Exactly four years ago, I wrote a blog post about Kamala Harris’ historic election as the first woman and the first Black Vice President of the United States.
Harris was the running mate of Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate who defeated President Donald Trump, who was running for a second term.
Unless you’ve been living on a deserted island, you should know that Trump’s defeat caused chaos during the US electoral transition, culminating in the now-infamous Capitol Riot.
Many political commentators, analysts, and rivals predicted the end of Trump’s political career (and the end of his reality-TV like political shenanigans).
However, Trump surprised many by announcing his candidacy for the 2024 presidential campaign. He quickly emerged as the frontrunner in the Republican primaries and was officially nominated as the Republican candidate in July 2024.
Although Joe Biden announced in 2023 that he would seek re-election, his declining popularity, internal party conflicts, and concerns over his age (which Trump used to attack him) led to his decision to drop out of the race in July.
Harris was then tasked with continuing the mission that Hillary Clinton could not accomplish: becoming the first-ever female president of the USA.
Unfortunately, the suspense came to a brutal end last week. Despite a brief but re-energized campaign, Trump clinched a landslide victory and was declared the 47th president of the USA. He is now the oldest elected president and the second to win a non-consecutive term since 1893.
Here are 5 short takeaways from this campaign:
Like the 2024 campaign, this year’s election has exposed a deeply polarized US society, resembling a tale of two countries. Furthermore, this divide has only intensified in recent years, highlighting the country’s struggles to find common ground.
The USA has shown once again that it is not ready to elect a woman president. Despite significant progress in gender equality, the result proves that many barriers still remain for women in politics.
The Democratic Party must go back to the drawing board. Indeed, internal conflicts and a lack of clear direction have weakened the party’s ability to unite voters around a strong candidate.
Harris attracted significant buzz around her campaign and gained notable celebrity endorsements, yet her loss raised questions about whether it was surprising or expected. On the other hand,despite the enthusiasm, Harris struggled to connect with key voter groups, which may have contributed to her defeat.
Social media continues to create echo chambers that influence voter perception. As a result, many voters remain entrenched in their beliefs, making it increasingly difficult to foster meaningful dialogue.
Food For thought?
Perhaps, I should dust it off and bring back the H.O.N Weekly feature. Before my hiatus, for a few months, I used to write about trending top- pop culture, current affairs, lifestyle and entertainment news.
Trending this week : The curious case of the South African” Decuplets”, Self Care Takeaways from Naomi Osaka and Chimamanda Adichie sparks online debate.
Welcome to this week H.O.N Weekly’s edition . Each week, I (try to) bring you the top- pop culture, current affairs, lifestyle and entertainment news- that are currently trending.
But first, a quick life update:
Life is still happening fast as usual and, the past few months have been filled with the same pandemic patterns as in the previous months: Life + Work in the new normal, we’re still dealing with the uncertainties of COVID-19 and Africa is entering a 3rd wave. Plus technical issues has been delaying my content plan. (my website won’t let me be great and has been crashing every other day since my last post in March.)
But so many events these past weeks have motivated me to push past my writer and technical blocks.
N.B This week’s feature is like a goodie bag, you will find a mix of everything: it covers for my missed monthly musings of the past months, offer my take on the last couple of weeks’ trending stories and, a list of my favorite things. All in one.
Here are 4 stories that have been on my radar and a list of random stuffs that I’m currently enjoying.
South Africa: The curious case of the decuplets
On 8 June 2021, South Africans felt like proud uncles and aunts, when a local newspaper exclusively reported that a woman gave birth to 10 babies. The announcement followed the record birth of 9 babies, by Halima Cisse, From Mali, in Morocco. Soon after, the hashtag #nationalbabyshower started trending with concerned people offering their assistance and donations. However, many gaps in the so called exclusive story, led the media and the public to start doubting the existence of the decuplets. Furthermore, local health officials have denied recording the record breaking birth at any of the provincial healthcare facilities.
Few days after, the media, officials and the public started demanding proof of the babies’ existence. Parties involved (the journalist who broke the news, the alleged decuplets father and mother) started making sketchy and contractidory declarations. Eventually the father made a statement, saying : “The family has resolved and concluded that there are no decuplets born between Tebogo Tsotetsi (A.K.A ‘the dad”) and Gosiame Sithole (a.k.a ‘the mom”) until proven otherwise and wishes to apologize for any inconvenience and embarrassment.” Yikes!
This story surely raises many concerns regarding ethical journalism, the propagation of fake news on social media and the credulity of the general public. Mental health issues even!
Here is a BBC video summarizing the saga :
We’ve looked at how a report that a South African woman had given birth to ten babies received global coverage, how an inquiry has found the story is not true & how the journalist behind it won’t back down. Produced @DanaiHowardhttps://t.co/Az7kSh53gdpic.twitter.com/yuDKXUHprs
2. From H.O.N Instagram: 3 self-care lessons from Naomi Osaka French Open’s withdrawal
The backstory: Japanese tennis (Naomi is half-Haitian, half Japanese) recently quits the French Open after she said she will have refused to participate in the compulsory after-game press conference. After winning her first match, and refusing to take part in the after game conference she was fined 15 000 USD. She announced her withdrawal from the competition and announced she was suffering from depression and social anxiety.
Top athletes and celebrities are humans too and can suffer from mental health issues. Naomi is helping bring more awareness by talking publicly about it.
People can suffer from a range of invisible issues and diseases, such as depression, and should be afforded the same empathy and care as people suffering from physical diseases.
No social or professional commitment is more important than your well- being, it’s OK to take time for yourself and say NO to others.
After being praised for a quick response plan to the pandemic, South Africa is now in the middle of a 3rd wave and is overwhelmed by rapid infections rates, slow vaccination roll-out, unfortunate corruptions cases from health government officials and over burdened hospitals are now painting a bleak picture. Many other African countries are also reporting higher numbers of infections and deaths.
Is the worst-case scenario that the WHO were predicting is coming to realization ? Let’s pray not !
4. Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie sets the internet ablaze with her 3-part essay.
The back story: In case you never heard about her, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author who received huge praise and critical acclaims for her literary body of works , Americanah and Half-the yellow sun among others. Her novels, through complex characters and eloquent storytelling talks about immigration, gender roles in African society and its diaspora Nigerian history, culture and feminism. Her essay We should all be Feminists, was made popular after its narration was used by singer Beyonce in her song ***Flawless.
Chimamanda rapidly became, over the past few years, the face of modern African anglophone literature and a darling of the media and social media.
In an interview with a British TV station, Channel 4, the author declared that “trans women are trans women”. Meaning the experience of trans-women could not be equated with those of cisgender women. Her statement sparked controversy and she is, since then, labelled by some as transphobic.
What’s the latest buzz ?
Last week, Chimamanda published on her website a 3-parts essay titled “It is Obscene”, where she reflects on her relationships with 2 past students of her writing workshops, who took part in the public backlash she faced. She writes, “the assumption of good faith is dead. What matters is not goodness but the appearance of goodness. We are no longer human beings. We are now angels jostling to out-angel one another. God help us. It is obscene.”.
The essays of course set the internet abuzz with some people defending her and others less impressed by her latest publication.
Her essay made me ponder on personal image/ branding in the age of social media, bad publicity, public fallout and of course on (the tote word) “Cancel culture”.
Watch/Listen to her Ted Talk ” We should all be feminists here”.
5. A list of my favorite things this month
Here are some of the random things that I’m currently enjoying, reading, watching or listening to:
I was finally able to catch up with all the cool kids and binge on Insecure and can’t wait for the final season.
My first read of the year was the memoirs of Mariah Carey, titled “The Meaning Of Mariah Carey”. I really loved how she narrates her complicated life story, lacing it with her musical creative process behind her biggest hits.
Thanks for reading and tell me what trending story has surprised or entertain you?
I swear it was the 1st of January like 30 seconds ago, and here it is almost mid-February!
Is it late to express my well wishes for the new year ? Well considering it’s the Chinese New Year, I guess it’s still appropriate. So I wish each one of you a soft, happy and prosperous 2021.
2020 has been a very difficult year for a lot of us. We’ve all experienced many losses brought by the terrible Coronavirus pandemic.
It’s been only a few weeks into 2021, and most of us are still experiencing grief and losses; losses of loved ones, of good health; jobs, incomes, opportunities and lifestyle. Most of us are now living through anxiety and uncertainties of getting back to normal. Or trying rather to imagine new ways of living in a Post Covid-19 world.
But let’s remain hopefully that better days are coming and we can soon put everything behind us and , go outside play with other kids again 🙂 !
Chinese people around the world celebrated the New year on 12 Feb. 2021 is the year of the Ox.
Before diving into this year content, take a look at the year that was 2020:
2020 content in review:
My monthly musings:
A letter from the Editor with love. This monthly features reflects on the past month and set the tone for the coming one. Read :
Last year seemed like each minutes of every single day was packed with breaking news ranging from the pandemic crazy evolution, social unrest and protests worldwide, shocking celebrity deaths (Kobe Bryant etc.).
Sitting at home under lockdown, I decided to launch a weekly commentary blog to discuss and keep a tab on pop culture news, current affairs, social media conversation and trends, dance challenges that were exploding my TL.
Here is a roundup of the top current affairs, lifestyle and entertainment news that has been trending for the past week.
1. POLITICS: Kamala Harris makes history has the first-ever woman to be elected vice-president in the US
On November 7th, 2020, four days after the American election day, numerous US media projected Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the winners of the presidential elections.
The 4 years of Trump’s presidency have been quite a ride. And this year’s campaign could be described as the most polarized and eventful yet. As of Monday, November 16th, Trump has not yet conceded defeat and he claimed on Twitter (in CAPS letter!) that he is the winner.
Kamala Harris will be the first-ever woman, furthermore woman of color, to occupy this position. She is the daughter of immigrants: her father is Jamaican and her late mother is Indian. In her victory speech, Harris thanked and honored her mother and all African-American women. The latter overwhelmingly showed up at the polls and voted for Biden and Harris (According to national polls, 95% of African-American women voted for the Democrats). They are hailed by many as the ‘backbone of US democracy”.
Listen to Kamala’s victory speech here :
Read this article to learn more about people like Stacey Abrams and Cori Bush, who worked tirelessly for years to put the Democrats back in the White House: the ‘Real MVPs’ of this year’s election (Source: XONecole)
2. WATCH: Beyonce releases behind-the-scene footage of her photoshoot with British Vogue
In the early hours of Monday, November 9th, Beyoncé released a short video of behind-the-scenes footage of her British Vogue photoshoot. The 4 minutes long video, titled ‘A Friday in September’, shows Beyoncé getting ready and playing model for the magazine shooting.
It didn’t go unnoticed to African -especially Congolese- music lovers that the video’s background music is a Congolese song titled Ngai Tembe Eleka, from the late, legendary musician, “Franco” Luambo Makiadi. Franco was a genius guitarist and acclaimed storyteller whose several hits are classics in Congolese music.
For this photoshoot, Beyonce requested to be photographed by a black woman. Read more about 21-year-old Kennedi Carter who was selected to shoot Queen Bey.
Beyonce is keeping her Beyhive excited with multiples projects. From the release of the movie Black is King (I still need to write my ‘think-piece’ on it ) in August to Ivy Park’s latest collection releases and now her interview and photoshoot with British Vogue.
3. MEET Elsa Majimbo, the Kenyan social media sensation who just won the “African Social Star of 2020” at E! People’s Choice Awards
Elsa Majimbo’s funny and witty attitude has kept us laughing during the quarantine and puts her in front of global audiences. She has since been featured on several South African media, spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper and, recently landed a Fenty Campaign.
Check out how Elsa has been rehearsing for international fame in her hilarious video below 🙂 .
Watch this interview to know more about Elsa Majimbo :
4. COVID-19: “Lockdown” has been declared ‘Word of The Year’ by Collins Dictionary
Lockdown, quarantine, coronavirus, social distancing… So many words have seen a sharp use during this year, due to the exceptional sanitary situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lexicographers registered more than 250,000 usages of the word “lockdown” during 2020, up from just 4,000 last year. (source : BBC)
Did you know or were you using some of these words before the year 2020? Social distancing is totally new to me.
5. TECH: Have you heard about Clubhouse, the latest social app?
Have you heard about Clubhouse, the new invite-only, voice-based social media app where you join and discuss with people in chat rooms? Well, if you haven’t yet, don’t worry you’re probably not the only one.
P.S When you tell your friends about Clubhouse, say that you first read about it here! 😉
The Clubhouse app is still in its beta version. For now, it seems like it’s mostly celebrities and a selected list of people that have been invited to try it out. So, until the rest of us are invited to hang with the cool kids and check it out, here’s how the New-York Times describes the app:
“Clubhouse is a social media app where venture capitalists have gathered to mingle with one another while they are quarantined in their homes. The app is, for now, invite-only, and buzzy: Seemingly everyone who has been allowed to join the early test version, from celebrities like MC Hammer to activists like DeRay Mckesson, has tweeted about it. And it has recently been one of the hottest deals on Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley’s venture capital nexus.”
Are you eager to try a new social media app or you’re happy with Facebook and Twitter?
Thanks for reading ! Let me know which story you enjoyed the most or which trending story I might have missed.
