Nelson Daily Stories

                “IS IT BECAUSE I AM BLACK?”   In Jamaica there is an extremely popular song that has been recorded by several artists including Ken Boothe. The song asks the question “Is it because I am black?”                                                   ===000===         Darrell Semien was just 55 years old when he died in Louisiana USA, on Sunday, January 24, 2021. His illness was brief but fatal.   He had lived a good life. He was employed as a crane operator for 20 years before he moved into law enforcement. For the next 15 years Darrell was part of the Reeves Police department as well as the Allen’s Parish Sheriff’s office where he was a Deputy. On Thursday Darrell’s death became the catalyst for an emergency meeting. “When the meeting...

 GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST HONOURED The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements of grassroots activists in six continents, recognizing their efforts to protect natural habitats and push for political change, often at great personal risk.                                                                          ===000=== On Thursday, January 28, 2021 the BBC carried an article: “Kristal and her students are fighting to eradicate ocean plastic.” Kristal Ambrose, it said, founded the Bahamas Plastic Movement in 2013 and aims to tackle the serious problem of plastic pollution in The Bahamas.” Another publication, “One Earth”, features each week an environmental activist and hero from around the globe, - a person who is working to create a world where humanity and nature can co-exist in harmony. Che...

  CHAMELEONS SMUGGLED FROM TANZANIA TO AUSTRIA                    Here we go again! It seems that the smugglers never give up! On November 21, 2020 we carried a story about “dozens of parrots stuffed in plastic bottles” on a ship docked at Fakfak, a port town in Indonesia’s eastern region of Papua. There is a rampant illegal trade in birds in that part of the world. On January 26, 2021, the BBC carried another story – this one about “dozens of smuggled chameleons” found in a suitcase in Austria. They were stuffed into socks and boxes and carried in the suitcase. There were about 74 of the little creatures (which are among the protected animals on the planet) . Some were newborn and others were adults. Three of them died on the journey. They would be sold for about 37,000 Euros ($44,970) on the black market. A 56 year-old man who had travelled to Austria from Tanzania was arrested in conn...

  “PARENTS, IT IS TIME TO TAKE CONTROL”   A fifteen year old girl was stabbed to death at a Walmart grocery store during an alleged fight with four other girls, they were all younger than she was. It happened in Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA on Saturday, January 23, 2021 at about 7:30 p.m. The girls who stabbed the victim stole the knives from the store. “This is the third homicide in 6 months that involves juveniles that range from 11 to 16. They come from all backgrounds, all races. I feel like we have a problem in our community that we are going to have to face and address.”  Sheriff Tony Mancuso said (as reported in the Associated Press.) “We have videos of everything that took place and it’s very disturbing,” said Mancuso . “ The whole murder was played out on (social media) so again there appeared to be no remorse.” “It was very cold to see 12, 13, 14 and 15 year olds acting this way and we as a society can’t tolerate it. We cannot let this plague take ...

                                              “UPTICK IN CHIDREN TAKING THEIR LIVES”  I was looking at some of the articles in the New York Times newspaper when a headline caught my attention. It said, “Surge of Student suicides pushes Las Vegas Schools to reopen.” Rising mental health emergencies and suicide rates point to the toll the pandemic lockdown is taking.” The article, published January 24, 2021, is written by Erica L. Green, a correspondent in Washington. Erica covers the US Department of Education and Secretary Betsy DeVos focusing on higher education policy, educational equity, and civil rights enforcement in the nation’s K12 schools. “The reminders of panic driven suffering among students in Clark county Nev., have come in droves,” it begins. An early warning system that monitors students mental health has sent more than 3,100 ale...

    “DON’T CALL ME A HERO.”                    But you are, Bianca!       People who survive the COVID-19 pandemic consider themselves to be truly fortunate. The disease affects different people in different ways. Some of the more fortunate have mild symptoms – fever or a dry cough - and they recover without having to be hospitalized. One of the less common symptoms of the disease is loss of taste and smell. “A Texas family who lost their sense of smell because they have coronavirus nearly died when a fire engulfed their house and they couldn’t smell the smoke,” an article on WPTZ Plattsburg Burlington begins. Although all the Rivera family members had been infected by the virus, one member, 17 year old Bianca, did not get the disease . Joelle Goldstein writes in People.com “Bianca Rivera’s family members were sick with COVID-19 when the fire broke out at their WA...

       I DID THAT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU Have you ever heard of tough love? Have you ever experienced it? According to Wikipedia: “Tough love is an expression used when someone treats another person harshly or sternly with the intent to help them in the long run.” Tough love is valuable and “it is the promotion of a person’s welfare, especially that of an addict, child or criminal by enforcing certain constraints on them.” Jennifer Shablin could tell you a lot about tough love. She is a single mother of a daughter that she loves very much.                                           ===000=== Megan Cohen’s life was on the brink of disaster.  She was a drug addict who had spent time on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia, USA. She lived in trash, she often slept in abandoned buildings. Although she had been to several treatment centers nothing seeme...

       FLAVAINE CARVALHO SAVES CHILD FROM ABUSE   It was New Years Day 2021 and Flavaine Carvalho , a waitress at Mrs. Potato restaurant in Orlando, Florida was busy taking orders. A family of four settled into their place at a nearby table and the adult male signaled that they were ready to place their order. Flavaine took their order and walked away toward the kitchen.   Sometime after she served the family she noticed that no food was placed before the boy (who she figured was about 11 years old.) She watched for a while and then noticed that the child had a bruise on the side of his face. As she looked more closely she saw more bruises on his face and on his arms. She also realized that he was very skinny. He looked incredibly sad. While some people might have ignored what they saw and decided to “mind their own business” something stirred in Flavaine’s heart. She felt that something was just not right. She graciously enquired of the family ...

                                              REAL LOVE INVOLVES SACRIFICE I must admit that although the story below happened some years ago I only heard of it last evening. I stumbled upon an interview published on kokomo.com on January 13, 2021 with CNN’s Dana Bash and Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler and her husband. Some years ago, in 2012, Jaime and her husband were overjoyed to find that she was pregnant with their first child. But shortly after that they had to deal with perhaps “the most devastating prenatal diagnosis a young married couple could hear.”  They were told that the baby in her womb had no kidneys. “There is nothing that can be done,” the doctor told them. The child had what is known as “Potter’s Syndrome.” The main cause of the abnormality is still unknown. Did they consider abortion? After all, a human being cannot live without ki...

  CHANGE THE WORLD, IN A SMALL WAY, FOR THE BETTER Mikayla Gounard’s 12 th birthday was just a few days away. She had an idea – a drive-by birthday fundraiser for Sean Currey . Who is Sean Curry? And why would a 12 year old have a fund raiser for him? It is a long story, but a very inspiring and heartwarming one. On December 10, 2020, Mikayla’s grandmother Evelyn Topper who lives in Mill Valley, bought some items at the Kamson Coffee Shop in San Rafael, California. After paying for them she tucked her wallet into her coat pocket and walked to her car. But she forgot to zip up the pocket. Sometime afterwards, Sean Currey , a 57 year old man who has been homeless for about five years and lives in his car walked towards the dumpster. An article in the Washington Post says Sean has been having a particularly difficult time - he was hospitalized with pneumonia at the beginning of the pandemic, is now “doing handyman stuff where I can, but it’s hard not having a home base. Not...

                                                                   No. Not Again.   “Oh my god! No! Not again!”      That was my reaction to the early morning BBC Asia report, on Saturday, January 9, 2021, that, yet another Boeing 737 passenger plane was “believed to have crashed into the sea shortly after take off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta.” However, the aircraft is not a 737 Max, the Boeing model that was grounded from March 2019 until last December following two deadly crashes. In October 2018, a Lion Air flight plunged into the sea just after it took off from Jakarta. All 189 people on board perished. Why did the plane crash? There were said to be several reasons including failures in the design of the plane,...

  PETER LOWE VISITED TAIWAN AND CHANGES TOOK PLACE There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic brought myriad changes to the lives of hundreds of people. For many, unfortunately, the pandemic brought death and sadness, for others it brought an opportunity to grow spiritually, and for some, it brought unexpected chances to help save and protect planet Earth. In 2020 a retired Englishman named Peter Lowe visited Taiwan to spend time with his son. He enjoyed the beauty of the country and the friendliness of the people who live there. When it was time to end his vacation, however, he could not leave the country. Why? Covid-19 was raging! Peter Lowe’s flight was cancelled. He had to extend his stay in Taiwan. So, he got a boat - he enjoys boating - and his plan was to explore the country and see the vegetation and wildlife “up close”.  As he travelled down the Tamsui river, however, he was shocked and very distressed at what he saw. There was “an astonishing volume of garbage.” ...

                       NEWS IN A NEW YEAR ·         On January 4, 2021 the American business-focused international Wall Street Journal newspaper moaned “It’s a desperate time. Crush of COVID-19 patients strains US hospitals.” ·         The Hill newspaper (the American news website, based in Washington DC) reported on Friday, January 1, 2021 “Oncologist erases medical debt for nearly two hundred of his patients” . Why did he do so? “To make their lives a little bit easier.” ·         “Policeman buys family food instead of arresting them for shoplifting.” BBC News reported. Officer Lima, the policeman said, “The two children with the woman reminded him of his kids “so he had to help them out.” It is another year, with another mix of news and views as we move into 2...

      “ONE AND FREE” Australia, the largest country in Oceania, is in the news again. Last year (2020) Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of New South Wales, suggested a change of the wording in the country’s national anthem. She felt that the phrase “for we are young and free” ignored the country’s “ proud first nations culture .” On New Year’s Eve Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote this piece in the Melbourne-based Age newspaper : “Australia as a modern nation may be relatively young, but our country’s story is ancient, as are the stories of the many First Nations peoples whose stewardship we rightly acknowledge and respect.” “Changing “young and free” to “one and free” takes nothing away but I believe it adds much,” the report on Aljazeera stated. Australia’s national anthem Advance Australia Fair was written by Peter Dodds McCormick and performed for the first time in 1878. In 1984 it became the country’s National Anthem and replaced “God Save the Queen.” ...