maria aragon sings born this way by lady gaga

10-year-old Maria Aragon, a Canadian of Filipino bloodline, captures Lady Gaga's heart and makes the supercelebrity tweet about how this kid made her cry with her rendition of the latter's hit song. Maria also gains instant virtual fans around the globe as her self-uploaded YouTube video with her singing Born This Way by Lady Gaga now has more than 6M hits.

I'm not Lady Gaga's fan, but how this little kid from Winnipeg plays the piano AND sings without missing a beat is truly great! At least, Maria's rendition of the song made me like its melody. And I saw another YouTube video yesterday where a radio station in Canada hooked up Maria with Lady Gaga through phone. Actually, it was quite touching how Lady Gaga reached out to her little fan just over the phone. It was like seeing another (very personal) side to big celebrity like Lady Gaga.

I do hope the best for this little girl who just seemed to have wanted a little fun but has now started to gain some fame. May her obvious talent bring her to places while her feet remain planted on the ground.

Video taken from Maria's YouTube channel.

I pray for Egpyt

Egypt needs everyone's prayers these days. May the many days of uncertainty, near violence, and the massing of people on the streets have a peaceful resolution.

I remember my own country the Philippines's "people power" revolution in 1986 when hundreds of thousands to millions of Filipinos congregated on major roads of the country in a show of force to the dictator President Marcos. People simply got fed up with the alleged excesses of his government for so many years, highlighted in the latter years by the killing of his chief critic then former Senator Aquino, followed by a snap presidential election that pitted Marcos against Aquino's wife Cory. After the believed widespread rigging of the election (and the televised walkout of computer personnel from the national counting being done then where the results were being said to be manipulated), everything went awry, and in the end, Marcos and family flew out to Hawaii, where the former strongman finally met his Creator. (But now his family is pretty much back in power, and much of their "hidden wealth" is still hidden, but that's another story).

But now I pray that God will bless the people power being done by the Egyptians, and with His mighty wisdom, He will see to it that justice will finally be achieved by these people. I hope that Shahira, an Egyptian I met in the early 1990s, and her family are safe.