I've never been a fan of this woman. In fact, I barely saw the point of housewives and ladies with nothing on in the afternoons who religiously tuned in to catch what new social issue the big black lady was gonna bring up that day. To me, Oprah was just a woman who didn't get laid enough, for all the money she makes with Harpo, her company, a simple reversal of her name.
I've seen, druggies, ex-rapists, child abusers, abused children getting their 15 mins of fame on the show. Tears galore always. I've also seen parents getting told off for not checking the iminent demise of their errant children. It all seemed a little too condescending for me. Yes, RT worse than my own God-like condescension.
But this morning, I was floored. See, Oprah does this "Wildest Dreams Come True" segment from time to time where they select a deserving person who has their life in a rut or has an unfulfilled wild-ass dream and make them come true, most of the time at over the top levels.
The episode I caught today was about this Afro-American woman who was working her ass out at the local Starbucks, begging for more overtime [don't we all] so she could make ends meet. She had never had a day off since don't know, the beginning of time is my rough guess. Why is she having it so bad? She is a single mum. Has 3 children of her own, and get this, has also taken in her brother's 6 children! Apparently, their own parents couldn't take care of their children due to their addiction to heroin and to stop them from having to live in foster homes, she took all 6 of them in. That's 1 single mother with 1 job making lattes for a living AND concurrently raising 9 children in a 3 bedroom apartment.
Just looking at her plight got me emo. My mum thought the curry that came with the prata was laced with too much chilli.
So, Oprah waltzes in and firstly, gives the entire family a 20 minute shopping spree at Toys R Us. In 20 minutes, all 10 people managed to snatch close to $15,000 worth of toys, clothes and other merchandise off the shelves.
Next, she gets one of the corporate sponsors to provide full furnishings for her home. New living room furniture, new cutting edge kitchen and individual beds for each of the children. Currently, everyone shared beds including the mum.
This is followed by loaning her America's most wanted decorator, that handsome metro guy on her show regularly to do up her home.
But, then, how the fuck do you squeeze all these stuff they've got, and new furniture into a tiny 3 room apartment? Well, problem solved. Oprah got them a new house! It was a 1920s classic brick bungalow big enough for all ten of them.
By this time, I was getting too emo for a 24 year old man. No, I was not sitting there thinking, damn, why don't these things happen to me. Instead, I was silently applauding that this fine lady who handled soo much shit for soo many years finally got a good break. And that it comes free is of no concern to me. Everyone needs to get out of their rut sooner or later. Some attribute it to divine intervention, for some its the intervention of friends and some just put it to pure luck.
Now how did Oprah get wind of this woman's plight anyway? She really didn't seem the sort that'd go around sitting in singles bars lamenting her fortunes to anyone who'd bother to listen over a gin and juice. Her co-workers at Starbucks infact rallied together and wrote in repeatedly to highlight this woman's efforts and sacrifices hoping that Oprah can pull off something they couldn't.
Which led me to the thought of caring for a non-blood related person. A colleague, a classmate, a guy you see on the bus to work. This level of thought on wanting to better a life of another is simply, divine. Would this same concept work in Singapore? Would you actually take the effort to go write in to some rich bloke hoping that one of your fellow colleagues is lifted out of the rut of poverty? Or are we the selfish bastards many of us know we are, who would rather pester a friend to write in highlighting our OWN misfortunes, promising them a cut of the benefits if and when they do arrive?
No matter. New found respect. For some Americans and for the fat lady Oprah. Check out the rest of the Wildest Dreams bus's travels, HERE and search for the story of the lady called Bernadette. She is the one mentioned above.
Adieu!
oprah, wildest dreams bus, dreams come true, bernadette
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I've seen, druggies, ex-rapists, child abusers, abused children getting their 15 mins of fame on the show. Tears galore always. I've also seen parents getting told off for not checking the iminent demise of their errant children. It all seemed a little too condescending for me. Yes, RT worse than my own God-like condescension.
But this morning, I was floored. See, Oprah does this "Wildest Dreams Come True" segment from time to time where they select a deserving person who has their life in a rut or has an unfulfilled wild-ass dream and make them come true, most of the time at over the top levels.
The episode I caught today was about this Afro-American woman who was working her ass out at the local Starbucks, begging for more overtime [don't we all] so she could make ends meet. She had never had a day off since don't know, the beginning of time is my rough guess. Why is she having it so bad? She is a single mum. Has 3 children of her own, and get this, has also taken in her brother's 6 children! Apparently, their own parents couldn't take care of their children due to their addiction to heroin and to stop them from having to live in foster homes, she took all 6 of them in. That's 1 single mother with 1 job making lattes for a living AND concurrently raising 9 children in a 3 bedroom apartment.
Just looking at her plight got me emo. My mum thought the curry that came with the prata was laced with too much chilli.
So, Oprah waltzes in and firstly, gives the entire family a 20 minute shopping spree at Toys R Us. In 20 minutes, all 10 people managed to snatch close to $15,000 worth of toys, clothes and other merchandise off the shelves.
Next, she gets one of the corporate sponsors to provide full furnishings for her home. New living room furniture, new cutting edge kitchen and individual beds for each of the children. Currently, everyone shared beds including the mum.
This is followed by loaning her America's most wanted decorator, that handsome metro guy on her show regularly to do up her home.
But, then, how the fuck do you squeeze all these stuff they've got, and new furniture into a tiny 3 room apartment? Well, problem solved. Oprah got them a new house! It was a 1920s classic brick bungalow big enough for all ten of them.
By this time, I was getting too emo for a 24 year old man. No, I was not sitting there thinking, damn, why don't these things happen to me. Instead, I was silently applauding that this fine lady who handled soo much shit for soo many years finally got a good break. And that it comes free is of no concern to me. Everyone needs to get out of their rut sooner or later. Some attribute it to divine intervention, for some its the intervention of friends and some just put it to pure luck.
Now how did Oprah get wind of this woman's plight anyway? She really didn't seem the sort that'd go around sitting in singles bars lamenting her fortunes to anyone who'd bother to listen over a gin and juice. Her co-workers at Starbucks infact rallied together and wrote in repeatedly to highlight this woman's efforts and sacrifices hoping that Oprah can pull off something they couldn't.
Which led me to the thought of caring for a non-blood related person. A colleague, a classmate, a guy you see on the bus to work. This level of thought on wanting to better a life of another is simply, divine. Would this same concept work in Singapore? Would you actually take the effort to go write in to some rich bloke hoping that one of your fellow colleagues is lifted out of the rut of poverty? Or are we the selfish bastards many of us know we are, who would rather pester a friend to write in highlighting our OWN misfortunes, promising them a cut of the benefits if and when they do arrive?
No matter. New found respect. For some Americans and for the fat lady Oprah. Check out the rest of the Wildest Dreams bus's travels, HERE and search for the story of the lady called Bernadette. She is the one mentioned above.
Adieu!
oprah, wildest dreams bus, dreams come true, bernadette
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2 comments:
for the record, i adore oprah. think she's doing a great job :) she may have loads of dough but is very generous in sharing it..a BIG heart
sappy sappy goody. :P
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