Famewatcher

Famewatchers meet Concepcion Picciotto, peace-activist extraordinaire who has been protesting against wars and nuclear weapons for 28 long years. You might not agree with what she’s doing and you are welcome to say that there’s something wrong with her, but you got to admire Concepcion for devoting her life to a cause she truly believes in. Only a few of us can truly make that claim. For her dedication to the cause of peace and for living her life against the odds, we are calling her our Hero of the Day.

An excerpt from an AFP story by Michael Mathes:

Each morning like she has for the past 28 years, Concepcion Picciotto pulls back the plastic flap of her makeshift shelter in Lafayette Park and stares across the street at the White House, but the protester-in-residence voices little hope that the new president will make a difference on issues that dominate her life: ending US interventionist wars and banning nuclear weapons.

“No, they’re all the same,” Picciotto laments about the commanders-in-chief she has literally watched come and go since 1981, when she and fellow activist William “Doubting” Thomas began their 24-hour White House peace vigil.

“From the beginning I said Obama isn’t going to work, because he’s inside there,” she hisses, pointing to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

“It’s a revolving door,” she tells AFP in an interview on a recent frigid night. Obama and the other presidents she has outlasted — Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush — “don’t support peace.”

“It’s against what they do: invasions, occupations, wars.”

OTHER BLOG POSTS ON ORDINARY PEOPLE DOING HEROIC STUFF:

Chad Lindsey: New York Subway Hero
19 March 2009

Wow. Props to struggling Broadway actor Chad Lindsey for risking his life and limbs to save a fellow passenger. Let’s give him the Gary Hobson Hero of the Day award. [Note: For those of you who don't know, Gary Hobson is a fictional character in the 1990s TV show Early Edition whose purpose in life is to save other people from harm.]

Here’s an excerpt from an NY Times story on Chad Lindsey’s heroism:

On Monday, as he waited for the train, about 2:30 p.m., he was thinking ahead to the reading he was heading to. “I’m kind of zoned out, and I saw this guy come too quickly to the edge,” he said. “He stopped and kind of reeled around. I felt bad, because I couldn’t get close enough to grab his coat. He fell, and immediately hit his head on the rail and passed out.”

Mr. Lindsey said he sensed a train was approaching, because the platform was crowded. “I dropped my bag and jumped down there. I tried to wake him up,” he said. “He probably had a massive concussion at that point. I jumped down there and he just wouldn’t wake up, and he was bleeding all over the place.”
…
The man wouldn’t wake up, he said. “He was hunched over on his front. I grabbed him from behind, like under the armpits, and kind of got him over to the platform. It wasn’t very elegant. I just hoisted him up so his belly was on the platform. It’s kind of higher than you think it is.”

He stole a glance toward the dark subway tunnel that was becoming ominously less dark, with the glow on the tracks, familiar to all New Yorkers, signaling an approaching train.

“I couldn’t see the train coming, but I could see the light on the tracks, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of this hole.’ ”
…
People on the platform joined the effort. “Someone pulled him out, and I just jumped up out of there,” he said. With time to spare: “The train didn’t come for another 10 or 15 seconds or something.”

The man lay bleeding on the platform, and the police arrived. Mr. Lindsey soon got on another train. A large group of riders who had been on the platform entered the subway car with him, smiling and clapping him on the back and saying thank you.

Eileen Bowden: Hero of the Day
03 May 2009

We are giving our Hero of the Day award to Eileen Bowden (that’s her leading the oath in the photo) for saving a life even though it might have cost her her own life. Here’s her story from KTVU:

Santa Clara High School is mourning the loss this week of a school nurse who likely helped save the life of the school’s softball coach suffering from a heart attack just moments before collapsing herself. She later died.

On Tuesday, 59-year-old Eileen Bowden gave John Rahbar CPR minutes after he collapsed with no pulse while collecting foul balls following a team practice.

Bowden’s actions kept Rahbar alive until paramedics arrived, but then Bowden collapsed.

“After that, Ms. Bowden kind of got up, in just a brief moment, she fell down and seemed to need medical assistance,” said Santa Clara School District spokeswoman Tabitha Kappler-Hurley. “So she was taken to Valley Medical Center and unfortunately died en route.”

Bowden rotated between five schools in the district, spending one day a week on each campus. She also was police officer with the Santa Clara Police Department. Her death stunned students.
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Rahbar’s wife said he suffered a heart attack. He should be released from the hospital in a few days. Rahbar’s wife expressed deep gratitude to the nurse for her actions and sympathy towards her family. She said she believes her husband might not have survived the heart attack if not for Bowden’s aid.

Tuba Sahaab, Young Poet For Peace
19 February 2009

Here’s a portrait of a peace poet as a young girl. Her name: Tuba Sahaab, a young girl from Pakistan who is gaining some fans worldwide for her poems calling for peace and equality. CNN reports on Tuba’s poetry, the dangers she faces against extremists, and her commitment to peace:

Tuba Sahaab looks nothing like a warrior. She is a slight girl of 11, living in a simple home in a suburb of Islamabad. But in Tuba’s case, looks are deceiving. With her pen, Tuba is taking on the swords of the Taliban. She crafts poems telling of the pain and suffering of children just like her; girls banned from school, their books burned, as the hard-core Islamic militants spread their reign of terror across parts of Pakistan.

A stanza of one of her poems reads: “Tiny drops of tears, their faces like angels, Washed with blood, they sleep forever with anger.”

Tuba is not afraid to express her views. Of the Taliban forcing young girls out of the classroom, she says: “This is very shocking to hear that girls can’t go to school, they are taking us back to the Stone Age.”

Alex Dalmady, Financial Analyst
20 February 2009

Who is Alex Dalmady? He is the guy who exposed the fraudulent banker Allen Stanford. He has a blog here which we encourage you visit to give him a thumbs up, or a high five, or anything to show your appreciation.

And here’s an excerpt from his profile in Times Online:

Alex Dalmady, a Venezuelan financial analyst, stumbled upon one of the biggest potential frauds in banking history while he was doing a quick favour for one of his friends last year. 

An amateur investor named Roberto wanted a second opinion on his portfolio so he asked Mr Dalmady, an acquaintance who had moved to the US, for his thoughts.

“Sure I’ll look it over,” Mr Dalmady, 48, told his friend. Within hours he had spotted what he believed was a gaping hole in Allen Stanford’s $50 billion Stanford International Bank (SIB) where Roberto had invested much of his money. He says he told his friend “take your money out yesterday”.

Roberto withdrew his funds from the bank, but Mr Dalmady’s interest was piqued. He says he kept finding himself returning to the SIB website, where he thought the financial statements were surprisingly short on detail.

He explains: “I was stunned. First, it looked so simple, so unsophisticated. The language used wasn’t quite right. I downloaded the financial statements and to my surprise the “business model” jumped out at me: investing in Stocks, Bonds, Hedge Funds and the like. That’s OK if you’re managing a fund, but not a bank.”

No matter how hard he tried, he could see no way in which SIB’s business model could produce the returns it claimed to or fund the dividends it was continuing to pay its investors.

So, Mr Dalmady, who lives in Florida with his wife and children, sat down to write an article about what he had discovered.Read the rest.

Efren Peñaflorida, Street Teacher
07 May 2009

Congratulations and props to Efren Penaflorida for the CNN Award he received for his work to improve the lives of street children in Manila.

Hero of the Day: Peter Thorneycroft
12 February 2009

After giving out our first-ever Idiot Award to Ohio Rep Steve Austria, we thought, “Hey, why don’t we blog about something positive to balance things out.” So we decided to look for heroes and to give out a Hero Award [no prize/money involved hehe] to people who do heroic stuff.

Famewatchers, meet Australian Peter Thorneycroft, our first-ever Hero Award winner. This excerpt of a Herald Sun article should tell you why we are calling him a hero:

A TRADIE is being hailed a hero after almost single-handedly saving 20 women and children sheltering in Kinglake’s National Park Hotel.

Despite constant pain from a serious arm injury, Peter Thorneycroft, 43, climbed onto the roof in shorts and thongs as the blaze dropped deadly embers. He fought them off with buckets of water handed up by brave locals. The tiler and paver spent at least an hour dousing embers and wetting vents and drains with water from a semi-trailer.

Up to 400 others who had piled into 200 cars around the hotel were also at risk if the pub had gone up.
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Tanya Cadman, 41, was in her Toyota Prado with son Kyle, 11, daughter Montana, 8, and scottish terrier Pippi. Ms Cadman, who photographed Mr Thorneycroft on the roof, said if he hadn’t acted, the pub would have burnt and taken the cars with it. “The houses opposite the pub, they had all exploded,” she said. “A couple of cars in the car park exploded. I thought we were all gone.” Ms Cadman described the fire’s roar as “like a Boeing landing on your house” and said Mr Thorneycroft was a real hero.

Ben McBean, Marine Soldier
22 April 2009

Looking for someone to cheer for during the London marathon on Sunday? Then you should cheer for Marine Ben McBean who is reportedly going to join the marathon. Ben, for those not familiar with his story, lost his arm and leg while serving in Afghanistan.

You can sponsor his quest and know more about him here. Go, Ben!

Leonard Abess, Banker: Cool Dude of the Day
25 February 2009

If you were watching President Obama during his state of the union address and went, “Leonard Abess who?”, we must be in the same boat because we went “Who’s he? Why did he deserve a special presidential mention?”

Well, it turns out that Leonard Abess is a swell guy so we are giving him our Dude of the Day award. Our award may not rank as high as a presidential mention but, hey, its still an “award”. The Miami Herald has a story on Leonard and it is really worth reading:

After selling a majority stake in Miami-based City National Bancshares last November, all he did was take $60 million of the proceeds — $60 million out of his own pocket — and hand it to his tellers, bookkeepers, clerks, everyone on the payroll. All 399 workers on the staff received bonuses, and he even tracked down 72 former employees so they could share in the windfall. For longtime employees, the bonus — based on years of service — amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases, more than $100,000.