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  • Kanye West Speaks Out On Wheelchair Incident

    Rapper Kanye West recently came under fire for reportedly demanding the audience at his concert at the Qantas Credit Union Arena in Sydney, Australia, to stand up, and singling out those who wouldn’t- even the people in wheelchairs.

    Now, West is firing back about the incident saying that the press was trying to “demonize” him.

    “This is such big media-press-news and everything that obviously they trying to demonize me for,” West said.

    “It’s like, ‘Welcome to today’s news, ladies and gentlemen,’” he added. “We’ve got Americans getting killed on TV, kids getting killed every weekend in Chicago, unarmed people getting killed by police officers…It makes you just want to reflect on what are the things that are a little bit more sensationalized than others.”

    The controversy started after West requested that the audience stand while he performed one of his songs. When all but two people were standing, he asked what was wrong with them and if they had a disability. West would not continue with his concert until he had confirmation that the two individuals were disabled.

    “I’ve decided, I can’t do this song, I can’t do the rest of this show until everybody stands up,” West said. “No, seriously — I won’t go on with the show unless y’all stand up.”

    West said he believes that the media is trying to make this situation all negative, when he really just wanted his fans to have the best time possible.

    “They’ve got this thing where they want the masses, the people who’ve never even heard one of my albums, to somehow read a headline that reads negative and to think that I’m a bad person. But the thing is … I’m a married Christian man with a family,” West continued. “At my concerts, I make sure everybody has as good a time as possible. So all this demonizing me, it ain’t going to work after a while. Pick a new target, because I’m not one of these dumba** artists that you’re used to.”

  • Kim Kardashian Cries Foul On Media Frenzy Over Kanye West Wheelchair Incident

    Kanye West’s wife, Kim Kardashian, is defending her husband against the media frenzy sparked by his antics at a recent concert in Sydney. Kardashian posted a video on Instagram of an excerpt of West’s September 12 concert, calling it a success yet lamenting the way the media reacted to an incident involving disabled fans that happened that night.

    The full text of Kardahian’s caption for the video read: “What an amazing Australian tour! Its frustrating that something so awesome could be clouded by lies in the media. Kanye never asked anyone in a wheel chair to stand up & the audience videos show that. He asked for everyone to stand up & dance UNLESS they were in a wheel chair. #JustWantedEveryoneToHaveAFunNight #TheMediaTwistsThings.”

    The incident Kadashian referred to happened at Sydney’s Qantas Credit Union Arena, where West held a concert. Before launching into his song “Good Life,” West requested everyone in the audience that night stand up. He noticed two fans who weren’t standing up and waited until his staff could verify that they were disabled before continuing his show.

    Here’s what apparently happened

    West took heat for the move, but defended himself at his Brisbane show on Monday, saying he was a victim of exaggerated headlines. “Welcome to today’s news, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve got Americans getting killed on TV. We have kids being killed every weekend in Chicago. We have unarmed people being killed by police officers … It makes you just want to reflect on what are the things that are a little bit more sensationalized about this,” he told the crowd in Brisbane as part of a five-minute rant.

    He also suggested that the media find a new target and explained that he was just making sure that his fans had as much fun as possible during his concert when the incident happened.

  • Japanese Researchers Create Robot Wheelchair That Can Walk Up Stairs

    One of the greatest challenges facing our handicapped population is making sure every building is wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately, some buildings are just too old or small to add ramps or lifts. It can be discouraging, but some of the brightest minds in Japan may have found a solution.

    The Chiba Institute Of Technology has created an all-new wheelchair that is capable of walking up stairs. How does it do this? Well, it walks. It’s actually rather hard to describe it, but this wheelchair can lift its wheels to walk up or down stairs. I’m actually surprised that nobody else has come up with this idea.

    At the moment, the wheelchair is still in the concept phase. The inventors say that they are mostly done with fine-tuning the movement, but there’s still much work to be done. They hope to start testing the wheelchair among the general population soon to improve the user experience.

    This wheelchair isn’t going to be available to the public anytime soon, but it’s a sign of hope. Those who suffer from handicaps will hopefully no longer be affected by them in the near future. Inventions like this wheelchair or exoskeletons may one day give everybody the freedom that walking provides.

  • Social Media Aids in Boy’s Wheelchair Replacement

    This story caught my eye today. It’s about a little 8-year old boy who’s dying from muscular dystrophy.

    As part of his dying wishes, Tanner traveled to New York to take a tour through Central Park. He flew with Air Canada. In Canada, the name Air Canada is synonymous with “Who Cares Canada” instead. Simply put, they’re pretty much the crappest airline around.

    Yesterday, however, they outdid themselves. They broke Tanner’s $15,000 wheelchair.

    This is an 8-year old boy who can’t get around without his wheelchair. His needs mean that the chair is almost like an extra body part for him.

    As an example, think of yourself trying to breathe on only one lung – that’s how important Tanner’s chair is.

    So, bit of a problem would be an understatement.

    No problem, you’d think. Air Canada broke it, they’ll replace it, right? Wrong.

    They told Tanner’s family that they can’t do anything until this coming Monday – five days later. Five days for Tanner to be bed-ridden because Air Canada screwed up. Bad move, Air Canada – we live in the age of social media and instant backlash.

    You might recall the outcry when U.S. air carrier United Airlines broke a passenger’s guitar, and the protracted period he went through to get a replacement. Eventually he made a  YouTube video that saw United Airline take a negative PR hit they were never prepared for.

    You would have thought airlines would have learned from that escapade, especially when you have some great uses of social media from the industry by the likes of  JetBlue and  Southwest Airlines.

    But then again, this is Air Canada we’re talking about.

    Despite an  outcry on Twitter; despite the news story that leads this post; despite the family pleading their case about how crucial it is for Tanner to have a wheelchair, so far there’s been nothing from the company apart from a “loaner” that Tanner can’t use.

    Instead, it’s taken a  company in New York called Mobility Solutions to come to Tanner’s rescue. All through Twitter. All through helping a little boy out. All through goodwill; not through responsibility of breaking an item and replacing it.

    Nice job, Air Canada.

    Now I know times are tough, since you announced your second quarter results and showed a loss of $203 million. But then again, you made an operating income of $75 million, compared to a loss of $113 million last year. So you have some spare change.

    But not enough to replace a dying kid’s $15,000 wheelchair that you broke?

    Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s red tape you have to sign off. Maybe you have to investigate what happened. Fair enough – that’s business.

    But there’s business and there’s good business. You screwed up. You replace. Then you find out what happened.

    It’s not so hard, is it?

    And while you’re thinking about that, you might want to look at sorting out  your Twitter profile, or updating your Facebook page. That’s where the  questions are happening. If you had these up-to-date, some things you could have done:

    • Addressed the concerns of Twitter users that are calling you out.
    • Used your Facebook wall to keep folks updated on what’s happening.
    • Used the  #TutusForTanner hashtag on Twitter to offer apologies and advise what went wrong/how it’s being fixed.
    • Connected with the news outlets social feeds and updated via there as well.

    The great thing about social media is that any mistakes made on it can be rectified on it as well. You have that chance.

    Or is it still “Who Cares Canada”?

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