Former Miss Barbados – Renee Rawlins Thomas Inspires Young Women To Higher Education

Black Pearls In Toronto, Canada

(That’s Renee in the blue dress)

Excerpts from The Toronto Star Online…

“The media is not seeing the educated, upwardly mobile black community in the GTA who are working very hard,” says Renee Rawlins Thomas, 29, executive director of the three-year-old Black Pearls Community Services Inc. (black-pearls.org).

Black Pearls was born out of concern that stereotypes and negative images were holding back women of promise.

The non-profit agency runs a book club, holds financial seminars, finances scholarships for young women, plans an annual fundraising black tie gala and is setting out to provide etiquette classes for young women seeking to break into Canada’s corporate boardrooms.

Rawlins Thomas, a former Miss Barbados and a Toronto high school guidance counsellor, is working on her doctorate in education and is on maternity leave with her second child.

In her spare time, she and the other members of the group meet in coffee shops and each other’s living rooms to plan programs that will help young black women reach for the stars.

Mostly, though, they lead by example, says Rawlins Thomas.

“We say, we’ve done this so you can do this, too,” she says, adding that this year’s $95-a-ticket gala on Dec. 15 in the elegant Arcadian Court will raise funds for post secondary scholarships.

Rawlins Thomas wishes everyone could get a glimpse of the gala crowd – 150 young black men and women decked out in formal duds, a far cry from the ghetto culture of today’s popular music.

“It’s a unique environment. They are young, urban and edgy.”

The group has learned that attitudes and stereotypes are hard to change. Examples of this are the U.S. radio announcer who referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” and television’s Dog the Bounty Hunter, recently bounced off the air, after being recorded using the “n” word…

… read the entire article at the Toronto Star Black Pearls Offer Inspiration

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Found On A Sleepy Friday Morning – Sarah Ann Gill, Rihanna’s New Guy, Constitutional Satire

I Hate Night Shift

Shona was out the door early this morning about 15 minutes after I arrived home from night shift. There’s not much of a family life some weeks when both of us are working opposite hours, but what can you do? As a couple, we are making more money than we’ve ever made before but we still have zero savings. All those plans we made to be in a certain position at the end of the year are long gone and there is no waste or extravagance to blame. Between the increased costs of just about everything (especially food) and some unexpected major car trouble, this year has been bad financially.

I don’t expect much sympathy from our readers because it seems that everyone is in much the same position. Just a bad year in many ways, but I thank God for my family and friends because I would be lost without them. (And a special thanks to Auntie Moses who is due any minute to look after the little one so Dada can get some sleep!)

Let’s see what interesting blogging bits I can find this morning…

Thanks to Cliverton for looking after the blog last night. I see that he couldn’t help himself and modified the title header with a little Thompson stick-man. I agree with one commenter who said “Priceless!”

Sarah Ann Gill – Cheese On Bread!

Cheese-On-Bread! blog looks at the life of Mrs. Sarah Ann Gill – a “free” black who was one of the defenders of the Methodist church in Barbados when that organisation was known for anti-slavery activities and worshiping “against the law” in houses. You know… much the same situation as Christians now face in Communist China and many Muslim countries.

Barbados’ National Heroes – Sarah Ann Gill

Rihanna’s New Boyfriend – Bajan Reporter

Ah yes… we can’t go a week without mentioning Rihanna’s dress, new shoes, new dog or new boyfriend. But this week, we’ll rely upon Ian Bourne’s superior investigative abilities to determine the answer to the question, “Does she, or doesn’t she?”

Breaking News – UK Entertainment Chain Claims Rihanna Owns A Toy-Boy

The Constitutional Cricket Match – “Let’s Change The Rule Book” – Keltruth Blog

Once upon a time, there was an exciting cricket match at a big school in a small island. The lads were divided into two teams: the Indies, and the Percies. “Indies” stood for “Independents”, while “Percies” was short for “Perceived as Having Political Affiliations”.

… Keltruth Blog has something to say about the Government changing the laws and the Constitution whenever it suits them.

Cricket Match – Constitutional Satire

Government Backs Down On Changing Constitution – But You Have To Watch These Crooks Carefully!

Attorney General Dale Marshall now says that the government will not amend the Constitution to allow them to hand out jobs willy-nilly to party loyalists. (That was the plan, ya know!)

Do we believe Mr. Marshall?

Only about as far as we can see him when he takes his lady-friends out on his boat…

The Nation News: As Is

Seagate Maxtor Hard-drives Contain Trojan That Secretly Uploads Your Files To China!

Investigators suspect Chinese government authorities were involved as part of “an aggressive spying program relying on information technology and the Internet,”

How Many Other Manufactured Hard Drives Contain Chinese Spy Programmes?

You have to hand it to the Chinese Communists – they sure know how to violate rights, spy and subvert.

That Seagate Maxtor external hard-drive that you purchased to backup all your important files came with a heck of a warranty: it guarantees to secretly send all your passwords and copies of your files to Communist China via the internet!

So far, its only one brand of hard-drive that has been found to contain the secret trojan computer programme, but think about all the hard-drives, cell phones, PDAs and other electronic gizmos you own that contain very personal information and also connect with the internet or telephone networks.

How many of your electronic gadgets were made in Communist China or under Chinese control?

The Communist Chinese are master spies with a long-term political, economic and social agenda.

While our current Barbados Government has been begging for scraps from their ChiCom master’s table, Barbados has also allowed joint police and military “training” programmes with Barbados personnel. And how about all those computers that the Communist Chinese “donated” to our military and around the island?

NOTHING be free, friends.

Nothing.

Computer expert Adrian Kingsley-Hughes warns all readers there is a moral to the Seagate story: “Practice ‘safe sectors’ and scan, or preferably wipe, all drives before bringing them into the ecosystem. Don’t assume that a drive is going to be blank and malware free. Trust no one.” (article here)

Further Reading

Taipei Times – Bureau Warns On Tainted Discs