Oprah, and More Wealthy Giving to Charity

Having done well, rich look to do good

NEW YORK: Melissa Berman bears the burdens of the whole world. Right now, she is figuring out how to prevent children from becoming soldiers in Darfur. She is working to bring sustainable power to Sri Lankan villagers. And she is trying to cut environmental health risks in post-Katrina New Orleans as well as pondering how to stem a loss of nurses that will leave U.S. hospitals in crisis by 2020.

Since June, when Warren Buffett said that he would hand most of his $40 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Berman's client list has jumped to about 135 from 120. Another 45 potential donors are in the wings. She has doubled her staff, to 32, in three years.

"It's like everything in philanthropy," Reis said. "It's exploding."

Other celebrities are adding to the momentum, including Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor who now spends his time raising money to combat the disease. In November, the cyclist ran the New York City Marathon to promote his cause, garnering as much TV coverage as the Brazilian winner, Marilson Gomes dos Santos. The rock star Bono, the actress Angelina Jolie and the talk-show host Oprah Winfrey are using their star power to draw attention to causes in Africa, from debt relief to AIDS orphans.

With all of that money out there and more consultants hanging out their shingles, donors need to be skeptical about where they find counsel, Reis said. "As advice blossoms — and it will — the challenge will be good advice," he said. "You can't underestimate how hard it is to give away money well."

Many people who have gotten rich in financial services are wary of nonprofit groups, fearing that they might squander funds, said Nigel Morris, co-founder of Capital One Financial, the biggest U.S. independent issuer of credit cards. "These people believe in cause and effect," Morris said. "Money should go to the charities that are better performers and have the best business models."

My take is Oprah seems to get it. So many charities are poorly run and too top heavy on managment. Very little of the money goes to those in need. And the money given is often squandered on items that are useless to those in need. Accountability for nonprofits is a must; more money needs to be given, not used to pay the executive paychecks.

But Africa has a problem with those in power taken the money and using it for their own personal interests. Debt relief only works if the governments are willing to use the money to help the people, not take it for themselves. A house on the French Riviera, owned by an African official, is not putting the money to good use. This is one of the reasons Africa is in such a horrible state. The men at the top are crooks.

A Few Good Men are around

This is a great story. The kind we need more of.
NEW YORK In an incredible case of heroism and bravery, a man who fell onto subway tracks early this afternoon and a good samaritan who then jumped on the tracks to save him miraculously suffered only minor injuries after an oncoming subway train actually ran over them.

The incident happened about 1 p.m. at Broadway IRT station at 137th Street when a 20-year-old man apparently tumbled onto the tracks after suffering from a seizure.

Another subway passenger, 50-year-old Wesley Autrey a navy vetern, was standing on the platform with his two daughters whom he was taking home so he could go to his construction job. When Autrey saw the man fall, he quickly took action and left his daughters to jump on the tracks and bring the man to safety as an oncoming train approached.

"I was trying to pull him up, but his weight [was too much] plus he was fighting against me -- he didn't know who I was. The only thing that popped up in my mind was, 'OK well go for the gutter,' so I dove in, I pinned him down and once the first car ran over us my thing with him was to keep him still," Autrey told CBS 2.

Autrey said the man was still moving violently from the seizure, so he pulled him into the center of the tracks and laid on top of him. The train literally passed over the two men, and Autrey said there was "maybe" about two inches between their bodies and the speeding subway.

"We're looking and we can see the train coming -- there's no way the train can stop before this gentleman can get him off the tracks," said Patricia Brown, a social worker who Autrey had handed his daughters over to before he dove onto the tracks. "So he covered him with his body and pushed him down to a point where the train wouldn't hit his head and held him under the tracks while the train came and rolled right over the top of them."

Autrey's daughters had instantly thought the train had killed their father and the teen, but their worries quickly dissipated when they heard their father scream up from under the train that the two were fine.

"I didn't want the man's body to get run over plus I was with my daughters and I didn't want them to see that," Autrey added.

The man who fell onto the tracks was taken to St. Luke's Hospital where he's said to be in stable condition. His identity has not yet been released. Autrey walked away without a scratch. Neither came into any contact with the train.
Trackback URL for this entry:
http://haloscan.com/tb/ala71/116813639252348886

Guns are a girls best friend

In Africa they are. Nothing like the shine of cold hard steel to add a special something to any outfit. A gun can be a great equalizer. Protecting yourself and your family is feminism at its best. It doesn't matter if a man is bigger or stronger if you gotta gun. More African women with guns is a good thing. Just as long as they have enough ammo to fend of the raping, camel riding hordes that have been preying on women and children for years. Talk about packing heat the next time Mo comes around for a little dehumanizing. Of course a gun might cool down the moment.

Somalians not ready to turn over weapons
From freelance gunmen on the streets to women selling mangoes by the sea, everybody seems to have a weapon in Mogadishu. Many in the Somali capital say they would rather protect themselves for now than trust the government forces who captured the city from Islamic militants just last week.

The Council of Islamic Courts terrified residents into submission with the threat of public executions and floggings. And now that it's on the run, the group is threatening an Iraq-style guerrilla war using fighters they claim are hiding in Mogadishu.

That alarming prospect is yet another reason residents don't want to give up their guns, and even the police commander can understand.

Hey you can take the thug out of Africa but. . .

Warning on African refugee gangs

Technorati Profile

Oprah to the rescue

Oprah has been in the news lately and is the hot topic of conversation. Much of the talk centers on why she did not open a school in America. And interesting enough, where are the boys? This is the perfect example of damned if you do, damned if you don't. You can't make 'no one' happy in America. Try to do something good and it is the road lined with critics.

Love her or not, she has done what no one else has. Focused attention on the issue of abuse towards women and children in Africa. Africa is bleeding. Men are slaughtered. The women are raped, enslaved, brutalized beyond belief. The children are brutally murdered, raped, enslaved, tortured. Could it get any worse? Enter Oprah stage left.

Is it any wonder she is trying to lift women up in Africa? Animals are treated with more dignity in the western world. Women must improve their social standing in Africa to end the violence.
Education, could it be that simple to bring about change?
Oprah is looking for the leaders of tomorrow. For every child, woman, and man I hope she succeeds and can bring about change. Because if she can't, I don't know who else can.

As for the no boys allowed policy, one of Oprah's rules is no pregnancy. This policy helps the girls focus on learning, not getting a man. "I love these girls with every part of my being. I didn't know you could feel this way about other people's children." Where the boys are. She said she planned a second school for boys and girls in the eastern province of KwazuluNatal. Happy now? So, the girls will be able to find boys to marry after all. American men can stop worrying about the smart girl married to the dumb guy. I wonder if the girls will have an interest in getting married after school? Oprah is not married. Is Oprah trying to find her replacement when she is no longer able to do the show? Will she select a girl willing to dedicate her life to causes and an empire, not a man?

"If you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you," she said. Oprah has generously donated $40 million of her own money to give girls in South Africa an education in opulant surroundings. She stated the world is in desperate need of leadership, and I agree. Women and girls are the casualty of guerilla warfare in Africa. A war to prove superiority.

More Vicious Than Rape
"The perpetrators are trying to make the damage as bad as they can, to use it as a kind of weapon of war, a kind of terrorism." Instead of just killing the woman, she goes back to her village permanently and obviously marked. "I think it's a strategy put in place by these groups to disrupt society, to make husbands flee, to terrorize."
The youngest victim of fistula from rape his hospital has seen was 12 months old; the oldest,71.
Benga bursts into tears recalling the experience. "Their purpose is simply to ruin people, to rape people,"

In recent days, pro-government militia forces known as janjaweed have stepped up attacks on villages in Darfur, killing dozens of people, international observers said Wednesday. In one raid, janjaweed militiamen -- backed by government troops -- forced children into a thatched hut, then set it ablaze, killing parents who tried to rescue the children, rebels said.

Who are these perpetrators and why would they do this to children? Why are feminist groups, like NOW, not marching in Washington to end the suffering of women and children? Why are Christian, faith based charities helping when no one else will? What would you do to end the violence against women and children in Africa? We can hide for now, but one day it will be America's turn.

By educating girls, Winfrey said she hoped she could help "change the face of a nation." Why is Oprah the only person putting her money where her mouth is? Every other celeb is hitting us up for money, telling us to buy IPods, displaying their moral superiority, and pushing support for the UN. Oh, or running to support Keith Ellison, "that hero." Hey, he is a black muslim American after all, the most persecuted group on the planet. The fembots on the left just don't know how to read a map to find Africa; they must have confused it with America. Maybe the Queen of Talk can do a show to help them out, or give them an education in reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DcFs4NSDT0