have on the whole nation especially if you feel them all part of the success. "We created this. We accomplished it." Too many people overlook this. I blame it on the overly belief that you can look at the cost for a project without considering the stimulative effects it might have. Basically it is a flaw in the capitalistic theory that does primarily look at the ROI, not the SROI (Social Return of Investment) and the stimulative effect. These too are notoriously hard to define and estimate why I believe many forget them. However we should not forget they exist and give it some time to judge before we have all the data at hand.