December 10, 2009
Barbie in hijab and burka
To celebrate Barbie’s 50th anniversary a line of Muslim Barbie dolls have been released to help Arabic children connect. There’s a love/hate relationship with Burka Barbie. They wear hijab and brightly colored burkas. What do you think of this diversity doll?
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.
December 9, 2009
Hawaii is seeing the biggest waves in 40 years. We were at this exact spot on the North Shore of Oahu at the end of October. Waimea Bay was calm and my son, Blair, jumped off the rocks that these people are videotaping from. To give perspective Da Big Rock, as it is called, is about 75 feet high. Earlier this week the waves were up to 50 feet and the most courageous big wave riders on the planet came out for the Eddie Aikau competition which is only held if the waves are over 20 feet. The stars aligned. Surf’s up big time!
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com
December 8, 2009
Aron Ralston
It’s hard to wrap your head around what Aron Ralston had to do in a slot canyon in Utah in 2003. While hiking he dislodged a boulder and his arm was pinned beneath the huge rock for six days. To escape certain death he amputated his own arm then rappelled down a 65 foot wall and hiked eight miles before he found help. The act of courage sent him into the stratosphere of fame and inspiration and earned him a spot on Today’s “Buzziest Stories of the Decade.” Six years later he is married, house hunting in Boulder, Colorado and expecting a son around Valentine’s Day. His story, which he chronicled in the book “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”, is the subject of an upcoming movie by “Slumdog Millionaire” director, Danny Boyle. Ralston told NBC Today Show host, Meredith Vieira, “I especially like talking to groups about responsibility and being the author of your life. We get to create this life, and I think that our mental mindset is a lot of what goes into that, seeing things that could have been a tragedy, and seeing them as a blessing and maximizing the opportunities that come.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34324703#34324703
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com
November 27, 2009
Esther Heller tells me she used to be a dancer. She says she won competitions in Paris and Athens and even Kamchatka (although she no longer is certain where that is.) She used to teach dancing in Denver. Waltzes and Polkas and Fox Trots. She did it for free so people could learn to move their feet. But now Esther’s feet have betrayed her. Until a couple weeks ago, 90 year old Esther lived in her own apartment, overlooking the college where she also taught French for many years. Over the past years she hardly went out but she led the life she chose. Then she fell and broke her arm.
Now Esther, who says she visited 200 countries and speaks 12 languages, lives in a assisted living world called Shalom Park. She lies in bed and politely refuses to eat. She likes Ginger Ale so she drinks a bit. Each day she grows weaker and each day dementia takes more of the memories that have sustained her for a lifetime. The memories of Poland and the family she lost in the Holocaust and how she didn’t go to school and how she was put to work at 13 and somehow out of sheer will she managed to go to college and eventually become a teacher at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.
I come in to visit her but she doesn’t remember who I am anymore or that I am the one who brought her the orange tulips. She wants to know what day it is, what time it is, and why so many people keep coming into her room. I show her pictures of places she has seen in Israel, Rome, Istanbul and Prague. She looks at the Coliseum and the Western Wall in Jerusalem and says “I can’t place it.” Now and then memories flicker by and she smiles sadly. But she remembers she used to be a dancer and how she won competitions and taught people how to move. From where I sit, in the chair across from her bed, Esther seems to be choreographing her last dance. She has chosen not to follow. She will do it her way. She will lead as she dances out of the world.
NOTE: Esther Heller died peacefully in her sleep on December 3, 2009. I was blessed to know her and am grateful that I had the opportunity to hear her stories.
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.
November 22, 2009
Daniel Suelo and his cave outside Moab, Utah
Daniel Suelo believes he has found the key to happiness. Live without possessions or money. His spartan life in Moab, Utah fills his soul and he doesn’t even think of returning to the life most of us lead. “We use all our energy to maintain our possessions and it becomes an ugly cycle,” he says. So he lives in a cave, gets his possessions from dumpsters and doesn’t look to money to bring him contentment. Could you do this?
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13843274
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.
November 18, 2009
Wonderful story from CBS News about entrepreneurship along the Silk Road in China. Chinese policy towards America may not be changing much but its people embrace our capitalism and long to compete with us. The Silk Road is open for business!
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5701582n
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.
November 10, 2009
Dave Dahl sits in the living room playing guitar and singing songs about justice and the lack of it. He was in the slammer off and on for 15 years for dealing meth and assorted other felonies. Now he is working and relishing his second chance. Four years ago, Dave Dahl returned to the family bakery in Portland, Oregon and is the face and story behind Dave’s Killer Bread which is a huge hit in the Pacific Northwest.
In Chicago a group of ex-cons are getting a second chance at a fast food restaurant called Felony Franks. They are grateful that someone gave them jobs and don’t really understand why there is a ruckus over the name. Jim Andrews who owns the hot dog stand thinks people who are threatening to shut the place down just don’t want felons in the neighborhood. The homeowners say they think the name is disrespectful, racist, and reminds people of what the West Side used to be like.
Ex-cons are not a circle of people I am usually in contact with but I was impressed by their honesty, their ambition, their desire to contribute. They want to work and be integrated into society again. These are stories of redemption and rehabilitation and as HDNet’s World Report discovered some cons are using their pasts to cash in and create a much brighter future for themselves and their families.
Cons Cashing In from Vicky Collins on Vimeo.
For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com.
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