Michael Jackson Is Dead

Wow. I remember when he first came to prominence, when he was 10 and I was 11. He was an exceptional talent and grew up to be one of the biggest stars on the planet - deservedly so. In those days, to be famous and successful as a performer, you needed to have real talent. And he had it in spades.

He has had such a troubled life. He had no childhood. He faced his demons in adulthood but we don't know if he won.

I was just thinking about Michael Jackson a couple of nights ago, about how when he was a child and was appearing with the Jackson 5 at the Royal Variety Performance, Elton John said he felt sorry for them because they had been made to wait so long.

He was interviewed by Oprah, where they both talked about the childhood abuse they had suffered.

How could he have died of a heart attack? He was only 50. What was going on there?

This has really shocked me. No doubt we will be learning more over the next days and weeks.

See also, Celebrating the Legend That Is Motown.

Black Men's Health - Too Embarrassed to Talk about It?

On Oprah today, Dr. Oz will be the host. It's the first time anyone other than Oprah herself has hosted.

The topic is men's health. And everyone in the studio will be male.

If you are a Black man, are you too embarrassed to talk about your health? Do you avoid talking about it with your wife, the woman in your life, your family?

Do you avoid going to the doctor because you don't want to get bad news?

How can we as healthcare and health promotion workers reach African American and African Caribbean men? How can we support them to get the health checks they need?

In the free More Black Success ebook Volume 4, Dr. Bill Releford writes about the Black Barbershop Project. If we can't get the men to go to the doctor, we need to bring the doctor to the men.

For your free copy, visit More Black Success today!