always incredible. this was the scene in sydney, australia, just a couple of hours ago where fireworks ushered in the new year. i m joined by corrine pertell who s here with a look at new year s celebrations and traditions all around the world. thanks for joining me, i appreciate it. hi, how are you, kristen? i m doing great. folks in new york here are going to be braving subfreezing temperatures. not the case, though, for everyone. some people get to celebrate the new year in some warmer climates, south america, for example. give us a sense of what this other celebrations are going to look like. exactly. in the southern hemisphere, obviously new year s day is new year s is a summer holiday, so people would celebrate, there s a lot of beach parties, a lot of picnics, copacabana celebration with a couple of
technical problems and the rollout of obamacare. so, you know, we ve got to sort of get used to the idea, i guess. we ve gotten used to the idea that sort of glitches are what dominate this process. a lot of folks are saying not the way to do it, beta testing in public. absolutely. it certainly appears that way, right? you d be hard-pressed to predict that anything would go right with the rollout of the way the website works, the way things have gone so far, but the white house is extremely confident these days. they re talking about the big numbers they have, big interest they have in the website, in health care, and they feel like like that interest is the kind of good news that they need to sort of overcome these glitches and all these problems they ve been having with implementing the program. half full if the bar is low they might turn out well given
and for the larger economy. senator, i imagine that 1.3 million, but we re really talking about 4 million under this long-term unemployment benefits group. right. what s the case? what s your case here for extending these benefits and that they will actually help people get back to work? we re treating the entire group as really all the same. shouldn t be there be separate segmented solutions? this is a very large group that are very, very different. well, there s no question that of all we did for the early part of 2014 was to extend unemployment compensation, that wouldn t be enough either for those who are unemployed or for the economy itself. we ve got to do a lot more than that. as soon as we get unemployment compensation done, we should also raise the minimum wage. but there are a whole series of things we have to do after that that focus on creating jobs in the middle class. that should be the theme of the year, the middle class and jobs, because too often the last year
increased a lot of self awareness and induced a sense of mindfulness and thoughtfulness behind speech and action and also reaction, so i feel, i would say i m happier. now, gary, the life coach, says people should manage their expectations during the holiday. enjoy the small things and don t expect that you ll feel elated at every moment. he also acknowledges online therapy is not a right fit for everyone. well, i m kristen welker and that does it for me this hour. brian shactman picks up our coverage next right here on msnbc. have a very happy new year, everyone.
million people there. the boech is popular in capetown, south africa, new zealand. you would expect a lot of barbecues, outdoor picnics, things like that. it s very much an outdoor summertime holiday. can t think of a better place to celebrate than rio. one of the things that s so great about this holiday are all of the different traditions. i lived in spain for a year. they eat grapes on new year s eve. tell us a little bit about some of these unique traditions. yeah, for sure. as you had mentioned and as you know, in spain people have a handful of 12 grapes for when the clock chimes midnight and the tradition is to eat a grape per chime, which is apparently a lot harder than it sounds. also in spain and a lot of south american countries, chile in particular, people will eat lentils which signifies prosperity and wealth of the and in the american south, the