GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.
Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.
25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.
Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!
WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?
The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.
A HERO IS BORN.
I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.
IT IS WHAT IT IS.
"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.
WORD!
A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.
NOW, YOU KNOW.
When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.
JUST THE FACT.
In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle
DO YOU?.
“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.
HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.
Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.
PROBLEM SOLVED.
'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.
OUR SHARED HUMANITY.
Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.
#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.
"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.
RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.
"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.
A Malawian court has ruled that US pop star Madonna has failed in her bid to adopt a second child from the country.
ReplyDelete"I must decline to grant the application for the adoption of the infant," judge Esmie Chondo said after a closed-door hearing on Friday.
The application has been rejected over residency rules.
Madonna, who flew to Malawi on Sunday, was not in court to hear the ruling over Chifundo James, three. Her lawyer said she would lodge an appeal.
A local journalist reads out the judge's decision outside the courthouse
The 50-year-old singer applied to adopt Chifundo James, whose name translates into English as Mercy, on Monday.
Had her application been successful, Chifundo would have been a sister to David, the first child she adopted from the African country, and her biological children Lourdes and Rocco.
Chifundo is in the same orphanage that previously housed David, now three years old.
Trafficking concerns
Madonna's application was rejected because of a requirement that prospective parents be resident in the southern African state for 18 to 24 months.
To deny Chifundo James the opportunity to be adopted by me could expose her to hardship and emotional trauma which is otherwise avoidable
Madonna in newly-released court papers
Head to head: Madonna adoption
The rule was waived in 2006 when Madonna was allowed to take her adopted son, David Banda, to London before his adoption was finalised in 2008.
In the ruling, read out outside the court, the judge also voiced concerns about the potential ramifications a ruling in Madonna's favour might have on adopted children's human rights.
"By removing the very safeguard that is supposed to protect our children, the courts by their pronouncements could actually facilitate trafficking of children by some unscrupulous individuals," she said.
The judge also noted that Chifundo had been placed in one of Malawi's best orphanages and no longer suffered the severe poverty endured after her mother died in childbirth.
"It is evident that Chifundo James no longer is subject to the conditions of poverty at her place of birth," she said in the ruling, made at the hearing in Malawi's administrative capital Lilongwe.
HAVE YOUR SAY Surely, once adopted, she could have gotten anything money can buy. But is that really everything a child should receive?
Esther, Belfast
Send us your comments According to court papers just released, Madonna had said she was "able and willing to securely provide for Chifundo James and make her a permanent and established member of my family".
"To deny Chifundo James the opportunity to be adopted by me could expose her to hardship and emotional trauma which is otherwise avoidable," she continued.
However, Madonna's efforts to adopt the three-year-old attracted criticism from some parties who said the little girl would be best off with relatives.
The performer was also accused of using her fame and money to fast-track the adoption process, a charge refuted by her spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg.
The singer, who was represented in court by her lawyer Alan Chinula, first travelled to Malawi in 2006 to film a documentary in the country.
Madonna to launch Malawi appeal
ReplyDeleteMadonna visited Malawi last month in her bid to adopt the little girl
Lawyers for the pop star Madonna are set to return to court in Malawi to appeal against a ruling denying her request to adopt a child.
Last month, the court ruled that the singer could not adopt four year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James.
It said prospective parents had to be resident in the southern African state for 18 to 24 months.
The man believed to be the little girl's father has also said that he opposes the adoption.
Madonna has already adopted a boy, David, from Malawi.
Chifundo James lives in the same orphanage from which Madonna adopted David in 2006.
She has been living there since her 18-year-old mother died shortly after giving birth.
James Kambewa, the man believed to be her father, has never met her.