Girl With a Purpose (GWAP)

Rising Stars Elimination Show

Rising Stars is the Jamaican version of American Idol - minus the off-screen drama :) and is a production of Television Jamaica. (It's main sponsor is Digicel Jamaica).

As predicted, Suzanne Perkins was voted off of Rising Stars on Friday Night.

The youngest finalist ever, Suzanne went home with JMD $400,000  or USD $6,056.02.

Suzanne's sister had given gave her the transportation money to go to the Rising Stars Preliminary Bout in Negril – saying that if she didn’t get through to be one of the ten (10) finalists, she wasn’t to come back home :).

Well Suzanne is now certainly returning home and with a whole bag of cash!  Hopefully she will use the money, wisely, to further her education. (She likes to shop and wants to go to cosmetology school).

The two remaining finalists - Nickeisha Barnes and One Third, will perform three (3) songs on Sunday night - two(2) of which will be their favorites from the series.

Suzanne (dubbed the Queen of Jamaica's Hearts by judge, Clyde McKenzie) bowed out tonight with her rendition of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song".

We await the other performances on Sunday! :).

How to Encourage Honesty in Your Child

Honesty is not just about telling the truth. It's about living the truth.

You have to practice honesty. It makes no sense to encourage your child to be honest when you aren't.

When your child does something wrong and knows that he/she will be appropriately punished for doing same, it is very tempting for him/her to lie in order to get out of the punishment.

What parents should do is this: if your child willingly admits to doing wrong, surprise him/her by not meting out the appropriate punishment, just because he/she owned up to it - that is, told the truth.

This action will not only encourage honesty, but it will result in your child desisting from doing the wrong thing, if properly coached not to do it.

Tell your child why the action was wrong and what the consequences are for him/her, now and later on in his/her in life, if this action is continued.

Point to real-life examples of people who are suffering or who have suffered as a result of doing the same wrong that your child is doing. (These examples can be drawn from your family or community).

Let him/her know that telling a lie to cover up the wrong action, will not ease the suffering that he/she will go through as a result of doing wrong.


It will only complicate matters, e.g. like him/her losing credibility and trust from peers and other people as a result of being a known liar - a reputation that can lead to a very miserable life.

At the same time, teach what the right action is and use examples of people who have successfully carried out the right action and as a result, live successful lives (are self assured enough to tell the truth, even if doing so is unpopular).

Please remember, a child has to hear something for at least 3-7 times before he/she will act on it.

Alternatively,

A child has to only see you doing something wrong once, or twice, before he/she adopts it.

Yes parents, you have to walk the talk. If you want your child to be honest, you have to practice it too – by living the truth, so often, that your child won’t forget it.

This means that you should practice not to lie, including avoid telling the “white” lies; the half-truths that disguise themselves as being harmless and necessary to get out of a sticky situation.

You yourself have to be willing to admit when you lied, apologize for doing so and stop the trend by not telling another lie.

The more your child sees you doing this, the more he/she will follow suit.

Well that’s it folks…let me know what you think, ok?

Rising Stars Update

Rising Stars is the Jamaican version of American Idol - minus the off-screen drama :) and is a production of Television Jamaica. (It's main sponsor is Digicel Jamaica).

Well, well, well. We're down to the final three(3): One Third, Nickeisha Barnes and Suzanne Perkins.

Apparently the going consensus among the younger viewing public was that Brushy One String was too "old". They felt that he should give the young people "a chance". So they voted him off.

My opinion is that Brushy brought originality to this contest. I really enjoyed his original songs and all the theatrics around his performances...he always kept us guessing.

But I guess originality was not a key factor among the majority of the Jamaican voting public.

You could visibly see judge, Anthony Miller, smarting at the public's decision :).

So the final three(3) battled it out on Sunday.

One Third, I think could have done better with their cover of Air Supply's "Lonely is the Night", but all three judges, Anthony Miller, Nadine Sutherland and Clyde McKenzie thought their performance was stellar.

Nickeisha Barnes' rendition of Tanya Stephens' "These Streets", was just "off the roof". She also did great justice to Alicia Keys' "Karma" . I think her performance was the best for the night...she made a few slip-ups, but her overall performance was just great!

Suzanne Perkins tried, she really did with her cover of "Killing Me Softly With His Song", by Roberta Flack.

Unfortunately, I think the public will vote her off on Friday.

Well, we're all sitting at the edge of our seats waiting for Friday night (when we'll know which two finalists will go to the final round)  to come around...I tell you, more Jamaicans will be glued to their television sets than there are hairs on a water buffalo! :)