Daily Lessons from Llife 30 August 2010 - Obama says not worried by Muslim "rumors"

"Obama says not worried by Muslim 'rumors' - Mon, Aug 30, 2010 Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - A public opinion poll showing Americans are increasingly convinced, wrongly, that he is Muslim does not trouble him, President Barack Obama said on Sunday.

'It's not something that I can, I think, spend all my time worrying about it,' Obama said in an interview with NBC News, dismissing the results of a recent Pew Research Center.

'I'm not going to be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating out there. If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn't get much done.'"

I like President Obama. Especially his vision and his intention to change America and the world. There are many lofty ambitions and plenty of hard work and many powerful oppositions that will try to block the team who supported his vision to make it a reality.

One of the key things must be the educational level and the global awareness of the great American people. So, when he says he is not worried by the Muslim 'rumors', he is not wrong. Except that it carried a deeper alarm. That 1/2 of those surveyed DID NOT know what religion he belongs to. Maybe the Americans are not particularly religious given all the attention of the media are on 'news worthy things' like the economy, Paris Hilton's drug bust (again!), etc. Still, I am worry if I were the President of one of the freest and advance nation.

Lessons for me are:

1. don't sweat the small things. At the same thing, do look deeper into some of the little signs that say: Things are not good!;

2. in a media crazy nation, information are readily available. Yet, when the right focus is not present, people sweat the small things. Education and change effort is required. It will take time as people are naturally more interested in doing things that yield immediate results so that they can measured and then be rewarded accordingly! Education and change of behaviours and development of a new habit, especially good one, will take much longer time!;

3. whether 1/3 of those know President Obama is a Christian but not a Muslim or not is not that important. At the same time, it could have easily being 1/3 of those surveyed feel that Muslim is bad. Muslim is terrorism personified. If that is the case, division will appear, trust will disappear, and unrest and resentment and conflict could not be too far away!!

May President Obama continued to execute on his vision. May his people helped him to focus on the long term and harder to measure KPIs of education and helping people help themselves!