Against Racism

Saw this and thought I'd share it :)

This happened on TAM airlines.

A 50-something year old white woman arrived at her seat and saw that the passenger next to her was a black man.

Visibly furious, she called the air hostess.

"What's the problem, ma?" the hostess asked her

"Can't you see?" the lady said - "I was given a seat next to a black man. I can't seat here next to him. You have to change my seat"

- "Please, calm down, ma" - said the hostess

"Unfortunately, all the seats are occupied, but I'm still going to check if we have any."

The hostess left and returned some minutes later.

"Madam, as I told you, there isn't any empty seat in this class- economy class.

But I spoke to the captain and he confirmed that there isn't any empty seats in the economy class. We only have seats in the first class."

And before the woman said anything, the hostess continued

"Look, it is unusual for our company to allow a passenger from the economy class change to the first class.

However, given the circumstances, the commandant thinks that it would be a scandal to make a passenger travel sat next to an unpleasant person."

And turning to the black man, the hostess said:

"Which means, Sir, if you would be so nice to pack your handbag, we have reserved you a seat in the first class..."

And all the passengers nearby, who were shocked to see the scene started applauding, some standing on their feet."

SHARE IF YOU ARE AGAINST RACISM!

CYBERBULLYING

So something is really heavy on my heart. Like most people, I own a twitter account, and to stay in the "loop" of things, I follow a few top celebrities like the Kardashian sisters and Rihanna.

I know some of these celebrities have posed for the NO H8 campaign, which helps fight to end hate, and a lot of them speak out against bullying, but can they be doing a better job at preventing it?

Both Kim Kardashian and Rihanna have over 12 Million followers on twitter, and some of those 12 million followers are die hard fans. Fans who reads not only every tweet the celebrities write, but also the tweets written by others to the celebrity.

The problem here lies when a celebrity responds to something negative from a fellow tweeter. Almost instantly the reply sends a huge retaliation alarm to all fans to fight back in support of their celebrity

For over 7 hours last night I watched a teenage girl get crucified by Rihanna's fans over a tweet the teenager sent to Rihanna to "You are not a thug, stop it"

Rihanna replied back to the young girl: "Shut up Bitch, Swallow"

If you took the time to click of the teenage girl's page, you would see she lists Rihanna as her favorite singer on her bio, and that she is a young teenage girl from California.  The girl who meant no harm, later tweeted she wants all this to just go away.

It hurt me to hear the ugly and nasty words the fans had to say to her, I can only image how this teenager felt at the time, it was a massive cyber attack.  No one likes to be hated, or disliked, so when you have hundreds, even thousands people bashing you, it can be quiet dangerous for anyone's mental state. Not only were the fans very offensive, and humiliating to the girl, Rihanna's response took the cake.  And she [Rihanna] knew she was only setting fuel to the fire, that her fan's would get involved.

Celebrities are not blind to the fact that CYBERBULLYING exists, and it exists right in front of their eyes, literally on their page.  All the messages to the young teen has a Rihanna mention in it (@Rihanna), and if you know how twitter works, you know Rihanna reads her mentions and notifications, and this topic went on for several hours at a time, so there was plenty for her to see.

It is like having a whole gang or army behind you, defending your every word, and fighting all your battles for you verbally.

Another incident was when a 23 year old Reem also from California called Kourtney Kardashian "a bitch" over twitter, sending every Kadashian fan on a crazy hunt to bring this girl down.

Kourtney Kardashian made acknowledgement of the tweet by responding something like along these lines like go live your happy little life.  While her response wasn't bad, she knew her fans wouldn't let the young girl get away with calling their idol a bitch.

Fans wrote messages like "a person like you shouldn't be alive" "you are so rude, you don't deserve to live" Again, I watched hours go by and thousands of tweets towards this girl judging her from her looks in her default picture, to every word she once tweeted.

What the people forgot to read was her 5 word bio. "I have had three hearts" 

Reem is a two time heart transplant recipient. Her whole life she has been dealing with a bad heart, and finally in 2002 she had her first heart transplant, unfortunately few years later that heart failed, and recently September 2011 she got a new heart, a third heart.

Can you imagine this woman's struggle? Her childhood memories is filled with doctor visits, hospital beds, while waiting for a match on a new heart and yet she had to endure to read words like "she shouldn't be alive," and other horrible comments from people around the world siting how her life is worthless.

In the mist of her receiving all the back slash, I tweeted her, told her how amazing her blog is, which was also listed on her bio, and what an inspiring person she is.  I wanted to take some heat off of her, and give her some caring words to read, and all I did was pray it would make a difference in her life at that moment.

I felt bad, it hurt to hear those people say those things, words can not only hurt, but it can kill.  THIS IS CYBERBULLYING at its best, and its not going to go away until the celebrity speaks out against it, and pleads to their fans to stop harassing, the tormenting, and the insulting others for them.

I know I can't change the world, I am just one small voice, I don't have the influence of a celebrity, but the cyberbullying is happening, it is real, and it is dangerous and it affects REAL LIVES!

HELP ME BRING MORE AWARENESS TO CELEBRITIES TO HELP STOP CYBERBULLYING!

A Polluted Ocean

Just because we don't see it.

DOESN'T MEAN IT IS NOT THERE.

Help keep our planet clean,

the ocean is not a place for your trash.

This pictures says a thousand words

Why Study?

Cant stop laughing.

Sad, but so true.

We see scenarios like this more times than we like.

If this photo doesn't motivate a child to study

I don't know what will.

:)

BFF Coming to Town!

I got super exciting news!!!

and I just can't wait til February!

Drum rolls please......

My dearest friend Danielle is coming to visit me!!!

#WINNING

(Orlando----Brussels)

We are a little under 5,000 miles away from one another

and 6 hours of time difference

but yet we still manage to keep in touch very often

It means so much to me that she would come out here to visit, 

and spend time with my boyfriend and I.

We really love having company over

and she's the perfect person to have in our home and presence

She is currently a law student in Orlando and 

doesn't really have much time for anything besides her studies.

So it will be fun having her here.

I will make sure she has an unforgettable, stress-free Spring Break.

And don't worry, I am already making our itinerary for all the different places we will visit.  

Everything is a little more fun when your best friend is in town!

PS: AMSTERDAM here I come, round 5!

HOORAY!

The Best Thing U have To Offer

I really hate when people lie to themselves about who they really are.

Here is this person, pretending to be so much than what she/he really is.

Umm two faced?....

 No more like three, four, five faced

They turn themselves into a human chameleon

Adjusting their behavior, attitude and "face" for the occasion or the person.

It's rather pathetic to befriend all the people you once passed terrible judgments on,

it really speaks LOUD about one's character.

A few words comes to mind when I think of such a person...

Fake, follower, insecure, desperate..etc 

I guess the feeling of approval from others is what they thrive for

Although they are living life with no real identity 

Oh pity!

Buying a Blender

After months of debating if I actually need one,

I decided to I do,

I really reaaaaally do

I am buying a blender tomorrow,

FINALLY.

I am a big shake person,

I love making healthy fruit smoothies

and even a little green protein shake

But the prices of the blenders here aren't so cheap as in America.

It ranges from 40-60 EURO for a BASIC simple blender

I think that is mainly why I have not gotten one right away,

but it has become an item high on my DEMAND list,

I NEED TO OWN ONE, thats it.

even if it's just for a couple months

while we in this country temporary.

Anyways I am looking forward to it

It is the simple things in life that makes me smile....

like a smoothie :)

ISR Swim

So I was browsing YouTube.com

and I came across this video

 

At first I thought it was fake,
I thought maybe the baby was wearing a life vest,
but nope, she really is floating by her self
This is real

And this baby isn't the only one,
there are hundreds of other floating baby videos
And I think it is just wonderful.
This video/skill really wowed me
This infant swimming survival class really do saves lives

About the video:

"What you see is the result of infant swimming self rescue instruction or survival swimming. The babies are never in harms way but taught how to float and roll over to breath keeping themselves alive until they can get help. This method has saved many lives. "ISR swim" is a search term to find information about the techniques. There are also many instructors that teach this for all ages if you can find one in your area."

Your thoughts run your life

Amen...

Chapter 2012

Good bye 2011,

and Hello beautiful 2012.

On New Years Eve I went out with a bang,

My boyfriend and I joined our friends at a local club here in Antwerp

and we all laughed and partied the night away.

(well til exactly 3:49 a.m. that is...)

While spending the night with friends, and found myself lucky to still have my parents in town, although they leave on Jan 4

we are making the best out of their time here.

It is just amazing waking up to them in the morning

We are really going to miss them, dearly, when they leave.

Anyways with every new year comes new beginning, new hopes,

new dreams.

We all like to start off our year on the right foot,

So we make our new year resolutions and try to stick to it

Here are some of my new year resolutions I have made this year,

1. Always rise above the little things.

2. Be kind to all.

3. Be less judgemental or critical of people you do not know.

4. Listen more, talk less.

5. Take a class, go back to school in the summer.

6. Visit my family in Brazil.

7. Help others, any way I can.

and last but not least,

a very common resolution among woman

LOSE 10 POUNDS!!!!!!!!

May 2012 be a wondeful year....

and I cannot publish this entry

without saying....

 Thank You LORD for allowing me to see another year