This Week’s Photo in the News: Crab Mentality

Credit: E! Illustration

 
Who needs enemies when you have a family like Meghan Markle does?

Instead of supporting her, members of her paternal family seem to suffer from what can be called crab mentality. Freebase refers to it as that kind of human behavior where members of a group will attempt to “pull down” any member who achieves beyond the others out of envy, conspiracy, or competitive feelings.

Take the case of her half-brother who advised Prince Harry to cancel his wedding to a “jaded, shallow, conceited” woman.

Or her half-sister who continues to bash her on social media. Among other things, she called her the ““duchess of nonsense” and that Prince Harry was better off marrying ex-girlfriend Cressida Bonas instead.

And it doesn’t end there. She also has a father who appears to enjoy his new found notoriety. He was caught staging pre-wedding photos for which he was paid $180,000. Then he faked emergency heart surgery to avoid her wedding altogether. Finally, he can’t be stopped giving interviews (whether paid or not) to the media.

“I’ve just about reached my limit with Meghan and the royal family,” he said in one of those interviews. “They want me to be silent, they want me to just go away. But I won’t be silenced. I refuse to stay quiet. What riles me is Meghan’s sense of superiority. She’d be nothing without me. I made her the Duchess she is today. Everything that Meghan is, I made her.”

For Pete’s sake, he’s a retired lighting director. Doesn’t a light bulb come on over his head telling him that what he’s doing is out of line?

It can only be expected that Meghan would cut off completely all communications with him and her half-siblings. Who can blame her? As it stands, any contact with them will likely be exploited and end up as fodder for tabloid news.

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A Simple Gesture

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 3 August 2018

Note: As the song goes, all my bags are pack and I’m ready to go. I’m leaving on a jet plane on Saturday for a much-needed vacation in Ireland. As a result, I’ll be off the grid for a while and miss reading and commenting on your posts. I promise I’d be back soon. Peace.

Photo Credit: Sandra Crook
 
She was young in her twenties with a blanket wrapped around her.

“Do you have money to spare?” she asked shivering in the cold morning air. “I’m starving.”

“I can take you to nearby McDonald’s.”

“I’d rather have the money.”

I handed her a twenty dollar bill, no questions asked. I saw her eyes lit up. It was a simple gesture that must have restored her faith in humanity.

A week later, a homeless woman was found dead of a drug overdose amidst stacks of recyclables in an alley outside a thrift store. I wanted to believe it wasn’t her.
 

Wordless Wednesday: A Near-Dusk Experience

Location: Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Eastern Africa

 

This Week’s Photo in the News : Say What?

Photo Credit: Czar Danceld/Reuters

 
On Jul. 23, former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was elected speaker of the lower house of Congress in her native country. Her reaction when she heard the news was epic.

Scream Painting/Edvard Munch

 
I don’t know why but it reminds me of Edvard Munch’s famous Scream Painting. It’s maybe because I find it shocking that a politician like her would be back in power considering her tainted past.

In 2001, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency from Joseph Estrada who was forced out of office and jailed for plunder. She was elected to a full six-year term in 2004 amid allegations of cheating and electoral fraud.

After Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the presidency in 2001, corruption got worse and turned into a much bigger tumor. During her administration, Transparency International gave the Philippines a score of 2.5 out of a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the most corrupt.

During her term, she survived three impeachment attempts and several coup plots. Following the end of her term, she was arrested and put in detention for allegedly misusing state funds while in office.

In 2016, Arroyo declined Pres. Duterte’s offer for pardon. The Supreme Court finally acquitted her of plunder for “insufficiency of evidence” and set her free.

Time will tell if she’ll used this opportunity to redeem herself and make amends for her sins in the past.

Remembering Nana

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 27 July 2018

Photo Credit: Ted Strutz
 
It was early evening. I was in my room looking out the window when I saw grandma accompanied by two men heading to the beach.

“Nana! Wait!”

I rushed downstairs to follow them, but by the time I was out of the house, they were gone.

With an absentee father and an alcoholic mother, Nana was the glue that held the family together. I never felt so secure as I did in her arms.

When I told Mom about it, she dismissed it outright.

“Don’t be silly,” she said finishing her drink. “You know, she’s been dead for sometime now.”