List of Previous Titles

Sunday, December 26, 2010

CNN Heros


CNN Heros -Presented by Anderson Cooper

The time has come and gone for the presentation of CNN Heroes. I do hope you saw the show. This year I watched it twice, and I confess I had wet eyes. What an amazing program that is only surpassed by the work that so many people are doing everyday.

For anyone who is not familiar, let me explain the basic concept: CNN has invited the world to submit nominations for their favourite charity program to be included in the American Thanksgiving Day program. For the 2010 program there were 10,000 nominations, from which were short-listed ten charities that were chosen for the program. On the day of the program one was chosen as CNN Hero of the Year. Each of those charities received $25,000 for being on the show, and the winner received an additional $100,000.

All of that is well and good, but in spite of the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the show I think that the very concept is well and truly flawed. In order for CNN to feature ten charities they had to reject 999, 990 others as being what? Not good enough? The work that they do is not important enough? The Mission was not dramatic enough? Whatever the reasoning I can’t help feel that to put down a hard working charity is the ultimate act of arrogance. Good and wholesome work is just that, and it is done because it needs to be done. It cannot be reasonably judged otherwise.

Having said that, judged they were, and a winner was chosen by a panel from around the world. I cannot imagine how that made the others feel.

The show is a real tearjerker as emotions run very high for people who are directly involved, and for viewers. The mix of work that was represented was just amazing. Here is the line-up:

First we had Susan Barton who lost her very young son to death by car crash. She went to pieces and spent several turns in prison until she had an epiphany and straightened up and decided to work to help women leaving prison reintegrate into society. In the midst of her presentation she introduced us to her hero, her long-suffering husband who stood by her throughout her dark days.

Magnus McFarlane- Barrow was watching war stories from Bosnia one day when he saw children scavenging through the trash for food. He decided to feed them, and now, all these years later he is leading an organisation called Mary’s Meals that feeds 460,000 children around the world, every day. How mind-boggling is that?

Linda Fondren was distressed by two things: That the town in which she lived was voted America’s Most Obsese for three years in a row; and her sister died due to complications from being obese. Linda decided that things just had to change, as she set about shaping up the townsfolk. The town has lost 75,000 pounds, and counting, and they are living longer. She is saving lives!

Harmon Parker came to realise that people in the countryside in Africa frequently suffer the loss of life just trying to cross waterways. They are taken by crocodiles and Hippos and flash floods. What they need are footbridges high above the water, and Harmon has dedicated his life to building bridges them for the villagers, who must think of him in terms of God. A bridge is a simple thing, once you have one. Without it life is a matter of pure chance.

Guadalupe Arizpe De la Vega is an enormously determined woman who operates right in the heart of the drug war where gangs are killing one another in Juarez, Mexico. Guadalupe saw the need for clinics and serves her community in the face of constant danger. She refuses to be cowed by the marauding gangs and she seems to have been sent by God, in the eyes of the people. She is inspired and inspiring.

Evans Wadongo is a young African man who lived firsthand without light in a traditional village where he had to study by kerosene wicks that gay him grave eye problems. So, he figured out how to make solar lamps from cast off materials, and to date he had given away more than 14,000. He is a man who makes and brings light, one of the most precious gifts there can be to a country where people live mostly in the dark.

Narayanan Krishnan feeds the homeless and destitute in India, and he takes care of their other needs like giving them a bath and a haircut. What makes his actions so remarkable is that he is from a privileged class, and the people who he is involved with, to the extent that they are his friends are The Untouchables. He has had to overcome a major taboo in order to even get near them. How can we say, yes, but!

Dan Wallrath is a Texan home builder who is so impressed by what disabled veterans have sacrificed in the name of freedom, that he builds houses for them and their families and turns over the keys to them free of further charge. That’s right, he gives away beautiful, built –with-love houses for free.

Anaradha Koirala is a very petite woman who seems to be frail. This woman is passionate against human trafficking and has the courage of her convictions. She raids brothels; takes young girls off buses that are on their way to promised super jobs that are in reality indentured slavery in whore houses, and she has turned around the lives of more than 12,000 women.

The subject of human trafficking is at the top of the agenda at the moment. It involves the selling of people, which means slavery, something the world thought was the evil past. It is alive and flourishing and needs a whole world of people like this wonderful lady.

Lastly, there was Aki Ra from Cambodia. As a young child the Khmer Rouge killed his parents and put him to work laying mines. He is now a man and has come to realise how evil a thing that was, so he now dedicates his life to clearing the fields of the same mines. With every step he takes he places his life and limbs in harm’s way. He, and his team have now deactivated or blown up more than 50,000 mines. It was for these reasons that I voted for Aki Ra as 2010, Hero of the Year.

Voters disagreed with me and voted for Anaradha Koirala, and they gave her the extra $100,000 to continue with her work. I simply wish that they could have all received an extra $100,000 or more as the things that they are doing are just stupendous.

I still say that the program concept is basically flawed, notwithstanding that it is well presented.

I wish you my readers a Very Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays, and that 2011 will bring you all the very best things in life, including good health as priority number one.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael