By Niña Terol
March 8, 2009

IT is no accident that today, International Women’s Day, is the day when I am able to write this piece. For yesterday and the day before that, I was blessed with a unique opportunity to share my words with women (and men) from different walks of life, and I feel a profound sense of joy knowing that I have used even just a bit of my time here on earth to touch other lives. It is a mission I take wholeheartedly, a responsibility I take seriously—and the gravity of it all humbles me. I am in still in awe of it all, and I dedicate this to all the women out there who have dedicated their whole lives to helping dreams take flight.

I dedicate this most especially to the women who have enabled some of my own dreams to be realized: my Surreality sisters: Carissa Villacorta, JV Wong, and Tricia Tensuan.

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By Anna Valmero
INQUIRER.net

BEAUTY, brains and boldness describe the 2008 YouTube Visionary awardee and staunch advocate of women rights, Jordan’s Queen Rania Al-Yassin.

Queen Rania was born to Faisal and Ilham Yassin in Kuwait on August 31, 1970. She finished business administration at the American University in Cairo in 1991. Two years later, she met now Jordanian King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, then Prince, at a dinner party and months after, they were engaged and married. They have four children.

Jordan’s Queen Rania has been noted for being tech savvy, especially in using video blogging (vlogging) for her advocacy on women’s rights and for answering questions about Islam and Arab culture stereotypes.

This led YouTube to award her for the “use of technology to instigate social change.” She accepted the award in a video taped speech and spoofed David Letterman by enumerating the top 10 reasons why she started her own YouTube channel in March.

Queen Rania also puts education a top priority and has started the Madrasati initiative to help renovate Jordan’s “most dilapidated public schools.” At the homepage of her official website, it can be read:

Educating our children is not just about imposing a body of knowledge on them. Rather, it involves preparing children from the early years for the world in which they will come of age. It means instilling a love for lifelong learning, creativity, self-expression and an appreciation for diversity.

Below is her acceptance speech for the YouTube Visionary Award spoofing David Letterman’s show:

Admit it, guys, you will learn words and its etymology faster if she was your teacher.

Her name is Marlina Orlova and she’s a philologist or one who studies linguistics and etymology. She also happens to be “hot for words.”

Watch and learn.

By Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK — She declared her love, took off most of her clothes, and fought in Barack Obama’s corner in an Internet video sensation. Now Obama Girl wants a little loving back.

“Maybe if I could get invited to the inauguration?” giggled Amber Lee Ettinger, better known as the foxy Obama Girl whose “I got a crush on Obama” song scored more than 10 million YouTube hits.

(Editor’s note: Here’s the famous video still getting more hits on YouTube:)

Ettinger, speaking to AFP at a victory party for the Democratic candidate in a New York restaurant, said she’d at least like to hear whether the president-elect enjoyed the song.

“I’d like a note from him some day saying he thanks Obama Girl.”

Ettinger, 26, came dressed as herself, with a diamond stud in her right nostril and a short but elegant dress, rather than the tiny shorts and bared midriff of her Obama Girl days.

Publicity agent Kelly Brady said “I got a crush on Obama,” which contrasted hilariously wonky lyrics with Ettinger’s more raw appeal, was not just a joke.

“Sex sells, and she was the sexy part of the election. That helped draw in the younger crowd. They asked: ‘What’s that hot girl saying about Obama?’”

Ettinger says politics did not interest her much until Obama’s campaign against Republican John McCain. Now she’s ready for anything.

“I’ve got my Super Obama Girl outfit in the back of the car!”

Yup, more women in Britain want it bigger, according to this Agence France-Presse report. Considering the improvements in the procedures (i.e. less scars), more women and not just celebrities, are turning to so-called “aesthetic plastic” surgeons for help:

Excerpt:

LONDON — Nearly three times as many women in Britain are having breast enlargement operations compared to five years ago, a study out Thursday showed.

Britain’s biggest-ever look at breast augmentation surgery found that members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) carried out 6,497 breast enlargements in 2007 compared to 2,361 in 2002.

BAAPS secretary Rajiv Grover, a plastic surgeon in London, collated the information and studied the data, which was presented at the association’s annual conference in Chester, northwest England.