REACTIONS TRAIL KANYE WEST'S HOSPITALISATION, CANCELS TOUR, PROMISES TICKETS REFUND

A few hours ago, the BBC carried a media reports that US rapper Kanye West has been taken to hospital following an emergency services call.

A police spokesperson told the BBC they had received a "disturbance call" on Monday afternoon, but did not name the singer. The disturbance was later deemed a medical incident, he said, and the fire department responded.

A spokesman for the LA Fire Department said an unnamed man had been taken to hospital for "further assessment".

"At 13:20 Pacific Time, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to an unspecified medical aid request," a spokesperson for the service said. "An adult male described as medically stable was taken to an area hospital for further assessment."

West's wife Kim Kardashian West was photographed getting off a private jet at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles a few hours after he was taken to hospital.

Further details of the incident naming West varied in conflicting reports from multiple news sources.

NBC News said officers had been responding to a "medical welfare call" and the decision to hospitalise West was for his own health and safety, citing "multiple authorities familiar with the case".

Gossip website TMZ said that West was taken to hospital for "psychiatric evaluation" and had been seeking treatment for "severe sleep deprivation".

The Los Angeles Times reported that there had been a 911 call from the address, citing a fire department source.

Neither West nor his representatives have made an official statement about the incident.

Before news broke of West's hospital treatment, Kim Kardashian West's mother, Kris Jenner, spoke to US media about the rapper's reasons for cancelling his shows.

"He's exhausted, he's just really tired. He's had a gruelling tour and it's been a grind so he just needs some rest," she told US TV show Extra.

Some celebrities took to social media to voice their concern and offer well wishes to West.

Rapper 9th Wonder tweeted: "Been knowing the brother upwards of 13 years. Mental healing is a serious thing, no matter what. Stay strong Kanye West."

US actor and comedian Ronald Funches wrote: "I wish Kanye West love and support through his journey. Mental health is no joke and a constant battle and I hope he makes more dope music."

Chance The Rapper, who was performing in BBC Radio 1Xtra's Live Lounge on Tuesday, began a song by saying: "I want to extend a very special prayer to my big brother Kanye West."

Kardashian West was expected to appear at a New York City social event on Monday - her first public appearance since she was robbed in Paris in October - but she did not attend.

The rapper had cancelled all remaining dates on his current tour after abandoning a Sacramento performance at the weekend.

He had performed just three songs on Saturday night, before embarking on an unscripted rant, criticising Facebook, Jay Z and Hillary Clinton.

He criticised Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg for failing to give him $53m (£42.5m) to get out of debt and said he was hurt that Jay Z failed to visit his family after last month's robbery.

West then appeared to suggest that Jay Z employed hit men, saying: "Jay Z, I know you got killers, please don't send them at my head."

"Get ready to have a field day, press, because the show's over," he said, as he dropped his microphone and walked out.

His promoter, Live Nation, has announced refunds for all tickets from the show.

No reason has been given for the cancellation of the remaining dates.

 

MARK ZUCKERBERG: "DEEPLY DISAPPOINTED, BUT WE REMAIN COMMITTED TO OUR MISSION OF CONNECTING EVERYONE"

Just when we were gearing up to eventually shout “hurray” when millions of Nigerians and other Africans would have access to free internet courtesy of the very humble and young 6^th world’s billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg some ’Space X’s’ launch failure” is reported to have destroyed the satellite that would have brought this much anticipated ‘hurray’ sooner to our lips.

Trust a real ‘big boy’ Mark as all that was reported about his reaction according to sciencealert, was that he was  "deeply disappointed" by  the SpaceX prelaunch test explosion that destroyed his  first satellite for Facebook.

Wow! *My eyes rolling*. A project worth as much as $195 million, convert that to naira and tell me if you don’t get a headache, especially at this era of how much to a dollar. Even some calculators would go “out of rage” given that amount. All that money, just gone down the drain. Just like that! Was this some form of sabotage or what? Imagine the number of communities that amount would feed for the next couple of years.

Nevertheless, we are consoled in the fact that our “hurray” may still be heard as Zuckerberg has assured us that they would still remain committed to their mission of connecting everyone and would keep working until everyone has the opportunities the destroyed satellite would have provided and this according to him will be made possible by other technologies which they have developed such as Aquila, the company’s drone project that will still connect people as well, having been designed to provide high speed internet.

Hmmm! Talking about always having a ‘Plan B’ in all projects we embark upon. Thank you Mark!

And so while we wait, let us keep managing our data, pending when this ‘miracle’ from Zuckerberg manifests or materialises.

MENACE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: TYPE 'AMEN' IF SYNDROME

Some specific group of human beings never cease to amaze me and a lot of other serious minded people as well. Or should I simply put it thus, that some people are so jobless and gullible.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all on social media, Gbam! You are hit with a new dimension.  From the look of things *and I kid you not* we haven’t seen anything compared with what is yet to come on social media.

What have we not seen, read or heard? You name it.

From couples washing their dirty linen out there, to chicks *young and old* trying to break the internet on a daily basis while posting nude/semi-nude pictures of their ‘ought to be private’ assets/endowments for both local and international recognition/market; onto posts where you are asked to type words such as ‘Amen’ to some kinds of prayers, ‘Yes’ if you agree with a comment or the post as well as ‘RIP’ when a picture ‘most times horrible’ of someone who just passed away is displayed and many more too numerous to outline here.  I bet you, we haven’t seen anything yet or you ain’t seen nuttin yet *in my American accent* laughs.

Last week I saw a horribly pathetic picture on a friend’s facebook page where she was tagged by someone else and on the post just after the picture was written “type Amen if you don’t want to die tonight” or was it “if you don’t type Amen you will die tonight”. I have forgotten the exact way it was written but then it was either of the two statements aforementioned.  To say I was shocked would be understated because I was altogether shocked, surprised, confused, and angry and interestingly even felt sorry for whoever did send out such a post. 

No God, not even the smallest of the gods in their right senses would answer such prayers on silly posts.

What was most worrisome and annoying was the fact that nearly everyone who commented on the post actually typed ‘Amen’ safe for the very few people who expressed their anger by warning whoever did send such a post never to tag them on such posts again or simply unfriend them while a few others sent back curses *some of which were hilarious* at the perpetrator/whoever sent the post.

Surprisingly, after going through the list of comments, I stumbled on my friend’s and was I shocked to see that she was amongst those who typed ‘Amen’? Yes I was because I never knew she was that susceptible to such ‘matters’ as I always thought she was a bit of a smart ass who I held in high esteem. I was disappointed. Without a word, I just scrolled past her page and moved on to another more interesting page.

It is such situations that you would wish Mark Zuckerberg had hit buttons such as God punish you right back or may your fingers wither as you try typing rubbish again and many other terribly harsh responses to such stupid posts.

I can understand where over a million people type ‘Amen’ to a post which has a picture of a man swaddled in millions of dollar bills from his chair and all over his living room. Even though most times I find such pictures very funny and outrageous with prayers such as “may you wake up to find your house filled with dollar bills overnight”, it still makes some sense to find people including reasonable persons who *even though they know it can’t happen just like that* would still go ahead to type ‘Amen’ for the fun of it, after all who doesn’t want to be rich? *Laughs*. Ha! Poverty is a knuckle head that deserves a permanent eradication from lives!!

Enough said already, please in as much as we are free to post whatever we like on social media, let’s not compel or threaten people with silly things on the platform that is meant to make life easier. If you truly enjoy getting the ‘Amen’ on your posts, then I admonish you make it a habit of sending something nice/sensible all the time or better still,  you can stick with such as the million dollar bills pictured posts. 

One quick question before I go. How much do these people make per annum from making people type such ‘Amen(s)’?

It still baffles me!