COURAGEOUS SURFER : BETHANY HAMILTON

 I read Bethany Hamilton's story in Reader's Digest some years ago. I saw a photo of this pretty young woman holding a broken surf board and to my horror saw she was missing an arm. That was when I read her story thoroughly.

Bethany was 13 when she lost her arm to a shark while surfing that fateful day, October 31, 2003. What moved me was she didn't even panic, she described how she remained calm as the people with her helped her back to shore and did what they could to the bleeding stump before taking her to the hospital. I can only imagine how her father (who was at the hospital that day for a knee surgery) must have felt when he was told his child had been attacked by a shark!
In the article, Bethany talked about how she was itching to go back to surfing as her dream was to be a professional surfer; which she is now. She got a lot of support from her family and friends and drew her strength from God, being a devout Christian. She  didn't sit around and mope about her lost arm... no! She was soon back in the water and taught herself how to surf with one arm. Looking at her arm in the photo, I knew she couldn't possibly wear a prosthetic arm in or out of the water because the bite was far too high up and I again marvelled at her courage and determination to conquer the waves and not let what that shark did to her stop her from fulfilling her dream. Who would go back to the water after such a trauma? Bethany did.

I watched the movie adaptation of her book- SOUL SURFER last month and I had to reach for my hanky at the footages of the real Bethany Hamilton surfing, beating the waves. With determination, she also had faith in God and thanks to Him, she's alive,  still surfing and a real role model.
Her story is moving and inspirational and the whole time I read it, I didn't see her as a victim. I saw a very courageous young woman and may God continue watching over her and leading her to victory.

AND STILL WAITING... AND STILL PRAYING #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS

It's now June. Protests in Nigeria and in several parts of the world still go on for the rescue of the Chibok school girls who were abducted by Boko Haram on the 14th of April 2014; 4 more have escaped but the remaining terrified girls  are yet to be rescued. It's not just about the girls; the bombings and the killing of innocent people are going as well. Recently, 9 people were killed in a church in Borno by the terrorists and it's been reported that some of the kidnapped girls have fallen ill due to malnutrition. But what are the options will be used to get them back since force cannot be used and how long is this nightmare going to continue? Of course, force cannot be used- it would surely endanger the girls  but what is going to be done??? That is the question surely on the minds of the grieving parents and everybody campaigning for their release.
Every day we keep our eyes and ears peeled out for good news but news remain bad; the girls are still out there, more bombings and killings and now, the police has banned protests in the capital.

Police have banned #bringbackourgirls protests in Nigeria http://t.co/95VnRpEAqp pic.twitter.com/aa9jlgFrn3
— NowThis News (@nowthisnews) June 3, 2014

WHY?

The demonstrations, it was explained, are becoming a security threat to the capital's citizens. Apparently, anyone could just easily blend into the protesters and set off  bombs. Point taken but at the same time, the FCT police cannot expect the protesters to just take it like that and they aren't since they are taking it to court on the grounds the ban is illegal.
Whatever methods that will be adopted for rescuing the girls and put an end to Boko Haram at long last, the prayers continue. As for them, we all plead in the name of God... and Humanity.

LATEST ON VITALII SEDIUK

According to several sources, 'The Hollywood Pest' who has now been fired from his job at 1+1 (and it  serves him right since he did more of upsetting celebrities and making a fool of himself than doing his job properly), will not serve time in jail for his latest 'prank', instead he's been officially banned from all  Hollywood events and given three years probation, made to do community service plus a year of psychological counselling. About time he was given that!
Vitalli Sediuk keeps maintaining that he's not crazy, he just thinks differently. Please... what do you call sticking your face under an actress' dress, attempting to kiss an actor, pressing your face on crotches, jumping over a barricade to hit an actor on the face AND running around in  a G string on a catwalk during Fashion Week, yet another event he crashed... you call all that normal? But hey... anything to get noticed right... you don't care what you do as long as your not so funny antics are reported!

Personally, I don't believe the freakazoid is going to behave himself; he seems so cocky, so overconfident and full of himself. And, I suspect, he's  not entirely right in the head which is why I'm glad he's going to get some counselling. Behind his creepily warm smiles, hides a guy who has mental  issues. He claimed his 'pranks' are for fun and he doesn't mean any harm well, he needs to know that it's not fun for the celebrities he's been annoying. He doesn't seem to have actually learnt his lesson but maybe, just maybe the court ordered counselling will knock some sense in that thick skull of his.

THE RICH ALSO CRY: THE REST OF THE STORY SNIPPET 2

Ramona asked Marianna if she was glad she was having a baby. Marianna admitted she was but very sorry it had come about now; with  Luis Alberto so enraged with her. Ramon was confident that Marianna’s pregnancy would bring them back together and Marianna wondered if she should tell Luis Alberto right away. Ramona replied, as soon as possible and she would phone the best hotels in the city to locate him.

However she couldn’t because Luis Alberto had already left Mexico so Ramona sends a telegram. Luis Alberto is in Brazil with his partner, Mr. Duarte to begin their construction project. Mr. Duarte hands him a telegram that had arrived for him. Opening it, Luis read the message: Marianna is pregnant and she needed him. But Luis Alberto’s face hardens instead and doesn’t bother replying.

A few weeks go by and while Luis Alberto is resting on a hammock, he opened his eyes to see Marianna standing over him, looking very pretty in her white suit. Luis Alberto is not pleased to see her, demanding to know what she was doing in Brazil; to tell him in person about the baby.

Marianna actually came because she assumed he didn’t get Ramona’s telegram so she was very hurt by his words, didn’t he care about their unborn child?

‘Why should I?’ was Luis Alberto’s cold question.

Mariana said it’s his baby but he rudely interrupted her, saying it was a lie; what she had in her womb was not his baby but another man’s, just like with Esther when she claimed her baby was when it fact it was Diego’s. Marianna just wanted him to believe otherwise. Marianna should simply take the child to Leonardo after it’s born!

Marianna, some of her old fiery spirit returning, demanded that he listened to her for once but Luis Alberto stubbornly maintained he was not the father and Marianna was only trying to trick him. Twice, Esther had tricked him; a fake pregnancy and then a pregnancy that wasn’t his- two lies. Now Marianna was coming up with the same story. Mariana snapped that her own pregnancy wasn’t fake, they can go to the nearest hospital and he will know. But Luis Alberto said then it must be that imbecile’s child, not his; the imbecile she betrayed him for. Marianna said she never cheated on him, how could he think that of her? Luis Alberto asked, what was Leonardo doing in their bedroom, holding her like that?

Marianna kept insisting it was all a misunderstanding; Leonardo came by to wish them well but alas, Luis Alberto still didn’t believe her, really certain she was carrying Leonardo’s baby and said he hated her and she shouldn’t come looking for him again. (Poor Marianna!)

Summoning one of his workers, he instructed him to take Marianna to the airport and again telling her he didn’t want to see her again; she mustn’t come back. Marianna left, weeping pitifully.

 Luis Alberto sent a telegram to his parents; informing them his work in Brazil was going on well and he’ll be there for another 5 months.

Back in Mexico, Ramona and the other servants take care of Marianna who was having a rather difficult pregnancy; along with stress and worry and she’d lost hope of Luis Alberto returning to her. She is very sad Luis Alberto denied his own child. Ramona consoled her, at least Marianna was wealthy; she had enough to see to the child’s needs. Ramona went upstairs and Maria hands her a letter delivered by the mailman.

It’s a letter from Luis Alberto; he has decided to file for a divorce and suggested that Marianna asked Leonardo to take care of her child since he’s the ‘real father’. Filled with sheer anguish, Marianna fled the house. 

MAYA ANGELOU'S FAVORITE THINGS

Maya Angelou's guest appearance in Sesame Street

THE FREAKAZOID STRIKES AGAIN!

Okay... what more does this freakazoid have to do before the authorities do something to curb his ridiculous behavior with celebrities? Not long ago he managed to slip under America Ferrera's dress at the Cannes Festival ; now we hear that Vitalii  Sediuk struck Brad Pitt on the face (imagine that!) during the premire of Angelina Jolie's movie: Maleficent. The crazy man actually jumped over the barricade and slapped the actor before  taken away and I hope it's a polite word for 'arrested' because I  can't imagine them letting him go just like that this time.

Seriously, WHAT is this guy's problem and what exactly is the meaning behind these stupid pranks of his? Some sort of statement because honestly I really don't see why he insists on making a real nuisance of himself like this. It's either he wasn't given a warning after his behavior at the Cannes Festival or chose to ignore it; I didn't think he would pull another red carpet stunt that soon. It may not even be statement, it may be Sediuk wants his own amount of fame even if he winds up regarded as the 'celebrity pest' or just wants to see how far he can go and how often he can get away with his weird behavior.
But whatever his reasons for these stupid pranks, they are NOT FUNNY. If Sediuk wasn't given a warning the last time, he should be given a serious warning now; stop the 'pranks' or go to jail. Honestly, the man has turned from weird to simply ridiculous. They are calling Vitalii Sediuk  'the serial prankster' now, what will they call him if one of his 'celebrity pranks' causes an accident or worse, he walks up to a celebrity with a weapon in his hand? This man is no prankster, he's just a major stalker and a nuisance  looking for attention and notoriety. If that's the case, he's winning. It's best he should be treated like the freakazoid that he is, given ZERO attention and lock his ass in jail for a few months.
That will clip his wings!

ADIEU MAYA ANGELOU

What can one say about Dr. Maya Angelou ? Her numerous fans will talk about her books; her beautiful poems, her plays, movies her T.V shows as well as her active role in the Civil Rights movement. When she was alive, I followed her on Twitter. Though I never tweeted  her, I always made sure I read her tweets, which were usually wise sayings. Her last one was on May 23th, 2014; which reads...

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.
— Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou) May 23, 2014

Dr. Maya Angelou was a very remarkable woman. Not just because of what she accomplished but how she started in the beginning and forged ahead. She experienced racism, sexual molestation and a period when she couldn't talk after that sad incident. But she created a niche for herself after discovering her love for books; thus became the woman we will always remember. She was very open about her past in her autobiographies; her struggles made her even more human. Aside from her writing, she learnt several languages, was one of the advocates of Civil Rights and Education. Here in Nigeria, her book "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" is widely read; I found a few copies at a book stand in The University of Lagos. 

In Tyler Perry's 2006 movie "Madea's Family Reunion", Dr. Angelou had a cameo role and recited this lovely poem in the wedding scene: 

The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance…
our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.

We have loved each other in and out of time.

When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun
and the first tree struggled up from the forest floor
I had always loved you more.
You freed your braids…
gave your hair to the breeze.
It hummed like a hive of honey bees.
I reached in the mass for the sweet honey comb there….
Mmmm…God how I love your hair.

You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.
Lost, injured, hurt by chance.
I screamed to the heavens….loudly screamed….
Trying to change our nightmares into dreams…

The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out
in and out
in and out
of time.

And there was her memorable poem in 1993's "Poetic Justice": PHENOMENAL WOMAN; from her 1978's "And Still I Rise" 

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me. 

Today, a very remarkable woman has passed on to the world beyond. And the world will never forget her as we pray to God to grant her soul eternal rest.

My wish for you is joy. When you wish someone joy, you wish peace, love, prosperity, health, happiness... all the good things.
— Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou) November 12, 2013