Most of the world doesn’t understand what you do. They don’t understand what the President or Prime Minister does. They don’t understand how common things work, let along complex things.

The majority of businesses are poorly defined. Can you say in one sentence what your business does without umm-ing and ahh-ing? If you can’t, it’s because of unclear definition.

The same with your health - your body is confused as to what’s going in and how incorrect things are mixed. The same with terrorism - we’re confused when something happens in our country - is it a natural fire? Was it a terrorist attack? Was it arson? Who shot who?

(Global) confusion takes up too much brain space and drains energy. How do you get over such (global) confusion?

The answer is usually in the language you use. Don’t use jargon that alienates the public. Don’t give them a reason NOT to investigate you and your work further.

Are you using real, simple language?

This is the situation in nearly every country around the world. Now more than ever we need leadership. Those who call themselves leaders need to learn from the likes of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Franklin Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela and Jawaharlal Nehru.

This change needs to happen, especially today where the public is trapped in the rat race, caught up in the latest gizmo and consumed in the latest gossip simply as a cover for the truth which they are incapable of coming to terms with.

All politicians are consumed with multiple agendas that lose their focus and concentration and thus no problem or issue gets resolved to the core. They are simply looking to make big changes in each area without full research and thinking, unaware that small inconsistencies are going to creep up. These big changes take place without the real questioning. They see something they like the sound of and then they chase it.

Then the public turn their heads. They start to speak up about the lack of control and poor decisions the government are making. In true reality, the so-called leader has the right idea, but the poor leadership turns him or her the other way.

The result today: the hellish war in Iraq, and talk of pouring more troops into the region. I can admit to my premature thinking. Who am I to speak up? But then again, who am I not to? You think what you want. I’m here to petition for change. Real change.

We need leadership today, more than ever.

As a result of the lack of leadership in our country, the public is following the same path. Lack of leadership in our life and the choices we make are putting more teenagers out of education, bringing about more drug scandals, violence on the streets and teenage pregnancies. More than ever, we need leadership today.

And for the Government to see this (which I really think they need to open their eyes too), it’s important that we as individuals don’t lose our lack of leadership. We need to become leaders of our life in order for the Government to take notice of the change that is required in society. We need to follow our inner guidance and do as we feel is right. We need to play our roles in society. We need to become intelligent day-to-day leaders.

In the second chapter of Senator Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, he talks about the sense of empathy that he has worked to instill in his values and character as a Senator and Presidential candidate for the 2008 elections.

Emapthy, according to Wiki, is commonly defined as one’s ability to recognize, perceive and directly feel the emotion of another. Obama identifies this in the late Senator Paul Simon and says it is at the heart of his moral code. The idea is simple: see everything as if you were standing in the other person’s shoes or looking through their eyes. Do not judge. Do not use words you do not understand. And do not simply give sympathy or charity.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons that draws me closer to Obama and why I like him as a politician and am backing him to enter the White House next year.

Obama says he learnt about empathy from his mother. “She disdained any kind of cruelty or thoughtlessness or abuse of power […] Whenever she saw even a hint of such behavior in me she would look me square in the eyes and ask, ‘How do you think that would make you feel?’ “

Upon reading this in the book, it made clear a personal connection in my life and showed me how I too had grown. For years when I was younger I would think to myself why my father would more than encourage us to focus on education and continuously keep an eye on our studies. I knew that he didn’t manage to pass a set of crucial exams at one point in his life. I would not understand and with a certain talent for rhetoric as well as an absolute certainty about the merits of my own views, I wouldn’t budge in my steps.

As always, there is three sides to every story and over the last few years, it has become clear to me why he may be doing what he is, if anything. It has helped and only in hindsight do I know this, and I know how much he wants to be succesful in what we do. Not only do I understand, but I also appreciate all that he has done.

As Obama says in his book, “there’s nothing extraordinary about such an awakening, of course: in one form of another it is what we all must go through it if we are to grow up.”

So the powerful question to remember and use as a guidepost for all aspects of our life is “How would that make you feel?”. As individuals, partners and as a country on the whole, we need to ask this question more.

If Bush asked himself this, would the decision of whether to go to war or not be easier to make? Or at least if he still went to war, what about the decision of whether to keep troops there or bring them back?

What about those millions of parents with children in poverty? How would it feel if they were your children? Those that are chronically ill, unable to afford education and have no clean water to drink?

We say we believe in equal opportunity but stray away from those millions in languish and no employment. As leaders of our country and our own lives, we need a far stronger sense of empathy. When we are called to be more empathic, “we are all forced beyond our limited vision” as Obama says.

Remember the powerful question, “How would that make you feel?”

I know this blog is about my adventures in the blended lifestyle and how you too can live it, but when you live the blended lifestyle, you get to segment your time appropriately, free up more time and selectively sift out the things you want to do and learn.

One thing I’ve spent some time reading about recently is US politics - how it’s run, what’s the major differences between the democrats and republicans, what are the major things Bush has done correctly and what he has done incorrectly and also about the profiles and campaigns for the forthcoming elections. It’s allowed me to hone my decision-making skills on important matters in today’s world.

As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of Barack Obama, his style and what he’s campaigning for. Over the last few days, during the question and answer discussions with General Petraus, Obama came out and stated his claim as to what he’d do when he becomes President. Yes, it may be his latest attempt to impress the states, but from reading his book, The Audacity of Hope, and understanding his beliefs and philosophies, I stand by him making it happen.

Here’s what he said:

Let me be clear: there is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq’s leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year – now.

We should enter into talks with the Iraqi government to discuss the process of our drawdown. We must get out strategically and carefully, removing troops from secure areas first, and keeping troops in more volatile areas until later.

But our drawdown should proceed at a steady pace of one or two brigades each month. If we start now, all of our combat brigades should be out of Iraq by the end of next year.

He’s not alone though. Senators’ Clinton and Dodd, of course, are on the same course and it is now up to them and others to keep up the pressure on the Bush Administration as well as the media who play up such messages when crucial times come forth.

What’s your take on all this?

Saddam Hussain is going to be hanged. It’s the most exciting piece of news for most people watching, reading or listening in the last few days.

When I first heard about it, I wandered how Saddam himself would have reacted. Today, I just read on the BBC website that Saddam’s letter from his prison says that he will become a “true martyr” because of his “sacrifice” to Iraq through his country.

To me, it just shows how Saddam doesn’t have to use his speech or actions to fight back and can control his thoughts powerfully by saying to himself and the world that he’ll accept his death penalty as a sacrifice for all he’s done for Iraq.

The best I’ve heard from Saddam… ever!