Rihanna – Standing strong in the face of a family tragedy

Can you believe that Rihanna is just having her first Saturn return. It feels like she's been around forever and yet she's only 29 years of age. Actually I’ve met Rihanna. It was a long time ago now at London Heathrow airport, and she was seeing off her mum who was travelling back to Barbados, before flying herself to New York with her “crew” of musicians and tour manager. This was just before her worldwide smash “Umbrella” and I remember asking her tour manager if her new album was any good. He was very confident at the time that there were a “few” hit songs on it. My word he was right!! That meeting stuck in my mind for quite a while, and now of course Robyn Rihanna Fenty is one of the most recognisable pop stars on the planet. I am pleased I met her, before fame came knocking on her door. Now tragedy has hit the Caribbean Queen of pop, as her cousin was gunned down in Barbados. She was pictured with her cousin Tavon Kaiseen Alleyne on Christmas Day. One day later he was tragically killed, and this must have been devastating for her and her family.

Romania – Born out of the shadow of death and revolution

I was asked by a loyal follower of mine Maia about the situation in Romania, and true to my word, I'm responding to her request, and actually it's quite appropriate. Modern Romania was born on the moment Nicolae Ceausescu fled by helicopter on 22nd December 1989 from the headquarters of the Communist Party in what used to be called Palace Square (now known as Revolution Square) in Central Bucharest. There had been demonstrations against the Ceausescu regime in Timisoara and 8 minutes into his speech in Bucharest on a freezing cold morning in front of an agitated crowd, the people scarred by years of impoverishment rounded on him defying years of state terror and control. Their patience had finally snapped after years of suffering and communist lead failure, and the protests turned into a full scale revolution. Fearing for his safety, Ceausescu fled to a waiting helicopter and escaped seconds before he was caught. He was located days later, immediately tried, convicted and sentenced to death; a sentence carried out in brutal fashion in front a firing squad. There was a news report from a Yugoslav news agency TanJug at mentioning the fleeing of Ceausescu at 11.48am in Bucharest, and this is the time I take for the moment that Romania turned a corner.