Six Records Of A Floating Life

Six Records Of A Floating Life This research paper will examine the historical significance of gender roles and relations as represented in Shen Fus Six Records of a Floating Life. I will investigate the representation of female gender as displayed in Yuns character through a maless point of view, and reach some understanding of the positive characteristics that a wife should have and the social effects of these societal preferences. I will also look at a husbands perception of his wife through Shen Fus relationship with Yun, and compare evidence of Shen and Yuns limited relationship to poetry from a woman named Xi Peilan that reflects her relationship with her husband during the same time period. Xi Peilan was an accomplished female poet and her poetry draws on her personal experience as a wife. Therefore, by looking at firsthand insight on the marital relationship from both a male and female perspective, we can that the personal relationship between a husband and his wife was directly and primarily affected by t he limitations placed on wives in society. Shen introduces Yun by explaining that their marriage was arranged at a young age and highlights qualities in Yun that impressed him. From Shens initial description, Yun appears to be an appealing candidate for a wife right away. As a result a general idea of the qualities desired in a wife is formed. For instance, upon meeting Yun when Shen and his mother were confirming the engagement, Shen tells his mother that he would like to marry Yun, and points out that his mother specifically like Yuns gentle nature. This passage shows how involved the family was in the marriage process, because although Shen happened to like Yun, it was his mother who chose her to be his wife, and he had little influence in the decision. And because Shens mother liked her gentleness, believing that a desirable young women should have a mild and kind disposition. Shen continues to describe Yun by explaining that her father died when she was young and she worked arduously at needlework in order earn money to provide for her family, as he states that the labor of her ten fingers came to provide for all three of them. Shen also focuses significantly on Yuns intellect, as he states Even while small, she was very clever, and he notes that while Yun was busy providing for her family, she took time to continue her education by reading her brothers school books. Yun is presented as a respectable woman because she embodies Confucian characteristics such as filial piety. Also, once married to Yun, Shen states that as a new wife she was quiet and never became angry, he continues by saying that She was respectful to her eldersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Everything she did was orderly, and was done properly. Shen emphasizes Yuns thoughtful behavior and her ability to quickly adapt to her role as wife. Exploring Yuns characteristics further, Shen mentions one incident that occurred between both of them during their youth that reveals the extent from Yun devoted herself to becoming an excellent wife. Shen explains that one day he desired something to eat, and he states that Yun secretly took me to her room, where she had hidden some warm rice porridge, but soon Yuns cousin saw what was going on and exclaimed to Yun, you said there wasnt any more [porridge]! But I see you were just hiding it in here and saving it for your husband! As a result, Yuns family laughed at her because she showed such devotion to her husband at a young age and she became embarrassed. Yun was so ashamed that she distanced herself from Yun up until their marriage ceremony. This simple incident seems to have impacted Shen opinion of Yun, for he brings it up again once they are married. Once married Yun always woke up early and ran off to get the day started, and he felt that she was still embarrassed, and he as ked her Why are you still afraid of someone laughing at you? Yun replied by saying that she woke up early not because she is embarrassed, but because she does not want his parents to think that she is apathetic. The rice porridge scene shows Yuns passionate devotion to family as she immediately adopts the role of wife. Even before Yun is married to Shen she is thinking about him and trying to serve him. Once married she is no longer feels that she must hide her devotion, and tries to be a good wife paying attention to not only his needs but to his parents as well. However, it appears that the camaraderie that Shen and Yun share is not ordinary. Their marriage is one of genuine affection for one another and a desire to interact, but it appears that their desire to be with one another is actually hurt by the Yuns role as his wife. For instance, once married Shen states that he and Yun would secretly meet up with one another to hold hands. Therefore Shen and Yun must try not to show affection for one another in public, even though they were married because it was not considered appropriate. This also shows that a husband and wife did not have private places to meet with one another during the day, and were surrounded by other family members in home. Shen continues by saying that The strangest thing to me then was how old couples seemed to treat one another like enemies, suggesting that their marriage as partnership was not the dominant model at the time. It can be concluded that Shen does not consider his relationship with Yun to be affected by t he construction of marriage roles, and views his marriage as a friendship. Therefore Yuns position in his life is one of a companion and not someone distant and secluded in her own sphere, as wives are presented as typically being.. However, Shen is aware that Yun is limited in how she can act and what she can do because she is his wife, which makes being with one another difficult. The main conflict revolves around Shen having to travel and Yun inability to follow him. For instance, Shen expresses that he thinks that their relationship would work better if Yun were a man, as he states that It is a pity that you are a woman and have to remain hidden away at home. If only you could become a man we could visit famous mountains. He continues to saying that in his next life I hope you will be born a manà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦I will be a woman, and we can be together again. This is significant because it does not reveal Shens unhappiness with Yuns role as a woman. This instance seems to show that husbands did not necessarily limit their wives, and that men were also affected by womens societal role and were unable to change their wives circumstances. In this section Shen seems to be more distraught over Yun having to remain at home than Yun does. This is because in reply to Shens comment Yun suggests that she is content with her role as wife, as she states, What is so difficult about that? After my hair begins to turn whiteà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦we could still visit places nearby, which shows that she is willing comply with social norms and wait until she is elderly to travel. Yun is making the best of her social role and attempting to assert her agency inside of it by traveling when she is older, which was socially acceptable. In her article ***NAME THE ARTICLE***, Paola Paderni states that Discussing cases of agency does not mean romanticizing reality but analyzing the possibilities that an individual has of mediating within a system of norms by manipulating the rules. Therefore, according to Panderni Yun appears to have accepted her role as wife, and is not a attempting to cross societal bounds, and is providing Shen with a realistic option for them both to travel together. Shen however rejects Yuns idea, stating that by that time she would be too old and could not physically make the journey. Shens quick rejection suggests and overall disappointment and unhappiness with Yuns gender construction, and his unrealistic outlook as he desires Yun to be a man. But at the same time, Yun displeased when she cannot go with Shen to a party. Yun states that What a shame that I cannot go just because I am not a man. Shen mentions that she should dress up like a man accompany him, however she almost backs out of it because she thinks his parents will disapprove, but Shen convinces her to go through with it. At the festival Yun identity is uncovered and her disguise is treated as a joke and everyone ends up having a good time. This expresses that as a married woman, Yun was not allowed be part of the outer domain, but it is clear from Shens perspective that, while Yun was committed to fulfilling her wifely duties, she desired to experience this part of a mans role, and this appears to be the main disappointment in Yuns life. The status of women appears to have been dictated by society rather than being primarily based in ingrained individual preferences.

Travel Agency Strategy

H Travel Agency Strategy Plan February 25, 2013 This paper will look at the challenges that the travel agency is facing, detailing a plan for change based on observations of challenges that the HR department is facing. Using metrics to explain change and how they can assist senior management during the planning process. Furthermore there will be an outline for the determination of the HR strategic plan combined with methods for the recruitment and selection methods. The details provided should help in assisting the travel agency overcome their challenges with a new plan to help them grow and become a formidable opponent to the competition.The travel agency appears to have challenges with the employees and the HR department. There are no goals or structure for the employees to rely on, and no goals to achieve. There are six major functions of HR that are needed to be implementing in order for the change to begin in the Travel agency. According to Byars and Rue (2008) The Society for H uman Resource Management (SHRM) has identified six major functions of human resource management: 1. Human resource planning, recruitment, and selection. 2. Human resource development. 3.Compensation and benefits. 4. Safety and health. 5. Employee and labor relations. 6. Human resource research. (Byars & Rue, 2008). The HR department can start to outline a plan if HR, management and the employees all have clear communication and direction of what the HR department is for and how they assist the company and the employees. The challenges that the HR department will face is using, HRP (Human resource Planning), to align the company’s overall strategic plan with the appropriate employees in place to achieve this goal.According to Byars and Rue (2008) Human resource planning (HRP), also referred to as workforce planning or personnel planning has been defined as the process of â€Å"getting the right number of qualified people into the right job at the right time. HRP involves appl ying the basic planning process to the human resource needs of the organization. To be effective, any human resource plan must be derived from the strategic and operational plans of the organization.In essence, the success of HRP depends largely on how closely the human resource department can integrate effective people planning with the organization's business planning process. 5 Unfortunately, HRP is often inadequately tied to overall corporate planning. (Byars ; Rue, 2008). There are four statistical modeling techniques that can be used by the HR department to forecast the needs that the agency will need. The can use time-series analysis, personnel ratios, productivity ratios and the regression analysis.Another technique that can be used is benchmarking, â€Å"benchmarking involves thoroughly examining internal practices and procedures and measuring them against the ways other successful organizations operate. ’ Byars and Rue (2008). In order to meet the Demands of the co mpany and put a solid plan into place, a skills inventory should be completed to see what types of employees the company has and their skill sets to determine future training and advancement opportunities. A skills inventory consolidates information about the organization's human resources.It provides basic information on all employees, including, in its simplest form, a list of the names, certain characteristics, and skills of employees. Because the information from a skills inventory is used as input into promotion and transfer decisions, it should contain information about each employee's portfolio of skills, not just those relevant to the employee's current job. (Byars & Rue, 2008). The next step will be metric for the HR department to gather data that can be used to show the senior management areas of improvement, or areas that need a deeper focus.These metrics can show where the company spends the most of their time and money along with, areas of the company or departments tha t do not meet the desired metric goals. Metrics can show productivity based on a set desired goal for the companies employees. Metrics refers to any set of quantitative measures to assess workforce performance. Examples of metrics that HR might use include such things as analysis of the cost per hire, average length of time to fill a position, training cost per employee, turnover cost per employee, and new-hire performance by recruiting strategy. Byars & Rue, 2008). The reason that metrics are so important to the decision making of the senior staff is that they provide a starting point for the company to see where they need to start their focus for change. Being able to evaluate an employee’s performance will help coach and mentor the employee. Metrics provide real numbers that can show areas were training is needed to get the employees to a desired output or percentage goal. Communication of the desired results or a t new strategic plan can be tricky, especially to a skeptic al bunch that has really had no definition or goals in place.They are going to want to know what is in it for them. Communication is the key to ensure understanding. The whys must be answered, why this necessary, why are we doing this what is in it for me. In order to communicate these new changes all of these must be answered. The goal is to let the employees to know what HR does and what will be changing, for instance career planning, development and training. This will be to ensure that all employees have or will have the knowledge and skills to perform to the level that the company wants their employees to be at.Letting the employees know that they are here to assist them in getting to where they want to be, while providing them an outline of career path and training to keep them interested. Where there is room for advancement there is room for recruiting new staff member with skills to help the company grow. When it comes to recruiting, there are several methods that can be use d. Using internal sources at first, the organization will keep moral up as they seek already trained and qualified personnel.Another method is reaching outside the organization to bring in new talent with other perspectives and fresh ideas to bring to the team. â€Å"Organizations have at their disposal a wide range of external sources for recruiting personnel. External recruiting is needed in organizations that are growing rapidly or have a large demand for technical, skilled, or managerial employees. † (Byars & Rue, 2008). The external sources bring all types of employees plus they bring a wider skill set to choose from. Other sources include using job boards, advertising, web sites, job placement agencies, employee referrals and walk- ins.When it comes to the selection process there are things that need to be looked at, what exactly is the company in need of, where do they want to go, where have past internal and external employees gone within the company. Use the metrics to see what has panned out in the past. In conclusion the travel agency has been lacking clear direction for future growth. In order to grow and to achieve success, the HR department and management need to determine how to incorporate the strategic plan and goals of the company into the HRP.The HRP will then create goals, training and structure for growth in the company by determining what the company has in terms of employees and their skills. By determining the skills of employees then HR and management can determine the new metrics based off of the old ones and by using the metrics they can determine what changes need to be made first. By determining where the company is lacking in production will the help senior management determine what types of employees are needed for future success. References Byars, L. L. , & Rue, L. W. (2008). Human resource Management (9th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Luxury Market in China Essay

China is positioned to become the world’s largest luxury market in five years and a study by Datamonitor reported China’s luxury goods market was worth $9. 4billion by the end of 2009, which accounted for 27. 5% of the world’s luxury goods market. [1] They also predict that by 2015, China’s market will be valued at $14. 6billion. The main driver of this growth in the luxury gods market is the extreme wealth creation that China has experiences in the past ten years as its GDP has grown 10% annually on average, which is three times more than the global GDP. Investment Week quotes a recent World Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch Cap Gemini stating that there are 477,000 Chinese millionaires and China is also leading the world with the number of billionaires (Investment week. [2]) The combination of the staggering growth of the Chinese economy creating such great private wealth and the political and social evolution China has gone through over the last 30 years has created a tidal wave of opportunity for luxury retailers. Politically, China has gone through many changes over the last thirty years that has primed the economy and citizens for a surge in individualism and the pride in the ability to afford and purchase luxury goods. In 1976 Mao Zedong passed away and in 1979 the One Child Policy was introduced and applied by China’s new leader, Deng Xiaoping. China’s population was growing at an alarming rate and in order to curb this growth rate, Chinese were limited to having one child per household. Fast-forward thirty years and these only children, who have been raised by 6 parents, has created a â€Å"little emperor† mentality where their every desire it met, and is recently being satiated by Western goods. They now have buying power and they are spending it on high priced goods. The choices and options available today are a stark contrast to the limitations their parents experienced thirty years prior in a vastly different political time. Socially, China has always been a country deeply embedded in traditions such as gift giving, saving face and the respect for the hierarchal society. These traditions all stem from â€Å"guanxi,† the all-important notion of relationships, which is what drives business and social status. The culture of relationships is paramount for being successful in China so the combination of mass wealth and the traditions all surrounding Guanxi has attributed to the exponential growth of the luxury market in China. Although the Chinese have been known to be a culture of saving, the tides have shifted and the 20-30 something’s have created a society of excessive spending due to extravagant purchases to support their new tastes as well as these traditions. The new breed of buyers are young and are embracing their freedom to purchase in their capitalistic society, which is a far cry from their parents socialist upbringing. Therefore both social and political changes have created this perfect storm of excess, which is fueling the luxury good market in China and for many years to come. Mao Zedong, the leader of China from 1949 until his death in 1976 is still regarded as a controversial figure but his rule and communist policies molded the beliefs of many parents and grandparents living in China today. Under Mao’s rule there was no individualism and consumption was controlled. Mao is regarded as a great leader in China as he is thought to have laid the groundwork for China becoming the great power that it is today as a result of his leadership of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. While he did create the building blocks for present day China, he has been compared to communist leaders like Hitler and Stalin. He urged citizens to reject capitalism and even at one point â€Å"proposed the Socialist Education Movement (SEM) in an attempt to educate the peasants to resist the temptations of feudalism and the sprouts of capitalism that he saw re-emerging in the countryside. †[3] The citizens living in these times are now parents and while their lifestyles are very conservative, they are raising children in a very different political environment. Their children didn’t have a communist ruler and therefore have different views on modesty and consumption. While there is still a strict focus on studying and discipline, the focus on success and showing that you are successful has been morphed into an obsession with Western brands showing pride in ones accomplishments. Even as young children the Western culture is quite alluring, with children asking to be rewarded for good grades by going to McDonalds as we were told by one of the speakers. Today in China, people are who they wear. Even as Nicole from LVMH mentioned, the Chinese are obsessed with showing that they are wearing designer brands that you will see some wearing clothes and sunglasses with the tags still on them to show who the designer is. These â€Å"nouveau riche† are the products of parents who didn’t have any choices and now they are embarrassing their freedom to chose. Forbes reported â€Å"the average Chinese luxury consumer will spend roughly 11% of her income on luxury handbags along. †[4] They also go on to say that these consumers are â€Å"highly educated and highly motivated to identify products that will complement his or her individuality and rising power. †4 Parents of these kids weren’t allowed to have individuality, but now their children are not only wanting it but also seeking it with huge spending power. Spending 11% of your income on a luxury bag shows the emotional and mental bond to these luxury items. In the US simply to qualify for a loan for a mortgage, your total debt can’t be more than 45% of your income. To think that a quarter of that goes towards handbags alone not even included likely purchases like luxury cars, wines etc makes me think if this type of spending is going to be sustainable for the Chinese market. In China, there were many nice cars, but I didn’t think that perhaps these people are driving cars they can’t afford. I am used to the United States where living on credit is a way of life, but this takes it to a whole new level. The millionaires are able to afford this, but if a middle class person is spending such a high percentage of her income on something like handbags, its going to create an economy where nobody can afford to buy a house and retirement is never attainable. One of the Bentley students that sat with us at lunch mentioned that she wanted to buy a house but that she couldn’t without her parent’s financial support due to the 50%-70% down payment required. She and most young people are lucky that their parents have saved and will be able to help them, but for those in the younger generation who aren’t saving won’t be able to help their kids and there might be a whole future generation who can never afford to own property. These younger generations parents grew up in a communist and socialist society, where there isn’t the ability to care about status, but status and luxury has now become the currency in China. The millionaires in China are younger with an average age of 39. [5] These young millionaires enjoy showing their status with nice things from great bottles of wine, cars to handbags. They are achieving success and are looking to reward themselves with nice things, which also shows status among their peers. A report on the watch market, mentioned that men â€Å"need a watch of a certain quality to be part of the social circle. †[6] The need to show status and create a sense of belonging in a social group has become so apparent that retailers are taking notice and even creating products specifically for the Chinese buyer. Mercedes Benz is even making a car with a longer wheelbase for the Chinese businessmen who are chauffeured around and need to have more room in the back which is a big difference from the rest of the world where carmakers are creating smaller cars that consume less energy and are more economical. [7] The retailers and manufacturers of world are taking note that the new Chinese buyer is very different from their parents given all of the political changes of the past few decades. While the political changes are one factor in the shift of buying trends, policy has also been a great factor and one specifically is the One Child Policy, which was introduced in 1979. This policy has created what many call, the â€Å"Little Emperor† society as a result of one child being raised by 6 parents (on immediate and two sets of grandparents. ) These children have grown up being catered to and supported by six people and now their wants and needs are changing, as they get older. Where as their parents likely gave them the best they could afford, these 20 and 30 something’s are becoming obsessed with Western brands, which cost a premium. Even with a 30% import tax, individuals who grew up getting what they wanted are buying these Western luxury brands, at times spending their entire months salary on a handbag. Although their parents had a culture of saving, this new generation tastes for highly taxed Western goods to show status has greatly changed this cultural norm. For this generation to keep up with their friend, they have forgone the notion of saving in replacement of a life full of luxury goods with no savings. I spoke to Mico about this on the bus and she mentioned that her friends spend all of their money on luxury goods and there’s now a saying in Chinese that means that you spend all of your money that you make that month. She mentioned that buying fakes is a faux pas and that they only buy the real things, which is what leads to them spending all of their money. She noted that this was very different from the upbringing of her parents who were brought up saving almost 40% of their money. In the popular market that we went to in Shanghai, there were almost no Chinese in there and when we asked Mico if she went to the market to get knockoffs, she said that knockoffs’ were â€Å"so three years ago. † It quickly became apparent why That is there where Chinese people in the markets; they are in the real stores buying the real thing. In the streets it was quite apparent that everyone had designer bags and clothing on, but this was mainly in Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou. In Xi’an there was still a feeling of communism, everything was still grey and there weren’t many people sporting their designer clothes. The opportunity right now is in the 1s tier cities and many retailers are trying to expand to the 2nd and 3rd tier cities. The opportunity in China purely based on the enormous populations in these cities. The first focus for the retailers were the tier 1 cities and now the 2nd and 3rd tier cities will be paramount for companies to sustain this continued growth. While political changes have made way for the change in buying and spending trends of young Chinese buyers, tradition has maintained an important part of the culture across all generations of Chinese and the luxury market surge has been fueled by these traditions. Guanxi, the focus on relationships as part of the Chinese culture has many components, one of which is the value of gift giving as a sign of respect. Gift giving is a huge part of Chinese culture, most prominent around the Chinese New Year, but a very large part of life socially and professionally year round. According to the authors of the book â€Å"The Cult of the Luxury Brand,† â€Å"quanxi†¦is the single biggest factor spurring the growth of luxe in China. †[8] When you give a gift to someone in China, it means you are thanking him or her for helping you but also solidifies your â€Å"guanxi† with them and continues the future relationship. Luxury items are now raising the bar in gift giving as recipients truly appreciate the luxury gifts and merchants have reported â€Å"frantic levels of spending† 8 all at once by shoppers who are looking to purchase gifts for their business partners and friends. The culture of saving face plays into this as well since the more luxurious the gift, the better. If you are looking to show great gratitude and â€Å"save face† then you will purchase a luxury item as a gift. In business face is extremely important so even Western brands are also learning this culture of gift giving, as they know the importance of partners in their business so they are making sure to take care of them by giving great gifts. In addition to the culture of gift giving that has fueled the luxury market growth, the culture of hierarchal respect has also attributed to this. Many Chinese of the younger generation believe that luxury products â€Å"mark where you have traveled up to but they also give you permission to continue succeeding. †[9] In a culture where you are competing with so many people and success is so important, it’s easy to see how luxury products represent achieving a certain social status and also denotes the fact that you will stay in that status. As Nicole from LVMH was speaking to us she noted that there are usually 40-50 students in each classroom. Students from an early age learn to be one in a large crowd, but as they get older and look to prove to the world what they have accomplished, and they use designer goods to reflect their status. The irony of this is that one would think that after growing up being one in a crowd, one would think that they would want to show status and individuality, but the items they purchase to show their status is exactly what their peers have chosen, which is likely a Louis Vuitton handbag. For instance, although it was quite conducive to the weather, when we were in China, every single person had Ugg boots on. In the US while Ugg is a popular brand, there are many more brands being worn, as there are many more tastes expressed by individuals. It was very interesting to see that there was a proliferation of a small number of brands, namely Louis Vuitton, as I came to quickly realize that the Chinese want to wear brands that are recognizable. While they are moving towards a more individualistic society, their tendency to be one of a group is still quite prominent. They do value the luxury brands to show status, but their need to be part of a group, albeit a high status group, is still quite unmistakable in the sea of Gucci and Louis Vuitton purses that were worn like a badge of honor by the women of China. The trip to China was quite eye-opening form the perspective of a Westerner who is used to a more modest lifestyle with an abundance of variety. The flashy cars and purses were immediately apparent from Beijing through Shanghai, but as I sit here thinking about the political and social changes that China has gone through in the past few decades, I only with I was smart enough to somehow capitalize on this. China is a fascinating country to visit given its great history and culture that is evident today, but it’s also great to have visited a country that is still going through many changes and evolving at such a rapid rate. While the rest of the world is clearly evolving, China is doing so at an exponentially quicker rate than most and that was quite clear with the sea of cranes in every city putting up buildings everywhere. I do believe that culture will always be a part of the Chinese people and lifestyle, but it will be interesting to see when this locomotive of luxury obsession begins to ebb or if China will meet its own credit crunch in the coming years given the drastic change in spending habits that the younger generations have adopted. [1] â€Å"Chinese appetite for premium products growing despite slowing economic activity. † Datamonitor July 20010, English ed. : 16. Print. [2] Andrea Gerst and Scilla Huang Sun, â€Å"China’s passion for luxury goods increases,† Investment Week, September 6, 2010. [3] â€Å"Cultural China,†http://history. cultural-china. com/en/46H9449H13452. html [4] Evelyn Rusli, â€Å"What Chinese Shoppers Want,† Forbes, March 8, 2010. [5] Andrea Gerst and Scilla Huang Sun, â€Å"China’s passion for luxury goods increases,† Investment Week, September 6, 2010. [6] Florent Bondoux, â€Å"Luxury watches find booming market in China,† Media, September 10, 2009, 17. [7] â€Å"Lengthened Mercedes-Benz E-Class to hit Chinese shores† http://www. benzinsider. com/2010/04/lengthened-mercedes-benz-e-class-to-hit-chinese-shores/ [8] â€Å"China Luxury,† http://app1. hkicpa. org. hk/APLUS/0710/p24_29. pdf [9] â€Å"Is China’s Luxury Goods Market a ‘Pot of Gold’ for Marketers? † Knowledge at Wharton, assessed July 27, 2007, http://english. cri. cn/2946/2007/07/27/199@254317. htm.

Myths About Obama - The 5 Wackiest Myths About Obama

If you believe everything you read in your email inbox, Barack Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya who is ineligible to serve as U.S. president and he even charters private jets at taxpayer expense so the family dog Bo can go on vacation in luxury. And then there is the truth. No other modern president, it seems, has been the subject of so many outrageous and malicious fabrications. The myths about Obama live on through the years, mostly in chain emails forwarded endlessly across the Internet, despite being debunked over and over again. Here is a look at five of the silliest myths about Obama: 1. Obama is Muslim. False. He is a Christian. Obama was baptized at Chicagos Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988. And he has spoken and written often about his faith in Christ. Rich, poor, sinner, saved, you needed to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away - because you were human, he wrote in his memoir, The Audacity of Hope. ... Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt Gods spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth, Obama wrote. And yet nearly one in five Americans - 18 percent - believe Obama is a Muslim, according to an August 2010 survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. The are wrong. 2. Obama Nixes National Day of Prayer Numerous widely circulated emails claim President Barack Obama refused to recognize the National Day of Prayer after taking office in January of 2009. Oh Our wonderful president is at it again .... he has cancelled the national day of prayer that is held at the white house every year .... sure glad I wasnt fooled into voting for him! one email begins. Thats false. Obama issued proclamations setting the National Day of Prayer in both 2009 and 2010. We are blessed to live in a Nation that counts freedom of conscience and free exercise of religion among its most fundamental principles, thereby ensuring that all people of goodwill may hold and practice their beliefs according to the dictates of their consciences, Obamas April 2010 proclamation read. Prayer has been a sustaining way for many Americans of diverse faiths to express their most cherished beliefs, and thus we have long deemed it fitting and proper to publicly recognize the importance of prayer on this day across the Nation. 3. Obama Uses Taxpayer Money to Fund Abortions Critics claim that the health care reform law of 2010, or Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, includes provisions that make up the broadest expansion of legalized abortion since Roe v. Wade. The Obama Administration will give Pennsylvania $160 million in federal tax funds, which weve discovered will pay for insurance plans that cover any legal abortion, Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said in a widely circulated statement in July 2010. Wrong again. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department, responding to claims that federal money would fund abortions, issued a stern rebuttal to anti-abortion groups.Pennsylvania will - and has always intended to - comply with the federal ban on abortion funding in the coverage provided through our federally funded high risk pool, the Insurance Department said in a statement. In fact, Obama signed an executive order banning the use of federal money to pay for abortion in the health care reform law on March 24, 2010. If the state and federal governments stick to their words, it does not appear taxpayer money will pay any part of abortions in Pennsylvania or any other state. 4. Obama Was Born in Kenya Numerous conspiracy theories claim that Obama was born in Kenya and not Hawaii, and that because he was not born here he was not eligible to serve as president.The silly rumors grew so loud, however, that Obama released a copy of his certificate of live birth during the presidential campaign in 2007. Smears claiming Barack Obama doesnt have a birth certificate arent actually about that piece of paper - theyre about manipulating people into thinking Barack is not an American citizen, the campaign said. The truth is, Barack Obama was born in the state of Hawaii in 1961, a native citizen of the United States of America. The documents prove he was born in Hawaii. Though some believe the records are phony. 5. Obama Charters Plane for the Family Dog Uh, no. PolitiFact.com, a service of the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, managed to track down the source of this ridiculous myth to a vaguely worded newspaper article in Maine about the first familys vacation in the summer of 2010. The article, about the Obamas visiting Acadia National Park, reported: Arriving in a small jet before the Obamas was the first dog, Bo, a Portuguese water dog given as a present by the late U.S. Sen Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and the presidents personal aide Reggie Love, who chatted with Baldacci. Some folks, eager to jump on the president, mistakenly believed that meant the dog got its own personal jet. Yeah, really. As the rest of us toil on the unemployment line, as millions of Americans find their retirement accounts dwindling, their hours at work cut, and their pay scale trimmed, King Barack and Queen Michelle are flying their little doggie, Bo, on his own special jet airplane for his own little vacation adventure, one blogger wrote. The truth? The Obamas and their staffer traveled in two small planes because the runway where they landed was too short to accommodate Air Force One. So one plane carried the family. The other carried the Bo the dog - and lots of other people. The dog did not have its own private jet.