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2,000 were killed. Hundreds are missing. But we stay quiet.

When we hear about the number of people harmed in a particular tragedy, it may seem sad, but often it doesn't really register.

When we hear that 2,000 people were killed, we don't automatically feel like 2,000 of our friends' lives were stolen. Or when we read that 217 school girls are still missing in Nigeria, we don't think of the 217 mothers that have cried for almost a year since they disappeared.

We don't personalize tragedies on the news because they don't feel real to us.

But for one woman, the murders and escalating terrorism in Nigeria is very personal.

It's her father's land, but it is also a place that many people have benefitted from and continue to call home.

She knows that the longer we all stay quiet, the longer terrorists like Boko Haram can wreak havoc on innocent mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, and friends.

Understanding what's happening in Nigeria is important because eventually it could affect us all. It could be any one of us.

She offers these words not with the intention of pointing fingers but to spark action and awareness.

Check out Ms. Sade's spoken-word performance of "Does Anybody Care About Nigeria?" in the video below.

Want to learn more about what's going on in Nigeria? Check out our coverage here and here. You can also follow Bring Back Our Girls on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

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Joy

5 more things that made us smile this week

We love to see single moms succeed, strangers reaching out to help, and parents pushing back against bigotry.

True

In a time where the world feels more divided than ever, we could all use a pick-me-up. With that in mind, we’ve scoured the internet to bring you five feel-good pieces of news and media that put a smile on our faces (and we bet it’ll put one on yours, too).

This week, we’re loving:

This woman’s life-saving good deed

Hockey fan Nadia Popovici was at a game in 2022 when she noticed something strange: an irregular mole on the back of Brian Hamilton, one of the team’s assistant equipment managers. Popovici had experience looking at cancerous moles during her experience volunteering in oncology wards, so she quickly flagged Hamilton down and warned him through the plexiglass that his mole looked cancerous. Hamilton had the mole biopsied—and found Popovici had been right. “She saved my life,” Hamilton said later in a press conference.

Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season

Who knew that buying a car could be an act of love? During the annual Subaru Share the Love® Event, getting a car means supporting the charities you love the most. With every new Subaru purchased or leased, Subaru and its retailers will donate at least $300 to local and national charities, including the ASPCA®, Make-A-Wish®, Meals on Wheels, and the National Park Foundation, among others. And here's another thing to celebrate: After 17 years of the Subaru Share the Love Event nearly $320 million has been donated to charity!

This dad's perfect response to anti-gay bigotry

@fitxander Some AWESOME shade from my dad 😂🌈 #gay #dad @claire_training ♬ Kings & Queens - Ava Max

Sometimes, when a person throws shade, you have to throw it right back. That’s what Xander’s dad did, when a neighbor told him that having two gay kids (Xander and his sister, Claire) meant that he “failed as a parent.” His response? To cover his entire house and yard with pride flags. Go, dad!

This perfect example of brotherly love

You’ve never seen something more heartwarming than this boy helping his little brother before school. According to a TikTok video uploaded by his mom, this amazing kid “always reassures his little brother he’s going to have a great day at school,” giving him a hug, a kiss, and some reassuring words. No, you’re crying.

This single mom who passed her bar exam on the very first try

Taking the bar exam to become a lawyer is tough—so tough that most people can’t do it on their first try, even after months of studying. Which is why this video is downright joyous to watch. In the video, single mom and TikTok user @yougonloverhi records her and her son’s reactions as they find out that she passed the California Bar Exam on the first try. Supermom!

For more reasons to smile, check out all the ways Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season, here.

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Science

MIT’s trillion-frames-per-second camera can capture light as it travels

"There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera."

photo from YouTube|Nova50

Photographing the path of light.

A new camera developed at MIT can photograph a trillion frames per second (fps).

Compare that with a traditional movie camera which takes a mere 24fps. This new advancement in photographic technology has given scientists the ability to photograph the movement of the fastest thing in the Universe: light.

The actual event occurred in a nano second—that is one billionth of a second—but the camera has the ability to slow it down to twenty seconds.

time, science, frames per second, bounced light

The amazing camera.

Photo from YouTube|Nova50

For some perspective, according to New York Times writer John Markoff, "If a bullet were tracked in the same fashion moving through the same fluid, the resulting movie would last three years."


In the video below, you'll see experimental footage of light photons traveling 600-million-miles-per-hour through water.

It's impossible to directly record light, so the camera takes millions of scans to recreate each image. The process has been called "femto-photography" and according to Andreas Velten, a researcher involved with the project, "There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera."


This article originally appeared seven years ago.

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Family

Grandparents gift their adult children the toys they couldn't afford when they were kids

"I think it healed something in my grandpa, too.”

Photo credit: Canva

Kids are always kids in their parents' eyes.

Parenting can be more than an 18-year-long duty. For many families, it is a combination of a lifelong job and a lifelong relationship. A TikTok video making the rounds is getting folks into the holiday spirit with a message about parenting past the childhood stage.

The video shows grandparents giving childhood toys not to their grandchildren but to their now-adult children. These parents couldn’t afford to get their children toys for Christmas when they were young, but can now give them what they wanted decades ago.

@jessicaca1400

My grandparents gifted my aunts/uncles toys for the first time ever to heal their inner child but in the end i think it healed something in my grandpa too 🥺 #christmas #healinginnerchild

“My grandparents gifted my aunts/uncles toys for the first time ever to heal their inner child,” posted jessicaca1400 on TikTok. “But in the end, I think it healed something in my grandpa, too.”

Commenters on Reddit’s r/MadeMeSmile were also struck by this act of love:

“What's making me cry is knowing that while he was shopping, he had pictures of his little kids in his head––not the adult ones.”

“I love that none of the aunts/uncles looked like they were crying but rather super excited like any other kid on Christmas morning 🥹”

“I think such gifts will be kept as a memory of a good evening.”

One commenter translated the video from Spanish, “At the opening of the doll with curly hair: ‘She’s curly!’ ‘Look, she looks like you, Connie!’ 🥹”

This video has people moved and emotional for a reason. It’s not because of the gifts themselves but the love behind them. The reminder that parents don’t automatically stop being parents once their children have grown and have children of their own.

Being a parent is difficult in general, and even more difficult when you’re experiencing economic hardship. According to a 2022 study by the Brookings Institute economic think-tank, raising a child to adulthood costs the average middle-income parent $310,605. It can be incredibly frustrating to convey the love and desire to tangibly give more to your children when it just isn’t possible due to your budget. Lacking the funds to buy gifts breaks the hearts of the parents who would give their child the world if they could and disappoints the child who doesn't fully understand how the world around them functions.

But, as this video shows, it’s never too late to showcase that love when the opportunity arises.

i.giphy.com

While adult children may not need the type of love, support, gifts, and care that were necessary during their upbringing, gestures like the one demonstrated in this video can help further nurture and strengthen familial bonds. Buying a toy that your young child asks for is a way to make them happy and feel heard. Fulfilling a childhood desire for your adult child is a way to say, “You were heard and I’m still with you.” It’s a time capsule, both making your child feel loved now and retroactively when they were small in your arms. Your adult child might not actually need you, but they get to have you.

We’ve mentioned previously how wonderful and helpful these post-childhood parent bonds can be for everyone involved. Per CNBC, the biggest regret 90-year-olds had was not cultivating closer relationships with their children. Such gestures can help bolster or renew relationships and prevent future regret when looking back on your life in your golden years.

This type of adult parenting doesn’t have to be tied to gifts, nostalgia, or even money at all. If your adult child is still new to the working world, they could want your help coaching for a job interview, just like they needed your help when they were on the debate team. They could use a home cooked meal from you after a tough day at their job, much like they needed it after a tough day at school. It could be as simple as a “text me when you get back so I know you’re home safe” when they leave on a vacation or a work trip. Everyone wants to feel supported and loved whether they are four, fourteen or forty, and providing that support can also set them up for success for when they become parents and grandparents, too.

This video is an example of how enriching it can be to a parent throughout life, how such relationships can showcase love to generations, and how it’s never too late to get your kiddo that toy they always wanted.

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Pop Culture

The Monkees' acapella Christmas song shows they weren't just funny, they could sing, too

They performed "Riu Chiu," a Spanish carol, on their 1967 Christmas special.

via The Monkees/YouTube

The Monkees singing "Riu Chiu."

The Monkees have a complicated place in the history of rock music. On the one hand, they scored some of the biggest hits of the ‘60s with “I’m a Believer,” “Last Train to Clarksville,” and “Daydream Believer.” On the other, they were a band manufactured in 1967 for a TV show that did little more than sing on their earlier records.

All that changed in 1967 when they wrestled control over their musical careers from the executives who kept them out of the studio and began recording their music with the “Headquarters” album. But even though they proved to be talented musicians, The Monkees were still branded as a prefabricated band whose success was owed more to session musicians and top-tier songwriters.

Anyone who doubts the talent of Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Davy Jones and Peter Tork, look no further than a performance on The Monkees’ 1967 “Christmas Show” episode. Like every episode of The Monkees' TV show, this one featured a musical number. But this time, instead of a rock tune with a pre-MTV video of the band monkeying around, this featured the band singing an acapella version of “Riu Chiu,” a Spanish villancico that has attained some contemporary fame as a Christmas carol. The song is attributed to Mateo Flecha the Elder, who died in 1553.

The performance highlights the band’s unique vocal abilities that stem from different musical traditions. Before The Monkees, Dolenz was a rock singer, Nesmith was a country singer-songwriter from Texas, Tork was a folk musician and Jones was an English theatrical performer best known for his performance as the Artful Dodger in “Oliver!” But in this performance, their vocals blend perfectly.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The “Christmas Show” episode was memorable for the band’s outstanding vocal performance but also stands as one of the more memorable Christmas specials in TV history. Coming on the heels of the “Summer of Love,” the story is about The Monkees babysitting Melvin Vandersnoot, the hard-hearted child of an affluent family. After numerous attempts to get him into the Christmas spirit, the Monkees warm up his icy heart after showing him love, something all the money in the world can’t buy.

Vandersnoot, was played with incredible maturity by Butch Patrick, best known as Eddie on “The Munsters.”

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The Monkees' television show would be canceled in 1968 and the band’s original run wouldn’t last much longer. But all four band members would remain in the music business. The Monkees would reunite in the late ‘80s after the show became popular in reruns and would continue to tour over the next four decades, although most of the time, it was without Nesmith. Nesmith would pursue a country career in the ‘70s, and even though his work received a lukewarm reception at the time, his innovative mixture of country music, humor and psychedelia has made him a pioneer in the alt-country genre. Nesmith died in 2021, shortly after touring with Dolenz.

Outside his work as the mainstay in Monkee reunions, Dolenz has starred in numerous theatrical productions and recently released an EP of R.E.M covers. He still tours as a solo act.

Davy Jones went on to perform in Monkee reunions and guest star on several TV shows, most notably on an episode of “The Brady Bunch,” where he was the target of Marcia Brady’s affection. He passed away in 2012.

Peter Tork was a mainstay of The Monkees’ live performances through numerous reunions and played in a band called Shoe Suede Blues. Tork died in 2019 after a long battle with cancer.

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Love Stories

Man surprises partner by performing haka alone as she walks across the stage at graduation

Grab a tissue!

Courtesy of Kisha Rose Woodhouse

Man surprises partner by performing haka alone at her graduation

Graduations can be emotional no matter if it's preschool, high school, or college. Something about watching a loved one close one chapter to open a new one just does something to you. But sometimes people have a few more challenges getting across the stage that make it feel even sweeter.

One new mom, Kisha Rose Woodhouse, who goes by @kiisha.rose on TikTok, became pregnant and gave birth while finishing up her college degree. Clearly determined to finish, Woodhouse walked across the stage at graduation with her baby on her hip. But that wasn't what got people all choked up while seeing her video, it was Woodhouse's partner who stood alone in the auditorium.

The man was visibly filled with pride when he began doing the Tautoko, also known as the haka. Immediately the auditorium fell silent as the man's words and sharp movements filled the air. Seeing him perform such an emotional dance alone to honor his partner is enough to get just about anyone's eyes to water.

Woodhouse was visibly overcome with emotion when she heard her partner start the traditional Maori dance. While originally the haka was performed as a war dance, it has become a dance performed for major events, celebrations, and funerals.

"Honestly that moment felt so surreal, it was completely unexpected and the way he expressed himself through his haka really summed up the respect and love we had for each other throughout all the challenges we faced to finally get me up on the stage and earn my diploma. And on that note, our son came with me as he deserved the diploma just as much as I did (he did attend every class while being in my tummy!)," Woodhouse tells Upworthy.

With everything the couple has been through up until that moment, it's no wonder they were both emotional. Their love can be felt through the video and it seems like just about everyone has something in their eye.

"I will never not cry when I see the haka. I think it's inside us as humans to know that outward display of passion, emotion and strength moves our souls. Imagine releasing that energy in celebration, in mourning or in the face of fear. You would never know what it meant to not face your emotions," one person writes.

"Performing haka alone, for her and their son, ALONE, in front of thousands. This is an existential form of love," another says.

@kiisha.rose One of the greatest moments 👩‍🎓 being able to walk across the stage with son and a surprise tautoko from my love ❤️ #maori #graduation ♬ original sound - kiisha.rose

"Whoa, that haka gave me goose bumps. You could hear a pin drop. Definitely felt the wairua [soul] in that one. Well done mama bear ka pai [good]. Good on you, someone writes, complete with heart emojis.

One commenter had a front row seat, "I was there graduating that day too and this made my eyes water! So beautiful."

It's nearly impossible to watch someone perform the haka without something getting into both of your eyes as you feel their passion move through you. If you've never seen the haka performed, you may want to grab a tissue because this is one of the most beautiful acts of love people get to witness.


This article originally appeared in March.

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Heroes

This quick-thinking teen cleverly befriended a woman's kidnapper to rescue her

Malyk Bonnet did a very brave thing: He listened to his gut.

YouTube | CBS News

Malyk Bonnet recounts his clever rescue.


You've probably been there. You're out and about and you see something that just feels...off.

"Should I step in? ... But it's not really any of my business. ... And I'm not even sure they need my help..."

Our gut tells us to speak up, to ask questions, to tell someone. But often, we don't.

This happened to Malyk Bonnet in 2015. The then 17-year-old from Montreal saw a strange situation, and instead of ignoring his instincts, he acted brilliantly. It may have saved a woman's life.

Bonnet had been having a relatively normal day until he spotted something suspicious on his way home.

He'd been waiting for the bus after a shift at the restaurant where he works when he saw a man and woman arguing. He sensed a red flag.

"The guy was screaming at her, the girl," Bonnet told CBC News. "He wasn't really gentle with her, and I started watching, because I thought he would hit her, so I approached them a little bit."


The pair asked Bonnet if he could lend them bus fares to nearby Laval, a city about 25 miles away from downtown Montreal.

Bonnet felt uneasy about what was happening. But instead of declining, he decided to get more involved. He helped the man and woman with their fares and told them he was also traveling to Laval (which was not the case).

"My plan was to keep them in a public place where he wouldn't hurt her," Bonnet told Dateline NBC. "I decided to be friendly with the man and have him think I was his friend. I played my game and he seemed to trust me."

After arriving in Laval, Bonnet suggested they grab a bite to eat. At the restaurant, he gave the pair $50 for food and excused himself to use the restroom. Finally having the opportunity, he called the police and told them "someone had been kidnapped." Officers arrived minutes later.

What Bonnet hadn't known at the time was that police were already looking for the perpetrator and his victim.

The abusive man Bonnet reported had abducted his ex-girlfriend just hours beforehand.

"We were looking for a 29-year-old woman who was kidnapped by her former boyfriend earlier that day," Laval police Lt. Daniel Guérin told CBC News. "We believed that man was very dangerous."

Previously, the abuser spent time behind bars for assaulting his ex and sending her death threats.

Bonnet told Dateline NBC that while he didn't speak with the woman after police arrived, he could see how relieved she was. "We made eye contact and she had tears in her eyes. She was really happy."

Unfortunately, this type of tragic experience isn't all that rare.

While this particular story unfolded in Canada—where roughly half of women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence since the age of 16—you'll find similarly alarming statistics in the U.S.

woman with her head down on a table while man with clenched fists stands behind her.

1 in 4 American women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.

Photo via Thinkstock.

1 out of 4 American women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. What's more, female victims of homicide are far more likely than male victims to be killed by a current or former partner.

Although it may seem easy to simply leave an abusive relationship in the dust, take it from some women who've been there—it's much more difficult than it seems from the outside looking in.

Instead of passing judgment, you can learn more about how you can help friends and family members who may be experiencing domestic abuse.

Watch Bonnet recount the story in his own words:

- YouTube

Bonnet has become a local hero for his selflessness.

"His quick actions may have saved this young woman's life," Guérin said. The officers made sure to collect money so Bonnet could be reimbursed for the bus fares and food he purchased while trying to save the victim. "He now has 500 new friends in our department."

Thank you, Malyk, for reminding us that sometimes the bravest thing we can do is simply listen to our gut when it's trying to get our attention.


This article originally appeared nine years ago.

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