Friday, February 15, 2013

don’t ever give up on ’em


CBC: - “...It hurts,” he told the crowd gathered at Fraserview Hall. “It don't make no difference how old or what grade you in when people laugh at you.” Holyfield, speaking at a fundraiser for the Amanda Todd Legacy Fund, says he was laughed at as a child because he couldn't read. “They started laughing at me in kindergarten,” he said. “It is amazing in kindergarten when they say you don't know your alphabet and you sitting then there seeing people the same age and everybody laugh and the teacher don't stop them.” Amanda Todd's mother Carol said Holyfield’s involvement is a huge help to the cause. “It was like, ‘Wow. This is big news having someone like him wanting to be attached to the [Amanda Todd] Legacy Fund,’” she said..." - CBC News, Evander Holyfield fights bullying at Amanda Todd fundraiser, Jan 29 2013 (READ MORE)

Vancouver Sun: - "...Like many of his generation, Holyfield lamented the fact that today’s kids “are putting things on (Facebook and other online forums) and doing it to themselves, putting your whole business on a website. “Who in the world wants to put your business on the website when it’s going to be on there forever? Somebody can be reminding you of everything you do wrong. People don’t understand what they doing to themselves by all this publicity.” Holyfield has 11 kids of his own by six different women. Several of them, he put into private school, he says, to make sure they got every opportunity to succeed. Some of them jumped off the right path, he admits, “but they got back on. I don’t ever give up on ’em..." - Gary Kingston, Evander Holyfield hopes to help knock out bullying, Vancouver Sun, Jan 26 2013 (READ MORE)

The Province: - "...Well the Amanda Todd organization I will be going down and speaking on their behalf. I’ve realized the discipline you have as a fighter, you go in the ring, and everything ain’t always well, some days you don’t feel good. You have to show up, you have to stand up. It’s pretty much your confidence that allows you show up all the time, speak up when things are not right, you open your mouth and speak. I think the same thing goes for the bullying program. I spoke with a lot of people about it. I said, everybody is vulnerable, a lot of times with bullying, a lot of people look at it a little different. My mother taught me at a young age don’t be afraid, you cannot worry about what people say about you, do what you have to do. We have to talk to parents; it’s our responsibility to equip our children for what life is really about. When I was a kid and they talked about bullying I thought, wow, I thought bullying was when you were picking on someone and that person gets scared, that’s a part of bullying. I didn’t know the bullying they were talking about mean people saying things. In the neighborhood that I lived in, it’ one of those things where people call you nicknames, people came up and called you names. If you didn’t have thick skin, you would have a tough time. Parents need to prepare their kids. We as parents have to say, we live in a society where people feel that the freedom of speech is to embarrass you. I saw the other day, I was surprised, but President Clinton said he was bullied. I thought, people jumped on him? No, he was fat. He spoke about it. The thing with Tyson I realized, you can talk about it all you want, but you have to stand up, and that comes from your parents. Nobody chooses their parents, but learning this comes from your parents. It’s the parents’ job to make that effort..." - Lev Jackson, A conversation with Evander Holyfield, The Province, Jan 27 2013 (READ MORE)

Arbitrage: - "...Amanda Todd, a grade ten student from British Columbia, broke the hearts of Canadians when she committed suicide on October 10, 2012. Like many teenagers, she made a mistake due to a lapse in judgement and paid for her mistake as the result of bullying..." - Chantelle (Tilly) Wark, Bullying - The Amanda Todd Case, Arbitrage, Dec 24 2012 (READ MORE)

Evander Holyfield (born October 19, 1962) is an American professional boxer. He is a former Undisputed World Champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname "The Real Deal." After winning the bronze medal in the Light Heavyweight division at the 1984 Summer Olympics, he debuted as a professional at the age of 21. - Wikipedia (READ MORE)


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Friday, February 8, 2013

Lance Armstrong: “Yeah, I was a bully...”


The Globe and Mail: - “...Lance Armstrong’s interview with Oprah is likely to be the start of the long and difficult process of repairing his brand as well as limiting any damage to the Livestrong brand and organization,” said Manish Kacker, associate professor of marketing at McMaster University. Complicating his attempt to rebuild his reputation is the mountain of lies he built to sustain the myth that he was clean. In 2007, in a conversation with Bob Schieffer at the Aspen Ideas Festival, he said there was “no way” he would take drugs after beating cancer. “I came out of a life-threatening disease, I was on my death-bed,” he said “Do you think I’m going to come back into a sport and say ‘okay, okay doctor, give me everything you got, I just want to go fast.’ No way. Would never do that.” Not only did he repeatedly deny doping throughout his career, he attacked critics as jealous liars. He undermined the careers of competitors who tried to blow the whistle “Yeah, I was a bully,” he acknowledged to Ms. Winfrey. He admitted being embarrassed now as she showed him video of several particularly cynical statements from his riding days. “[I had] this just ruthless desire to win, win it all ... and that defiance, that attitude, that arrogance, you cannot deny it. I mean, you watch that clip, that’s an arrogant person. I look at that and [I say] look at this arrogant prick. I say that today. It’s not good...” - Oliver Moore, The Globe and Mail, Lance Armstrong's way: Doping, lying, bullyingJan 17 2013 (READ MORE)

Slate: - "...For children in school, the standard definition of a bully is someone who verbally or physically abuses a target over whom he or she has more power, repeatedly and over time. Import that to Lance Land, and, yes, you’ve got a bully. But in his interview, Lance wanted to own the word without any of the consequences. "Yes, I was a bully. I was a bully in the sense that I tried to control the narrative and if I didn't like what someone said I turned on them," he told Oprah. But when she asked if he threatened to kick cyclist Christian Vande Velde off the team when he wouldn’t get with the doping program, Armstrong denied it. Similarly, he admitted he was the kind of person who always goes on the attack. But then he said he’d only become a bully after going back to his cycling career, post-cancer. Hard to imagine that he has grappled much with this side of his character, much less come to regret it, if he can’t get his timeline straight..." - Emily Bazelon, Slate, Jan 18 2013, Lance Armstrong Was a Bully-and That Hardly Covers It (READ MORE)

New Republic: - "...The catalogue of bad behavior got worse. He admitted that there was an “expectation” that his younger teammates would also use dangerous performance-enhancing drugs, if they wanted to make the A team. He acknowledged calling a team employee, Emma O’Reilly, a drunk and a whore. (Oprah did not approve.) He admitted calling Betsy Andreu, wife of a former teammate and close friend, a “crazy bitch”—but then insisted, “I never called her fat,” as if that made it okay. (It didn’t, and Oprah really did not approve of the fat talk. ) He laid out a catalogue of sociopathic behavior—and then failed to apologize for much if any of it. There was no apology to Betsy or her husband, Frankie, whose lives and careers he made much more difficult. There was no apology to Greg Lemond, a colleague and superior sportsman who he persecuted for years. There was no apology to his former teammates, or to the many people he’d sued or threatened to sue. “You're suing people, and you know that they're telling the truth,” Oprah huffed. “What is that?” “I think all of this is a process for me,” he said, in the course of not really answering her. “One of the steps of that process is to speak to those people directly, and just say to them that I am sorry, and I was wrong. You were right..." - Bill Gifford, Lance Armstrong: No More Mr. Nice Guy, New Republic, Jan 18 2013 (READ MORE)

Lance Edward Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson; September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between 1999 and 2005, before being disqualified from each of those races and banned from cycling for life for doping offenses by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in 2012. He is the founder of the Livestrong Foundation, originally called the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides support for cancer patients...In October 1996, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy. In February 1997, he was declared cancer-free and the same year he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation...On October 22, 2012, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the sport's governing body, announced its decision to accept USADA's findings. Armstrong chose not to appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and in January 2013 Armstrong admitted doping in a television interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey, despite having made denials throughout his career. - Wikipedia (READ MORE)


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Bullying is an abusive treatment, the use of force or coercion to affect others, particularly when habitual and involving an imbalance of power. It may involve verbal harassment, physical assault or coercion and may be directed persistently towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability. The "imbalance of power" may be social power and/or physical power. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a "targeted individual" (Wikipedia).