President Obama’s Weekly Address – 01/16/10
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Obama, Personal Finance, Politics
As the President continues to work on immediate job creation, he discusses his proposal for a new fee on the largest financial institutions to ensure that every cent of taxpayer assistance gets paid back. Saying that, “we’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run,” he then discusses the ongoing push to make sure banks can never put our economy at risk again.
Helping Haiti
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Family, Relationships, Society & Culture, Technology, Think Global
It’s amazing how a disaster can bring people together and due to major advancements in technology, it’s easier than every to lend a hand. I’ve received information via email, text and Facebook about Wyclef Jean’s efforts to help those in Haiti. It’s pretty easy to donate and you know the funds are going to be used wisely. To donate via your cell phone text “Yele” to 501501 and $5.00 will be charged to your cell phone bill. To donate online, click here.
The Red Cross also has a text message option and so far has raised over $4 million in mobile donations. To donate to the Red Cross via your mobile phone, text the word “Haiti” to the number 90999. A donation of $10.oo will be charged to your mobile phone bill.
Local Dallas radio host Tom Joyner said in this morning’s show that he and his team have plans to fly to Port-au-Prince to set up an internet cafe for Haitian citizens to contact family in America. In a post at blackamericaweb.com, they list some other things we can do to help out.
I shouldn’t be surprised at the global response to help a country in need, but I would like to end this post with a message from the Villager titled “Haiti Earthquake: Will America Care Next Week?”. Haiti has always been a country in need and I hope America will not forget them or others who need a helping hand.
NAACP Earl G. Graves Scholarship
Filed under: Blog Entries, Business, Education, Personal Finance
Scholarship Name: NAACP – Earl G. Graves Scholarship – 2010
Scholarship Value: up to $ 5000
Classifications: College Junior, College Sophomore, Graduate Student
Minimum GPA: 2.5
For more scholarship opportunities, visit blackstudents.com
Eligible Majors: Business, International Business
Eligible Schools: Open for 4 Year Colleges Only
Application Deadline: Sunday, March 07, 2010
How to Apply : Apply Online
Scholarship Detail:
This competition opens on Jan 4, 2010.
Applicants must be sophomores or juniors at the time of application, enrolled in accredited colleges or universities majoring in Business or graduate studenst enrolled or accepted to a master’s or doctoral program within a Business school in an accredited college or university in the United States (Applicants may apply during their sophomore year).
Applicant must currently be in good academic standing and making satisfactory progress toward and undergraduate or graduate degree.
Applicant must be in the top 20% of his/her class. Applicants do not need to demonstrate financial need.
Required Materials:
- Three letters of recommendations (one personal, two academic references from the business school of the accredited college.) Letters of recommendations must be written on official letterheadand – must be directly uploaded to the online application by the recommenders.
- Recent official transcript and evidence of fulltime enrollment – must be mailed to UNCF by the program deadline.
- Essay – must be directly uploaded to the online application by the applicants.
**Please also open and read the attached document above for more instructions and information about the NAACP scholarship applications.
Members of the National NAACP Board of Directors, SCF Trustees, National Youth Work Committee, the NAACP Scholarship Selection Committee, employees and their spouses or families to the first degree of consanguinity are not eligible to apply for or receive this scholarship.
Don’t Read Too Much Into Reid
Filed under: Blog Entries, Community, Obama, Politics, Society & Culture
Everyone is making a big deal about Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment and I can understand why. If it had been a Republican, a committee would have been formed to investigate and Senate member would have been embarrassed out of their position. The committee would have given the report and findings to President Obama and he would have thrown them in the trash. I’m sure this isn’t the first (or last) time he’s a heard a comment like this.
What Harry said was wrong and insensitive, but how many people have thought the same thing? When Obama announced his decision to run for president, I remember thinking to myself, “now this brotha has a shot”. Let’s be honest, if he were dark-skinned and well spoken, he would have been “one of those uppity negros” and probably wouldn’t have been accepted by such a large, diverse demographic as Obama was (it was either him or Harold Ford Jr.)
While sad, the discussion over dark vs. light skin is nothing new in the black community. Growing up, light-skinned was in and the Al B. Sure brotha’s were on top of the world and I remember at times being envious of them with their “light skin” and “good hair”. It’s an issue that has plagued many dark-skinned people of color (whether they want to admit it or not) and I really believe that’s why I’m not surprised by Harry’s comment. You have to ask yourself, if everything except skin color were equal, would a darker-skinned person have a had a chance running against Obama?
President Obama knows the game. This isn’t the first time he’s been talked about and he knows he needs Reid to get his agenda through Congress. But the difference now, is that Reid is Obama’s personal bia bia and will get do what he needs to do to get back in the good graces of the black Democrats. These people are politicians and they will do what they need to do to get their personal agendas passed. I’m no fan of fake public apologies and Reid meant exactly what he said. What bothers me are all the complaints from people who have probably said the same thing and didn’t get caught.
President Obama’s Weekly Address – 01/02/10
Filed under: Blog Entries, Obama, Society & Culture
The President discusses the recent attempted act of terrorism on the Christmas day flight to Detroit, and his broader strategy to fight Al Qaeda.
Happy New Year 2010
Filed under: Black Blogger Postings, Blog Entries, Business, Community, Education, Entertainment & Sports, Family, General, Health, Laughable, Legal, Life, Monday Motivation, Music Reviews, My Thoughts, Obama, Our Rights, Personal Finance, Photo Phinish, Politics, Relationships, Society & Culture
It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.
The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.
Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.
This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.
Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:
Have a Happy New Year and God Bless!
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