Interview with Rebecca Black About Michael Jackson’s Hospital

Since Michael Jackson’s recorded voice was played during his murder trial, a great deal of discussion has taken shape among Michael Jackson fans online. The voice of Michael was recorded by Conrad Murray, his personal doctor, on May 10, 2009—about a month and a half before his death. Murray injected Michael with medication and recorded his voice. When Michael died on June 25, 2009 from cardiac arrest caused by propofol, Murray was the main suspect. Not long ago, he was sentenced to prison for Michael’s involuntary manslaughter. The judge had said that Conrad Murray recorded Michael’s voice—while he was unwell—in order to later blackmail him. But hearing Michael’s recorded voice in court introduced people to another truth about him: that even in the worst physical condition, helping others was his first thought. In this recorded conversation, he tells his doctor that he will use the earnings from the This Is It tour to build a children’s hospital. In a way, this reflects Michael’s final wish, and many fans want to see that wish fulfilled. Rebecca Black is one of those people. She has founded a foundation called Michael’s Dream Foundation and is working to build a hospital for children somewhere in the world with the help of other fans. She has been a member of the UK fan community of the King of Pop since childhood, and she has kept all the magazines from that community. Like all fans, she was eagerly waiting for the This Is It tour. She says that when Michael died, she stopped breathing. Over the years before Michael’s death, she had distanced herself from the fan community due to personal commitments, but she always remained a fan. That’s why after Michael’s death she couldn’t forgive herself for that distance and for not maintaining her relationship with the community. After talking with a number of fans, she realized there were others who felt similarly to her. Since that day, she hasn’t left the fan community because she knows it’s the only place where her feelings are understood. Rebecca Black has recently spoken to the Michael Jackson fan site MJFC about her efforts and her group’s work to fulfill Michael Jackson’s last wish. What is it about Michael that drives his fans to keep going and engage in humanitarian activities? He was special. Not only because he helped people throughout his life, but because he felt their pain and suffering in his own being—as if their pains and problems were his. I think he could feel the pain of every child, every person trapped in hardship, and that was what made him strive tirelessly to help them. When someone you love is suffering, you suffer too. He did everything he could to draw the attention of the global community to those in need. For that purpose, he gave speeches, sang, shouted, and roared. Some fans listen to his music, but others hear the call that came before it—the heart that wants help. He instills in this group of fans a sense of love, empathy, and responsibility—something other artists have never done, and if there were such artists, there were very few. The world says it has lost a great artist, but the real loss is that a great humanitarian has left us, while the world didn’t even know anything about how great this person was. Now, who is going to visit hospitals and orphanages with toys, clothes, and blankets in hand? Who is going to dedicate their time and money to those in need with love and enthusiasm? Who is going to organize programs to help the needy? We fans do it. Because Michael taught us to do it this way, and we have to accept that we have a great teacher. Where did the idea to establish the Michael Foundation come from? I was following, on Twitter, the online news of that day’s court session in which Michael’s voice was played. Someone had written in a tweet that it would be great if we could fulfill Michael’s wish. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head. The next day, I went on Facebook. At first, I only wanted to know what other people thought and how willing and able they were to cooperate. In just a few hours, hundreds of people joined our group. The first step was to draw up a roadmap for ourselves. Sam McCormack—who is also from the UK—contacted me with the idea of setting up a website, and on Michael’s birthday we got together and formed a group. Everything moved so fast that I can barely remember it. Is the Michael Jackson Foundation involved in this project? Many fans have expressed their desire for us to keep the foundation informed about our activities and bring them into the group. I welcome this idea, and I know that the foundation’s presence would give this project special credibility. But despite the great respect I have for them, I’m also aware that the responsibility they have in managing Michael’s affairs is very heavy and they have many commitments. So our project won’t be their top priority. If we were to sit and wait for the foundation’s approval and cooperation, perhaps this project would never happen—or at least not anytime soon. Many say they will cooperate only if the foundation approves the project, but if the number of members in our group reaches a high level, then the foundation’s attention will also be drawn to us. I don’t want to wait for the next few years and see who will finally do this for Michael. I want the fans to do it for him because we owe him. I have a lot of respect for the foundation, and I say that we should never take a step that would create trouble or inconvenience for them. If we can accept enough members and show that this is a big project, I have no doubt that both the fan community and the foundation will join us. How will cash donations be collected? The establishment of the “Michael’s Dream Foundation” is our first step, and its only goal is to raise money to set up the project. But before we can accept cash donations, many legal and administrative steps must be taken. We want to protect the funds that other people—and we ourselves—put into this project. We must register the company and commit to refunding the money. We will move according to the law because one wrong step could be disastrous. At this stage, we only record the commitments on the website so that both fans and the foundation can see what power our unity has. I have a question for those who say the only condition for cooperation is that the foundation approves the project. Without your support, how can we obtain the foundation’s approval? Who are the project managers? The founders of the Michael’s Dream Foundation are me and Sam McCormack. Sam is also the manager of the MJCH website. This company is registered in the UK because both of us live here and we’re familiar with UK law. It would be difficult for us to set up a company in the United States because we don’t know their laws. The money received is deposited directly into the company’s bank account, not our personal accounts. According to our bylaws, we are required to provide receipts, and if we fail, we will be held accountable under the law. What makes fans push this project forward despite so many problems? Building a hospital in a first-world country like the United States could cost between 200 and 400 million dollars, but building the same hospital in a third-world country would cost far less—and would be more achievable for us. The Michael Jackson fan community is not only the biggest fan community in the world, but it’s also special in many ways. The unity among us comes from the love Michael gave us, and we all think about a better world. I’ve seen the power of Michael’s fan unity before, and I know that if we stand together, it will happen. Some time ago, one or more opportunists used the fans’ empathy and sense of responsibility to set up a fake foundation called One Rose for Michael and stole a lot of fans’ money. How can we be sure that the same fate won’t await the Michael’s Dream Foundation? We issued a statement, and we were also among the people who lost money in that scam. It’s not only about losing money and capital—we also think about the children who could have had a better situation with that money, but now that capital is in the hands of the scammers. The only way to reassure fans about the Michael’s Dream Foundation project is to follow the law and regulations. It’s because of these scammers that fans insist the project must first receive approval from the foundation. But we can’t wait, because we know that projects like this aren’t a priority for the foundation. Michael always said, “It starts with us.” This is our job, not the foundation’s. The assurance we can give fans about the project’s legality is that all information is available on our website without any doubt or ambiguity. We prove that this project deserves Michael’s name. What efforts have been made to contact the Michael Jackson Foundation and his family? At the beginning, we sent a letter to the foundation and asked them to guide us on how to take steps in a way that would be in the best interests of Michael and the foundation. We didn’t receive a direct response, but the foundation published an official statement saying that with the wealth Michael left behind, charitable actions would be carried out. The letter didn’t mention a hospital. We sincerely want to keep them informed about our actions, even though we don’t want to create any inconvenience for them—we’re currently working on a second letter. Of course, not receiving a direct letter from the foundation isn’t necessarily a bad sign. They haven’t forbidden us from doing this project, and we believe they are monitoring our activities from afar. But they want to see how far we go, what we can manage to do, and whether we remain steadfast in our work. We’ve also tried to contact some members of the Jackson family. So far, 1,450 people have joined our foundation. How can we expect the foundation and Michael’s family to respond to the request of 1,450 people when they know the fan base is in the millions? What will the children’s hospital be like? Just as Michael wanted. A heaven full of love for children. He always said that children become depressed in hospitals. He insisted that caregivers make the hospital environment happy for them by providing playrooms and movie-watching facilities. Are non-cash contributions accepted? Fans can help us in many ways. Right now, we have 48 representatives, and they are run voluntarily by fans. Each of them works for their own region. We need more representatives, and people from different countries contact us. But if they don’t have time to do such work, they can simply promote and spread the news to others. What will the hospital be called? We hope we can install a plaque with the name Michael Jackson. What the hospital’s name will be depends on the approval and satisfaction of the Michael Jackson Foundation, and it’s still too early to decide on this. Source: eMJey.com / MJFC / MJCH