As a young man, he was accepted into Weber State University in Utah on a full football scholarship.

From there he was drafted to the Cleveland Browns. He later went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens.

After his football career was cut short by injury he turned to opera.

Now it was his new passion so he moved to new York. He got work as a host in a restaurant across the street from the Metropolitan Opera.

His plan was simple: meet opera stars and study them like a "playbook."

One day Kiri Te Kanawa was signing autographs in the Metropolitan Opera bookstore.

"I approached her with CDs and DVDs that I had of hers and wanted her to sign it, and she looked up and saw me.

In New York, when you see a Polynesian person...you click, you come together and become a family because we are so far away from our homeland," Ta'u said.

"So when she looked up and saw me, she automatically knew that I was Polynesian and asked me what I was doing in New York.

"I told her that I live here and I am trying to pursue a singing career.

"Right off the bat, she knew that this was a hard life and she asked me if I had any help. I said no. And she said, 'Well, can I help you?' I said, 'Yes, please do.'"

Months after they met, Te Kanawa took him to sing in front of the head of the vocal department at Juilliard.

She described his voice as a diamond in need of polishing, and she was committed to helping him shine.

Pupu'a spent the next month preparing to try out for Julliard's artist diploma programme.

Out of about 100 singers auditioning, Pupu'a was one of three selected.

Today, Pupu'a is an acclaimed opera singer who takes great joy in sharing his gift with the world.

Source

• edition.cnn.com
• abc.net.au
• Image: instagram.com

With the start of the new term next week, the year-13 pupil will be back at St Patrick's College in Wellington.

At the back end of the season, following a series of consistent performances for the club's reserves team, he became a fill-in on the bench during an injury crisis, but ended up making seven appearances with six of those coming as a starter.

Cacace said balancing study and training can be difficult but he has been getting advice from goalkeeper Keegan Smith, who was in the exact same situation last year.

"It's quite challenging to balance the two because I want to train every day with them but you've also got school that same day."

"Rushing after training to school was quite hard because you'd be missing half the day.

"But having those supportive teachers and also the coaches, they always told me if you need time off training to go to school then you can.

"Some days leading up to my exams I'd maybe take one training day off a week to focus on the exams but it's been good, I've received some results already and I've been getting solid marks."

Through his role as a prefect, Cacace recently recruited a band of his schoolmates to attend a home game against Brisbane Roar - his sole appearance at Westpac Stadium.

He said it was awesome to have them in the crowd, dressed in their St Patrick's College uniforms, cheering him.

Cacace was born and raised in Wellington. His parents are Italian, and his father owns La Bella Italia - an Italian restaurant in Petone.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz Phillip Rollo

In his programme 'Dialogue of Faith', broadcast on a cable TV channel, Cipriani said he does not think much of the All Whites.

"Honestly, the other team is bad, you have to say it clearly, they are big men and big guys, but nothing more."

Cipriani was disappointed with Peru's performance in Wellington. He said they "were without electricity and they lacked resolution"

"It has shocked me a lot and I ask [God] to enlighten [Ricardo] Gareca, who is in charge of the national team..." said Cipriani.

He said he was not sure if the forwards would be able to find a safe place on their return to Lima because they played so badly.

The Cardinal told the cable TV channel "I think that Peru can play much better and will play much better. We have the game in our country, I estimate that here there will be a good result."

Many in the media harshly criticised Peru's coach, Ricardo Gareca, for not making any changes when the first leg of the World Cup playoff in Wellington on Saturday was not going well.

Others pointed the finger at the likes of Andre Carrillo and Edison Flores for their lack of flair in attack.

Perhaps the most vociferous critic was Phillip Butters, who said on his radio show that a lack of leadership was behind Peru's poor showing.

Peru was without its captain and striker Paolo Guerrero due to a failed doping test, with Jefferson Farfan starting up front.

Source

• Peru21
• Rusia 2018
• Stuff
• Image: Peru.com

The video shows a police officer identified as Garda O'Connell playing "keepy-uppy" with an unnamed nun from the Dominican order in the city of Limerick in southwest Ireland. Have a look

Fr Kevin Carter of New Jersey was charged with child endangerment and aggravated assault.

Authorities said the September 13 incident was spurred by a football rivalry, but Fr Carter maintained that it was good-natured fun.

He supports the New York Giants and the boy supports the Dallas Cowboys American football teams.

A parishioner reported the incident.

Continue reading

To everyone's great shock and surprise, a number of FIFA officials have been arrested on corruption charges at the behest of US law enforcement agencies.

Whatever the outcome of these investigations, it is no secret that FIFA is beset by corruption, which most blatantly manifested itself in the decision to hand the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

(I think that the decision-making process and the poor safety conditions for workers building the stadiums are enough justification for boycotting the tournament, let alone the country's appalling apostasy laws.)

But the interesting wider question is why international organisations inevitably become corrupt.

Paul Collier's book Exodus looks at howgame theory applies in different societies and suggests that international institutions tend to become corrupt because of the influence of a corrupt political culture.

Nigeria, for example, is so riddled with corruption because enough people are corrupt (and it doesn't have to be that many) that it makes no sense to be an honest person.

For societies to avert this situation, free-riders need to be punished by other individuals acting with the support of the rest of society.

Almost as importantly, those punishers must not be punished in turn, as happens in clannish cultures where people care more about their own family than the well-being of the wider society.

Collier used a study of diplomats in New York to show that, when a group of people from a more honest society and a group from a corrupt one join together, the honest begin behaving like the corrupt.

After a while the Danish and Swedish diplomats, who had assiduously paid all their parking tickets, as one would back home, began ignoring them. After all, everyone else does.

This could be called Steyn's Axiom, after Mark Steyn's comments aboutice cream, dog faeces and the UN. It fits perfectly into evolutionary game theory: why would you be honest if everyone around you is on the fiddle? Continue reading

• Ed West is the deputy editor of the Catholic Herald.

They've launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the hundreds of vulnerable children at risk of sexual exploitation during the monthlong competition.

With an estimated 600,000 soccer fans expected to arrive in Brazil within a matter of days, the South American nation is under pressure to combat its international reputation as a destination for child sex tourism.

Church leaders fear the heavy flow of tourists during the games could fuel an explosion of sexual trafficking of children and teens at fan fest locations around the World Cup arenas.

Thousands of youngsters will be on school holidays during the event, and the risks of exposure to criminal gangs and predatory individuals is significantly higher.

An estimated 250,000 children are sexually abused every year in Brazil, according to nonprofit child advocacy organizations, and the numbers spike around major sporting events.

Research from Childhood Brazil, a human rights organisation designed to protect children, shows sex crimes against children increased by 66 percent during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and by 28 percent during the 2006 games in Germany. Continue reading.

Source: Religious News Service

Image: It's A Penalty

Previous events have left countries with decaying venues and huge bills that take years to pay off.

Local communities are increasingly unhappy that a large portion of their government's funds are directed towards events that might line the pockets of corporations, but do little to support local industry.

The $51 billion Sochi Winter Olympic Games — believed to be the most expensive Olympics in history — may have showcased modern Russia to the world, but it also shone a spotlight into the darker corners of the country's society: its treatment of LGBT people, the crackdowns on free speech of groups like Pussy Riot, and the corruption among the country's elite.

The spotlight will soon turn on Brazil, with the World Cup kicking off in June.

Here too, the event has brought world attention to the country's issues.

Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to protest the enormous financial costs, the forced evictions of communities, and the exploitation of construction workers.

Marginalised people bear the brunt of costs for these global events.

A new report from Caritas Australia estimates that around 200,000 people have been forced out of their homes in favelas in Brazil to make way for the construction of venues for the World Cup - that's one in every 1000 people. Continue reading.

Source: Eureka Street

Image: ShutterStock

When the sun sinks, and the baking heat subsides, the 1.7km airplane runway in the capital Funafuti comes to life as the main sports ground on the island with games of football and volleyball taking place all around.

It turned out that the airfield was built during World War II, which gave Tuvalu a fast link to the outside world and also a vast area that for many decades was its only playing field.

However, this runway also paved over the farmland on the main island and Tuvalu has been reliant on imported food ever since.

One of the main reasons that football is the national sport here instead of rugby, which is very popular throughout the Pacific region, is you simply can't play rugby on a runway - or not without serious injury! Continue reading.

Mark Beaumont is following the Queen's Baton Relay around the Commonwealth, leading to next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, UK. Regular updates are posted on his blog.

Source: BBC

Image: Twitter

The teams met Wednesday in Rome in a friendly match.

The pope told the players to remember they are role models on and off the field ‘‘for better or worse.'' He asked for their prayers for himself ‘‘on the playing field God put me on.''

Twelve years after Italy and Argentina last played, the two predominantly Roman Catholic and soccer-mad nations are renewing their storied rivalry in a game dedicated to Pope Francis - an Argentine and a big soccer fan.

The last time these teams met was in 2001 - also an exhibition in Rome that Argentina won 2-1. Before that, Diego Maradona's Argentina eliminated host Italy from the 1990 World Cup on penalty kicks in a semifinal in Naples.

Italian coach Cesare Prandelli came up with the idea of organizing the game.

"It was just a sudden flash, after watching Pope Francis and his first appearances in public," he recently told sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He generated a tremendous sense of fondness and approval. The thought of ‘his countries', Italy and Argentina, immediately entered my head. Two squads leaving together, from the same hotel, to have an audience full of joy and happiness with the pope."

Sources

AP/Boston.Com

AP/The Washington Post

Gazzetta del Sud

Image: AP/Boston.Com