Ruminations

Blog dedicated primarily to randomly selected news items; comments reflecting personal perceptions

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Now That's Precocious!

The world truly, really is going to hell in a handbasket. Cruelty imposed upon humankind by humankind continues apace. Horrific outcomes as a result of catastrophic weather conditions, tempestuous storms that bring bleak misery in their wake continue to plague humanity.

The resulting mass migrations of desperate people attempting to escape the misery and threats to their lives gather in vast refugee camps that offer scant relief to the masses of people huddled for safety, living tenuously on humanitarian rations.

And then, in summertime cities like Ottawa, there are music festivals in celebration of life and the allure that music has to us in reminding us that there are pleasures in life we are able to take advantage of. Bluesfest for one, is calling out large numbers of residents of the city and beyond, to sit in the outdoors, to enjoy their favourite Indie-rock sensations.

And outside the assemblage, there was another kind of performance.

Three young boys busking. Busking is common enough in the Ottawa area, particularly where people tend to throng; the Byward Market and Sparks Street Mall in particular represent favourite venues.

But on Wellington Street outside Bluesfest, drummer Quinn, bassist Jan and lead guitarist Liam, brothers ages 9, 11 and 13 respectively were giving it their all. And their all appears to be extremely impressive. To the extent that Arcade Fire just completing their gig, noticed the small band outside the gate and jumped in to join them, singing along with the Dube brothers.

These obviously talented kids, overlooked and obviously encouraged and led by their father, Rob Dube, have been bitten by the performance bug. More than just performing, they busk to raise money, and raise it they do, emphatically.

"When the earthquake happened (in Haiti) lots of kids lost their parents just like us. So we wanted to help them out and give them hope. We wanted to give them a chance to have a better life", Liam explained. They lost their mother to cancer two years earlier.

And since the devastating quake that hit the Isle of Hispaniola that brought such misery to Haiti, they've been performing fundraisers. They've managed to raise a whopping $83,000 for Canadian Feed the Children, inclusive of a corporate donor having added $33,000 to their total.

"The focus for the money is House of Hope Orphanage and Grace Children's Hospital in Haiti", explained Mr. Dube. Who has obviously played a huge hand in helping his children find their direction in life, and imbued them with an inclination to follow their life-affirming instincts.

These gifted, compassionate youngsters appear to be launching a career, and at the same time, launching themselves into the world of humanitarian appeal to benefit those less able to realize the potential that life offers the fortunate.

It's one of those really good stories we never get quite enough of.

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