I'm a sucker for US politics and a sucker for great speeches.

I think its too early to say that he should be elected - I'm looking for to seeing how he performs in a presidential campaign, should he get the chance - but I have to say that Barack Obama is possibly the most gifted public speaker I have seen in politics in my time.

I first saw him speak at the Democratic Convention in 2004, after reading an article on him in the Economist earlier in the year (unfortunately only viewable with a subscription!).  I was sitting in a hotel room in India preparing for the day and was lucky enough to catch it - listening to that speech made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

His Iowa speech is in a similar, rarified class.  Impressive ...

There was an interesting article today in the Straits Times about the scourge of littering in Singapore, and how years and years of effort by the Government to address this problem have failed.  It followed another article which appeared during the week which quoted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.  MM was asked in a public forum by a questioner when Singapore would develop an environmental consciousness and evolve into a "gracious society".  MM's frank answer was that while he expected we'd see increasing environmental concerns, he didn't expect to see a gracious society "in his lifetime".

For some reason he then gave the example of Britain and how graciousness had emerged there over centuries  ... why he chose the UK is beyond me, surely Australia would have been a better example?  ;-)

A week or so ago, we brought the latest recruit into Cognitive Edge.  Based in Singapore, Rachael Hyde has been a CE practitioner since participating in a Cynefin Center workshop conducted by Dave as part of her Master of Management at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza, Italy in 2005.

You can reach Rachael using her email address:  rachael.hyde@cognitive-edge.com