This come after Tyrese was kicked out a Delaware radio station for expressing his concern during an on-air interview. He was told to leave by the programming director who later demanded an apology after threatening to ban his music.

In an exclusive interview with HelloBeautiful, Tyrese got very personal on why his stance remains secure and why he will never apologize for simply saying something about a world-wide issue with which everyone should be concerned!
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A reforestation project that paid poor women to plant trees is just one example of how Maathai, a Kenyan, empowered and educated local African people, particularly women.

“She was a fearless champion of nature and women,” Mark Tercek, president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy, told The Huffington Post.

On a panel last Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York City, Tercek described the key role that forests play in flood control and water quality — a lesson that has been learned the hard way, repeatedly, around the world. It took a major flood that ravaged homes, topsoil and fish stocks throughout the Yangtze region two decades ago for China to recognize that a standing forest was worth three times its mere value in timber.

Overall, forests, watersheds and other ecosystems provide an estimated $33 trillion in essentially free goods and services for communities around the world. But because these services are typically excluded from market calculations, widespread environmental degradation continues more or less unabated.

“Many people think nature is nice because of its spiritual value, or they like hiking, or they want to preserve it to hand it off to their descendants,” said Tercek. “These are all good reasons, but there are some really practical reasons to value nature too.”

Tercek is overflowing with practical examples. In an effort to thwart poaching in Kenya, his organization helped persuade villages to appoint local men to work as rangers. As poaching rates then dropped and the wildlife returned, tourism revenue rose. With less threat of violence from poachers, the village women also felt safer. In fact, one told Tercek that she was sleeping without her shoes on for the first time in her life.

He also tells a story about Quito, Ecuador, where a few years ago local business leaders were contemplating a major investment in a water filtration plant. He and his colleagues persuaded the city to invest instead in conservation efforts to secure clean water, such as changes in farming methods in the villages upstream. Sewing machines were one of the early purchases. They allowed women to stop grazing sheep — a common practice that leads to deforestation — and start making clothes to sell at local markets. The village people continue to work together with city leaders to determine how to spend the upstream conservation fees, imposed in lieu of filtration taxes.

Today, not only does nature keep Quito’s water clean, but it does so at a lower cost than so-called grey infrastructure.

“This was beautiful habitat that we would want to protect anyway. But now the argument was different. It was an economic one,” Tercek told HuffPost in an interview after the meeting. “And it worked.”

“People are getting it,” he added. “Conservation pays for itself. No philanthropy needed.”

The Nature Conservancy plans to replicate the water conservation initiative within 30 other watersheds around Latin America.

“The potential is enormous,” said Marta Echavarria, founding director of EcoDecision, an environmental business promotion firm that worked with Tercek’s team in Ecuador, and another member of last Thursday’s panel. “Any mechanisms where we could link livelihoods and the conservation through water can really bring people together.”

The island of Dominica offers another case in point of how investing in natural infrastructure can benefit economic development. On one side, the Dominican Republic is home to vast stands of forest. While it is still a poor country, its economy is growing thanks in large part to a strong tourism industry. The other side of the island, however, tells a starkly different story.

“Haiti is a disaster,” said Tercek. The biggest difference, he noted, is that Haiti didn’t take care of its natural capital, including forests, topsoil, reefs and fish stocks. Or, as he put it simply, “They screwed themselves.”

Meanwhile, efforts started by Maathai in Africa are helping to fend off a similar disaster. Her Green Belt Movement has now planted more than 30 million trees and helped nearly 900,000 women.

“Maathai understood the value of nature — in particular, the value of trees — and she understood the role of the common people, especially women,” said Tercek. “The conservation movement doesn’t have enough heroes like her.”

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The tribute may remind some of Staten Island’s PS 22 choir’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” at the most recent Academy Awards.

This version of “Empire State of Mind” was conducted by James Davis Jr. The spot first appeared online several days ago. It then aired during Sunday’s Eagles-Rams NFL game. Now it is quickly going viral. Web searches for “empire state of mind lyrics” and “empire state of mind song” are starting to soar. Watch Now

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
The lights will inspire you,
Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York.

Proceeds for the song, which you can buy on iTunes, go toward the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

If these videos don’t make you feel soft inside, then your not human. This is so touching and very inspiring.

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3. Mothers Of Black Firefighters Killed On 9/11 Fight To Keep Their Sons’ Memories Alive

Leon was the driver for Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn, on September 11, 2001, and one of 343 New York City firefighters to die while responding to the World Trade Center attacks.

“In Leon’s company there were eight firefighters that got killed,” Smith said. “They found the remains of six of them. They have never found my son. I have a tombstone on an empty grave. One of these days I’ll have them, and I’ll bury him. I’ll never give up.”

When the towers crumbled, Smith became part of a tragic sorority of mothers whose boys grew up to be firefighters who died as heroes. But she is also part of another circle of women, a much smaller group whose story of loss on 9/11 mirrors that of the entire FDNY family, but one often forgotten or buried in the heaps of pain.

Leon Smith was one of 12 black firefighters to lose his life that day. Their stories have gone largely untold, their faces rarely shown in the photo exhibits or memorial projects dedicated to the fallen firefighters.

The FDNY received widespread public support and good will after the attack. But the department has long struggled to recruit and retain firefighters of color. The city’s fire department, boasting about 14,000 members, is overwhelmingly white. Only about 3 percent of the force’s firefighters are black, roughly the same proportion that served during the attacks and in recent decades. (In an eerie coincidence, the 12 black firefighters who were killed on 9/11 represent just about 3 percent of the FDNY’s total deaths.)

Smith says Leon was harassed often in his early days in the Fire Department of New York. “They gave Leon a hard time,” she recalled. “They put oil in his boots, took the truck and ran over his boots. They tried to destroy Leon’s spirit. But he was a strong-willed young man.”

Black firefighters and critics of the FDNY say that racism and discrimination have long run rampant in the fire department. Shortly after 9/11, the Vulcan Society, an organization for New York’s black firefighters, sent out fliers announcing a memorial ceremony for the 12 who had been killed. Shortly after, several of the fliers were defaced. Someone wrote “Lick me” on one, and “What about the white guys?” on another. On a flier, someone scrawled over the guest list, which included Al Sharpton and former New York City mayor David Dinkins, replacing their names with those of rap stars.

In recent years, courts have found that the FDNY engaged in discriminatory hiring practices, which a federal judge has sought to remedy.

“If they were drug dealers, everybody would know who they were,” said Craig Kelly, a retired firefighter and grief counselor who worked with their families. Kelly helped to bring their stories to light in “All Our Sons,” a little-known documentary released in 2004 that chronicled the aftermath of the 12 black firefighters’ deaths.

“When I started watching, I saw people coming out of the window, and that was scary,” Laurel Jackson said in the movie of the television coverage that morning. She was the mother of Tarel Coleman, who was with Squad 252 in Brooklyn. “And believe me, at that time I wanted to reach out and tell my son, ‘Don’t go.’”

Ruth Powell expressed similar feelings about that day. “I knew for sure, the latter part of the evening, when we were calling the firehouse to see if he had returned,” she said. She was looking for her son Shawn E. Powell, who worked at Brooklyn’s Engine Company 207. “And they reported that his truck had not returned.”

At that time, Paul Washington was president of the Vulcan Society. He helped recruit and train Powell, and when he learned that Powell had been killed, it was the realization of his worst fears.

“That was always something that would be my worst nightmares, that one of the guys I helped bring on the job would die on the job,” Washington said. “I remember calling his mother a day or two after 9/11. The first words that came out of her mouth were, ‘I know you recruited my son.’ But she wasn’t mad.”

Since then, Ruth Powell and a few of the other mothers have passed away, and the young children of those firefighters have started high school or gone off to college. The parents who are still alive say they have not moved on, but they have moved forward.

“Each day I have a different feeling about 9/11,” said Smith. “Each day I am a different type of person,” she said. “Some days I’m fine, some days I get very emotional.”

“Leon didn’t die,” she added. “Leon was murdered on 9/11. My son didn’t close his eyes and just die. He was murdered.”

Irene Smith got the city to co-name the family’s block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn as Firefighter Leon W. Smith, Jr. Way. Each year her church gives college scholarships in Leon’s name. To date, they have given over $50,000 to college students from the neighborhood.

“Leon’s memory will always, always be around,” Smith said. “Nobody will ever forget about my son as long as I have breath in my lungs to speak his name.”

Smith and other mothers, both black and white, lean on each other for support. Once a month, the mothers of Ladder Company 118 have a conference call where they share the latest goings-on. They meet occasionally for lunch and run into each other at events, especially around the anniversary of the attacks.

“We are all walking in the same shoes,” she said. “We are family now. No way you can break the bond we have.”

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The first lady is the world’s most powerful black woman. Obama’s wife continually commands media attention for her intense efforts towards ending childhood obesity and has developed a cult-like following among world fashionistas for her stylish inclinations.

In the past year, she has made official and non-official trips to at least four continents, including a visit to South Africa where she was granted a rare audience with former president and Apartheid hero Nelson Mandela.

Beyonce Knowles, Entertainer, Designer

Jay-Z’s wife is all grown-up now. She turned 30 this year, and is now taking responsibility for her own business concerns. In March, she relieved her father, Matthew Knowles, as her business manager. She’s earned 16 Grammy awards in her career, runs a fashion label, House of Dereon, and released her fourth solo album, “4”. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 310,000 copies in its first week.

Oprah Winfrey, Media Personality

In May, Oprah bade farewell to her highly successful, syndicated talk show, after a 25 year-stint. She set out to achieve bigger things: In January, she launched her own cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network. It started out strong, but viewership is floundering. Nevertheless, Oprah remains one of the world’s most powerful media moguls: The Oprah brand owns media interests in TV, Radio, the web, and the 2.5 million circulation O Magazine. Oprah is also the world’s wealthiest black woman. Estimated worth: $2.7 billion.

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

First worked for Xerox in 1980 as a summer intern; joined the company full time in 1981 after obtaining her Masters’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. Worked through the ranks to become Vice- president in 2000, and was named CEO in 2009. Burns was pivotal in Xerox’s $6.4 billion acquisition of business process outsourcing giant, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) last year. Burns serves on the board of American Express and Boston Scientific among other companies.

Helen Gayle, CEO, CARE USA

Started off her career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 1984, eventually became the director of the National Center for HIV, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention. Also served at the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation between 2001 and 2006 where she directed the foundation’s HIV, TB and Reproductive Health Program. In 2006, took up the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of CARE USA, a leading humanitarian organization which actively fights global poverty in 87 countries around the world. Top Priority: Empowering girls and women to bring lasting change to poor communities. Gayle serves on the Board of trustees for the Rockefeller foundation.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President, Liberia

The Harvard-trained economist and Africa’s first female president is seeking to be reelected this October during Liberia’s presidential elections, breaking a promise she made during her 2005 campaign to serve only for a single term if elected. But the odds are in her favour: Successfully negotiated for debt relief from international creditors, including a $4.9 billion debt waiver from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigerian Finance Minister

In July, Okonjo-Iweala stepped down as Managing Director of the World Bank to accept an appointment as Nigeria’s finance minister. This will be the second time she will be in charge of steering the affairs of the Nigerian economy. Between 2003 and 2006 she served in the same capacity during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. She was instrumental in negotiating for, and ultimately achieving, an $18 billion debt write-off from a consortium of Nigerian creditors.

Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita, CEO, ArcelorMittal South Africa

Nyembezi-Heita heads the South African operations of the world’s largest steel company, ArcelorMittal. ArcelorMittal South Africa is Africa’s largest producer of steel, with an annual production capacity of 7.8 million tons. She was appointed as CEO in 2008; took up position after managerial stints at Vodacom Group and Alliance Capital Management. Ms Nyembezi-Heita serves as non-executive director on the board of the JSE Securities Exchange.

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Harvard grad is the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, America’s largest health care foundation, with a $10 billion endowment and annual disbursements of $400 million. This year, the foundation is spearheading a campaign against childhood obesity and fighting for tobacco cessation. Lavizzo-Mourey is the first woman and the first African-American to head the foundation. In 1984 she was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Joined the foundation in 2001 as senior vice president and director of the health care group; became CEO in 2003.

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Earlier this spring, Katie Washington was one of three finalists vying to become the University of Notre Dame’s senior class valedictorian. When it was her turn to be interviewed by the selection committee, she told members that the honor wasn’t on her radar four years ago when she arrived on campus.

“I let them know that I came to Notre Dame with the hope of pushing myself to my fullest potential,” said Washington, 21. “I just wanted to do well on every assignment and every exam. I wanted to be the best I could be every day because I’d been given a great opportunity to be here.”

Her hard work has paid off.

On Sunday, Washington will become the first black valedictorian in Notre Dame’s 168-year history. In the fall, she will begin an eight-year joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins University in its medical scientist training program. She has been awarded a full scholarship, worth about $500,000, plus a stipend to help cover housing and living expenses.

“I’m so humbled by it,” said Washington, a biological sciences major with a 4.0 grade point average. She also already has co-authored a major research paper. The subject: How mosquitoes that carry dengue and yellow fever transmit infection and disease in Haiti

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I hate to look at things like the tsunami from a few years ago, or the erathquake in Haiti now and try to find something to complain about, but this time it’s a little more personal to me because these are black people.

My issues is this..where are the black rescue workers? This is not an argument of discrimination towards blacks, this is me asking the question , where are all the black hero’s in this disaster? I see white firefighters, white doctors and nurses, loving white families who are adopting Haitian orphans, and white rescue workers doing all the heroics for the people of Haiti. Sure every now and then I will see the face of a black nurse from Harlem, or a black doctor here and there, but overall, the majority of the effort is coming from whites, which I am VERY grateful for.

And, just in case you were wondering if I am trying to blame the media for not showing blacks rescuers on purpose, you’d be wrong. This is something that has always bugged me about African-American people, MY people. On paper, as a group we do almost nothing for the poor an sick of the world. White rapper Asher Roth came out months ago to publicly shame “Black Rappers For Showing Off & Neglecting Africa“, and you know what, HE’S RIGHT!  It is almost always whites who take the lead and put the blood, sweat and tears into doing whatever possible for the needy of the world.

I understand the economics for many African-Americans aren’t the same for whites, but why does it always seem to be white people running clinics, and orphanages in poor black and latin countries? They hold fundraisers, telethons, charity events, and put themselves directly in the front lines in some of the worst places a person can live just to help people they don’t know. Let’s face it, we know that in our black culture here in the US, we put more effort into our rims, shoes and hair weaves than Africa and the poor of this world. A sista can drop $1,000 on a lace front wig, but not consider to  donate $10 to the Red Cross. Of course this doesn’t apply to all of us, but you know deep down inside what I mean.

I’m not taking anything away from the blacks who do volunteer their time and effort to causes they care about. I know there are several community organizers and local activists in many black and Hispanic communities that devote their lives to helping their people.  So the real question is why don’t blacks commit to helping the poor and sick of Africa and other devastated countries like so many whites do? Can it all be about money? I doubt it. I think more than anything this recent disaster in Haiti should inspire more African-Americans to become firemen, rescue pilots, doctors and whatever field of training that gives more flexibility for situations just like this. It would be nice to see black people included in the rescue of their own people and all races of people who face this kind of nightmare. It would be great if more blacks took an interest in adopting the orphaned children of Haiti, and Africa.

I remember making  jokes about the “trend” of white people with money who adopt Asian babies. To me I always thought it was sweet and the right thing to do overall, but I really would feel for Asian people who had to see their race of children being raised by rich white people. I always felt sympathy for those who had to see it become what I felt was some kind of exotic tend to impress people.

Well guess what? Now it’s happening to us. I see more and more black children being adopted by whites and now that the shoe is on the other foot I feel nothing but support and love for the whites who decide to adopt black children. Nobody else seems to want them, especially us black folks, so why not?  I would rather see more blacks adopt black children purely for the sake of numbers. Black children are less likely to be adopted than any other race in the United States alone, far less in other countries. So if a white couple decides they want to open their home and hearts to black children I support that right. I also feel the same for gays , who are embracing mixed adoptions as quickly as their heterosexual counterparts.

I don’t even think we as a people even think to consider adoption when all other options aren’t possible. Is the concept of shelling out thousands of dollars to much to handle for something blacks feel can be naturally done for free? Do black women who are not able to have children feel like they would rather go childless than adopt a black orphan ?

When you see white people taking the initiative in catastrophes like the Haitian earthquake, it gives the appearance to the world that black people are incapable of  taking care of their own. Barack Obama is black , but he is one man, and we cannot lay all the responsibility of charity  and awareness on Obama, Oprah and Wyclef  Jean. More black celebrities, athletes, business leaders and families who can afford it should start investing in helping the world outside of their neighborhood.  Stop leaving it all up to the whites of the world and start including our culture and people in a more diverse world stage that has nothing to do with sports or music. It seems to be the only time blacks are seen for anything internationally is for needing help, and it’s always whites there to do it.

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The rescue was captured on camera. As you’ll see below, Kiki’s older sister, Sabrina, was pulled out first. Seven-year-old Kiki comes out next, looking a bit dazed. However, after seeing the crowd, the survivor immediately smiles and extends his arms in triumph. A photographer from the New York Post described the scene and the crowd’s reaction.

After so much heartbreak and tragedy, this was a rescue that inspired the masses. When asked why he smiled so broadly, Kiki responded, “I smiled because I was free, I smiled because I was alive.”

After being treated for their injuries and dehydration, the two children were reunited with their parents. No doubt the children were happy. In time they’ll understand just how happy they’d made everyone else.

Watch the incredible moment below, and learn how you can donate to Haiti here.

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In many ways, Lou Jing is a typical young woman from Shanghai. Pretty and confident, she speaks Mandarin heavily accented with the lilting tones of the Shanghai dialect and browses the malls of this huge city for the latest fashions.

But there is one thing that distinguishes this 20-year-old from her peers, something that has made her the unwitting focus of an intense public debate about what exactly it means to be Chinese: the color of her skin. Born to a Chinese mother and an African-American father whom she has never met, the theater student rocketed into the public consciousness last month when she took part in an American Idol–esque TV show, Go! Oriental Angel. (See pictures of modern Shanghai.)

The marketing gurus for the series could hardly have dreamed of a better promotional gimmick when they started to investigate the backgrounds of the dozens of pop-star wannabes to root out the competitors’ mushy stories of triumph over adversity that are a well-worn staple of the genre. Here was a tale guaranteed to attract eyeballs: a girl of mixed race, brought up by a single Chinese mother, struggling to gain acceptance in a deeply conservative, some would say racist, society.

The strategy worked — perhaps too well. In August, Lou’s appearance on the show not only boosted viewer numbers but also sparked an intense nationwide debate about the essential meaning of being Chinese. Over the past month on Internet chat rooms, where modern China’s sensitive issues are thrashed out by netizens long before they reach the heavily censored mainstream media, Lou’s ethnicity has been the subject of a relentless barrage of criticism, some of it crudely racist. Many think she should not have been allowed to compete on a Chinese show, or at least not selected to represent Shanghai in the national competition. She doesn’t have fair skin, which is one of the most important factors for Chinese beauty. What’s more, her mother and her biological father were never married; morally, the argument goes, this kind of behavior shouldn’t be publicized, so she shouldn’t have been put on TV as a young “idol.”

As recently as the 1970s, foreigners were largely barred from living in China, let alone marrying a local. China does not easily accept mixed-race children as true-blooded Chinese: as soon as a child is born, the parents are required to register with the authorities as to which of the 56 government-approved ethnic groups their child belongs; there are no mixed-race categories. Lou feels she is very much Chinese. “When I meet somebody for the first time, they’d often ask me how I can speak Chinese so well, and I tell them, ‘Because I’m a Chinese — of course I can speak my mother tongue well,’ ” Lou says defiantly. “I don’t like to be treated differently.”

As China undergoes an astonishing demographic shift and more foreigners make their homes in the Middle Kingdom, Lou is by no means the only one being treated differently. Recent decades have seen a surge in the number of mixed-race couples. According to the data offered by Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, from 1994 to 2008, each year there have been about 3,000 more mixed-race marriages in Shanghai. But as the children of that first generation of mixed-race marriages come of age, their moves to gain acceptance in society — like Lou’s participation in the TV show — have exposed a deep-running vein of xenophobia in Chinese society. Last year, Ding Hui, a young man of African-Chinese ethnicity, caused a stir when he was called up to the national volleyball team, prompting much soul-searching about whether the athlete should be allowed to represent China alongside pure-blooded Chinese competitors. Eventually, Ding Hui did go on to play for the national team.

“As China continues to open up, this kind of phenomenon will become ever more prevalent,” says David Zweig, a professor of humanities and social sciences at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “This is part of the process of internationalization, but we can only hope that Chinese people, including netizens and the people whose views tend towards extremism, can come to accept that there are many mixed-race people, both in China and worldwide.”

As for Lou, she found the whole experience more than a little disturbing. She did well in the show, ranking in the top 30 contestants before she was eliminated. Now she’s back to her normal life as a college junior — with a little new insight into her home. “Through this competition, it’s really scary to find out how the color of my skin can cause such a big controversy.”

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As Forbes described in a 2005 article, Michael Jackon’s 1984 Victory tour was directly responsible for Kraft purchasing Foxboro Stadium in 1988, a transaction that eventually led to him being able to buy the team in 1994.

In 1988 Kraft and a partner put up $25 million to buy the Foxboro stadium from the Sullivan family, besting a $16 million offer from the Pats’ owner, Kiam. (Kraft would buy out his 50-50 partner for a small premium five years later.) [Former Patriots owner, and current Foxboro Stadium owner] Charles Sullivan had used the stadium as collateral to fund [Michael Jackson's] Victory Tour back in 1984. Overleveraged, Sullivan went bankrupt and was forced to sell the arena. To this day Kraft’s collection of photos and mementos includes a poster from the ill-fated tour.

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