From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 09:20:06 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 08:20:06 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Wal-Mart: The Grinch That Stole Thanksgiving Message-ID: <004b01ca72a2$50062990$f0127cb0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 7:26 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Wal-Mart: The Grinch That Stole Thanksgiving Wal-Mart: The Grinch That Stole Thanksgiving - By James Ridgeway | Mon November 30, 2009 11:49 AM PST http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/11/wal-mart-grinch-stole-thanksgiving Few American spectacles are as grotesque as the one we witness every year on what's known as "Black Friday." Before dawn on the morning after Thanksgiving, throngs of shoppers stampede the nation's retail stores, trying to grab up bargains before somebody else does. Last year, one such feeding frenzy took the life of Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old son of Haitian immigrants, who was working as a temporary employee at a Wal-Mart on Long Island. Witnesses said that many members of the crowd kept on shopping after they forced their way through the store's doors and trampled Damour to death. Marlene Lang, writing in Chicago's Southtown Star, sums up the fallout from this gruesome tragedy: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an inspection and found that the New York store "fail(ed) to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles," including training that was "inadequate" to accommodate the advertised "Blitz Friday" that offered cheap-o electronics for all. OSHA slapped Wal-Mart with a "serious citation" and the maximum fine of $7,000. Uh, no, I'm not missing any zeros. That's seven thousand dollars. Wal-Mart Stores promised to implement a crowd management plan for its New York stores and went to work consulting with big-event security firms. Meanwhile, the deceased employee's family sued for wrongful death, and Wal-Mart put out statements saying Damour had been part of the Wal-Mart family. Touching. The retail supergiant then cut a no-prosecution deal with the district attorney, promising beefed-up Black Friday crowd control along with generous contributions to the community-$1.5 million worth of local generosity and $400,000 in compensation to the victims of the incident. Wal-Mart never admitted any guilt in Damour's death. But the chain did cite its devotion to "customer and associate safety" this year in announcing its novel approach to Black Friday overcrowding: To prevent the dangers posed by throngs of bargain hunters waiting for their stores to open, Wal-Mart would simply never close at all. So on Thanksgiving 2009, nearly all Wal-Mart stores remained open all day, and all through the night into Black Friday. Recession-strapped Americans desperate for bargains could leave their dinner tables to spend Thanksgiving Day at Wal-Mart. And if they liked, they could stay there all night, wandering bleary-eyed through the aisles as they waited for special blow-out sales to surface at 5 a.m. on Friday. Wal-Mart workers, of course, had no choice but to join in the fun. Not that working on holidays is anything new for most employees of this notorious union-busting company, which has faced multiple class-action lawsuits for shorting its workers on wages and discriminating against women, minorities, and people with disabilities. (You can read about these, and much more, at Wal-Mart Watch.) image image According to news reports, there's another reason why Wal-Mart had to stay open during what's supposed to be a heartwarming family holiday. As the story goes, the recession has driven Wal-Mart and other chains to desperation. ABC News depicted the extended hours as a last-ditch response to projected "anemic" holiday sales: "They're trying to eke every penny out of every day of the selling season," says Wendy Liebmann, president of the consulting firm WSL Strategic Retail. "The more days they're open, the more chance they have of pulling money out of our pockets." They've got good reason. Holiday spending likely will fall 1% in 2009 to $437.6 billion, the National Retail Federation projects. "Retailers need to be competitive," says NRF spokeswoman Ellen Davis. "There's a lot riding on the success of November and December retail sales." There's just one thing wrong with this picture. As NPR reported earlier this month, "Unlike other big retail chains, Walmart has continued to report hefty profits during the recession. If anything, it's becoming more competitive by lowering prices and remodeling stores to entice shoppers to spend more time." Wal-Mart has a long history of driving local businesses into the ground, and this latest round of price-cutting is hurting everything from grocery stores to bookstores, as well as challenging the chain's longtime rival, Target. As a result, Wal-Mart is likely to end up with an even bigger piece of the retail pie after the recession is over. And it's doing quite well in the meantime, too: In 2008, Wal-Mart's profits were up 7.2 percent over the previous year, and in the most recently completed quarter of 2009 alone, the company made morethan $3 billion. There's something both pathetic and obscene about the idea of hard-working (or worse still, unemployed) Americans battling for the last discounted blender or plasma TV in the middle of the night, while Wal-Mart's execs sit in their backwater enclave in Arkansas raking in billions in profits. This year, at least, there were no reported deaths on Black Friday, in Wal-Mart or any other store. But extended hours couldn't do away with a number of shopper brawls. At 4:03 on Friday morning, for example, sheriff's deputies were called to a Wal-Mart in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where unknown subjects were said to be engaged in a fistfight "near the electronics area." From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 11:23:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 10:23:39 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Top 10 (Recent) Developments On Factory Farming And Vegetarianism Message-ID: <007d01ca72b3$90617920$b1246b60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Some people are really getting serious about moving into wellness by getting off the meat go round while others are attempting to keep meat around by falsifying information. In this sense, we certainly need more articles like this. However, I am really skeptical about the cheese item below since it falls into the "processed food" category which has been shown time and time again to be very bad for us and would certainly not fit into TOTAL WELLNESS thinking. So, let's scrutinize what we read carefully and do more investigation before accepting products the large corporations will try to slip over on us in order for them to stay in business as we-the-people begin to be more selective and catch on to: Eating to Live instead of Living to Eat. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:49 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Top 10 (Recent) Developments On Factory Farming And Vegetarianism (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Top 10 (Recent) Developments On Factory Farming And Vegetarianism Kathy Freston, Author, Health and Wellness Expert Posted: December 1, 2009 08:11 AM http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/top-10-recent-development_b_3723 51.html On Thanksgiving, I spent some time taking stock of my life and the world around me and, as we're supposed to do over the holiday, giving thanks for all the joys -- little and big -- in my life. One of the larger joys for which I am giving thanks is all of the recent attention that has been lavished on a topic that is near and dear to my heart -- the cruelty and environmental harm involved in raising animals for food. I struggled to cohesively construct an article about some of the many recent and important developments on this topic, but there is just too much. Instead, I decided on a top 10 list (a tip of the hat to David Letterman) -- the 10 most interesting articles on the farmed animal welfare front. So without further ado: 1. World Bank scientists conclude that eating meat causes more than half of global warming (conservatively). World Bank agricultural scientists Robert Goodland, who spent 23 years as the Bank's lead environmental advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a research officer and environmental specialist for the Bank, argue convincingly that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to our desire to eat chicken, pigs, and other farmed animals. That's right: Add up all the causes of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than everything else combined. Honestly, this was the biggest point for me: How can I possibly take the environment seriously if I'm still participating in what is -- by far -- the biggest contributor to warming? Which might explain: 2. Prominent Stanford biochemist pledges to focus all his energy on promoting veganism. Most of us have heard of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. RK Pachauri from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and his lectures all over the world promoting vegetarianism. Now along comes Dr. Patrick O. Brown who, as reported in (of all places) Forbes, will spend the next 18 months focused on "put[ting] an end to animal farming." Explains Dr. Brown, "There's absolutely no possibility that 50 years from now this system will be operating as it does now... I want to approach this as a solvable problem. Solution: 'Eliminate animal farming on planet Earth.'" 3. Al Gore is taking notice. Although Gore's Global Warming Survival Handbook noted that "refusing meat" is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint" (emphasis in original), Gore had not spoken publically about the issue. Now he has -- repeatedly. For example, on Larry King recently, Gore explained that "the impact of meat-intensive diet is a significant factor" in warming the planet, that "the growing meat intensity of diets around the world is bad for the planet," and that "the more meals I've substituted with more fruits and vegetables, the better I feel about it..." The truth is becoming less inconvenient, thankfully. 4. Celebrated author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close publishes Eating Animals a riveting book based on a three-year investigation of factory farming. Jonathan Safran Foer has been widely hailed as one of the greatest novelists of his generation, was one of Rolling Stone's "People of the Year," and Esquire's "Best and Brightest" -- and after just two extraordinary works. As Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee puts it about Foer's latest work, "The everyday horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both." In his interview with Mother Jones Magazine (the entire interview is worth reading), Foer points out that Americans "now eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago," and that it "takes between 6 and 26 calories to make one calorie of meat. It is an incredibly inefficient protein because we are cycling through all of these other grains that humans could eat." 5. Actor Alicia Silverstone and Chef Tal Ronnen on the New York Times bestseller list. For some weeks now, Chef Tal Ronnen's Conscious Cook and actress Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet have joined Foer and former model agent Rory Freedman (whose book convinced home run slugger Prince Fielder to adopt a vegan diet) on the list with books that make the case for vegetarian eating. You may recall Ronnen from his appearances on Oprah, which caused Oprah to exclaim, "Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying." 6. Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving. As my friends at Ecorazzi put it, "Martha Stewart has proved once again why she's a pioneer in the kitchen. Having someone with as much sway as the famous host show people that the big feast doesn't have to include meat to be successful is huge. Even better, she took the opportunity to educate her audience on factory farming industry -- with help from author Jonathan Safran Foer (of Eating Animals) and filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, INC.)." 7. Egyptian mummy heart disease in LA Times I'm not sure it belongs in my top 10 list, but I found it extremely interesting that "CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500 years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern lifestyles..." What on earth could have caused it? I think I know: "The high-status Egyptians ate a diet high in meat from cattle, ducks and geese, all fatty." If only the ancient Egyptians had the wisdom of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn! 8. Honesty at the Turkey Pardoning First Obama talks about factory farming and animal rights as a candidate. Then he puts in a garden at the White House. Now he's adding some honesty to the annual turkey pardoning -- talking about the fate of other birds, the fact that it's a fairly new ceremony, etc. Might he have celebrated a vegetarian Thanksgiving? The White House isn't saying, according to Gail Collins of the New York Times in her delightful Thanksgiving Day contemplation of the turkey pardoning. Okay, I'm kidding a bit (could he really get away with having a veggie Thanksgiving, given the power of Agribusiness -- as documented in this sad piece on FoodConsumer.org), as was Collins of course, but the honesty at the event is refreshing, and we do have the first president who understands the harms of factory farming and who is taking global warming seriously. 9. Cargill launches dairy-free cheese! The largest privately held company in the United States (six times the size of McDonald's) has just launched "a 100 percent non-dairy cheese analogue for pizza and other prepared food applications" that "replicates the functionality of dairy protein and replaces it fully at an outstanding cost advantage for the manufacturer." According to Cargill, "its appearance, taste and texture perfectly match those of processed cheese" and it "also offers health advantages as it contains reduced calories (less fat and no saturated fats) and... a unique opportunity for vegans to enjoy a product that has the characteristics and taste of cheese but without any animal-derived ingredients." It's also Halal and Kosher. 10. Yet another study is exposing the horrid treatment of workers by the all-powerful meat industry. A recent six-part piece in the Lincoln Journal-Star documents the horrid conditions endured by slaughterhouse workers. Sadly, nothing has changed since Human Rights Watch released their report on the industry, "Blood, Sweat, and Fear," six years ago. Then and now, researchers have documented "systematic human rights violations embedded in meat and poultry industry employment." It's becoming all too obvious that if we care about worker rights, it makes sense to go vegan. For information on making the switch to vegetarianism, please check out my previous post, "A Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating." From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 12:13:22 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:13:22 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: 1.2 million children sold into slavery Message-ID: <00a201ca72ba$874044a0$95c0cde0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS By moving into small sustainable community configurations of no more than 200 people in a community, we can stop Child Trafficing since small sustainable communities are designed so that everyone is cared for within the community where everyone knows everyone else. In a sustainable community, where "food sovereignty" is practiced by enabling everyone in the community the ability to grow their own food, thus freeing people from job dependency, we can enable and empower people in being both free and safe from harm. From: Democrats.com [mailto:activist at democrats.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 9:55 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: 1.2 million children sold into slavery Dear Stephanie, This year 1.2 million girls and boys were victims of child trafficking. That means they were taken from their families. Sold into slavery. Forced to work 7 days a week with dangerous equipment. They endured beatings, malnutrition, and other abuse. Girls are especially exploited: sold as "mail order brides," forced into prostitution, and brutalized and raped by their "employers." Urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to end child trafficking. Bob Fertik Dear Stephanie, No child should be sold into slavery or prostitution. But each year an alarming 1.2 million girls and boys are exploited by child traffickers. Urge Secretary of State Clinton to help protect children from being trafficked. Can you imagine being ripped away from your family and sold into a lifetime of slavery or prostitution at age seven? This horror story was a reality for 1.2 million girls and boys this year. And the demand for cheap labor and child prostitution means that at least 1.2 million more children will be trafficked in 2010 if we don't make protecting them a global priority. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed her commitment to ending human trafficking, but we need her continued help to make this issue a global priority. Click here to sign our petition urging Hillary Clinton to help end human trafficking by spreading awareness and working with world leaders. We must do more to end this appalling abuse of children, especially girls, who are particularly vulnerable and frequently sold into prostitution, trafficked as "mail order brides," or raped by their "employers." At Plan, our cutting edge programs focus on rescuing and rehabilitating victims of child trafficking, increasing community awareness of the dangers, and providing education and life skills training. But to prevent this exploitation from happening in the first place, we need leaders like Hillary Clinton to ramp up global efforts and continue their work to end this violation of girls' and boys' rights. Ask Secretary of State Clinton to spread awareness about human trafficking and help put an end to this exploitation of children worldwide! Thank you for supporting Plan as we fight to help the millions of girls and boys that have already been sold into slavery and stop 1.2 million more children from being exploited next year. For the children, W. Ahuma Adodoadji President/CEO Plan USA _____ You are subscribed to Democrats.com Activist Alerts. If you do not want to receive messages from any Democrats.com partners, click here To permanently unsubscribe from all Democrats.com lists, click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 11:41:35 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 10:41:35 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder Message-ID: <009301ca72b6$140ed090$3c2c71b0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS On the World Legacy Project website, I just viewed the prototype of a new Hybrid SuperCar which gets super mileage and is obviously being designed for those employed at Goldman Sachs and other financial organizations so they can talk about how green they are, but certainly not for "we-the-people" except perhaps for some young studs who may aspire to join the banksters and continue to fleece the rest of us. This whole scenario gets more depraved by the day. Read on. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 8:24 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=ahD2WoDAL9h0 Commentary by Alice Schroeder Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- "I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit," said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank. I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it's true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn't call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that "as a preliminary matter" it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names. While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million, part of an effort to burnish its image -- and gain new Goldman clients. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman's greed "God's work" and apologized earlier this month for having participated in things that were "clearly wrong." Has it really come to this? Imagine what emotions must be billowing through the halls of Goldman Sachs to provoke the firm into an apology. Talk that Goldman bankers might have armed themselves in self-defense would sound ludicrous, were it not so apt a metaphor for the way that the most successful people on Wall Street have become a target for public rage. Pistol Ready Common sense tells you a handgun is probably not even all that useful. Suppose an intruder sneaks past the doorman or jumps the security fence at night. By the time you pull the pistol out of your wife's jewelry safe, find the ammunition, and load your weapon, Fifi the Pomeranian has already been taken hostage and the gun won't do you any good. As for carrying a loaded pistol when you venture outside, dream on. Concealed gun permits are almost impossible for ordinary citizens to obtain in New York or nearby states. In other words, a little humility and contrition are probably the better route. Until a couple of weeks ago, that was obvious to everyone but Goldman, a firm famous for both prescience and arrogance. In a display of both, Blankfein began to raise his personal- security threat level early in the financial crisis. He keeps a summer home near the Hamptons, where unrestricted public access would put him at risk if the angry mobs rose up and marched to the East End of Long Island. To the Barricades He tried to buy a house elsewhere without attracting attention as the financial crisis unfolded in 2007, a move that was foiled by the New York Post. Then, Blankfein got permission from the local authorities to install a security gate at his house two months before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed. This is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer. Surely, though, this man who can afford to surround himself with a private army of security guards isn't sleeping with the key to a gun safe under his pillow. The thought is just too bizarre to be true. So maybe other senior people at Goldman Sachs have gone out and bought guns, and they know something. But what? Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary during the bailout and a former Goldman Sachs CEO, let it slip during testimony to Congress last summer when he explained why it was so critical to bail out Goldman Sachs, and -- oh yes -- the other banks. People "were unhappy with the big discrepancies in wealth, but they at least believed in the system and in some form of market-driven capitalism. But if we had a complete meltdown, it could lead to people questioning the basis of the system." Torn Curtain There you have it. The bailout was meant to keep the curtain drawn on the way the rich make money, not from the free market, but from the lack of one. Goldman Sachs blew its cover when the firm's revenue from trading reached a record $27 billion in the first nine months of this year, and a public that was writhing in financial agony caught on that the profits earned on taxpayer capital were going to pay employee bonuses. This slip-up let the other bailed-out banks happily hand off public blame to Goldman, which is unpopular among its peers because it always seems to win at everyone's expense. Plenty of Wall Streeters worry about the big discrepancies in wealth, and think the rise of a financial industry-led plutocracy is unjust. That doesn't mean any of them plan to move into a double-wide mobile home as a show of solidarity with the little people, though. Cool Hand Lloyd No, talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall- Streeters like to think of themselves. Even those who were bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one hand with the Glock in the other. The last thing they want is to be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in lynching them. And if the proles really do appear brandishing pitchforks at the doors of Park Avenue and the gates of Round Hill Road, you can be sure that the Goldman guys and their families will be holed up in their safe rooms with their firearms. If nothing else, that pistol permit might go part way toward explaining why they won't be standing outside with the rest of the crowd, broke and humiliated, saying, "Damn, I was on the wrong side of a trade with Goldman again." (Alice Schroeder, author of "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life" and a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 12:15:46 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:15:46 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Foresight Network Newsletter - December 1st 2009 Message-ID: <00a701ca72ba$dad90660$908b1320$@net> Thanks to Michael Jackson for his good work. Anyone interested in being the editor for this newsletter, please contact him. From: The Foresight Network [mailto:mail at shapingtomorrowmain.ning.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 10:28 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Foresight Network Newsletter - December 1st 2009 The Foresight Network A message to all members of The Foresight Network Wanted Foresight Newsletter editor: Have you got the skills to edit this newsletter? We really want to improve this key communication medium for the benefit of all members. Have you got a small amount of regular time and energy to help? If so, please mailto:mike.jackson at shapingtomorrow.com expressing your interest. Featured blog post: Make Better Decisions Now With Better Foresight by John Mahaffie Webinar: ?Environmental Scanning: what it is and how to do it? to be presented by Maree Conway December 4th 2009 Featured Group: With the Copenhagen Conference just around the corner why not join the Environmental Futures group and share views on where we are going? Featured Member: Check out Debashis Chowdury, a Board Member and an active participant in the network. Key Trend Alert: Social Enterprise To the Rescue by Sheila Moorcroft now on the main Shaping Tomorrow site. [Registration required if not already a member] About This newsletter: The newsletter is distributed at no charge to anyone who has registered as a member of the Foresight Network and contains a selection of news and information on society and futures related issues. Introduce a friend: You are welcome to forward the newsletter to everyone you know and internally within your organization. Please also invite them to join the network here. About Shaping Tomorrow: We help 12,360 people and 6000+ organisations anticipate how we will live and prepare for what's next. We assist members to achieve strategic agility and resilience through collective foresight, scenario creation, roadmapping, strategic and system thinking, innovation, risk assessment, competitive intelligence, change and knowledge management. The Foresight Network is administered by volunteers on behalf of the members and under guidance from an independent board of futurists elected from the membership. Visit The Foresight Network at: http://shapingtomorrowmain.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network To control which emails you receive on The Foresight Network, click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 1 12:38:57 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:38:57 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: The Highly Profitable Business of Vaccines Message-ID: <00ac01ca72be$17312590$459370b0$@net> FYI and consideration. From: Daily Health News [mailto:DailyHealthNews at dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com] Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 11:15 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: The Highly Profitable Business of Vaccines Don't miss any of Bottom Line's Daily Health News. Add our address, DailyHealthNews at dhn.bottomlinesecrets.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here . Click Here to View on Your Mobile Device. December 1, 2009 Bottom Line's Daily Health News In This Issue... * Are You or Your Loved Ones Taking Any of These Highly Prescribed Medicines? * The Highly Profitable Business of Vaccines -- Good for People and the Health of the Country, or for Big Pharma's Bottom Line? * Pill That Kills Cancer Before It Spreads * The Truth About Garlic and Cancer Prevention -- Get the Greatest Health-Promoting Benefit from Garlic * Forever Young _____ Special Offer ARE YOU OR YOUR LOVED ONES TAKING ANY OF THESE HIGHLY PRESCRIBED MEDICINES? Cholesterol Drugs... Heart Medications... Bronchodilators... Zantac?, Pepcid? or Tagamet? ... Antidepressants like Prozac?... Aspirin, Tylenol? or Advil?... Antihistamines... Decongestants... Corticosteroids... Antibiotics... Propecia?... Estrogen or HRT Drugs... Blood Thinners. Or any of the following best-selling natural remedies? Calcium... St. John's Wort... Glucosamine... Echinacea... Coenzyme Q10... Saponin... Vitamin B-6... Vitamins C or E... Melatonin... Vitamins A or D... Epigallocatechin Gallate... Chondroitin Sulfate... Diallyl Disulfide... Ginkgo Biloba. If so, please read on... _____ The Highly Profitable Business of Vaccines Exactly how the swine flu story will play out remains to be seen, but there is one business sector that may secretly be hoping for the worst -- vaccine manufacturers, that are more than $1 billion richer, a number that will soar far higher if, in fact, the winter outbreak is as bad as many fear. Halo-worthy as vaccine makers may seem, the truth is that Big Pharma is motivated by more than a desire to save humankind, given the enormous profit potential from a successful vaccine. New blockbuster products and manufacturer-friendly legislation have combined to make the global vaccine market even larger and more lucrative than ever. In fact, the vaccine market is growing even faster than the market for regular pharmaceutical drugs, bringing in as much as $20 billion or more, by some estimates. That?s because the markup on vaccines is larger than on pharmaceutical drugs, making them especially profitable. However, as the use of vaccines has expanded exponentially in recent years, so have concerns regarding their safety and efficacy. Vaccine Risks Vaccines have enabled us to take major steps forward in public health, virtually eradicating devastating diseases, such as polio and smallpox, says Larry Sasich, PharmD, MPH, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) School of Pharmacy in Erie, Pennsylvania. But vaccines are drugs, he points out, and all drugs carry some risks. Though rare, vaccines have been known to cause seizures, brain damage and even death. In the early 1980s, consumers deluged manufacturers with lawsuits, most especially parents whose children had suffered complications after inoculation with the problematic DTP vaccine (immunization against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or whooping cough). Fearing the public health consequences if vaccine makers responded by reducing production or pulling out of the market altogether, the federal government passed the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 to shield manufacturers from liability. Legislated Protection from Liability The 1986 act created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which protected vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits and set compensation standards for people injured by their products. For example, compensation for vaccine-related deaths is limited to $250,000 -- a fraction of what might be awarded by a jury in a civil trial if, say, a child had a fatal vaccine reaction. In truth, this amount of money is like pocket change to drug companies, and they aren?t even the ones who must pay up -- the federal government writes the check. This protection may help get important vaccines to market faster, but it doesn?t do much to ensure safety, because vaccine manufacturers are shielded from consequences for products that turn out to be problematic or even dangerous. Also, vaccines are genetically engineered and competitors are forbidden by law from duplicating them. This gives manufacturers a virtual monopoly on their products. Since they never have to face competition, biologic-based vaccines continue to generate big profits for years and years and years. Gardasil: A Cautionary Tale Protecting manufacturers this way puts consumers at risk. In 2006, for example, despite sparse data to support its safety and effectiveness, Merck introduced and aggressively marketed Gardasil, a new vaccine designed to protect girls and young women from cancer-causing strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV). Among their questionable marketing tactics, the firm gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in "grants" to medical associations to develop educational materials promoting the vaccine. Even worse, Merck made substantial campaign contributions to state legislators -- as it lobbied them to make Gardasil mandatory for girls attending public schools. Yet, this vaccine doesn?t vanquish a deadly disease such as polio or smallpox. Rather it protects against four viruses that comprise 70% of the HPV strains that cause cervical cancer -- and even if they?ve received the vaccine, women still require regular screening for the disease. While study results published in the August 2009 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) note that Gardasil has a safety record in line with that of other vaccines, serious complications (including an increased risk for potentially fatal blood clots) have been reported. Gardasil is also painful and painfully expensive. The three-shot series costs $400 to $1,000, which is only sometimes covered by insurance, and last year brought in $1.4 billion in sales for Merck... amazing, given that there?s no evidence yet how long immunity will even last or whether booster shots will prove necessary. Thus far, the vaccine has been successful in preventing HPV infections that precede cervical cancer, but since this type of cancer takes years to develop, only time will tell whether Gardasil protects against cervical cancer itself. Moving Forward: The Debate Continues Even in the face of a pandemic, it remains impossible to reach a consensus regarding vaccines and whether they should be mandatory. Consumer advocates argue for greater regulation and higher standards (e.g., for new vaccines and other drugs, medical devices and procedures), while industry insists that government should keep its hands off. As for the vaccine shield protecting Big Pharma from liability, some legislators talk of getting rid of it while others say it should be strengthened. Dr. Sasich told me that he personally believes that vaccines have the potential to do enormous good for society and that the vaccine shield enables science and technology to move forward faster and more efficiently. While I agree that many immunizations save lives, I am skeptical about some of the more recent entries into the vaccination arena, such as Gardasil. Perhaps manufacturers need a stick as well as a carrot -- financial responsibility for failures as well as windfall profits for success -- to motivate them to ensure that vaccines are safe, necessary and effective before introducing them on a large-scale basis to the American public, much less making them mandatory. Source(s): Larry Sasich, PharmD, MPH, pharmacist and assistant professor of pharmacy practice, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) School of Pharmacy, Erie, PA. E-mail this Article _____ Special Offer PILL THAT KILLS CANCER BEFORE IT SPREADS Tucson, AZ: According to Sheldon Marks, MD, associate clinical professor of urology and clinical lecturer in radiation oncology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, new research has found that a common prescription drug programs deadly cancer cells to die... instead of multiply. This means that it potentially cures cancer before it spreads... including breast cancer... colon cancer... and prostate cancer. Learn more... _____ The Truth About Garlic and Cancer Prevention Traditional healers and modern scientists often see things differently, but when it comes to garlic, there has seemed to be consensus about its health-promoting properties. So what are we to make of a new meta-analysis of 19 published studies that found no credible evidence of a link between garlic intake and reduced risk for a wide number of cancers? While it did acknowledge "very limited" evidence linking garlic intake to reduced risk for colon, prostate and ovarian cancer, that?s faint praise indeed. When I spoke with Daily Health News contributing editor Andrew Rubman, ND, about this surprising finding, he pointed out that an issue with meta-analyses -- studies that evaluate data from numerous others to reach a conclusion -- is that researchers are able to pick and choose among previous studies to skew their findings in a particular direction. This is a particular issue with single-factor studies, when researchers look at a variable in isolation. Dr. Rubman is not saying this is necessarily the case here, but to evaluate how worthy its findings are would require careful investigation of the studies used. It is possible, he says, that the studies showing no discernable effects of garlic used products that were relatively weak or garlic processed at high temperatures, which would diminish its healthful properties. Dr. Rubman continues to support garlic as one among many cancer-prevention tools when it is part of a healthy diet. He told me that preliminary human studies, evaluated by Natural Standard (http://www.naturalstandard.com/ ), a clinical database that evaluates evidence-based natural therapies, suggest that regular consumption of garlic, particularly unprocessed, may reduce the risk of developing several types of cancer, including gastric and colorectal. "More studies are necessary to better evaluate preventative or curative capacity," he said. Dr. Rubman noted that it is best to crush raw garlic to release its health-benefitting enzymes and then let it rest for 10 or so minutes to "bloom." Most people start a dish by heating garlic in oil, which is fine, but Dr. Rubman advises adding some at the end of the cooking process as well to ensure that you?ll get the full health value, since some of its healthful properties are reduced -- even destroyed -- by heat. Another possible solution is to take capsules of cold-pressed extraction of garlic (he recommends those made by a Japanese company called Kyolic, http://www.kyolic.com/ ). However, with such excellent garlic in markets today, Dr. Rubman says he sees no reason not to consume it fresh in your favorite dishes. Source(s): Andrew Rubman, ND, medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, CT. www.naturopath.org . E-mail this Article Be well, Carole Jackson Bottom Line's Daily Health News _____ Special Offer FOREVER YOUNG Getting old can be awful. Aches... pains... illness... constant bouncing from doctor to doctor. We all dread it. You can't stop the clock, but you can banish the miseries that sometimes come with it. * Bulging belly * Cholesterol-choked arteries * Brain failure and fatigue * Weakness and impotence * Frozen joints or back pain * Spotted, decrepit skin * Tumors taking over your body * Parkinson's tremors * Menopausal miseries * Fading, cloudy vision * And all other indignities of aging! Read on... _____ You received this free E-letter because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as maryrose333 at att.net. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. You can easily subscribe at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/e2/e2_signup.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E120109C1B You can easily unsubscribe at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/el/dhn_unsub.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E120109C2B Change your e-mail address at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/email_change.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=E120109C5B Update your e-mail preferences at this link... http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/email_prefs.html?ea=maryrose333 at att.net &sid=D120109C5B _____ Important: Help your friends live more healthfully -- forward this E-letter to them. Better: Send it to many friends and your whole family. This is a free e-mail service of BottomLineSecrets.com and Boardroom Inc. Need to contact us? http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/cust_service/contact.html Boardroom Inc. 281 Tresser Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901-3246 ATTN: Web Team Privacy Policy: http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/simple.html?article_id=16004 Required Disclaimer: The information provided herein should not be construed as a health-care diagnosis, treatment regimen or any other prescribed health-care advice or instruction. The information is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in the practice of medicine or any other health-care profession and does not enter into a health-care practitioner/patient relationship with its readers. The publisher does not advise or recommend to its readers treatment or action with regard to matters relating to their health or well-being other than to suggest that readers consult appropriate health-care professionals in such matters. No action should be taken based solely on the content of this publication. The information and opinions provided herein are believed to be accurate and sound at the time of publication, based on the best judgment available to the authors. However, readers who rely on information in this publication to replace the advice of health-care professionals, or who fail to consult with health-care professionals, assume all risks of such conduct. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. Bottom Line's Daily Health News is a registered trademark of Boardroom, Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Boardroom Inc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 110 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 110 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bmalanoski at gmail.com Tue Dec 1 05:04:32 2009 From: bmalanoski at gmail.com (Bonnie Showers-Malanoski) Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:04:32 -0500 Subject: [GJM] Unsubscribe Message-ID: <427214C4-AB25-4DE0-B2F1-726817FF5F79@gmail.com> Please take me off you list. Thanks From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 3 05:27:05 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:27:05 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] A Message to Copenhagan! Message-ID: <842913.41150.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND. ? There is a far better, and more powerful way of funding progress on the vital issue of climate change.?Alot, or a "small" proportion?of the money could be created electronically as something non-repayable, and/or as a repayable?loan with little, or no need for taxation, or any indeed any other source necessarily apart from business capital ofcourse. In other words,?a non-conventional method?similiar to Quantitative Easing. Ofcourse, it would lead in time to some inflation but not much. ? The above would ease the funding situation, and more importantly make it quicker for money to be invested in key green business projects. It would also help governments not to raise much more?in the way of "green taxes" as this could be politically unpopular for them.. ? See my p2pfoundation project known as TRANSFINANCIAL ECONOMICS. ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 5 03:40:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 10:40:29 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] P2P Foundation on Money... Message-ID: <329862.26399.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? The P2P foundation has arguably the most extensive resource on alternative ideas in connection with money. Ofcourse, Transfinancial Economics is also included, and it appears so far to be the sixth most visited site... ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Category:Money ? Also, Binary Economics is to be found at the above link, and draws on material from Rodney? Shakespeares?website. ? ? R.Searle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 10:36:58 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:36:58 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare Message-ID: <009201ca743f$699478a0$3cbd69e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Here again, we view another article that exposes the insanity of the western mind, which appears not to recognize that as it destroys the rest of the world, it destroys itself as well. We must stop the insanity. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 9:03 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare The Casualties of Toxic Warfare Global Connections and the Arc of War http://www.counterpunch.org/galleymore12012009.html By SUSAN GALLEYMORE December 1, 2009 Alameda, California was once home to one of the largest Naval Air Stations in the world with 271 separate and distinct trades to manufacture and repair every part of any aircraft. Vast quantities of chemicals went into this work including solvents, aviation fuel, and radium-based paints for cockpit dials. Leaks and spills were as common as they are in any operation of this magnitude. Rags, brushes, and cleaning supplies were regularly replaced, the worn-out burned in pits located at the northern tip of the naval base. Enough chemicals were mishandled or leaked out of containers and sewer pipes that the former base is, today, a Superfund site. As I inch my way through the mountain of documents the Navy amasses as it cleans up the relatively manageable contamination in my home town, I encounter a theme that echoes in my other research into our military, the military mindset, and the effects of militarism: a tendency to under-report, minimize, even deny, "occupational" hazards. It crops up in military documentation, out of the mouths of military spokespeople, and is supported by the the national defense - and homeland security - industries that support and benefit from it. There are more than 40,000 toxic sites in the U.S. and its territories... approximately 1,000 of which are on the National Priority List, and for which Federal cleanup funding is forthcoming. Certainly the financial costs of cleanup are considerable. But what of the moral and ethical cost? Just as each tax-paying American is implicated in the wars our country wages, so too are we implicated in the human and environmental damage. Is the damage the U.S. military has caused here and abroad worth the material benefit the U.S. derives? The more things change... Vietnam. This year, as they did last year, and for several years before that, delegates from Vietnam came to the U.S. to plead their case and to raise awareness about their countrymen who continue to suffer the consequences of dioxin-laden Agent Orange sprayed by the U.S. Air Force. During the conflict in Vietnam, the U.S. military denied food and protection to those deemed to be "the enemy" and contracted with over 30 U.S. chemical firms to supply chemicals to defoliate Vietnam's forests. The most lethal chemical, Agent Orange, was contaminated with trace amounts of TCDD dioxin - the most toxic chemical known to science - which disabled and sickened soldiers, civilians and several generations of offspring on two continents. Medical evidence indicates that cancers such as soft tissue non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, type II diabetes, and spina bifida and other birth defects in children are attributable to this exposure. Vietnam's victims of Agent Orange, 2007. Photo: Merle Ratner, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign Surviving American veterans of Vietnam finally achieved limited compensation from the U.S. Government for some illnesses they suffer due to the poisons. The Vietnamese have received nothing. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently refused to review the dismissal of the lawsuit of more than three million Vietnamese against 37 companies that manufactured this chemical weapon. Attorney for the Vietnamese plaintiffs, Jonathan C. Moore, states,"It is unfortunate that U.S. courts have chosen, contrary to U.S. and international law, to deny justice to millions of Vietnamese who suffer from the spraying of dioxin-laden Agent Orange which has left several generations of victims severely sick and disabled." These ailments and deformities are significant, sobering, and heartbreaking...made worse because affected families are physically unable to work and generate an income. Moreover, the chemicals continue to affect Vietnam's natural environment and destroy its mangrove forests, soil, and crops. Dr. James R. Clary, a senior scientist at the Chemical Weapons Branch (the Air Force Armament Development Lab based in Florida at that time), wrote: When we initiated the herbicide program in the 1960s, we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin contamination in the herbicide. We were even aware that the military formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the civilian version due to the lower cost and speed of manufacture. However, because the material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were overly concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnel would become contaminated with the herbicide. And, if we had [considered this scenario], we would have expected our own government to give assistance to veterans so contaminated. This scientist's naive candor is refreshing. If he was working in today's military, he'd probably lose his job. ...the more they stay the same? Iraq. Balad Airbase, 68 kilometers north of Baghdad and east of Fallujah, is one of the largest bases housing about 25,000 U.S. military personnel and several thousand contractors. In June 2008 it had three clean-burning incinerators handling about 120 tons of waste each day. Additionally, the burn pit consumes 147 tons of waste per day: styrofoam, unexploded ordnance, petroleum products, plastics, rubber, dining facility trash, paint and solvents, and medical waste that - according to those performing the burns - includes amputated limbs. This concoction is set alight with jet fuel, a substance that releases chemicals known to increase the risk of leukemia. Just burning plastic water bottles creates elevated levels of highly toxic dioxins, which can contaminate food chains by landing on plants that are consumed by animals and accumulate in fatty tissue. A plume of black, tacky smoke hangs over the region when waste is burned. Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, former bioenvironmental flight commander for Joint Base Balad, wrote in a memo dated Dec. 20, 2006: "In my professional opinion, there is an acute health hazard for individuals. It is amazing that the burn pit has been able to operate without restrictions over the past few years. There is also the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke." In June 2009 three military servicemen from Charleston filed a class-action lawsuit against Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR). The lawsuit alleges that KBR burned hazardous waste in Iraq and Afghanistan that included human corpses, biohazardous medical supplies, styrofoam, tires, lithium batteries, asbestos insulation, paint, and items containing pesticides and latrine waste. A mother in Baghdad's Al Mansour Hospital's pediatric oncology ward. Her child suffers from a cancer rarely seen in children. Photo: Susan Galleymore, 2004. Since then dozens of U.S. military personnel have filed 34 lawsuits against KBR for allegedly incinerating toxic waste and releasing it into the atmosphere in Iraq and Afghanistan. A KBR spokeswoman responded via email that the "general assertion that KBR knowingly harmed troops is unfounded." KBR, she says, did not operate most of Balad's burn pit, and that the others are operated at the direction of the military. According to the June 12, 2009 Post and Courier article, "Burn pit caused injuries, suit says: Disposal of toxic wastes improper, servicemen claim," there is also an Iraqi-run recycling center on the Balad base. Iraqis sort through recyclables tossed into the burn pit - such as the roughly 90,000 aluminum cans produced daily by the base - and resell them on the local market. Are emissions from these burn pits and material from the recycling center simply adding to the toxic cocktail already flooding Iraq? Fallujah's hospitals are experiencing a wave of newborns with chronic deformities and early life cancers. Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the Fallujah's children's ward, urges international experts to take soil samples across the region, and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments. "Such abnormalities," he says are "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy. The UK Guardian reports that Fallujah's doctors, "are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting....from two [hospital] admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now." Most deformities are in the head and spinal cord.... and "there is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of [children] less than two years [old] with brain tumours." Pediatrician Samira Abdul Ghani's kept detailed records over a three-week period and revealed 37 babies born with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects that result in brain matter found in the spine and dysfunctional lower limbs. Abnormal clusters of infant tumors have also been cited in Basra and Najaf - areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used. Baghdad's hospitals sees young children with rare cancers too. I visited Al Mansour's pediatric oncology ward in January 2004. Mothers nursed children with leukemias, neuroblastomas, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and other cancers rarely seen in young children. Iraqi parents were selling their cars, houses, and other possessions to pay for chemotherapy whose medicines the U.S. refused to supply because, it was claimed, they were potential ingredients in the manufacture of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Doctors in Fallujah repeat what I heard from doctors in Baghdad: they are reluctant to draw direct links with war zone chemical pollutants. "We simply don't have the answers yet....We need funds to conduct scientifically accurate studies." Baghdad's babies were not, of course, victims of the May and November 2004 battles in Falluja. Are they victims of the economic sanctions of the 1990s? Or victims of pollutants from U.S.'s ongoing bombing raids over the no-fly-zones during the same period? Or victims of airborne pollutants from burning oil during Gulf War I ? U.S. troops continue to suffer Gulf War Syndrome so why would the region's children be immune? Iraqis have better luck receiving compensation for their enormous health disasters than the Vietnamese have had? Or will their plight be similar to that of the Vietnamese and unacknowledged in the furor over American troop exposure? What about Kuwait? And Bosnia? And Gaza? And Afghanistan? For more than eight years the U.S. Government has maintained the fallacy that bombarding Afghanistan is necessary, that that is a "righteous" war against terrorism. The lawsuit against KBR includes burn pits in Afghanistan and it is a matter of time before the world is aware of the affects on troops and civilians there. It is likely that the wave of deformities in Afghan newborns will go undetected for a longer period than they took to crest in Iraq since many Afghan babies are born at home and in remote regions. A new study by the U.S.-based independent charity Save the Children says 60 out of every 1,000 Afghan babies die; this is already one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. When I began researching the military mindset I held that large institutions are inherently chaotic, that administrating millions of acres of military real estate around the world and the personnel occupying it - and their supply chains - results in inevitable errors, and that those responsible for public coffers would, occasionally, makes egregious mistakes that they'd want to hide. But, we the people, can no longer sustain this mindset and culture. We, the people, have reached the cul de sac of our "westward expansion." We have nowhere else to go. We must turn around and face...ourselves.... We must begin the real work of recognizing our complex mutual humanity and interdependence...and cop to our innate glory...and vainglory, intoxication with self, denial, egotism, and our less-than-perfect traits that cross political boundaries. As we recognize the incontrovertible evidence in the arc of degradation that is war we must accept our responsibility for it...and ensure we no longer contaminate our world or its people. Susan Galleymore is author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror, host of Stanford University's Raising Sand Radio, and a former "military mom" and GI Rights Counselor. Contact her at media at mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 10:45:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:45:56 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Obama and the Dying Empire Message-ID: <009301ca7440$a4e68460$eeb38d20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Since our economy is now mainly dependent upon war to keep it growing, like the Field of Dreams "if we build it they will come" philosophy, if we build weapons of war along with creating more and more military installations worldwide so that corporations can service their needs in order to employ people in jobs, then we will reap what we sow. It is the law of attraction. Perhaps we should begin to change the way we think and thus "stop the insanity". -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:40 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Obama and the Dying Empire Ideological Smokescreens Obama and the Dying Empire http://www.counterpunch.org/shor12022009.html By FRAN SHOR December 2, 2009 Old habits die hard, especially imperialist ones. Imperial imperatives, whether economic, geopolitical, or ideological, persist because the ruling elites are dependent on them. In order to conceal imperialist objectives, presidents and other leaders of the US political class rely on the rhetoric of national security and America's supposed benevolent global purpose. And, so, with President Obama's announcement of sending 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, the cadets at West Point and the viewing public once more heard that our national security was at stake. A spreading "cancer," threatening to metastasize throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan, had to be militarily extirpated. Conveniently overlooking the correlation between the growth of a Pashtun insurgency and US occupation, Obama tried to wrap his rhetoric in the resonances of 9/11 and the longer shadow of US-sponsored global security. No mention of the politics of pipelines, only the "noble struggle for freedom." Once more an imperial mission was hidden behind an ideological smokescreen. Yet, this continuing military intervention, even with a well-timed exit strategy, cannot stop the inexorable march of declining US global hegemony. It is proving more difficult to round-up an international posse for this so-called "reluctant sheriff." Although Obama made obtuse allusions to NATO allies in Afghanistan, many countries are pulling out, the most recent being Canada and the Netherlands. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, civilian casualties from US drone attacks continue, even in the face of universal condemnation by human rights organizations. All of Obama's rhetorical skills cannot hide these hideous facts on the ground. Added to these egregious war crimes are other instances of on-going US arrogance from refusing to sign the landmine treaty to expanding military bases in Colombia. When Obama cites, as he did in his West Point address, US criticism of tyranny, he pointedly neglects Colombia's abysmal human rights record. Alluding briefly to the "fraud" of the recent Afghanistan presidential election, Obama ignores the endemic corruption and tyranny of US allies among Tajik warlords. In Honduras, while Obama seemed to signal opposition to the brutal coup against Zelaya, he eventually reconciled US policy with support for an illegitimate presidential election there. >From Latin America to the Middle East and South Asia, the US is more and more a declining and isolated power, alienated from the aspirations of people throughout these regions. Beyond the growing geopolitical isolation, the Obama Administration's Wall Street economic orientation is on the defensive against erstwhile allies like England and France and major investors like China. Even the 2008 US National Intelligence Council's report on Global Trends in 2025 predicted declining US power and constrained leverage. For all Obama's efforts to use "smart" power to navigate during this period of decline, he cannot, as a member of the political class, acknowledge that decline and eschew, in the process, an imperial agenda. At best, he may try to find ways to bargain with the inevitable death of the empire. But bargaining, as psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross noted in her classic study of death and dying, is a temporary and last-ditch effort to escape the inevitable. For historian Eric Hobsbawm, "the age of empires is dead. We shall have to find another way of organizing the globalized world of the twenty-first century." And we will have to do it against those elite forces, whether neo-conservative or neo-liberal, that are incapable of ending their self-appointed imperial missions. Fran Shor teaches at Wayne State University and is the author of the recently published Routledge Press book, Dying Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Global Resistance From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 13:31:25 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:31:25 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare - comment from Jim Bell Message-ID: <00d101ca7457$c0ebb510$42c31f30$@net> -----Original Message----- From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 11:58 AM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare Hi Mary, If the human family ever really becomes sane, we are just going to have to pay the cost of cleaning up after our insane selves. Agent Orange in Vietnam, depleted uranium in Iraq and the estimated 150,000 human concocted chemicals that never existed on our planet before 100 years ago. Jim Jim - Thanks for your comment. I totally agree, and keep thinking of the many toxic sites just here in the U.S. that have not been addressed. I must say that the Plasmic Field Generator that Vern Woolf is promoting for the mining of waste dumps within the Phoenix Project is perfect for this job as well. For more on this, go to www.holodynamics.com and click on Phoenix Project on the Menu. -----Original Message----- From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 9:37 AM To: Fixgov at yahoogroups.com; 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice' Subject: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Here again, we view another article that exposes the insanity of the western mind, which appears not to recognize that as it destroys the rest of the world, it destroys itself as well. We must stop the insanity. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 9:03 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Casualties of Toxic Warfare The Casualties of Toxic Warfare Global Connections and the Arc of War http://www.counterpunch.org/galleymore12012009.html By SUSAN GALLEYMORE December 1, 2009 Alameda, California was once home to one of the largest Naval Air Stations in the world with 271 separate and distinct trades to manufacture and repair every part of any aircraft. Vast quantities of chemicals went into this work including solvents, aviation fuel, and radium-based paints for cockpit dials. Leaks and spills were as common as they are in any operation of this magnitude. Rags, brushes, and cleaning supplies were regularly replaced, the worn-out burned in pits located at the northern tip of the naval base. Enough chemicals were mishandled or leaked out of containers and sewer pipes that the former base is, today, a Superfund site. As I inch my way through the mountain of documents the Navy amasses as it cleans up the relatively manageable contamination in my home town, I encounter a theme that echoes in my other research into our military, the military mindset, and the effects of militarism: a tendency to under-report, minimize, even deny, "occupational" hazards. It crops up in military documentation, out of the mouths of military spokespeople, and is supported by the the national defense - and homeland security - industries that support and benefit from it. There are more than 40,000 toxic sites in the U.S. and its territories... approximately 1,000 of which are on the National Priority List, and for which Federal cleanup funding is forthcoming. Certainly the financial costs of cleanup are considerable. But what of the moral and ethical cost? Just as each tax-paying American is implicated in the wars our country wages, so too are we implicated in the human and environmental damage. Is the damage the U.S. military has caused here and abroad worth the material benefit the U.S. derives? The more things change... Vietnam. This year, as they did last year, and for several years before that, delegates from Vietnam came to the U.S. to plead their case and to raise awareness about their countrymen who continue to suffer the consequences of dioxin-laden Agent Orange sprayed by the U.S. Air Force. During the conflict in Vietnam, the U.S. military denied food and protection to those deemed to be "the enemy" and contracted with over 30 U.S. chemical firms to supply chemicals to defoliate Vietnam's forests. The most lethal chemical, Agent Orange, was contaminated with trace amounts of TCDD dioxin - the most toxic chemical known to science - which disabled and sickened soldiers, civilians and several generations of offspring on two continents. Medical evidence indicates that cancers such as soft tissue non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, type II diabetes, and spina bifida and other birth defects in children are attributable to this exposure. Vietnam's victims of Agent Orange, 2007. Photo: Merle Ratner, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign Surviving American veterans of Vietnam finally achieved limited compensation from the U.S. Government for some illnesses they suffer due to the poisons. The Vietnamese have received nothing. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently refused to review the dismissal of the lawsuit of more than three million Vietnamese against 37 companies that manufactured this chemical weapon. Attorney for the Vietnamese plaintiffs, Jonathan C. Moore, states,"It is unfortunate that U.S. courts have chosen, contrary to U.S. and international law, to deny justice to millions of Vietnamese who suffer from the spraying of dioxin-laden Agent Orange which has left several generations of victims severely sick and disabled." These ailments and deformities are significant, sobering, and heartbreaking...made worse because affected families are physically unable to work and generate an income. Moreover, the chemicals continue to affect Vietnam's natural environment and destroy its mangrove forests, soil, and crops. Dr. James R. Clary, a senior scientist at the Chemical Weapons Branch (the Air Force Armament Development Lab based in Florida at that time), wrote: When we initiated the herbicide program in the 1960s, we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin contamination in the herbicide. We were even aware that the military formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the civilian version due to the lower cost and speed of manufacture. However, because the material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were overly concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnel would become contaminated with the herbicide. And, if we had [considered this scenario], we would have expected our own government to give assistance to veterans so contaminated. This scientist's naive candor is refreshing. If he was working in today's military, he'd probably lose his job. ...the more they stay the same? Iraq. Balad Airbase, 68 kilometers north of Baghdad and east of Fallujah, is one of the largest bases housing about 25,000 U.S. military personnel and several thousand contractors. In June 2008 it had three clean-burning incinerators handling about 120 tons of waste each day. Additionally, the burn pit consumes 147 tons of waste per day: styrofoam, unexploded ordnance, petroleum products, plastics, rubber, dining facility trash, paint and solvents, and medical waste that - according to those performing the burns - includes amputated limbs. This concoction is set alight with jet fuel, a substance that releases chemicals known to increase the risk of leukemia. Just burning plastic water bottles creates elevated levels of highly toxic dioxins, which can contaminate food chains by landing on plants that are consumed by animals and accumulate in fatty tissue. A plume of black, tacky smoke hangs over the region when waste is burned. Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, former bioenvironmental flight commander for Joint Base Balad, wrote in a memo dated Dec. 20, 2006: "In my professional opinion, there is an acute health hazard for individuals. It is amazing that the burn pit has been able to operate without restrictions over the past few years. There is also the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke." In June 2009 three military servicemen from Charleston filed a class-action lawsuit against Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR). The lawsuit alleges that KBR burned hazardous waste in Iraq and Afghanistan that included human corpses, biohazardous medical supplies, styrofoam, tires, lithium batteries, asbestos insulation, paint, and items containing pesticides and latrine waste. A mother in Baghdad's Al Mansour Hospital's pediatric oncology ward. Her child suffers from a cancer rarely seen in children. Photo: Susan Galleymore, 2004. Since then dozens of U.S. military personnel have filed 34 lawsuits against KBR for allegedly incinerating toxic waste and releasing it into the atmosphere in Iraq and Afghanistan. A KBR spokeswoman responded via email that the "general assertion that KBR knowingly harmed troops is unfounded." KBR, she says, did not operate most of Balad's burn pit, and that the others are operated at the direction of the military. According to the June 12, 2009 Post and Courier article, "Burn pit caused injuries, suit says: Disposal of toxic wastes improper, servicemen claim," there is also an Iraqi-run recycling center on the Balad base. Iraqis sort through recyclables tossed into the burn pit - such as the roughly 90,000 aluminum cans produced daily by the base - and resell them on the local market. Are emissions from these burn pits and material from the recycling center simply adding to the toxic cocktail already flooding Iraq? Fallujah's hospitals are experiencing a wave of newborns with chronic deformities and early life cancers. Dr Bassam Allah, the head of the Fallujah's children's ward, urges international experts to take soil samples across the region, and for scientists to mount an investigation into the causes of so many ailments. "Such abnormalities," he says are "acquired" by mothers before or during pregnancy. The UK Guardian reports that Fallujah's doctors, "are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting....from two [hospital] admissions a fortnight a year ago to two a day now." Most deformities are in the head and spinal cord.... and "there is also a very marked increase in the number of cases of [children] less than two years [old] with brain tumours." Pediatrician Samira Abdul Ghani's kept detailed records over a three-week period and revealed 37 babies born with anomalies, many of them neural tube defects that result in brain matter found in the spine and dysfunctional lower limbs. Abnormal clusters of infant tumors have also been cited in Basra and Najaf - areas that have in the past also been intense battle zones where modern munitions have been heavily used. Baghdad's hospitals sees young children with rare cancers too. I visited Al Mansour's pediatric oncology ward in January 2004. Mothers nursed children with leukemias, neuroblastomas, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and other cancers rarely seen in young children. Iraqi parents were selling their cars, houses, and other possessions to pay for chemotherapy whose medicines the U.S. refused to supply because, it was claimed, they were potential ingredients in the manufacture of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Doctors in Fallujah repeat what I heard from doctors in Baghdad: they are reluctant to draw direct links with war zone chemical pollutants. "We simply don't have the answers yet....We need funds to conduct scientifically accurate studies." Baghdad's babies were not, of course, victims of the May and November 2004 battles in Falluja. Are they victims of the economic sanctions of the 1990s? Or victims of pollutants from U.S.'s ongoing bombing raids over the no-fly-zones during the same period? Or victims of airborne pollutants from burning oil during Gulf War I ? U.S. troops continue to suffer Gulf War Syndrome so why would the region's children be immune? Iraqis have better luck receiving compensation for their enormous health disasters than the Vietnamese have had? Or will their plight be similar to that of the Vietnamese and unacknowledged in the furor over American troop exposure? What about Kuwait? And Bosnia? And Gaza? And Afghanistan? For more than eight years the U.S. Government has maintained the fallacy that bombarding Afghanistan is necessary, that that is a "righteous" war against terrorism. The lawsuit against KBR includes burn pits in Afghanistan and it is a matter of time before the world is aware of the affects on troops and civilians there. It is likely that the wave of deformities in Afghan newborns will go undetected for a longer period than they took to crest in Iraq since many Afghan babies are born at home and in remote regions. A new study by the U.S.-based independent charity Save the Children says 60 out of every 1,000 Afghan babies die; this is already one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world. When I began researching the military mindset I held that large institutions are inherently chaotic, that administrating millions of acres of military real estate around the world and the personnel occupying it - and their supply chains - results in inevitable errors, and that those responsible for public coffers would, occasionally, makes egregious mistakes that they'd want to hide. But, we the people, can no longer sustain this mindset and culture. We, the people, have reached the cul de sac of our "westward expansion." We have nowhere else to go. We must turn around and face...ourselves.... We must begin the real work of recognizing our complex mutual humanity and interdependence...and cop to our innate glory...and vainglory, intoxication with self, denial, egotism, and our less-than-perfect traits that cross political boundaries. As we recognize the incontrovertible evidence in the arc of degradation that is war we must accept our responsibility for it...and ensure we no longer contaminate our world or its people. Susan Galleymore is author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror, host of Stanford University's Raising Sand Radio, and a former "military mom" and GI Rights Counselor. Contact her at media at mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 13:32:42 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:32:42 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: December newsletter Message-ID: <00d201ca7457$ecd43f30$c67cbd90$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS More and more scientists today are basing their research on how the natural world operates and technologists are then bringing these new ?organic? innovations into being. BioMimicry is the wave of the future and promises to bring revolutionary change as we learn ?how to do more with less? in new and innovative, yet entirely natural ways. From: Biomimicry Institute [mailto:info at biomimicryinstitute.org] Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 10:00 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: December newsletter Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The Biomimicry Institute banner In this issue * The Biomimicry Institute '06-'09 available online and in print * Meeting of the minds: envisioning the evolution of design education * Biomimicry receives a warm welcome in Europe * Moving cilia create iridescence: comb jellies * Biomimicry research and design news roundup _____ donate _____ Looking for the Perfect Gift? Ask the Planet Introduce the budding naturalist or designer in your family to Ask the Planet, our award-winning children's music CD. Purchase CD _____ Upcoming Events Conversations in Design: A World Without Oil, Toronto Dr. Dayna Baumeister January 21 Beyond Heat, Beat and Treat - Biomimicry in Design _____ View Past Issues > _____ Photos: Comb jelly by Vidar Aas, Finisterre jacket courtesy of Finesterre, sea urchin by Kamil Porembinski December, 2009 The Biomimicry Institute Newsletter The Biomimicry Institute: '06 to '09 - available online and in print 06-09 report We have just published, for the first time, a report on The Biomimicry Institute's progress during our first three years, and we invite you to have a look. It is our annual report for the 2008 fiscal year, as well. For a printed copy of the report, please send your mailing address to diana at biomimicryinstitute.org. If you've been following the Institute's work and the growing profile of biomimicry, you may be interested to see, summarized in one place, what we've accomplished in that time. The Institute was founded to serve and support a growing constituency of people like you, who are ready to learn more and go deeper with biomimicry. As we like to say, biomimicry is an idea that seems to collect followers. Meeting of the minds: envisioning the evolution of design education DA logo What will the future of design education look like? One hundred thought leaders and design educators pondered that question recently at a meeting of the Designers Accord. "The passion, positive intention, and motivation to rethink and renew design education to incorporate the principles of sustainable design was palpable," says Cindy Gilbert, Director of University Education at The Biomimicry Institute, of the meeting. Cindy was one of eight invited session moderators - along with long-time colleague of the Institute, Jeremy Faludi of Worldchanging - for the Designers Accord's Global Summit on Design Education and Sustainability, held October 23-24, 2009, in San Francisco. The Summit was the brainchild of Designers Accord founder, Valerie Casey, who also orchestrated the event. Through a rotational series of brainstorming sessions focused on broad topic questions, such as, What's next in design education?, How do we measure success?, What constitutes a meaningful design challenge?, and What does a core sustainability curriculum look like?, the convened group was able to produce a shared vision and set of best practices for the future of design education. The goal of the two-day event was to produce a game-changing toolkit to help radically evolve design education in such a way that the next generation of designers will have the frameworks, tools, and value systems in place to be true leaders in industry, within the design profession, and throughout the world. Once published by the Designers Accord, the toolkit will be open-source and free to the public. However, the ultimate outcome of the meeting is even more impressive: a vision that one day, through innovative and collaborative education programs, the profession of designer will become synonymous with empowered, global changemaker. No small feat but one that we at the Institute are thrilled to be a part of. Biomimicry receives a warm welcome in Europe European organizations and leaders are looking to nature for inspiration, and The Biomimicry Institute has been pleased to help them. In October 2009, the Institute had the opportunity to present at three venues in Europe. Chris Allen, AskNature Coordinator, traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, and to Zurich and Gland, Switzerland, to make presentations and help create new networks on behalf of the Institute. The Bioinspired Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, held on October 15, convened over 200 academic, business, government, and non-profit leaders to explore biomimicry's relevance for the Swedish innovation sector. Hosted on the campus of the Royal Institute of Technology, the half-day conference featured a range of speakers exploring the design, investment, technical, and social implications of biomimicry. Chris and former Institute employee Denise DeLuca (now Outreach Representative) both made presentations to an enthusiastic audience. Given the interest in biomimicry in Sweden, we expect interesting new collaborations and projects to emerge in the future. The Institute would like to thank Mats Brod?n and the hosts of the conference ( Royal Institute of Technology, the City of Stockholm, and the Axel and Margaret Axson Johnson Foundation) for supporting the expenses for TBI's participation. In Zurich, Chris represented TBI at a meeting of One Planet Leaders, a sustainability training program for corporate leaders organized by WWF.For many of the attendees this was their first exposure to biomimicry. Carolina Moeller of WWF described the biomimicry presentation as "very inspiring and practical in focus. In fact it was one of our highest rated sessions of the training." In Gland, Chris represented the Institute at a meeting of the Green Economy Coalition hosted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Leaders from an array of organizations focused on building a green economy in Europe convened to develop a coalition strategy, and biomimicry is poised to play a key role in helping those leaders look to nature as model, measure, and mentor for green economic planning and strategy. The Institute would like to thank Sally Jenrenaud at the International Institute for Environment and Development for facilitating our role in the Green Economy Coalition meeting. AskNature featured strategy Moving cilia create iridescence: comb jellies Comb Jelly img Comb jellies are ocean dwellers that are bioluminescent and iridescent. Eight rows of locomotory cilia run along the body of the animal that appear to be brightly colored, showing an iridescence that rainbows across the whole visible spectrum as the combs beat for locomotion. This is not related to its bioluminescence but is caused by selective reflection from a two-dimensional photonic-crystal. One potential biomimetic application is the creation of color displays that are optically powered by ambient light. Biomimicry research & design news roundup Otter-inspired fabrics Finesterre fabric Finisterre emphasizes sustainable design and uses a Napa lining that mimics the structure of otter fur in some of its jackets. Read an interview with Ernest Capbert, the outdoor clothing company's director of marketing, on the Outside Blog. Sea-urchin inspired materials sea urchin photo Harvard materials scientist Joanna Aizenberg and her team have created an array of bioinspired materials. "One specific feature that interests me more than anything else at the moment is how nature creates adaptive materials that optimize performance in response to changing environmental cues," says Aizenberg. "The systems I am trying to replicate in my lab are the surfaces of sea urchins. They cover their bodies with an array of microflowers that constantly open and close, protecting the body from contamination." Donate to The Biomimicry Institute | Subscribe | Click here to unsubscribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 13:34:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:34:39 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Food Price Inflation Changes How We Shop Message-ID: <00d701ca7458$348ab4d0$9da01e70$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS As our environment changes around us, we are definitely going to be forced to adapt to it or die. As Margaret Thatcher was fond of saying: "TINA" -- there is no alternative. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 10:42 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Food Price Inflation Changes How We Shop Food Price Inflation Changes How We Shop http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/31/food-price-inflation-chan_n_94283.h tml ALAN SCHER ZAGIER | 03/31/08 01:14 PM Steadily rising food costs aren't just causing grocery shoppers to do a double-take at the checkout line _ they're also changing the very ways we feed our families. The worst case of food inflation in nearly 20 years has more Americans giving up restaurant meals to eat at home. We're buying fewer luxury food items, eating more leftovers and buying more store brands instead of name-brand items. For Peggy and David Valdez of Houston, feeding their family of four means scouring grocer ads for the best prices, taking fewer trips as a way to save gas and simply buying less food, period. "We do more selecting, looking around, seeing which prices are cheaper," said David Valdez. "We are being more selective. We have got to find the cheapest price." Record-high energy, corn and wheat prices in the past year have led to sticker shock in the grocery aisles. At $1.32, the average price of a loaf of bread has increased 32 percent since January 2005. In the last year alone, the average price of carton of eggs has increased almost 50 percent. Ground beef, milk, chicken, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, coffee and orange juice are among the staples that cost more these days, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, food prices rose nearly 5 percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means a pound of coffee, on average, cost 57 cents more at year's end than in 2006. A 12-ounce can of frozen, concentrated orange juice now averages $2.53 _ a 67-cent increase in just two years. And a carton of grade A, large eggs will set you back $2.17. That's an increase of nearly $1 since February, 2006. Story continues below "The economy is having a definite impact on shopper behavior," said Tim Hammonds, president and chief executive officer of the Food Marketing Institute, a retail trade group. "People are significantly changing what they do." Soaring prices are causing shoppers to rethink long-held habits such as store loyalty. Wal-Mart and other supercenters that sell food now account for 24 percent of the market, according to the most recent annual survey of shopping habits by Hammonds' organization. Gina Pierson, a music teacher in Columbia, Mo., buys her family's staples at local grocery stores but makes regular trips to Wal-Mart to supplement the weekly shopping list. Like many families struggling to get by, Pierson and her husband, a public school teacher, are adjusting their approach to buying, cooking and eating food. Restaurant meals are now almost a luxury. "Between food and gas, it's just cheaper to stay home," she said. In 2007, the FMI survey showed the average number of weekly shopping trips falling below two per household for the first time. Paula Curtis, a mental health worker in Montpelier, Vt., said her grocery bill has been steadily climbing by $10 to $20 a week. She has cut back on meat, fruit, vegetables and snack food, and buys milk at the gas station, where she said it's cheaper. "Every time I go, it's more and more," she said. "I make a list, but I don't necessarily get everything on it because I can't afford everything." Nationwide, a family of four on a moderate-cost shopping plan now spends an average of $904 each month for groceries, an $80 increase from two years ago, according to the USDA. Those who can't absorb the added expenses are increasingly seeking help from food pantries. America's Harvest, which distributes nearly two billion pounds of food and grocery products each year to more than 200 food banks across the country, estimates that its overall client load increased by 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. The jump has been even higher at the Central Missouri Food Bank's pantry in Columbia, a college town halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis. The food pantry served 7,200 people in 2007, an increase of more than 50 percent over two years, said executive director Peggy Kirkpatrick. Columbia used to be considered inflation-proof because of its high-paying university jobs and proximity to the state capital, 30 miles away in Jefferson City. "That's not the case anymore," she said. Shary Auer visits the Columbia food pantry once a month to help extend the family's $800 monthly food budget. The mother of five children, ages 9 to 19, is buying more canned food instead of fresh produce. Portions are smaller around the Auer dinner table, and salads are added regularly to stretch the servings of meat and poultry. Auer, a part-time postal worker and supermarket cashier, said she fastidiously tracks food prices. "I watch for sales, save my receipts and highlight what I save," she said. Not all shoppers are struggling with the changes. At the Whole Foods Market in downtown Seattle, Beth Miller didn't think twice about paying $6.39 for a gallon of organic orange juice, or $4 for a dozen eggs at the store, which specializes in organic and natural foods. "I'm used to having a small gasp at the cash register," said Miller, who favors local produce and organic food for her husband and 12-year-old son. "We try to be really careful about what we eat." Among retailers, the surge in commodity prices _ from corn, now in high demand because of increased ethanol production, to wheat that has tripled in price over the past 10 months _ has some industry observers suggesting that higher food prices aren't a temporary fluctuation but instead may be here to stay. "We don't exactly have a crystal ball," said Whole Foods' Perry Abbenante, a senior global grocery buyer. "But I'm not sure (prices) are going back. We're preparing for a new threshold." From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 13:54:54 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:54:54 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Local food activist makes the farm-bike-sailboat connection Message-ID: <00f201ca745b$08b1b3b0$1a151b10$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Does it really make more sense for someone to grow a large field of blueberries and then transport them to market to be sold rather than an individual/family raising their own blueberries along with other "superfoods" which provide more nutrition for the buck, while at the same time providing them with food security which is the cornerstone of freedom. And, if someone wants a brew wouldn't it be better to let the people who want beer do their own micro-brewing at home? Frankly, I was shocked when I read this years ago, but Janiah Donaldson posted an article showing how many more calories it took to feed someone who was doing hard labor. So, even here with human labor, we need to keep track of "calories in" versus "calories out" in determining what is viable and what is not. There is so very much to think of as we contemplate "where and when it is appropriate for whom to do what." -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 10:32 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Local food activist makes the farm-bike-sailboat connection Local food activist makes the farm-bike-sailboat connection http://bikeportland.org/2009/12/02/local-food-activist-makes-the-farm-to-bik e-to-sailboat-connection/ by Elly Blue 03 December 2009 Jan Lundberg moved to Portland a year ago because it seemed like the best place to pursue his intersecting passions for food security, peak oil, bicycles, and sailing. These passions will be coming to fruition later this month when the oil analyst's brainchild, the Sail Transport Network, will launch into its first major, ongoing local venture. Lundberg is finalizing plans to deliver malted grain grown on Vancouver, Washington to a brewery further down the Columbia River by a combination of cargo bike and sailboat. The next phase in the project will be to use the same bike-boat combination to deliver the finished product - bottles and kegs of beer - to Portland markets. (Lundberg asked that we not name the brewery until the plan is finalized.) Image Part of the farm-bike-boat delivery team at last year's Village Building Convergence on the dock at OMSI. Lundberg intends this partnership to be the seed of a radical change in the way we transport - and think about - food. "Just taking care of a brewery and being able to distribute some beer is not really food security," he told us over the phone. "But what you can do is add on to this existing system with more farms, more bike carts, more sailboats, and more CSA subscribers - and that's the way it grows." "People want to eat local, right? Well how's that food getting to them? It's being trucked from Corvallis and Richland . it's just kind of all over the map. There are farms on Sauvie Island, and there are community gardens and backyard gardens and Food Not Lawns. All this has to be integrated. We've demonstrated this before, but we want to make it a regular feature." Lundberg has made this connection before, in his past home of Humboldt County, California, with the organization Pedal Powered Produce, and with several smaller projects in the Puget Sound. Loading peas from cargo bike to sailboat on Sauvie Island last summer. Image Loading peas from cargo bike to sailboat on Sauvie Island last summer. When he first moved to Portland a year ago he quickly connected with food and localization activists at the City Repair Project and helped to organize food delivery for their annual conference last June, the Village Building Convergence. He joined a team of volunteers who delivered 60% of the food for meals during the event by bicycle, and Lundberg arranged sailboat and bike delivery of a load of produce from Kruger's Farm on Sauvie Island. He hopes that next year's event will feature even more local food delivered via the waterways. The goal, he says, is to get as much food as possible directly from farms to consumers, without intermediaries that include shipments by truck. He's hoping to move away from motorized transportation - last week, he removed the motor from his sailboat, making it entirely wind-powered. Lundberg says he's currently focusing on building up the Sail Transport Network by connecting with everyone he can. He's seeking donated cargo bikes and trailers that can be kept at the various docks where he ports; he also is looking for potential partners - farmers, consumers, sailors, gardeners, bike delivery people, restaurants, breweries, and anyone with ideas and energy. "All we need is more people to plug in to participate." "There's not a lot of money for this kind of work - you just have to do it yourself," he said. "It's not a boondoggle or a structure, it's like - Hey, join in the fun." From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 15:01:04 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 14:01:04 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [SPAM]Top Secret Weapon Developed by CIA Causes Heart Attacks Message-ID: <010a01ca7464$48e1ce30$daa56a90$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Fred Burks and his crew for keeping us advised on things like this that the conventional media does not want us to know. Their job is to keep us ?entertained? and our attention diverted from what is actually going on. I also just read a very good article written by John Taylor Gotto who is a main promoter of alternative education. In this article John wrote as to how ?they? have tailored education that dumbs us down and prevents ?we-the-people? from developing the critical thinking skills which would set us free. We need to transform our collective consciousness and develop a new belief system which takes us into another level of consciousness. From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 7:21 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: [SPAM]Top Secret Weapon Developed by CIA Causes Heart Attacks To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/war/top_secret_weapon_lethal Dear friends, A top secret lethal weapon of the CIA is used for conducting clandestine assassinations without leaving a trace of evidence. This specially designed secret weapon is a pistol which shoots a small poison dart to cause a heart attack, as explained in Congressional testimony in a short video clip from a powerful documentary on the CIA. By educating ourselves and others on vitally important matters like this, we can build a brighter future for us all. The dart from this secret CIA weapon penetrates clothing and leaves nothing but a tiny red dot on the skin. On penetration of the deadly dart, the individual targeted for assassination may feel as if bitten by a mosquito, or they may not feel anything at all. The poisonous dart completely disintegrates upon entering the target. The lethal poison then rapidly enters the bloodstream causing a heart attack. Once the damage is done, the poison denatures quickly, so that an autopsy is very unlikely to detect that the heart attack resulted from anything other than natural causes. Sounds like the perfect James Bond weapon, doesn't it? Yet all of this is verifiable in Congressional testimony. The astonishing information about this secret weapon of the CIA comes from U.S. Senate testimony in 1975 on rogue activities of the CIA. This weapon is only one of many James Bond-like discoveries of the Church Committee hearings, officially known as the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. Could this or a similar secret weapon have been used, for instance, in the death of 52-year-old Mark Pittman, a reporter who predicted the financial crisis and exposed Federal Reserve misdoings? Pittman, whose fight to open the Federal Reserve to more scrutiny led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died of a heart attack on Nov. 25, 2009. How many other alleged heart attacks may have been secret political assassinations? Watch the one-minute video at this link for the description of a former CIA secretary and Congressional testimony on this top secret weapon. To watch the revealing 45-minute documentary from which the above clip was taken, click here. In this riveting expos?, five former CIA agents describe how their initial pride and enthusiasm at serving their nation turned to anguish and remorse, as they realized that they were actually subverting democracy and killing innocent civilians all in the name "national security" and promoting foreign policy agendas. The above-mentioned testimony is from 1975, several decades ago. With the ensuing leaps in technological capability, just imagine what kinds of secret weapons for assassination have been developed since. There is good evidence that technology has even been developed to cause strong suicidal feelings in a targeted person. For more on this, read powerful information on nonlethal weapons at this link . The box below provides several ideas on what you can do to further educate yourself on top secret weapons, CIA mind control projects, and more. We also invite you to think about these things and invite discussion with your friends and colleagues. Does the public deserve to know about such secret programs? Can we trust that such deadly weapons are being used for the good of the nation and world, and not for selfish ends? By spreading the word, we can make a big difference and build a brighter future for ourselves and our children. With best wishes, Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton What you can do: * Read other powerful, reliable articles on political assassinations at this link . * Inform your media and political representatives of this critical information on top secret lethal weapons. To contact those close to you, click here . Urge them bring this information to light and allow public dialog on the topic of clandestine assassinations and lethal secret weapons. * Learn about the intriguing history and development of controversial CIA behavior modification programs in this excellent two-page summary . Footnotes and links to reliable sources are provided for verification purposes. * Visit our eye-opening Mind Control Information Center at this link. * Explore inspiring ideas on how we can build a brighter future in this short essay . * Spread this news to your friends and colleagues, and bookmark this article on key news websites using the "Share This" icon on this page, so that we can fill the role at which the major media is sadly failing. Together, we can make a difference. Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. 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URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 19:31:40 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:31:40 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] REPOSTED: THE 5 STAGES OF COLLAPSE, By Dmitry Orlov Message-ID: <012b01ca748a$18028e50$4807aaf0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS The below is an excerpt from Orlov's article: "The Five Stages of Collapse." And, I believe it to be exceedingly important as we struggle to cope with the inevitable. "We may learn to dodge financial collapse by learning to live without needing much money. We may create alternative living arrangements and informal production and distribution networks for all the necessities before commercial collapse occurs. We may organize into self-governing communities that can provide for their own security during political collapse. And all of these steps put together may put us in a position to safeguard society and culture." If you live in a community where there is a local currency available and if you are capable of raising your own food, it is very likely you will make it through the stages of collapse since these are the basic necessities. Out of necessity, health care will become a thing of the past and you will be forced to learn how to heal yourself or perish. There is a lot of information available today on how to do this, and I heartily suggest you begin acquiring the mental discipline associated with it. Also of importance is learning about local herbs and other natural medicinals. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 7:59 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] REPOSTED: THE 5 STAGES OF COLLAPSE, By Dmitry Orlov REPOSTED: THE 5 STAGES OF COLLAPSE, By Dmitry Orlov Sunday, 22 November 2009 http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1397/1/ Reprinted from ENERGY BULLETIN WITH COMMENT REGARDING ORLOV'S ARTICLE FROM MIKE RUPPERT: One of the best things I ever did at FTW (From The Wilderness) was to bring up good writers and thinkers. FTW was the first to publish Dmitry Orlov who has done so much to prepare us. He desribes what we can expect. The Five Stages of Collapse 1. Stage one: Financial Collapse 2. Commercial Collapse 3. Political Collapse 4. Social Collapse 5. Cultural Collapse I think everybody needs to break out their Dmitry Orlove reader right about now. We are just entering the second stage. We can expect to be able to function as something resembling normal until the end of Stage Three. That means there will be warning signs and time to prepare. We will not get caught flat-footed. How could we? We're the ones who made the map. Trust this. As to how long each stage lasts... that's anybody's guess right now. Another rule of thumb is that with each new stage, things get less and less predictable/reliable. 1. Hello, everyone! The talk you are about to hear is the result of a lengthy process on my part. My specialty is in thinking about and, unfortunately, predicting collapse. My method is based on comparison: I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and, since I am also familiar with the details of the situation in the United States, I can make comparisons between these two failed superpowers. I was born and grew up in Russia, and I traveled back to Russia repeatedly between the late 80s and mid-90s. This allowed me to gain a solid understanding of the dynamics of the collapse process as it unfolded there. By the mid-90s it was quite clear to me that the US was headed in the same general direction. But I couldn't yet tell how long the process would take, so I sat back and watched. I am an engineer, and so I naturally tended to look for physical explanations for this process, as opposed to economic, political, or cultural ones. It turns out that one could come up with a very good explanation for the Soviet collapse by following energy flows. What happened in the late 80s is that Russian oil production hit an all-time peak. This coincided with new oil provinces coming on stream in the West - the North Sea in the UK and Norway, and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska - and this suddenly made oil very cheap on the world markets. Soviet revenues plummeted, but their appetite for imported goods remained unchanged, and so they sank deeper and deeper into debt. What doomed them in the end was not even so much the level of debt, but their inability to take on further debt even faster. Once international lenders balked at making further loans, it was game over. What is happening to the United States now is broadly similar, with certain polarities reversed. The US is an oil importer, burning up 25% of the world's production, and importing over two-thirds of that. Back in mid-90s, when I first started trying to guess the timing of the US collapse, the arrival of the global peak in oil production was scheduled for around the turn of the century. It turned out that the estimate was off by almost a decade, but that is actually fairly accurate as far as such big predictions go. So here it is the high price of oil that is putting the brakes on further debt expansion. As higher oil prices trigger a recession, the economy starts shrinking, and a shrinking economy cannot sustain an ever-expanding level of debt. At some point the ability to finance oil imports will be lost, and that will be the tipping point, after which nothing will ever be the same. This is not to say that I am a believer in some sort of energy determinism. If the US were to cut its energy consumption by an order of magnitude, it would still be consuming a staggeringly huge amount, but an energy crisis would be averted. But then this country, as we are used to thinking of it, would no longer exist. Oil is what powers this economy. In turn, it is this oil-based economy that makes it possible to maintain and expand an extravagant level of debt. So, a drastic cut in oil consumption would cause a financial collapse (as opposed to the other way around). A few more stages of collapse would follow, which we will discuss next. So, you could see this outlandish appetite for imported oil as a cultural failing, but it is not one that can be undone without causing a great deal of damage. If you like, you can call it "ontological determinism": it has to be what it is, until it is no more. I don't mean to imply that every part of the country will suddenly undergo a spontaneous existence failure, reverting to an uninhabited wilderness. I agree with John-Michael Greer that the myth of the Apocalypse is not the least bit helpful in coming to terms with the situation. The Soviet experience is very helpful here, because it shows us not only that life goes on, but exactly how it goes on. But I am quite certain that no amount of cultural transformation will help us save various key aspects of this culture: car society, suburban living, big box stores, corporate-run government, global empire, or runaway finance. On the other hand, I am quite convinced that nothing short of a profound cultural transformation will allow any significant number of us to keep roofs over our heads, and food on our tables. I also believe that the sooner we start letting go of our maladaptive cultural baggage, the more of a chance we will stand. A few years ago, my attitude was to just keep watching events unfold, and keep this collapse thing as some sort of macabre hobby. But the course of events is certainly speeding up, and now my feeling is that the worst we can do is pretend that everything will be fine and simply run out the clock on our current living arrangement, with nothing to replace it once it all starts shutting down. Now, getting back to my own personal progress in working through these questions, in 2005 I wrote an article called "Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-American Century". Initially, I wanted to publish it on a web site run by Dale Alan Pfeiffer, but, to my surprise, it ended up on From The Wilderness, a much more popular site run by Michael Ruppert, and, to my further astonishment, Mike even paid me for it. And ever since then, I've been asked the same question, repeatedly: "When? When is the collapse going to occur?" Being a little bit clever, I always decline to give a specific answer, because, you see, as soon as you get one specific prediction wrong, there goes your entire reputation. One reasonable way of thinking about the timing is to say that collapse can occur at different times for different people. You may never quite know that collapse has happened, but you will know that it has happened to you personally, or to your family, or to your town. The big picture may not come together until much later, thanks to the efforts of historians. Individually, we may never know what hit us, and, as a group, we may never agree on any one answer. Look at the collapse of the USSR: some people are still arguing over why exactly it happened. But sometimes the picture is clearer than we would like. In January of 2008, I published an article on "The Five Stages of Collapse," in which I defined the five stages, and then bravely stated that we are in the midst of a financial collapse. And ten months later it doesn't seem that I went too far out on a limb this time. If the US government has to lend banks over 200 billion dollars a day just to keep the whole system from imploding, then the term "crisis" probably doesn't do justice to the situation. To keep this game going, the US government has to be able to sell the debt it is taking on, and what do you think the chances are that the world at large will be snapping up trillions of dollars of new debt, knowing that it is being used to prop up a shrinking economy? And if the debt can't be sold, then it has to be monetized, by printing money. And that will trigger hyperinflation. So, let's not quibble, and let us call what's happening what it looks like: "financial collapse". 2. So here are the five stages as I defined them almost a year ago. The little check-mark next to "financial collapse" is there to remind us that we are not here to quibble or equivocate, because Stage 1 is pretty far along. Stages 2 and 3 - commercial and political collapse, are driven by financial collapse, and will overlap each other. Right now, it is unclear which one is farther along. On the one hand, there are signs that global shipping is grinding to a halt, and that big box retailers are in for a very bad time, with many stores likely to close following a disastrous Christmas season. On the other hand, states are already experiencing massive budget shortfalls, laying off state workers, cutting back on programs, and are starting to beg the federal government for bail-out money. Even though the various stages of collapse drive each other in a variety of ways, I think that it makes sense to keep them apart conceptually. This is because their effects on our daily life are quite different. Whatever constructive ways we may find of dodging these effects are also going to be different. Lastly, some stages of collapse seem unavoidable, while others may be avoided if we put up enough of a fight. Financial collapse seems to be particularly painful if you happen to have a lot of money. On the other hand, I run across people all the time, who feel that "Nothing's happened yet." These are mostly younger, relatively successful people, who have little or no savings, and still have good paying jobs, or unemployment insurance that hasn't run out yet. Their daily lives aren't much affected by the turmoil on the financial markets, and they don't believe that anything different is happening beyond the usual economic ups and downs. Commercial collapse is much more obvious, and observing it doesn't entail opening envelopes and examining columns of figures. It is painful to most people, and life-threatening to some. When store shelves are stripped bare of necessities and remain that way for weeks at a time, panic sets in. In most places, this requires some sort of emergency response, to make sure that people are not deprived of food, shelter, medicine, and that some measure of security and public order is maintained. People who know what's coming can prepare to sit out the worst of it. Political collapse is more painful yet, because it is directly life-threatening to many people. The breakdown of public order would be particularly dangerous in the US, because of the large number of social problems that have been swept under the carpet over the years. Americans, more than most other people, need to be defended from each other at all times. I think that I would prefer martial law over complete and utter mayhem and lawlessness, though I admit that both are very poor choices. Social and cultural collapse seem to have already occurred in many parts of the country to a large extent. What social activity remains seems to be anchored to transitory activities like work, shopping, and sports. Religion is perhaps the largest exception, and many communities are organized around churches. But in places where society and culture remain intact, I believe that social and cultural collapse is avoidable, and that this is where we must really dig in our heels. Also, I think it is very important that we learn to see our surroundings for what they have become. In many places, it feels as if there just isn't that much left that's worth trying to save. If all the culture we see is commercial culture, and all the society we see is consumer society, then the best we can do is walk away from it, and look for other people who are ready to do the same. 3. There is nothing particularly deep or magical about the five stages I chose, except that they seem convenient. They correspond to the commonly distinguished aspects of everyday reality. Each stage of collapse also corresponds to a certain set of beliefs in the status quo, that is about to go by the wayside. It is always an impressive thing to observe when reality shifts. One moment, a certain idea is seen as preposterous, and the next moment it's being treated as conventional wisdom. There seems to be a psychological mechanism involved, where nobody wants to be seen as the last fool to finally get the picture. Everybody starts pretending that they've thought that way all along, or at least for a little while, for fear of appearing foolish. It is always awkward to ask people what caused them to suddenly change their minds, because with the fear of looking foolish comes a certain loss of dignity. The most compelling example of lots of minds suddenly going "snap" is, to my mind, the sudden demise of the USSR. It happened with Boris Yeltsin standing atop a tank, and being asked the question: "But what will become of the Soviet Union?" And his answer, pronounced with maximum gravitas was: "Henceforth I shall only refer to it as the FORMER Soviet Union." And that was that. After that, whoever still believed in the Soviet Union appeared as not just foolish, but actually crazy. For a while, there were a lot of crazy old people parading around with portraits of Lenin and Stalin. Their minds were too old to go "snap". Here in the US, we are yet to experience any of the really major, earth-shattering realizations, the ones that look preposterous immediately before and completely obvious immediately after they occur. We have had minor tremors, mostly relating to financial assumptions. Is real estate a good investment. Will private retirement allow you to retire? Will the government bail us all out? All the major realizations are yet to come, or, as my die-hard Yuppie friends keep telling me, "Nothing's happened yet." But by the time something does happen, it will have been too late for us to start planning for it happening. It doesn't seem all that worthwhile for us to sit around waiting for the happy event of everybody else feeling foolish all at the same time. Arrogant though that may seem, we may be better off accepting their foolishness before they do, and keeping a safe distance ahead of the prevailing opinion. Because if we do that, we may yet succeed in finding ways to cope. We may learn to dodge financial collapse by learning to live without needing much money. We may create alternative living arrangements and informal production and distribution networks for all the necessities before commercial collapse occurs. We may organize into self-governing communities that can provide for their own security during political collapse. And all of these steps put together may put us in a position to safeguard society and culture. Or we can just wait until everyone starts agreeing with us, because we wouldn't want them to look foolish. 4. The important dynamic, when it comes to financial collapse, is obvious by now. It's the collapse of credit pyramids, "the whole house of cards" as President Bush put it. The technical term is "deleveraging," and the response is the bailout. The federal government will be bailing out the banks and the insurance companies, the auto companies, and state governments. Call it the bail-out treadmill: we are borrowing faster and faster just to keep from falling down. The treadmill is actually a good metaphor. Imagine what would happen if you went to a gym, got on a treadmill machine, and just kept punching up the speed, as high as it will go. What happens is you trip and fall, and find yourself flying backwards. It is instructive to ask the question, Who are we borrowing this bail-out money from? People will tell you that we are borrowing it from "the taxpayer." But it's not as if federal tax receipts have automatically shot up by a few trillion over the past couple of months, and so this begs the question, Who is "the taxpayer" going to borrow this money from in the meantime? From other Americans? No, because our savings rate has been abysmally low for quite some time now, and what little we have saved is in housing equity, which is dwindling, and in stocks and bonds, through mutual funds and 401ks and such, which are down by a third or so. The value of these investments is crashing, and if we dumped these investments to raise the cash to fund this new debt, that would just make them crash even faster. In effect, we'd only be moving money from one pocket to another. So, really, the bailouts have to be financed by foreigners. And what if these foreigners decide not to trust us with any more of their savings? Then our only recourse is to "monetize" the debt: to print money. And so the next question is, how much money would we have to print? The purpose of the bailouts is to provide liquidity to insolvent companies, to avoid deleveraging. To understand what that means, we have to understand that for every actual dollar within the economy, in the sense of it not being borrowed, there are over 13 dollars of borrowed money, which only exists while the debt can be rolled over. If our credit is maxed out while the economy is growing, that's bad enough, but the US economy is shrinking because of the recent oil shock. A smaller economy cannot carry as much debt, and this is part of the reason why we have deleveraging. Once the process of debt going sour gets started, it is hard to stop, and if deleveraging were to run its course, we would be down over 1300%. To monetize that much debt would require over 1300% inflation. And once that gets started, it becomes very hard to stop. And, that, believe it or not, is actually the good news. Because most of our debt is denominated in our own currency - the US dollar - the US will not have to declare sovereign default, like Russia was forced to do in the 1990s. Instead, we can inflate our way out of national bankruptcy, by printing a lot of dollars. We will repay our national debt, but we will do so in worthless paper money, bankrupting our international creditors in the process. There is sure to be plenty of pain for everyone, especially everyone who is used to having plenty of money, because their money will no longer make the world go around. Once the US has to start earning foreign currency in order to pay for imports, you can be sure that imports will become quite scarce. 5. Here are before and after snapshots of the most salient characteristics of financial collapse, as they will affect the vast majority of the population. Here, I am assuming that commercial and political collapse are slower in arriving, and that government is still there to step in with emergency aid of various sorts, and that a market economy of some sort continues to function. It could come down to everyone walking around with their little food stamps debit cards, and the only place they can use them that's within walking distance is McDonalds, but I am assuming some semi-stable period during which other adjustments can occur before other stages run their course. The adjustments would have to do with major aspects of the living arrangement, from where we live to how we grow food to how we relate to each other. With money scarce and not particularly potent, other ways of winning the cooperation of others would need to be evolved in a hurry. The financial realm can be seen as a complex system of fences: your bank account is fenced off from my bank account. This arrangement allows you and me to not worry too much about each other, provided each of us has enough to live on. Though this is largely a fiction, we can fancy ourselves to be independent economic players on a level playing field. But once these conceptual fences become irrelevant, because there is nothing behind them, we become each others' burden, in an immediate sort of way, that would come as a shock to most people. The indignity of such physical interdependence would be psychologically devastating to many people, raising the human toll from financial collapse beyond what you'd expect from a problem that really only exists on paper. This is going to be particularly hard for a nation brought up on the myth of rugged individualism. 6. Commercial collapse, when it arrives, will again cause much more of a psychological crack-up than you'd expect from a purely organizational problem. The quantities of immediately available goods and services right before and right after the collapse would remain about the same, but because market psychology is so ingrained in the population, no other ways of coping would be considered. Hoarding would become widespread, with looting as the obvious antidote. There would be an instant, huge black market for all sorts of necessities, from shampoo to vials of insulin. The market mechanism works well in some cases, but it doesn't work at all when key commodities become scarce. It leads to profiteering, hoarding, looting, and other pernicious effects. There is usually a knee-jerk reaction to regulate the markets, by imposing price controls, or by introducing rationing. I found it quite funny that the recent clamoring for re-regulating the financial markets was greeted with cries of "Socialists!" Failing at capitalism doesn't make you a socialist, any more than getting a divorce automatically make you gay. If by the time commercial collapse is upon us, there is still enough of the political system left intact to implement rationing and price controls and emergency distribution schemes, then we should count these among our blessings. Such heavy-handed governance is certainly not a crowd-pleaser during times of plenty, when it's also unnecessary, but it can be quite a life-saver during times of scarcity. The Soviet food distribution system, which was plagued with chronic underperformance during normal times, proved to be paradoxically resilient during collapse, allowing people to survive the transition. 7. If prior to commercial collapse the challenge is finding enough money to afford the necessities, afterward the challenge is getting people to accept money as payment for these same necessities. Many of the would-be sellers will prefer to be paid in something more valuable than mere cash. Customer service comes to mean that customers must provide a service. Given that most people won't have much to offer, other than their now worthless money, should they still have any, most purveyors of goods and services decide to take a holiday. With the disappearance of the free and open market, even the items that still are available for sale come to be offered in a way that is neither free nor open, but only at certain times and to certain people. Whatever wealth still exists is hidden, because flaunting it or exposing it just increases the security risk, and the amount of effort required to guard it. In an economy where the vast majority of manufactured items is imported, and designed with planned obsolescence in mind, it will be difficult to keep things running as imports dry up, especially imports of spare parts for foreign-made machinery. The pool of available equipment will shrink over time, as more and more pieces of equipment become used as "organ donors." In an effort to keep things running, entire cottage industries devoted to refurbishing old stuff might suddenly come together. 8. It is sometimes hard to discern political collapse, because politicians tend to be quite good at maintaining the pretense of power and authority even as it dwindles. But there are some telltale signs of political collapse. One is when politicians start moonlighting because their day job is no longer sufficiently gainful. Another is when regional politicians start to openly defy orders from the political center. Russia experienced plenty of each of these symptoms. One thing that makes political collapse particularly hard to spot is that the worse things get, the more noise the politicians emit. The substance to noise ratio in political discourse is pretty low even in good times, making it hard to spot the transition when it actually drops to zero. The variable that's easier to monitor is the level of political embarrassment. For instance, when Mr. Nazdratenko, the governor of the far-east Russian region of Primorye, stole large amounts of coal, made strides in the direction of establishing an independent foreign policy toward China, and yet Moscow could do nothing to reign him in, you could be sure that Russia's political system was pretty much defunct. Another telltale sign of political collapse is actual disintegration, where regions declare independence. In Russia, that was the case with Chechnya, and it led to a prolonged bloody conflict. Here, we might have a "Reconquista" where former Mexican territories become ever more Mexican, the South might rise again. New England, California, and the Pacific Northwest might decide to go their separate ways. Once the interstate highway system is no longer viable and the remaining domestic airlines are extinct, there is not much to keep the two coasts together. What once united the country was the construction of the continental railroad, but railroads have been too neglected to hold it together now. A country consisting of two halves tied together via Panama Canal is de facto at least two countries. Yet another thing to watch for is foreign incursions into domestic politics. When foreign political consultants start stage-managing elections, as happened with Yeltsin's reelection campaign, you can be sure that the country is no longer in charge of its own political system. In the US, there is a gradual surrender of sovereignty, as sovereign wealth funds buy up more and more US assets. That sort of thing used to be considered akin to an act of war, but these are desperate times, and they are allowed to do so without so much as a nasty comment. Eventually, they may start making political demands, to extract the most value out of their investments. For instance, they could start vetting candidates for public office, to make sure that we remain friendly to their interests. Lastly, the power vacuum created by the collapse of legitimate authority tends to be more or less automatically filled by criminal syndicates. These often try to commandeer the political establishment by getting their heads elected or appointed to political offices. Examples include Russian oligarchs, such as Boris Berezovsky, who got himself elected to Duma, the Russian parliament, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who thought he could use his oil wealth to buy his way into the political establishment. Luckily for Russia, Berezovsky is in exile in England, and Khodorkovsky is in jail. 9. A great many people in the US insist that they do not need government help, and that they would do just fine if only the government would leave them alone. But this is really just a pose; there is a great deal that that government does to make their lives possible. In the United States, the federal government keeps many people alive through programs such as Medicaid, Social Security, and food stamps. Local governments provide for trash removal and water and sewer line maintenance, road and bridge repair, and so on. Police departments try to defend people from each other. When all of that starts to unravel, it is likely to do so from the bottom, not from the top. Local officials are more accessible than remote Washington bureaucrats, and so they will be the first to be overwhelmed by the anger and confusion of their constituents, while Washington remains unresponsive. One likely exception may have to do with the use of federal troops. It seems almost a given that troops repatriated from the more than 1000 foreign military bases will see action right here at home. They will be reassigned to domestic peacekeeping duties. 10. Aside from the big government programs, there is little available in the US to help those in need. Again, Americans make a big show of their philanthropy, but, compared to other developed countries, they are in fact quite stingy when it comes to helping those in need. There is even a streak of political sadism, which, for example, shows up in people's attitudes toward welfare recipients. This sadism can be seen in the so-called welfare reform, which has forced single mothers to work jobs that barely cover the cost of daycare, which is often substandard. Aside from the government, there are charities, many of which are church-based, and so they have the ulterior motive of recruiting people to their cause. But even when a charity does not make any specific demands, its real purpose is to reinforce the superiority of those who are charitable, at the expense of those who are the recipients. There is a flow of forced gratitude from the beneficiary to the benefactor. The greater the need, the more humiliating is the transaction to the beneficiary, and the more satisfying it is to the benefactor. There is no motivation for the benefactor to provide more charity in response to greater need, except in special circumstances, such as immediately following a natural disaster. Where the need is large, constant, and growing, we should expect charities to matter very little when it comes to satisfying it. Since neither government largesse nor charity is likely to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves, we should look for other options. One promising direction is a revival of mutual help societies, which take membership contributions and then use them to help those in need. At least in theory, such organizations are vastly better than either government aid or charities. Those who are helped by them do not have to surrender their dignity, and can survive difficult times without being stigmatized. To make it intact through times of great need, the only reasonable approach, it seems to me, is to form communities that are strong and cohesive enough to provide for the well-being of all of their members, that are large enough to be resourceful, yet small enough so that people can relate to each other directly, and to take direct responsibility for each other's well-being. 11. If this effort fails, then the outlook becomes dire indeed. I would like to emphasize, once again, that we must do all we can to avoid this stage of collapse. We can allow the financial system, and the commercial sector, and most of the government institutions to collapse, but not this. What makes this particularly challenging is that the existence of finance and credit, of consumer society, and of government-imposed law and order has allowed society, in the sense of direct, mutual help and of freely accepting responsibility for each others' welfare, to atrophy. This process of social decay may be less advanced in groups that have survived recent adversity: immigrant and minority groups, or people who served together in the armed forces. The instincts that underlie this behavior are strong, and they are what helped us survive as a species, but they need to be reactivated in time to create groups that are cohesive enough to be viable. 12. Culture can mean a great many things to people, but what I mean here is a specific very important element of culture: how people relate to each other face to face. Take honesty, for instance: do people demand it of themselves and others, or do they feel that it is acceptable to lie to get what you want? Do they take pride in how much they have or in how much they can give? I took this list of virtues from Colin Turnbull, who wrote a book about a tribe in which most of these virtues were almost entirely missing. Turnbull's point was that these personal virtues are also all but destroyed in Western society, but that for the time being their absence is being masked by the impersonal institutions of finance, commerce, and government. I believe that Turnbull has a point. Ours is a cold world, in which the citizens are theoretically expected to fend for themselves, but in reality can only survive thanks to the impersonal services of finance, commerce, and government. It only allows us to practice these warm virtues among family and friends. But that is a start, and from there we can expand this circle of warmth to encompass more and more of the people who matter to us and we to them. 13. In his amazing book about the legacy of European colonialism, Exterminate all the Brutes, Sven Lindqvist makes the stunning observation that violence renders one unrecognizable. The aggressor, whether active or passive, becomes a stranger. The violence does not have to be physical. One subtle type of mental violence that abounds in our world is the act of refusing to acknowledge someone's existence. We may believe that it makes us safer to walk past people without making eye contact. That is certainly true if our look is blank and indifferent, and it is then better to avert one's gaze than to look, and in effect to say: "I do not recognize you." That definitely does not make you any safer. But if your look says "I see you, you are OK," or even "I recognize you," then the effect is quite the opposite. Dogs understand this principle perfectly well, and so should people. 14. When I was doing a radio tour to promote my book, a lot of the AM radio motor-mouths who interviewed me would sum up the interview with something like "So this is all doom and gloom, isn't it." And then I would have maybe 15 seconds for a rebuttal. So here is my standard 15 second rebuttal: "No, my message is actually quite hopeful. I want to let people know that they can find ways to lead happy, fulfilling lives even as this doomed system crumbles all around them." Here, I can give you a longer answer. I believe that the financial pyramid scheme and globalized consumerism are done. But I think that having no government at all is not an option. Forget entitlements, forget military bases on foreign soil, forget the three-ring circus that passes for representative democracy here, but we will still need agencies to print passports, to control the nuclear stockpile, as well as many other mundane but essential services that only a central government can provide. For most other needs, local self-government may be the best we can do, but that may not be bad at all. Commercial collapse need not be final. It is quite possible that a new economy will arise spontaneously, one without all the frills and the waste, but able to provide for most of the basic needs. In the places that are socially and culturally intact, this is almost inevitable, as people take charge and start doing what's necessary without waiting for official sanction. As far as social and cultural collapse, as I already mentioned, to some extent they have already happened, but this is being masked, for the time being, by the availability of finance, commerce, and government. But they can be undone, not everywhere, of course, but in quite a few places, because the instincts are there, and a dire common predicament can be the catalyst that changes society, bringing it closer to the human norm. 15. Knowing what to expect can provide us with peace of mind, even in the midst of collapse. Wallowing in nostalgia over the good old days, or denying that sweeping changes are before us -- these responses are definitely unhealthy. If we know what's coming, we can start ignoring the things that we will not be able to rely on. If we do enough of this, we may find ourselves in a different world, quite possibly a better one, rather quickly. Here is a personal example. Some years ago, I decided to give up the car, finding it quite impractical, and started bicycling instead. It wasn't that easy at first, but once I got used to it, a strange thing happened to my perception: I started seeing cars quite differently. On the way to work in the morning, I would ride along a stretch of highway, which was always packed with cars. When you are driver, you see it as normal, because you are part of this herd of mechanized insects. But what I saw was sheet metal boxes with people imprisoned inside them, strapped down to a chair inside a tiny padded cell, and most of these poor crazies were just pictures of misery: an angry, desperate, lonely mob, condemned to move about in circles. And then I would happily pedal away, through a park and around a pond, and leave that horrible, dying world behind. And so it is with a great many things. We can wait until the lifestyle that is killing the planet and is making us crazy and sick is no longer physically possible, or we can opt out of it ahead of time. And what we replace it with can be difficult at first, but quite a lot better for us in the end. 16. So let us summarize our findings. Financial collapse is already quite far along, and is guaranteed to run its course. Bailouts can make insolvent institutions look solvent for a time by providing liquidity, but one thing they cannot provide is solvency. For instance, no matter how much we bail out the auto companies, making any more cars will still be a bad idea. Similarly, no matter how much money we give to banks, their loan portfolios, loaded down with houses built in places that are inaccessible except by car, will still end up being worthless. By continuously nationalizing bad debt, the country will make itself into a bad credit risk, and foreign lenders will walk away. Hyperinflation and loss of imports will follow. 17. Commercial collapse is likewise guaranteed to happen. One key import is oil, and here the loss of imports will cause much of the economy to shut down, because in this country nothing moves without oil. But it should be possible to come up with new, far less energy-intensive ways to provide for the basic needs. 18. Political collapse is guaranteed as well. As tax receipts dwindle, municipalities and states will no longer be able to meet the minimal maintenance requirements for existing infrastructure: roads, bridges, water and sewer mains, and so forth. Municipal services, including police, fire departments, snow removal and garbage collection, will also be curtailed or eliminated. The better-organized communities may be able to find ways to compensate, but many communities will become impassable and uninhabitable, generating a flood of internal refugees. Currently, the political class couldn't be farther from understanding what is about to happen. I listened in on one of the recent presidential debates (I don't have a television set, but I caught a chunk of it on NPR). It struck me that the two candidates spent most of the time arguing over ways of spending money that they don't have. For me, listening to them was a waste of time that I didn't have. I suspect that my book, would sell better if McCain got elected; nevertheless, I choose to remain selflessly apolitical. National politics is a distraction and a waste of time. Actually, I should be gratified. A while ago I proposed a whimsical Collapse Party. The Collapse Party platform featured planks such as the freeing of prisoners to whittle down the prison population before a general amnesty becomes necessary due to lack of funds, a jubilee - forgiveness of all debts - to wipe the slate clean of all these bad loans, and a few others. Elsewhere, I proposed that it is a good idea to stop making new cars - just run down the ones we already have, and we'll run out of cars just as we run out of gas. I am happy to report that this has been banner year for the Collapse Party. Without fielding a single candidate, we managed to push through much of our agenda: many states are releasing prisoners due to the fiscal crisis, the federal government is now involved in avoiding foreclosures, a huge credit card debt write-off is in the works (not quite a jubilee, but still...) and now automakers are ready to consolidate or declare bankruptcy. Next year, perhaps we will repatriate troops and shut down overseas military bases, also in line with the Collapse Party platform. 19. Continuing with our recap, I see social collapse as avoidable, but not in all places. In many places, the task is to reconstitute society before the first three stages run their course, and it may already be too late. But this is where we need to make a stand, if only to be remembered for something more than the sum total of our mistakes. 20. Lastly, cultural collapse is something that's almost too horrible to contemplate, except that in some places it seems to have already happened, and is being masked by the various institutions that still exist, for the time being. But I believe that a lot of people will come around and remember their humanity, the better parts of their natures, when dire circumstances force them to rise to the occasion. Also, there are some intact pockets of culture here and there that can be used as a sort of cultural seed stock. These are communities and groups that have seen some adversity in recent times, and have some social cohesion left over from the experience. They may also be those who made certain conscious decisions, to simplify their living arrangements in order to lead saner, more fulfilling lives. We must do all we can to avert this final stage of collapse, because what is at stake is nothing less than our humanity. 21. I hope that, if you have been following along, by this point this slide is self-explanatory. Collapse is not one monolithic thing. Each kind of collapse requires a response, be it jumping clear ahead of time, sitting it out, or opposing it with all you got. At this point, if anyone in this room got up and tried to tell us what to do to avoid financial collapse, we would probably find that quite funny. On the other hand, if we stand by and let social and cultural collapse unfold, then what's the point of any of this? That's all. Thank you for listening. Content on this site is subject to our fair use notice. Energy Bulletin is a program of Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the world transition away from fossil fuels and build sustainable, resilient communities. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 19:49:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:49:45 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Can Cleveland Clinic Be A Model For Digital Medicine? Message-ID: <014201ca748c$a6ed3f50$f4c7bdf0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS After just reading Orlov's article on the Five Stages of Collapse, and knowing of the imminent shortage of materials for production, I cannot help but wonder about the ability to replicate this model -- at least throughout the U.S. As I ponder the scenario ahead, it is my feeling that there will be pockets where people will still be able to make money producing either from models left over from the Industrial Age or from new models that will spring up in the beginning stages of the Age of Knowledge. But there are also going to be pockets, especially in the rural areas where people are going to be completely dependent upon their ability to be more or less self reliant and raise their own food. While we can hold the vision for a completely revitalized or new economy, it is not going to come about all at once. So, I do not believe there are going to be "one size fits all answers" and there will be much experimentation and revision before we once again settle down into what might be called a "comfort zone" for all as has been the case in the past several decades even though the economy underlying this comfort zone that produced the great middle class was false. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 9:19 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Can Cleveland Clinic Be A Model For Digital Medicine? Can Cleveland Clinic Be A Model For Digital Medicine? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/02/can-cleveland-clinic-be-a_n_376842. html Huffington Post Investigative Fund | Emma Schwartz First Posted: 12- 2-09 10:50 AM | Updated: 12- 2-09 11:02 AM CLEVELAND--When Albert Giuliani wakes up each morning, he steps on a scale, takes his blood pressure and pricks his finger to test his sugar levels. Though he's lived with diabetes and hypertension for decades, he no longer has to bother with pen and paper. The results are automatically uploaded to an electronic record that he and his doctor at the Cleveland Clinic can check anytime. It's a far cry from how Giuliani, 55, used to handle his health care. A busy public defender, he rarely made it to a doctor's appointment without having to reschedule because of a trial or emergency meeting. Now, with regular monitoring, Giuliani has much more energy and saves hundreds of dollars on medicine. "It's very convenient," said Giuliani. "It's just saved me a lot of time and effort." The way Giuliani manages his disease illustrates the potential for improving patient care in the digital age. Few places can claim to be as far down this road as the Cleveland Clinic, a prestigious medical center that President Obama has praised for having "one of the best health information technology systems in the country." Yet an examination of the hospital's experience yields both a model and a cautionary tale for the administration's ambitious plan to spend $45 billion to jump-start a national system of electronic medical records. Federal officials want doctors and hospitals to digitize their records within five years, aiming to improve care and reap billions of dollars in savings. Cleveland Clinic doctors say there is no doubt the switch to digital record-keeping has boosted the quality of care, particularly their management of chronic diseases and routine screening tests. But after nearly a decade and a $100 million investment, cost savings have not materialized and hospital officials are not certain when they will. That is consistent with some recent national studies that question whether electronic records can lead to lower medical spending. "Buying a computer is not going to suddenly cause your operating cost to drop," said C. Martin Harris, a physician who has overseen the digital transition at the hospital. Story continues below Moreover, some analysts question whether the quality improvements at an elite, well-financed institution like the Cleveland Clinic can be duplicated elsewhere. The hospital was able to go electronic in stages, over nearly a decade, slowly acclimating doctors and staff. That centralized planning was possible, in part, because nearly all of its 1,800 doctors receive salaries rather than being paid as independent contractors under the traditional fee-for-service system. Proponents of a salaried system say it produces a more cooperative and patient-focused culture that eases systemic change. They say it is no accident that organizations with similar structures--the Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente and Intermountain Health Care, among others--also have had success with digital systems. "It's not so much about the value of the technology itself but it's rather how you use the technology that produces quality improvements," Harris said. Places with a centralized administrative system like the Cleveland Clinic have "a much better chance of being able to implement electronic medical records and to deliver on the potential," said Howard Forman, a physician who teaches economics and health care policy at Yale University. "I don't think our more fragmented system can do anything near that." >From its founding in a small brick building in 1921, the Cleveland Clinic has grown to a sprawling 50-building campus spread across 166 acres. With an annual budget of about $3 billion last year, the Cleveland hospital has 15 family centers throughout the city's suburbs as well as campuses in Florida, Las Vegas, Toronto and Abu Dhabi. While the majority of the hospital's clients come from close by, its reputation has draw patients from across the globe, including so many from the Persian Gulf region that the hospital built a Muslim prayer room at its Cleveland hub. It built its reputation on a team approach to medical care and individual flair, exemplified by the 4,000-piece collection of paintings and sculptures that give its hallways the feel of a museum. The technology stands out as well. Wireless laptops attached to moving tables are pushed between doctor's offices. When doctors meet in the intensive care unit during a shift change, they huddle in the hallways over the computer tables to go over patients' conditions. Hospital officials began thinking of adopting an electronic system during the dot-com boom and when they began, in 2001, officials wanted to give doctors and nurses time to adjust. So the changes were introduced slowly and deliberately. Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all system, the technology was modified through trial and error to meet the specialized needs of each department. For the first year, the hospital only used the electronic system for scheduling appointments and registering patients. In 2002 doctors began using it for more clinical purposes. First they would just look at lab results online. Then they started entering patients' health histories. Finally, they were required to input their impressions of patients' conditions and how to treat them. The hospital divided doctors into small groups and gave each one about three months to complete the process. The final group only finished last year. Harris said that taking it slowly had a significant benefit: It allowed the hospital to slightly increase the average number of patients seen by doctors over the course of each year, even if doctors saw fewer during the first months of using the new system. Many doctors elsewhere have reported that learning to use electronic records initially takes time away from seeing patients. "We did it in a very careful way," Harris said. Doing it otherwise "can be a very dangerous model," he said, because it could grind an entire hospital to a halt. Yet others may not have the time the Cleveland Clinic gave itself. Under the administration's stimulus plan, which envisions creating a digital record for every American in the next five years, hospital and doctors that don't begin converting by 2015 will face financial penalties. And still not every part of the Cleveland Clinic is fully electronic. Records dated before 2001 are almost universally in paper form and new patients often come with printed records. In some specialties like ophthalmology, doctors still write notes down on paper because the specialty requires a unique electronic program that the hospital hasn't implemented. Even now the system continues to evolve. The hospital is installing voice-recognition software so doctors can dictate their notes directly into the system. That is a "very, very important time saver because in reality the electronic record does require a lot of time," Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Harry Lever said. Key Benefits Once the electronic system was installed, the Cleveland Clinic was able to use the data to track and analyze patient care in new ways. That paid significant benefits. One key improvement was evidenced by the percentage of patients receiving routine screening tests and vaccines. In 2006, only 73 percent of the elderly and infirm who needed regular pneumonia vaccines were getting their shots. Three years later, the rate was 90 percent, according to the hospital's figures. Screenings for osteoporosis--critical to keeping the elderly from debilitating bone breaks and fractures--went from 61 percent of patients to 85 percent during the same period. And the hospital has seen similar improvements for mammogram screenings. Many advocates say that the data-mining made possible by digital systems could transform health care by discouraging unnecessary tests and rewarding doctors for keeping people healthy. The Cleveland Clinic has used its system to create regular report cards that compare physicians to their peers on measures including how well they treat or prevent diseases such as diabetes. Yet doctors distrusted the data at first, and it took months of programming work before they accepted the report cards, said David Bronson, a physician heading the hospital's Medicine Institute. The results of the report cards showed hospital executives that they needed to hold doctors more directly accountable for quality measures, said Bronson. Initially, for example, doctors received credit for improving screening if they simply ordered their patients to take a test. That was changed so that the patient actually had to get the test for the doctor to be credited. This translated into extra work for the doctor--or, at least as often, the doctor's assistant--to follow up with patients. Elusive Savings Whether all this effort will save money is unclear. At Cleveland, the jury is still out. The hospital spent roughly $100 million installing the digital record system and still spends 2 to 3 percent of its more than $3 billion annual budget maintaining its entire computer network. A study of 4,000 hospitals published in November in the American Journal of Medicine--carried out by Harvard researchers who are some of the most prominent advocates of a single-payer healthcare system--found no cost savings or increased efficiencies with digital records. That was consistent with preliminary results from a separate study of 3,000 hospitals by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, who found no evidence of cost savings with electronic records. "I would not say that it's going to be smooth sailing," said Catherine DesRoches, a senior research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the forthcoming study. "It's not going to be easy for hospitals to do this overnight." But health policy analysts say that even if the financial benefits of electronic health systems were limited to chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, that could produce enormous cost savings. Chronic diseases affect nearly half of all Americans and comprise more than 75 percent of the country's $2 trillion in medical spending, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Giuliani, the public defender living with diabetes, is a case in point. In the past, it was up to him to take his blood pressure and record the results several times a day in a little book that he presented to his doctor four times a year--not often enough to recognize deterioration in his health that might require hospital care. Now he monitors his blood pressure and sugar level as part of a pilot project funded by Microsoft HealthVault in a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic. Microsoft and its chief rival Google, among other companies, hope to see their products widely used in the new digital medical system. Giuliani can read his own results online, sometimes even before his doctor does. And seeing small improvements helps motivate him to keep going. "If people have access to their medical records no matter the location, you're going to definitely give better care and have fewer problems," said Jennifer Wojtowicz, Giuliani's endocrinologist. Recently, Wojtowicz told him that his blood sugars were unusually high in the mornings. So without scheduling an appointment, she directed him to increase his insulin dosage at night. The result? A much more stable blood sugar level that gave Giuliani's doctor enough confidence to take him off several drugs. Since then, he's had more energy and is thankful to be saving hundreds of dollars on medication. His diabetes isn't gone but his quality of life has improved. "Getting up in the morning and grabbing a handful of every pill," he said, "I mean it just gets old after a while." From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 3 19:57:55 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:57:55 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Consumer Reports: Most tested broilers were contaminated Message-ID: <014301ca748d$c59fdec0$50df9c40$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 7:26 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Consumer Reports: Most tested broilers were contaminated How safe is that chicken? Most tested broilers were contaminated Consumer Reports magazine: January 2010 http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2010/january/food/chicke n-safety/overview/chicken-safety-ov.htm You would think that after years of alarms about food safety?outbreaks of illness followed by renewed efforts at cleanup?a staple like chicken would be a lot safer to eat. But in our latest analysis of fresh, whole broilers bought at stores nationwide, two-thirds harbored salmonella and/or campylobacter, the leading bacterial causes of foodborne disease. That's a modest improvement since January 2007, when we found that eight of 10 broilers harbored those pathogens. But the numbers are still far too high, especially for campylobacter. Though the government has been talking about regulating it for years, it has yet to do so. (See Lax rules, risky food.) The message is clear: Consumers still can't let down their guard. They must cook chicken to at least 165? F and prevent raw chicken or its juices from touching any other food. Each year, salmonella and campylobacter from chicken and other food sources infect 3.4 million Americans, send 25,500 to hospitals, and kill about 500, according to estimates by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the problem might be even more widespread: Many people who get sick don't seek medical care, and many of those who do aren't screened for foodborne infections, says Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a national nonprofit food-safety organization. What's more, the CDC reports that in about 20 percent of salmonella cases and 55 percent of campylobacter cases, the bugs have proved resistant to at least one antibiotic. For that reason, victims who are sick enough to need antibiotics might have to try two or more before finding one that helps. Consumer Reports has been measuring contamination in store-bought chickens since 1998. For our latest analysis, we had an outside lab test 382 chickens bought last spring from more than 100 supermarkets, gourmet- and natural-food stores, and mass merchandisers in 22 states. We tested three top brands?Foster Farms, Perdue, and Tyson?as well as 30 nonorganic store brands, nine organic store brands, and nine organic name brands. Five of the organic brands were labeled "air-chilled" (a slaughterhouse process in which carcasses are refrigerated and may be misted, rather than dunked in cold chlorinated water). Among our findings: * Campylobacter was in 62 percent of the chickens, salmonella was in 14 percent, and both bacteria were in 9 percent. Only 34 percent of the birds were clear of both pathogens. That's double the percentage of clean birds we found in our 2007 report but far less than the 51 percent in our 2003 report. * Among the cleanest overall were air-chilled broilers. About 40 percent harbored one or both pathogens. Eight Bell & Evans organic broilers, which are air chilled, were free of both, but our sample was too small to determine that all Bell & Evans broilers would be. * Store-brand organic chickens had no salmonella at all, showing that it's possible for chicken to arrive in stores without that bacterium riding along. But as our tests showed, banishing one bug doesn't mean banishing both: 57 percent of those birds harbored campylobacter. * The cleanest name-brand chickens were Perdue's: 56 percent were free of both pathogens. This is the first time since we began testing chicken that one major brand has fared significantly better than others across the board. * Most contaminated were Tyson and Foster Farms chickens. More than 80 percent tested positive for one or both pathogens. * Among all brands and types of broilers tested, 68 percent of the salmonella and 60 percent of the campylobacter organisms we analyzed showed resistance to one or more antibiotics. From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 4 10:34:50 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 09:34:50 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Relocalization for hard times, videos from voices for change Message-ID: <005f01ca7508$45f7b410$d1e71c30$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS These videos are so much needed - let's get this list out to all your friends, families and business associates. Remember that food sovereignty is the cornerstone of freedom. M R -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 8:00 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Relocalization for hard times, videos from voices for change Relocalization for hard times, videos from voices for change http://www.wordpress.peakmoment.tv/ paul tradingpost at lobo.net From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 4 10:40:17 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 09:40:17 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Aetna Forcing 600, 000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits Message-ID: <006001ca7509$072fd090$158f71b0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS We must pay more attention to creating TOTAL WELLNESS or be content to line the pockets of the insurance companies forever. What is more important? Is it their profit factor or is it your life? If it is your life then you better get 'in-formed' on how to have the best immune system (frontline defense system) possible so that you don't have to worry about paying insurance premiums. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 8:51 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits Aetna Forcing 600,000-Plus To Lose Coverage In Effort To Raise Profits http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/04/aetna-forcing-600000-plus_n_380130. html First Posted: 12- 4-09 10:57 AM | Updated: 12- 4-09 11:17 AM Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations. In a third-quarter earnings conference call in late October, officials at Aetna announced that in an effort to improve on a less-than-anticipated profit margin in 2009, they would be raising prices on their consumers in 2010. The insurance giant predicted that the company would subsequently lose between 300,000 and 350,000 members next year from its national account as well as another 300,000 from smaller group accounts. "The pricing we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering," said chairman and CEO Ron Williams. "We view 2010 as a repositioning year, a year that does not fully reflect the earnings potential of our business. Our pricing actions should have a noticeable effect beginning in the first quarter of 2010, with additional financial impact realized during the remaining three quarters of the year." Aetna's decision to downsize the number of clients in favor of higher premiums is, as one industry analyst told American Medical News, a "pretty candid" admission. It also reflects the major concerns offered by health care reform proponents and supporters of a public option for insurance coverage, who insist that the private health insurance industry is too consumed with the bottom line. A government-run plan would operate solely off its members' premiums. Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated. "They were surprised by an acceleration in medical costs in 2009 which pressured their earnings," Josh Raskin, an industry analyst for Barclays Capital, told the Huffington Post. "In an effort to get back to a more profitable level, they are raising their prices to match cost trends. When you raise rates, you run the risk of losing your membership. Health insurance is a very competitive marketplace." As Williams told investors on the call: "The pricing that we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering." Aetna is one of the largest insurers in the private market, covering roughly 17.7 million people according to its 2008 annual report. It is also a major player in the current health care debate and inside Washington D.C. The insurance company has spent more than $2 million on lobbying just in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. American Medical News, which first reported the story, noted that this is not the first time the insurance giant has cut the rolls in an effort to boost profit margins. "As chronicled in a 2004 article in Health Affairs by health economist James C. Robinson, MD, PhD, Aetna completely overhauled its business between 2000 and 2003, going from 21 million members in 1999 down to 13 million in 2003, but boosting its profit margin from about 4% to higher than 7%." A spokesperson at Aetna did not return calls and emails for comment. From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 4 11:45:25 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 10:45:25 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Bernanke Channels Willie Sutton In Assault On Social Security: 'That's Where The Money Is' Message-ID: <007e01ca7512$21d811b0$65883510$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Well, here it is folks -- Bernanke and friends are now going after "entitlements" because Medicare and Social Security are programs that fall under the "socialism" label. And, what "they" want is pure raw unbrideled capitalism that needs unlimited growth in order to succeed. And those that also fall into this category and want to make unbridled profits without concern for how many are left in poverty are the Patriots, The Constitutionalists, and The Libertarians, along with the Republicans and the Christian Right. This same issue was at stake after the great depression, but Roosevelt was able to hold the field and ensure that those 'less fortunate' including women, people of color and non-land owners -- those who had been disenfranchised by the Constitution still had some measure of protection from the greed of those white land-owning slavers who were the founders of this country. Now that the "technological advances" mainly owned by these same "Neo-cons" whom I refer to as "the Kurgan culture consciousness" are replacing human labor, this same group wants to keep it all and is refusing to share the profits with those who can't work because they are being replaced by technology. We must stand up for our rights and demand a share of profits. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 7:37 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Bernanke Channels Willie Sutton In Assault On Social Security: 'That's Where The Money Is' Bernanke Channels Willie Sutton In Assault On Social Security: 'That's Where The Money Is' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/03/bernanke-channels-willie_n_378963.h tml First Posted: 12- 3-09 02:27 PM | Updated: 12- 3-09 04:02 PM Ben Bernanke has overseen the greatest expansion of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet in its history, pouring trillions of dollars into Wall Street firms at roughly zero interest rates. His generosity, however, has a limit. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee today, where he's seeking re-appointment as the Fed's chairman, Bernanke called for cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security even as unemployment rises and the middle class is endangered. Citing legendary bank robber Willie Sutton, Bernanke said of the retirement and health care funds that are the legacy of the New Deal: "That's where the money is." Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) sympathized with Bernanke, saying that, because of entitlement spending, "you're going to be looking at a situation where the Congress will be unable to provide any kind of fiscal discipline because of the mandatory spending. That puts an enormous burden on your plate." "Well, Senator, I was about to address entitlements," Bernanke replied. "I think you can't tackle the problem in the medium term without doing something about getting entitlements under control and reducing the costs, particularly of health care." Bernanke reminded Congress that it has the power to repeal Social Security and Medicare. "It's only mandatory until Congress says it's not mandatory. And we have no option but to address those costs at some point or else we will have an unsustainable situation," said Bernanke. Story continues below But there are several other obvious options that could make the situation sustainable -- including a transaction tax on Wall Street speculation or a slight tax hike on the wealthiest Americans. Bernanke talks as if increasing taxes on the wealthy simply isn't an option. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) followed Bennett and pointed out that "there's only really two ways you can deflect this deficit, and that's either by cutting expenditures or raising income taxes or other forms of taxes." Reed asked him if he could think of other ways, but Bernanke returned to entitlement money as the way to balance the budget. "Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money is, as he put it," Bernanke said. "The money in this case is in entitlements." There's also money at the very top of the income ladder. Reed asked if Congress would be wise to tax some of it. Full of suggestions when it came to cutting entitlements, Bernanke was suddenly overtaken by a bout of policy modesty. "Would you take taxes off the table?" Reed asked. "Those decisions are up to Congress," Bernanke said. "Well, your predecessor signaled very strongly that the tax cuts in 2000 were appropriate," Reed reminded him. "I have not done that. I've done my best to leave that authority where it belongs, with the Congress," Bernanke said, just moments after telling Congress to cut entitlement spending. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who has placed a hold on Bernanke's nomination, was apoplectic when HuffPost told him Bernanke was pushing for cuts in entitlement spending. "Bernanke wants to cut entitlement spending? Well, that confirms everything I'm saying," Sanders fumed. "The CEOs and top people on Wall Street make huge bonuses, and what? We're going to cut back on Social Security and Medicare? That's what we're going to do?" Bernanke worked to assure the committee he had nothing against old people. "I'm not in any way advocating unfair treatment of the elderly, who have worked all their lives and certainly deserve our support and help, but if there are ways to restructure or strengthen these programs that reduce costs, I think that's extraordinarily important for us to try to achieve," he said. Bernanke allies in the Senate are working to see he gets his way. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has been pushing hard for the creation of an independent commission that could cut entitlement spending. He has met recently, he said Thursday, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, reiterating his threat to block Senate legislation if the commission isn't created. "We're on a course that's just unsustainable," Conrad said, but put emphasis on Medicare rather than Social Security. While the debate about entitlement spending is often masked with high-minded talk about fiscally-responsible policy solutions, it is little more than a struggle between competing classes for scarce resources. Sanders said he sees it for what it is. "That's the solution? To cut back on the middle class and the elderly? That only adds fuel to the fire," he said. "Look, let's be clear. The middle class in America today is collapsing. Within the confines of the Beltway, we don't talk about that too much. But that is the reality. It's not just unemployment or underemployment. People are working longer hours for lower wages. People are unable to send their kids to college. People are losing their homes. People's jobs are going to China. That is the reality." From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 4 14:34:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:34:39 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] "Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply"-Richard Heinberg transcript Message-ID: <008d01ca7529$bf2607d0$3d721770$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 9:36 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] "Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply"-Richard Heinberg transcript "Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply"-Richard Heinberg transcript Media"Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply"-Richard Heinberg http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/456 Richard Heinberg: I'm actually gonna cover some of the same territory as Richard has already explored here, hopefully from a little different perspective, add a few helpful facts and figures along the way. Food is energy and it takes energy to get food. These two facts, when we take them together, have always established the biological limits to the human population and they will always continue to do so. The same is and has been true for every other species as well. Food must yield more energy to the eater than is needed to acquire the food. Woe to the fox who expends more energy chasing rabbits than he can get from eating the rabbits he catches. If this energy balance remains negative for too long, death results. For the species in general the outcome is extinction. We humans have become champions at developing new strategies for increasing our share of energy captured from the environment. Harnessing of fire, domestication of plants and animals, adoption of ards***[1:14] and plows, the deployment of irrigation schemes and the harnessing of traction animals. Developments that occurred over tens of thousands of years all served this end. The process was gradual and time-consuming. Over centuries small inventions and tiny modifications of existing tools from ***[1:38] to horse-collars enabled human and animal muscle-power to be leveraged ever more slightly more effectively. This exercise took place within a network of natural limits. The yearly capture of solar radiation by the green biosphere was immense relative to human needs, but finite nevertheless and the vast majority of that solar radiation served functions that indirectly supported human existence. Giving rise to air-currents by warming the surface of the planet and maintaining life in the oceans and on land. The amount of human muscle-power was limited by the number of humans, who of course had to be fed by draft-animals who also entailed energy costs as they likewise needed to eat, also had to be cared for in various ways. Therefore, even with clever refinements in tools and techniques, in crop development and animal breeding, it was clear that we humans would inevitably reach a point of diminishing returns in our ability to continue increasing our energy harvest and therefore our population. By the 19th century these limits were beginning to become apparent. Famine and hunger, as we have already heard, had always been common throughout even the wealthiest regions of the planet. But migration to other nations, crop rotation, and the application of manures and composts were gradually making those events less frequent and severe. European farmers, realizing the need for a nitrogen source in order to continue feeding their burgeoning and increasingly urbanized populations, began employing guano (bird excrement) imported from the cliffs of islands off Chile and Argentina. One can only imagine what it must have been like working on those ships. The results were gratifying. However, after only a few decades those guano deposits were being depleted. By this time, in the late 1890's, the worlds population was nearly twice what it had been at the beginning of the 19th century. A crisis was again in view, but again crisis was narrowly averted due to fossil fuels. In 1909 two german chemists named Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch invented a process to synthesize ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and the hydrogen in fossil fuels. The process, the Haber-Bosch process, initially used coal as a feed-stock though later it was adapted to use natural gas which is currently the feed-stock of choice. After the end of the great war nation after nation began building Haber-Bosch plants. Today the process produces 150 million tons of ammonia per year, equaling the total amount of available nitrogen produced from all natural sources combined. I think this is a very important point to keep in mind. The Haber-Bosch process has effectively doubled the amount of available nitrogen in the biosphere and concentrated it specifically for the purpose of growing crops for human beings. Fossil fuels went on to offer still other ways of extending natural limits to the human carrying capacity of the planet. Early steam driven tractors came in to limited use in the 19'th century but after WWI the size and effectiveness of powered farm machinery expanded dramatically and the scale of use of farm machinery exploded, especially in North America, Europe and Australia during the 1920's, 30's, 40's and 50's. In the 1890's one quarter of US cropland had to be set aside for the growing of grain to feed horses, most of which worked on farms. The internal combustion engine provided a new kind of horse-power of course and also increased the amount of arable land available to feed humans. Chemical pesticides and herbicides developed mostly after WWII used knowledge pioneered in the laboratories that had worked to perfect explosives and other chemical warfare agents. Pesticides not only increased crop-yields in, again, Europe, North America and Australia but also reduced the prevalence of insect-born deceases like malaria. The world began to enjoy the benefits of better living through chemistry. Though the environmental costs in terms of water and soil pollution and damage to vulnerable species would only later become widely apparent. In the 1960's industrial chemical agricultural practices began to be exported, as we've heard, to what by that time was being called the third world. This was glowingly dubbed The Green Revolution and it enabled a tripling of food-production during the past half century. At the same time the scale and speed of distribution of food increased. This also constituted a means of increasing carrying capacity, though in a more subtle way. The trading of food items goes back to paleolithic times but with advances in transport the quantities and distances involved gradually increased. Here again fossil fuels were responsible for a dramatic discontinuity in the slow pace of growth. First by rail and steam ship, then by truck and airplane, immense amounts of grain and ever larger quantities of meats, vegetables and specialty foods began to flow from countryside to city, from region to region and from continent to continent. William Catton in his classic book Overshoot terms the trade of essential life-support commodities as "scope expansion". Carrying capacity is always limited by whatever necessity is in least supply as Justus von Liebig realized nearly a century and a half ago. If one region has water but no good topsoil it's carrying capacity is limited by the lack of topsoil. Another region may have good soil but insufficient rainfall. There the carrying capacity is limited by water. If a way can be found of making up for local scarcity by taking advantage of distant abundance as by diverting water from region A to water crops in region B the total carrying capacity of the two regions combined can be increased substantially. We can put this in the form of a formula, carrying capacity of A+B > carrying capacity of A + carrying capacity of B. >From the ecological point of view this is why people trade but trade has historically been limited by the amount of energy that could be supplied or applied to the transport of materials. Fossil fuels have temporarily erased that limit. The end result of chemical fertilizers plus powered farm machinery plus the increased scope of transportation and trade was not just a threefold leap in crop-yields but a similar explosion of human population which has grown fivefold since the dawn of the industrial revolution. All of this would be well and good if it were sustainable. But if it proves not to be then a temporary exuberance of the human species would have been purchased by an enormous unprecedented human tragedy. Well, where are we now in this? Arable crop land until recently was increasing because of clearing of forests, putting new lands into production and through irrigation. Now the arable cropland globally is decreasing because of salinization of soil, because of urban growth, erosion. Topsoil created over tens of thousands and millions of years is decreasing. In the US great plains about half of the original topsoil is gone, much of it washed down the Mississippi river into the gulf of Mexico. The nutritional quality of our food is actually decreasing on a yearly basis due to the gradual demineralization of the soil and this has been actually documented through measurements taken by the US department of agriculture since the 1940's. The number of farmers as a percentage of the population is of course decreasing. In the US at the turn of the last century something like 70% of the population were directly involved in food production. Today that number is more like 1-2% of the population. The number of domesticated crop-varieties is decreasing dramatically due to the consolidation of the seed industry. Not that many years ago in Bali there were 200 varieties of rice, each adapted to a different microclimate of that small island. Now there are only four rice varieties being grown in Bali. Of course the global population, as we've seen, is still growing. We're adding about 80 million people per year currently. We reached 6 billion just back in 1998 and since 1998 we've added another nearly half billion, roughly the total size of the population of North America just since 1998 or 1999 . As we've already seen again, grain production per capita globally decreasing now. A total of 2,000 million tons produced in 2004 which was a record in absolute numbers but for the past decade and a half population growth has outstripped grain production so there's actually less available on a per-head basis. And according to World Watch Institute we may be within sight of a decline in total production figures, in other words absolute production figures in food and especially grain. Meanwhile the global climate is of course increasingly destabilized resulting in relatively minor problems for farmers now but these are problems that are likely to grow to catastrophic proportions just within the next decade or two. Meanwhile available fresh water is decreasing. In the US 85% of fresh water use goes toward agricultural production requiring the drawing down of ancient aquifers at far above their recharge rates. Globally, as water tables fall, ever more powerful pumps must be used to lift irrigation water and of course those pumps require ever more energy usage. By 2020 according to World Watch Institute and the UN virtually every country in the world will face shortages of fresh water. The effectiveness of pesticides and herbicides is also decreasing. In the US over the past two decades pesticide use has increased 33-fold yet each year a greater amount of crops is lost to pests which are evolving immunities to pesticides faster than chemists can invent new poisons. And then of course oil production is peaking as we talked about it in some length last night. That of course makes machinery more expensive to operate as oil prices goes up. It makes fertilizers more expensive to produce and it also makes transportation of food more expensive. And this, I believe, may be the single factor that brings all of these other problems that are like simmering crises to a full boil. The state of dependency on fossil fuels has become enormous. In the US agriculture is responsible for well over 10% of all national energy consumption. Over 400 gallons of oil equivalent are expended to feed each American each year. About a third of that amount goes toward fertilizer production. About 20% to operate farm machinery, about 16% for transportation of food, 13% for irrigation, 8% for livestock raising not including the livestock feed and about 5% for pesticide production. Now this doesn't even include the energy costs for packaging, refrigeration, transportation to retailers or cooking. Trucks move most of the worlds food although trucking is ten times more energy intensive than moving food by train or barge. Refrigerated jets moves a small but growing proportion of food almost entirely, of course, to wealthy industrial nations at 60 times the energy cost of sea transport. Processed foods make up three quarters of global food sales by price though not by quantity. This adds dramatically to energy costs. For example a one pound box of breakfast cereal may require over 7,000 kcal of energy while the cereal itself provide only 1,100 kcal of food energy. All of this is fairly apparent to anyone who bothers to study the modern food system with an eye to it's sustainability. There is therefore already widespread concern over this subject and debate over the problem of how to avoid an agricultural Armageddon. Within this debate two viewpoints have emerged. The first advocates further intensification of industrial food production primarily via the genetic engineering of new crop and animal varieties. The second advocates ecological agriculture in it's various forms: organic; bio-dynamic; permaculture; bio-intensive and other methods. Critiques of the latter course contends that traditional chemical-free forms of agriculture are incapable of feeding the burgeoning human population. Here is a passage by John Emsley of University of Cambridge from his review of Vaclav Smils book "Enriching the earth, Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch and the Transformation of World Food". Here is the passage: "If crops are rotated and the soil is fertilized with compost and sewage, thereby returning as much fixed nitrogen as possible to the soil it is just possible for a hectare of land to feed ten people provided they accept a mainly vegetarian diet. Although such farming is almost sustainable it falls short of the productivity of land that is fertilized with artificial nitrogen. This can easily support forty people and on a varied diet." Okay. But given the fact that fossil fuels are non-renewable, limited in extent, it will be increasingly difficult to continue supplying chemical fertilizers in present quantities. Nitrogen can be synthesized using hydrogen produced from electrolysis of water with solar or wind-power as a source of electricity but currently no ammonia is being commercially produced this way because of the uncompetitive cost of doing so. To introduce and scale up that process would require many years and considerable capital investment. The bio-engineering of crop and animal varieties does little or nothing to solve this problem. It is possible to fantasize about mays or other crops modified to fix nitrogen in the way that legumes do but so far efforts in that direction have failed. Meanwhile the genetic engineering of complex life-forms appears to pose unprecedented environmental and human health hazards as has been amply documented by Dr Mae-Wan Ho among many others. The bio-engineering industry itself consumes fossil fuels and assumes the continued availability of oil for tractors, transportation, chemical production and so on. That's one side of the argument. Those arguing in favor of small scale ecological agriculture tend to be very optimistic about it's ability to support large populations. For example the 2002 Greenpeace study "The Real Green Revolution, organic and agro-ecological farming in the south", while acknowledging the lack of comparative research on the subject nevertheless states: "In general it's thought that organic and agro-ecological farming can bring significant increases in yields in comparison to conventional farming practices. Compared to green revolution farming systems OAA is thought to be neutral in terms of yields although it brings other benefits such as reducing the need for external inputs. Eco-agricultural advocates contend that there is plenty of food in the world. Existing instances of hunger are due nearly to bad policy and poor distribution. With better policy and better distribution all could easily be fed well into the future. Thus given the universally admitted harmful environmental consequences of conventional chemical farming the choice should be simple. Some eco-agricultural proponents are even more sanguine and suggest that permaculture, bio-intensive or bio-dynamic methods can produce far higher yields than can mechanized chemical-based agriculture and experiments have indeed shown that small scale bio-diverse gardening can be more productive on a per-hectare basis than mono-crop megafarms and in some cases by far. However, some of these studies tend to ignore the energy and land productivity costs of manures and composts imported onto the studied plots. In any case, and there's no controversy on this point, permaculture and bio-intensive forms of agriculture are dramatically more labor and knowledge intensive than industrial agriculture. Thus the adoption of these methods will require an economic transformation of societies. Therefore even if the nitrogen problem can be solved in principle by agro-ecological methods and/or hydrogen production from renewable energy sources there may be a carrying capacity bottleneck ahead in any case simply because of the inability of societies to adapt to these very different energy and economic needs quickly enough. Even though it may not be politically correct in many circles to discuss the population problem we must recognize that we are nearing or past fundamental natural limits no matter which course we pursue. According to widely accepted calculations humans are presently appropriating about 40% of earths primary biological productivity. It seems unlikely that we, as a single species after all, can do much more than that. Given the fact that fossil fuels are limited in quantity and we're already in view of the global oil production peak the debate over the potential productivity of chemical genetically engineered agriculture versus that of organic and agro-ecological farming maybe relatively pointless. We must return to a food-system that is less fossil fuel reliant even if it does prove to be less productive. How we might do that is suggested by perhaps the best resent historical example of a society in a fossil fuel famine. Here I want to talk a little bit about the instance of Cuba in recent years and I know there's gonna be a presentation on this subject later on but I hope to just set the stage for that. I'm looking forward to seeing it myself. Of course Cuba, back in the 1980's, was more reliant on fossil fuels for agricultural production than even the United States. Cuban farmers were using more fossil fuels per acre than American farmers. So the collapse of the Soviet union at the end of the 1980's was a catastrophe for Cuba. Their oil use was reduced by over 50%. At that time the Soviet union, which was the worlds first or second foremost oil producing nation at that time, was exporting oil to Cuba at such a discount that the Cubans was actually re-exporting some of that oil for a profit to earn foreign-exchange income. So that simply went away at the end of the 1980's. Oil use was reduced by over 50%. Per capita energy use in Cuba fell to 1/15'th to 1/20'th of US usage. Since that time Cuba has been in the process of changing from an industrial society to an agrarian society and they have emphasized biological solutions to their various energy and social challenges. They found that their focus is to build human resources through education and of course Cuba produces more doctors per capita than virtually any other nation in the world. Here's what happened. In 1991 Soviet personnel left Cuba and economic subsidies which had amounted to something like 6 billion dollars a year vanished. The GDP collapsed by 85% in the first two years. As a result of all of this the Cuban people suffered. They lost weight, on average 20 pounds per person. A 30% per capita decline in calorie consumption from food. There were some recorded cases of blindness from malnutrition but probably the full scope of the effects of malnutrition in that society will not be known. A whole generation of Cuban children grew up malnourished. There was of course a major decrease in the material standard of living. So what did Cuba do during what they came to call the Special Period? Well, at that time there had been already some Cuban organic agronomists who had been advocating for the adoption of more organic agricultural methods within Cuba and for the most part their advice had been falling on deaf ears. But once the fossil fuels became much more expensive, weren't available, these agronomists were called in and basically given free reign to redesign Cuba's agricultural system. They abandoned the Soviet industrial model of agriculture. They broke up the large state-owned farms into smaller private plots and co-op farms. They basically went organic because they had to, because they didn't have the chemical fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides. Meanwhile they maintained their free decentralized medical system and used their limited oil resources to generate electricity because to them electricity was actually more important. That was providing the absolute necessities of their minimally industrialized way of life. So they had to save fossil fuels wherever they could so they deemphasized the private automobile and they began moving people around by ox-cart and these giant vehicles that they call a camel which is basically a tractor trailer-rig in which they cram about 300 people in the trailer. They also found a new use for traffic-cops. Traffic-cops now would stop any car on the road that had empty seats and make it wait until enough hitchhikers showed up to fill up the car. As a result of all of this the Cuban society did survive. The economy, as of 2005, is growing again steadily but at a very slow rate. Food production is up to about 90% of the pre-crises period but at nowhere near the pre-crises level of energy inputs. There's been very little new housing, mostly remodeling of existing housing structures. That fact is mostly due to the high energy cost of cement which is very short supply. Transportation is still very much an ad hoc improvised basis. Everybody shares every vehicle on the road. Cubans adopted a mostly vegetarian diet but they did so involuntarily. This wasn't for any sort of ethical reasons, it's just that there wasn't much meat to go around because meat production required more energy. Meat eating went from twice a day to twice a week. Of course therefore they needed to supplement their diets with more vegetable sources of protein. They decreased their consumption of wheat and rice because they simply weren't appropriate to food production on the island. With less transportation they had to move producers and consumers closer together, so this meant more urban gardening. Encouraging the growth of gardens all throughout the cities like Havana. Any kind of empty land was immediately put into agricultural production and rooftop gardening was adopted. Rural areas improved their education for farmers. Many people moved from Havana to the country. In order for this to happen they had to raise salaries for farmers above the salaries being offered for office workers in the cities. So this encouraged people to move from the cities to the countryside to participate in agricultural production. As a result of all of this of course their is very little obesity now in Cuba due to the healthier diet and more physical work. So let's look at some pictures. Much of this information or all of these pictures are from my colleagues Pat Murphy and Faith Morgan of the organization Community Service in Yellow Springs Ohio who've made a number of trips to Cuba specifically to study the Cuban response to energy famine and how this may offer us lessons for how to deal with the coming energy famine in the rest of the industrialized world. They found usefulness for raised-beds which help with hand labor. These raised-beds can be built over existing pavement as on parking lots and even city streets. The modernized agrarian; this man earns more than an engineer. Immediately they began breeding more oxen in Cuba because they realized that oxen would be necessary and of course horses tend to compete with people for grain because horses need to eat grain, oxen don't. So they decided oxen would be a better way to go than horses and they immediately began breeding oxen for traction animals. I mentioned rooftop gardening. Very widespread throughout Havana and the other cities but also rooftop raising of food animals like chickens, hamsters and rabbits. This is a picture of downtown Havana and you can see a really considerable amount of food production right there within the city. The transition to a non-fossil fuel system will take time. The Cubans took fifteen years to arrive at where they are now. We have to emphasize here that we are discussing a systemic transition. We can't just remove oil in the forms of agro-chemicals from the current food system and assume that it will go on more or less as it is. Every aspect of the process by which we feed ourselves has to be rethought. Given the likelihood that global oil peak will occur soon, this transition must occur at a rapid pace backed by the full resources of national governments. Without cheap transportation fuels we will have to reduce the amount of food transportation that occurs and make necessary transportation much more efficient. This implies increased local food self-sufficiency. It also implies problems for large cities that have been built in arid regions that are capable of supporting only small populations on the regional resource base. Think of places like Las Vegas, Nevada or even Los Angeles, California. How much food can be grown in those places? We will need to grow more food in and around cities certainly. Currently Oakland, California is debating a food policy initiative that would mandate the growing of 40% of the vegetables consumed in the city within 50 miles of city center by 2015. If the example of Cuba were followed rooftop gardens would result as well as rooftop raising of food animals as we saw. Localization of the food process means moving producers and consumers of food closer together but it also means relying on the local manufacturing and regeneration of all the elements of the production process from seeds to tools and farm machinery. This would appear to rule out agricultural bio-engineering which favors the centralized production of patented seed varieties and discourages the free saving of seeds from year to year by farmers. Clearly we must minimize chemical inputs to agriculture both direct and indirect such as those introduced in processing of foods. We will need to introduce draft animals in agricultural production and as the Cubans found, oxen may in many instances be preferable to horses because of the need of horses for grain their tendency therefore to compete for humans for carrying capacity. Governments must also provide incentives for people to return to an agricultural life. I think it would be a mistake simply to think in terms of the need for a larger agricultural work-force. Traditional agriculture requires social networks; intergenerational trust and bonding and knowledge sharing. We need not just more workers but a rural culture that makes agricultural work rewarding. Farming requires knowledge and experience so we will need education for a new generation of farmers but only some of this education can be generic. Much of it must be of necessity locally appropriate. It would be necessary as well to break up the corporate megafarms that produce so much of todays cheap grain. Industrial agriculture implies an economy of scale that is utterly inappropriate and unworkable for post-industrial food systems. Thus land-reform will be required in order to enable small holders and farming co-ops to own their own plots. In order for all of this to happen governments must end subsidies to industrial agriculture and begin subsidizing post-industrial agricultural efforts. There are many ways in which this could be done. The present regime of subsidies is so harmful that merely stopping it in it's tracks and doing nothing else would itself be advantageous. But given the fact that rapid transition is essential, the offering of subsidies for education, low-interest loans for land purchase and support during the transition from chemical to organic production would be essential. Finally, given the carrying capacity limits that we've been discussing, food policy must include population policy. We must encourage smaller families by means of economic incentives and we must improve the economic and educational status of women in poorer countries around the world. All of this sounds like a very tall order but the alternatives: doing nothing or attempting to solve the problem simply by applying more technological intensification will certainly result in dire consequences. In that case existing farmers would fail because of fuel and chemical prices. All of the worries of existing trends mentioned earlier would intensify to the point that the human carrying capacity of earth would be degraded significantly and perhaps to a very large degree permanently. In some, the transition to a fossil fuel free food system doesn't constitute a utopian proposal; it is an immense challenge and will call for unprecedented levels of creativity at all levels of society but in the end it is the only rational option for averting human tragedy on a scale never before seen. Thank you very much. C 2009 Post Carbon Institute From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 4 14:44:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:44:12 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: December Nutrition News Message-ID: <008e01ca752b$1a659970$4f30cc50$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS There is some really good information available here. From: Dole Nutrition Institute [mailto:dolenutrition at marsys.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 2:06 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: December Nutrition News To view an online version of this email, click here. To ensure that these emails go to your inbox, add us to your safelist. Dole December 2009 Dole Diet Center SUPPLEMENTS NIX EXERCISE BENEFITS Antioxidant Pills Block Metabolic Improvements Walk into any commercial supplement store and you'll find shelves of product aimed specifically at body-builders and other athletes. Among them: antioxidant supplements that promise to neutralize the free radicals generated by strenuous exercise. Unfortunately, if you swallow such pills -- and claims -- new research suggests you're not only squandering money, you're forgoing specific exercise benefits such supplements block. Read more OBESITY & DENTAL HEALTH Excess Pounds Triple Risk of Periodontal Disease Most folks already know that obesity vastly increases your risk of heart disease , diabetes and cancer . Now, new research provides yet more incentive to slim down: Excess weight can undermine your oral health. Read more HOLIDAY HEART Excessive Alcohol & Irregular Heartbeat Holiday parties and New Year's celebrations are often occasions for raising a glass of good cheer -- but when toasting turns to excessive alcohol intake you could be putting yourself at risk for "holiday heart": uncomfortable and downright dangerous disruptions in heart rhythms that can afflict even those with no other symptoms of cardiac disease. Read more Nutrition News Desk BETA-CAROTENE BOOSTS BONE HEALTH Bone Up on Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, Spinach, Cantaloupe If you're loading up on dairy but skimping on vegetables, you could still be at five times the risk of low bone mass. That's the implication of a recent Japanese study of roughly 100 female college students, comparing dietary patterns with bone mass. Those with daily intake of beta-carotene-rich veggies (e.g., carrots, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, red bell peppers and pumpkin) were 500% less likely to suffer low bone mass. Read more MALE FERTILITY DIET More Produce, Less Dairy, Better Sperm 'Tis the season for making babies -- at least judging from the fact that there are more babies born in August than any other month. While this may be cold comfort for couples with fertility issues, heartening new research suggests that better nutrition (you know, more fruit and vegetables, less junk food) can significantly improve a man's sperm quality, thus enhancing odds of conception. Read more JUNK FOOD BLUES Processed Diets, 58% Higher Depression Rates If you've been turning to "comfort foods" to treat the blues, chances are you may be feeding a vicious cycle. New research links junk-food diets with vastly higher depression rates. A recent British study analyzed the dietary intakes of 3,486 middle-aged Londoners, lumping them into one of two categories: the "processed food" group (heavy consumers of sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy) and... Read more Kids' Corner NEW SUPERKIDS ACTIVITY BOOK Perfect for holiday stocking stuffers: the new Dole SuperKids Fun & Games Book, featuring our fearless fruit and veggie heroes - Bam-Nana, Blue-brainy, Brocco and Power Pine - whose nutrition superpowers are derived from the nutrient benefits of the food they represent, this book provides hours of educational entertainment. Read more Hot News HOLIDAY HEART In this Issue Dole Diet Center - SUPPLEMENTS NIX EXERCISE BENEFITS - OBESITY & DENTAL HEALTH - HOLIDAY HEART Nutrition News Desk - BETA-CAROTENE BOOSTS BONE HEALTH - MALE FERTILITY DIET - JUNK FOOD BLUES Kids'?Corner - NEW SUPERKIDS ACTIVITY BOOK Featured recipe Curried Sweet Potato and Apple Pilaf Dole TV SUPPLEMENT RISKS Avoid the possibly hazardous side effects of certain supplements and gain the full benefits of getting nutrients from whole foods. Dole Depot NEW SUPERKIDS ACTIVITY BOOK Dole Poll HOLIDAY HABITS Holiday season can bring enjoyment -- and challenges -- as close relationships come to the fore, including your relationship with food! No wonder half of annual average weight gain occurs at this time of year. Take our poll to share how you cope with the seasonal overabundance of sweets, treats and meats. Learn more SUBSCRIBER TOOLS Sign Up | Topic Search | Issue Guide | Unsubscribe EDITORIAL TEAM Dole Nutrition Institute | Lead Editor: Jennifer Grossman SERVICE PROVIDERS MARSYS | Advance Publishing System All Material C 2009 Dole Food Company Inc. Any reproduction without the express permission of Dole Food Company is strictly prohibited. www.dole.com You are receiving this email because you have previously consented to receive promotional email offers from third-parties. If you do not wish to receive future offers from this sender, then please so indicate by using the "Unsubscribe" link below or sending a written request to the address below. This email was sent to: maryrose333 at att.net This email was sent by: Dole Nutrition Institute One Dole Drive, Westlake Village, CA 91362-7300 Click here to unsubscribe from this mailing list. Click here to view our privacy policy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 04:37:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 03:37:19 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines Message-ID: <002701ca759f$76e1a670$64a4f350$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I have excerpted the following paragraph from Richard Heinberg's Museletter (see below) because I do not agree that any "coordinated effort" will be led by government -- instead it must come from "we-the-people. Learning to take the lead and cutting the umbilical cord of dependence on government (Big Brother) to do it for us as part of our "growing up process" as we move into another level of consciousness is critical. And, I want to point out that the Future Dawning Virtual Learning Center has been designed as a step in this direction. www.futuredawning.org. We learn from doing and by making mistakes, and the virtual learning center offers the opportunity for thousands to gather together in mind and create these "hands-on-experiences" that get us out of the box and into another level of thinking on a small scale where little harm is done when mistakes are made. Coordinated with the ground level Community Learning and Information Centers, the opportunity is then extended to millions of others to learn how to apply new think to the creation of sustainable living communities on an international scale, and unlimited in scope and depth only by our collective imagination. Here is what Richard has written and with much of it I agree except as noted above: "Addressing the economic, social, and political problems ensuing from the various looming peaks will require enormous collective effort. If it to be successful, that effort must be coordinated, presumably by government, and enlisting people in that effort will require educating and motivating them in numbers and at a speed that has not been seen since World War II. Part of that motivation must come from a positive vision of a future worth striving toward. People will need to feel that there will be an eventual reward for what will amount to many years of hard sacrifice. The reality is that we are approaching a time of economic contraction and that consumptive appetites that have been stoked for decades by ubiquitous advertising messages promising "more, faster, and bigger" will now have to be reined in. People will not willingly accept the new message of "less, slower, and smaller," unless they have new goals toward which to aspire. They must feel that their efforts will lead to a better world, and tangible improvements in life for themselves and their families. The massive public education campaigns that will be required must be credible, and will therefore be vastly more successful if they give people a sense of investment and involvement in formulating those goals. There is a much-abused word that describes the necessary process - democracy." I do believe that Thomas H. Greco's vision as put forth in his book: "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization" is an integral part of this wider vision and recommend reading the book and then learning how to set up a community currency of sorts in one's locale. http://www.reinventingmoney.com/ -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 1:36 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Peak Everything http://archive.richardheinberg.com/museletter/185 MuseLetter #185 / September 2007 by Richard Heinberg Note: This issue is an edited version of the Introduction to Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines. During the past few years the phrase Peak Oil has entered the global lexicon. It refers to the moment in time when the world will achieve its maximum possible rate of oil extraction; from then on, for reasons having mostly to do with geology, the amount of petroleum available to society on a daily or yearly basis will begin to dwindle. Most informed analysts agree that this will happen during the next two or three decades; an increasing number believe that it is happening now - that conventional oil production peaked in 2005-2006 and that the flow to market of all hydrocarbon liquids taken together will start to diminish around 2010.1 The consequences, as they begin to accumulate, are likely to be severe: the world is overwhelmingly dependent on oil for transportation, agriculture, plastics, and chemicals; thus a lengthy process of adjustment will be required. According to one recent U.S. government-sponsored study, if the peak does occur soon replacements are unlikely to appear quickly enough and in sufficient quantity to avert what it calls "unprecedented" social, political, and economic impacts.2 This book is not an introduction to the subject of Peak Oil; several existing volumes serve that function (including my own The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies).3 Instead it addresses the social and historical context in which the event is occurring, and explores how we can reorganize our thinking and action in several critical areas in order to better navigate this perilous time. Our socio-historical context takes some time and perspective to appreciate. Upon first encountering Peak Oil, most people tend to assume it is merely a single isolated problem to which there is a simple solution - whether of an eco-friendly nature (more renewable energy) or otherwise (more coal). But prolonged reflection and study tend to eat away at the viability of such "solutions"; meanwhile, as one contemplates how we humans have so quickly become so deeply dependent on the cheap, concentrated energy of oil and other fossil fuels, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we have caught ourselves on the horns of the Universal Ecological Dilemma, consisting of the interlinked elements of population pressure, resource depletion, and habitat destruction - and on a scale unprecedented in history. Petroleum is not the only important resource quickly depleting. Readers already acquainted with the Peak Oil literature know that regional production peaks for natural gas have already occurred, and that, over the short term, the economic consequences of gas shortages are likely to be even worse for Europeans and North Americans than those for oil. And while coal is often referred to as being an abundant fossil fuel, with reserves capable of supplying the world at current rates of usage for two hundred years into the future, a recent study updating global reserves and production forecasts concludes that global coal production will peak and begin to decline in ten to twenty years.4 Because fossil fuels supply about 85 percent of the world's total energy, peaks in these fuels virtually ensure that the world's energy supply will begin to shrink within a few years regardless of any efforts that are made to develop other energy sources. Nor does the matter end with natural gas and coal. Once one lifts one's eyes from the narrow path of daily survival activities and starts scanning the horizon, a frightening array of peaks comes into view. In the course of the present century we will see an end to growth and a commencement of decline in all of these parameters: * Population * Grain production (total and per capita) * Uranium production * Climate stability * Fresh water availability per capita * Arable land in agricultural production * Wild fish harvests * Yearly extraction of some metals and minerals (including copper, platinum, silver, gold, and zinc) The point of this book is not systematically to go through these peak-and-decline scenarios one by one, offering evidence and pointing out the consequences - though that is a worthwhile exercise. Some of these peaks are more speculative than others: fish harvests are already in decline, so this one is hardly arguable; however, projecting extraction peaks and declines for some metals requires extrapolating current rising rates of usage many decades into the future.5 The problem of uranium supply beyond mid-century is well attested by studies, but has not received sufficient public attention.6 Nevertheless, the general picture is inescapable; it is one of mutually interacting instances of over-consumption and emerging scarcity. Our starting point, then, is the realization that we are today living at the end of the period of greatest material abundance in human history - an abundance based on temporary sources of cheap energy that made all else possible. Now that the most important of those sources are entering their inevitable sunset phase, we are at the beginning of a period of overall societal contraction. This realization is strengthened as we come to understand that it is no happenstance that so many peaks are occurring together. All are causally related by way of the historic reality that, for the past 200 years, cheap, abundant energy from fossil fuels has driven technological invention, increases in total and per-capita resource extraction and consumption (including food production), and population growth. We are enmeshed in a classic self-reinforcing feedback loop: Fossil fuel extraction --> more available energy ----> increased extraction of other resources, and production of food and other goods ------> population growth --------> higher energy demand ----------> more fossil fuel extraction (and so on) Self-reinforcing feedback loops sometimes occur in nature (population blooms are always evidence of some sort of reinforcing feedback loop), but they rarely continue for long. They usually lead to population crashes and die-offs. The simple fact is that growth in population and consumption cannot continue unabated on a finite planet. If the increased availability of cheap energy has historically enabled unprecedented growth in rates of the extraction of other resources, then the coincidence of Peak Oil with the peaking and decline of many other resources is entirely predictable. Moreover, as the availability of energy resources peaks, this will also affect various parameters of social welfare: * Per-capita consumption levels * Economic growth * Easy, cheap, quick mobility * Technological change and invention * Political stability All of these are clearly related to the availability of energy and other critical resources. Once we accept that energy, fresh water, and food will become less freely available over next few decades, it is hard to escape the conclusion that, while the 20th century saw the greatest and most rapid expansion of the scale, scope, and complexity of human societies in history, the 21st will see contraction and simplification. The only real question then is whether societies will contract and simplify intelligently or in an uncontrolled, chaotic fashion. Good news? Bad news? None of this is easy to contemplate. Nor can this information easily be discussed in polite company: the suggestion that we are at or near the peak of population and consumption levels for the entirety of human history and that it's all downhill from here is not likely to win votes, lead to a better job, or even make for pleasant dinner banter. Most people turn off and tune out when the conversation moves in this direction; advertisers and news organizations take note and act accordingly. The result: a general, societal pattern of denial. Where might we find solace in all of this gloom? Well, it could be argued that some not-so-good things will also peak this century: Economic inequality Environmental destruction Greenhouse gas emissions Why economic inequality? The late, great social philosopher Ivan Illich argued in his 1974 book Energy and Equity that inequality increases along with the flow of energy through a society. "[O]nly a ceiling on energy use," he wrote, "can lead to social relations that are characterized by high levels of equity."7 Hunters and gatherers, who survived on minimal energy flows, also lived in societies nearly free from economic inequality. While some forager societies were better off than others because they lived in more abundant ecosystems, the members of any given group tended to share equally whatever was available. Theirs was a gift economy - as opposed to the barter, market, and money economies that we are more familiar with. With agriculture and full-time division of labor came higher energy flow rates as well as widening economic disparity between kings, their retainers, and the peasant class. In the 20th century, with per-capita energy flow rates soaring far above any in history, some humans also enjoyed unprecedented material abundance, such that they expected that poverty could be eliminated once and for all if only the political will could be summoned. Indeed, during the middle years of the century progress was seemingly being made along those lines. However, for the century in total, inequality actually increased. The Gini index, invented in 1912 as a measure of economic inequality within societies, has risen substantially within many nations (including the U.S., Britain, India, and China) in the past three decades, and in the world as a whole.8 In the decades just prior to the 20th century, the average income in the world's wealthiest country was about ten times more than that in the poorest; now it is over forty-five times more. According to one study released in December, 2006 ("The World Distribution of Household Wealth,") the richest one percent of people now controls 40 percent of the world's wealth, while the richest two percent control fully half.9 If this correlation between energy flow rates and inequality holds, it seems likely that, as available energy decreases during the 21st century, we are likely to see a reversion to lower levels of inequality. This is not to say that by century's end we will all be living in an egalitarian socialist paradise, merely that the levels of inequality we see today will have become unsupportable. Similarly, it seems likely that levels of humanly generated environmental destruction will peak and begin to recede in decades to come. As available energy declines, our ability to alter the environment will do so as well. However, if we make no deliberate attempt to control our impact on the biosphere, the peak will be a very high one and we will do an immense amount of damage along the way. On the other hand, we could expend deliberate and intelligent effort to minimize environmental impacts, in which case the peak will be at a lower level. Especially in the former case, this peak is likely to lag behind the others discussed, because many environmental harms involve reinforcing feedback loops as well as delayed and cumulative impacts that will continue to reverberate for decades after human population and consumption levels start to diminish. As the primary example of this, greenhouse gas emissions will undoubtedly peak in this century - whether as a result of voluntary reductions in fossil fuel consumption, or depletion of the resource base, or societal collapse. However, the global climate may not stabilize until many decades thereafter, until various reinforcing feedback loops (such as the melting of the north polar icecap, which would expose dark water that would in turn absorb more heat, thus exacerbating the warming effect; and the melting of tundra and permafrost, releasing stored methane that would likewise greatly exacerbate warming) that have been set in motion play themselves out. Indeed, the climate may not return to a phase of relative equilibrium for centuries. Well, if the goal of the last few paragraphs was to balance bad-news peaks with cheerier ones, that effort so far seems less than entirely successful. Surely we can do better. Are there some good things that are not at or near their historic peaks? I can think of a few: * Community * Personal autonomy * Satisfaction from honest work well done * Intergenerational solidarity * Cooperation * Free time * Happiness * Ingenuity * Artistry * Beauty of the built environment Of course, some of these items are hard to quantify. But a few can indeed be measured, and efforts to do so often yield surprising results. Let's consider two that have been subjects of quantitative study. Leisure time is perhaps the element on this list that lends itself most readily to measurement. The most leisurely societies were without doubt those of hunter-gatherers, who worked about 1000 hours per year, though these societies seldom if ever thought of dividing "work time" from "leisure time," since all activities were considered pleasurable in their way. For U.S. employees, hours worked peaked in the early industrial period, around 1850, at about 3500 hours per year.10 This was up from 1620 hours worked annually by the typical medieval peasant. However, the two situations are not directly comparable: a typical medieval workday stretched from dawn to dusk (sixteen hours in summer, eight in winter), but work was intermittent, with breaks for breakfast, midmorning refreshment, lunch, a customary afternoon nap, mid-afternoon refreshment, and dinner; moreover, there were dozens of holidays and festivals scattered throughout the year. Today the average U.S. worker spends about 2000 hours on the job, a figure somewhat higher than was the case a couple of decades ago (in 1985 it was closer to 1850 hours). Nevertheless, a long historical overview suggests that time-intensiveness of human labor seems to peak in the early phase of industrialization, and that a simplification of the modern economy could result in a reversion to older, pre-industrial norms. In recent years the field of happiness research has flourished, with the publication of scores of studies and several books devoted to statistical analysis of what gives people a sense of overall satisfaction with their lives. International studies of self-reported levels of happiness show that, once basic survival needs are met, there is little correlation between happiness and per-capita rates of consumption of fossil fuels. According to surveys, people in Mexico, who use fossil fuels at one-fifth the rate of U.S. citizens, are just as happy. The opportunities to continue to enjoy current (or elevated) levels of happiness and to reduce work hours may seem pale comforts in light of all the enormous social and economic challenges implicit in the peaks discussed earlier. However, it is worth remembering that the list above details things that matter very much to most people in terms of their real, lived experience. The sense of community and the experience of intergenerational solidarity are literally priceless, in that no amount of money can buy them; moreover, life without them is bleak indeed - especially during times of social stress. And there are many reasons to think that these two factors have declined significantly during the past few decades of rapid urbanization and economic growth. In contrast with these indices of personal and social well-being, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is easily measured and shows a mostly upward trend for the world as a whole over the past two centuries. But it takes into account only a narrow set of data - the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. Growth in GDP tells us that we should be feeling better about ourselves and our world - but it doesn't take into account a wide range of other factors, including damage to the environment, wars, crime and imprisonment rates, and trends in education. Many economists and non-governmental organizations have criticized governmental reliance on GDP for this reason, and have instead promoted the use of a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which does take account of such factors. While a historical GDP chart for the U.S. shows general ongoing growth up to the present (GDP correlates closely with energy consumption), GPI calculations show a peak around 1980 followed by a slow decline.11 If we as a society are going to adjust agreeably to lower rates of energy flow - and less travel and transport - with minimal social disruption, we must begin paying more attention to the seeming intangibles of life and less to GDP and the apparent benefits of profligate energy use. This is no mere palliative. Addressing the economic, social, and political problems ensuing from the various looming peaks will require enormous collective effort. If it to be successful, that effort must be coordinated, presumably by government, and enlisting people in that effort will require educating and motivating them in numbers and at a speed that has not been seen since World War II. Part of that motivation must come from a positive vision of a future worth striving toward. People will need to feel that there will be an eventual reward for what will amount to many years of hard sacrifice. The reality is that we are approaching a time of economic contraction and that consumptive appetites that have been stoked for decades by ubiquitous advertising messages promising "more, faster, and bigger" will now have to be reined in. People will not willingly accept the new message of "less, slower, and smaller," unless they have new goals toward which to aspire. They must feel that their efforts will lead to a better world, and tangible improvements in life for themselves and their families. The massive public education campaigns that will be required must be credible, and will therefore be vastly more successful if they give people a sense of investment and involvement in formulating those goals. There is a much-abused word that describes the necessary process - democracy. As another way of mitigating our paralyzing horror at seeing our society's future as one of decline in so many respects, we should ask: decline to what? Are we facing a complete disintegration of everything we hold dear, or merely a reversion to lower levels of population, complexity, and consumption? The answer, of course, is unknowable at this stage. We could indeed be at the brink of a collapse worse than any in history. Just one reference in that regard will suffice: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a four-year analysis of the world's ecosystems released in 2006, in which 1300 scientists participated, concluded of 24 ecosystems identified as essential to human life, 15 are "being pushed beyond their sustainable limits," toward a state of collapse that may be "abrupt and potentially irreversible."12 The signs are not good. Nevertheless, a decline in population, complexity, and consumption could, at least in theory, result in a stable society with characteristics that many people would find quite desirable. A reversion to the normal pattern of human existence, based on village life, extended families, and local production for local consumption - especially if it were augmented by a few of the frills of the late industrial period, such as global communications - could provide future generations will the kind of existence that many modern urbanites dream of wistfully. So the overall message of this book is not necessarily one of doom - but it is one of inevitable change and needed deliberate engagement with the process of change on a scale and speed beyond anything in previous human history. Crucially: We must focus on and use the intangibles that are not peaking (such as ingenuity and cooperation) to address the problems arising from our overuse of substances that are. Our One Great Task: The Energy Transition As we have seen, just a few core trends have driven many others in producing the global problems we see today, and those core trends (including population growth and increasing consumption rates) themselves constellate around our ever-burgeoning use of fossil fuels. Thus, a conclusion of startling plainness presents itself: Our central survival task for the decades ahead, as individuals and as a species, must be to make a transition away from the use of fossil fuels - and to do this as peacefully, equitably, and intelligently as possible. At first thought, this must seem like an absurd over-simplification of the human situation. After all, the world is full of crises demanding our attention - from wars to pollution, malnutrition, land mines, human rights abuses, and soaring cancer rates. Doesn't a monomaniacal focus just on fossil fuels miss many important things? In defense of the statement I would offer two points. First, some problems are more critical than others. A patient may suffer simultaneously from a broken blood vessel in the brain and a broken leg. A doctor will not ignore the second problem, but since the first is immediately life-threatening, its treatment will take precedence. Globally, there are two problems whose potential consequences far outweigh most others: climate change and energy resource depletion. If we do nothing to dramatically curtail emissions of greenhouse gases soon, there is the substantial likelihood that we will set in motion the two self-reinforcing feedback loops mentioned previously - the melting of the north polar icecap, and the melting of tundra and permafrost releasing stored methane. These would, if set in motion, lead to an averaged global warming not just of a couple of degrees, but perhaps six or more degrees over the remainder of the century. And this in turn could make much of the world uninhabitable and make agriculture impracticable in many if not most places, and could result not only in the extinction of thousands or millions of other species but the deaths of hundreds of millions or billions of human beings. The post-peak decline in availability of oil, natural gas, and coal - if our dependence on these fuels continues unabated - could trigger economic collapse, famine, and a general war over remaining resources. While it is certainly possible to imagine survivable transition strategies away from fossil fuels involving proactive efforts to develop alternative energy sources on a massive scale and to create policies mandating energy conservation, also on a massive scale, the world is currently as reliant on hydrocarbons as it is on water, sunlight, and soil. Without oil for transportation and agriculture; without gas for heating, chemicals, and fertilizers; and without coal for power generation, the global economy would sputter to a halt. While no one envisions these fuels disappearing instantly, we can avert the worst-case scenario of global economic meltdown - with all of the human tragedy that implies - only by proactively reducing our reliance on oil, gas, and coal ahead of depletion and scarcity. In other words, all that would be required in order for the worst-case scenario to materialize would be for world leaders to continue with existing policies. These two problems are potentially lethal; they are first-priority ailments. If we solve them, we will then be able to devote our attention to other human dilemmas, many of which have been with us for millennia - war, disease, inequality, and so on. If we do not solve these two problems, then in a few decades our species may be in no position to make any progress whatever on other fronts; indeed, it will likely be engaged in a struggle for its very survival. We'll be literally and metaphorically burning the furniture for fuel and fighting over scraps. My second reason for insisting that the transition from fossil fuels must take precedence over other concerns can likewise be framed in a medical metaphor: Often a constellation of seemingly disparate symptoms issues from a single cause. A patient may present with symptoms of hearing loss, stomach pain, headaches, and irritability. An incompetent doctor might treat each of these symptoms separately without trying to correlate them. But if their cause is lead poisoning (which can produce all of these signs and more), then mere symptomatic treatment would be useless. Let us unpack the metaphor. Not only are the two great crises mentioned above closely related (both peak oil and climate change issue from our dependence on fossil fuels), but - as I have already noted - many if not most of our other modern crises constellate also around fossil fuels. Even long-standing and perennial problems like economic inequality have been exacerbated by high energy-flow rates. Pollution is no different in this regard. We humans have polluted our environments in various ways for a very long time; activities like the mining of lead and tin have produced localized devastation for centuries. However, the problem of chemical pollution that is spread generally throughout the environment is a relatively new one and has grown much worse over the past decades. Many of the most dangerous pollutants happen to be fossil fuel derivatives (pesticides, plastics, and other hormone-mimicking chemicals) or by-productions from the burning of coal or petroleum (nitrogen oxides and other contributors to acid rain). War might at first seem to be a problem completely independent of our modern thirst for fossil energy sources. However, as security analyst Michael Klare has underscored in his book Blood and Oil,13 many recent wars have turned on competition for control of petroleum; as oil grows scarcer in the post-peak environment, further wars and civil conflicts over the black gold are almost assured. Moreover, the use of fossil fuels in the prosecution of war has made state-authorized mayhem far more deadly. Most modern explosives are made from fossil fuels, and even the atomic bomb - which relies on nuclear fission or fusion rather than hydrocarbons for its horrific power - depends on fuel for its delivery systems. One could go on. In summary: We have used the plentiful, cheap energy from fossil fuels quite predictably to expand our power over nature and one another. Doing so has produced a laundry list of environmental and social problems. We have tried to address these one by one, but our efforts will be much more effective if directed at their common root - that is, if we end our dependence on fossil fuels. Again, my thesis: Many problems rightly deserve attention, but the problem of our dependence on fossil fuels is central to human survival, and so as long as that dependence continues to any significant extent we must make its reduction the centerpiece of all our collective efforts - whether they are efforts to feed ourselves, resolve conflicts, or maintain a functioning economy. But this can be formulated in another, more encouraging, way: If we do focus all of our collective efforts on the central task of energy transition, we may find ourselves contributing to the solution of a wide range of problems that would be much harder to solve if we confronted each one in isolation. With a coordinated and voluntary reduction in fossil fuel consumption, we could see substantial progress in reducing many forms of environmental pollution. The decentralization of economic activity that we must pursue as transport fuels become more scarce could lead to more local jobs and more fulfilling occupations, and more robust local economies. A controlled contraction in global oil trade could lead to a reduction of international political tensions. A planned conversion of farming to non-fossil fuel methods could mean a decline in environmental devastation caused by agriculture and economic opportunities for millions of new farmers. Meanwhile, all of these efforts together could increase equity, community involvement, intergenerational solidarity, and the other intangible goods listed earlier. Surely this is a future worth working toward. The (Rude) Awakening The subtitle of this book, "Waking Up to the Century of Declines," reflects my impression that even those of us who have been thinking about resource depletion for many years are still just beginning to awaken to its full implications. And if we are all in various stages of waking up to the problem, we are also waking up from the cultural trance of denial in which we are all embedded.14 This awakening is multi-dimensional. It is not just a matter of becoming intellectually and dispassionately convinced of the reality and seriousness of climate change, peak oil, or any other specific problem. Rather, it entails an emotional, cultural, and political catharsis. The biblical metaphor of scales falling from one's eyes is as apt as the pop-culture meme of taking the red pill and seeing the world beyond the Matrix: in either case, waking up implies coming to the realization that the very fabric of modern life is woven from illusion - thousands of illusions, in fact. In order for that fabric to be held together, there is the requirement for one master illusion, which is the notion that somehow what we see around us today is normal. In a sense, of course, it is normal: the daily life experience of millions of people is normal by definition. The reality of cars, television, and fast food is calmly taken for granted; if life has been like this for decades, why shouldn't it continue, with incremental developmental changes, indefinitely? But how profoundly this "normal" life in a typical modern city differs from the lives of previous generations of humans! And the fact that it is built on the foundation of cheap fossil fuels means that future generations must and will live differently. Again, the awakening I am describing is an ongoing visceral as well as intellectual reassessment of every facet of life - food, work, entertainment, travel, politics, economics, and more. The experience is so all-encompassing that it defies linear description. And yet we must make the attempt to describe and express it; we must turn our multi-dimensional experience into narrative, because that is how we humans process and share our experiences of the world. The great transition of the 21st century will entail enormous adjustments on the part of every individual, family and community, and if those adjustments are to be made successfully, rational planning will be needed. Implications and strategies will have to be explored in nearly every area of human interest - agriculture, transportation, global war and peace, public health, resource management, and on and on. Books, research studies, television documentaries, an every other imaginable form of information transferal means will be required to convey needed information in each of these areas. Moreover, there is the need for more than explanatory materials; we will need citizen organizations that can turn policy into action, and artists to create cultural expressions that can help fire the collective imagination. Within this whirlwind of analysis, adjustment, creativity, and transformation, perhaps there is need and space for a book that simply tries to capture the overall spirit of the time into which we are headed, that ties the multifarious upwellings of cultural change to the science of global warming and peak oil in some hopefully surprising and entertaining ways, and that begins to address the psychological dimension of our global transition from industrial growth to contraction and sustainability. Most of the peaks that are before us cannot be avoided, but there are many things we can do to navigate down and around them so as to enhance human sanity, security, and happiness. Let us do those things. Let us work to make a future world from whose vantage point, decades hence, we can look back on these premonitions as having been far too gloomy. Notes 1. From the OPEC Bulletin, Nov.-Dec., 2006: "[A]ll in all, most would appear to agree that peak oil output is not very far away for all of us. It could take place sometime within the next decade or so, which in fact means that there is not much time left for a world economy to be driven largely by oil." Meanwhile, Claude Mandil, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, speaking on the IEA World Energy Outlook 2006, had this to day: "WEO-2006 reveals that the energy future we are facing today, based on projections of current trends, is dirty, insecure and expensive." www.energybulletin.net/22042.html 2. Robert Hirsch et al., "Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management" (2005), www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/the_hirsch_report.pdf 3. See also: Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak (Hill and Wang, 2005), and Roger D. Blanchard, The Future of Global Oil Production: Facts, Figures, Trends and Projections, by Region (McFarland, 2005). 4. Energy Watch Group, "Coal: Resources and Future Production," www.energywatchgroup.org/files/Coalreport.pdf. See also Richard Heinberg, "Burning the Furniture," http://globalpublicmedia.com/richard_heinbergs_museletter_179_burning_the_fu rniture. 5. http://kontentkonsult.com/blog/2006/01/peak_metals.html 6. Energy Watch Group, "Uranium Resources and Nuclear Energy," Dec., 2006 www.energiekrise.de/news/docs/specials2006/REO-Uranium_5-12-2006.pdf 7. Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity (Calder & Boyars, 1974), p. 17. 8. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient 9. www.wider.unu.edu/research/2006-2007/2006-2007-1/wider-wdhw-launch-5-12-2006 /wider-wdhw-report-5-12-2006.pdf 10. Data for this paragraph are taken from from The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, by Juliet B. Schor (Basic Books, 1993); see also www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html 11. GPI www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/117.html 12. See www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx, http://article.wn.com/view/2007/01/04/Global_warming_is_here_now_what/ 13. Michael Klare, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (Metropolitan Books, 2004). 14. Thanks to my friend Chellis Glendinning, for her book titled Waking Up in the Nuclear Age (1987), which was an inspiration in more ways than one. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 14:34:21 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 13:34:21 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Secret US War In Pakistan Message-ID: <008f01ca75f2$e1c092f0$a541b8d0$@net> The below is a very long article, but well worth taking the time to read since it reveals that President Obama may not be aware of all that is going on, on "his watch," and that the Republicans may still be in control in some parts of the world. However, having written this, I am aware that the bankers who form the Shadow Government that actually controls the puppets we know as "Presidents" and Members of Congress, are "The Fed" and others who control the banking system. And, I'm going to add a little more insight here as to relationships: Eric Prince, owner of Blackwater has a sister named Betsy Prince who is married to Rick DeVos the son of Richard DeVos, one of the Founder/Owners of the Amway organization. For a time she also served as a high-ranking official of the Republican Party. What caused me to do an extensive search last year was an article revealing that Eric Prince had made a contribution to the political campaign of Ron Paul along with one to Pat Robertson -- the total sum being $163,000; however, I was never able to discern how this contribution was divided although it is known that it went to both of them. I could not help but wonder at the time why Prince was making a donation to Ron Paul, but the link became obvious when I found out about Paul's link via the Libertarian Party to the Von Mises Institute and to the Sicilian Mafia. What came out of this is that Eric Prince's father, owner of a large automotive parts firm, who had amassed a small fortune which Eric along with his sisters inherited when the father died, was linked to the same Libertarian Party forces as Paul. And now we have Paul, a confirmed Libertarian running for President on the Republican Party ticket. Hmmmmmmmmmm. But it turns out also that Richard DeVos, a 39th Degree Mason and member of the Christian Right, is presently, and has been for many years, the largest contributor to the Republican Party. He is also a good friend of former President George W. Bush. So, now we have good reason to surmise how and why Eric Prince's company Blackwater got into its position in Iraq initially, and why it has been able to not only survive its travails there but consequently thrive in that arena in spite of all the bad press it receives. And, now we learn that it may be involved in activities that are not known to President Obama, but that may be known to former Republican supporters. As some of you may recall also, I had reported at one time that Blackwater was attempting to put in a training facility quite near to where I live. The agenda for this training facility was to allow Blackwater to train Border Patrol agents and then take over their duties which would have meant a private mercenary force was guarding the border -- a recipe for further escalation of animosity between Mexico and the U.S. if I ever saw one, and which could have led into armed conflict at any moment. The person most responsible for wanting Blackwater in this position and who lives in this area, was Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican, who was supported by many of the Christian Fundamentalists who reside in this region. However, thanks to the quick thinking and action of the part of Rep. Bob Filner, a Democrat, Blackwater was denied access to the property they were attempting to acquire as it would have cost them too much to have brought it up to code to ensure the safety and security of the community. Here is Bob Filner's bio. http://www.house.gov/filner/biography.htm -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 11:43 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Secret US War In Pakistan The Secret US War In Pakistan By Jeremy Scahill http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill 05 December, 2009 The Nation At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus. The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years, including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence. The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm. Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The Nation, "We do not discuss current operations one way or the other, regardless of their nature." A defense official, on background, specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. "We don't have any contracts to do that work for us. We don't contract that kind of work out, period," the official said. "There has not been, and is not now, contracts between JSOC and that organization for these types of services." Blackwater's founder Erik Prince contradicted this statement in a recent interview, telling Vanity Fair that Blackwater works with US Special Forces in identifying targets and planning missions, citing an operation in Syria. The magazine also published a photo of a Blackwater base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed to have any active military operations in the country. Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies the company is operating in Pakistan. "Xe Services has only one employee in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government," Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The Nation, adding that the company has "no other operations of any kind in Pakistan." A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said, allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan. The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity. His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring." "It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me." The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater's presence in Pakistan is "not really visible, and that's why nobody has cracked down on it," said the source. Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. "It's Blackwater via JSOC, and it's a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis." The main JSOC/Blackwater facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems are used as a makeshift operations center. "It's a very rudimentary operation," says the source. "I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It's very bare bones, and that's the point." Blackwater's work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said, it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS), which is owned by Erik Prince. The military source said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently. Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other agencies. It is modeled after the CIA's counterterrorism center. In Karachi, TIS runs a "media-scouring/open-source network," according to the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater executive. "They are running most of their work through TIS because the other two [names] have such a stain on them," he said. Corallo, the Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan. The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater's classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC. Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the former Blackwater executive, "The politics that go with the brand of BW is somewhat set aside because what you're doing is really one military guy to another." Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA for operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic term used to describe highly classified "black" operations. "With an ACCM, the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and operate within compartmentalized programs far above 'secret'--even though you have no business doing so," said the source. It allows Blackwater personnel that "do not have the requisite security clearance or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in classified operations by virtue of trust," he added. "Think of it as an ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That's exactly what it is: a circle of love." Blackwater, therefore, has access to "all source" reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. "That's how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with contractors," said the source. "We have contractors that regularly see things that top policy-makers don't unless they ask." According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself as a company whose operatives have "conducted lethal direct action missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC just ate that up," he said, adding, "They have a sizable force in Pakistan--not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it that way--but to support a legitimate contract that's classified for JSOC." Blackwater's Pakistan JSOC contracts are secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a spin-off of Blackwater SELECT "was issued a no-bid contract for support to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it." Some of the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers. "Nobody even gives them a second thought." The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC Karachi operation is referred to as "Qatar cubed," in reference to the US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. "This is supposed to be the brave new world," he says. "This is the Jamestown of the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways, you can jump northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a classified mandate." In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces. "That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan," he said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?" Pakistan's Military Contracting Maze Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. "The SELECT personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going after targets," he said. "It's not like Blackwater SELECT people are running around assassinating people." Instead, US Special Forces teams carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives who work for the State Department, which he calls "Blackwater Vanilla," and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program. "Good or bad, there's a small number of people who know how to pull off an operation like that. That's probably a good thing," said the source. "It's the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these types of operations because they're the only people that know how and they went where the money was. It's not trigger-happy fucks, like some of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill innocent civilians. They're very good at what they do." The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said, "that's not entirely accurate." While he concurred with the military intelligence source's description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive, Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support, private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral's main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries. A spokesperson for the US State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral. "We cannot help you," said department spokesperson David McKeeby after checking with the relevant DDTC officials. "You'll have to contact the companies directly." Blackwater's Corallo said the company has "no operations of any kind" in Pakistan other than the one employee working for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The Nation. According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on foreign affairs issues "regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out activities of interest to the United States." Noriega was hired through his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas $15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues. For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. "Ali and Erik have a pretty close relationship," he said. "They've met many times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one another." Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan. According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also integrate with Kestral's forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with the Pakistani Interior Ministry's paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as "frontier scouts"). The Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater "is providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations] and Kestral's folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they're having the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go out with the teams when they're executing the job," he said. "You can see how that can lead to other things in the border areas." He said that when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. "You've got BW guys that are assisting... and they're all going to want to go on the jobs--so they're going to go with them," he said. "So, the things that you're seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came in and raided this house or did this or did that--in some of those cases, you're going to have Western folks that are right there at the house, if not in the house." Blackwater, he said, is paid by the Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. "That gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, 'Hey, no, we don't have any Westerners doing this. It's all local and our people are doing it.' But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work." The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the Frontier Corps, saying, "There's no real oversight. It's not really on people's radar screen." In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the weapons were being used by "a private American security contractor." The statement said, "Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also certified the shipments." Who is Behind the Drone Attacks? Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as sixty people attending a Taliban funeral. In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works for the CIA at "hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft." In February, The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan. The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC strikes. "Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC and their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes." The Pentagon has stated bluntly, "There are no US military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan." The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan, as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that Blackwater is working on JSOC's drone bombings as well. "It's Blackwater running the program for both CIA and JSOC," said the source. When civilians are killed, "people go, 'Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy shit again unchecked.' Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC [hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT [human intelligence] or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works." The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings. "Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and the CIA knows that," he says. "Contractors and especially JSOC personnel working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and there's thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going to die. That's the mentality." He added, "They're not accountable to anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going to do, shut down JSOC?" In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes, Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military intelligence source. Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan, says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the norms of international relations. "The immediate question is, How do you define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?" asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. "Let's forget Blackwater for a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military operations in Pakistan that aren't about logistics or getting food to Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence, physical force inside of Pakistani territory." JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney's Extra Special Force Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General McChrystal's elevation as the military commander of the Afghan war--which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan--there is a concomitant rise in JSOC's power and influence within the military structure. "I don't see how you can escape that; it's just a matter of the way the authority flows and the power flows, and it's inevitable, I think," Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, "I'm alarmed when I see execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations Command," under which JSOC operates. "That's backward. But that's essentially what we have today." >From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater's 7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army's Delta Force, the Navy's SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations, reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions. Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of veteran Special Forces operators--which several former military officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater's alleged contracts with JSOC. Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the highly specialized work they did in uniform. "The Blackwater individuals have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military, and they've been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that the younger Green Beret guys don't," said retired Army Lieut. Col. Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. "They're known entities. Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they've got the experience. They're very valuable." "They make much more money being the smarts of these operations, planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia," said the military intelligence source. "They were there for all of these things, they know what the hell they're talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future operations. It's a ridiculous revolving door." While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. "What I was seeing was the development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the conventional commander even knowing what they were doing," said Colonel Wilkerson. "That's dangerous, that's very dangerous. You have all kinds of mess when you don't tell the theater commander what you're doing." Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg. "I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in JSOC was quite good," says Wilkerson. "I think Cheney was actually giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for instructions." He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and Rumsfeld "built up initially because Rumsfeld didn't get the responsiveness. He didn't get the can-do kind of attitude out of the SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and went straight to the horse's mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive branch--read: Cheney and Rumsfeld--wanted it to do. This would be more or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming for me as a conventional soldier." Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the United States across the globe. "When these teams started hitting capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn't tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is our ambassadors started to call us and say, 'Who the hell are these six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our capital cities?' So we discovered this, we discovered one in South America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him--we rendered him home." As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC operations. The SSB was created using "reprogrammed" funds "without explicit congressional authority or appropriation," according to the Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of command and circumvented the CIA's authority on clandestine operations. Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end "near total dependence on CIA." Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stated that Special Operations forces may "conduct clandestine HUMINT operations...before publication" of a deployment order. This effectively gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations. The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the "darkest acts" in part to keep them concealed from Congress. "Everything can be justified as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress," said the source. "They were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints: 'Preparing the Battlefield.'" The significance of the flexibility of JSOC's operations inside Pakistan versus the CIA's is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Every single intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the Congress," she said. "If they are not, that is a violation of the law." Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about Blackwater's alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part, these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that, although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater's operations in their country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the company has been involved--almost from the beginning of the "war on terror"--with clandestine US operations. Indeed, Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied Blackwater's presence in the country, stating bluntly in September, "Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In her trip to Pakistan in October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the Pakistani press about Blackwater's rumored Pakistani operations. Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan. The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that Blackwater "provides security for a US-backed aid project" in Peshawar, suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to use as a consulate in the city. "We have no contracts in Pakistan," Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. "We've been blamed for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we have absolutely no presence there." Reports of Blackwater's alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months. Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his 1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that Blackwater is in Karachi. "The US [intelligence] agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and Peshawar," he said. "That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in these two cities." Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir and other Pakistani journalists are "wildly incorrect," saying they had compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 the Washington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has "found refuge from potential U.S. attacks" in Karachi "with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service." In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater allegedly submitted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to the federal interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through Karachi's Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, "The port jives because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in." The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater has acquired "bungalows" in the Defense Housing Authority in the city. According to the DHA website, it is a large residential estate originally established "for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces of Pakistan." Its motto is: "Home for Defenders." The report alleges Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law enforcement will not stop them. The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When things go wrong, it's the contractors' fault, not the government's. But the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions, particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. "We are using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered to be a violation of the Geneva Convention," said Lt. Col. Addicott, who now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. "In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope to the breaking limit, and it's almost a fiction that these guys are not in offensive military operations." Addicott added, "If we were subjected to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That's one of the reasons we're not members of the International Criminal Court." If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military, the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost weekly scandals. Blackwater's alleged Pakistan operations, said the military intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. "Having learned its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq, Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting things that are in danger and anticipating other places we're going to go as a nation that are dangerous," he said. "It's as simple as that." --------- Jeremy Scahill, a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute, is the author of the bestselling Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, published by Nation Books. He is an award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 18:52:54 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 17:52:54 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Financial Consequences of Peak Oil Message-ID: <00a501ca7616$ffb6ab40$ff2401c0$@net> More on how the future is likely to unfold as oil peaks and we are forced to come to grips with its effect on the economy as it declines and we are forced to come to grips with reality. While we-the-people can survive this crisis by moving into sustainable living community configurations and setting up community currencies, the elite among us simply have nowhere to turn -- hence these "prediction scenarios" have more to do with how "they" will survive rather than how we the people will fare. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 5:07 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Financial Consequences of Peak Oil The Second Great Depression : Causes & Responses by Colin J. Campbell Financial Consequences of Peak Oil http://www.energybulletin.net/node/5944 Published May 2 2005 by ASPO, It is becoming evident that the financial and investment community begins to accept the reality of Peak Oil, which ends the First Half of the Age of Oil. They accept that banks created capital during this epoch by lending more than they had on deposit, being confident that Tomorrow's Expansion, fuelled by cheap oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for Today's Debt. The decline of oil, the principal driver of economic growth, undermines the validity of that collateral which in turn erodes the valuation of most entities quoted on Stock Exchanges. The investment community however faces a dilemma. It desires to protect its own fortunes and those of its privileged clients while at the same time is reluctant to take action that might itself trigger the meltdown. It is a closely knit community so that it is hard for one to move without the others becoming aware of his actions. In this situation, interest shifts to commodities and to short term trading to benefit from daily or hourly fluctuations in price, implying that there are few valid genuine long-term investments left. The scene is set for the Second Great Depression, but the conservatism and outdated mindset of institutional investors, together with the momentum of the massive flows of institutional money they are required to place, may help to diminish the sense of panic that a vision of reality might impose. On the other hand, the very momentum of the flow may cause a greater deluge when the foundations of the dam finally crumble. It is a situation without precedent. The following is the summary of a presentation to the Edinburgh Conference by C.J.Campbell, which extreme as it may sound, seems consistent the new posture adopted by the International Energy Agency. The Second Great Depression : Causes & Responses SUMMARY Oil was formed but rarely in time and place in the geological past, which tells us that it is subject to depletion. It also has to be found before it can be produced. Finding oil is primarily a matter of geology, notwithstanding the technical, political and economic factors. So, an understanding of petroleum geology forms the bedrock for forecasting future production. Depletion itself is easy to grasp as every beer drinker knows: the faster he downs his draught, the sooner it is gone. However, the issue is not about finally running out of oil, which will not happen for many years. What does concern us - and most gravely- is the long downward slope that opens on the other side of peak production. Oil and Gas dominate our lives, and their decline will surely change the World in radical and unpredictable ways. How has this self-evident reality been so successfully confused and denied? In short, oil companies under-reported discovery to comply with strict Stock Exchange rules, and revised reserves upwards over time, delivering a comforting but misleading image. But those days are over, forcing the major companies to find reserves by merger rather than in the ground. Some OPEC countries, for their part, started reporting original, not remaining reserves, as they vied with each other for quota, explaining why their reported reserves have barely changed for 20 years. Furthermore, definitions of the several categories of oil and gas are confused. Public data are grossly unreliable. Production has to mirror discovery after a time lapse, as amply demonstrated in one country after another. The peak of production comes broadly when half the total has been consumed. Deciphering the conflicting evidence as well as possible indicates that approximately 944 Gb (billion barrels) of Regular Conventional oil have been produced; 764 Gb remain in known fields (Reserves); and 142 Gb are Yet-to-Find. If so, the midpoint of depletion was passed in 2003, meaning that peak production is imminent. On present estimates, the overall peak of all categories of oil arrives in 2006, with that of oil and gas combined coming about two years later. A widely held myth proclaims that technology will deliver more, when its main impact has been to hold production higher for longer, accelerating depletion. The observed growth in reserves has been an artefact of reporting, not technology, save in special cases. The First Half of the Age of Oil now closes. It lasted 150 years and saw the rapid expansion of industry, transport, trade, agriculture and financial capital, allowing the population to expand six-fold. The financial capital was created by banks with confidence that Tomorrow's Expansion, fuelled by oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for To-day's Debt. The Second Half of the Age of Oil now dawns, and will be marked by the decline of oil and all that depends on it, including financial capital. It heralds the collapse of the present Financial System, and related political structures, speaking of a Second Great Depression. But there are survival strategies. Governments may be persuaded to sign the Depletion Protocol whereby imports are cut to match world depletion rate, such that world prices fall into reasonable relationship with cost, and profiteering from shortage avoided; the current monumental waste of energy may be reduced; renewable energies from wave, tide, wind, solar, hydro and geothermal sources may be brought in; and the nuclear option re-evaluated. The survivors, whose numbers may not greatly exceed those of the pre-oil age, may find silver linings as they rediscover rural living, regionalism, diversity and local markets, coming to live in better harmony with themselves, each other, and the environment in which Nature has ordained them to live. But the transition will be a time of great tension, including international tension as consumers vie for access to dwindling supplies, and as city life becomes unsustainable. From ceasig at gmail.com Sun Dec 6 04:29:25 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 16:59:25 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Halting Ecologically Hostile Expansion of Urban Habitats for Ecologically Safe Future of Children in Bihar and rest of the Country Message-ID: <31f677a30912060329m70dfb2e1lcb5b32f49ec40ce8@mail.gmail.com> Dear Dinesh ji, I am not quite surprised to hear about this state of affairs with reference to the knowledge of the key policy drafts and reference materials. I think, it would take time for many in the government to remain updated on the key issues related to the ecologically safe future of Bihar.However, I do think that Government of Bihar would take note of this and ensure that no longer such instances are reported, or else, how the good governance ideals promoted by Nitish Kumar would be realised. I would like to send my responses as soon as possible. Meanwhile, I would like to share that till now I have been supporting the ecologically safe housing housing in North Bihar where till recently before consrtuctions of bridges over Ganga in Patna and Bhagalpur most of the household had been using ecologically safe building materials using bamboo and thatch locally available and making homes naturally cool in summer and warm in winter. I have cited this in many international e-discussions as well. I would also like to share the initiation of a movement for transforming ecologically hostile habitats http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com with 81 members. It is critical to halt the expansion of ecologically hostile habitats, multply ecological audit of consumption and production at personal ,social,national and global levels and reduce the emission of green house gases, promote carbon-neutral leisure though carbon-neutral discussions across the neighbourhoods, eliminate generation of ecologically hostile usurious and speculative money and define governance considering the ecostrategic requirements. I commend Barh Mukti Abhiyan and support your work for eradicating the root cause of floods in Bihar. You may like to see my proposal for a discipline called ecostrategic at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam With warmest regards Dr.M.Mukhtar Alam On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Dinesh Mishra wrote: > > > Dear All, > > The draft of the policy document is available at the following site. > > http://wrd.bih.nic.in/download/SWP_2009.pdf > > There was meeting held in Patna recently organised by some NGO > named Wateraid in Patna in which the minister for Public Health Engg Dept of > GoB, Shri Ashwini Chowbey, had participated along with one Mr. Sanjay Ray > MLC. Both the dignitories were unaware of the policy draft and expressed > their frustration that the other departments of the state were not aware of > this draft. They assured the audience that they will take up the matter with > the WRD of the state. > > I was not invited to the meeting and this is only an unconfirmed feedback > that I got for someone who had participated in the meeting. If this is so, > it will give us more time to us to forward our comments as the other > departments of the state would like to have their say in the matter. > > This is also a reflection on the working style of the governments that one > department of the state does not know or bother about the other. This is > particularly interesting because the WRD has accorded the first priority to > drinking water and the minister of Public Health Engg. Department is unaware > of that favor. Needless to say that drinking water comes under the perview > of Public Health. > > Dinesh Kumar Mishra > Convenor - Barh Mukti Abhiyan > 6-B Rajiv Nagar, Patna 800024 > Mob: +919431303360 > > On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:11 AM, KAMARAJ NADAR wrote: > >> Dear Misraji, >> >> I congratulate you and your friend on the good work. >> A great service. >> >> A.C.Kamaraj >> >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> New Windows 7: Find the right PC for you. Learn more. >> > > __._,_.___ > Reply to sender| Reply > to group > Messages in this topic( > 1) > Recent Activity: > > - New Members > 6 > > Visit Your Group Start > a New Topic > MARKETPLACE > > Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living > ------------------------------ > > Parenting Zone: Your community resource for family and home > [image: Yahoo! Groups] > Switch to: Text-Only, > Daily Digest? > Unsubscribe ? > Terms of Use > . > > __,_._,___ > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 05:51:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 04:51:39 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Chomsky Speaks on US Imperialism Message-ID: <003c01ca75a9$da974530$8fc5cf90$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Well, we are finally getting somewhere as Noam Chomsky puts the label of mental illness on "what ails us". At least we are getting somewhere close to the source of the collective dis-ease that grips almost all of society today as revealed by looking at the insanity of our collective acts in which we are destroying our very own life support system. Not even those in the animal world soil their nests such as we are doing today as members of the human family. While I really dislike "labels" per se because they tend to define one as nothing more and nothing less, at least this one gets us beyond the "symptoms" stage and close to a defined disease that is treatable once we get beyond the multitude of symptoms and in touch with "cause". -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 2:21 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Chomsky Speaks on US Imperialism Chomsky Speaks on US Imperialism Noam Chomsky delivered the Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture to a packed crowd on Thursday. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/12/04/chomsky-speaks-us-imperialism by Claire Luchette Published on Friday, December 4, 2009 by Columbia Spectator According to Noam Chomsky, all U.S. leaders are schizophrenic. [Students had to be turned away from Thursday's event featuring the famed linguist Noam Chomsky, as the room filled up to three times its capacity. Chomsky gave the Edward Said lecture. (Jawad Bhatti / Staff photographer)] Chomsky, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came to Columbia on Thursday to discuss hypocrisy and "schizophrenia" in American foreign policy from the early settlers to George W. Bush. Chomsky, often considered one of the fathers of modern linguistics, is also well known for his controversial criticism of the United States' actions in international politics. At the fifth annual Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture hosted by the Heyman Center for the Humanities, Chomsky began his speech on "The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism" by applauding Said for calling attention to America's culture of imperialism. Said, a cultural critic and literary scholar who taught at Columbia for about three decades, died in 2003. Though America just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Chomsky said the commemoration ignored a glaring human rights violation that occurred only one week after the wall fell. On November 16, 1989, a U.S.-armed Atlacatl battalion assassinated six leading Latin American Jesuit priests, he explained. Chomsky contrasted America's self-congratulation of the Berlin Wall destruction with the resounding silence that surrounds the assassination of these priests. He said that this was just one example of the many stains on America's foreign policy record. Chomsky criticized the U.S. for its role in the continuing conflicts in the Middle East. Alluding to the wall dividing Israel and Gaza, he stressed the need to "dismantle the massive wall ... now snaking through Palestinian territory in violation of international law." Discussing the United States as an international player, he said, "To this day, the U.S. is reverentially admired as a city on a hill." Chomsky characterized this as an imperialist policy, "a conception that we are carrying out God's will in mysterious ways." He argued that the U.S. sacrifices democratic principles for its own self-interest, and tends to "focus a laser light on the crimes of enemies, but crucially we make sure to never look at ourselves." Democracy, he said, is "supported if it defends the strategic and economic objectives of the United States." Akeel Bilgrami, director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities, said in an e-mail prior to the event that they were honored to have Chomsky return for a fourth visit. "He is one of the greatest figures of public conscience of the last century," Bilgrami said, adding that, in linguistics and philosophy, Chomsky "single-handedly generated a revolution in the subject." Bilgrami noted that the Heyman Center's choice of speakers does not necessarily reflect its political views. He said, "To some extent, the choice of speakers and interests over the years have reflected the progressive, humanistic, politically radical possibilities in the study of the humanities but it has never been a political platform" and explained that any sort of agenda would "cancel out other voices and points of view." From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 11:17:13 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 10:17:13 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Creating an Energy Descent Action Plan (transcript) Message-ID: <007001ca75d7$5796f5d0$06c4e170$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While I feel this Energy Descent Action Plan is a good one, I am going to post in a follow up message why we are not moving ahead more quickly as a collective consciousness to assimilate the knowledge contained herein and apply it. It has to do with the current state of our body/mind field which is very much out of balance. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 04, 2009 8:54 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Creating an Energy Descent Action Plan (transcript) ".. in terms of engaging the community, I think you have to be very creative and imaginative in how you present this, and I think there is a particular knack to - very easy to present peak oil and climate change in such a way that actually - they're almost universally presented as incredibly depressing issues. I think one of the things that we've been working on really hard with the transition towns process is actually that people go to a talk about peak oil and come away feeling quite exhilarated, at the potential of it. And, I think, one of the things you have to do is to really weave the possibilities into the present, and I'm a great believer that the same adaptability, creativity, and imagination that got us up to the top of the peak in the first place can be harnessed to come back down the other side. I don't think it's a given that once we start coming down the other side, we all resort to savages, and everything collapses instantly... it's really good to try and approach people where they're at. Because, although it may very often seem like a community isn't remotely interested in these issues (and isn't interested in relocalization and the practicalities of relocalization), actually, when you start looking around, you find a huge amount of people who are interested in aspects of that - they just don't call it that! We have people who have a very strong interest in local food, in local community work, in different aspects of local culture, and, actually, those people can become your staunchest ally - it just depends how you present it to them." Creating an Energy Descent Action Plan (transcript) MediaCreating an Energy Descent Action Plan (complete audio) http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/2663 Transcribed by Barry Silver Andi Hazelwood: This is Andi Hazelwood for Global Public Media on the 28th of June, 2007. I'm speaking with Sonya Wallace, who is the group coordinator for "Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah" - part of the Relocalization Network here in Queensland, Australia. Sonya, thank you very much for taking the time today. Sonya Wallace: Thank you. AH: I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about your latest project. SW: Well, we've actually got a few things on the go at the moment, and one project seems to lead to another one. What we started doing was looking at some sort of course based around permaculture, that would apply permaculture principles to the problems of peak oil and climate change. And, of course, that led quite naturally to relocalization - they're very aligned to the relocalization movement and the permaculture movement. So, it became pretty evident that we needed a course where we could examine David Holmgren's textbooks, and apply those principles to social re-organization, as opposed to designing the landscape, as permaculture's most well known for. So, that was the first stage. And then it became pretty evident that we would need some sort of momentum to keep that going - we didn't want to get all our students excited about peak oil, and get all passionate and fired up and want to do something about it, and leave them with no structure to go on with. So, we thought a center would be a good idea, an actual physical building that was open regularly for students to come along and keep the momentum going, the energy going, for the relocalization projects. And, then, from that, it became pretty evident that, probably, the thing we needed was an Energy Descent Action Plan based on what they did in Ireland. So, these three projects have, sort of, evolved one after another, but I think it's a pretty rounded approach to relocalization here on the Sunshine Coast. AH: So, give me a little bit of a background on how permaculture can deal with the issues of energy descent. SW: Well, David Holmgren's really - his textbook, "Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability", I see that as a bit of a framework for how to go about relocalization because that addresses things like the built environment, education, culture, land stewardship, community government - all those things we need to address - the infrastructure problem - everything that needs to be addressed to prepare for the post carbon future. So, while permaculture is very well known as a gardening technique, I think it's about time we - sort of - stepped under the spotlight as a relocalization technique. AH: And, as I understand it, Rob Hopkins, when he did the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan, it was actually part of a permaculture course as well. SW: Yes, that's correct. He had students doing a two-year, full-time permaculture course, and they worked on looking within their local council shire on all the things that needed to be addressed, and that was a really successful document. The local council actually adopted that at the end of it, and they're implementing it. So, we hope to follow in that success. That's a really good blueprint for how local shires can really start to relocalize. AH: Now, obviously the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan focused on the strengths and weaknesses of that particular area. What do you consider to be the things that will need to be taken into consideration for the Sunshine Coast? SW: Here, in our area, we've got a lot of opportunity for food production. We are lucky, here - we've got good rainfall, good land. I think our major problems are just going to be transportation. We're suffering, I guess, like so many other places, with urban sprawl and the reliability people have to put on, and the reliance they have on our transport - there's just not the transportation infrastructure here. And the same with local economies. Our local economies are very vulnerable - they're based on tourism and retail, and both of those things are extremely vulnerable to peak oil. AH: And have you any ideas on how an Energy Descent Action Plan would deal with those issues? SW: It needs community awareness, I think is the first step, for the community to start to realise that we do need to relocalize. We have an option at the moment: we can plan and do things, or we can have those things thrust upon us. So, we do have that option, and I think an action plan - if we can actually explore the options, and we're looking at getting permaculture groups, the community and the local university - and the council, as well - involved, and really look at what can seriously happen, and can be put in place to address these issues. I think identifying the problems first up, and then looking for some real achievable ways that we can put things in place, and timelining it as well is going to be really important, that's it's not just left open ended. AH: So, now, tell me about the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Center. SW: Well, we're very lucky here. We've got a great community garden, here, on the Sunshine Coast, and they have a building as part of the gardens that we meet in regularly. But, on the weekend, it sits there locked up and empty. So, we thought that would be a great place to start to have this regular site where people can drop in and find out about peak oil and climate change. And I think it'll be a really great asset for the coast to have that open. People can call in, we're going to have video screenings, we'll show "End of Suburbia", and all those related DVDs - sort of - circulating round the community at the moment. We'll have guest speakers, and we'll have just lots of information on how people can get involved, and it'll range from free workshops right through to university courses, and everything in between. AH: And have you had any conversation with your local councils about the idea of the Energy Descent Action Plan. What kind of response have you gotten? SW: It's really supportive! A lot of support from the local council. They really understand the concept of it, and they feel very passionate about wanting to do something. And that's the other beauty of an Energy Descent Action Plan, it is actually a framework that you can show people, and they can immediately understand how it works. I think that's the biggest problem we face, I think a lot of people want to do something, but they really don't know what to do. And that's where I think being able to show them the Kinsale document - they can immediately relate to that, and it makes a lot of sense to them. So, we're really lucky. The council's really supportive, we're meeting with the town planning, the community development and the environmental planning areas of the council, to look at ways we can get this locked in and happening as a regional project. AH: And you're actually doing this in conjunction with another relocalization group - is that right? SW: Well, we're actually - we're all linked here on the coast. We doing it with the Sustainable Maleny Project, we've got the group at Eumundi, a bit further north from here. So, we're linked in with the other groups on the coast, and also the permaculture network, as well. So, we've got a really good support system out there of people who can teach others all the skills we need for the future. AH: Now, for this project, what kind of difficulties are you experiencing at this point? SW: Well, I think the biggest thing is just getting the community aware about the problem. It's really difficult. Like a lot of places in Australia, most people's focus at the moment is on economic issues. There's interest rates, price of housing, just the general keeping up with the lifestyle - I guess it's happening around the world - but people are just driven by debt, and there's a lot of loss of community, and that's been broken down over the past few years, here, in Australia. So, rebuilding that, and getting the community to understand that there is a problem, and that we need to act and do something about it urgently, and what we can do - it's a real challenge. AH: Earlier today you sent out an e-mail to your group about transportation poverty, and a lot of people may be looking at those immediate issues and not realizing that there are larger ways that they can deal with the problem as a whole. SW: Yes, I think so. I don't know that people are connecting increase in fuel and food, and all those things, with issues like peak oil. It keeps getting related back to the drought, whereas I don't know how fuel prices can be related to the drought at all. And people don't seem to ever question these connections that are being made. So, I think, slowly but surely, it's going to come out. But it is a huge challenge because peak oil is tied up in such complex, political and economic structures that for the truth to come out about it - it's a real challenge. AH: So, to find out more information about the Sunshine Coast Energy Descent Action Plan, you can go to "Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast"'s Web site, which is cassc.relocalize.net, and also tell us the Web address for these Sunshine Coast Energy Action Center. SW: Yup, that's www.seac.net.au AH: Excellent. Sonya Wallace, thank you very much for your time. SW: Thank you. AH: Now that Sonya has told us about starting an Energy Descent Action Plan, let's talk to someone who has successfully completed an EDAP, and had it adopted. Rob Hopkins, thanks very much for being on Global Public Media. Rob Hopkins: It's a pleasure. AH: I wonder if you can tell me, how does a community determine what its individual strengths and weaknesses are, and how do you develop responses to the weaknesses while capitalizing on the strengths? RH: Well, I think - I don't think a descent plan emerges from a process - it's not something that you can just - sort of - sit down and draft. So, really, it's a process that we - maybe to give you some of the background to it, I suppose, would be useful. The first one that I was involved with was the one in Kinsale, in Ireland, which was the first one, and that really came around because I was teaching at a further education college in Kinsale, in Ireland, and we had the first two-year, full-time permaculture course in the world, and that was when I found out about peak oil, and looked around - all over the place - to try to see if there was a solution somewhere that somebody had done, or communities that had started thinking about it. At that point I couldn't find anything at all. So, we really made it up as we went along, and based on the principle that the future with less oil could be preferable to the present, if we used sufficient creativity and imagination and adaptability, and so that was the idea, really. It was underpinned with an optimistic kind of a premise - we used Open Space a lot. And I think one of the main things - in terms of overcoming the - sort of - pessimism, or whatever - they're couple of things, I think, that are really strong principles. One of them is that you have to avoid any sense of "them and us" from the outset. So, you're really trying to avoid polarizing and trying to avoid the sort of environmentalist often-used habit of looking around for somebody to blame all the time, and there's nobody to blame in this. If you're trying to create a coalition of different groups and organizations that has never really happened before - directly - then I think you also need to create a sense that something historic is happening. This needs to generate a sense in the town that what's happening is something really historic, that's never happened before, and that people really would like to be a part of. And I think you also need to have a process which retains its flexibility, which is always able to change and adapt and move around, really. That's my sense, is that if you want to avoid pessimism, you really need to make it a process which is exhilarating, and which is about inviting people on a journey, really. AH: Now, would you say that there is anything particularly unusual about Kinsale that made it possible for an Energy Descent Action Plan to be adopted, or is this something that can be done in any town given the right circumstances? RH: Well, I think the important thing to note with the Energy Descent Plan in Kinsale was that it was really done as a student project, and nowadays with the transition initiative that are popping up all over the country - transition town Totnes is the first transition town project in the UK, but there are now another 16 or 17 that are official transition towns, and then about another 90 who are starting the process. The interest in it is just taking off exponentially, really. And, actually, I think that in many ways - although we haven't produced an Energy Descent Plan here, yet - Totnes is now further advanced than Kinsale because what we produced in Kinsale was a student project, so it didn't have - it had a certain amount of roots in really deep community work, but it didn't have as much as we have here already. But I think the main reason that Kinsale was a place where it embedded itself was that it was the town where this course was happening really. So, it was the only town in Ireland where there was an established, extremely popular, dynamic, very well regarded in the town, full-time permaculture course, really, and that acted as the catalyst for it. But I think what we're seeing here, now, in the UK, as these initiatives take off, is that the first wave was the - sort of - places you would think of - Totnes, Stroud, Lewes - towns that have a history of being - sort of - laboratories for alternative thinking, free thinking kind of places, whereas the second wave are much more surprising, and so this is really starting to engage the mainstream in quite an exciting way. AH: Sonya has an unusual situation. Whereas most of us are having to really get our councils to understand what's going on - and it's the community that's behind it - her situation is actually reversed. Her council is very much looking forward to hearing what she has to say, but her community is a bit disengaged. How do you deal with people who are looking at their immediate problems instead of looking at the grander picture? RH: Well, I think - it's something that's very interesting that's happening in the UK with transition initiatives at the moment is that, increasingly, we're finding that the first point of contact comes from councilors and people in local government, and, actually, it creates a very interesting dynamic, which we're just exploring at the moment because, really, the idea is with this process that it comes from the community - it can't be imposed from the top by local authorities. And, really, the role of local authorities in this process is to support this process - not to steer it, not to drive it - and, actually, increasingly, they're really delighted with that, as a concept. So, actually, if somebody has a local authority who is supportive of it, that's a useful thing to have - it's such a fantastic and valuable thing that a lot of communities are really working very hard to try and generate. So, in that regard, she's one up really. But, in terms of engaging the community, I think you have to be very creative and imaginative in how you present this, and I think there is a particular knack to - very easy to present peak oil and climate change in such a way that actually - they're almost universally presented as incredibly depressing issues. I think one of the things that we've been working on really hard with the transition towns process is actually that people go to a talk about peak oil and come away feeling quite exhilarated, at the potential of it. And, I think, one of the things you have to do is to really weave the possibilities into the present, and I'm a great believer that the same adaptability, creativity, and imagination that got us up to the top of the peak in the first place can be harnessed to come back down the other side. I don't think it's a given that once we start coming down the other side, we all resort to savages, and everything collapses instantly. But I think one of the things that she should really be looking at doing is an awareness raising process, which, I mean - I think certainly showing - we found that showing a film - "End of Suburbia", "The Power of Community" - these kinds of things - that designing those film screenings can be much more than just film screenings, but that there're also networking possibilities - people come together, they offer space designed in them for people to chew over what they've heard, and also to see what are the issues that are concerning the community at the moment. I gave a talk here in Devon a while ago to the Women's Institute, and their big concerns were about the local hospital being under threat of being closed, and the rising price of milk, what's happening to milk (local milk producers, basically, are being driven out of the market). So I started my talk to them by, basically, putting both of those in the context of cheap energy, and that, actually, the same forces that are threatening both of those things, and then weaving it back to oil. So, it's really good to try and approach people where they're at. Because, although it may very often seem like a community isn't remotely interested in these issues (and isn't interested in relocalization and the practicalities of relocalization), actually, when you start looking around, you find a huge amount of people who are interested in aspects of that - they just don't call it that! We have people who have a very strong interest in local food, in local community work, in different aspects of local culture, and, actually, those people can become your staunchest ally - it just depends how you present it to them. AH: Is there any more advice that you would like to give to people who are interested in starting an Energy Descent Action Plan for their community? RH: Yes, certainly. I think it's something that you're not going to create overnight. It's something that is very, very useful if you can do it with some kind of overlap with local authorities, so that it's written in such a way that - I have this mental picture: I'm about three or four years in the future when we've had a year when peak oil has really made itself very, very apparent - in terms of high prices, possibly intermittency of supply - and that our councilors are sat in their council chamber with two documents in front of them, one of which is the Energy Descent Plan produced by the community, which actually addresses the issue and the challenges that are being presented to them, and the other one is the one that they've done, which is just based on a business-as-usual model, and trying to decide which one to adopt. I think an Energy Descent Plan should be something which also is really entertaining to read, and one of the things that we're doing here in Totnes is we have a project called "Transition Tale" which is about gathering through a series of events where we ask people to imagine themselves in the kind of future that we're talking about, and then to write stories about it, and newspaper articles from the future. So, we're starting to collect these kinds of stories, which allow people to really imagine themselves in that future. I think we have to really paint it in such a way that you can almost smell it, a tangible possibility. And so, with the Energy Descent Plan here, we want to weave those stories through the process, as well. And, the thing that I would point people to is something which is called "The 12 Steps of Transition", which has really emerged from the work we've been doing here in Totnes, and which are the twelve steps towards starting a project like this to producing an Energy Descent Plan. And the transition network which is just forming here in the UK - which is a national charity designed to support, inspire, train, and nurture all the different transition initiatives emerging around the UK - is they're producing a booklet which contains all of those, and they'll also be in a book that I'm writing at the moment, which will be out in the spring which is going to be called, "Small Is Inevitable" . AH: Would you mind if we call you back in a couple of weeks to talk more in depth about transition towns? RH: No, I'd love to. No, that'll be absolutely fine. AH: In the meantime can you give us a Web site where people can find your work. RH: Yes, www.transitionculture.org. And there you can also download the Kinsale Energy Descent Plan, and you'll find all kinds of goodies on the subject. You'll find there two short films of me doing talks explaining the twelve steps which people might find useful. AH: Fantastic! Rob Hopkins, thank you so much. RH: Pleasure. AH: This is Andi Hazelwood for Global Public Media. MediaCreating an Energy Descent Action Plan (complete audio) From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 5 13:07:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 12:07:56 -0800 Subject: [GJM] A Must Read: Our collective state of consciousness and why we are failing to assimilate new knowledge and process it quickly. Message-ID: <007e01ca75e6$d4190da0$7c4b28e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS by Mary Rose Future Dawning Center for Self-Realization www.futuredawning.org 5 December 2009 Permission granted to forward this information as widely as is possible provided all information is included. Our collective state of consciousness and why we are failing to assimilate new knowledge and process it quickly. Since one of the major focuses of Future Dawning, which is a multi-dimensional organization, is to unite movements, we are certainly in favor of and supportive of the Transition and Re-localization movements, and the plans they are proposing. However, what these movements are not taking into consideration in their attempt to get the job done, is the state of human consciousness today and therefore lack the understanding as to why people are just not getting it; or, perhaps "not getting it fast enough." In a previous post yesterday, Richard Heinberg wrote that we must accomplish what we need to do with "wartime speed". But when we have a society made up of 75% of those who are left-brain oriented, and thus not capable of processing information in a fully integrated manner, coupled with the statistics that fully 26.9% of those in the U.S. alone are "legally mentally ill;" coupled with the fact that we here in the U.S. alone with only 5% of the world's population are using 40% of the world's illegally-produced drugs; and, in addition we have just learned that the 'biggest problem we have today is with people who are addicted to pharmaceutical drugs,' the recognition must arrive that we have a major problem with the collective state of mental health in this country. And, we must address this issue prior to being able to motivate people to "take the path less traveled today" so to speak as we are forced by circumstances in our environment to move into simpler lifestyles than those to which we have become addicted over the past several decades. As a journalist, I am currently researching and studying Bi-polar Disorder -- just one mental illness alone; however, one that is now affecting 1 out of every 45 people in the U.S. today according to research coming out of Duke University, and is reaching epidemic proportions. This is important because it is also the most costly disease there is to treat today, exceeding that of diabetes. However, what we are finding is that true to two-time Nobel Prize recipient, Dr. Linus Pauling's research findings back in 1965 that all mental disorders are caused by nutritional deficiencies, treatment with a specially formulated mineral supplement distributed by an NGO in Candada, is proving to be 80% effective in treating BPD. What we are learning is that the soil here in the U.S. (and worldwide) has been so depleted by commercial agricultural practices, (including that of raising cattle for beef) that the nutrients in the form of vitamins and minerals are no longer in sufficient supply in most soils to provide what we need. But when individuals begin receiving nutrients formulated in such a way as to include them in a wholistic and bioavailable manner similar to what might be obtained through eating fresh produce picked from one's garden, then miracles begin to happen as the body responds and begins to heal as the needed nutrients are restored. Follow up clinical research conducted by the distributor of "EMPowerPlus," the TrueHope organization, shows that within three weeks of taking the supplement, the body/mind field of 80% of the recipients begins to respond as indicated by testimonials on the website. www.truehope.com What appears to be happening when individuals take randomly selected vitamins via supplements that are not formulated in a wholistic manner, or by food intake alone, is that some supplements conducive to absorption by the body of the other needed supplements may be lacking. And, if these ingredients are lacking, then the body is not getting what it needs to function properly. For more information on this please see the TrueHope website: www.truehope.com. However, this does not mean that taking supplements is not beneficial and certainly more research is needed on this. But what it does indicate is that some individuals are not getting sufficient nutrients in quantities sufficient to supply what their body needs. Let me tell you about my own experience. Back in July of this year, I began having what appeared to be heart attacks but proved in the long run to be "panic attacks" brought about in part by a deficiency of Vitamin B1 and D as revealed by blood tests after the fact, along with a lack of an "amino acid complex" which when incorporated into my diet resulted in loss of almost all symptoms. I was in and out of the hospital four different times with suspicions of heart attack or stroke being the culprit. However, extensive testing at the hospital concluded that my heart was/is in excellent shape. Along with these attacks, I was also experiencing tingling and numbness in my feet and legs, which, at one point a hospital doctor diagnosed as diabetic neuropathy. However, another neurologist to whom I was referred by my primary care physician, and my primary care physician, were not satisfied with this diagnosis. So, the neurologist ordered extensive blood tests which revealed the above-mentioned vitamin deficiencies which he indicated were "sufficient to make a significant impact on my health resulting in the symptoms I was then having." The acupuncturist I had begun seeing, who is also a licensed nutritionist, had also recommended a liquid vitamin which included the recommended amounts of Vitamin D, but lacked sufficient quantities of Vitamin B1. It also included sufficient quantities of the amino acid complex to meet my needs. So, even prior to receiving the results of the Vitamin tests, I was on my way to recovery and when I later included the Vitamin B1 to the other supplements I am taking, the numbness and tingling in my feet almost disappeared completely although testing had revealed that I do have some permanent nerve damage. It is nice to say that I have had no more panic attacks. I was to later learn from both the doctors I am involved with, and from the Internet sites placed by major hospitals and clinics, that panic attacks frequently mimic heart attacks and if not addressed may lead to real heart attacks. But what has been most important for me is learning firsthand about the impact a vitamin deficiency can have on both one's mental and physical state of being. I was certainly "out of balance" and finding it increasingly difficult to navigate in my small world here at home, let alone navigate the travails of the outside world. However, I did, and still do, find my work here on the Internet to be exceedingly "centering." And, both before this episode and now, I find what I do requires a concentrated focus which takes me into another state of consciousness perhaps closer to "theta" than is normally entered into by individuals. However, the thought has crossed my mind that it is this state of consciousness that most artists and others of high creative ability enter into that allows one to free the mind from all barriers and "think far out of the box" while engaging both the "spirit world" and the "everyday world" - seeing holo-graphically as all areas of the brain are actively engaged at one time. What concerns me most at this time is the number of people who are homeless and/or living in poverty who are receiving inadequate amounts of nutritional supplements from either the food they eat or from a specially formulated supplement. What we have found is that approximately 30% of those who are homeless suffer from Bipolar Disorder. Which is something that initially inspired me to take a more in depth look into BPD since I am currently serving on the Advisory Board of Directors for the Hearts of Fire Project. Bipolar Disorder also carries with it a very high suicide rate especially among men. And, as the number of those who are homeless increases, we are going to experience an increasing rate of BPD and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder along with that of ADD, ADHD, and schizophrenia which are all related illnesses. With Bipolar Disorder we see an increasingly high rate of drug and alcohol addiction as those who suffer from BPD tend to self-treat themselves with alcohol and other illegal drugs, and, in particular crystal meth. One reason for this being that BPD is mainly treated with Lithium which is a trace element, but which also damages the liver and kidneys with long term use. So, many BPD sufferers attempt to control their mood swings through the use of alcohol and drugs which may or may not smooth out the ups and downs associated with BPD. I cannot emphasize enough the importance diet and getting sufficient nutrients plays in shaping the world in which we live. There certainly can be no denying that "we are what we eat" and that getting the right nutrients plays an extremely important role in how we think and act. Certainly as the "fast food nation" of the world with the accompanying obesity factor, it is obvious that what we are doing to our bodies, we are also doing to our minds. We need to "stop the insanity now" by paying attention to what we put into our bodies. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sun Dec 6 00:39:35 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 13:09:35 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Discussing Usury and Ecologically Hostile Usurious Finance System and making Jews understand the Islam of Noah, Ibrahim , Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and the Messengers across the lands In-Reply-To: References: <954086.38498.qm@web111506.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>, <190665.97462.qm@web88208.mail.re2.yahoo.com> , <922155.46978.qm@web94901.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <103317.28654.qm@web94903.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear?Saleem,?Greetings for peace, Can you produce a text like the one?sister Zina?Khan has done for my request on the issue of getting the followers of Moses, a messenger of Islam away from appropriating usury.?I am?sharing the response of sister Zina below. Have you imagined the binary equivalent of the all the texts generated at?this moment on the web?and number of sand grains? I guess it is quite a mind boggling exercise. Finding an empirical evidence for Meraaj is also difficult for me.But , I believe. Please read the verses of Holy Qur'an calling upon men and women with faith in existence of Allah to investigage the creations in the universes, indulge in rememberance sitting,reclining,walking and communicating the word with best means of persuasion. You may like to see my presentations at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam and papers at http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org Global Justice Movement www.globaljusticemovent.net appreciates the need for generation of interest free money. David Moosa Pidcock , the leader of Islamic Party of Britain and author of Another Road to Serfdom has been working for creation of debt free money. Mitagation of climate change requires elimination of ecologically hostile speculative and usurious money for halting the expansion of ecologically hostile habitats. I would be grateful for your sincere, wise, logical and compassionate thought on this.Please consider apololiging for the abuse of companions of Muhammad (peace be upon him).This would make your heart clean for engaging with men and women like me who seek paths for temporal,eternal,psychological,ecological wellbeing on humanity. "There is great difference between usury and trade....between usury and reasonable interest and between usury and Interest there exists a word known as "excessive" which comes sometimes with compounding interest also....? ? The worst sin, which can be committed in a society is this that the government and the profiteers should unite to exploit the weak and helpless people. > >Allah has allowed "business" and disallowed "usury".? >? >Usurers have been warned of severe torture, because it is a sort of forced labour and amounts to enslaving others". ...so there must not be any excessiveness in anything that we do. > >The Qur'an says: "There were many cities whose residents were drowned in pleasure. We annihilated them and their houses were ruined. None was left to reside there except a few". >? >At another place the Qur'an warns the people in a very eloquent manner and says: >? >"When We wish to destroy a city We order its pleasure-loving citizens to become libertines (i.e. We provide them the means of the life of luxury and pleasure) so that they may become deserving of annihilation and then We destroy that city"....to me all this amounts to a form of usury.... > >The traders procure the provisions from appropriate place at cheaper rates.? The traders take these commodities to suitable markets for sale. At times they earn some profit and at other times they sustain loss. >? >Why would the same principle not apply to a Financial services or banking industry? and how would the business survive and sustain if it is unable to recoup the overhead expenses or costs of borrowing or refinancing?? > >Thus a small profit and which does not sustain any losses is not usury but customary as is for trading. I would consider anything in EXCESS as haram...why only Interest ? > >Abu Hurayra says: "Once I accompanied the prophet to the bazar.? He purchased some things from a shop-keeper and advised him to take only reasonable profit on the sale of his merchandise, not to hoard things, not to earn anything by unlawful means, and not to think that he was entitled to comfortable life whereas others were not".....so what is the merchandize of a banker? it is money? why would he then not be allowed to make areasonable profit when running a legitimate business and having to maintain overheads like rent and salaries and insurances? > >The Prophet of Islam has explained to his followers every now and then that good morals take birth from practical training and not only from verbal recommendations and advice. > >The Voice of Human Justice >(Sautu?l ?Adalati?l Insaniyah) >? >George Jordac >Translator: M. Fazal Haq >? >It appears necessary to mention what the prophet did for the welfare of humanity, what rules and regulations he enacted, and how far he respected human rights. > >The prophet of Islam paid full attention to the material and social conditions of the society. > >?Islam enacted rules and regulations for the human society in the same manner in which it enacted them for the individuals. > >? Islam attaches so much importance to the human brotherhood and society that it treats every national service to be an act of worship - rather, national service enjoys precedence over the performance of religious rites.? > >The prophet of Islam has said: >? >"Resolving differences and disputes is better than recommended prayers and fasting". >? >The following incident shows clearly how much the prophet was concerned about the welfare of the nation and the society: >? >Ibn Abdullah says: We (i.e. the companions) were accompanying the prophet on a journey.? Some of us were fasting whereas others were not.? > >It was summer season.? We >halted at a place.? No shade was available to us except the sheets of cloth, which we were carrying.? > >There were many amongst us who were protecting their faces from sunshine with their hands.? Those of us who were not fasting stood up and pitched the tents and provided water to the animals.? >? >Thereupon the prophet of Islam said: "Today those persons who are not fasting have appropriated the entire spiritual reward to themselves". >? >This incident shows that fasting which is an important mandatory article of worship ceases to be valid during journey so that one may not show laxity in economic matters for that reason and may not become incapable of serving the creatures of God. >? >The prophet has also said: "When anyone of you sees an indecent thing being done he should stop it with his hands and if he cannot do so he should stop it with his tongue. And if he cannot stop it with his tongue he should condemn it in his heart. And this (i.e. the third alternative) is the weakest stage of faith". >? >'Ordering to do good and restraining from evil' is such an explicit order in Islam that by its means every sort of good can be done to others, and all types of evil can be eliminated. > >? There are many traditions quoted from the prophet which go to show that whoever renders any service to the nation is superior to a devout person.? > >This is about common persons who render service to the nation.? In case, however, one, who renders such service, is also a scholar, he will no doubt be superior to millions of devout persons in the eyes of the prophet just as the moon is superior to millions of stars. >? >The prophet of Islam has said: "A scholar is decidedly superior to a devout person in the same manner in which the moon is superior to the stars". >? >The prophet has praised wisdom because it is wisdom, which endeavours to find out ways and means for the welfare of the people. One can do good to the people only by means of wisdom. >? >The prophet says: "An hour's reflection is better than a year's worship". (In some traditions it has been said that it is better than seventy years' worship). >? >Islam has paid full attention to the welfare of human society and its unity and order, as well as to its means of livelihood, and has drawn the attention of the people to the bounties of the earth and the blessings of work. >? >"Almighty God has created all the gifts of the earth for you. The earth has been created for the creatures.? It is God who has subjected the earth to you.? Walk on its paths and eat the provisions made available to you by God". >? >Islam has made it obligatory for man to thank others.? One can be thankful to God only when one thanks others, because one who does not recognise the creatures cannot recognise God. >? >?One who has not thanked the people has not thanked God?. >? >The prophet has praised useful activities very much.? He has not contented himself with praising such activities but has also treated worth kissing those hands, which are swollen due to excessive work.? >? >He says:? "This is the hand which is liked by God and His Prophet". >? >The following narration goes to show how great the Prophet considered the useful tasks and the measures of public welfare:? The companions of the prophet saw a well-built man and wished that he might have spent his strength by way of jihad in the path of God.? Thereupon the prophet said: >? >"If this person has come out to serve his weak and aged parents it is a task in the path of God.? If he has come out to earn for his children this is also a task in the path of God.? If he has come out to earn for his wife so as to protect her from illegal things this too is a task in the path of God.? And if he has come out to earn something for himself so that he may not have to beg is also a task in the path of God. >? >The books of Hadith contain many traditions of the Prophet, which show that he appreciated work very much and had great regards for those who worked hard.? He says: > > >"God likes a believer who works and earns.? No food is better than that earned with one's own efforts". >? >Hence, when work is such a valuable thing and is even regarded to be holy it is necessary for us to work with perseverance.? When a person works hard he will benefit himself as well as others.? His presence in the society will be considered to be auspicious and God will also like him. > >So how does this all then contradict the idea of us getting freebies? >? >The prophet says: "God likes that when someone of you does a work he should do it properly". >? >We have said above that Islam has subjected the earth to man.? He walks on it and utilises its bounties.? The question however, arises as to what attitude Islam adopted in the matter of distribution of these bounties? >? >Are all the bounties mean for a particular class to the exclusion of others?? > >?Is only one group of people entitled to benefit from them, and are others to remain deprived?? > >Or should they be distributed on the basis of efforts and need?? Are these bounties to be collected and stored by the kings, the aristocrats, the rich and the usurpers, or should they be divided justly among all persons? Now what guarantee do we all have that these business tycoons who collect muslim money interest free will not shift the same money to their own inner affiliates who will then offer us thes ame money - our money?thro' credit cards at a much highre interest rate?? >? >Islam has looked at humanity with the eye of justice and logic and has enacted rational laws for it.? > >It has neither deprived anyone of his share nor given him more than his due.? > >Every effort carries a reward and it is necessary for the society to honour this reward.? > >A good society does not allow that a hard worker should starve, and an idle person should benefit from the proceeds of the formers? work.? > >Nor does a good society mean that a worker should not get the reward for his work and an idle and good-for-nothing person should usurp all the bounties.? > >As happened in the societies of the earlier time when people were enslaved? and?their property was utilized?and where the powerful?played with their lives as they liked.? > >?We find that Islam has prohibited extravagance and improper adornment, especially in a society in which the majority of the people are indigent.? > >The reason is that if there is extravagance and improper adornment on one side there will be poverty and hunger on the other side.? > >Also because none is entitled tousurp the proceeds of the efforts of others; and life of pleasure in a poor society is possible only when some persons feed themselves on the proceeds of the efforts of others.? > >The prophet has treated the houses of the spendthrift persons to be the abodes of Satan.? >? >The Qur'an says: "There were many cities whose residents were drowned in pleasure. We annihilated them and their houses were ruined. None was left to reside there except a few". >? >At another place the Qur'an warns the people in a very eloquent manner and says: "When We wish to destroy a city We order its pleasure-loving citizens to become libertines (i.e. We provide them the means of the life of luxury and pleasure) so that they may become deserving of annihilation and then We destroy that city". >? >Islam has prohibited living a life of pleasure and extravagance while one lives amongst the indigent, as it disheartens them, and has obstructed all paths leading towards it. >? >Tyranny and oppression by the governors and the officials was one such path.? > >The Prophet prohibited and declared unlawful hoarding, taking work from the labourers without paying wages, becoming owner of land without doing anything to develop it, usurping the property of others, and other similar acts of oppression.?....so a complete interest free ethic does not jive for me... >? >He said about hoarding: "One who hoards is a sinner". >? >The prophet of Islam warned of terrible torture to those who usurp land and said:? >? >"Almighty God will put a chain of the seven layers of land round the neck of a person who usurps the lands of others". >? >He also said: "One who usurps the property of others will meet God on the Day of Judgement in such circumstances that He will be annoyed with him". >? >Islam has prohibited all kinds of usury.? The Qur'an says about usury: "O believers! Do not go on consuming compound interest". >? >At another place it says: "Allah has allowed business and disallowed usury.? > >Usurers have been warned of severe torture, because it is a sort of forced labour and amounts to enslaving others". [1] >? >Justice means that one should get wages equal to one's work.? If the people do not usurp the property of others and do not hoard the commodities to earn large profit wealth cannot become centred in a few hands. >? >If man and his hard work had been given their due importance in the society, servitude and slavery would not have become current.? > >As opposed to corrupt societies in which man's worth was assessed keeping in view his wealth Islam has a much higher criterion for assessing the worth of man. >? > >The Qur'an says: "Do not eat one another's property unlawfully nor give bribes to the rulers so that you may misappropriate whatever you can out of the property of others, although you know". > > >The prophet has said:? "No food is better than that earned with one's own hands". >? >In Surah al-Zilzal of the Qur'an it has been said: "Whoever does something evil equal to an atom will see its result". >? >It has been said: "Every person is pledged to his actions". >? >Although Islam has acknowledged wealth as personal property, the Islamic laws have been formulated in such a way that wealth may not be concentrated in a few hands and they may not enjoy all its benefits and humiliate others and subject them to forced labour. >? >The Holy Qur'an says: "So that wealth may not become a plaything in the hands of your rich." >? >Thus according to the Qur'an and Hadith the wealth belongs, in the first instance, to the community, and the members of the community can utilise it according to their needs and efforts.? > >?It is for this reason that usurpation of other people's property has been disallowed in Islam and hoarding of surplus property has also been prohibited. >? >This was the basis of the prophet'sfiscal policy and he set examples in this behalf by his words and actions, which must be followed. [2] >? >Rafa'a bin Zaid was one of the dear companions of the prophet.? In one of the battles he was killed with an arrow.? People came to the prophet to condole Rafa'a's death and said: "O prophet of God! Rafa'a was lucky.? He died a martyr's death.? By these words they wanted to console the Prophet, but he was not consoled and said: >? >"Certainly not.? The turban which he took out of the booty of Khaybar is still a flame like fire". >? >Notwithstanding the fact that Rafa'a had been killed while performing jihad the prophet treated him to be asinner because he had taken something very insignificant out of public property, of his own accord, although he ought to have waited till the property was divided. >? >The attitude adopted by Islam towards the usurpers and the profiteers can be judged from the fact that it has attached great importance to human life.? > >Only a living person is the spirit of this universe and God has created all things for him.? > >In the circumstances how can he be deprived of life and means of livelihood and how can it be possible to permit some persons to deprive others of the means of livelihood because of their being stronger than them? >? >In the eyes of the prophet of Islam wealth is meant to ensure comfortable life for all? human beings.? > >Just as human beings have equal rights to utilise sunlight and air in the same way they have equal rights over the means of life which are the products of sunlight and air and none is entitled to deprive others of these benefits. >? >The prophet has said:? >To whichever community a person may belong matters little; for he is entitled to enjoy the fruits of his labour.?? > >?It is the duty of human brotherhood to recognise the rights of the? individuals and give them full freedom to earn their livelihood so that they may work according to their capabilities and enjoy the proceeds of their labour.? > >It is also necessary for the members of the society not to make an obstacle in their path.? > >It is neither permissible for the human brotherhood to oppress the individuals nor is it permissible for the individuals to harm the brotherhood.? > >?It is necessary for the individuals to keep in mind the welfare of others in the same manner in which they take care of their own welfare.....even providing consultations, advice, professional services or borrowing entails "labour" as we are not necessarily talking of Shylocks here..... > >In western countries today many muslims borrow money and financing to buy homes and businesses and so what is illegitimate about this? or will the muslim rulers provide the finance to them?? > >Are all the bounties mean for a particular class to the exclusion of others?? > >Is only one group of people entitled to benefit from them, and are others to remain deprived?? > >Or should they be distributed on the basis of efforts and need?? Are these bounties to be collected and stored by the kings, the aristocrats, the rich and the usurpers, or should they be divided justly among all persons? >? > > ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: saleem khan To: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; Asif Jalil ; Doctor shabbir ; Doctor Sohail ; Jimmy Jamshaid ; Mansoor Khan ; Mubashir Inayet ; Navaid Ansari ; Rafiq Sultan <4sultans at sympatico.ca>; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; saeed akhtar ibrahim ; sajjada987 at wmconnect.com; turkman at sbcglobal.net; Yousef Tabish Sent: Fri, 4 December, 2009 3:01:53 PM Subject: RE: Ishra and Meraj / comment No sir, It is not fair, how can I leave a scholar like you, but u havnt yet explained me about?miraj event of mu-ham-mad in mecca saudiarabia, which u staunchly believd to have happened, and if u would avoid to do so, i would think that?even a doctrate of philosphy has no wisdomful, intellectual, reasonable logical answer and it will be right that some people say that even well educated people are blind follower of their ancestors and society. ? ________________________________ Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 19:24:37 +0530 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Subject: Re: Ishra and Meraj / comment To: brilliant005 at hotmail.com Dear saleem,?I would be grateful, if you could remove me from your CC list. I do not like to see your mails. You do not appear to be learning. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: saleem khan To: minayet at yahoo.com; sangsker at yahoo.com; irtaza1 at yahoo.com Cc: zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; tahirakhan at comcast.net; Atif Sahib ; premsadani at hotmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; Doctor shabbir ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; Yousuf Tabish ; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; Doctor Sohail ; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com Sent: Mon, 30 November, 2009 1:50:06 PM Subject: RE: Ishra and Meraj / comment So , the great male Arabic crteator of universe and humans is dependent upon his creations humans , to explain and clarify his book, he himself is helpless to do so, so what is the authencity of his claims in his own book that this book is clear, complete, explained in all respect?? ? ________________________________ Date: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:48:22 -0800 From: minayet at yahoo.com Subject: Re: Ishra and Meraj / comment To: sangsker at yahoo.com; irtaza1 at yahoo.com CC: brilliant005 at hotmail.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; tahirakhan at comcast.net; atif98 at yahoo.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; drshabbir at bellsouth.net; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com According to some scholars, it was referring to the Messenger's journey from Mecca to Medina where there was a budding community of Muslims who were offering prayers already. ? From Medina, Islam spread like a force to reckon with and to stay, so Medin'as environ's were blessed. ________________________________ From: jamilul bashar To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com Cc: minayet at yahoo.com; brilliant005 at hotmail.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; tahirakhan at comcast.net; atif98 at yahoo.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; drshabbir at bellsouth.net; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; mustafvi at gmail..com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo..com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com Sent: Fri, November 27, 2009 11:21:56 PM Subject: Re: Ishra and Meraj / comment Dear Irtaza- no.4 Salaam. [17:1] Most glorified is the One who summoned His servant (Muhammad) during the night, from the Sacred Masjid (of Mecca) to the farthest place of prostration, whose surroundings we have blessed, in order to show him some of our signs. He is the Hearer, the Seer. Many of us believe that the ascension of Muhammad? was a physical journey even though the Quran informs us clearly that he could not even climb into the sky!? We learn from the Quran that it was a spiritual journey through God gifted vision, and could not possibly be a physical one, since the Prophet was a human being like us!? The chapter 17 of the Quran entitled "The Children of Israel" teaches us this concept in very details; I enlist the verses in sequence-. (Irtaza) 1. ` Masjidul haram= Sacred masjid;? Masjidul aksa= farthest place of prostration..? (Irtaza) Why such difference, when both are carrying the same motion? `Haram? means prohibited, restricted. `Wine, pork etc have declared as Prohibited (haram), those are not `sacred! (see: 2: 173; 3: 93; 5: 3) Masjid means` place of prostration.? The above verse does not say/hint that Mohammed?s journey was spiritual & in the sky! Rather it clearly says that was physical Mohammed & his physical journey. It was nothing but the night journey from the restricted place of prostration (Mecca) to the furthest place of prostration (Median).? Whose surroundings were blessed & that?s why surroundings of killer enemies had no harm to defenseless Mohammed & the victory of Islam after then. Those are the signs of God. It?s not clear that how do you learn from the Koran that it was spiritual journey? A journey must have its destination, (to the furthest place of prostration. Does it make any complete sense? )? then what was that? 2. The name/title of the chapter 17 was not revealed, it was man made. Thanks & regards. M J Bashar? --- On Fri, 11/27/09, Student of the Quran wrote: > From: Student of the Quran > Subject: Ishra and Meraj / comment > To: > Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 2:15 PM > > > > > > Salamun Alykum Enamul. > ? > Many of us believe that the ascension of > Muhammad? was a physical journey?even though the > Quran informs us clearly that he could not even climb > into the sky!? We learn from the Quran?that it was > a spiritual journey through God gifted vision, > and?could not possibly be a physical one, since the > Prophet was a human being like us!? The chapter 17 of > the Quran entitled "The Children of Israel" > teaches?us this concept in very details; I enlist the > verses in sequence: > ? > [17:1] Most > glorified is the One who summoned His servant (Muhammad) > during the night, from the Sacred Masjid (of Mecca) to the > farthest place of prostration, whose surroundings we have > blessed, in order to show him some of our signs. He is the > Hearer, the Seer. > ... > ? > [17:59] What > stopped us from sending the miracles is that the previous > generations have rejected them. For example, we showed > Thamoud the camel, a profound (miracle), but they > transgressed against it. We sent the miracles only to > instill reverence. > [17:60] We informed > you that your Lord fully controls the people, and we rendered the vision that we showed you > a test for the people, and the tree that is > accursed in the Quran. We showed them solid proofs to > instill reverence in them, but this only augmented their > defiance. ... > ? > [17:88] Say, > "If all the humans and all the jinns banded together in > order to produce a Quran like this, they could never produce > anything like it, no matter how much assistance they lent > one another." ... > [17:90] They said, "We will not believe > you unless you cause a spring to gush out of the ground. > > [17:91] "Or unless you own > a garden of date palms and grapes, with rivers running > through it. > [17:92] "Or unless you > cause masses from the sky, as you claimed, to fall on us. Or > unless you bring GOD and the angels before our eyes. > [17:93] "Or unless you own > a luxurious mansion, or unless you climb into the sky. Even > if you do climb, we will not believe unless you bring a book > that we can read." Say, "Glory be to my Lord. Am I > any more than a human messenger?" > [17:94] What prevented the > people from believing when the guidance came to them is > their saying, "Did GOD send a human being as a > messenger?" > [17:95] Say, "If the earth > were inhabited by angels, we would have sent down to them > from the sky an angel messenger." > .... > ? > [17:105] Truthfully, we sent it > down, and with the truth it came down. We did not send you > except as a bearer of good news, as well as a warner. > [17:106] A Quran that we have > released slowly, in order for you to read it to the people > over a long period, although we sent it down all at > once..... > ? > > > The vision of Muhammad on his spiritual > journey is beautifully depicted in the > Quran. > > > > > > ? > [17:1] Most > glorified is the One who summoned His servant (Muhammad) > during the night, from the Sacred Masjid (of Mecca) to the > farthest place of prostration, whose surroundings we have > blessed, in order to show him some of our signs. He is the > Hearer, the Seer. > ? > [17:60] We informed > you that your Lord fully controls the people, and we > rendered the vision that we showed you a test for the > people, and the tree that is accursed in the Quran. We > showed them solid proofs to instill reverence in them, but > this only augmented their defiance. > ? > [26:192] This is a revelation from the Lord > of the universe. > [26:193] The Honest Spirit > (Gabriel) came down with it. > [26:194] To reveal it into > your heart, that you may be one of the > warners. > [26:195] In a perfect > Arabic tongue. > > ? > [37:62] Is this a better destiny, or the > tree of bitterness? > [37:63] We have rendered it > a punishment for the transgressors. > [37:64] It is a tree that > grows in the heart of Hell. > [37:65] Its flowers look > like the devils' heads. > [37:66] They will eat from > it until their bellies are filled up. > [37:67] Then they will top > it with a hellish drink. > > ? > [53:1] As the stars fell > away. > [53:2] Your > friend (Muhammad) was not astray, nor was he > deceived. > [53:3] Nor was > he speaking out of a personal desire. > [53:4] It was > divine inspiration. > > [53:5] > Dictated by the Most Powerful. > [53:6] > Possessor of all authority. From His highest > height. > [53:7] At the > highest horizon. > > [53:8] He drew > nearer by moving down. > > [53:9] Until > He became as close as possible. > [53:10] He > then revealed to His servant what was to be > revealed. > [53:11] The > mind never made up what it saw. > [53:12] Are > you doubting what he saw? > [53:13] He > saw him in another descent. > [53:14] At > the ultimate point. > > [53:15] Where > the eternal Paradise is located. > [53:16] The > whole place was overwhelmed. > [53:17] The > eyes did not waver, nor go blind. > [53:18] He > saw great signs of his Lord. > ? > > > > The Meccan > disbelievers failed the God given test.? The vision of > Muhammad only augmented their defiance.? > They?demanded miracles.? They?asked him to > physically climb into the sky and bring a > book?for?them, in spite of the Quran, which was a > solid proof for the Prophet! ?The Prophet? > replied: ?Glory be to my Lord. ?Am I any more > than a human messenger?" > ? > > [17:90] They said, "We will > not believe you unless you cause a spring to gush out of the > ground. > [17:91] "Or unless you own > a garden of date palms and grapes, with rivers running > through it. > [17:92] "Or unless you > cause masses from the sky, as you claimed, to fall on us. Or > unless you bring GOD and the angels before our eyes. > [17:93] "Or unless you own > a luxurious mansion, or unless you climb into the sky. Even > if you do climb, we will not believe unless you bring a book > that we can read." Say, "Glory be to my Lord. Am I > any more than a human messenger?" > ? > The above Quranic information?confirms that the > Prophet?was a normal human being who could not even > climb into the sky and bring a book for > them!??But, the?Muslim scholars (ulamah) > idolized Muhammad to the extent that they fabricated a > bizarre Miraj story about his ascension to the heavens on a > winged horse named Burrakh at the speed of light and seeing > God Almighty!? In this story, they portrayed Muhammed as more merciful > than God Almighty, who negotiated with > God?and successfully reduced the number of prayers from > 50 to 5 per day after seeking advice from > Moses!!??According to this > story, Most Merciful God failed to understand that 50 > prayers a day, that is, one prayer every 28 minutes, not > considering even?normal daily activities, would be > extremely difficult for us to do!?? > Additionally, how could the Prophet see God with his >? physical eyes!?? Additionally, at the speed of light, > the Prophet would still be traveling within the Milky Way > Galaxy! > ? > [39:67] They can never fathom > the greatness of GOD. The whole earth is within His fist on > the Day of Resurrection. In fact, the universes are folded > within His right hand. ?Be He glorified; He is much too > high above needing any partners. > ? > > [47:24] Why do they not study > the Quran carefully? Do they have locks on their > minds? > ? > > The Muslim world preferred the > hearsay or hadith collected in the man-made books even when > it contradicts the Quran.? They preferred ignorance > over knowledge, darkness over light.? The complaint of the Prophet in the > hereafter will be about the desertion of the Quran and not > the hadith fabricated by the Prophet's enemies, who > preached ?hadith against the Prophet's only > teaching,? the Quran! > ? > > [25:27] The day will come > when the transgressor will bite his hands (in anguish) and > say, "Alas, I wish I had followed the path with the > messenger. > [25:28] "Alas, woe to > me, I wish I did not take that person as a > friend. > [25:29] "He has led me > away from the message after it came to me. Indeed, the devil > lets down his human victims." > [25:30] The messenger said, > "My Lord, my people have deserted this > Quran." > > ? > [45:6] These are GOD's > revelations that we recite to you truthfully.. In which > Hadith other than GOD and His revelations do they > believe? > ? > > [6:112] We have permitted the > enemies of every prophet - human and jinn devils - to > inspire in each other fancy words, in order to deceive. Had > your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall > disregard them and their fabrications. > [6:113] This is to let the minds > of those who do not believe in the Hereafter listen to such > fabrications, and accept them, and thus expose their real > convictions. > [6:114] Shall I seek other than > GOD as a source of law, when He has revealed to you this > book fully detailed? ?Those who received the scripture > recognize that it has been revealed from your Lord, > truthfully. You shall not harbor any doubt. > [6:115] The word of your Lord is > complete, in truth and justice. Nothing shall abrogate His > words. He is the Hearer, the Omniscient. > [6:116] If you obey the majority > of people on earth, they will divert you from the path of > GOD. They follow only conjecture; they only guess. > > > ? > > [12:103] Most people, no matter > what you do, will not believe. > [12:104] You are not asking them > for any money; you simply deliver this reminder for all the > people. > [12:105] So many proofs in the > heavens and the earth are given to them, but they pass by > them, heedlessly! > [12:106] The majority of those > who believe in GOD do not do so without committing idol > worship. > ? > [1:2] Praise be to GOD, Lord of > the universe.. > ? > Thank you and may God guide > me. > ? > Muhammed Irtaza > ? > > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is the best > Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > ? > > > --- On Thu, 11/26/09, Enamul Islam <> > wrote: > > > From: Enamul Islam <> > Subject: RE: Muhammad was the last prophet and messenger > To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com > Date: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 11:49 AM > > > > > > > > > Salam > everyone, > > > > ? > > I have a > question in regards to 17:01 > YUSUFALI: Glory to > (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from > the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We > did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our > Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things). > > ? > Is this the evidence of Meraj (the > famous story about Muhammad (S) being on a Burak and going > up in the sky, meeting many famous icons and this is > where? he negitiated5 times prayer for us. Well can > someone shed some light on this subject? Thanks / > Enamul > ? > > From: > Student of the Quran [mailto:irtaza1 at yahoo.com] > Sent: Thursday, November 26, 2009 4:11 AM > To: undisclosed recipients: > Subject: Muhammad was the last prophet and > messenger > ? > > > > > > Salaam. > > ? > > Thank you for your response. A genuine > messenger promotes the Quran and denounce all man made > teaching.? If Mirza and Bahaullah promoted the Quran > and denounced all man made teaching, they could be the > messengers of God. Historically, people corrupt the teaching > of the messengers after their death.? I do not know how > much corruption had been introduced to the teaching of Mirza > and Bahaullah.? We all know Buddah meditated on > God.? After his death, his followers idolized him and > instead of worshiping God, they started worshiping > him.? After the death of Jesus, people started > worshiping him, and so on.? After the death of > Muhammad, people corrupted his teaching, added his name > beside God in the worship practices.... > > ? > > Rashad promoted the Quran and > denounced the hadiths.? He confirmed by God's leave > that the Quran is the scripture of God.? His message > was simple:? "Go back to the Quran".? > Obviously, this was a very unpopular message among majority > of us who believe that Islam means the teaching of the > hadith and sunnah compiled by Bukhari, Muslims, > etc.? > > ? > > Please reflect on the following > verses: > > > [3:81] GOD took a > covenant from the prophets, saying, "I will give you > the scripture and wisdom. Afterwards, a messenger will come > to confirm all existing scriptures. You shall believe in him > and support him." He said, "Do you agree with > this, and pledge to fulfill this covenant?" They said, > "We agree." He said, "You have thus borne > witness, and I bear witness along with > you. > > ? > > "[33:7] Recall that we took from > the prophets their covenant, including you (O Muhammad), > Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus the son of Mary. We took > from them a solemn pledge > > ? > Please tell me, what is your understanding on the above two > verses?? Your proper understanding can lead you to the > correct answer, if God so wills. > > ? > > Thank you and may God guide me, > > ? > > Muhammed Irtaza > > ? > > ? > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is > the best Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > > ? > > > --- On Wed, 11/25/09, Mubashir Inayet > wrote: > > From: Mubashir Inayet > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, messenger, > last messenger...? > To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com, "saleem khan" > , zina.khan at yahoo.com, > butshikan at msn.com, rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, > "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net, "Atif Sahib" > , premsadani at hotmail.com, > znanwalla at gmail.com, "Doctor shabbir" > , bintwaleed at yahoo.com, > asidiqqui at gmail.com, assadiq at gmail.com, > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com, hasniessa at yahoo.com, > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, great72000 at yahoo.com, > tsidd96472 at aol.com, azam.sikandar at gmail.com, > tirmidhi at hotmail.com, alishaban952 at yahoo.com, > mikeghouse at aol.com, yasminsurani at hotmail.com, > hassan_javid at hotmail.com, aleem.faizee at gmail.com, > rafiq786 at cbn.net.id, "Yousuf Tabish" > , >? mustafvi at gmail.com, faruquealamgir at yahoo.com, > drshabbir at comcast.net, salsabeel65 at yahoo.com, > khasif235e at yahoo.com, zakhum at hotmail.com, > ank2000pk at yahoo.com, firasat777 at yahoo.com, > anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com, yunussidira at yahoo.com, > fidvi at hotmail.com, ssmeezan at hotmail.com, wyeknotusa at aol.com, > rial982000 at yahoo.com, ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com, > amino66 at hotmail.com, k2411871 at hotmail.com, > khurram302 at yahoo.com, mnaquvi at yahoo.com, pk4318 at yahoo.com, > "Doctor Sohail" , > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com, april702 at cox.net, > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk, arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in, > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, aeisha_786 at yahoo.com, > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com, cherylin_bas at yahoo.com, > ddnsai at gmail.com, doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com, > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com, engrbbkarube at yahoo.com, "Abdul > Aziz Khattak" , > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com, kristonia7 at yahoo.com, > ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org, hussain at nifty.com, > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com, >? ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com, fayyaz at reading.org, > sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk, jawed at dailymuslims.com, > ibramsha7 at yahoo.com, badshahanizer at gmail.com, > badshahkha at gmail.com, akbar at mostmerciful.com, > mirza.syed at gmail.com, doctorforu123 at yahoo.com, > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com, > tarekfatah at rogers.com, nafmor08 at gmail.com > Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 8:03 PM > > > > So, now we must use a criteria > to check for a genuine messenger. > > ? > > Earlier, you said that you had > no issues with people claiming to be messengers like Mirza > and Bahaullah. Now, you seem to be suggesting that in order > to verify those messengers are in fact from Allah, they must > promote the Qur'an. That throws Mirza and Bahahullah > out!! > > ? > > Question still remains that > begs an answer. Did Rashad claimed to have been inspired by > revelation from Allah? Was he speaking in the name of Allah > as His Messenger? > > ? > > Thanks. > > ? > > Mubashir > > ? > > > > From: > Student of the Quran > To: saleem khan ; > zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; > rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > ; Mubashir Inayet > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net; Atif Sahib > ; premsadani at hotmail..com; > znanwalla at gmail.com; Doctor shabbir > ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; > asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; > tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam..sikandar at gmail.com; > tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; > mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; > hassan_javid at hotmail.com; >? aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; Yousuf Tabish > ; mustafvi at gmail.com; > faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; > salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; > zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; > firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; > yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; > ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; > rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo..com; > amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; > khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; > Doctor Sohail ; > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; > ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; Abdul Aziz > Khattak ; > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; >? ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; > fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; > jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; > badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; > akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; > doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; > tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com > Sent: Wed, November 25, 2009 7:19:43 PM > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, > messenger, last messenger...? > > > > > The > messenger after Muhammad must promote the Quran and denounce > man made teaching. > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is > the best Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > > ? > > > --- On Wed, 11/25/09, Mubashir Inayet > wrote: > > From: Mubashir Inayet > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, messenger, > last messenger...? > To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com, "saleem khan" > , zina.khan at yahoo.com, > butshikan at msn.com, rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, > "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net, "Atif Sahib" > , premsadani at hotmail.com, > znanwalla at gmail.com, "Doctor shabbir" > , bintwaleed at yahoo.com, > asidiqqui at gmail.com, assadiq at gmail.com, > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com, hasniessa at yahoo.com, > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, great72000 at yahoo.com, > tsidd96472 at aol.com, azam.sikandar at gmail.com, > tirmidhi at hotmail.com, alishaban952 at yahoo.com, > mikeghouse at aol.com, yasminsurani at hotmail.com, > hassan_javid at hotmail.com, aleem.faizee at gmail.com, > rafiq786 at cbn.net.id, "Yousuf Tabish" > , >? mustafvi at gmail.com, faruquealamgir at yahoo.com, > drshabbir at comcast.net, salsabeel65 at yahoo.com, > khasif235e at yahoo.com, zakhum at hotmail.com, > ank2000pk at yahoo.com, firasat777 at yahoo..com, > anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com, yunussidira at yahoo.com, > fidvi at hotmail.com, ssmeezan at hotmail.com, wyeknotusa at aol.com, > rial982000 at yahoo.com, ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com, > amino66 at hotmail.com, k2411871 at hotmail.com, > khurram302 at yahoo.com, mnaquvi at yahoo..com, pk4318 at yahoo.com, > "Doctor Sohail" , > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com, april702 at cox.net, > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk, arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in, > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, aeisha_786 at yahoo.com, > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com, cherylin_bas at yahoo.com, > ddnsai at gmail.com, doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com, > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com, engrbbkarube at yahoo.com, "Abdul > Aziz Khattak" , > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com, kristonia7 at yahoo.com, > ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org, hussain at nifty.com, > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com, >? ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com, fayyaz at reading.org, > sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk, jawed at dailymuslims.com, > ibramsha7 at yahoo.com, badshahanizer at gmail.com, > badshahkha at gmail.com, akbar at mostmerciful.com, > mirza.syed at gmail.com, doctorforu123 at yahoo.com, > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com, > tarekfatah at rogers.com, nafmor08 at gmail.com > Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 10:46 AM > > > > We need to read these verses > keeping in mind the rest of the verses dealing with the > subject, which I quoted earlier. Otherwise, it will lead to > "each party" using bits and pieces of the > Qur'an to arrive at different and opposing > conclusions!! > > ? > > For those who believe in > Messengers coming after Muhammad, they need to prove that > what they conveyed were not their own ideas but based on > messages received from Allah. Mirza came and outlawed armed > Jihad but wanted to follow the fiqh Hanafia. Bahaullah > preached all religions are from God so humanity must unite. > > > ? > > Were their messages based on a > new Revelation they received from Allah? If true, then those > who do not accept them are rejectors?? How will Allah deal > with their rejectors?? > > ? > > We must try and make sure we do > not indulge in activities that further divide the > Ummah. > > ? > > Regards, > > ? > > Mubashir > > > ? > > ? > > > > From: > Student of the Quran > To: saleem khan ; > zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; > rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > ; Mubashir Inayet > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net; Atif Sahib > ; premsadani at hotmail.com; > znanwalla at gmail.com; Doctor shabbir > ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; > asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; > tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; > tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; > mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; > hassan_javid at hotmail.com; >? aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; Yousuf Tabish > ; mustafvi at gmail.com; > faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; > salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; > zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; > firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; > yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; > ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; > rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; > amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; > khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; > Doctor Sohail ; > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; > ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; Abdul Aziz > Khattak ; > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; >? ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; > fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; > jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; > badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; > akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; > doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; > tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com > Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 10:29:37 PM > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, > messenger, last messenger...? > > > > > > [33:40] Muhammad was not the father > of any man among you. He was a messenger of GOD and the > final prophet... GOD is fully aware of all > things. > > Please > explain why Muhammad was the final prophet and why God does > not specify him as final messenger? > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is > the best Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > > ? > > > --- On Mon, 11/23/09, Mubashir Inayet > wrote: > > From: Mubashir Inayet > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, messenger, > last messenger...? > To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com, "saleem khan" > , zina.khan at yahoo.com, > butshikan at msn.com, rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, > "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net, "Atif Sahib" > , premsadani at hotmail.com, > znanwalla at gmail.com, "Doctor shabbir" > , bintwaleed at yahoo.com, > asidiqqui at gmail.com, assadiq at gmail.com, > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com, hasniessa at yahoo.com, > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, great72000 at yahoo.com, > tsidd96472 at aol.com, azam..sikandar at gmail.com, > tirmidhi at hotmail.com, alishaban952 at yahoo.com, > mikeghouse at aol.com, yasminsurani at hotmail.com, > hassan_javid at hotmail.com, aleem.faizee at gmail.com, > rafiq786 at cbn.net.id, "Yousuf Tabish" > , >? mustafvi at gmail.com, faruquealamgir at yahoo.com, > drshabbir at comcast.net, salsabeel65 at yahoo.com, > khasif235e at yahoo.com, zakhum at hotmail.com, > ank2000pk at yahoo.com, firasat777 at yahoo.com, > anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com, yunussidira at yahoo.com, > fidvi at hotmail.com, ssmeezan at hotmail.com, wyeknotusa at aol.com, > rial982000 at yahoo.com, ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com, > amino66 at hotmail.com, k2411871 at hotmail.com, > khurram302 at yahoo.com, mnaquvi at yahoo.com, pk4318 at yahoo.com, > "Doctor Sohail" , > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com, april702 at cox.net, > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk, arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in, > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, aeisha_786 at yahoo.com, > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com, cherylin_bas at yahoo.com, > ddnsai at gmail.com, doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com, > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com, engrbbkarube at yahoo.com, "Abdul > Aziz Khattak" , > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com, kristonia7 at yahoo.com, > ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org, hussain at nifty.com, > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com, >? ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com, fayyaz at reading.org, > sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk, jawed at dailymuslims.com, > ibramsha7 at yahoo.com, badshahanizer at gmail.com, > badshahkha at gmail.com, akbar at mostmerciful.com, > mirza.syed at gmail.com, doctorforu123 at yahoo.com, > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com, > tarekfatah at rogers.com, nafmor08 at gmail.com > Date: Monday, November 23, 2009, 7:45 PM > > > > ? > > Thank you for your > reply.. > ? > Muslims hold the > view that every nabi (prophet) is a rasul > (messenger); and that every rasul is a nabi. > As a matter of fact, those two words signify two aspects of > the mission Allah Almighty has entrusted to every prophet > and messenger; and we see no example or evidence in the > Quran where one aspect alone is present in a person chosen > by Allah as His Messenger or Prophet.. > There are Muslims > who argue that 'rasul' means one who was > given a Book of Allah, or brought a Shariah or code of laws. > However, I find that this doesn't explain why Prophet > Ismail (Ishmael, peace be upon him) has been called a > rasul in the Quran. > See this verse > which reads what means; > *{And relate the > story of Ishmael as mentioned in the Book. He was indeed > true to his promises. And he was a Messenger, a Prophet.}* > (Maryam 19:54) > The > differentiation between the office of > "prophethood" and "messengership" in a > prophet is not really warranted by the Quran.. Because, from > the Quranic point of view, every rasul is > nabi, and every nabi is a rasul. These > two words are often used as interchangeable terms and > represent two aspects of the same office and two functional > responsibilities entrusted to the same person. > A Divinely > appointed reformer is a rasul so far as he receives > revealed messages from Allah; and he is a nabi in the > sense that he conveys those messages to the people to whom > he is sent.. > Thus > every?rasul (messenger) is simultaneously > a?nabi (prophet), or has to perform as one, > because after receiving Divine messages he conveys them to > his people. And every?nabi has got to be > a?rasul because he needs to convey to his people > those messages which he has received from Allah Almighty. > Only the functions of?nabi follow those of > rasul. First in his capacity as rasul he > receives messages from God and then only in his capacity > as?nabi he conveys them to his people. > This is why > everywhere in the Quran when these two > words?rasul and?nabi occur in close > conjunction, invariably the word?nabi follows > the word?rasul because that is the natural > order. For instance, see the verse: > *{And relate the > story of Moses as mentioned in the Book. He was, indeed, a > chosen one; and he was a Messenger, a Prophet.}* (Maryam > 19:51) > ? > That is to say, > Moses was chosen as messenger first; so he received revealed > messages from Allah Almighty; and then he conveyed those > messages to his people and thus performed as a > nabi. > > In the foregoing paragraphs we have seen the difference in > meaning between the words, 'rasul' and > 'nabi'. Also we saw how those two words could > be used interchangeably to refer to all the prophets of > Allah. So, the answer to the first part of your second > question is clear. We may say the first rasul and > nabi was Adam (peace be upon him).. > > About the hadith quoted from Abu Dharr Al-Ghifari (may > Allah be pleased with him), one version of the hadith > reported by Abu Dharr is this one, though there are other > slightly varying narrations: > ? > "The Prophet (peace be upon him) was asked about the > number of the prophets and messengers. He replied that there > were 124,000 prophets among whom 315 were messengers." > (Ahmad) > ? > But scholars are > of the view that this hadith is weak. And if we go by the > words of this hadith, they would imply that there were > prophets who did not receive messages from Allah, which is > not acceptable. So, the distinction made between prophets > and messengers in this manner has little basis. > ? > > Either way, Allah > the Almighty has commanded us to respect and honor all His > prophets alike, without making any distinction between one > and another of them: > ? > > *{Say you: > "We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, > and to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and > that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) > prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one > and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam).}* > (Al-Baqarah 2:136) > ? > Also see this > verse: > > > *{The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him > from his Lord, as do the men of faith. Each one (of them) > believes in Allah, His angels, His books, and His > messengers. "We make no distinction (they say) between > one and another of His messengers." And they say: > "We hear, and we obey: (We seek) Your forgiveness, our > Lord, and to You is the end of all journeys.}*? > (Al-Baqarah? 2:285) > ? > The foregoing > verses mean that we have no right to differentiate or > categorize Allah's prophets and messengers as to their > degree, status or performance; nor should we discriminate > one against another. Instead, our duty is to respect and > honor them alike. > > > ? > > > > > From: > Student of the Quran > To: saleem khan ; > zina.khan at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; > rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > ; Mubashir Inayet > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net; Atif Sahib > ; premsadani at hotmail.com; > znanwalla at gmail.com; Doctor shabbir > ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; > asidiqqui at gmail.com; assadiq at gmail.com; > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; > tsidd96472 at aol.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; > tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; > mikeghouse at aol.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; > hassan_javid at hotmail.com; >? aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; Yousuf Tabish > ; mustafvi at gmail.com; > faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; > salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; > zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; > firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; > yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; > ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; > rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; > amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; > khurram302 at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo..com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; > Doctor Sohail ; > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; > ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; Abdul Aziz > Khattak ; > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; >? ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; hussain at nifty.com; > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; > fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; > jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; > badshahanizer at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; > akbar at mostmerciful.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; > doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; > multiculturalism-pluralismgroup at yahoogroups.com; > tarekfatah at rogers.com; nafmor08 at gmail.com > Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 7:16:13 PM > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, > messenger, last messenger...? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Salamun > Alykum. > > ? > > The prophethood is > connected to scripturer.? On the other hand, the > messengership is connected to? good news > deliverer and warner.? A prophet was?a messenger > but not all messengers were > prophet.??? > > > ? > > The following hadith gives us > the difference between prophet (NABI) and messenger > (RASOOL): > > ? > > [3:81] GOD took a covenant from the > prophets, saying, "I will give you the scripture and > wisdom. Afterwards, a messenger will come to confirm all > existing scriptures. You shall believe in him and support > him." He said, "Do you agree with this, and pledge > to fulfill this covenant?" They said, "We > agree." He said, "You have thus borne witness, and > I bear witness along with you." > > ? > > We > cannot exclude Muhammad from the above covenant because he > was one of the prophets of God: > > ? > > [33:7] Recall that we took from the > prophets their covenant, including you (O Muhammad), Noah, > Abraham, Moses, and Jesus the son of Mary. We took from them > a solemn pledge > > > Every nation gets messengers.??If Mirza > Gulam and Baha Ullah were inspired by God Almighty?to > warn?their communities with the Quran, ?they could > be messengers of God.? > > Right now, I believe the Quran > is the messenger of God.? I am not worry about who was > messenger and who was not.? People have the tendency to > idolize the messengers of God.? People spend more time > discussing about their messengers and less time on the > message of God. > > ? > > Thank you and may God guide > us, > > ? > > Muhammed Irtaza > > > ? > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is > the best Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > > ? > > > > --- On Mon, 11/23/09, Mubashir Inayet > wrote: > > > From: Mubashir Inayet > Subject: Re: Muhammed: prophet, last prophet, messenger, > last messenger...? > To: irtaza1 at yahoo.com, "saleem khan" > , zina.khan at yahoo.com, > butshikan at msn.com, rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, > "Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam" > > Cc: tahirakhan at comcast.net, "Atif Sahib" > , premsadani at hotmail.com, > znanwalla at gmail.com, "Doctor shabbir" > , bintwaleed at yahoo.com, > asidiqqui at gmail.com, assadiq at gmail.com, > webmaster9 at mostmerciful.com, hasniessa at yahoo.com, > farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, great72000 at yahoo.com, > tsidd96472 at aol.com, azam.sikandar at gmail.com, > tirmidhi at hotmail.com, alishaban952 at yahoo.com, > mikeghouse at aol.com, yasminsurani at hotmail.com, > hassan_javid at hotmail.com, aleem.faizee at gmail.com, > rafiq786 at cbn.net.id, "Yousuf Tabish" > , mustafvi at gmail.com, >? faruquealamgir at yahoo.com, drshabbir at comcast.net, > salsabeel65 at yahoo.com, khasif235e at yahoo.com, > zakhum at hotmail.com, ank2000pk at yahoo.com, > firasat777 at yahoo.com, anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com, > yunussidira at yahoo.com, fidvi at hotmail.com, > ssmeezan at hotmail.com, wyeknotusa at aol.com, > rial982000 at yahoo.com, ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com, > amino66 at hotmail.com, k2411871 at hotmail.com, > khurram302 at yahoo.com, mnaquvi at yahoo.com, pk4318 at yahoo.com, > "Doctor Sohail" , > afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com, april702 at cox.net, > auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk, arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in, > shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, aeisha_786 at yahoo.com, > bushra_meraj at yahoo.com, cherylin_bas at yahoo.com, > ddnsai at gmail.com, doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com, > egyptmuseum at hotmail.com, engrbbkarube at yahoo.com, "Abdul > Aziz Khattak" , > knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com, kristonia7 at yahoo.com, > ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org, hussain at nifty.com, > ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com, ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com, >? fayyaz at reading.org, sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk, > jawed at dailymuslims.com, ibramsha7 at yahoo.com, > badshahanizer at gmail.com, badshahkha at gmail.com, > akbar at mostmerciful.com, mirza.syed at gmail.com, > doctorforu123 > ? > ?[33:62]?God's > Sunnah is unchangeable? > [39:23]?The Quran is > the best Hadith > ?http://www.masjidtucson.org/quran/ > > ? > ? > ? > __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, > version of virus signature database 4639 (20091126) > __________ > ? > The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. > ? > http://www.eset.com > > __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of > virus signature database 4639 (20091126) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. > > http://www.eset.com > > > > > > >? ? ? ________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. ________________________________ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. ________________________________ Windows Live Hotmail gives you a free,exclusive gift. Click here to download. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Mon Dec 7 00:50:22 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 13:20:22 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] eliminating speculative and usurious money for halting expansion of ecologically hostile habitats Message-ID: <173576.64773.qm@web94902.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear? David and all the distinguished members, A discussion has been initiated?on?eliminating speculative?and usurious money at?the following site for Network of Movement for Transforming Ecologically Hostile Habitats. You are welcome to join there, if you? like. http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com/forum/topics/eliminating-usurious-and-debt With warmest regards ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 19444 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 3606 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 10183 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Dec 7 03:52:40 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 10:52:40 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Another Message to Copehagen...! Message-ID: <271363.39201.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? A New Understanding of? Capital is the BASIS of the Future.........? Though funding will be discussed in Copenhagen I doubt whether there would be much in the way of original thinking "outside-the-box." Certain amount of (non-repayable) money could be created electronically without using taxation, or loans even. In other words, a form of Quantitative Easing which should certainly lead to greater speed as far as advances in clilmate change technologies (et al) are concerned. It must be realized that banks ofcourse create repayable money electronically out of thin air (ie credit creation) but the limits on doing this are supposed to be determined by the amount of certain reserves that are held. Moreover, they charge interest which slows things down somewhat as far as businesses are concerned. However, if certain amounts of grant-giving (monitored ideally) were created electronically without using earned money for climate change projects their effects on inflation could be checked by conventional means (eg. the Retail Price Index, and the Consumer Price Index). There may be electronic means to control it but this beyond the scope of this message. It should be said here that the EU like the UK raises taxes (ie. earned money) ofcourse as NON-REPAYABLE grants (billions of Euros.......) to the civil service, government agencies, certain NGOs, healthcare....etcThis has not lead to hyperinflation as "enough" has been spent into the economy. Ofcourse, it leads to some degree of inflation overtime. Thus, there is no reason in the world that some new money could be created electronically as something non-repayable (plus loans where necessary sans interest ideally) . Such fiscal easing is arguably vital. This is a big subject. See my project in development :- http://p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics Tools Latest blog posts Climate Express: COP15 delegates arrive on train Sun, 06 Dec Russia?s greenhouse gas emissions: trends and long-term projections Sun, 06 Dec Sustainable Fashion in Copenhagen Fri, 04 Dec Copenhagen Climate Exchange Fri, 04 Dec Crisis rhetoric has to be matched with crisis action Fri, 04 Dec Most Popular Blog Posts Crisis rhetoric has to be matched with crisis action Sustainable Fashion in Copenhagen Copenhagen Climate Exchange Enter COP15 Children?s Climate Forum kicks off in Copenhagen COP15 on Twitter Does climate concern cool off? Mon, 07 Dec UN climate science head hopes for more US action Mon, 07 Dec Report: Proposed emission cuts close to what is needed Mon, 07 Dec UN: Historic climate talks must deliver Sun, 06 Dec Less than 12 hours until COP15 begins - thanks for following, send your greetings to COP15 at Sun, 06 Dec Latest news Does climate concern cool off? 07/12/2009 UN climate science head hopes for more US action 07/12/2009 Report: Proposed emission cuts close to what is needed 07/12/2009 UN: Historic climate talks must deliver 06/12/2009 Indian leader to attend Copenhagen climate talks 06/12/2009 Obama joins UN conference at crucial moment 05/12/2009 Cabinet meeting at Mt. Everest 04/12/2009 IETA: Clean Development Mechanism needs reforms 04/12/2009 Indian target may help negotiations 04/12/2009 700 million dollars to Asian climate investments 04/12/2009 CalendarDecember 2009 December 2009 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 COP15 Copenhagen Terms of use Copyright 2008-2009 Suggestions for the site COP15 on Twitter COP15 on Facebook change climate change on youtube Climate visualization Climate Greetings COP15 Webcast -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Dec 7 04:43:03 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 11:43:03 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Commons / Elinoor Ostrom/ Book Review.. Message-ID: <613877.77126.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ?Might be of interest to some but as usual like most economists it does not really offer anything truly great, or revolutionary. ? RS. ? This study looks at the problem of collectively managing shared resources. Because of the book's unassuming nature and rather formal scholarly tone, it's easy to pass it over as just another academic work. But together with such books as Herman Daly and John Cobb's For the Common Good, Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce and Vandana Shiva's work on restoring the commons, I consider it one of the more far-sighted and genuinely significant works to emerge in recent years on environmental resource management. Ostrom uses the term "common pool resources" to denote natural resources used by many individuals in common, such as fisheries, groundwater basins, and irrigation systems. Such resources have long been subject to overexploitation and misuse by individuals acting in their own best interests. Conventional solutions typically involve either centralized governmental regulation or privatization of the resource. But, according to Ostrom, there is a third approach to resolving the problem of the commons: the design of durable cooperative institutions that are organized and governed by the resource users themselves. "The central question in this study," she writes, "is how a group of principals who are in an interdependent situation can organize and govern themselves to obtain continuing joint benefits when all face temptations to free-ride, shirk, or otherwise act opportunistically." The heart of this study is an in-depth analysis of several long-standing and viable common property regimes, including Swiss grazing pastures, Japanese forests, and irrigation systems in Spain and the Philippines. Although Ostrom insists that each of these situations must be evaluated on its own terms, she delineates a set of eight "design principles" common to each of the cases. These include clearly defined boundaries, monitors who are either resource users or accountable to them, graduated sanctions, and mechanisms dominated by the users themselves to resolve conflicts and to alter the rules. The challenge, she observes, is to foster contingent self-commitment among the members: "I will commit myself to follow the set of rules we have devised in all instances except dire emergencies if the rest of those affected make a similar commitment and act accordingly." This book is aimed chiefly at policy-makers, bureaucrats, and resource users, rather than scholars. Ostrom is concerned with the effective management of common property resources, rather than explanatory theories. Throughout the book, she stresses the dangers of overly generalized theories of collective action, particularly when used "metaphorically" as the foundation for public policy. The three dominant models ? the tragedy of the commons, the prisoners's dilemma, and the logic of collective action ? are all inadequate, she says, for they are based on the free-rider problem where individual, rational, resource users act against the best interest of the users collectively. These models are not necessarily wrong, Ostrom states, rather the conditions under which they hold are very particular. They apply only when the many, independently acting individuals involved have high discount rates and little mutual trust, no capacity to communicate or to enter into binding agreements, and when they do not arrange for monitoring and enforcing mechanisms to avoid overinvestment and overuse. Ostrom concludes that "if this study does nothing more than shatter the convictions of many policy analysts that the only way to solve common pool resource problems is for external authorities to impose full private property rights or centralized regulation, it will have accomplished one major purpose." Copyright 1998 by Scott London. All rights reserved. var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-4293230-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 6 15:11:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 14:11:56 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New Farming Paradigm Message-ID: <003e01ca76c1$4aa42ec0$dfec8c40$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS These articles that I have forwarded to the Co-learner's group from Richard Heinberg and others in the last few days are extremely important as they begin to form a "platform" so to speak around which we-the-people can circle in a coordinated effort designed to get us through these early days of Peak Oil, water and food shortages, and the affects of global climate change with minimal turbulence and pain. We must all become aware that government is not going to be of much assistance as their agenda is entirely different from that of we-the-people. The agenda of the military-industrial complex which is composed of the corporations and the government is to "make money at all costs" while the agenda of "we-the-people" is to survive this time of great crisis. In a recent exchange with Thomas H. Greco, author of "The End of Money and the Future of Civilization, Tom told me one of the most important things is to begin discussing the "butterfly concept" and how the "imaginal cells" operate as the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. And, if I am not mistaken, this is a theme of Dr. Bruce Lipton's as well. And, we might consider what Richard Heinberg refers to as "a new farming paradigm" being the equivalent of a butterfly into which the imaginal cells metamorphis as they make the transition from the caterpillar stage to that of the beautiful new born butterfly. What is most important is to keep our focus on the goal -- that of becoming the equivalent of the butterfly. So, let us begin this journey visualizing ourselves as magnificent beings in this new state of a future dawning as we "imagine" ourselves into being. Here is a good article on "imaginal cells". http://www.tomorrowsedge.net/imaginal-cells.html -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 9:26 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New Farming Paradigm Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New Farming Paradigm Interview with Acres U.S.A. http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/archives/0307InterviewHeinberg.htm Richard Heinberg is more than a spokesman for the vision that sees beyond the age of oil. His home is the lecture platform, the classroom, the deep-think tank. He is a son of northern Missouri (now CAFO hog country) from an industrial farm supply family - his father was a quality control chemist, for which reason Richard discovered firsthand much of the bad science that now has the upper hand in agriculture. Intellectually, he rejected farming as an industrial procedure, and for the last 20 years has used his pen like a stiletto to nail fact and conclusion to the market wall. His last eight years have been devoted to writing when not teaching at New College of California, Santa Rosa. In the questions and answers that follow, Richard Heinberg concludes that too many farmers have disappeared since World War II, and the nation has been consistently short of independent growers. This shortage will be exacerbated as oil to service the overindustrialized world continues to falter. ACRES U.S.A. According to the biblical book of Joel, old men dream dreams and young men see visions. Are we looking at dreams or at visions in what you recently presented at the annual E.F. Schumacher lecture? RICHARD HEINBERG. It's probably more in the category of visions. It's pretty clear what the world needs in terms of future agriculture and future food production. Whether we'll actually get there is quite a different question, because right now we're on exactly the wrong track. We're going to have to make a pretty dramatic change in our agricultural priorities if we're going to arrive at anything like a sustainable system that will actually feed future generations. What I've tried to do is lay out a vision of what's possible. ACRES U.S.A. What is possible? HEINBERG. Using the knowledge that we've built up over the last several decades about organic farming, about small-scale food production using techniques such as permaculture and bio-intensive and so on, I think it's possible for us to produce food in a way that doesn't destroy topsoil, in a way that preserves fresh water and that feeds as many people as we have in the world today. But it's going to require a lot more people doing the work of producing the food, because truly sustainable agriculture is a much more labor-intensive process. ACRES U.S.A. But in the lifetime of this interviewer, we have witnessed the situation change, from a system in which a man could make a very good living on 80 acres for a family of six or seven people, to what we see today, where he can't make a living if he's farming two or three sections of land because of disparity between agriculture and the rest of the society. HEINBERG. That's right. ACRES U.S.A. Doesn't that make the entire problem a political problem? HEINBERG. It certainly is a political problem, and it's also an energy problem, because the reason we've created the kind of agricultural system we have today is that we've had access to very cheap sources of energy. We've used fossil fuels to run giant farm machinery and to transport food ever-further distances and in ever-larger quantities, to process food and to store food and so on. When we no longer have access to that cheap fuel, after global oil production peaks and oil starts to become more scarce and expensive, we will have to rethink agriculture. It would help enormously if we started that process ahead of time and began the kind of transition that will inevitably take place in a proactive way, because if we simply wait for events to unfold, it's likely that it will be a very chaotic and destructive kind of transition, and many people could suffer as a result. ACRES U.S.A. What did you present to the Schumacher Society in terms of a program that would accomplish this kind of thing? HEINBERG. I titled my talk "Fifty Million Farmers" because by my very, very rough calculation, that's how many more farmers we will need in the next 20 or 30 years in order to feed the current population of the United States. Without cheap fossil fuels, we will need many more hands in agricultural production. The nation of Cuba has already gone through a similar kind of transition as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early '90s. Cubans, who at that time were even more dependent on fossil fuels for agricultural production than were American farmers, found that they were forced to breed more oxen for animal traction, to break up the large state-owned farms, and to raise salaries for farmers to equal those of doctors and engineers, so that they could encourage people to move from the cities into the countryside to work on farms. They had a very difficult transition in any case - they called it the "Special Period" - the average Cuban lost something like 20 pounds of body weight during this time and almost everyone went hungry from time to time. Nevertheless, they did survive. I think we would be doing well to accomplish the transition as successfully as the Cubans did. ACRES U.S.A. The organic movement has proceeded to accomplish some parts of that transition, has it not? HEINBERG. Absolutely - and if it hadn't been for organic agronomists in Havana lobbying their government, I think Cuba wouldn't have been nearly as successful. When the problems became apparent, these ecological agronomists were called in and given a free hand to redesign the Cuban food system. Something like that needs to happen in our country. We have people like Wes Jackson and many others who have pioneered sustainable, ecological food systems in North America, but they're not being listened to. They are very much on the fringes, yet they're the people whose expertise needs to guide our transition away from fossil-fuel agriculture. ACRES U.S.A. During a trip to Cuba a few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit some of their agricultural stations and farms. I found systems in operation in those stations for producing azotobacter bacteria for use as a nitrogen-fixing procedure out on the farms. This was being done on a rather grand scale to service small farms. Is that the kind of thing you have in mind? HEINBERG. Absolutely. The Cubans called this "biotechnology," but of course in the United States when we use that term, we generally mean genetic engineering - not so in Cuba. They're trying to use plant breeding and other more traditional techniques that call on the ingenuity of farmers and soil scientists to make their system not only as productive as possible, but also as sustainable as possible. ACRES U.S.A. You mentioned Wes Jackson, who some years ago made the remark that the greatest invention of the 21st century would have to be an honest system of accounting. Of course, Wes Jackson is something of a wit, but in all honesty, if we paid for the fossil fuels that we're consuming on par and didn't hide it in subsidies such as maintaining armies all over the world to see that this flow is not interrupted, would we find this oil is really as cheap as we think it is? HEINBERG. Well to be fair, it has been incredibly cheap in the past. ACRES U.S.A. As a business proposition, but as an economic proposition, it really isn't, is it? HEINBERG. When you look at the full environmental cost and human cost, it has been the most expensive and ill-conceived adventure in human history. But of course that's looking back in retrospect. At the time when we were becoming addicted to the stuff, it seemed irresistible. A gallon of gasoline contained the energy equivalent of over two months of hard human labor. So naturally, once we had access to the stuff, we quickly became addicted. We used it for everything we possibly could. It was only later that the full bill came due - in fact, that is what's happening now. ACRES U.S.A. But we cannot abandon the concept entirely, can we, when we have the wherewithal to make biodiesel and maybe make other fuels out of biomass? HEINBERG. No, not altogether, but I think we have to be very careful. If we can use agricultural wastes and food wastes to make biofuels, then in that instance I think it's a good thing. And of course over the short term many American farmers will probably enjoy an economic boom from being able to grow fuel crops and get higher prices for their harvest - but over the longer term, if we try to substitute fuel crops for food crops on a large scale, as a substitute for fossil fuels, then we get into a competition between food and fuel, and many millions of people could starve just so a few thousand people could continue driving their cars. ACRES U.S.A. That would be true if you left everything equal, but some years ago we published a little magazine called Gasohol U.S.A. and we made the computation with the assistance of some scientists that if we planted fast-growing poplar trees in waste areas along the side of the highways in the rainbelt parts of the country and made a cellulose ethanol out of it, by harvesting those trees every second year, we could fuel the entire automobile fleet in the United States. Aren't we shutting the door on technology we could use that is bio-friendly? HEINBERG. Actually, I don't think anyone is shutting that door. Quite the opposite is happening. There's enormous interest in biofuels in the U.S. Department of Energy and elsewhere, and quite a lot of research is going into cellulosic ethanol right now. The conversion process hasn't been perfected yet. But certainly over the next few years, I'm sure we'll start to see pilot plants springing up. ACRES U.S.A. So, then, your vision is the small farm that will support a family and the family that will provide its own labor? HEINBERG. Yes, and also I think that's the proper place for biofuels. If biofuels can be produced on-site for use on the farm, I think that's something practical and sustainable. For the nation as a whole, I think it's unrealistic to expect that we'll be able to continue running cars and trucks to the extent that we are now. I think our entire transportation system is going to have to be scaled back and downsized. ACRES U.S.A. Maybe we need to recover rail and other inter-urban service of mass transportation and so on. HEINBERG. Right. We need to find more efficient means of transportation, not just different means of fueling our automobiles. ACRES U.S.A. Presenting your vision to an organization such as the Schumacher Society - how did that resonate with those people? HEINBERG. Actually, it resonated very well. What I had to say seemed to be exactly what they were interested in hearing. Of course, Fritz Schumacher was saying many of these things several decades ago, and he's been an inspiration to me. I was very happy to be able to offer an updated version of his "call to arms," if you will. ACRES U.S.A. When you travel about the countryside giving presentations like that, how is it resonating with the other people you encounter? HEINBERG. Generally very well - and I do speak to quite a lot of different kinds of audiences. Sometimes I find myself speaking to local governments, city councils and so on, and of course they're quite worried to hear about the situation we're in, not only with oil, but also also future natural gas supply. Occasionally I find myself speaking with current or retired oil industry professionals, petroleum geologists, and petroleum engineers and so on, and surprisingly, they're generally quite supportive of the things I have to say. They're also quite worried in many cases. Even in some companies that take the official position that there's no problem with future supply, the workers within those companies who are responsible for keeping track of oil reserves and production are personally quite concerned. So I have received quite a lot of support from those quarters as well. ACRES U.S.A. We suppose that somebody will still be pumping oil a hundred years from now, but the idea that they can pump oil to support this overly industrialized world is a little bit of a fantasy, isn't it? HEINBERG. Absolutely, and the problems are actually coming on much faster than most people were anticipating. Over the last year, we've seen virtually no growth in the global oil supply. We're not seeing the crisis in its full force right now primarily because prices have been so high that they've destroyed a lot of demand. Whole African countries have basically stopped importing oil because they can't afford it. Once we see the supply start to turn down, however, which is likely to happen within the next two or three years, then we'll see another round of price increases and more demand destruction - decreased demand as a result of high prices - and so on. I'm sorry to say that most people will not understand what's going on. They'll want to blame the oil companies or the nations of the Middle East, when in fact the real situation is that we are simply depleting a non-renewable resource. ACRES U.S.A. They need to take responsibility themselves. HEINBERG. Absolutely. ACRES U.S.A. One thing that is increasing exponentially, though, is the pollution factor. When you have 40,000 ships hauling stuff around the world in order to accommodate the divisions of world trade, even the breakup of one or two of those ships when they're worn out has become one of the biggest pollution factors on the planet, has it not? HEINBERG. It has. Our oceans are being profoundly affected, not only by waste bunker oil from oceangoing vessels, but also by plastics and other materials tossed overboard. Fossil fuels may not be the root of all evil, but they are certainly the source of most of the unique problems of our time, including pollution, global climate change, oil wars, overpopulation, destruction of forests and topsoil, overfishing - all of these things are either directly or indirectly related to fossil fuels and what we've done with them. ACRES U.S.A. And that extends itself into the way we practice medicine, with all the coal-tar derivative drugs that now seem to be the props of every physician alive. HEINBERG. Yes, that's right. The whole chemicals industry arose, as you say, starting with coal, but natural gas is now the basis for the modern pharmaceutical and agrichemical industry, and that's a very worrisome situation here in North America because we're seeing natural gas production turning down. Therefore we're seeing high natural gas prices, and therefore high fertilizer prices, because of course fertilizer is made from natural gas. Most of the North American chemicals industry is fleeing for other shores where natural gas is cheaper. We've lost something like 100,000 jobs in the chemicals industry over the last two years, but of course we don't read that on the business pages of the newspapers. ACRES U.S.A. Have you and the people in the Schumacher Society made the connection between the imbalance in the different sectors of the economy and parity for agriculture in escorting this kind of a drift into our everyday lives? HEINBERG. That's a complicated topic because it partly has to do with the cheap fossil fuels that have replaced agricultural labor, and also it has to do with skewed government food policies. But overall, we have gotten used to very, very cheap food, and the price of that is that very few people can afford to farm anymore - a situation that can't continue much longer. The average age of a farmer in the United States is currently over 55, so one has to wonder who will be growing our food in 10 or 20 years. ACRES U.S.A. We've heard the statement that you're going to see a country full of cattle and no cowmen out there. In other words, the technology that's being adopted runs entirely opposite to what you were saying, especially when we look at confinement feeding and now cloning of animals in order to avoid having to deal with sexual reproduction - all of this with the steady approval of this kind of food faire for the public by the Food and Drug Administration. HEINBERG. The system that you're describing of replacing human beings with more machines and more technology only works when we have cheap energy. As energy sources become more expensive, that whole system is going to start to come apart at the seams. The cost of food will go up, and gradually there will be more incentives for people to go into farming. But unless we undertake that transition proactively and with some sense of a plan and goal, it's going to be a very chaotic and nasty kind of transition. ACRES U.S.A. Let's go back to this message which has to be repeated a thousand times - it's like the old doctor at the University of Missouri who used to tell us that there's only one story, but you have to find a thousand ways of telling it. You may not have a thousand ways, but I know you have several - why don't you give us an example? HEINBERG. Over the past 200 years the human population has grown from under one billion to now over 6.5 billion. That's an extraordinary rate of increase - completely unprecedented in all of previous history. There are various ways of explaining how and why that has happened, but certainly it could not have happened without cheap fossil fuels with which to grow more food and to transport that food from where it's abundant to where it's scarce. I think it's fair to say that there are somewhere between 2 and 4 billion people alive today who probably would not exist if it weren't for fossil fuels. That's a little worrisome to think about when one realizes that oil production globally is set to peak any year now, and global natural gas production will not be far behind. If we're going to avoid a die-off of much of humanity through starvation and disease, we're going to have to find ways of feeding people without fossil fuels or with a lot less fossil fuel use - and that really means redesigning our entire food system. It means growing more food locally, for local consumption, it means using smaller farm machinery and less of it, it means more people being involved in the process of producing food, and it means growing food with fewer chemicals and fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Fortunately, over the past few decades we have developed information, knowledge, experience and techniques that are capable of growing food intensively, organically and ecologically. Those techniques, those methods desperately need to be expanded and replicated and made the basis for our national and global food system. ACRES U.S.A. What do you do to get through to the intellectual advisors who should be telling people these things instead of leading them in the exact opposite direction? HEINBERG. I think the one thing these people most need to understand is our systemic dependency on fossil fuels and the fact that fossil fuels are about to become much more scarce and expensive. I don't think that simple fact has penetrated the consciousness of most of our officials. They have been led to believe that business as usual will continue indefinitely, that the way we are doing things now is somehow the way they've always been done and always will be done, which is simply not the case. We live in an extraordinary moment in history, in fact. ACRES U.S.A. Will you be able to put a number or a date on when this just can't go any further? We're not suggesting a cataclysm of any sort, we're talking about a slow evolution, but there has to come a point where mathematical ambition and physical possibility part company. HEINBERG. Yes, and I think we're virtually at that point right now. The best estimates of the timing of global oil production peak are converging around the year 2010, which means we're virtually there. That doesn't mean that suddenly all oil production will vanish or collapse. We'll start to see about a 2 percent per year decline in oil production from that point. Here in North America the decline in natural gas production will probably occur with greater speed, so we may in fact have a much more severe natural gas crisis at least in the early years, starting within the next few years, than an oil supply crisis. That's going to affect agriculture, it's going to affect electricity production, home heating, the chemicals industry and the entire American economy. Probably by the year 2015 or 2020 we'll see an American economy in tatters compared to anything we've known over the past few decades, simply because we'll no longer have the fuel to make it work. ACRES U.S.A. We probably won't be able to give frequent flyer miles to coffins being hauled back and forth across the country. HEINBERG. No! The airline industry is going to be hit very hard by all of this, and of course the tourism industry is going to be completely decimated, as are other industries. The American automobile industry is already teetering at the brink of economic collapse, not just because of high fuel prices, but also because of some poor business decisions they've made in the past. ACRES U.S.A. When Douglas MacArthur became the so-called shogun of Japan right after World War II, the first thing he did was order land reallocation. About 13,000 families owned all the land in the whole country, and he required them to turn the deeds over to the government and then sold it back to the farmers. Do you envision something like that happening in the United States, where we simply must come to terms with the proposition that we have to have land reform? HEINBERG. If we were smart, that's what we would do. My concern is that what's very possible instead, even likely in this case, is that land will be held onto by banks and large corporations, while the growing hordes of jobless people will be hired as agricultural workers and become a new class of serfs. ACRES U.S.A. "Guest workers," you might say? HEINBERG. Yes. Instead of having the Jeffersonian vision of agrarian democracy realized, we will see instead a new feudalism with millions of Americans reduced to serfdom. ACRES U.S.A. And you see no way around this? HEINBERG. Oh, there's certainly a way around it! What you suggested, land reform, is the way to go - there's no question about that. ACRES U.S.A. But land reform is political, and political activity is now governed by the corporations, the banks, the insurance companies. HEINBERG. That's right. So if all of these problems are bound up together - the problems of agriculture, the problems of energy, the problems of finance and politics - it's going to take some brilliant and courageous leadership to disentangle all of those and set this country back on a good course. ACRES U.S.A. So far we have not addressed the quality of the food that we see coming out of factories and industrial agriculture, prefabricated, processed foods - manhandled milk and so on. HEINBERG. Yes, much of this relates to fossil fuels, too, because of course growing food cheaply and in large quantities is a recipe for producing poor-quality food. Now we're seeing an epidemic of obesity in the United States, and that's not because people are overnourished, it's because they're overfed with food of poor nutritional quality. ACRES U.S.A. They're fed GMOs; they're fed with genetically modified milk. HEINBERG. And soft drinks with corn syrup and aspartame and so on. Soil minerals have also been declining in quantity for decades now. I think the USDA has actually kept records of this, showing that the mineral content obtained back in the 1940s was in some cases 40 or 50 percent higher than it is today, so we can eat the same quantity of food and yet we have a hidden hunger. ACRES U.S.A. So the whole thing wraps back into, is there the vision to install a proper agriculture to feed the people properly? HEINBERG. Right, and this really should be the most important topic of conversation right now. Agriculture is the farthest thing from the consciousness of most urban Americans' minds. They go to the grocery store, and they buy their food. They assume it's always going to be there for them, and that's about as much thought as they give to the matter. ACRES U.S.A. Many of them even reject food if it's organic or at least wholesome, because it's too high priced. If it looks like food and tastes like food, they seem satisfied that it really is food. HEINBERG. In most cases, they don't know any better. Many of them have never tasted anything really nutritious - a carrot straight from the soil, something that they've grown themselves, or simply something that has been grown without chemicals and fertilizers. ACRES U.S.A. In view of the impact you've made with some of your talks around the country, can you tell us a little bit about the group you represent or what keeps you afloat out there in the circuit? HEINBERG. I work with an organization called the Post Carbon Institute, which is searching for local solutions to the kinds of problems we're likely to face as a result of peak oil and climate change. These kinds of solutions are varied and have to do with things such as energy farms - putting together a network of small research farms where we can look for ways of reenvisioning agriculture on a smaller scale, to grow both food and fuel sustainably. We also work with local governments, city councilors, mayors, etc., in towns around the country to help them begin to devise energy transition strategies away from fossil fuels. ACRES U.S.A. You're also quite interested in global warming? HEINBERG. Yes, very much so, and I'm also working with a project called the Oil Depletion Protocol, which is a plan to systematically and proactively reduce oil consumption on a national and international basis. Actually, this is the subject of my most recent book. ACRES U.S.A. Would you give us the title? HEINBERG. Yes, it's called The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse. ACRES U.S.A. You mentioned in the name of your organization the word "carbon," presumably you're talking about carbon dioxide? HEINBERG. Yes. ACRES U.S.A. And carbon dioxide, of course, is a global warming gas that's running amok. You know we have taken agriculture to high nitrogen use, not only in the United States, but worldwide, and this nitrogen is mostly wasted because it goes off into the air - especially anhydrous, less so with natural nitrogens - where it locks into the oxygen and becomes one form or another of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide, in turn, is 183 to 212 times more polluting in terms of global warming than carbon dioxide. Yet we find that Al Gore doesn't even mention it in his film, An Inconvenient Truth. HEINBERG. That's right - thank you for pointing that out! That's yet another reason why we have to reform our entire food system, and very quickly. Richard Heinberg can be contacted at 1604 Jennings Avenue, Santa Rosa, California 95401, website www.richardheinberg.com. For more information on the Post Carbon Institute, visit www.postcarbon.org. For information on the Oil Depletion Protocol, visit www.oildepletionprotocol.org. From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sun Dec 6 20:47:03 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:17:03 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Islam of Messengers renewed through Muhammad for Ecosafety has been for sceintific activity across the time with reverence for the Creator and Master of Universes In-Reply-To: <746087.19980.qm@web45508.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <746087.19980.qm@web45508.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <489195.63380.qm@web94911.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear Mr.Yousuf Tabish and those who do not understand the difference between the Creator and the creation,? Greeting?for peace?, With praises to Allah/...../ known with various names and salam?to the messengers, I request?you to see your post dated 10 October?in which you demonstrate your serious misunderstanding?about the?existence of?Allah?,understanding of the concept of?the?Creator and the?mission of messenger who?were chosen?among the human beings across the time and across the lands.I think recognising the fact of the practice of Muslims of?sending salam to all the?messengers should be?able to delete your misunderstanding that?Muslims and Muslimas of the world only recognise Muhammad, the last messenger of Allah. Muslim recognise and believe in the continuity of the message for defining the aspects of daily life, deeds,thoughts, consumption etc.? Muslims and Muslimas are nearly are one third of the world population and that is?a big number . If? you are following the?ethos of democracy, multiculturalism then you should honor this rather than?presenting your horrendous falsehoods and abusive and offensive ignorance about Allah and the last messenger?in this email thread that includes , I?guess, some of?the key communicators of Islamic standards. Even, Dr.Shabbir?and Muhammad Irtaza who are advocating?fresh interepretations?of the Holy would denounce you for??insinuating a human?like existence of 'Allah' in interrogative mode.?Do?you choose keyboard while drunk. It is likely as even those supporting atheistic communism among non-Muslims and those advocating the atheistic neoliberal 'western' ethos involved in the design of political-cultural order within and across the nations largely do not have?this misunderstanding. I?have sharing?my academic conclusion for global adoption of monotheistic frameworks in the forums of UNDP http://capacity.org/undp ,World Bank, Global Justice Movement http://globaljusticemovement.net International Simultaneously Policy Organisation http://simpol.org and others, but, never ever, I had?came across such?an offensive and abusive demonstration of? the ignorance of Islam. I do not know what is your age and academic background.?I would be grateful to learn about that in order to make my response more meaningful for you as, there are times, when Muslims and Muslimas are likely to get in the atheistic neoliberal? and atheistic communist traps in certain contexts?due to various reasons. In early ninties, I?had?fallen in that trap. You may like to see a reflection of this?in some of drawings that I?would send for you?, in case ,you are?interested. You may see that I greeted peace for you recognising the great Islamic teaching ,practice of Muslims and Muslimas?and then with a prayer that you may get teh guidance from the Creator of universes. Shafiq Khan saheb has presented the rules for the existence of galactic bodie, planetory systems and asked a question as to the entity, who has the last control. Allah has control of the visions and knows the deepest desire of our hearts. Exacvation?,discovery of the rules?that exist in the material world?has never been a matter of Islamic prohibition.?Elsewhere, I appear to defending inter-faith commons, recognizing the activities of some church leaders for people like Galileo and Bruno created a slew of writings that called for seperation of state and religion and then among the philospher, there emerged some who sought liberation from the prohibitive church. Do you share me of on Muslim ruler or your socalled 'Mullah'?who killed people for generating works for improving the human condition. Would you blame all following Jesus, as Muslims understand him as messenger for the persecution of Galileo. Sunnah of Allah?does not change and it changes following the will of the Almighty. Please understand the need for one unifying framework for addressing the global challenges that we face. Do you have one? I have denounced Richard Falk as?while caling for the adoption of the mode of 'citizen pilgrim', he did not understand the?lack of unanimity among?psychiatrists and psychologists??about?the understanding of homosexuality and called for generation of conducive regulatory regime for its adoption?among men and women. My Marxist freind told me that even for Karl Marx, it was an abomination. Please forgive me, if I?have sounded offensive some where. I am saying this in?abidance to the commands for using the best means of dailogue and seeking forgiveness for the violation of 'huququl Ibad'.? ? Please know the distinction of the Criterion for the issues that are clearly articulated and the deeds of people like me endeavouring to be on the path. My sins are mine and your sins are yours. I am not responsible for your sins. Niether, you are responsible for mine. I am writing specially to address the misunderstanding of Islam based on the misdeeds of some who were and are identified with following Islam. Mary Rose, an advocate of holodynamic consciousness and Christ like consciouness has issues with the followers and the religion. Even then, I have been arguing for the adoption of culture of prayer 5 times a day for transforming ecologically hostile leisure, building climate resileint local self reliant communities across the nations as Muslims and Muslima are practising this across the nations reducing their carbon prints and securing eternal wellbeing. Please understand that adoption of Eternal Islam of the messengers and sheep herders is an ecological imperative. Leisure use patterns need to change with the adoption of faith basedn carbon-neutral ?measures. Usurious finance system has to be demolished for halting the expansion of ecologically hostile habitats, securing ecologically sustainable habitats in the rural areas, and transforming ecologically hostile habitats in the urban areas.Government of Britain, you may see has been calling for travelling 5 km less every day. How does this happen? You see faith based carbon neutral measures works the best along with other activities at home and in the neighbourhoods. ? You may choose to repent and feel better. The door of repentance is open till death only and we never know the time of death. It is better to repent now. Repeat this 100 times. It is better to repent now. With?earnest prayers for your temporal and eternal wellbeing. May the guidance to all increase day by day and may more and more start praying for the same. Yours sincerely Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Yousuf Tabish To: M Shafiq Khan ; Yousuf Tabish ; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; mikeghouse at aol.com; saleem khan ; zina.khan at yahoo.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; zakhum at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; Doctor Sohail ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; badshahanizer at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com Sent: Wed, 11 November, 2009 10:19:15 AM Subject: Re: Science v/s religion ! Did I talk to you? I enjoy talking to free people not slaves specially slaves of arabs. Yousef Tabish --- On Wed, 11/11/09, M Shafiq Khan wrote: >From: M Shafiq Khan >Subject: Re: Science v/s religion ! >To: "Yousuf Tabish" , rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, mikeghouse at aol.com, "saleem khan" , zina.khan at yahoo.com, mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com, badshahkha at gmail.com, bintwaleed at yahoo.com, tarekfatah at rogers.com, farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, "Atif Sahib" , butshikan at msn.com, drshabbir at comcast.net, zakhum at hotmail.com, yunussidira at yahoo.com, "Doctor Sohail" , shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, "Abdul Aziz Khattak" , badshahanizer at gmail.com, ahumanb at yahoo.com >Date: Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 4:35 AM > > >yousuf >? >Give me the answer of what i ve asked rather involving yourself in frivolous conversation. You are talking like an ignorant and wild person. >? >? >shafiq >----- Original Message ----- >>From: Yousuf Tabish >>To: M Shafiq Khan ; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com ; mikeghouse at aol.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; saleem khan ; zina.khan at yahoo.com ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; badshahkha at gmail.com ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; yunussidira at yahoo.com ; Doctor Sohail ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in ; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; badshahanizer at gmail.com ; ahumanb at yahoo.com >>Sent: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 11:06 PM >>Subject: Re: Science v/s religion ! >> >> >>Followers of arab religion always use mohammed >>and allah together.Is?their allah gay?They always >>use "peace be upon him" for mohammed.Is their >>allah screwing mohamed very hard?Just a question >>you know. >> >>Yousef Tabish >> >>--- On Mon, 11/9/09, M Shafiq Khan wrote: >> >> >>>From: M Shafiq Khan >>>Subject: Re: Science v/s religion ! >>>To: "saleem khan" , zina.khan at yahoo.com, mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com, badshahkha at gmail.com, bintwaleed at yahoo.com >>>Cc: rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com, mikeghouse at aol.com, "Yousuf Tabish" , tarekfatah at rogers.com, farrukhabidi at yahoo.com, "Atif Sahib" , butshikan at msn.com, drshabbir at comcast.net, zakhum at hotmail.com, yunussidira at yahoo.com, "Doctor Sohail" , shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in, "Abdul Aziz Khattak" , badshahanizer at gmail.com, ahumanb at yahoo.com >>>Date: Monday, November 9, 2009, 12:11 PM >>> >>> >>>We muslims?believe in science?more than atheists as these were muslims scientists who made its foundation. But we should not only rely on science?that is why for the guidance of human science can't do anything.?For guidance religion plays its role. Can you give me answer to a question if you believe so much only in logic and science? >>>? >>>Question:??? In solar system each planet controls each other within its respective orbits through a gravitational force. A body will have positive charge attracts a body with negative charge. So earth, moon and sun and other planets in the solar system have this phenomena. If there is a charge on solar system, so to control it there should be an other system which will maintain that system. That is what which exists. Then a few systems form a galaxy which is maintained and controlled by other galaxy. Then a few galaxies make a universe. Now you have to prove how this universe exists?in the absence of an other universe having an opposite charge for its balancing and control. If we apply scientific rules?everywhere then?there should be an other universe which actually does not exist. It means you?logical scientific?proofs fail here to reach Allah Mighty.?This is Allah who control each and everthing?sometimes logical?while at other time illogical.?Science is the slave of Allah?and Allah is the creator of science.?When science was needed somewhere Allah adopted it for that thing when it was not?required Allah declined in?that particular thing. >>> >>> >>>May Allah Almighty guide us to the right path, ameen >>> >>>Muhammad Shafiq? >>> >>>----- Original Message ----- >>>From: saleem khan >>>>To: zina.khan at yahoo.com ; shafiq at giki.edu.pk ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; badshahkha at gmail.com ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com >>>>Cc: rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com ; mikeghouse at aol.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; yunussidira at yahoo.com ; Doctor Sohail ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in ; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; badshahanizer at gmail.com ; ahumanb at yahoo.com >>>>Sent: Monday, November 09, 2009 12:52 PM >>>>Subject: RE: Science v/s religion ! >>>> >>>>Freedom, wisdom, liberty, open and?broadmindness, logical, rational approach, proveable facts and events and theories which human senses can grasp. >>>>? >>>>Beliving in unproveable ungraspable facts , events, thoughts,?dogmas such as?god,life after death, day of judgement, hell,?paradise, angels, jins, devil, divinity and sancticity of something like a god, book etc are not faculties of common sense &intelligence instead are all sensless items to be discarted?rejected by wise, intellectuals, knowledgeable humans. >>>>? >>>>________________________________ Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 22:04:16 -0800 >>>>From: zina.khan at yahoo.com >>>>Subject: Science v/s religion ! >>>>To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; brilliant005 at hotmail.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com >>>>CC: mirza.syed at gmail.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com; assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; minayet at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; irtaza1 at yahoo.com; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; jennifer at akfc.ca; karimsamani at yahoo.com; Multiculturalism-PluralismGroup at yahoogroups.com >>>> >>>> >>>>Saleem, >>>> >>>>What "common sense" are you talking about Khan? Let me know if there is >>>>such a thing as heat first ??Conversely is there such a thing as cold ? Why do we all say i"its cold' ? >>>> >>>>let me know first ! and whilst you are figuring out the answers because you seem to be some sort of an atheist scientist count backwards from 10 until you reach One...and then let me know what is before ONE ? >>>> >>>>Lets begin here Sir ! you want to discuss science with us right? okay...be my guest ...first answer my questions and then I ask you some counter questions and then you explain to us this common sense theory that you so felicitously rave about... >>>> >>>>--- On Fri, 11/6/09, Bint Waleed wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>>From: Bint Waleed >>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>Date: Friday, November 6, 2009, 5:05 AM >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>The very definition of Allah is that He is NOT created. >>>>>If he is created by someone then who created >>>>>him is Allah. >>>>> >>>>>--- On Thu, 11/5/09, saleem khan wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009, 9:00 PM >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>science is common sense which religionists lack, they cannot comprehend ratinality, wisdom and liberty. they are entangled in strong web of ideology. >>>>>>can u let me kno who is the creator of allah? if nothing can be created itself, than?male allah?must also have been created . >>>>>>? >>>>>> >>>>>>? >>>>>>________________________________ From: shafiq at giki.edu.pk >>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 15:56:11 +0500 >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>Why you believe in Science and don't believe in Allah who is the creator of all sciences. Can you prove that only science is real. Please explain that science is real. Prove that everything was made by itself with the help of science. I say this the Allah Almighty who made a law for this universe which is called science. Now prove that science came into existence by itself. >>>>>>? >>>>>>shafiq >>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>>Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 12:42 PM >>>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>> >>>>>>>no i do not want to , i do not need it. look if u think that my posts are worth less than why u people read? and reply what is the concern??why r u worried? but come up if there is any logical scintific answers or points and dont just blame and adopt apologetic behaviour. >>>>>>>? >>>>>>>________________________________ >>>>>>> >>>>>>>? >>>>>>>On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 1:30 AM, M Shafiq Khan wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Ok if you are not believing in any religion. then at least why are you here to spread mischief in the minds of other people who are relgious and on the straight path. Those who are on straight path are not funded and those who are deviated from the straight path are paid this is what common sense feel. so either come on the straight path i.e. Islam or leave the forum of straight people to avoid further deteriorating the minds of innocent muslims from you superstitious ideology and hollow dogma. You might have your own dogma about religion if you have created yourselt but as you have not been created by yourself then you have no right to announce devilish dogma and propagate it. If you are not funded by some jewish organization then you are a psycho case and you consider that you will die if you stop attacking Islam. Your heart is sealed and I think you are the most unfortunate person who after getting that much education is far from the reality. You failed to understand the philosophy of life. Just imagine and ponder, the truth is a few steps away from you but you have developed a curtain in between these. >>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>May Allah Almighty guide you and your family to the right path. >>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>Muhammad Shafiq >>>>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>>>>Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 10:28 AM >>>>>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>I have already mentioned that i am a regionless person, I condem a religion which is a result of baseless, senseless, illogocal, unproven, unscientific, unrealistic dogmas against ground realiites, and created on supersticious concepts. I do not belive in concept of a humanly male diety a supreme power controlling universe which u and other religionist have given various names such as allah, bhagwan, eshwar, yahowa, god, aherman, yazdan etc.?and why should one belive it untill he/she is a blind follower of ancestors.society and does not uses?common sense, wisdom, freedom, logic, reason. >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>If u call and lable such a religion;less and god less person as athiest, or something else than its ur choice, i?and my wisdomfull, intellegent, sensible, liberal open minded freinds?consider? to be a lable free persons and dont want to be identified w.r.t an ideology, cult or creed like a muslim.?Though we were born in muslim families and societies, but have quit islam, allah and quran. We do not beleive in sancticity and divinity of anything, we do not belive in jannat jahanum, life after?deaths, day of judgment, mortality of humans, spirit, jins, angels etc. >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>________________________________ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:42:28 +0530 >>>>>>>>>From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com >>>>>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>Dear Saleem saheb,?Greetings for peace, >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>Noting?your affliation to the atheistic modernist project that has been denounced by the postmodernists?, I would like to point out that your language is extremely hostile?to the interests of global peace. You? remind me of the atheistic communist leaders who wished to eradicate Islam= mental and physical state of submission to the commands of Allah. There are multiple narratives on aesthetics,ethics,epistemology?and there are inter-faith commons among the monotheistic and?polytheistic narratives. Are u an atheistic neo-liberal?like Michael Foucault or like Stalin,Bukharin? >>>>>>>>>?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam >>>>>>>>>58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India >>>>>>>>>Tel:+9968345380 >>>>>>>>>http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org >>>>>>>>>http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam >>>>>>>>>http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com >>>>>>>>>http://ecostrategiccommunicator.ning.com >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> ________________________________ From: saleem khan >>>>>>>>>Sent: Wed, 21 October, 2009 3:26:56 PM >>>>>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>Mr. Shafique , neither I m a jew or any other religionist. I do not believe in a religion and do not want to follow it. I m a rebellion to my ancestral ideology i.e islam., I m an ex muslim,I dont want to be recognized with a particular label, but as a humanist, universalit, secularist. I beleive in sceince and logic which can be proved practically. I m also not funded by any individual or group or community.?I m godless, relogion less person with liberal, free, wisdomfull thoughts now. These r all ur speculations u have mentioned. I believe that for maintaining peace in world this ugly cult of islam must be ereadicated from tyhe surface of earth. This fire of islamic dogmas must be extinguished with the tools and instruments of science. logic, freedom, liberty, wisdom. >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>________________________________ From: shafiq at giki.edu.pk >>>>>>>>>To: mirza.syed at gmail.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com >>>>>>>>>CC: brilliant005 at hotmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com; assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; minayet at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; dailymuslims at gmail.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; ihro at yahoogroups.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; irtaza1 at yahoo.com; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>>>>Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:46:30 +0500 >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>From the emails of Mirza and Saleem, it is?clear that the names adopted by them are islamic?and they only criticize Islam for making money. The people who abuse their God for the sake of their bread winning, how can one trust such a devilish mind.?They got education on the money of the jews and now they are being used against Islam so as to spread hatred among the world against the muslims. But Islam?spreads more when it is suppressed by?devils like saleem and mirza. Mirza also writes syed with his name?which is shameful. Actually these people can do any thing for getting money. Muslims may die?of hunger but will never attack on the religion of any person. Those who seem terrorists are the outcome of the proxy war made by jews.?Some mean people like apparently mirza and saleem can be easily hired by the jews as they have no religion at all. They can even sell their children for getting money.These types of mean people are the machinery being used by the jews for the ill objectives and try to harm muslims and Islam as they know that the ultimate?success is that of the muslims. Even?George Burnard Shah said that?the futural relgion of Europe is?Islam.?Islam is spreading in USA and Europe like a fire in the forest. This all is due to its?suppression by jews. >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>>>From: Syed Mirza >>>>>>>>>>To: Rishi Dwivedi >>>>>>>>>>Cc: M Shafiq Khan ; saleem khan ; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org ; mikeghouse at aol.com ; assadiq at gmail.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com ; mnaquvi at yahoo.com ; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com ; hasniessa at yahoo.com ; minayet at yahoo.com ; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com ; azam.sikandar at gmail.com ; tirmidhi at hotmail.com ; alishaban952 at yahoo.com ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; dailymuslims at gmail.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; yasminsurani at hotmail.com ; great72000 at yahoo.com ; hassan_javid at hotmail.com ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; aleem.faizee at gmail.com ; ihro at yahoogroups.com ; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id ; mustafvi at gmail.com ; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; irtaza1 at yahoo.com ; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com ; khasif235e at yahoo.com ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; ank2000pk at yahoo.com ; firasat777 at yahoo.com ; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com ; yunussidira at yahoo.com ; fidvi at hotmail.com ; premsadani at hotmail.com ; ssmeezan at hotmail.com ; wyeknotusa at aol.com ; rial982000 at yahoo.com ; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com ; amino66 at hotmail.com ; k2411871 at hotmail.com ; pk4318 at yahoo.com ; Doctor Sohail ; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com ; april702 at cox.net ; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk ; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in ; gul_badshah at yahoo.com ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in ; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com ; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com ; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com ; ddnsai at gmail.com ; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com ; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com ; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com ; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com ; kristonia7 at yahoo.com ; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org ; hussain at nifty.com ; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com ; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com ; juan.suquillo at gmail.com ; fayyaz at reading.org ; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk ; jawed at dailymuslims.com ; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com ; badshahanizer at gmail.com ; znanwalla at gmail.com ; badshahkha at gmail.com ; ahumanb at yahoo.com ; akbar at mostmerciful.com ; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com ; zina.khan at yahoo.com ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com ; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>>Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 4:39 PM >>>>>>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is the guide for humanity >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>Good reply to Safique. Atheism is much superior than all those false religions like Islam. World will be much better place without any of these stupid religions. >>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>SKM >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 2:25 PM, Rishi Dwivedi wrote: >>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>If you don't believe in any religion of the world then you resemble beasts says. Mohd Saffique >>>>>>>>>>>FYI Mr Safiqque: I'd prefer a pagan or a athiest anytime?over a Muslim. >>>>>>>>>>>In fact Muslims are behaving like beasts all over the world. >>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>Rashid. >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 6:48 AM, M Shafiq Khan wrote: >>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>Your arguments are foolish and baseless. The names you mentioned who changed the world were also religious. Science and Technology was initiated by the muslim scientists. If your parents were ignorant (Jahil) and they gave you a muslim name then you must have changed it to pagan name as all the names of the world relates to one or the other religion. If you are self grown and you developed paganism and followed satan then certainly you are spreading satanic lessons to misguide the innocent people through the spell of your intriguing discussion. I am sure you are not losing?paradise for free but you are taking a great price for gaining the hell. If you don't believe on religion then tell me how this universe came?into being. Once?a munazira was scheduled between a?pagan scholar and Imam Abu Hanifa. Imam Abu Hanifa intensionally came?some 3 hours late.?On the start of the?discussion the pagan asked?the Imam why was he late. Imam Abu Hanifa?told?him that he was standing on the?beach of the river and there was no boat available to take me. the pagan asked then how he came. Abu?Hanifa said that while he was waiting suddenlty a tree fell down, then planks were separated from the tree. Nails were fixed in those planks automatically.?Then a boat was built by itself and it came on the beach in which the Imam sat and went away to his destination. That was the reason of his being late. The pagan said how can?a boat be made by itself, it is unbelievable. Some one should be there to make a boat. Imam Abu Hanifa asked him that you are pagan and?don't believe in Allah (God) and if you don't believe?that a boat was made by itself then?howcomes that the whole universe came?into being by itself. >>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>Pagans like you have very limited intellect and knowledge. They read thousands of books but can not reach the reality. Satan always guide them in all of their activities. >>>>>>>>>>>>??? >>>>>>>>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>>>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>>>>>>>>To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk ; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org ; mikeghouse at aol.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>Cc: assadiq at gmail.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; mirza.syed at gmail.com ; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com ; mnaquvi at yahoo.com ; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com ; hasniessa at yahoo.com ; minayet at yahoo.com ; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com ; azam.sikandar at gmail.com ; tirmidhi at hotmail.com ; alishaban952 at yahoo.com ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; dailymuslims at gmail.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; yasminsurani at hotmail.com ; great72000 at yahoo.com ; hassan_javid at hotmail.com ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; aleem.faizee at gmail.com ; ihro at yahoogroups.com ; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id ; mustafvi at gmail.com ; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; irtaza1 at yahoo.com ; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com ; khasif235e at yahoo.com ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; ank2000pk at yahoo.com ; firasat777 at yahoo.com ; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com ; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com ; yunussidira at yahoo.com ; fidvi at hotmail.com ; premsadani at hotmail.com ; ssmeezan at hotmail.com ; wyeknotusa at aol.com ; rial982000 at yahoo.com ; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com ; amino66 at hotmail.com ; k2411871 at hotmail.com ; pk4318 at yahoo.com ; Doctor Sohail ; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com ; april702 at cox.net ; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk ; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in ; gul_badshah at yahoo.com ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in ; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com ; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com ; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com ; ddnsai at gmail.com ; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com ; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com ; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com ; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com ; kristonia7 at yahoo.com ; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org ; hussain at nifty.com ; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com ; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com ; juan.suquillo at gmail.com ; fayyaz at reading.org ; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk ; jawed at dailymuslims.com ; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com ; badshahanizer at gmail.com ; znanwalla at gmail.com ; badshahkha at gmail.com ; ahumanb at yahoo.com ; akbar at mostmerciful.com ; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com ; zina.khan at yahoo.com ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com ; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>>>>>Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 3:08 PM >>>>>>>>>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is for ALL Muslims & Non-Muslims >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>Look! a human does not need a religion. Religions are?manmade ,created on the basis?of self created superstocious baseless unrealistic? and unscintific and illogical ideoligies and concept which are followed blinded without using common sense. In a religion a huamanly male diety is created?and than worshipped foolishly consisting of false fabricated stupid acticvities of bowing, prostrating, kissing stones, pillars, rocks, doms, walls, icons and a certain specific jockery outfit is adopted and that diety is appeased by aniaml sacrifizing, imploring circumssion , in which resources, time, energy. money are just wasted. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>A man can never be happy if want or wish to make god happy. Humanity?can only flourish and develop in a religionless enviornment and society, a secular wisdomfull free society. GOD must be killed and burried deeply and get rid of its concept to attain and achieve long lasting peace tranquiality in world. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>People like einstien, Graham bell, Marconi, Newton, Copernicus, Jhon Loui beard, george stephon son, etc are real "REHMATLIL ALAMIN|"?THEY HAVE CHANGED THE WORLD.?Inventors of mobile phone, T.V, computer, A?C, aeroplanes, trains, cars, fridge, microwaveovens, and what not, discoverors of electricity, magnetism, X-rays, various scintific laws on the basis of which to day we have such a huighly scntifically and technologically advanced wolrd , are real messengers of nature and universe and not those obsolete devider of humanity in belivers of a certain impractacable ideology and non belivers, who at one place marries their daughter in laws iand on the other hand children of 6 years in lust of sex?. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>Quran,Zaboor, bible etc are all obselete unscintific impractable books of yester years with no specific value. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>The days of muahammd, mossa, isa are gone. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>Islam, christianity, jewsism, hinduism, janeism,taosim,shintism,budhism, zorostrianaism, all are devider of humans and cause of enemity, hatered, destruction, killing, murdering, deaths, grouping, fights, quarrels, disputes. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>Sanctification of a religion, diety, person, house, rock, doom, room, wall , icon, place, city, language is just naked foolishness. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>I m very happy anf relaxed?to be a religionless humanist and delighted to see that ur hlepless unworthy Arabic Saudi national unscintific god cant do any thing. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>I M not funded by any?individual or group, name has no importance its just?a mean of ?identification moreover i m not responsible for my name, it was given to me by my ignorant parents, but?my wisdom, intellectuality and mental conciousness?are self grown. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>The process of evolution?has escalted?, and soon all religions including ur islam will automaitically pesrish soon one day as well all other religions, which cannot stand in front of science and logic and reason. Nature demands that only logical, wisdomfull, reasonable concepts will survive, whereas islam and other religions are quantrary to it. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>There is no question of another life after death, no day of judgment, u live a life of?fear and terror and greed. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>Please come up wit realistic, logical and scintific answers to my questions. >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>A humanist,universalist,secularist >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>________________________________ From: shafiq at giki.edu.pk >>>>>>>>>>>>>To: brilliant005 at hotmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>CC: assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; minayet at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; dailymuslims at gmail.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; ihro at yahoogroups.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; irtaza1 at yahoo.com; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is for ALL Muslims & Non-Muslims >>>>>>>>>>>>>Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 10:05:39 +0500 >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>If you don't believe in any religion of the world then you resemble beasts. I would like to give a reference from Bible (New testament): " To educate men without religion and you make them clever devil". I think not believing in any religion of the world has made you devil accoring to Bible. We muslims believe that all books Bible (Old and new testament), Zaboor and Quran are the Books of Allah. When Quran was revealed on Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) all the other books were abrogated. I think you live in fool's paradise. Think if you are revived on the Day of Judgement what will you do in front of Allah Almighty who is the creator and owner of this universe. If there is no hereafter then it's ok for you but what will you do then if u r reborn there. Then u ll not even go to the fool's paradise but to the clever's hell. Even you are taking with you your children and family. People like you don't care about their family and kids. Do you?like to take you kids to fire in this world. Then why?your eyes are closed towards that reality. Your pagan ideas can not prevent your family members having ideas?like you from the fire of the hell. It means you r feeding them by the money of pagan organizations but you are putting them on fire. It shows that you don't?like goodness for your family. A person who is not good for his family and kids?how can he give better advice to the people of the world. This is extremely embarrasing. >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>Muhammad Shafiq? >>>>>>>>>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk ; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org ; mikeghouse at aol.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cc: assadiq at gmail.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; mirza.syed at gmail.com ; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com ; mnaquvi at yahoo.com ; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com ; hasniessa at yahoo.com ; minayet at yahoo.com ; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com ; azam.sikandar at gmail.com ; tirmidhi at hotmail.com ; alishaban952 at yahoo.com ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; dailymuslims at gmail.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; yasminsurani at hotmail.com ; great72000 at yahoo.com ; hassan_javid at hotmail.com ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; aleem.faizee at gmail.com ; ihro at yahoogroups.com ; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id ; mustafvi at gmail.com ; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; irtaza1 at yahoo.com ; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com ; khasif235e at yahoo.com ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; ank2000pk at yahoo.com ; firasat777 at yahoo.com ; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com ; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com ; yunussidira at yahoo.com ; fidvi at hotmail.com ; premsadani at hotmail.com ; ssmeezan at hotmail.com ; wyeknotusa at aol.com ; rial982000 at yahoo.com ; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com ; amino66 at hotmail.com ; k2411871 at hotmail.com ; pk4318 at yahoo.com ; Doctor Sohail ; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com ; april702 at cox.net ; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk ; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in ; gul_badshah at yahoo.com ; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in ; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com ; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com ; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com ; ddnsai at gmail.com ; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com ; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com ; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com ; Abdul Aziz Khattak ; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com ; kristonia7 at yahoo.com ; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org ; hussain at nifty.com ; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com ; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com ; juan.suquillo at gmail.com ; fayyaz at reading.org ; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk ; jawed at dailymuslims.com ; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com ; badshahanizer at gmail.com ; znanwalla at gmail.com ; badshahkha at gmail.com ; ahumanb at yahoo.com ; akbar at mostmerciful.com ; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com ; zina.khan at yahoo.com ; bintwaleed at yahoo.com ; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:24 PM >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Subject: RE: HOLY QURAN is for ALL Muslims & Non-Muslims >>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Can u give correct understanding of my questions if i m misguiding people please? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>People like u are living in fools paradise just blindly following ancestors and society without using head, senses and wisdom. ur unrealistic, illogical, supersticious, false fabricated beliefs and dogmas have no value and base in to days age of reason, justification and scintifically technologically advanced world . ur allah, quran, islam are all false and ficticious creeds and thoughts. neither i am being funded by any group nor i do belive in any sect or religion, that is why i m enjoying fear free life, and people like me have killed diety fear and worshipping and burried?that god deeply. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>U r just a slave of Arabs and thier religion, wasting ur time, money, resources , energy in sanctifying self created thoughts, icons, persons and trying to live?in a backward world of 1500 years ago when no one knew that eartrh is round, and following an?unscintific book with many contradictions and un implementable concepts. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Thanks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>A humanist >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>________________________________ From: shafiq at giki.edu.pk >>>>>>>>>>>>>>To: brilliant005 at hotmail.com; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org; mikeghouse at aol.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>CC: assadiq at gmail.com; yousuftabish at yahoo.com; mirza.syed at gmail.com; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com; mnaquvi at yahoo.com; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com; hasniessa at yahoo.com; minayet at yahoo.com; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com; azam.sikandar at gmail.com; tirmidhi at hotmail.com; alishaban952 at yahoo.com; tarekfatah at rogers.com; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com; dailymuslims at gmail.com; atif98 at yahoo.com; butshikan at msn.com; yasminsurani at hotmail.com; great72000 at yahoo.com; hassan_javid at hotmail.com; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com; aleem.faizee at gmail.com; ihro at yahoogroups.com; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id; mustafvi at gmail.com; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com; drshabbir at comcast.net; irtaza1 at yahoo.com; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com; khasif235e at yahoo.com; zakhum at hotmail.com; ank2000pk at yahoo.com; firasat777 at yahoo.com; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com; rishidwivedi1 at gmail.com; yunussidira at yahoo.com; fidvi at hotmail.com; premsadani at hotmail.com; ssmeezan at hotmail.com; wyeknotusa at aol.com; rial982000 at yahoo.com; ahlam_albahr at yahoo.com; amino66 at hotmail.com; k2411871 at hotmail.com; pk4318 at yahoo.com; sohail972002 at yahoo.co.in; afg_fitnesstrainer at hotmail.com; april702 at cox.net; auzyxkhan at yahoo.co.uk; arjumand_82 at yahoo.co.in; gul_badshah at yahoo.com; shariq.hamid at yahoo.co.in; aeisha_786 at yahoo.com; bushra_meraj at yahoo.com; cherylin_bas at yahoo.com; ddnsai at gmail.com; doctor_aliasghar at yahoo.com; egyptmuseum at hotmail.com; engrbbkarube at yahoo.com; khattak99 at yahoo.com; knowledge4all00 at yahoo.com; kristonia7 at yahoo.com; masmoudi at islam-democracy.org; hussain at nifty.com; ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com; ahmadtotonji at yahoo.com; juan.suquillo at gmail.com; fayyaz at reading.org; sarwar at muslim-ed-trust.org.uk; jawed at dailymuslims.com; ibramsha7 at yahoo.com; badshahanizer at gmail.com; znanwalla at gmail.com; badshahkha at gmail.com; ahumanb at yahoo.com; akbar at mostmerciful.com; mohanofchenai at googlemail.com; zina.khan at yahoo.com; bintwaleed at yahoo.com; jennifer at akfc.ca >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Subject: Re: HOLY QURAN is for ALL Muslims & Non-Muslims >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:31:07 +0500 >>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Divisions?among human races is not due to Quran or Islam but it is the Quran and Islam which unite the humanity under one and the only?umbrella provided they believe in Allah and?His last?and true messenger Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihe Walihe Wasallam. Divisions in humanity and ummah are only the outcome of satanism, corruption and misunderstanding of Islam and Quran.?Those who understand?Quran and Islam would never deviate from the chosen path?selected by?Allah for His most beloved prophet and humanity i.e. Islam. Even the scholars of other relgions knew at time of Muhammad (S.A.W.W) that He was the only true and last messenger of Allah and all other religion were abrogated. The writer is spreading misinterpretation of ayas of Quran and message of Islam as narrated by the below email.?I personally know people who are paid by ismailis and qadianis. These people have been time and again defeated by Islamic scholars in munaziras but they are shameless and only worship wealth given to them by?jews and other pagans.? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>?A person used to come to Imam Abu Hanifa and asked him daily to prove Allah's existance. When Imam Abu Hanifa gave him 99 arguments but the person?was not convinced. Imam Abu Hanifa saw a dream?in which Allah Almighty told him?that the person is satan and get rid of him by saying thaty I believe in Allah without any argument. When Imam Abu Hanifa told?satan that he believes in Allah without any proof and argument, this made him?got rid of satan. So there is no need of discussion and arguments with satans.? I consider myself degraded to?do?discussion with such a mean and ill natured person. As it is mentioned in Sura Baqara,?"For believers there is no need of evidence and for disbelievers no evidence is?sufficient." If the moon?is?carried down on earth for the disbelievers like saleem khan they?would?still not be convinced. Either saleem khan is a jew having a muslim name or he is funded by jews and preaching qadyaniat or ismailiat. Such people are bad stains on the clothes of the pure muslims.????? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>Muhammad Shafiq???? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>From: saleem khan >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>To: shafiq at giki.edu.pk ; ummaabroadcasting at rollanet.org ; mikeghouse at aol.com >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cc: assadiq at gmail.com ; Yousuf Tabish ; mirza.syed at gmail.com ; amongbelievers at yahoogroups.com ; mnaquvi at yahoo.com ; farzanaqazi at yahoo.com ; hasniessa at yahoo.com ; minayet at yahoo.com ; doctorforu123 at yahoo.com ; azam.sikandar at gmail.com ; tirmidhi at hotmail.com ; alishaban952 at yahoo.com ; tarekfatah at rogers.com ; farrukhabidi at yahoo.com ; dailymuslims at gmail.com ; Atif Sahib ; butshikan at msn.com ; yasminsurani at hotmail.com ; great72000 at yahoo.com ; hassan_javid at hotmail.com ; mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com ; aleem.faizee at gmail.com ; ihro at yahoogroups.com ; rafiq786 at cbn.net.id ; mustafvi at gmail.com ; faruquealamgir at yahoo.com ; drshabbir at comcast.net ; irtaza1 at yahoo.com ; salsabeel65 at yahoo.com ; khasif235e at yahoo.com ; zakhum at hotmail.com ; ank2000pk at yahoo.com ; firasat777 at yahoo.com ; anwerkhurshid at hotmail.com ; ... >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>[Message clipped]?? >>>>>>> >>>>>>>________________________________ Now, send attachments up to 25MB with Yahoo! India Mail. Learn how. >>>>>>>________________________________ Bing brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now. >>>>>>________________________________ Windows 7: Unclutter your desktop. Learn more. >>>>> >>>> >>>>________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. >> The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Mon Dec 7 10:50:41 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 23:20:41 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Community Based Ecostrategic Planning Proposed for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and District Plans Message-ID: <31f677a30912070950r70618019ucc585b2dec6ff827@mail.gmail.com> Dear Members, Convergence in policies and programme , realising the principle of simultaneity for actions across the domains of development is indeed the need of the hour for mitigating ecological and security threats. It is wonderful to learn that UNDP as part of the Government of India (GoI)? UN Joint Programme on Convergence is providing support to the government at the national, state, district and sub-district levels to strengthen the integrated decentralized participatory planning process by fostering convergence for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). I hope the the GoI? UN Joint Programme on Convergence being implemented in 5 districts each in the 7 UN focus states: Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan woud generate the desired results for quick up scaling in rest of the country and UNDP would succeed in getting the desired result through developing capacities of the district planning authorities and local governments by providing expertise in specific focus areas such as Climate Change, disaster risk management, public private community partnerships, skill development, HIV/AIDS, etc through demonstrating replicable approaches to inclusive planning and monitoring.. It is indeed a pleasure to learn that lessons from various interventions will contribute to the fine? tuning of the Planning Commission?s guidelines and manual on District Planning. Being part of district elementary education planning team for education in the district of Mewat in the state of Haryana India as Consultant (Mewat) in the financial years of 2007-2008 and 2008-2009, I had a wonderful opportunity to be part of the planning process at district level. As programme manager for Save the Children ,Gujarat Programme in 2003, I also had an opportunity to initiate work on community based emergency preparedness planning and interact with UNDP and other organisations for the same. Before discussing the tools and methodologies, I would like to call for strengthening the mechanism for terminating the services of Gramsevaks who are involved in corrupt practices along with the Panchayat leaders as the corrupt practices are at the root of poor implementation of district level planning. While returning from Patna, I had an opportunity to one such story where a resident of district Munger and co-traveller on Upper India Express on December 2,2009 told his stories of suffering at the hand of Gramsevak who was demanding money for handing over the cheque to his wife, working at a primary school. He informed that he had made written submission to the district collector in Janta Darbar held at the district office ,but till now, he has not been able to get the cheque for his wife. According to him, people in the village around the Gramsevak are also not listening to his woes. He was happy to learn that vigilance officers could be of help. I shared with him my experience in Mewat where in the month of April, NGO and madarsa leaders filed affidavits exposing the bribe taking of an assistant project coordinator for the Alternative Education Centres and Vocational Centers that were being run then for out of school children and an FIR was filed by Mr. Balraj Singh Mor , ADC cum Chairman SSA with active support from CR Rana, IAS , the District Collector and Mr.P.Raghavendra Rao, the State Project Director, SSA, Haryana. Districts, blocks and habitation are significants locations for planning and implementation of the programmes and therefore , there is a need to ensure corruption free implementation of the programme at the village ,block and district levels. Having noted these, I would like to share my responses for the queries as noted below" 1. What are the various tools and methodologies used in India or other countries to assess vulnerability to Climate Change at the village level? Referring to the planning process, I would like to note that community involvement needs to be maximised for what I would like to propose Community based ecostrategic planning (CBEP) recognising the ecological costs of the development processes, accounting for the unpaid labour of women, acknowledging the interests of children in 40th century considering the limits of 5-20 years vision documents,assuming that generation of the ecologically hostile speculative and usurious money responsible for expansion of ecologically hostile and energy intensive urban habitats is halted and ecologically safe life support systems are protected and preserved and noting the need to inform the community about the peak oil and climate change. Center for Ecological Audit,Social Inclusion and Governance, Delhi has proposed a new discipline http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/annoucing-a-new-disciple-of-ecostrategicsthat can be referred for the further appreciating the rationale for this. Community based ecostrategic planning process could then be upscaled for the sub-district /block level planning. Methodologies could include a) Envisioning Exercises for ecologically safe future, b)Sustainability Analysis of the Consumption , Production, Transport and Habitats patterns through establishing distinction between the renewable and non-renewable resouce based consumption,production,leisure,transport and habitats,c) Carbon-neutral Discussions on carbon-neutral consumption, production and transport after the exhaustion of the fossil fuel, a presentation can be seen at http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/carbon-neutral-neighbourhood-discussionsconsultations-for-ecological-audit-neighbourhood-and-personal-processes-for-personal-and-social-wellbeing-and-countering-climate-changed) Learning Forums for carbon-neutral village level processes for mitigating climate change e) Evaluation Exercises for external inputs that are critical for survival of the village population and f) Discussion on inter-faith commons that could be useful for transformatory consumption ,production,transport,finance system,habitats that are vital for ensuring the children have ecologically safe, socially cohesive,equitable and harmonious future local,nationally and globally. http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/mitigation-of-climate-change-through-adoption-of-interfaith-monotheistic-islamic-commons For making these planning meaningful, it is important to ensure that village level panchayat workers such as Ward Members, Mukhiyas and Sarpanches are paid for their time spent in the planning and implementation processes. More often than not, it is absence for honorarium that is cited as reason by some of the Mukhiyas and Wardmembers in the Panchayat for taking bribes for signing bills and vouchers. According to Jahanbeer, a resident of Madarsa Tola, Kishandaspur in Kahalgaon block CDPO collects Rs.1500 and ward members are demanding money from the ICDS worker there in the village.It is important to ensure that ward members and mukhiyas are made honest mediators and ecostrategic community based planners with due compensation for thier work With best wishes and warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Arivudai Nambi wrote: > *Moderators Note: **Dear Members, this query is now closed. We thank > you for your response. Responses received hereafter will be included in the > Consolidated Reply as off-line contribution.* > > > > > > Dear Members, > > > > *1.* The fact is that there is no universally accepted and time tested > methodology available right now to assess climate vulnerability at the local > level. We used the Participatory Vulnerability Assessment methodology (a > tailor made version of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) focusing on > climate related components) for the vulnerability and adaptation (V&A) > project during the situation analysis phase. This methodology was first used > in Mozambique by a local NGO. > > > > We also used a bit of focus group/semi-structured interviews, resource/ > hazard mapping, ranking, seasonal calendar, historical timeline and > narrative history techniques. > > > > Tools like CRiSTAL (developed by IUCN) has some community related > assessment component. But this is designed to assess the on-going > multilateral and bilateral projects for climate proofing. For more > information on CRiSTAL and its application, please visit > http://www.cristaltool.org/ or > http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/brochure_cristal.pdf [PDF; Size: 478 KB]. > > > > *2.* Capacity to assess climate risks *per se* has not been found at any > level in India, let alone sub-district level. Currently, at the sub-district > level the responsibility of assessing any damage rests with *Tashildar*. > The agriculture related risks are supposed to be assessed by the respective > extension officers. But they do not have adequate training in this aspect. > It should be a group effort with the participation of some of the experts > from IMD regional centres and the agricultural meteorology experts from > local agricultural universities. > > > > Under the V&A project we did a scoping exercise of the available curriculum > offered by National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) > in Hyderabad and to our surprise we didn?t find any terminology related to > Climate Change in the modules. We reworked the modules to introduce the > Climate Change subject. > > > > Regards, > > > > Arivudai Nambi, > > M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, > > Chennai > > > ------------------------------ > > * * > > *Original Query:* > > * * > > *From:* Ruchi Pant [mailto:ruchi.pant at undp.org] > *Sent:* Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:49 PM > *To:* 'Climate Change Community, Decentralization Community' > *Subject:* [se-clmt][se-decn] QUERY: Climate Change Vulnerability > Assessment and District Plans-Examples; Referrals. Reply by 30 November 2009 > > > > *Click for Hindi Versionof the Query > * > > * * > > *Moderator?s note: **Dear members, Along with the Decentralization > Community, we are posting a new query by UNDP, Governance Unit. This is an > important area as developing countries would have to adapt more to climate > change impacts rather than being able to mitigate them for which the > development of a vulnerability assessment methodology is crucial, > particularly at the village/ panchayat level. It is also important to > consider this in the ongoing process of District Plan preparation. We seek > you inputs so that appropriate district level plans could be prepared for > all districts of the country. Members can go through the Hindi Versionof the query and may send us their responses in Hindi as well. > * > > > > > > Dear Members, > > > > UNDP as part of the Government of India (GoI)? UN Joint Programme on > Convergence is providing support to the government at the national, state, > district and sub-district levels to strengthen the integrated decentralized > participatory planning process by fostering convergence for the achievement > of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The GoI? UN Joint Programme on > Convergence is being implemented in 5 districts each in the 7 UN focus > states: Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, > Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. > > > > The UNDP component aims to develop capacities of the district planning > authorities and local governments by providing expertise in specific focus > areas such as *Climate Change, disaster risk management, public private > community partnerships, skill development, HIV/AIDS, *etc. The project > also aims to develop capacities by demonstrating replicable approaches to > inclusive planning and monitoring. Further, lessons from various > interventions will contribute to the fine? tuning of the Planning > Commission?s guidelines and manual on District Planning. > > > > To fulfil the above mentioned mandate of the programme, we seek the > following inputs from members: > > > > *1. *What are the various tools and methodologies used in India or > other countries to assess vulnerability to Climate Change at the village > level? > > *2. *What institutions/ experts have capacity to assess climate risks > at sub-district level and provide timely advice to District Planning > Committees? > > > > We hope this will strengthen the decentralized planning process and help > the planners incorporate Climate Change related risks in the plans. Once > successfully demonstrated, these tools and methodologies will find a place > in the District Planning Manual of the Government of India. > > > > Thanks and regards, > > > > Ruchi Pant,salam to you > > Governance Programme, > > UNDP, New Delhi > > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 13:24:07 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 12:24:07 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] States of Crises Message-ID: <005901ca777b$66bc2710$34347530$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While college students may view this as a catastrophe, I view it as recognition of the end of corporate control over education as this will force millions to design their own curriculum as I have done. The focus today must be on "self-realization" and not on serving those who would keep us as wage slaves. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 2:44 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] States of Crises States of Crises California's problems with skyrocketing college tuition are a sign of things to come nationwide. http://www.newsweek.com/id/225648 By Kevin Carey | Newsweek Web Exclusive Dec 4, 2009 Whether you're an oppressive foreign dictatorship or an American state in the process of committing fiscal suicide, you know you're losing the public relations battle when encounters between armor-clad riot police with truncheons and college students are broadcast on TV. That's the sad situation California found itself in last week, after the University of California Board of Regents announced a staggering 32 percent midsemester tuition hike. Students responded by demonstrating, chanting, and occupying administration buildings. Things got unruly, law enforcement was called, and within hours it was every spin doctor's nightmare, replayed endlessly on YouTube and cable news. As is often the case, California is leading a national trend. Higher education is becoming less affordable across the country every year. If states and universities don't make major structural changes in the way they operate, anger and frustration could start to boil over nationwide. The UC tuition crisis is a symptom of the larger collapse of governance in the Golden State. It takes two thirds of both houses in the state General Assembly to raise taxes, while new spending programs can be created by public referendum. Tax dollars are too hard to raise and too easy to spend, leaving the state lurching from one budget crisis to the next. The young men and women rushing to the barricades on UC campuses are Ronald Reagan's children, victims of a failed antigovernment movement that managed to turn people against taxes while leaving their appetite for public services unchecked. The pattern has been repeated in state after state over the past 30 years, even in places that raise and spend money in a normal way. Every time a recession hits, tax-frightened state legislators raise revenue by cutting university budgets disproportionately and allowing tuition to make up the difference, a back-door levy that hits poor and middle-class students the hardest. New York State, for example, is following California's lead with severe cuts to its public universities. A recent report from the College Board shows the result: In the 1980s, tuition at public universities increased by 3 percent above inflation, on average, every year. In the 1990s, the after-inflation increase jumped to 4 percent. By the 2000s, it was nearly 5 percent. The price of college is growing faster than family income, GDP, and even the health-care costs that are threatening to break the public treasury. And those numbers were compiled before the huge price hikes in California and elsewhere. As a result, more students are borrowing more money for college than ever before, and loan default rates have increased sharply in just the last two years. Increasingly, low-income students are getting priced out of four-year universities and forced into lower-cost community colleges-or out of higher education altogether. And while legislators deserve their share of blame, colleges themselves also bear some responsibility for out-of-control tuition. In a mad dash for fame and status, they have spent billions of dollars on new buildings, Division I sports teams, so-called "merit" scholarships (which often go to wealthy students), and expensive marketing campaigns. According the NCAA, typical big-time college athletic departments lose $8 million per year, money that has to be made up from other sources, such as tuition. Even as state revenues decline, college spending is trending upward, and students are being asked to fill the growing gap. Colleges argue that there's nothing they can do about this, because they work in an industry that depends heavily on skilled, expensive labor. But it's perfectly possible for higher education to do what scores of other industries have done: use technology to improve service quality while simultaneously lowering costs. Indeed, hundreds of colleges have already taken this step, using system-redesign techniques pioneered by a nonprofit organization called the National Center for Academic Transformation. Rote lectures are being replaced by computer-supported courses in which students learn at their own pace with the help of graduate students and tutors. The NCAT has found that at many of those institutions, learning results are up and costs are down. SUBSCRIBE sp_inline_article_subscriptionClick Here to subscribe to NEWSWEEK and save up to 88% > The problem is that these reforms haven't spread quickly or widely enough, and where they have, the savings haven't ended up in the pockets of students in the form of lower prices. In a normal industry, this would create a fertile environment for new competition. But higher education isn't normal, with high start-up costs (libraries and football stadiums are expensive) and government regulations (new universities have to go through a lengthy, bureaucratic accreditation process in order to access public funds) that limit the number of competitors who can enter the market. Some industries are dominated by companies that didn't exist when the first George Bush was president. The richest, most influential colleges were well established when George Washington was president. All of this creates an unsustainable trend, and the economy is still struggling to recover from the last time California was at the forefront of a debt-fueled industry that tried to defy the laws of pricing gravity. If we don't want to see college education added to home ownership on the list of broken American dreams, states and universities are going to have to do business in a very different way. States will need to start setting aside money during good times for the inevitable rainy day. And they'll need to make higher education a bigger priority. Over the last 30 years, about the only thing in California that has grown as fast as college tuition is spending on the state's vast network of new prisons. At the same time, it has let the best public university system in the world crumble. Colleges and universities will need to join the rest of society in the 21st century in utilizing advances in information technology. The alternative is unacceptable: that lower public investment, higher costs, and skyrocketing tuitions will turn public universities from engines of social mobility into enclaves of privilege. That's the possibility students in California are fighting against. Everyone who believes in the promise of public education should be on their side. Carey Is The Policy Director Of Education Sector, A Nonpartisan Think Tank In Washington, D.C. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 15:01:27 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 14:01:27 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods Message-ID: <006a01ca7788$ffc63d80$ff52b880$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS If this doesn't make you want to begin eating fresh whole mainly raw foods and move way, way, away from processed foods, then I don't know what would. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 12:18 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods By Brad Reed, AlterNet. Posted December 6, 2009. http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/144395/the_6_weirdest%2C_scariest_pro cessed_foods?page=entire Once upon a time, some brave scientists had a noble dream of ridding our food of the plague of nutrients. Today, at the start of the 21st century, the miracle of food processing has brought that dream closer to reality than ever before. From vitamin-free "blueberry bits" to spray-can cheese to avocado-free guacamole, food scientists have worked tirelessly to bring us new and exciting foods that contain as little nutrition as possible. Even apparently "healthy" foods such as soups have been ingeniously overloaded with so much salt you feel as if you?re eating French fries. In this article, we?ll provide a handy guide to six uniquely unnatural processed foods that will hopefully serve as a blueprint for humanity?s eventual triumph over the tyrannical fist of Mother Nature. 1. Spray-Can 'Easy Cheese' Dipping a butter knife into a tub of cheese spread and putting it on a cracker takes a lot of time and effort. Thankfully for all of us, the wizards at Kraft have developed a product that ensures we?ll never again run the risk of hurting our wrists trying to spread processed cheese. Kraft?s Easy Cheese cans combine the soulless tastelessness of its cheese products with the convenience and simplicity of whipped cream cans. The most interesting aspect of Easy Cheese is its remarkable consistency. Normally, cheese comes in a solid state when kept at room temperature and only becomes liquid when melted at high temperatures. Easy Cheese, on the other hand, has a Goldilocks-like "not too solid, not too viscous" quality that makes it easy to spread on food without having it drip on your clothing. According to an expos? in Wired magazine, Easy Cheese achieves this amazing texture by containing lots of unhealthy crap, such as the stain-removing chemical trisodium phosphate and a healthy dose of canola oil that keeps the cheese from solidifying. Oh, and they also load Easy Cheese with about twice the amount of salt you'd normally find in natural cheddar cheese. But the best ingredient in Easy Cheese is calcium phosphate, which is used as a calcium supplement. "But wait," you say. "Why does a cheese product need calcium added artificially?" Well, as Wired speculates, the sodium phosphate could actually negate the calcium in the natural cheese. Thus, Kraft had to put in an additive that would make up for the calcium that's taken away through food processing. Genius! 2. Oreo Cookie Death Filling It?s rare to encounter a food that makes you say, "If only this were as healthy as frosting!" And yet, the filling in Oreo cookies manages to accomplish just that. You see, typical frosting is made mostly from butter, milk, sugar and vanilla extract. No one will ever accuse it of being good for you, but at least you're eating fairly natural fats. Oreo stuffing, on the other hand, is basically sugar-flavored Crisco. Seriously, that?s what you?re consuming when you eat an Oreo. Oreos' death filling is so bad it even inspired an ill-fated lawsuit in California a few years back that tried to stop the sale of Oreos to children. While the suit was eventually dropped, it did introduce trans fats to the public consciousness and helped spearhead the campaign to make food companies indicate on their labels whether their products contained any trans fats, so it wasn?t a total waste. That said, I think the best way to stop people from eating Oreos wouldn?t be to ban them outright but to force Kraft to rebrand them to reflect their actual ingredients. So let?s say you mandate that Kraft label its cookies "Criscoroes" and have the package depict a kid gorging himself in a tub of vegetable shortening. Yum! 3. Condensed Soups Ah, soup. It?s the food mom used to feed us when we were sick. Every child has fond memories of being nursed back to health by sipping at the warm, nutritious broth of chicken noodle soup. Of course, mom probably didn?t realize at the time that she was setting you up for a future of high blood pressure and kidney failure. Because if she fed you condensed soup from a can, she was loading your young body up with insanely high amounts of sodium. How insanely high, you ask? Well, consider that a mere half-cup of Campbell?s Vegetable Soup contains a heart-stopping 890 mg of sodium, or roughly 37 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. But wait, there?s more! The typical Campbell?s soup can contains one-and-a-half cups of soup, meaning that one can of soup contains more than 90 percent of your daily recommended sodium intake. To be fair to Campbell?s, it does have a "Healthy Request" brand of soup that contains roughly half the salt of Campbell's other soups. Still, one of soup?s supposed key virtues is that it isn?t a cheeseburger. In other words, when you buy a bowl of soup you shouldn?t have to "request" a healthy version of it. 4. Spam Spam was really a major miracle of food science, as it solved a mystery that humanity had been trying for centuries to figure out: namely, how to make meat-flavored Jell-O. Developed in the 1930s, Spam is derived primarily from pork shoulder meat (seriously) and combined with water, sugar, sodium nitrate (of course) and copious amounts of salt. The result is a meat-like goo that derives 80 percent of its calories from fat and that delivers a whopping 790 mg of sodium per two-ounce serving. Spam first hit the big-time during World War II when its highly preserved state made it the ideal food to feed to our protein-needy soldiers fighting over in Europe. Now there's a fine tribute to our fighting boys! Thanks for risking your butts against the Nazis, fellas, now here?s a mound of pork slime! When you think about it, it?s remarkable that more of our troops didn?t defect to the German army, which assuredly would have offered them generous helpings of bratwurst, knockwurst and schweineschnitzel in exchange for changing sides. The fact that Americans bravely suffered through Spam prior to fighting the Battle of the Bulge adds yet another heroic chapter to the Greatest Generation?s legacy. 5. Artificially Flavored Blueberry Bits Frozen waffles are fairly non-nutritious. Indeed, the only real way to get any sort of vitamins in your waffles each morning is to buy blueberry waffles that contain . But, hang on! It turns out those aren?t blueberries at all! They?re more like well, just what are they? An apt description would be "purple globs of sugary goo," but they?re actually called "artificially flavored blueberry bits." Their ingredients include sugar, dextrose, soybean oil, soy protein, salt, citric acid, cellulose gum, artificial flavor, malic acid, Red 40 Lake, Blue 2 Lake and that?s it. Notice anything missing? Oh yeah: blueberries! For a long time, companies such as Aunt Jemima parent Pinnacle Foods were able to get away with implying that these little unfruity lumps were actual blueberries, as the box for Aunt Jemima?s blueberry waffles had pictures of actual blueberries strewn across it. But the threat of a lawsuit from Center for Science in the Public Interest made Pinnacle decide to tell people that their waffles didn?t contain any actual blueberries. What makes the development of fake blueberries so exciting is the number of possibilities it opens up for other fake fruits. Picture artificial strawberry strips, made mostly of bacon and high-fructose corn syrup. Or perhaps artificial melon mounds made of solidified vegetable oil and dextrose monohydrate. Or the coup de grace, artificial artificial blueberry bits, made with NutraSweet and artificial soy protein. Not one natural ingredient, baby! Kraft?s Avocado-Free Guacamole This right here may be the pinnacle of processed food magic. Kraft has managed to make a food product without an actual main ingredient, akin to tomato-free tomato sauce or potato-free baked potato. Yes, there are no avocados in Kraft?s guacamole. Then what is it made of, you ask? How about some modified food starch, coconut and soybean oils, corn syrup, food coloring in other words, you?re eating green-colored oil. As with a lot of phony processed foods, the avocado-free guacamole compelled somebody to sue the product?s manufacturer for false advertising. In this case, California resident Brenda Lifsey got upset because she thought Kraft?s guacamole "didn?t taste avocadoey." She then looked at the ingredients, and lo and behold, "there was almost no avocado in it." Kraft?s response to Lifsey?s lawsuit was a masterwork of poor corporate spin, as a company spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times, "We think customers understand that it isn't made from avocado." Well actually, no. Customers tend to buy guacamole with the understanding that it will be made from, oh, I don?t know, avocados. This is akin to a Viagra spokesperson saying, "We think customers understand that our pills won?t really give them erections." For the record, Kraft is no longer selling congealed green oil as "guacamole" but rather as "guacamole-flavored dip." It?s an improvement, I suppose, though I think somebody should file a suit against Kraft that prevents the company from ever again describing its products as "foods." From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 15:46:39 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 14:46:39 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Absolutely Must Read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican? Message-ID: <007201ca778f$4ca96900$e5fc3b00$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS It's about time the Vatican and the Holy Roman Catholic Church came under scrutiny. I have called before and I call again for the archives of this Secret Society that has sought to rule the world since Roman times be revealed so that all may see the duplicity of this organization which represents itself as a spokesperson for God. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 10:27 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican? Sex Crimes Cover-Up By Vatican? Secret Document Told Bishops To Conceal Allegations Against Priests LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2003 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/06/eveningnews/main566978.shtml By Dan Collins (CBS) For decades, priests in this country abused children in parish after parish while their superiors covered it all up. Now it turns out the orders for this cover up were written in Rome at the highest levels of the Vatican. CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales has uncovered a church document kept secret for 40 years. The confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests - anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church. The policy was written in 1962 by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani. The document, once "stored in the secret archives" of the Vatican, focuses on crimes initiated as part of the confessional relationship and what it calls the "worst crime": sexual assault committed by a priest" or "attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals." Bishops are instructed to pursue these cases "in the most secretive way...restrained by a perpetual silence...and everyone {including the alleged victim) ...is to observe the strictest secret, which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office...under the penalty of excommunication." Larry Drivon, a lawyer who represents alleged victims, said, "This document is significant because it's a blueprint for deception." Drivon said this proves what he has alleged on behalf of victims in priest-abuse lawsuits: that the church engaged in a crime - racketeering. "It's an instruction manual on how to deceive and how to protect pedophiles," Drivon said. "And exactly how to avoid the truth coming out." The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the document is being taken out of context, that it's a church law that deals only with religious crimes and sins. And that the secrecy is meant to protect the faithful from scandal. "The idea that this is some sort of blueprint to keep this secret is simply wrong," said Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the Conference. "This is a system of law which is complete in itself and is not telling the bishops in any way about how to handle these crimes when they are considered as civil crimes," Maniscalco said. But Richard Sipe, a former priest who has written about sex abuse and secrecy in the church, said the document sends a chilling message. "This is the code for how you must deal with sex by priests. You keep it secret at all costs," Sipe said. "And that's what's happened. It's happened in every diocese in this country." According to church records, the document was a bedrock of Catholic sex abuse policy until America's bishops met last summer and drafted new policies to address the crisis in the church. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 16:34:03 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 15:34:03 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Senate Bill 1619: Livable Communities Act of 2009 Message-ID: <007c01ca7795$edb44fd0$c91cef70$@net> Thanks for sending this Deki. This is good news. Do hope things are well with you. From: DekiFox at aol.com [mailto:DekiFox at aol.com] Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 5:38 AM To: DekiFox at aol.com Cc: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Senate Bill 1619: Livable Communities Act of 2009 FYI ~ http://www.planning.org/apaadvocate/2009/oct27.htm SENATE LIVABLE COMMUNITIES BILL AUTHORIZES PLANNING GRANTS A new Senate bill ( SB 1619) introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut would provide a multi-year authorization for sustainability planning grants, according to the American Planning Association Advocate. {{NOTE APA is an interesting hybrid organization working from within the existing infrastructure to effect results similar to many of us here on the list who seem to have little patience for existing structures. Nonetheless, I read the APA's statement on mission, vision, values http://www.planning.org/_offsite/capwiz.htm , as well as ethics http://www.planning.org/_offsite/capwiz.htm , and found common ground. }} The bill reinforces the efforts of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The three agencies teamed up earlier this year to promote smarter development patterns and increase cooperation between the agencies. The article notes that the Livable Communities Act of 2009 includes: Incentives for regional comprehensive planning. The bill authorizes $400 million over four years to help regions develop plans that link transportation, housing, community and economic development, and environmental needs. Funding to implement sustainable development projects. Through challenge grants, communities could seek funding to implement key projects contained in regional plans. This new capital fund source would focus on affordable housing, transit-oriented development, transit, bike-ped projects, and brownfield and infill redevelopment. The bill calls for $3.75 billion over three years. Assistance for regional livability initiatives. The legislation ensures that federal agencies are a supportive partner in regional planning by establishing critical research and technical assistance capacities. A new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities would become a resource for best practices and technical assistance. An interagency council on sustainable communities. This group would bring together a variety of agencies to coordinate federal policy, research, training, and funding. The council would also identify barriers to sustainable development and promote linking transportation, housing, environmental, and energy policies. A companion House bill is expected to be introduced soon. Senate Bill 1619: Livable Communities Act of 2009 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1619: S.1619 Title: A bill to establish the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, to establish the Interagency Council on Sustainable Communities, to establish a comprehensive planning grant program, to establish a sustainability challenge grant program, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Dodd, Christopher J. [CT] (introduced 8/6/2009) Cosponsors (7) Latest Major Action: 8/6/2009 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. _____ COSPONSORS(7), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date) Sen Akaka, Daniel K. [HI] - 8/6/2009 Sen Bennet, Michael F. [CO] - 8/6/2009 Sen Harkin, Tom [IA] - 11/6/2009 Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] - 10/27/2009 Sen Menendez, Robert [NJ] - 8/6/2009 Sen Merkley, Jeff [OR] - 8/6/2009 Sen Schumer, Charles E. [NY] - 8/6/2009 Deki Fox Lake Geneva, Wisconsin I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. ~George Bernard Shaw -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 17:08:05 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:08:05 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Must Read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Manufactured Doubt Industry and the Hacked Email Controversy Message-ID: <008f01ca779a$d88145a0$8983d0e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS The Manufactured Doubt Industry uses the same type of tactics that the Republicans, Libertarians, Patriots, Constutionalists and Christian Right have used to undermine the Presidency of Barak Obama. Here we learn why this type of campaign is both so very effective and so dangerous to our freedom. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 12:02 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Manufactured Doubt Industry and the Hacked Email Controversy The Manufactured Doubt Industry and the Hacked Email Controversy Published on Monday, December 7, 2009 by Weather Underground http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1389 by Jeff Masters In 1954, the tobacco industry realized it had a serious problem. Thirteen scientific studies had been published over the preceding five years linking smoking to lung cancer. With the public growing increasingly alarmed about the health effects of smoking, the tobacco industry had to move quickly to protect profits and stem the tide of increasingly worrisome scientific news. Big Tobacco turned to one the world's five largest public relations firms, Hill and Knowlton, to help out. Hill and Knowlton designed a brilliant Public Relations (PR) campaign to convince the public that smoking is not dangerous. They encouraged the tobacco industry to set up their own research organization, the Council for Tobacco Research (CTR), which would produce science favorable to the industry, emphasize doubt in all the science linking smoking to lung cancer, and question all independent research unfavorable to the tobacco industry. The CTR did a masterful job at this for decades, significantly delaying and reducing regulation of tobacco products. George Washington University epidemiologist David Michaels, who is President Obama's nominee to head the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), wrote a meticulously researched 2008 book called, Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health. In the book, he wrote: "the industry understood that the public is in no position to distinguish good science from bad. Create doubt, uncertainty, and confusion. Throw mud at the anti-smoking research under the assumption that some of it is bound to stick. And buy time, lots of it, in the bargain". The title of Michaels' book comes from a 1969 memo from a tobacco company executive: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy". Hill and Knowlton, on behalf of the tobacco industry, had founded the "Manufactured Doubt" industry. The Manufactured Doubt industry grows up As the success of Hill and Knowlton's brilliant Manufactured Doubt campaign became apparent, other industries manufacturing dangerous products hired the firm to design similar PR campaigns. In 1967, Hill and Knowlton helped asbestos industry giant Johns-Manville set up the Asbestos Information Association (AIA). The official-sounding AIA produced "sound science" that questioned the link between asbestos and lung diseases (asbestos currently kills 90,000 people per year, according to the World Health Organization). Manufacturers of lead, vinyl chloride, beryllium, and dioxin products also hired Hill and Knowlton to devise product defense strategies to combat the numerous scientific studies showing that their products were harmful to human health. By the 1980s, the Manufactured Doubt industry gradually began to be dominated by more specialized "product defense" firms and free enterprise "think tanks". Michaels wrote in Doubt is Their Product about the specialized "product defense" firms: "Having cut their teeth manufacturing uncertainty for Big Tobacco, scientists at ChemRisk, the Weinberg Group, Exponent, Inc., and other consulting firms now battle the regulatory agencies on behalf of the manufacturers of benzene, beryllium, chromium, MTBE, perchlorates, phthalates, and virtually every other toxic chemical in the news today....Public health interests are beside the point. This is science for hire, period, and it is extremely lucrative". Joining the specialized "product defense" firms were the so-called "think tanks". These front groups received funding from manufacturers of dangerous products and produced "sound science" in support of their funders' products, in the name of free enterprise and free markets. Think tanks such as the George C. Marshall Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heartland Institute, and Dr. Fred Singer's SEPP (Science and Environmental Policy Project) have all been active for decades in the Manufactured Doubt business, generating misleading science and false controversy to protect the profits of their clients who manufacture dangerous products. The ozone hole battle In 1975, the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) industry realized it had a serious problem. The previous year, Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina, chemists at the University of California, Irvine, had published a scientific paper warning that human-generated CFCs could cause serious harm to Earth's protective ozone layer. They warned that the loss of ozone would significantly increase the amount of skin-damaging ultraviolet UV-B light reaching the surface, greatly increasing skin cancer and cataracts. The loss of stratospheric ozone could also significantly cool the stratosphere, potentially causing destructive climate change. Although no stratospheric ozone loss had been observed yet, CFCs should be banned, they said. The CFC industry hired Hill and Knowlton to fight back. As is essential in any Manufactured Doubt campaign, Hill and Knowlton found a respected scientist to lead the effort--noted British scientist Richard Scorer, a former editor of the International Journal of Air Pollution and author of several books on pollution. In 1975, Scorer went on a month-long PR tour, blasting Molina and Rowland, calling them "doomsayers", and remarking, "The only thing that has been accumulated so far is a number of theories." To complement Scorer's efforts, Hill and Knowlton unleashed their standard package of tricks learned from decades of serving the tobacco industry: * Launch a public relations campaign disputing the evidence. * Predict dire economic consequences, and ignore the cost benefits. * Use non-peer reviewed scientific publications or industry-funded scientists who don't publish original peer-reviewed scientific work to support your point of view. * Trumpet discredited scientific studies and myths supporting your point of view as scientific fact. * Point to the substantial scientific uncertainty, and the certainty of economic loss if immediate action is taken. * Use data from a local area to support your views, and ignore the global evidence. * Disparage scientists, saying they are playing up uncertain predictions of doom in order to get research funding. * Disparage environmentalists, claiming they are hyping environmental problems in order to further their ideological goals. * Complain that it is unfair to require regulatory action in the U.S., as it would put the nation at an economic disadvantage compared to the rest of the world. * Claim that more research is needed before action should be taken. * Argue that it is less expensive to live with the effects. The campaign worked, and CFC regulations were delayed many years, as Hill and Knowlton boasted in internal documents. The PR firm also took credit for keeping public opinion against buying CFC aerosols to a minimum, and helping change the editorial positions of many newspapers. In the end, Hill and Knowlton's PR campaign casting doubt on the science of ozone depletion by CFCs turned out to have no merit. Molina and Rowland were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1995. The citation from the Nobel committee credited them with helping to deliver the Earth from a potential environmental disaster. The battle over global warming In 1988, the fossil fuel industry realized it had a serious problem. The summer of 1988 had shattered century-old records for heat and drought in the U.S., and NASA's Dr. James Hansen, one of the foremost climate scientists in the world, testified before Congress that human-caused global warming was partially to blame. A swelling number of scientific studies were warning of the threat posed by human-cause climate change, and that consumption of fossil fuels needed to slow down. Naturally, the fossil fuel industry fought back. They launched a massive PR campaign that continues to this day, led by the same think tanks that worked to discredit the ozone depletion theory. The George C. Marshall Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heartland Institute, and Dr. Fred Singer's SEPP (Science and Environmental Policy Project) have all been key players in both fights, and there are numerous other think tanks involved. Many of the same experts who had worked hard to discredit the science of the well-established link between cigarette smoke and cancer, the danger the CFCs posed to the ozone layer, and the dangers to health posed by a whole host of toxic chemicals, were now hard at work to discredit the peer-reviewed science supporting human-caused climate change. As is the case with any Manufactured Doubt campaign, a respected scientist was needed to lead the battle. One such scientist was Dr. Frederick Seitz, a physicist who in the 1960s chaired the organization many feel to be the most prestigious science organization in the world--the National Academy of Sciences. Seitz took a position as a paid consultant for R.J. Reynolds tobacco company beginning in 1978, so was well-versed in the art of Manufactured Doubt. According to the excellent new book, Climate Cover-up, written by desmogblog.com co-founder James Hoggan and Richard Littlemore, over a 10-year period Seitz was responsible for handing out $45 million in tobacco company money to researchers who overwhelmingly failed to link tobacco to anything the least bit negative. Seitz received over $900,000 in compensation for his efforts. He later became a founder of the George C. Marshall Institute, and used his old National Academy of Sciences affiliation to lend credibility to his attacks on global warming science until his death in 2008 at the age of ninety-six. It was Seitz who launched the "Oregon Petition", which contains the signatures of more than 34,000 scientists saying global warming is probably natural and not a crisis. The petition is a regular feature of the Manufactured Doubt campaign against human-caused global warming. The petition lists the "Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine" as its parent organization. According to Climate Cover-up, the Institute is a farm shed situated a couple of miles outside of Cave Junction, OR (population 17,000). The Institute lists seven faculty members, two of whom are dead, and has no ongoing research and no students. It publishes creationist-friendly homeschooler curriculums books on surviving nuclear war. The petition was sent to scientists and was accompanied by a 12-page review printed in exactly the same style used for the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A letter from Seitz, who is prominently identified as a former National Academy of Sciences president, accompanied the petition and review. Naturally, many recipients took this to be an official National Academy of Sciences communication, and signed the petition as a result. The National Academy issued a statement in April 2008, clarifying that it had not issued the petition, and that its position on global warming was the opposite. The petition contains no contact information for the signers, making it impossible to verify. In its August 2006 issue, Scientific American presented its attempt to verify the petition. They found that the scientists were almost all people with undergraduate degrees, with no record of research and no expertise in climatology. Scientific American contacted a random sample of 26 of the 1,400 signatories claiming to have a Ph.D. in a climate related science. Eleven said they agreed with the petition, six said they would not sign the petition today, three did not remember the petition, one had died, and five did not respond. I could say much more about the Manufactured Doubt campaign being waged against the science of climate change and global warming, but it would fill an entire book. In fact, it has, and I recommend reading Climate Cover-up to learn more. The main author, James Hoggan, owns a Canadian public relations firm, and is intimately familiar with how public relations campaigns work. Suffice to say, the Manufactured Doubt campaign against global warming--funded by the richest corporations in world history--is probably the most extensive and expensive such effort ever. We don't really know how much money the fossil fuel industry has pumped into its Manufactured Doubt campaign, since they don't have to tell us. The website exxonsecrets.org estimates that ExxonMobil alone spent $20 million between 1998 - 2007 on the effort. An analysis done by Desmogblog's Kevin Grandia done in January 2009 found that skeptical global warming content on the web had doubled over the past year. Someone is paying for all that content. Lobbyists, not skeptical scientists The history of the Manufactured Doubt industry provides clear lessons in evaluating the validity of their attacks on the published peer-reviewed climate change science. One should trust that the think tanks and allied "skeptic" bloggers such as Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit and Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That will give information designed to protect the profits of the fossil fuel industry. Yes, there are respected scientists with impressive credentials that these think tanks use to voice their views, but these scientists have given up their objectivity and are now working as lobbyists. I don't like to call them skeptics, because all good scientists should be skeptics. Rather, the think tanks scientists are contrarians, bent on discrediting an accepted body of published scientific research for the benefit of the richest and most powerful corporations in history. Virtually none of the "sound science" they are pushing would ever get published in a serious peer-reviewed scientific journal, and indeed the contrarians are not scientific researchers. They are lobbyists. Many of them seem to believe their tactics are justified, since they are fighting a righteous war against eco-freaks determined to trash the economy. I will give a small amount of credit to some of their work, however. I have at times picked up some useful information from the contrarians, and have used it to temper my blogs to make them more balanced. For example, I no longer rely just on the National Climatic Data Center for my monthly climate summaries, but instead look at data from NASA and the UK HADCRU source as well. When the Hurricane Season of 2005 brought unfounded claims that global warming was to blame for Hurricane Katrina, and a rather flawed paper by researchers at Georgia Tech showing a large increase in global Category 4 and 5 hurricanes, I found myself agreeing with the contrarians' analysis of the matter, and my blogs at the time reflected this. The contrarians and the hacked CRU emails A hacker broke into an email server at the Climate Research Unit of the UK's University of East Anglia last week and posted ten years worth of private email exchanges between leading scientists who've published research linking humans to climate change. Naturally, the contrarians have seized upon this golden opportunity, and are working hard to discredit several of these scientists. You'll hear claims by some contrarians that the emails discovered invalidate the whole theory of human-caused global warming. Well, all I can say is, consider the source. We can trust the contrarians to say whatever is in the best interests of the fossil fuel industry. What I see when I read the various stolen emails and explanations posted at Realclimate.org is scientists acting as scientists--pursuing the truth. I can see no clear evidence that calls into question the scientific validity of the research done by the scientists victimized by the stolen emails. There is no sign of a conspiracy to alter data to fit a pre-conceived ideological view. Rather, I see dedicated scientists attempting to make the truth known in face of what is probably the world's most pervasive and best-funded disinformation campaign against science in history. Even if every bit of mud slung at these scientists were true, the body of scientific work supporting the theory of human-caused climate change--which spans hundreds of thousands of scientific papers written by tens of thousands of scientists in dozens of different scientific disciplines--is too vast to be budged by the flaws in the works of the three or four scientists being subject to the fiercest attacks. Exaggerated claims by environmentalists Climate change contrarians regularly complain about false and misleading claims made by ideologically-driven environmental groups regarding climate change, and the heavy lobbying these groups do to influence public opinion. Such efforts confuse the real science and make climate change seem more dangerous than it really is, the contrarians argue. To some extent, these concerns are valid. In particular, environmentalists are too quick to blame any perceived increase in hurricane activity on climate change, when such a link has yet to be proven. While Al Gore's movie mostly had good science, I thought he botched the treatment of hurricanes as well, and the movie looked too much like a campaign ad. In general, environmental groups present better science than the think tanks do, but you're still better off getting your climate information directly from the scientists doing the research, via the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Another good source is Bob Henson's Rough Guide to Climate Change, aimed at people with high-school level science backgrounds. Let's look at the amount of money being spent on lobbying efforts by the fossil fuel industry compared to environmental groups to see their relative influence. According to Center for Public Integrity, there are currently 2,663 climate change lobbyists working on Capitol Hill. That's five lobbyists for every member of Congress. Climate lobbyists working for major industries outnumber those working for environmental, health, and alternative energy groups by more than seven to one. For the second quarter of 2009, here is a list compiled by the Center for Public Integrity of all the oil, gas, and coal mining groups that spent more than $100,000 on lobbying (this includes all lobbying, not just climate change lobbying): Chevron $6,485,000 Exxon Mobil $4,657,000 BP America $4,270,000 ConocoPhillips $3,300,000 American Petroleum Institute $2,120,000 Marathon Oil Corporation $2,110,000 Peabody Investments Corp $1,110,000 Bituminous Coal Operators Association $980,000 Shell Oil Company $950,000 Arch Coal, Inc $940,000 Williams Companies $920,000 Flint Hills Resources $820,000 Occidental Petroleum Corporation $794,000 National Mining Association $770,000 American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity $714,000 Devon Energy $695,000 Sunoco $585,000 Independent Petroleum Association of America $434,000 Murphy Oil USA, Inc $430,000 Peabody Energy $420,000 Rio Tinto Services, Inc $394,000 America's Natural Gas Alliance $300,000 Interstate Natural Gas Association of America $290,000 El Paso Corporation $261,000 Spectra Energy $279,000 National Propane Gas Association $242,000 National Petrochemical & Refiners Association $240,000 Nexen, Inc $230,000 Denbury Resources $200,000 Nisource, Inc $180,000 Petroleum Marketers Association of America $170,000 Valero Energy Corporation $160,000 Bituminous Coal Operators Association $131,000 Natural Gas Supply Association $114,000 Tesoro Companies $119,000 Here are the environmental groups that spent more than $100,000: Environmental Defense Action Fund $937,500 Nature Conservancy $650,000 Natural Resources Defense Council $277,000 Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund $243,000 National Parks and Conservation Association $175,000 Sierra Club $120,000 Defenders of Wildlife $120,000 Environmental Defense Fund $100,000 If you add it all up, the fossil fuel industry outspent the environmental groups by $36.8 million to $2.6 million in the second quarter, a factor of 14 to 1. To be fair, not all of that lobbying is climate change lobbying, but that affects both sets of numbers. The numbers don't even include lobbying money from other industries lobbying against climate change, such as the auto industry, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, etc. Corporate profits vs. corporate social responsibility I'm sure I've left the impression that I disapprove of what the Manufactured Doubt industry is doing. On the contrary, I believe that for the most part, the corporations involved have little choice under the law but to protect their profits by pursuing Manufactured Doubt campaigns, as long as they are legal. The law in all 50 U.S. states has a provision similar to Maine's section 716, "The directors and officers of a corporation shall exercise their powers and discharge their duties with a view to the interest of the corporation and of the shareholders". There is no clause at the end that adds, "...but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, the public safety, the communities in which the corporation operates, or the dignity of employees". The law makes a company's board of directors legally liable for "breach of fiduciary responsibility" if they knowingly manage a company in a way that reduces profits. Shareholders can and have sued companies for being overly socially responsible, and not paying enough attention to the bottom line. We can reward corporations that are managed in a socially responsible way with our business and give them incentives to act thusly, but there are limits to how far Corporate Socially Responsibility (CSR) can go. For example, car manufacturer Henry Ford was successfully sued by stockholders in 1919 for raising the minimum wage of his workers to $5 per day. The courts declared that, while Ford's humanitarian sentiments about his employees were nice, his business existed to make profits for its stockholders. So, what is needed is a fundamental change to the laws regarding the purpose of a corporation, or new regulations forcing corporations to limit Manufactured Doubt campaigns. Legislation has been introduced in Minnesota to create a new section of law for an alternative kind of corporation, the SR (Socially Responsible) corporation, but it would be a long uphill battle to get such legislation passed in all 50 states. Increased regulation limiting Manufactured Doubt campaigns is possible to do for drugs and hazardous chemicals--Doubt is Their Product has some excellent suggestions on that, with the first principle being, "use the best science available; do not demand certainty where it does not and cannot exist". However, I think such legislation would be difficult to implement for environmental crises such as global warming. In the end, we're stuck with the current system, forced to make critical decisions affecting all of humanity in the face of the Frankenstein monster our corporate system of law has created--the most vigorous and well-funded disinformation campaign against science ever conducted. Copyright C 2009 Weather Underground, Inc. Jeff co-founded the Weather Underground in 1995 while working on his Ph.D. He flew with the NOAA Hurricane Hunters from 1986-1990. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 17:34:34 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:34:34 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Another Must Read: FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" (Part I) Message-ID: <009701ca779e$6dfebe70$49fc3b50$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I want to thank Trading Post Paul for the incredible job he does of scouring the Internet for articles of importance and getting them distributed to a broad-based audience. And, of course anything William Engdahl writes is a "do not miss," with this one "Seeds of Destruction" being especially important. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 2:43 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" (Part I) Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" (Part I) Corporate America by Stephen Lendman | January 2, 2008 - 5:59am http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/11853 Bill Engdahl is a leading researcher, economist and analyst of the New World Order who's written on issues of energy, politics and economics for over 30 years. He contributes regularly to publications like Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine, Grant's Investor.com, European Banker and Business Banker International. He's also a frequent speaker at geopolitical, economic and energy related international conferences and is a distinguished Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization where he's a regular contributor. Engdahl also wrote two important books - "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" in 2004. It's an essential history of geopolitics and the importance of oil. Engdahl explains that America's post-WW II dominance rests on two pillars and one commodity - unchallengeable military power and the dollar as the world's reserve currency combined with the quest to control global oil and other energy resources. Engdahl's newest book is just out from the Centre for Research on Globalization. It's a sequel to his first one called "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" and subject of this review. It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and why that prospect is chilling. The book's compelling contents are reviewed below in-depth so readers will know the type future Henry Kissinger had in mind in 1970 when he said: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people." Remember also, this cabal is one of many interconnected ones with fearsome power and ruthless intent to use it - Big Banks controlling the Federal Reserve and our money, Big Oil our world energy resources, Big Media our information, Big Pharma our health, Big Technology our state-of-the-art everything and watching us, Big Defense our wars, Big Pentagon waging them, and other corporate predators exploiting our lives for profit. Engdahl's book focuses brilliantly on one of them. To fully cover its vital contents, this review will be in three parts for more detail and to make it easily digestible. Part I of "Seeds of Destruction" In 2003, Jeffrey Smith's "Seeds of Deception" was published. It exposed the dangers of untested and unregulated genetically engineered foods most people eat every day with no knowledge of the potential health risks. Efforts to inform the public have been quashed, reliable science has been buried, and consider what happened to two distinguished scientists. One was Ignatio Chapela, a microbial ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley. In September, 2001, he was invited to a carefully staged meeting with Fernando Ortiz Monasterio, Mexico's Director of the Commission of Biosafety in Mexico City. The experience left Chapela shaken and angry as he explained. Monasterio attacked him for over an hour. "First he trashed me. He let me know how damaging to the country and how problematic my information was to be." Chapela referred to what he and a UC Berkeley graduate student, David Quist, discovered in 2000 about genetically engineered contamination of Mexican corn in violation of a government ban on these crops in 1998. Corn is sacred in Mexico, the country is home to hundreds of indigenous varieties that crossbreed naturally, and GM contamination is permanent and unthinkable - but it happened by design. Chapela and Quist tested corn varieties in more than a dozen state of Oaxaca communities and discovered 6% of the plants contaminated with GM corn. Oaxaca is in the country's far South so Chapela knew if contamination spread there, it was widespread throughout Mexico. It's unavoidable because NAFTA allows imported US corn with 30% of it at the time genetically modified. Now it's heading for nearly double that amount, and if not contained, it soon could be all of it. The prestigious journal Nature agreed to publish Chapela's findings, Monasterio wanted them quashed, but Chapela refused to comply. As a result, he was intimidated not to do it and threatened with being held responsible for all damages to Mexican agriculture and its economy. He went ahead, nonetheless, and when his article appeared in the publication on November 29, 2001 the smear campaign against him began and intensified. It was later learned that Monsanto was behind it, and the Washington-based Bivings Group PR firm was hired to discredit his findings and get them retracted. It worked because the campaign didn't focus on Chapela's contamination discovery, but on a second research conclusion even more serious. He learned the contaminated GM corn had as many as eight fragments of the CaMV promoter that creates an unstable "hotspot." It can cause plant genes to fragment, scatter throughout the plant's genome, and, if proved conclusively, would wreck efforts to introduce GM crops in the country. Without further evidence, there was still room for doubt if the second finding was valid, however, and the anti-Chapela campaign hammered him on it. Because of the pressure, Nature took an unprecedented action in its 133 year history. It upheld Chapela's central finding but retracted the other one. That was all it took, and the major media pounced on it. They denounced Chapela's incompetence and tried to discredit everything he learned including his verified findings. They weren't reported, his vilification was highlighted, and Monsanto and the Mexican government scored a big victory. Ironically, on April 18, 2002, two weeks after Nature's partial retraction, the Mexican government announced there was massive genetic contamination of traditional corn varieties in Oaxaca and the neighboring state of Puebla. It was horrifying as up to 95% of tested crops were genetically polluted and "at a speed never before predicted." The news made headlines in Europe and Mexico. It was ignored in the US and Canada. The fallout for Chapela was UC Berkeley denied him tenure in 2003 because of his article and for criticizing university ties to the biotech industry. He then filed suit in April, 2004 asking remuneration for lost wages, earnings and benefits, compensatory damages for humiliation, mental anguish, emotional distress and coverage of attorney fees and costs for his action. He won in May, 2005 but not in court when the university reversed its decision, granted him tenure and agreed to include retroactive pay back to 2003. The damage, however, was done and is an example of what's at stake when anyone dares challenge a powerful company like Monsanto. The other man attacked was the world's leading lectins and plant genetic modification expert, UK-based Arpad Pusztai. He was vilified and fired from his research position at Scotland's Rowett Research Institute for publishing industry-unfriendly data he was commissioned to produce on the safety of GMO foods. His Rowett Research study was the first ever independent one conducted on them anywhere. He undertook it believing in their promise but became alarmed by his findings. The Clinton and Blair governments were determined to suppress them because Washington was spending billions promoting GMO crops and a future biotech revolution. It wasn't about to let even the world's foremost expert in the field derail the effort. His results were startling and consider the implications for humans eating genetically engineered foods. Rats fed GMO potatoes had smaller livers, hearts, testicles and brains, damaged immune systems, and showed structural changes in their white blood cells making them more vulnerable to infection and disease compared to other rats fed non-GMO potatoes. It got worse. Thymus and spleen damage showed up; enlarged tissues, including the pancreas and intestines; and there were cases of liver atrophy as well as significant proliferation of stomach and intestines cells that could be a sign of greater future risk of cancer. Equally alarming - this all happened after 10 days of testing, and the changes persisted after 110 days that's the human equivalent of 10 years. GM foods today saturate our diet. Over 80% of all supermarket processed foods contain them. Others include grains like rice, corn and wheat; legumes like soybeans and soy products; vegetable oils; soft drinks; salad dressings; vegetables and fruits; dairy products including eggs; meat and other animal products; and even infant formula plus a vast array of hidden additives and ingredients in processed foods (like in tomato sauce, ice cream and peanut butter). They're unrevealed to consumers because labeling is prohibited yet the more of them we eat, the greater the potential threat to our health. Today, we're all lab rats in an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. The risks from it are beyond measure, it will take many years to learn them, and when they're finally revealed it will be too late to reverse the damage if it's proved GM products harm human health as independent experts strongly believe. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps. Despite the enormous risks, however, Washington and growing numbers of governments around the world in parts of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa now allow these products to be grown in their soil or imported. They're produced and sold to consumers because agribusiness giants like Monsanto, DuPont, Dow AgriSciences and Cargill have enormous clout to demand it and a potent partner supporting them - the US government and its agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture and State, FDA, EPA and even the defense establishment. World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) patent rules also back them along with industry-friendly WTO rulings like the February 7, 2006 one. It favored a US challenge against European GMO regulatory policies in spite of strong consumer sentiment against these foods and ingredients on the continent. It also violated the Biosafety Protocol that should let nations regulate these products in the public interest, but it doesn't because WTO trade rules sabotaged it. Nonetheless, anti-GMO activism persists, consumers still have a say, and there are hundreds of GMO-free zones around the world, including in the US. That and more is needed to take on the agribusiness giants that so far have everything going their way. In "Seeds of Deception," Jeffrey Smith did a masterful job explaining the dangers of GM foods and ingredients. Engdahl explains them as well but goes much further brilliantly in his blockbuster book on this topic. It's the story of a powerful family and a "small socio-political American elite (that) seeks to establish control over the very basis of human survival" - future life through the food we eat. The book's introduction says it "reads (like) a crime story." It's also a nightmare but one that's very real and threatening. This review covers the book in-depth because of its importance. It's an extraordinary work that "reveals a diabolical World of profit-driven political intrigue (and) government corruption and coercion" that's part of a decades-long global scheme for total world dominance. The book deserves vast exposure and must be read in full for the whole disturbing story. It's hoped the material below will encourage readers to do it in their own self-interest and to marshal mass consumer actions to place food safety above corporate profits. Engdahl's book supplies the ammunition to do it and is also a sequel to his earlier one on war, oil politics and The New World Order and follows naturally from it. It covers the roots of the strategy to control "global food security" that goes back to the 1930s and the plans of a handful of American families to preserve their wealth and power. But it centers on one in particular that above the others "came to symbolize the hubris and arrogance of the emerging American century" that blossomed post-WW II. Its patriarch began in oil and then dominated it in his powerful Oil Trust. It was only the beginning as the family expanded into "education of youth, medicine and psychology," US foreign policy, and "the very science of life itself, biology, and its applications" in plants and agriculture. The family's name is Rockefeller. The patriarch was John D., and four powerful later-generation brothers followed him - David, Nelson, Laurance, and John D. III. Engdahl says the GMO story covers "the evolution of power in the hands of an elite (led by this family), determined (above all) to bring the entire world under their sway." They and other elites already control most of it, including the nation's energy, the US Federal Reserve, and other key world central banks. Today, three brothers are gone, David alone remains, and he's still a force at age 92 although he no longer runs the family bank, JP Morgan Chase. He's active in family enterprises, however, including the Rockefeller Foundation to be discussed in Part II of this review. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 17:45:00 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:45:00 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] 56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial Message-ID: <000001ca779f$d96ff920$8c4feb60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Accomplishing TOTAL WELLNESS means that as the human family we are going to have to grow up and step up to the plate and accept responsibility for what needs to be done now. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 6:50 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] 56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial 56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content _id=1004051277 By E&P Staff Published: December 06, 2009 7:10 PM ET NEW YORK Tomorrow 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the perhaps unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. Many if not most will publish it on the front page, warning of a "profound emergency." The Guardian of London, which helped draft the editorial, published it today, with a note at the end. Here it is. * Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted. Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone. The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C - the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction - would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based. Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so. But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June's UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: "We can go into extra time but we can't afford a replay." At the deal's heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided - and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels. Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere - three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level. Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world's biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction. Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down - with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of "exported emissions" so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than "old Europe", must not suffer more than their richer partners. The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance - and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing. Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it. But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels. Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation. Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature". It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too. The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history's judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice. * This editorial will be published tomorrow by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages including Chinese, Arabic and Russian. The text was drafted by a Guardian team during more than a month of consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved. Like the Guardian most of the newspapers have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front page. From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 7 17:46:43 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:46:43 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Key News: Secret Meetings of World's Top Bankers, US Drones Conduct Assassinations in Pakistan, More Message-ID: <000101ca77a0$26a87f50$73f97df0$@net> From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 10:15 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Key News: Secret Meetings of World's Top Bankers, US Drones Conduct Assassinations in Pakistan, More To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/091207_bankers_top_secret_meetings_assassinations_drones Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing information on two secret meetings of the world's top bankers, US use of drone aircraft for illegal assassinations in Pakistan, continued use of a black jail by the US military in Afghanistan, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here. The most important sentences are highlighted. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word , we can and will build a brighter future. With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special note: To listen to a recent 45-minute interview by Barry Shainbaum of WantToKnow.info's Fred Burks on major cover-ups and transformation, click here . _____ G30, Ripe for Conspiracy Theorists December 4, 2009, Wall Street Journal blog http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/12/04/g30-ripe-for-conspiracy-theorists If you want to encourage the kind of conspiracy theories that have prospered in the wake of last year?s financial crisis ? those that describe a secret cabal of elites running the world ? try doing the following: Have a group of 30 high-powered economists, government officials and bankers meet under the auspices of an international group that shares ideas on how to run the global financial architecture. Have your Board of Trustees led by an influential former Federal Reserve chairman who?s now working as a senior advisor to the president of the United States. Name the former vice chairman of bailout behemoth AIG as the group?s Chairman and CEO (It helps that he [is] former governor of the Bank of Israel). Ensure that membership includes the likes of these: A former Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard who also now works as a top presidential economic advisor; Citigroup?s senior vice chairman; a former IMF deputy managing director and the current governor of the Bank of Israel; and top representatives of the world?s four most important central banks. Hold two days of closed-door meetings at the New York Fed. Do not publicize a list of attendees and leave everyone guessing about the agenda. These were the circumstances surrounding Friday?s start to the 62nd plenary meetings of the Group of 30, whose formal name is ?The Consultative Group on International Economic and Monetary Affairs, Inc.? Note: The article interestingly then goes on to claim that this secret meeting of the world's top bankers is not really anything to worry about, that they are really working for the public good. If so, why not have the meeting open and widely covered by the press? For many other revealing articles from major media reports on secret societies and secret meetings of the most rich and powerful people in our world, click here. _____ Public servants on $20m a year December 3, 2009, BBC News blog http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2009/12/public_servants_on_20m_a_year.html Twice a year, the chairmen and chief executives of Europe's biggest banks gather in secret. They meet under the auspices of a hush-hush club formed after World War II, whose operations are so mysterious that even the grandees who attend it seem unclear what it's really called. One bank supremo told me its name was the Instituts d'Etudes Financieres ... another that it went by the moniker IIEB. Either way, what I can tell you is that it attracts a pretty high calibre of banker - and that its last meeting was just a few weeks ago at the plush London hotel, Claridges, where the main item on the agenda was the topical question of bankers' bonuses. Present were ... Stephen Green of HSBC, Philip Hampton of RBS, Marcus Agius of Barclays and David Mayhew of JP Morgan Cazenove, and their counterparts from Germany, Italy, France and so on. Now, let's be clear: the idea that banks would ever collude to solve a mutual problem would be an outrageous and unwarranted slur. That said, they would dearly love a collective agreement to cease hostilities on bankers' pay, because they know there is a one-to-one correlation between each million pound bonus they pay and damage to their reputations. But although they explored whether they could reach an entente on capping bankers' pay, they abandoned the ambition as a hopeless cause. Why? Because they can't get the Americans into the room. So what is the going rate for RBS's top profit generators? Last year, when the bonus pool was ?900m [over $1.3 billion] for the investment bank, several hundred of its executives earned more than a million pounds each. [This year] quite a number of its top traders will be expecting $10m plus. Note: You can bet that the money for this year's bonuses is coming out of taxpayers' pockets through the huge bailouts. So here is yet another secret meeting of the world's top bankers not being reported in the major media except for this BBC blog. For many other revealing articles from major media reports on secret societies and secret meetings of the most rich and powerful people in our world, click here. _____ Lending Declines as Bank Jitters Persist November 25, 2009, Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125907631604662501.html U.S. lenders saw loans fall by the largest amount since the government began tracking such data, suggesting that nervousness among banks continues to hamper economic recovery. Total loan balances fell by $210.4 billion, or 3%, in the third quarter, the biggest decline since data collection began in 1984, according to a report released ... by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC also said its fund to backstop deposits fell into negative territory for just the second time in its history, pushed down by a wave of bank failures. The decline in total loans showed how banks remain reluctant to lend, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars the government has spent to prop up ailing banks and jump-start lending. The issue has taken on greater urgency with the U.S. unemployment rate hitting 10.2% in October. "There is no question that credit availability is an important issue for the economic recovery," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters Tuesday. "We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers." She said large banks -- which account for 56% of industry assets and received a large share of the government's bailout funds -- accounted for 75% of the decline. Note: The big banks were given trillions in bailout funds with a mandate to increase loans and stimulate the economy. Why are they still giving out so few loans? Where did the huge amounts of our taxpayer money go? Why isn't the government demanding accountability with such huge sums of taxpayer money? For lots more on major manipulations by the big bankers, click here . _____ Mark Pittman, Reporter Who Challenged Fed Secrecy, Dies at 52 November 30, 2009, Bloomberg News http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109 &sid=af7QohP8YdRo&pos=12 Mark Pittman, the award-winning reporter whose fight to make the Federal Reserve more accountable to taxpayers led Bloomberg News to sue the central bank and win, died Nov. 25 in Yonkers, New York. He was 52. Pittman suffered from heart-related illnesses. ?He was one of the great financial journalists of our time,? said Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York and the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for economics. ?His death is shocking.? A former police-beat reporter who joined Bloomberg News in 1997, Pittman wrote stories in 2007 predicting the collapse of the banking system. That year, he won the Gerald Loeb Award from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the highest accolade in financial journalism, for "Wall Street?s Faustian Bargain ," a series of articles on the breakdown of the U.S. mortgage industry. Pittman?s push to open the Fed to more scrutiny resulted in an Aug. 24 victory in Manhattan Federal Court affirming the public?s right to know about the central bank?s more than $2 trillion in assistance to financial firms. Note: To see a one-minute video of mind-blowing US Congressional testimony on a CIA dart gun which can easily cause a heart attack, click here . The poison from this gun is undetectable on autopsy. Could such a weapon be used by the rich and powerful bankers who might want to silence someone who threatens literally billions of dollars of profits, someone like Mark Pittman? _____ C.I.A. to Expand Use of Drones in Pakistan December 4, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/world/asia/04drones.html The White House has authorized an expansion of the C.I.A.?s drone program in Pakistan?s lawless tribal areas. More C.I.A. drone attacks have been conducted under President Obama than under President George W. Bush. The political consensus in support of the drone program ... and its secrecy have obscured just how radical it is. For the first time in history, a civilian intelligence agency is using robots to carry out a military mission, selecting people for killing in a country where the United States is not officially at war. The drone warfare pioneered by the C.I.A. in Pakistan and the Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan is the leading edge of a wave of push-button combat that will raise legal, moral and political questions around the world, said P. W. Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and author of the book Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century. So far, only the United States and Israel have used the planes for strikes, but that number will grow. It is impossible to judge whether the program violates international law without knowing whether Pakistan permits the incursions, how targets are selected and what is done to minimize civilian casualties. Note: For many revealing reports from reliable sources on the realities behind the "war on terror," click here. _____ Release of secret reports delayed November 29, 2009, Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/11/29/declassification_of_secret_documents... President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on millions of pages of military and intelligence documents that were scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year. The missed deadline spells trouble for the White House?s promises to introduce an era of government openness, say advocates, who believe that releasing historical information enforces a key check on government behavior. They cite as an example the abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War, including domestic spying and assassinations of foreign officials, that were publicly outlined in a set of agency documents known as the "family jewels." The White House has given the agencies ... an extension beyond Dec. 31 of an undetermined length - possibly years. It will be the third such extension: Clinton granted one in 2000 and Bush granted one in 2003. The documents, dating from World War II to the early 1980s, cover the gamut of foreign relations, intelligence activities, and military operations. The records in question are held by the Central Intelligence Agency; the National Security Agency; the departments of Justice, State, Defense, and Energy; and other security and intelligence agencies. None of the agencies involved responded to requests for comment. Steven Aftergood, a specialist on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington [said] "If binding deadlines can be extended more or less at will, then any new declassification requirements will be similarly subject to doubt or defiance." Note: These documents are all more than 25 years old. Why can't the public know what their government is trying to hide from them? For lots more on government secrecy, click here. _____ Afghans Detail Detention in ?Black Jail? at U.S. Base November 29, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/world/asia/29bagram.html An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates ... without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. Former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the [CIA] in January, it did not also close this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces. Military officials said as recently as this summer that the Afghanistan jail and another like it at the Balad Air Base in Iraq were being used to interrogate high-value detainees. And officials said recently that there were no plans to close the jails. All three former detainees interviewed by The New York Times complained of being held for months after the intensive interrogations were over without being told why. Human rights researchers say they worry that the jail remains in the shadows and largely inaccessible both to the Red Cross and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the worsening threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ The Secret US War in Pakistan November 23, 2009, The Nation magazine http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus. The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct from the CIA assassination program. "This is a parallel operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts." Blackwater's presence in Pakistan is "not really visible, and that's why nobody has cracked down on it," said the source. Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, he said, are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified Defense contracts. "It's Blackwater via JSOC, and it's a classified no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis. Some of these strikes are attributed to [the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC. So when you see some of these hits, especially the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC strikes." Note: Don't miss this key report in it's entirety. Why haven't other major media outlets mentioned the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) drone operations in Pakistan, running parallel to the CIA's? _____ Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades November 29, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare. There are 239 counties in the United States where at least a quarter of the population receives food stamps, according to an analysis of local data collected by The New York Times. In more than 750 counties, the program helps feed one in three blacks. In more than 800 counties, it helps feed one in three children. In the Mississippi River cities of St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans, half of the children or more receive food stamps. Even in Peoria, Ill. ? Everytown, U.S.A. ? nearly 40 percent of children receive aid. While use is greatest where poverty runs deep, the growth has been especially swift in once-prosperous places hit by the housing bust. Note: For more from reliable sources on the impacts and realities of the Wall Street financial crisis, click here. _____ A list for those who complain November 29, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/29/IN941APQS7.DTL In spring 2007, as one of many American air travelers who were inconvenienced when our names popped up on a federal "watch list," I never could get straight answers from my government. Was this a mistake, or was I being flagged for some reason? How many Americans were on that watch list? What were the criteria for getting on it? I filed my appeal with the Department of Homeland Security's Travel Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP). The Department of Homeland Security received 75,315 requests for redress under the TRIP program as of Oct. 31. Of those requests, 49,826 have been adjudicated, 7,217 are under review, and 18,272 are awaiting supporting documentation, according to the DHS. "Absolutely, the system didn't work as well as it should have," said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration. Once an airline receives a passenger's control number, along with full name, date of birth and gender, that information is transmitted to the government for clearance. Fewer than 2,500 known and suspected terrorists are actually on the "no fly" list, according to Trevino. And less than 10 percent of them are Americans. [Yet] the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center has acknowledged that its watch list has more than 1 million entries of names and aliases representing about 400,000 people [with] with an average of 1,600 people who presented a "reasonable suspicion" being added every day. Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the worsening threats to civil liberties, click here. _____ Health care lessons from Europe November 29, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco's leading newspaper) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/29/MN3U1AL75B.DTL Critics point to Canada and Britain as the poster children of what could happen here with a "government takeover" of health coverage. But three other wealthy nations - the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany - offer much closer parallels, as well as lessons. Health care systems in the three nations more closely resemble the U.S. system of insurance-based coverage. Holland and Switzerland rely exclusively on private insurance, and all three rely on private doctors. The three European nations deliver universal coverage and world-class quality at a fraction of what Americans spend. All of them require that everyone purchase insurance, make sure everyone can afford it and ban insurers from such practices as refusing to cover the sick that are common in the United States. European health care is universal, but contrary to popular perception, it is not all nationalized. Most of Europe spends about 10 percent of its national income on health care and covers everyone. The United States will spend 18 percent this year and leave 47 million people uninsured. Europe has more doctors, more hospital beds and more patient visits than the United States. Take Switzerland: 4.9 doctors per thousand residents compared with 2.4 in the United States. And cost? The average cost for a hospital stay is $9,398 in relatively high-cost Switzerland and $17,206 in the United States. Note: Maybe it boils down to whether we want our health controlled more by profit motive or by government bureaucracies One thing is for sure, the average U.S. citizen is getting much less for a greater cost than those in other developed countries. _____ Jung at Heart November 12, 2009, Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111125386.html Starting in 1912, Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), a specialist in the treatment of schizophrenia, began to experience strange dreams and frightening visions. He ... concluded that he had entered what we would now call a midlife crisis, a period in which he was being compelled to reexamine his life and explore his deepest self. To do this, he ... began a remarkable visionary text, illustrated with his own bizarre paintings: The Red Book. This he composed during a state of "active imagination" -- that is, of reverie or waking dream. As he said, he wanted to see what would happen when he "switched off consciousness." When Jung emerged from this period of crisis, he brought with him the first inklings of his most important contributions to psychology -- positing the existence of a collective unconscious common to all human beings. Gradually, Jung also shifted the focus of psychoanalytic therapy. Early on he had speculated that our libidinal energies are either outer-directed or inner-directed, i.e., people are primarily extroverts or introverts. But this was just a beginning. Jung soon directed his clinical attention to the second half of life and to the process he called individuation. According to editor Shamdasani, "The Red Book" presents "the prototype of Jung's conception of the individuation process." In Jung's view a successful life was all about balance, wholeness. Note: For more on the fascinating book about Jung's hidden life, read the New York Times article available here. _____ Moving towards a united Christianity December 2, 2009, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/dec/02/catholic-orthodox-anglican-ecumenism In the past two months, relations between the three main Christian churches have moved in more promising directions than perhaps during the past 50 years of uninspiring liberal dialogue. By opening a new chapter of theological engagement and concrete co-operation with Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, Pope Benedict XVI is changing the terms of debate about church reunification. In time, we might witness the end of the Great Schism between east and west and a union of the main episcopally-based churches. Indeed, when Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005, one of his first acts was to drop the title of patriarch of the west. Closer church ties will be greatly helped by concrete co-operation. Last week's Rome visit by the Archbishop of Canterbury has advanced Catholic-Anglican relations. Benedict emphasised the importance of Anglicanism in promoting the unity of all episcopally-based Christian churches. Significant was the fact both the pope and the archbishop spoke in favour of a different model of socio-economic development that does not rely exclusively on the state or the market. Rather, it accentuates mutualist principles of reciprocity and gift-exchange and the absolute sanctity of human and natural life which is relational, not individualist or collectivist. This shared social teaching is key in further developing concrete links and bonds of trust among Christians of different traditions. Moves towards church reunification are signs of a revivified Christian Europe, one which can use its shared faith to transform the continent and the whole world. Note: In other inspiring religious news, a Protestant church in New York City held a "healing ceremony" with Native Americans to apologize for their decimation and dislocation centuries ago. For a USA Today story on this landmark news, click here . _____ Key Articles From Years Past _____ The Lights Over Phoenix March 22, 2007, CNN News http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/22/transcript.fri/index.html#three Ten years ago in Arizona's capital, thousands of people reported seeing a massive, v-shaped line of lights. Some government officials later said military flares caused the confusion. But Gary Tuchman spoke with one former governor who's now saying they didn't look like flares to him. GARY TUCHMAN, CNN REPORTER: Fife Symington ... was the Republican governor of Arizona for six years. FIFE SYMINGTON: If you had been here ten years ago, and looked at the lights and the view, you would have been astounded. TUCHMAN: Governor Symington is referring to what is now known as the Phoenix lights -- an object videotaped by many and seen by thousands over several nights in the Arizona sky in 1997. It was described by witnesses as larger than a football field and silent. The governor, a Vietnam Air Force veteran, had never publicly acknowledged seeing it until now. SYMINGTON: I suspect that unless the Defense Department proves us otherwise, that it was probably some form of alien spacecraft. TUCHMAN: So why didn't he say anything then? Partly he says, because he didn't want people to panic. UFO enthusiasts were not amused, especially since the governor was believed to have seen nothing. But now he's coming out. SYMINGTON: The lights were really brilliant. And it was just fascinating. It was enormous. It just felt otherworldly. TUCHMAN: Symington will be talking about this in an updated film about UFOs called 'Out of the Blue.' Governor Symington says he did tell his family, friends, and staff about what he saw early on. SYMINGTON: I still behind the scenes tried to investigate it, but I got nowhere. Note: To watch this fascinating three-minute CNN broadcast, click here. For more on the intriguing Phoenix lights, click here . For lots more on the powerfully revealing UFO documentary Out of the Blue, arguably the best UFO documentary ever made, click here. Learn about dozens of top military brass who have publicly testified on a major cover-up of UFOs and more. For a two-page summary of this powerful witness testimony, click here . _____ The Umbrella Assassin October 4, 2006, PBS http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/previous_seasons/case_umbrella/interview.html The investigation into the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, murdered with a poison-filled pellet shot into his leg (possibly with a converted "umbrella gun") at a bus stop in Britain in 1978, was the most unusual and significant case that medical doctor and forensic specialist Christopher C. Green participated in during his twenty year career as an investigative officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. The reason it was so unique, he says, is that "we had pretty much all of the story from a forensic point of view. We had the body, the thing in the body that he was hit with -- the pellet -- and the stuff from the pellet. We knew that the material used to kill him, ricin, had been under development by a foreign service linked to the incident. We also knew that he had been a target of assassination attempts in the past. The story of him being a target was very well known. So we had information on the means, motive, and the opportunity." In the Markov case, "we had 80 percent of the story," says Green, who is now a professor of diagnostic radiology and psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University's Detroit Medical Center, where he uses brain imaging techniques to watch how the brain functions as people make decisions. His current work, he says, is a logical outgrowth of his service at the CIA -- where he still serves as a consultant. At the CIA, Green studied how the brain responds to chemicals and neurological agents. Note: For more on this bizarre case, click here . A 2008 Reuters article on the case is also available here , as is a 2006 New York Times article at this link . _____ Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. 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URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Mon Dec 7 19:38:44 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 08:08:44 +0530 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New Farming Paradigm In-Reply-To: <003e01ca76c1$4aa42ec0$dfec8c40$@net> References: <003e01ca76c1$4aa42ec0$dfec8c40$@net> Message-ID: <31f677a30912071838k488c982ar2744d161bf399278@mail.gmail.com> Great,this is wonderful, thinking about transition with minimum turbulence and pain. On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 3:41 AM, mary rose wrote: > Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS > > These articles that I have forwarded to the Co-learner's group from Richard > Heinberg and others in the last few days are extremely important as they > begin to form a "platform" so to speak around which we-the-people can > circle > in a coordinated effort designed to get us through these early days of Peak > Oil, water and food shortages, and the affects of global climate change > with > minimal turbulence and pain. > > We must all become aware that government is not going to be of much > assistance as their agenda is entirely different from that of > we-the-people. > The agenda of the military-industrial complex which is composed of the > corporations and the government is to "make money at all costs" while the > agenda of "we-the-people" is to survive this time of great crisis. > > In a recent exchange with Thomas H. Greco, author of "The End of Money and > the Future of Civilization, Tom told me one of the most important things is > to begin discussing the "butterfly concept" and how the "imaginal cells" > operate as the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. And, if I am not > mistaken, this is a theme of Dr. Bruce Lipton's as well. And, we might > consider what Richard Heinberg refers to as "a new farming paradigm" being > the equivalent of a butterfly into which the imaginal cells metamorphis as > they make the transition from the caterpillar stage to that of the > beautiful > new born butterfly. > > What is most important is to keep our focus on the goal -- that of becoming > the equivalent of the butterfly. So, let us begin this journey visualizing > ourselves as magnificent beings in this new state of a future dawning as we > "imagine" ourselves into being. > > Here is a good article on "imaginal cells". > http://www.tomorrowsedge.net/imaginal-cells.html > > -----Original Message----- > From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net > [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of > TradingPostPaul > Sent: Saturday, December 05, 2009 9:26 PM > To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net > Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New > Farming Paradigm > > > Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil Demands a New Farming Paradigm > Interview with Acres U.S.A. > http://www.acresusa.com/magazines/archives/0307InterviewHeinberg.htm > > Richard Heinberg is more than a spokesman for the vision that sees beyond > the age of oil. His home is the lecture platform, the classroom, the > deep-think tank. He is a son of northern Missouri (now CAFO hog country) > from an industrial farm supply family - his father was a quality control > chemist, for which reason Richard discovered firsthand much of the bad > science that now has the upper hand in agriculture. Intellectually, he > rejected farming as an industrial procedure, and for the last 20 years has > used his pen like a stiletto to nail fact and conclusion to the market > wall. His last eight years have been devoted to writing when not teaching > at New College of California, Santa Rosa. > > In the questions and answers that follow, Richard Heinberg concludes that > too many farmers have disappeared since World War II, and the nation has > been consistently short of independent growers. This shortage will be > exacerbated as oil to service the overindustrialized world continues to > falter. > > ACRES U.S.A. According to the biblical book of Joel, old men dream dreams > and young men see visions. Are we looking at dreams or at visions in what > you recently presented at the annual E.F. Schumacher lecture? > > RICHARD HEINBERG. It's probably more in the category of visions. It's > pretty clear what the world needs in terms of future agriculture and future > food production. Whether we'll actually get there is quite a different > question, because right now we're on exactly the wrong track. We're > going to have to make a pretty dramatic change in our agricultural > priorities if we're going to arrive at anything like a sustainable system > that will actually feed future generations. What I've tried to do is lay > out a vision of what's possible. > > ACRES U.S.A. What is possible? > > HEINBERG. Using the knowledge that we've built up over the last several > decades about organic farming, about small-scale food production using > techniques such as permaculture and bio-intensive and so on, I think it's > possible for us to produce food in a way that doesn't destroy topsoil, in > a way that preserves fresh water and that feeds as many people as we have > in the world today. But it's going to require a lot more people doing the > work of producing the food, because truly sustainable agriculture is a much > more labor-intensive process. > > ACRES U.S.A. But in the lifetime of this interviewer, we have witnessed the > situation change, from a system in which a man could make a very good > living on 80 acres for a family of six or seven people, to what we see > today, where he can't make a living if he's farming two or three > sections of land because of disparity between agriculture and the rest of > the society. > > HEINBERG. That's right. > > ACRES U.S.A. Doesn't that make the entire problem a political problem? > > HEINBERG. It certainly is a political problem, and it's also an energy > problem, because the reason we've created the kind of agricultural system > we have today is that we've had access to very cheap sources of energy. > We've used fossil fuels to run giant farm machinery and to transport food > ever-further distances and in ever-larger quantities, to process food and > to store food and so on. When we no longer have access to that cheap fuel, > after global oil production peaks and oil starts to become more scarce and > expensive, we will have to rethink agriculture. It would help enormously if > we started that process ahead of time and began the kind of transition that > will inevitably take place in a proactive way, because if we simply wait > for events to unfold, it's likely that it will be a very chaotic and > destructive kind of transition, and many people could suffer as a result. > > ACRES U.S.A. What did you present to the Schumacher Society in terms of a > program that would accomplish this kind of thing? > > HEINBERG. I titled my talk "Fifty Million Farmers" because by my very, > very rough calculation, that's how many more farmers we will need in the > next 20 or 30 years in order to feed the current population of the United > States. Without cheap fossil fuels, we will need many more hands in > agricultural production. The nation of Cuba has already gone through a > similar kind of transition as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union > in the late 1980s and early '90s. Cubans, who at that time were even more > dependent on fossil fuels for agricultural production than were American > farmers, found that they were forced to breed more oxen for animal > traction, to break up the large state-owned farms, and to raise salaries > for farmers to equal those of doctors and engineers, so that they could > encourage people to move from the cities into the countryside to work on > farms. They had a very difficult transition in any case - they called it > the "Special Period" - the average Cuban lost something like 20 > pounds of body weight during this time and almost everyone went hungry from > time to time. Nevertheless, they did survive. I think we would be doing > well to accomplish the transition as successfully as the Cubans did. > > ACRES U.S.A. The organic movement has proceeded to accomplish some parts of > that transition, has it not? > > HEINBERG. Absolutely - and if it hadn't been for organic agronomists in > Havana lobbying their government, I think Cuba wouldn't have been nearly > as successful. When the problems became apparent, these ecological > agronomists were called in and given a free hand to redesign the Cuban food > system. Something like that needs to happen in our country. We have people > like Wes Jackson and many others who have pioneered sustainable, ecological > food systems in North America, but they're not being listened to. They > are very much on the fringes, yet they're the people whose expertise > needs to guide our transition away from fossil-fuel agriculture. > > ACRES U.S.A. During a trip to Cuba a few years ago, I had the opportunity > to visit some of their agricultural stations and farms. I found systems in > operation in those stations for producing azotobacter bacteria for use as a > nitrogen-fixing procedure out on the farms. This was being done on a rather > grand scale to service small farms. Is that the kind of thing you have in > mind? > > HEINBERG. Absolutely. The Cubans called this "biotechnology," but of > course in the United States when we use that term, we generally mean > genetic engineering - not so in Cuba. They're trying to use plant > breeding and other more traditional techniques that call on the ingenuity > of farmers and soil scientists to make their system not only as productive > as possible, but also as sustainable as possible. > > ACRES U.S.A. You mentioned Wes Jackson, who some years ago made the remark > that the greatest invention of the 21st century would have to be an honest > system of accounting. Of course, Wes Jackson is something of a wit, but in > all honesty, if we paid for the fossil fuels that we're consuming on par > and didn't hide it in subsidies such as maintaining armies all over the > world to see that this flow is not interrupted, would we find this oil is > really as cheap as we think it is? > > HEINBERG. Well to be fair, it has been incredibly cheap in the past. > > ACRES U.S.A. As a business proposition, but as an economic proposition, it > really isn't, is it? > > HEINBERG. When you look at the full environmental cost and human cost, it > has been the most expensive and ill-conceived adventure in human history. > But of course that's looking back in retrospect. At the time when we were > becoming addicted to the stuff, it seemed irresistible. A gallon of > gasoline contained the energy equivalent of over two months of hard human > labor. So naturally, once we had access to the stuff, we quickly became > addicted. We used it for everything we possibly could. It was only later > that the full bill came due - in fact, that is what's happening now. > > ACRES U.S.A. But we cannot abandon the concept entirely, can we, when we > have the wherewithal to make biodiesel and maybe make other fuels out of > biomass? > > HEINBERG. No, not altogether, but I think we have to be very careful. If we > can use agricultural wastes and food wastes to make biofuels, then in that > instance I think it's a good thing. And of course over the short term > many American farmers will probably enjoy an economic boom from being able > to grow fuel crops and get higher prices for their harvest - but over the > longer term, if we try to substitute fuel crops for food crops on a large > scale, as a substitute for fossil fuels, then we get into a competition > between food and fuel, and many millions of people could starve just so a > few thousand people could continue driving their cars. > > ACRES U.S.A. That would be true if you left everything equal, but some > years ago we published a little magazine called Gasohol U.S.A. and we made > the computation with the assistance of some scientists that if we planted > fast-growing poplar trees in waste areas along the side of the highways in > the rainbelt parts of the country and made a cellulose ethanol out of it, > by harvesting those trees every second year, we could fuel the entire > automobile fleet in the United States. Aren't we shutting the door on > technology we could use that is bio-friendly? > > HEINBERG. Actually, I don't think anyone is shutting that door. Quite the > opposite is happening. There's enormous interest in biofuels in the U.S. > Department of Energy and elsewhere, and quite a lot of research is going > into cellulosic ethanol right now. The conversion process hasn't been > perfected yet. But certainly over the next few years, I'm sure we'll > start to see pilot plants springing up. > > ACRES U.S.A. So, then, your vision is the small farm that will support a > family and the family that will provide its own labor? > > HEINBERG. Yes, and also I think that's the proper place for biofuels. If > biofuels can be produced on-site for use on the farm, I think that's > something practical and sustainable. For the nation as a whole, I think > it's unrealistic to expect that we'll be able to continue running cars > and trucks to the extent that we are now. I think our entire transportation > system is going to have to be scaled back and downsized. > > ACRES U.S.A. Maybe we need to recover rail and other inter-urban service of > mass transportation and so on. > > HEINBERG. Right. We need to find more efficient means of transportation, > not just different means of fueling our automobiles. > > ACRES U.S.A. Presenting your vision to an organization such as the > Schumacher Society - how did that resonate with those people? > > HEINBERG. Actually, it resonated very well. What I had to say seemed to be > exactly what they were interested in hearing. Of course, Fritz Schumacher > was saying many of these things several decades ago, and he's been an > inspiration to me. I was very happy to be able to offer an updated version > of his "call to arms," if you will. > > ACRES U.S.A. When you travel about the countryside giving presentations > like that, how is it resonating with the other people you encounter? > > HEINBERG. Generally very well - and I do speak to quite a lot of > different kinds of audiences. Sometimes I find myself speaking to local > governments, city councils and so on, and of course they're quite worried > to hear about the situation we're in, not only with oil, but also also > future natural gas supply. Occasionally I find myself speaking with current > or retired oil industry professionals, petroleum geologists, and petroleum > engineers and so on, and surprisingly, they're generally quite supportive > of the things I have to say. They're also quite worried in many cases. > Even in some companies that take the official position that there's no > problem with future supply, the workers within those companies who are > responsible for keeping track of oil reserves and production are personally > quite concerned. So I have received quite a lot of support from those > quarters as well. > > ACRES U.S.A. We suppose that somebody will still be pumping oil a hundred > years from now, but the idea that they can pump oil to support this overly > industrialized world is a little bit of a fantasy, isn't it? > > HEINBERG. Absolutely, and the problems are actually coming on much faster > than most people were anticipating. Over the last year, we've seen > virtually no growth in the global oil supply. We're not seeing the crisis > in its full force right now primarily because prices have been so high that > they've destroyed a lot of demand. Whole African countries have basically > stopped importing oil because they can't afford it. Once we see the > supply start to turn down, however, which is likely to happen within the > next two or three years, then we'll see another round of price increases > and more demand destruction - decreased demand as a result of high prices > - and so on. I'm sorry to say that most people will not understand > what's going on. They'll want to blame the oil companies or the nations > of the Middle East, when in fact the real situation is that we are simply > depleting a non-renewable resource. > > ACRES U.S.A. They need to take responsibility themselves. > > HEINBERG. Absolutely. > > ACRES U.S.A. One thing that is increasing exponentially, though, is the > pollution factor. When you have 40,000 ships hauling stuff around the world > in order to accommodate the divisions of world trade, even the breakup of > one or two of those ships when they're worn out has become one of the > biggest pollution factors on the planet, has it not? > > HEINBERG. It has. Our oceans are being profoundly affected, not only by > waste bunker oil from oceangoing vessels, but also by plastics and other > materials tossed overboard. Fossil fuels may not be the root of all evil, > but they are certainly the source of most of the unique problems of our > time, including pollution, global climate change, oil wars, overpopulation, > destruction of forests and topsoil, overfishing - all of these things are > either directly or indirectly related to fossil fuels and what we've done > with them. > > ACRES U.S.A. And that extends itself into the way we practice medicine, > with all the coal-tar derivative drugs that now seem to be the props of > every physician alive. > > HEINBERG. Yes, that's right. The whole chemicals industry arose, as you > say, starting with coal, but natural gas is now the basis for the modern > pharmaceutical and agrichemical industry, and that's a very worrisome > situation here in North America because we're seeing natural gas > production turning down. Therefore we're seeing high natural gas prices, > and therefore high fertilizer prices, because of course fertilizer is made > from natural gas. Most of the North American chemicals industry is fleeing > for other shores where natural gas is cheaper. We've lost something like > 100,000 jobs in the chemicals industry over the last two years, but of > course we don't read that on the business pages of the newspapers. > > ACRES U.S.A. Have you and the people in the Schumacher Society made the > connection between the imbalance in the different sectors of the economy > and parity for agriculture in escorting this kind of a drift into our > everyday lives? > > HEINBERG. That's a complicated topic because it partly has to do with the > cheap fossil fuels that have replaced agricultural labor, and also it has > to do with skewed government food policies. But overall, we have gotten > used to very, very cheap food, and the price of that is that very few > people can afford to farm anymore - a situation that can't continue > much longer. The average age of a farmer in the United States is currently > over 55, so one has to wonder who will be growing our food in 10 or 20 > years. > > ACRES U.S.A. We've heard the statement that you're going to see a > country full of cattle and no cowmen out there. In other words, the > technology that's being adopted runs entirely opposite to what you were > saying, especially when we look at confinement feeding and now cloning of > animals in order to avoid having to deal with sexual reproduction - all > of this with the steady approval of this kind of food faire for the public > by the Food and Drug Administration. > > HEINBERG. The system that you're describing of replacing human beings > with more machines and more technology only works when we have cheap > energy. As energy sources become more expensive, that whole system is going > to start to come apart at the seams. The cost of food will go up, and > gradually there will be more incentives for people to go into farming. But > unless we undertake that transition proactively and with some sense of a > plan and goal, it's going to be a very chaotic and nasty kind of > transition. > > ACRES U.S.A. Let's go back to this message which has to be repeated a > thousand times - it's like the old doctor at the University of Missouri > who used to tell us that there's only one story, but you have to find a > thousand ways of telling it. You may not have a thousand ways, but I know > you have several - why don't you give us an example? > > HEINBERG. Over the past 200 years the human population has grown from under > one billion to now over 6.5 billion. That's an extraordinary rate of > increase - completely unprecedented in all of previous history. There are > various ways of explaining how and why that has happened, but certainly it > could not have happened without cheap fossil fuels with which to grow more > food and to transport that food from where it's abundant to where it's > scarce. I think it's fair to say that there are somewhere between 2 and 4 > billion people alive today who probably would not exist if it weren't for > fossil fuels. That's a little worrisome to think about when one realizes > that oil production globally is set to peak any year now, and global > natural gas production will not be far behind. If we're going to avoid a > die-off of much of humanity through starvation and disease, we're going > to have to find ways of feeding people without fossil fuels or with a lot > less fossil fuel use - and that really means redesigning our entire food > system. It means growing more food locally, for local consumption, it means > using smaller farm machinery and less of it, it means more people being > involved in the process of producing food, and it means growing food with > fewer chemicals and fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Fortunately, > over the past few decades we have developed information, knowledge, > experience and techniques that are capable of growing food intensively, > organically and ecologically. Those techniques, those methods desperately > need to be expanded and replicated and made the basis for our national and > global food system. > > ACRES U.S.A. What do you do to get through to the intellectual advisors who > should be telling people these things instead of leading them in the exact > opposite direction? > > HEINBERG. I think the one thing these people most need to understand is our > systemic dependency on fossil fuels and the fact that fossil fuels are > about to become much more scarce and expensive. I don't think that simple > fact has penetrated the consciousness of most of our officials. They have > been led to believe that business as usual will continue indefinitely, that > the way we are doing things now is somehow the way they've always been > done and always will be done, which is simply not the case. We live in an > extraordinary moment in history, in fact. > > ACRES U.S.A. Will you be able to put a number or a date on when this just > can't go any further? We're not suggesting a cataclysm of any sort, > we're talking about a slow evolution, but there has to come a point where > mathematical ambition and physical possibility part company. > > HEINBERG. Yes, and I think we're virtually at that point right now. The > best estimates of the timing of global oil production peak are converging > around the year 2010, which means we're virtually there. That doesn't > mean that suddenly all oil production will vanish or collapse. We'll > start to see about a 2 percent per year decline in oil production from that > point. Here in North America the decline in natural gas production will > probably occur with greater speed, so we may in fact have a much more > severe natural gas crisis at least in the early years, starting within the > next few years, than an oil supply crisis. That's going to affect > agriculture, it's going to affect electricity production, home heating, > the chemicals industry and the entire American economy. Probably by the > year 2015 or 2020 we'll see an American economy in tatters compared to > anything we've known over the past few decades, simply because we'll no > longer have the fuel to make it work. > > ACRES U.S.A. We probably won't be able to give frequent flyer miles to > coffins being hauled back and forth across the country. > > HEINBERG. No! The airline industry is going to be hit very hard by all of > this, and of course the tourism industry is going to be completely > decimated, as are other industries. The American automobile industry is > already teetering at the brink of economic collapse, not just because of > high fuel prices, but also because of some poor business decisions > they've made in the past. > > ACRES U.S.A. When Douglas MacArthur became the so-called shogun of Japan > right after World War II, the first thing he did was order land > reallocation. About 13,000 families owned all the land in the whole > country, and he required them to turn the deeds over to the government and > then sold it back to the farmers. Do you envision something like that > happening in the United States, where we simply must come to terms with the > proposition that we have to have land reform? > > HEINBERG. If we were smart, that's what we would do. My concern is that > what's very possible instead, even likely in this case, is that land will > be held onto by banks and large corporations, while the growing hordes of > jobless people will be hired as agricultural workers and become a new class > of serfs. > > ACRES U.S.A. "Guest workers," you might say? > > HEINBERG. Yes. Instead of having the Jeffersonian vision of agrarian > democracy realized, we will see instead a new feudalism with millions of > Americans reduced to serfdom. > > ACRES U.S.A. And you see no way around this? > > HEINBERG. Oh, there's certainly a way around it! What you suggested, land > reform, is the way to go - there's no question about that. > > ACRES U.S.A. But land reform is political, and political activity is now > governed by the corporations, the banks, the insurance companies. > > HEINBERG. That's right. So if all of these problems are bound up together > - the problems of agriculture, the problems of energy, the problems of > finance and politics - it's going to take some brilliant and courageous > leadership to disentangle all of those and set this country back on a good > course. > > ACRES U.S.A. So far we have not addressed the quality of the food that we > see coming out of factories and industrial agriculture, prefabricated, > processed foods - manhandled milk and so on. > > HEINBERG. Yes, much of this relates to fossil fuels, too, because of course > growing food cheaply and in large quantities is a recipe for producing > poor-quality food. Now we're seeing an epidemic of obesity in the United > States, and that's not because people are overnourished, it's because > they're overfed with food of poor nutritional quality. > > ACRES U.S.A. They're fed GMOs; they're fed with genetically modified > milk. > > HEINBERG. And soft drinks with corn syrup and aspartame and so on. Soil > minerals have also been declining in quantity for decades now. I think the > USDA has actually kept records of this, showing that the mineral content > obtained back in the 1940s was in some cases 40 or 50 percent higher than > it is today, so we can eat the same quantity of food and yet we have a > hidden hunger. > > ACRES U.S.A. So the whole thing wraps back into, is there the vision to > install a proper agriculture to feed the people properly? > > HEINBERG. Right, and this really should be the most important topic of > conversation right now. Agriculture is the farthest thing from the > consciousness of most urban Americans' minds. They go to the grocery > store, and they buy their food. They assume it's always going to be there > for them, and that's about as much thought as they give to the matter. > > ACRES U.S.A. Many of them even reject food if it's organic or at least > wholesome, because it's too high priced. If it looks like food and tastes > like food, they seem satisfied that it really is food. > > HEINBERG. In most cases, they don't know any better. Many of them have > never tasted anything really nutritious - a carrot straight from the > soil, something that they've grown themselves, or simply something that > has been grown without chemicals and fertilizers. > > ACRES U.S.A. In view of the impact you've made with some of your talks > around the country, can you tell us a little bit about the group you > represent or what keeps you afloat out there in the circuit? > > HEINBERG. I work with an organization called the Post Carbon Institute, > which is searching for local solutions to the kinds of problems we're > likely to face as a result of peak oil and climate change. These kinds of > solutions are varied and have to do with things such as energy farms - > putting together a network of small research farms where we can look for > ways of reenvisioning agriculture on a smaller scale, to grow both food and > fuel sustainably. We also work with local governments, city councilors, > mayors, etc., in towns around the country to help them begin to devise > energy transition strategies away from fossil fuels. > > ACRES U.S.A. You're also quite interested in global warming? > > HEINBERG. Yes, very much so, and I'm also working with a project called > the Oil Depletion Protocol, which is a plan to systematically and > proactively reduce oil consumption on a national and international basis. > Actually, this is the subject of my most recent book. > > ACRES U.S.A. Would you give us the title? > > HEINBERG. Yes, it's called The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert > Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse. > > ACRES U.S.A. You mentioned in the name of your organization the word > "carbon," presumably you're talking about carbon dioxide? > > HEINBERG. Yes. > > ACRES U.S.A. And carbon dioxide, of course, is a global warming gas > that's running amok. You know we have taken agriculture to high nitrogen > use, not only in the United States, but worldwide, and this nitrogen is > mostly wasted because it goes off into the air - especially anhydrous, > less so with natural nitrogens - where it locks into the oxygen and > becomes one form or another of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide, in turn, is > 183 to 212 times more polluting in terms of global warming than carbon > dioxide. Yet we find that Al Gore doesn't even mention it in his film, An > Inconvenient Truth. > > HEINBERG. That's right - thank you for pointing that out! That's yet > another reason why we have to reform our entire food system, and very > quickly. > > Richard Heinberg can be contacted at 1604 Jennings Avenue, Santa Rosa, > California 95401, website www.richardheinberg.com. > For more information on the Post Carbon Institute, visit > www.postcarbon.org. For information on the Oil Depletion Protocol, visit > www.oildepletionprotocol.org. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 8 21:37:15 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 20:37:15 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Fox News Embraces Cyber-Terrorism to Subvert the Copenhagen Summit Message-ID: <00c701ca7889$79f9b0e0$6ded12a0$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 6:20 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Fox News Embraces Cyber-Terrorism to Subvert the Copenhagen Summit Fox News Embraces Cyber-Terrorism to Subvert the Copenhagen Summit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/fox-news-embraces-cyber-t_b_3838 87.html December 8, 2009 09:31 AM No one in the mainstream media, it seems, has the guts to take on this scandal. This isn't some penny ante affair about graft or infidelity. This is a direct assault on our national values, on who we are as Americans. At one time, the criminal types who burglarized the Watergate or the office of Daniel Ellsberg's doctor were reviled. Now they have their own network. Bret Baier set the scene last Thursday: Despite the escalating controversy over climate change data since the British e-mail story broke 13 days ago, the major broadcast networks have not covered it on their morning or evening news shows according to Media Research Center, even with President Obama heading to a climate change summit in Copenhagen next week. The scandal is Baier's relentless promotion of cyber-terrorism. Of course, he's not the only apologist for the criminals who hacked into servers at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia. George Will, Lou Dobbs and Newt Gingrich have all lent their support to this broad-based campaign effort by Fox News to legitimize the work of criminals who lurk in the shadows. The criminals, who remain unidentified and still at large, stole confidential e-mails, selectively edited them, and disseminated them to promote the crackpot belief that the scientific case for global warming is not rock solid. There's no question that crooks feed off of the encouragement of on-air propagandists. Offices at Centre for Climate Modelling at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, have suffered at least two break-ins in recent months. In addition, there have been several attempts at hacking into the center's computer network. People have also impersonated network technicians to try to gain access to campus offices and data. Prof. Raymond T. Pierrehumbert of the University of Chicago, noted the dangers: I don't think [the stolen] emails had any personally compromising data in them, but that was just luck; this illegal act of cyber-terrorism against a climate scientist (and I don't think that's too strong a word) is ominous and frightening. What next? Deliberate monkeying with data on servers? Insertion of bugs into climate models? Or at the next level, since the forces of darkness have moved to illegal operations, will we all have to get bodyguards to do climate science? Cyber-terrorism is commonly defined as: The premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, against computers and/or networks, with the intention to cause harm or further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives. Or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives. The term applies to the crooks who invaded the computers at the University of East Anglia. It also touches on the ethical divide between legitimate news organizations and outfits like Fox News. To take climate-gate at face value, you have to be either dishonest or stupid. Brett Baier, who is dishonest, wants to make his viewers even more stupid. More specifically, Baier showed his contempt for the basic rules of journalism, which are also understood by anyone with an ounce of common sense. A journalist would never accept those pilfered e-mails, by themselves, as a demonstration of anything. Baier knows nothing about that cyber-terrorist except the fact that he is, by definition, dishonest and unethical. Baier has no way of knowing if the e-mails were selectively edited and or embellished in a deceitful way. So he knows he could never rely on them as-is. He also knows what everyone else knows about e-mails. Messages that are not intended for larger distribution often reflect unstated references, jargon, sarcasm and humor, which may be fully understood by the correspondents but which, taken out of context, can be misunderstood by outsiders. Of course, among bona fide journalists, deceitful editing is considered a bad thing. Not at Fox News. They deceitfully edited the words of the Pope to claim that he was a global warming skeptic. They falsely inserted words into the text of a scientific article to change its meaning. And the deceitfully edited a Daily Show segment to allege that Jon Stewart is a global warming denier. Whenever a journalist reports leaked information from an anonymous source, he has vetted the leaker and vetted the leaked information. Baier and other charlatans at Fox News are trying to deceive their viewers into thinking that the stolen e-mails are comparable to the kind of leaked information reported by bona fide journalists. If you needed any further proof that Chris Wallace, Brian Wilson, Bill Hemmer, and Wendell Goler are dishonest, this is it. (It's also confirmation that these men are not fit to wipe Dan Rather's shoes. Friend and foe alike agree that Rather made a good faith - albeit imperfect - effort to vet the memo about Bush's National Guard disappearances.) Given the circumstances, no one with common sense, or common decency, would place the onus on the terrorists' victims, the scientists at the University of East Anglia, to prove their veracity and the credibility of their work. Baier did not highlight the difference between Fox and other broadcast networks on December 3 in order to remind viewers of his contempt for professional or ethical standards. He was insinuating, once again, that the liberal media cannot be trusted because it won't report on stories that were fabricated by Fox News. It's a variation on network's standard formula: Tell a lie and in the same breath impugn your opponents as dishonest. It's the rhetorical trick used to preempt any effort at honest debate or compromise. It's what Fox news is all about. That's the formula. It doesn't matter whether Fox News is trying to pass off their programming as straight news reporting or as a two-sided debate. You may hear the Democratic side and you will hear the Republican side, which always includes an allegation - explicit or implicit - that the Democrats are dishonest. Democrats are never allowed to question the credibility of their right wing attackers. The other part of the Fox News formula is that information takes a back seat to repetition. The e-mails were divulged two weeks ago, the aggrieved scientists said they were taken out of context, and that should have been end of it. The giveaway - the proof that Baier's intention is fraudulent - is what never happened. No real scientist came forward and said this new information should prompt us to reconsider our understanding of climate change. But Baier and his cohorts recycled the same story, over and over, always trotting out phony experts to frame the debate. It's exactly like those who presume to pit the Holocaust deniers against the Holocaust scholars, and then rig the format so that Holocaust deniers always get the last word to accuse the other side of dishonesty. For a sampling of those efforts, see below. Fox's global warming deniers have an intellectual cohort named David Irving, who 20 years earlier carefully combed through the scientific data to select isolated pieces of information, which, he claimed, debunked the conventional wisdom of the academic establishment. But he noted he that other experts "have begun using the tools of forensic science -- carbon-dating, gas chromatography, and simple ink-aging tests -- to examine, and not infrequently dispel, some of the more tenaciously held myths of the twentieth century... Forensic chemistry is, I repeat, an exact science." Irving referenced work of Fred Leuchter, who, based on careful forensic research, claimed that his study discredited the notion that Jews were killed in gas chambers at Auschwitz. Though bona fide scientists carefully detailed all the flaws in that crackpot analysis, Leuchter and the Institute For Historical Review, remain unconvinced. The Institute of Historical Review is the Fox News of Holocaust studies. Some of Fox News' sloppy kisses to the cyber-terrorists: Special Report, December 3, 2009: An American researcher is threatening to sue NASA over its alleged distortion of climate change data. This follows revelations that scientists at a British university have changed or destroyed similar information. Christopher Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, believes NASA manipulated temperature information to support its claim that the present decade is the warmest on record: "They don't want to admit the trend. It's cooling and they're trying not to say that.... When you talk about temperatures this decade and compare them to 1885, where were we measuring the temperature in 1885?" Fox never disclosed that the Competitive Enterprise Institute is funded by the oil industry. Special Report, November 30, 2009: BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: As you heard Wendell Goler's report, a large collection of e-mails exchange among weather researchers of the University of East Anglia in England have gotten out and caused a scandal. The reason that university's climate research matters is that it has been heavily relied upon by the U.N. in reaching its alarmist conclusions about the threat of global warming. The reason it's a scandal is that the e-mails vividly portray leading scientists there scheming to suppress or discredit data and analysis contrary to their dire predictions. The whole idea that the earth is warming dangerously and that man, by burning carbon fuels is the cause, rests on computerized projections of future temperatures based on vast amounts of previously observed climate data. But there's a huge problem. There has been no apparent increase in global temperatures over the past 11 years, and the computerized climate models failed to predict this and the global warming alarmists can't explain it. The obvious conclusion would be is that there's something wrong with the computer models. Now it has come out that the original raw data used to create these models has been destroyed or otherwise disposed of. The response of the alarmists to these revelations has been that the e-mails were taken out of context and that the destruction of all that raw data was done for space reasons. There's a one-word answer to all of that. Please -- Bret. "Please," is not an answer; it's a bitchy insinuation. Special Report, November 25, 2009: It's unclear if economic concerns are feeding the doubts, but they are fueling a challenge to the EPA's claim that it has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions which the Competitive Enterprise Institute says could cost trillions. MYRON EBELL, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: We think that the EPA's decision is fundamentally flawed because it is based on junk science. GOLER: Myron Ebell's group has found new ammunition in thousands of e-mails hacked or leaked from East Anglia University in England which allegedly show climate change data was distorted or destroyed to make the case for global warming. EBELL: If we're cherry-picking, these are very large cherries. They're very ripe and they're very hard to miss once you look through these files and these e-mails. GOLER: For example, Kevin Trenberth of the U.S. Center for Atmospheric Research saying, quote, "The fact is we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it's a travesty that we can't." Dr. Trenberth and others say their words were taken out of context. KEVIN TRENBERTH, NATL CTR FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH: It certainly doesn't mean that there's no global warming. It does mean we don't have a complete enough observing system to fully track exactly what's going on and especially why it's going on. GOLER: Trenberth says rising CO2 levels, melting ice, rising water and warmer temperatures are all measurable. TRENBERTH: Global warming is happening. There are some uncertainties and the models are not perfect. And the key questions are then what do we do about it, and this is where the debate certainly is required. (END VIDEOTAPE) GOLER: Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe plans hearings on whether the e-mails show the science on climate change was cooked. Special Report, November 24, 2009: The leading global warming skeptic in Congress says he will ask for an investigation into allegations that some scientists have purposely overstated the data supporting the theory of man-made climate change. Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe is referring to information discovered by computer hackers who reportedly broke into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain. One of the e-mails found and posted from center director Phil Jones refers to a technique to, "hide the decline" in recent global temperatures. Jones wrote that in compiling new data he had used what he called the "trick" of adding in temperatures from different time periods to "hide the decline." Climate change skeptics argue data indicates global temperatures stopped increasing as far back as 1960. Jones says the comment was taken out of context. Inhofe points to all that to bolster his suspicion that the United Nations and its climate change panel, "cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time... we knew it was not." From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 8 21:52:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 20:52:19 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change Message-ID: <00c801ca788b$90ce0ad0$b26a2070$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS When I read the 'fear factor' in messages like this one, I again see that the projections are based on commercial agriculture and using the same crops as today being the basis for the forecasts. There is no consideration for raising "super foods" that provide more nutrition than do grains that require mono-cropping and lots of water. And growing these foods in smaller spaces -- no more huge fields of grain or feedlots of cattle being fattened for market. No imagination at all by those who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo. We need to start thinking outside of the box folks, no repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting a different outcome. Which BTW is the definition of insanity. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 5:22 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change The Links Between Food Security And Climate Change Kanayo F. Nwanze, Copenhagen official site http://en.cop15.dk/blogs/view+blog?blogid=2560 The future of global food security is highly dependent on two important and inter-related factors. The first is the degree to which developing countries will succeed in raising agricultural productivity through technological change and effective natural resource management. The second is the degree to which the world will succeed in limiting climate change, while helping developing countries adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects. The scale of the challenge of assuring global food security is reflected in current projections for population growth, and the accompanying projected growth in the demand for food. On current trends, the world's population is projected to swell from 6.8 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050. Most of the growth, as can be expected, will occur in developing countries. Feeding 9.1 billion people will require that overall global food production grow by 70 per cent. Production in the developing countries will need to almost double. The enormous burden of feeding a growing global population is made heavier by the expected adverse impact of climate change on food production. Recent studies and projections paint a dire picture. In Eastern and South Asia, climate change is expected to affect rains, increase the frequency of droughts, and raise average temperatures, threatening the availability of fresh water for agricultural production. In sub-Saharan Africa, arid and semi-arid areas are projected to increase significantly. And in Southern Africa, yields from rain-fed agriculture are expected to fall by up to 50 per cent as early as 2020. The impact of climate change on agriculture is therefore likely to lead to a loss of stability in productivity and an overall decline in food production. Unless urgent action is taken, climate change will undoubtedly worsen global food security and dramatically increase the number of people facing hunger and malnutrition. Current estimates indicate that climate change could put 63 million more people at risk of hunger by 2020. ...Such efforts must necessarily focus on the 500 million smallholder farmers worldwide who currently support around 2 billion people, or one third of the world's population. Increasing their productivity is essential not only to secure the food and nutrition needs of these farmers, but also of the millions of people who depend on them. The recent global food security initiatives must be complemented by concrete steps to limit climate change if their goals are to be met. It is therefore vital that at Copenhagen negotiators indeed 'seal a credible climate deal'. I hope that the agreement not only delivers cuts in emissions, but also recognizes the close and unique relation between food security and climate change... (11 Nov 2009) The hopes for a firm treaty at Copenhagen have been all but shattered now. -KS related: http://www.ciwf.org.uk/resources/publications/eating_the_planet.aspx and http://www.ciwf.org.uk/news/factory_farming/we_dont_need_factory_farming... From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 9 06:48:36 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 05:48:36 -0800 Subject: [GJM] The Ultimate Conspiracy Message-ID: <002201ca78d6$6f5534f0$4dff9ed0$@net> This video may be of interest along with others associated with it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uf5SaoQjJc &NR=1&feature=fvwp Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 9 07:58:25 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:58:25 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - Sleep - The music of Health? Message-ID: <002f01ca78e0$3522f010$9f68d030$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Please see my next message where I am providing links to Mark Romero's website as I don't want anyone to miss the scientific information behind Mark's music. Thanks a million to Don Parks and Science for Life for getting this important Information out to all of us. Thanks From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:24 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - Sleep - The music of Health? Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, I hope you will join us today as we welcome Mark Romero back to Science for Life. Mark has had an incredible impact on our audience with his music, and today we talk about sleep. Yes, too many of us are losing sleep in our transition to the energy flow and intensity of today. It's OK, this is a show you can listen to while you drive. We won't put you to sleep, but we might awaken you. Join Us. www.ScienceforLife.net Today, 9:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 Noon Eastern or 24/7 On Demand Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 9 08:13:29 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:13:29 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - Sleep - The music of Health? Message-ID: <003401ca78e2$55078a60$ff169f20$@net> From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 3:24 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - Sleep - The music of Health? Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, I hope you will join us today as we welcome Mark Romero back to Science for Life. Mark has had an incredible impact on our audience with his music, and today we talk about sleep. Yes, too many of us are losing sleep in our transition to the energy flow and intensity of today. It's OK, this is a show you can listen to while you drive. We won't put you to sleep, but we might awaken you. Join Us. www.ScienceforLife.net Today, 9:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 Noon Eastern or 24/7 On Demand Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 9 08:14:58 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:14:58 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Music for Life Message-ID: <004201ca78e2$86d66520$94832f60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Lately, I have been writing about the Solfeggio Scale and the power of music to heal. Along these lines, check out these two web pages and learn more about the music of Mark Romero and the science behind the music he plays. http://www.markromeromusic.com/articles/ar12.html http://www.markromeromusic.com/aboutmark/ Thanks much to Don Parks and Science for Life for leading me to learn more about Mark Romero and share this knowledge with you as promoting healing music is fast becoming a leading edge passion with me as the potential for healing and transformation via this route is virtually unlimited. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 11 04:02:01 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 11 Dec 2009 03:02:01 -0800 Subject: [GJM] EU presses IMF over financial transaction tax  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.92 -------------------- Personal message text: The usual conventional thinking on finance! -------------------- EU presses IMF over financial transaction tax?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091211/tts-uk-eu-summit-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 11 04:10:37 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 11 Dec 2009 03:10:37 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Soros proposes fund to unlock climate talks  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.109 -------------------- Personal message text: Soros and SDRs again..... -------------------- Soros proposes fund to unlock climate talks?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091210/tpl-uk-climate-copenhagen-business-b64c7e7.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 11 04:13:06 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 11 Dec 2009 03:13:06 -0800 Subject: [GJM] EU scrambles through the night to find climate cash - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.190.41 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- EU scrambles through the night to find climate cash http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20091211/tsc-eu-scrambles-through-the-night-to-fi-4de741d.html ============================================================ From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 10 13:07:32 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:07:32 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: InterStellar Hypnotism Re: Spiral blue light display hovers above Norway & More by Mary Rose Message-ID: <008d01ca79d4$92b0fa20$b812ee60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Constance Demby for this information. Anyone having any further information or ideas as to what this may be please share them with the Co-learner?s List Constance is one of the foremost recognized musicians in the field of ?healing music?. Constance also makes some of her own instruments to ensure she gets exactly the right tones. Please check out her website at: www.constancedemby.com/ How healing music works is that it brings one?s body/mind field back into a coherence pattern if it is operating in a chaos pattern. If there are two violins in a room and the ?C? chord on one of them is plucked, the other one will begin to vibrate in resonance. The same is true of the human body which is a subtle energy field with its own signatory vibration as discovered by Valerie V. Hunt and revealed in her book: Infinite Mind ? Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness. Today, all sorts of toxic chemicals, microwaves, and other harmful energies have invaded our environment and affect our body/mind field creating a chaos pattern which manifests as ?dis-ease? . However, through listening to healing music played in the range of the Solfeggio scale, one?s energy field can quickly be returned to a normal healthy coherence pattern which significantly influences one?s state of mind. It has been demonstrated that the 528 hz note is capable of repairing damaged DNA. For more information on energy field patterns, see: Valerie V. Hunt: http://valerievhunt.com/ValerieVHunt.com/Valerie_Hunt_EdD.html and order her book: Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness. For more information on the Solfeggio scale, here is a website that may aid in your understanding. http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2006/01jan/solfeggio.html Please remember that what we think of as ?God? is the electromagnetic energy field that ?underlies? and perhaps more appropriately phrased reads ?surrounds all of life.? It is the interaction between the subtle energy fields of the human body, the earth and other cosmic fields, and the universe itself that creates what we interpret to be ?spirit? and which when referred to as ?a higher power? appears to be correct. With love and appreciation to everyone. From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 9:07 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: InterStellar Hypnotism Re: Spiral blue light display hovers above Norway ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Constance Demby Date: Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:47 PM Subject: InterStellar Hypnotism Re: Spiral blue light display hovers above Norway To: Constance Demby http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html Mystery as spiral blue light display hovers above Norway By Mail Foreign Service Last updated at 12:53 AM on 10th December 2009 What's blue and white, squiggly and suddenly appears in the sky? If you know the answer, pop it on a postcard and send it to the people of Norway, where this mysterious light display baffled residents yesterday. Curiously, it appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world. Strange spiral: Residents in northern Norway were left stunned after the lightshow, which almost looked computer-generated, appeared in the skies above them Curious: A blue-green beam of light was reported to have come shooting out the centre of the spiral The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely. Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm. Confusion: The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with calls after the light storm Totto Eriksen, from Troms?, told VG Nett: 'It spun and exploded in the sky,' He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school. He said: 'We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Troms?. It was absolutely fantastic. 'It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens. 'It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.' Celebrity astronomer Knut J?rgen R?ed ?degaard said he had never seen anything like the lights. He said: 'My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long. 'It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.' What could it be? Astronomers say the spectacle did not appear to be connected to the Northern Lights Air traffic control in Troms? claimed the light show lasted 'far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon'. Norwegian defence spokesman Jon Espen Lien also said the lights were probably from a Russian missile test claiming it was normal for Russia to use the White Sea and the Barents Sea as a testing ground. Troms? Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel. But the mystery deepened last night as Russia denied it had been conducting missile tests in the area. A Moscow news outlet quoted the Russian Navy as denying any rocket launches from the White Sea area. Norway should be informed of such launches under international agreements, it was stressed. The Russian Defence Ministry was unavailable for comment. See video http://www.dailymail.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html#ixzz0ZFOLciQx -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 41131 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 30902 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 77679 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 24721 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 10 15:13:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:13:45 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Paterson: 'New York Has Run Out Of Cash' Message-ID: <00a501ca79e6$32d06e80$98714b80$@net> For your information and consideration. What appears is that in order to survive the crisis, we must abandon the national/international monetary system and resort to local currency exchanges. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 5:14 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Paterson: 'New York Has Run Out Of Cash' (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Paterson: 'New York Has Run Out Of Cash' http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/09/paterson-new-york-has-run_n_386403. html MICHAEL VIRTANEN | 12/ 9/09 04:48 PM ALBANY, N.Y. - Gov. David Paterson said Wednesday that New York has run out of cash and he's directing budget officials to reduce state aid payments to schools, local governments and nonprofit service providers until things improve. Speaking at the Museum of American Finance in Manhattan, Paterson said he'll probably get sued, but he won't let the state run out of money on his watch. "I am directing the Division of the Budget to limit payments so that we will have the cash to pay our debts at the end of December," Paterson said. "I will continue to withhold payments until this economy is leveled off." "Now New York has run out of cash," he said. "You can't spend money that you don't have." Budget Director Robert Megna said the state faces a shortfall of more than $1 billion in the general fund at the end of December, which would be a first for New York. Other state funds can be tapped to help close that gap, Megna said, but even using all $1.2 billion of rainy day reserves and delaying a pension fund payment will leave the margin "razor thin." Rather than risking some setback that would force hasty cuts, Megna said the administration is cutting spending in an orderly fashion. The Budget Division plans to detail temporary cuts this week, he said. In his executive budget proposal next year, Paterson could propose making them permanent. "We've had a revenue collapse over the last 24 to 36 month period," Megna said. "The state's cash position is at its weakest point in recent history." Last week, after lawmakers agreed to cuts of about $2.8 billion, Paterson said it wouldn't be enough. He warned then of reduced and delayed payments, targeting school aid and funding to hospitals. Timothy Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, said they've asked their roughly 700 members to assess the impact if approximately $300 million in school aid is delayed or permanently cut, which Paterson had proposed in November. Lawmakers rejected the cut, which would be a roughly 1.5 percent reduction across the board. "We think it's inappropriate and likely illegal for him to unilaterally act in that way," Kremer said. Several organizations, including his association, may seek a court order to block it, he said. Stephen Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties, said their reimbursements for providing state-mandated services like public health, mental hygiene and other programs are already lagging by months and in some cases a year or more. "Many counties don't have the available fund balance to cover the state's bills," he said. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 10 15:22:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:22:12 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Big melt meets big empty: Rethinking the implications of climate change and peak oil Message-ID: <00a601ca79e7$65d87010$31895030$@net> For your information and consideration. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 4:15 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Big melt meets big empty: Rethinking the implications of climate change and peak oil (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) (Heinberg makes the connection: how does Peak Oil affect projections of climate change? This angle is completely missing from the IPCC. He finds decline in fossil fuel emissions from the Peak Oil downslope will occur but not enough.) Big melt meets big empty: Rethinking the implications of climate change and peak oil by Richard Heinberg Published Nov 4 2007 by Museletter / Global Public Media, Archived Nov 4 2007 http://globalpublicmedia.com/richard_heinbergs_museletter_big_melt_meets_big _empty Environmental and development NGOs are now fixated on climate change to the exclusion of nearly every other topic. Discussions in and among these organizations center on capping carbon emissions and trading emissions rights, and doing this internationally in a way that will be deemed equitable by the global South and acceptable to the industrial Northern countries. Most of these policy organizations are seeking ways of implementing recommendations made in 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which suggested that to keep the global average temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (by consensus, the maximum increase the world's climate system can absorb without triggering catastrophic climate change), the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere must be capped at 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalents. This will require a 60 to 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions below current levels by 2050. In order to win any reduction agreement from less-industrialized nations, the richer, more industrialized nations will have to promise to reduce their emissions more and faster. A growing number of organizations (including the Global Commons Institute, EcoEquity, the Climate Equity Project, Feasta, Just Transition Alliance, The Sky Trust, and Third World Network) contend that the fairest solution would be to allocate annually capped emissions rights globally on an equal per-capita basis; then, if wealthy nations wished to continue using proportionally more fossil fuels, they would have to purchase emissions rights from more parsimonious consumers in poor nations. This would result over time in both a diminishing amount of total emissions (based on the declining trajectory of the annual caps) and an enormous transfer of wealth from the more-industrialized to the less-industrialized nations. Some organizations advocate immediate allotment of equal per-capita emissions rights; others envision a staged implementation of the program, that would give wealthier nations time to plan and adjust (the two most widely promoted versions of this strategy are known as "Contraction and Convergence" and "Cap and Share"). >From the perspective of less-industrialized countries, a global climate policy that does not include an equity provision is a non-starter. The existing humanly produced atmospheric carbon, which will continue driving climate change for the next 40 years or so even if all emissions are halted now, was generated overwhelmingly by rich countries in the process of getting rich. Thus it is these countries' obligation to shoulder most of the burden of necessary cutbacks. A second equity argument has to do with expected population growth: since the population of the global South is expected to double during the next 50 years while total population in rich countries is projected to remain at current levels (the US is an exception), even if the South reduces carbon emissions at half the rate of the industrial North that will translate to an equivalent per-capita cut. If people in the industrializing countries (particularly China and India) continue to burn more coal and drive more cars, they will metaphorically cook the planet. These nations have the highest growth rates for fossil fuel emissions, and China is set to soon become the world's foremost carbon emitter if it has not already done so. These nations are in effect saying to North America, Europe, and Japan, "Agree to reduce your emissions faster than we do, or we won't reduce ours at all and the entire planet will burn." This Grand Bargain could amount to an unprecedented shift of the world's economic center of gravity. During decades of "development" policy and aid, the disparity between rich and poor only grew; now, however, the poor world has a weapon - even if its use implies a suicide pact. The environment/development advocacy community is pushing its agenda with particular urgency for two reasons: first, scientific data show dramatic climate impacts already appearing that could devastate global ecosystems within decades or even years (more on that in a moment); and second, the agenda itself promises to solve at one stroke three enormous problems - the world's unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels, a pending environmental catastrophe, and the global equity dilemma. However, the Grand Bargain is going to hit three serious snags before it can gain acceptance: politics, scarcity of fuels, and a growing perception that it is already too late to avert catastrophic climate change. These barriers may require new tactics if NGOs are to achieve their goals. Has the Climate Revolver Already Fired? In a paper titled "Climate Change and Trace Gases" published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society earlier this year, six of America's leading climate scientists, led by James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, warned that the Earth is rapidly approaching a "tipping point" beyond which climate change will become unstoppable (www.planetwork.net/climate/Hansen2007.pdf). The authors discussed feedback mechanisms not included in the assessments of the IPCC and argued that unless effective measures are put in place to control CO2 emissions over the next ten years, the rise in the Earth's temperature could set loose self-reinforcing processes that would be beyond human control. Some critics said Hansen was overstating his case. Richard Peltier, a University of Toronto physicist and the director of the Centre for Global Change Science, criticized the tone of the paper and the use of words such as "cataclysm," saying that Hansen had moved "dangerously away from scientific discourse to advocacy" (http://postcarboncities.net/node/1018). But this was before the summer Arctic ice melt of 2007. This year, Arctic ice reached a minimum extent of 4.13 million square kilometers, compared to the previous record low of 5.32 million square kilometers in 2005. This represented a decline of 22 per cent in just two years; the difference amounted to an expanse of ice roughly the size of Texas and California combined. Between 1979 and 2005, the rate of Arctic ice retreat had averaged 7 percent per decade; in the two years from September 2005 to September 2007 that rate increased to more than 20 percent. Moreover, the average thickness of the ice has declined by about half since 2001. Altogether, taking into account both geographic extent and thickness, summer Arctic sea ice has lost more than 80 per cent of its volume in four decades. While sea levels will not be directly affected by the total melting of the northern icecap since it floats on and thus displaces ocean water, that event will severely destabilize Greenland's ice pack - whose disappearance would cause sea levels to rise by several meters, inundating coastal cities home to hundreds of millions. The organization Carbon Equity issued a report last month, "The Big Melt: Lessons from the Arctic Summer of 2007" (www.carbonequity.info/PDFs/Arctic.pdf), which draws conclusions from this disturbing new information: The data surveyed suggests strongly that in many key areas the IPCC process has been so deficient as to be an unreliable and indeed a misleading basis for policy-making. . . . Take just one example: the most fundamental and widely supported tenet - that 2?C represents a reasonable maximum target if we are to avoid dangerous climate change - can no longer be defended. Today at less than a 1?C rise the Arctic sea ice is headed for very rapid disintegration, in all likelihood triggering the irreversible loss of the Greenland ice sheet and catastrophic sea level increases. Many species are on the precipice, climatechange- induced drought or changing monsoon patterns are sweeping every continent, the carbon sinks are losing capacity and the seas are acidifying. . . . The Arctic began to lose volume at least 20 years ago when the global temperature was about 0.5?C over the pre-industrial level. So we can now see that to protect the Arctic the average global temperature rise should be under 0.5?C. According to the report, if this suggested 0.5?C precautionary warming cap were adopted, the target for allowable concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases would have to be about 320 ppm CO2 equivalents, a level that was passed more than 50 years ago. Another report published this month, this one in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/oct/23/climatechange.carbonemissions), documents that carbon is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than previously thought, and only adds weight to the Carbon Equity recommendations. While global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning rose annually by 0.7 percent in the 1990s, the new study shows they have increased by an average 2.9 percent each year since 2000. What would targets of 0.5 degrees warming over pre-industrial levels, and 320 ppm CO2e, mean in terms of policy? While the Carbon Equity report doesn't say so, if all nations were to bear the brunt of equal emissions cuts the latter would have to be huge - well over 90 percent in just three or four decades. But if international equity is also targeted, this means that for the wealthy nations more than 100 percent reduction would be needed. In other words, leaving aside the notion of carbon capture and storage (discussed below), not only would wealthy nations have to transform their economies to run entirely without fossil fuels (which currently supply 85 percent of world energy), but they would need to spend considerable capital on efforts to capture and sequester existing atmospheric carbon - for example, through massive reforestation projects. One has to wonder: With all the energy and investment that would be needed to de-carbonize industrial economies (by developing renewable energy sources, building public transportation infrastructure, and so on) and store carbon, what money and energy would be left to run existing economies, much less to fuel growth in goods and services to the population? Politics: An Alternate Reality Climate science exists in a different world from the one peopled by politicians. Inhabitants of both worlds think of themselves as realists: while scientists study the real physical world, politicians are arbiters of what can and will get done in the real human socio-economic world. In general, any policy that means voluntary economic contraction of any noticeable magnitude doesn't stand much of a chance in the real world of politics. At least in the current political climate, absent a massive public education effort, voters will not support it and no politician will stake her career on it. This in itself constitutes an enormous roadblock to the achievement even of the IPCC recommendations, much less the far more stringent targets (but more "realistic" ones in the scientific sense) that Carbon Equity is proposing. Faced with this roadblock, climate activists typically respond by minimizing the estimated cost of de-carbonizing economies, and by assuring one and all that economic growth can continue into the indefinite future while industrial nations radically reduce their consumption of the very fuels that made the industrial revolution possible. But if this sanguine, politically acceptable notion is at least arguable in the case of the IPCC reduction targets, it is hardly credible when it comes to the emissions reduction trajectory suggested by Carbon Equity. Take the US as an atypical but essential example. One can realistically calculate a possible 50 percent reduction in fossil fuel consumption for the country through conservation (though that will be an enormous job, requiring extensive new electrified public transport infrastructure, new housing codes, subsidized energy retrofit programs, and so on). Another 25 percent of current fossil fuel consumption could be offset with renewable energy sources. All of this would take a few decades, and during that time we have to assume no population growth and no economic growth. That gets us to 75 percent reduction from current levels. Beyond that, it is difficult to see how more could be achieved - unless America continues burning fossil fuels but captures and stores the carbon. Suddenly with that possibility a relief valve is opened: coal-based electricity could flow in to fill the void. This is why carbon capture and storage is the technical centerpiece of most politically acceptable prescriptions for climate salvation. However, technologies for carbon capture will add to the cost of energy, will reduce the amount of useful energy derivable from fossil fuels, and won't be ready for widespread commercial application for about three decades. We do not even know if the captured carbon will stay where we put it. These are not trivial problems, and the first two will bite hard in the emerging context of scarce energy supplies and high prices (more on that below). Still, politicians are feeling increasing pressure from constituents, NGOs, and the scientific community to agree at least to the IPCC target of 60 to 80 percent emissions reductions by 2050. The European nations have signed on to a carbon reduction scheme, as has the state of California. The method being adopted is cap-and-trade - the creation of a carbon emissions rights market that, according to its critics, is actually an elaborate shell game that enables wealthy nations and energy corporations to continue burning fuels at high rates by paying others to do the hard work of figuring out how to get by on less fuel (a point hilariously illustrated on the website www.cheatneutral.com). While cap-and-trade employs many of the same basic mechanisms as the emissions rights distribution programs advocated by the environmental/equity NGOs, there are also substantial differences: governments and corporations envision high caps and free or auctioned distribution of emissions rights to industry; the NGOs advocate much lower caps and free distribution of rights to the people. Resolving these two visions of the process will be no small matter. But let's assume the best - that cap-and-trade will in fact move nations toward their targeted reductions; in that case, would promises continue to be met if compliance began to compromise economic growth? Significantly, California's climate law, AB32, contains an escape clause: 1. In the event of extraordinary circumstances, catastrophic events, or threat of significant economic harm, the Governor may adjust the applicable deadlines for individual regulations, or for the state in the aggregate, to the earliest feasible date after that deadline. 2. The adjustment period may not exceed one year unless the Governor makes an additional adjustment pursuant to subdivision (a). In other words, the Governor can essentially cancel the state's greenhouse gas reduction efforts for a year, then do the same the next year, and so on. Meanwhile, international bargaining on the equity issue will be a nightmare. The "North/South" terminology used by development NGOs utterly fails to capture the complexity of the negotiations. The reality is that "North" consists primarily of the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, and South Korea, which have quite different energy trajectories and political positions. "South" consists of rapidly industrializing countries (China, India), really poor countries whose economies are stagnant or declining (Zimbabwe, for example), as well as major fossil fuel exporters (OPEC) whose revenues are increasing but whose industrial base is small. Again, these categories of countries have very different energy mixes and bargaining positions that are poorly captured by a single term. China represents itself as speaking for the entire less-industrialized world in insisting on an equity provision, and in some ways this makes sense: its voice is much louder than that of Zimbabwe, so the latter gets a free megaphone. But China can easily afford to bid up energy prices and can continue to grow its economy even with oil at $100 per barrel, while Zimbabwe can't afford much fuel at all at current prices even if it is permitted to burn all it likes under climate accords. Thus the practical climate mitigation question that must be addressed with regard to the South is not whether the desperately poor in fuel-importing nations should have the right to industrialize using coal or oil - that is not an option, given global supply constraints (which, again, we will address in a moment); the question, rather, is whether China and India will continue to industrialize by burning coal. Russia is in a category of its own, but due to its wealth of remaining fuels it will be a key player in the energy and climate discussions. And so, while in some ways the situation is more complex than it is represented to be, in another it is simpler. As James Hansen has recently noted (http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/notyet/submitted_Kharecha_Hansen.pdf), the resolution of the climate dilemma really centers on coal (it is the world's fastest growing energy source because of its current cheapness and abundance, while it is also the most carbon-intensive of fuels), and thus it revolves mostly around four nations - China, the US, India, and Russia (the US and Russia have the largest reserves; China is the foremost consumer; and India has both large reserves and fastgrowing consumption levels). Getting these countries to agree on major reductions in coal consumption, in which the US reduces much faster than India and China for the sake of global equity while Russia keeps its treasure chest of fuels buried, is going to be . . . well, difficult. Moreover, since China consumes twice as much coal as the US, arguing for the US to reduce faster than China is also, in effect, arguing for slower total declines in emissions from coal. And we must remember: the global South may have a leverage point here, but the North still has the guns. In history, nations have gone to war to enforce or avoid transfers of wealth much smaller than those implied in some climate equity proposals. But What About Supply? Conventional cap-and-trade carbon markets work by creating a scarce commodity (rights to emit) and then allocating that commodity by price. If the commodity turns out not to be scarce, its price will collapse and so will the market. If fossil fuel depletion means that carbon emissions will be declining anyway, rights to emit carbon will cease to be scarce. People will buy such rights only if they can afford the fuel. When fuel is expensive and the supply is shrinking at a rate comparable to reduction rates mandated by caps, the carbon market becomes utterly irrelevant. That is essentially the situation we face. Global oil production has probably already peaked, as was affirmed just this month by an authoritative report from the Energy Watch Group of Germany (www.energywatchgroup.de/Erdoel-Report.32+M5d637b1e38d.0.html). The peak for global natural gas production is likely to follow in a few years, perhaps a decade or two at most. And, according to another Energy Watch Group study, "Coal: Resources and Future Production," published earlier this year, global coal production is likely to peak between 2025 and 2030 (www.energywatchgroup.org/files/Coalreport.pdf). With oil past its peak, and with gas and coal able to do little to compensate, total energy derived from fossil fuels will peak around 2010, while total CO2 emissions will peak somewhat later due to the fact that coal will commence its decline after oil and gas. Aside from the fact that it undermines the efficacy of carbon trading, this news has one good, one not-so-good, and one rather terrible implication. On the good side, the early peaking of fossil fuels means that most estimates of future global carbon emissions will never be realized. The Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) of the IPCC presents 40 scenarios for future CO2 emissions. Most scenarios show growth in emissions to 2100; the average of all 40 shows fossil fuel consumption in 2100 at about twice current levels. The Report offers no discussion of supply constraints for oil, gas, or coal. Engineering professor David Rutledge of the California Institute of Technology has authored an online article titled "The Coal Question and Climate Change" (www.theoildrum.com/node/2697), in which he applies techniques typically used to forecast oil production peaks to coal, arriving at conclusions similar to those of the Energy Watch Group. In his analysis, supply constraints will yield lower emissions from coal than envisioned in any of the 40 IPCC scenarios. On the basis of supply constraints alone - not assuming any voluntary emissions-based consumption cuts - atmospheric CO2 will peak at 460 ppm by 2070. Rutledge writes: The maximum temperature rise for our Producer-Limited Profile is 1.8?C in 2150. The . . . part of the temperature rise that is associated with future fossil fuel use . . . is calculated by running the simulation with and without future fossil fuels, and subtracting. It turns out that the maximum temperature rise associated with future fossil fuel use is only 0.8?C, less than half of the total. This means that the contributions to the temperature rise from fossil fuels that have already been consumed, and from deforestation, and from other greenhouse gases amount to more than the contribution from future fossilfuel use. So much for the good implication of fuel supply constraints. The not-so-good implication is that, while shortages of extractable oil, gas, and coal will nearly ensure the achievement of the low-range IPCC targets of 60 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050, they will not guarantee the more than 90 percent reductions by 2040 that will be required if we are to come close to achieving 320 ppm CO2e before the end of the century. Thus deep carbon cuts will still be needed if there is yet hope of averting catastrophic climate change. The terrible implication is that a relentlessly declining fuel supply will almost certainly have devastating economic, social, and political impacts. Trade, manufacturing, and farming will be hard hit. No nation is prepared to deal with the high prices and shortages for energy that will soon begin to work their way through the entire global economic system. Political Reality Confronts Physical Reality Taking all of this information together - the physical realities of climate data and fuel supply projections, and the political realities previously mentioned - what conclusions can be drawn? Perhaps the best way to find out would be to bring together several of the most knowledgeable and open-minded experts in relevant fields and let them talk these issues through for a few days away from the public eye. However, until that happens here are a few thoughts of my own. Some kind of climate agreement will probably emerge within the next two years due to pressure from NGOs and the real concerns of governments. But the economic self-interest of those governments (and major corporations) will most likely ensure that only a watered-down version will be agreed to. Some form of carbon market will be deemed the acceptable means of implementing it. And its terms will include a mild equity provision that won't make anyone happy. At the same time, supply constraints will be starting to hit hard - globally for oil, regionally for gas, and in China for coal. Ultimately, these supply shortfalls may drive policy far more than fear of climate change. The response of governments to fuel shortages will be one of desperation: climate mitigation efforts will fall by the wayside as nations flail about attempting to keep their food and transport systems functioning. International conflict is likely. This clearly is not the optimal scenario. What alternative policies would yield different results, and how might we go about assessing policy options in the light of factors discussed above? One way to begin the assessment process would be to list and rank candidate policies in a two-by-three matrix. Start with two vertical columns; in the first, list those that could actually achieve emissions reductions; in the second, list those that could actually help societies adapt to scarce and expensive energy. In these first two columns, order policies in terms of the degree of positive impact anticipated. Then in three rows, rank those policies in terms of (1) how they will affect equity; (2) how politically viable they are now; and (3) how politically viable they are likely to be in the context of energy scarcity. If a policy is likely to be highly efficacious but is politically unacceptable now or later, we might leave it on the table for further consideration while taking note of the problem. (The fact is, policies that rank well under the heading of what is politically viable now may not correspond with much of anything in the high range of the two columns.) It would be interesting to see if different organizations would arrive at similar or widely varying conclusions from this exercise. The following are some observations from my own initial run-through. At the top of the two columns should be some overall umbrella policy to manage the transition away from fossil fuels. We have already seen the potential problems with cap-and-trade resulting from fuel shortages. Those problems could be addressed by lowering the caps with the goal of making emissions rights scarce again, but in a contracting economy this might not work, and most people would see the effort as arbitrary and onerous anyway. Distribution of emissions rights directly to the people on an equal per-capita basis might help avert a carbon market collapse (as long as there was a demand for fuel, there would also be demand for the emissions rights). But why not just cap the extraction, and ration the distribution, of fuels themselves instead of regulating the emissions they produce? The rationing of scarce fuels is historically proven; this approach would be both more effective, and more intuitively reasonable and understandable to all concerned. Two existing proposals could be helpful here - the Oil Depletion Protocol (www.oildepletionprotocol.org), which if generalized would provide a direct mechanism for capping fossil fuel extraction and consumption; and Tradable Energy Quotas (www.teqs.net), guaranteeing equitable access to the available domestic supply of scarce fuels - a basic electronic rationing scheme that will be essential when oil outages begin, and that needs to be installed in advance. Since fuel depletion alone will not result in emissions cuts sufficient to achieve an atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration of 320 ppm CO2e, and since carbon capture and storage is problematic, if nations are serious about climate protection the discussion must center on leaving coal and other low-grade fossil fuels (such as tar sands) in the ground. The fact that this is a politically distasteful notion now, and is likely to become even more so, puts a big burden on the persuasive abilities of all of us who care about the climate. But this is the one policy that will assuredly work to achieve our goal. As for equity: Since we live on a finite planet, equity for the global poor can only really be achieved by a reduction in material living standards for the billion or so inhabitants of wealthy nations. As we have seen, this notion is extremely difficult to sell to the governments of industrialized democracies now, and it will be no less so when their economies are in tatters. However, steep declines in standards of living will be hitting these wealthy countries anyway, due simply to depletion of important energy resources, starting with oil. The only way to avert massive social chaos and famine as extraction levels decline will be to devote public capital domestically toward the building of low-energy infrastructure (e.g., electrified rail networks, trolley lines, wind farms) while moving many people to rural areas and teaching them to farm sustainably. Production and consumption will have to be largely re-localized, essential goods rationed by quota. Basically the same thing will have to happen in the poor nations. One end result will be a world characterized by much greater international equity - but this will have been achieved without enormous direct international wealth transfers. Another result might be the reduction of control by the present power-holders within all nations, since their power is currently maintained and exerted in the context of giant centralized systems of production and distribution. One more helpful equity strategy would consist of the transfer of renewable energy technologies from rich to poor countries for domestic implementation free of intellectual property rights. The single factor that would undermine the energy transition and bring everyone to ruin is resource wars. Some of the policies mentioned (such as the development of renewables and reforms to industrial agriculture) are ones climate activists are hoping to promote indirectly through emissions caps. My analysis suggests that it may be better to champion these policies more directly, and to buttress the argument with depletion data. Ultimately, power holders must be convinced that such policies, if obnoxious to them now, will be far less destructive to their interests than a complete breakdown of society and biosphere - which is the very real alternative. For a historic example of a similar conversion of elites think of the 1930s New Deal: then the titans of industry had to sacrifice some of their financial power in order to keep from losing it all. Many wealthy individuals never forgave Franklin Roosevelt, whom they regarded as a "traitor to his class," but most of them reluctantly agreed that redistribution represented the lesser of evils. Today the central question facing us is not whether the world will move away from fossil fuels, but how. The primary dispute will be between those who look for short-term solutions to energy supply shocks (burn the last of the coal, attempt to expand the use of other low-grade fossil fuels, go to war to control remaining highgrade fuel deposits), and policy advocates with a long-range plan for dealing effectively and peacefully with climate change, adaptation to scarcity, and global inequity. If NGOs are stuck fighting for policies that simply won't work, then the short-term options, however disastrous, will win by default. At best, this article can only describe the situation in general terms, point to a few of the possible policy options, and begin assessing them, without delving into messy but essential details. Much more analysis is clearly required. It is surely time for the climate and equity policy discussion to broaden to include the challenge of impending energy resource scarcity, as well as a more nuanced reconnoitering of the current and future political terrain. Perhaps this essay can serve as a conversation opener. From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 10 20:25:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:25:45 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] TRANSPORTATION Message-ID: <00d201ca7a11$ca66fc20$5f34f460$@net> What is missing here is the information provided by Alvin Toffler's book: "The Third Wave" in which he reveals that it would be far cheaper to eliminate the large office and industrial complexes, shopping centers, schools and universities, along with the freeway system and highway system required to transport us to and from these centers of energy waste. Moving into the "re-localized" communities advocated by Richard Heinberg and associated with the Transition Town movement is a much more viable option than that envisioned here. Small electrical vehicles utilized by a community car rental can easily get people to mass transit lines and other places as we move away from cities into smaller communities of about 250 - 500 people each. Re-localization means structuring the community in such a way that all of the needs of the community are met within the community. This means redesigning our food production system so that it is based largely on permaculture with "kitchen gardens" where the most nourishing food one can find is grown right outside the door in "tiered gardens" where food production can be maximized by organic "soil" that has been proven to grow plants at an accelerated rate, but in an entirely natural manner. These foods need to be what are called "super foods" -- that is -- foods that produce more nourishment for the buck than other foods. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 2:26 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] TRANSPORTATION Impractical for several reasons. No solution to be found. TRANSPORTATION http://www.communitysolution.org/transport.html Many argue that we can solve our future transportation needs by seamlessly replacing the car-friendly infrastructure of the U.S. with a nationwide energy-efficient mass transit system. This is in all likelihood, a pipe dream. Not only are the massive energy outlays required to accomplish such an ambitious project economically prohibitive, our North American urban sprawl has no precedent in history, making effective mass transit extremely difficult. A true mass transit system for the U.S. may, in fact, not be possible. The Smart Jitney is a real-time system of efficient and convenient ride sharing that addresses in the short-term the problem of transportation in a post-peak oil world. The system utilizes the existing infrastructure of private automobiles and roads due to the time, expense, and difficulty of building a new transportation infrastructure amongst such a dispersed population. The goal of the system is to insure that each private car always carries more than one person per car trip, optimally 4-6. This would cut auto gasoline usage by an estimated 80 percent and commute time by an average of 50 percent within two years. The Smart Jitney system would use cell phones and the Internet for ride reservations and coordination. Riders and drivers would have modified cell phones with a Global Positioning System (GPS) function. Software experts from the military command-and-control communication systems would join engineers and programmers from the nation's airline and automobile reservation systems to create the tracking and scheduling database for a new nationwide human transport system using existing cars. In a Smart Jitney system, every person may be a "driver" or a "rider" at different times. The system would connect drivers with riders to insure optimum routing and minimum time delays. Each person who wants to take a trip, whether to work, school, shopping, or recreation, would use his or her cell phone or web browswer to request a ride from the system. The system will locate the appropriate vehicle and driver to pick up and deliver the rider (or riders) making the request. Drivers are those who have planned trips of their own and need riders to fulfill the requirements for ride-sharing - individual trips will be limited in a time of energy scarcity. As the system develops, a huge decrease in roadway accidents and fatalities can be expected. This could result in substantially fewer insurance payouts and, hopefully, a concurrent reduction in premiums. Additionally, the nation would experience a major reduction in road construction and maintenance since wear and tear would be reduced. We expect that, as people became aware of the system's benefits, any sense of sacrifice would diminish, replaced by a sense of excitement. Solution: The Smart Jitney system, a sophisticated, coordinated real-time ridesharing system, could be implemented within a few years, or even sooner - not the decades required to make huge new outlays for mass transit. The technology involved is already widely available (think of the systems that UPS and FedEx use to optimize pickup and delivery of packages). Riders and drivers would use modified cell phones with a Global Positioning System (GPS) function for ride reservations and coordination. There are already commercial enterprises operating these high-tech hitchhiking schemes, such as Avego in Ireland and KoolPool in India. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 11 09:18:56 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:18:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: 3,000 reasons to hope Message-ID: <771475.84877.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Fri, 11/12/09, Alice Jay - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Alice Jay - Avaaz.org Subject: 3,000 reasons to hope To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Friday, 11 December, 2009, 15:54 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear Friends, Over 2900 events in 136 countries! Click here to join an event in United Kingdom "I was born in 1992. You have been negotiating all my life. You cannot tell us that you need more time". Christina is 17, and lives in the Solomon Islands - a country whose very existence is threatened by sea level rise in her lifetime. These were her words as she addressed the Copenhagen climate negotiations this week. Meanwhile, lead United States negotiator Todd Stern is referring to Copenhagen as nothing more than a "first step". That's where the main battle is at Copenhagen: it's all about where the goal posts are set. It's exactly what we've been preparing for. Avaaz members have already organised nearly 3000 vigils this Saturday December 12th in every corner of the planet to declare 'The World Wants A Real Deal': a fair, ambitious and binding agreement. That means an emergency stop on the growth of carbon emissions by 2015; $200 billion in funding to poor countries, and nothing short of a legally binding agreement in all nations. This is our moment. Let's make sure United Kingdom shows up in force this weekend. Click here and sign up to join an event nearby: http://www.avaaz.org/map Is this worth leaving the house for? You bet. Check out these photos of Avaaz members having a fantastic time at our recent Global Wake Up Call day of action. And here's what Anna, an Avaaz member from Australia, had to say about the events: "I'm not the kind of person who usually goes to vigils or actions" "But I am the kind of person who cares about our planet - so I gave it a go.... and I had a blast! To see events from around the world in the newspapers the next day and to know I was part of it was simply the best feeling" With the most important climate negotiations ever in the balance, this is a moment for us to stand together, shoulder to shoulder. Click here to find an event nearby and join millions of us in this historical climate day of action: http://www.avaaz.org/map With hope, Alice, Sam, Benjamin, Lisa, Ricken, Luis, Milena, Pascal and the whole of the Avaaz team PS: If you're having trouble accessing the links go here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/real_deal_map/ Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "" on 2007-08-02 using the email address dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile&user=2b7c8c2a98a8e68f564b27ee124e38a1&lang=en or simply click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 12 03:39:52 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:39:52 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Two London Meetings!!! Message-ID: <342270.88084.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear All, ? ??????????? I wish to?publicly register?a complaint which may seem petty to some!. I thank Peter Challen, and someone called Fabienne about sending email data on two interesting meetings.....but these notices were given at such? a short notice as to be hardly worth sending out! (just a day before both events!!).?I appreciate that both well-meaning senders are doing it all as a voluntary service....but please try, and give at least a few days notice. I would have loved to gone?to one of ?the meetings today in South Kensington but I have other pressing engagements. If I had known sometime before I could have re-arranged things. ? I assume that there must be a good reason, or reasons for the above. I seem to recall that Mary Fee did something very similiar. ? ? R.Searle ? ? ? ? ? ? From: Peter Challen BACK TO BASICS OR BUSINESS AS USUAL? Many commentators suggest that the economy is now beginning to climb out of recession. But before we simply return to normal, are there moral and spiritual lessons to be learnt from the past few years? How can Christian faith help us understand what has happened and how we might think and act differently in the future? Details:? This day conference put on by King's College, St Mellitus College and the Contextual Theology Centre, brings together theologians, economists and business leaders to explore these vital issues, of interest to anyone concerned with the future of our society. Speakers and Panel Include: Revd Prof John Milbank , Nottingham University Dr Andrew Dilnot , Principal, St Hugh's College, Oxford Paul Marshall, Marshall Wace hedge fund/Centre Forum Dr Maurice Glasman, London Citizens/Faith & Citizenship Programme Piers Le Marchant , General Counsel, Nomura International Lord Brian Griffiths , Vice-Chair, Goldman Sachs Phillip Blond, ResPublica Lunch: Please make arrangements to provide for your own lunch (there are many places to buy sandwiches around the venue) Date: Saturday? 12/12/09 Audience:? All welcome Venue:? St Paul's Onslow Square, London SW7 3NX Time:? 9:30am - 3:30pm Cost:? A suggested contribution of ?5 for the day is requested but not required. This is payable on the door. Enquiries:? To book your place either call 020 7780 1600 or email: justcommunities at theology-centre.org It is important to book beforehand. Download: Economy Day Conference -- "Financially, the World is living on drafts upon the future: Economically, it is living on the Products of the past." unknown _______________________________________________ LLL mailing list LLL at copsewood.net http://mailman.copsewood.net/mailman/listinfo/lll ReplyReply All Move...11a22222345A FORUMAcademic ListingAgenda communication...Alan Kkkkkancestral voicesAndrews post 1art you tubeAttracting Internet ...AVIM FILEavimavim333BANKS JOHN HERMANNBauwen on VimBauwens Emailbiz ideas factorybob meadows 3book reviewBRIAN INTERNETBuggins CVcahill 1cahill 2cahill 3Cahill 4campaign for paying ...Cancer RobotCap Scarletcaptain scarletcatweazleCHANGESCryptic Sants praves...CV 1CV 11CV 3CV 4CV 8CV ACV BCV CCV DCV ECV fCV FOR PERUSAL TEMPCV FOR YOUR PERUSALCV GCV Hcv10cv11CV13CV14CV15CV16CV17CV18CV2CV5CV6CV7CV8cv9David Caindavison 4DERIVATIVES.diane tinseyDJM Royal Shakespear...EBAY CHANGESebay conceptsEbay frustrationsebay informationEBAY PRO NEWSebay RegistrationEBAY Sellers 2EBAY SELLERSebay VIDSemergency cash gener...faqir chandFeastafreewebFutureByDesigngarage sales ebayGARDEN SLIPSGJMgladiator themeHARJIT SINGHS NO.Heart Disease HSIImprovised Instrumen...Inefficient marketsINTERNET GURUSInverted welllJ11Jacqui WelchJewish Anti-Zionist...Knackers!!Kundalini RSSBMagicmarguerite science f...MarzecMax Planck Institute...Moon CVMOVIE TRAILER ONLINEMulti-Dimensional Pr...MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SC...My Space PasswordnaqshbandiNaqshbani the Heart ...Network of Technocra...new energy brian lea...NEW P2P PASSNew WholesaleNon-Taxation FileNON-TAXATION MONETAR...Nur MuhammadOfff telesalesone world dataonline failureopen democracy passw...open democracy remin...operation assistantP12P Entry Code IIP2P Entry CodesP2P PasswordParliamentPearl2Pro Haynesrajinder singhROBERT MICHAEL SEARL...Ronald PearsonRS UK CENTRESSarah SmathSawan Kirpal London ...Searle CVsharing health with ...SmugglingSOSspeed of light and s...sufi meditation cent...sufi meditation cent...the echo SSThe RealizationTony browne cvTRANSFINANCIAL FILETranshumanist linksUnited NationsuntitledViznitzWEST Wing dateWorldchanging Book d...yyyyyyZ net forum Go to Previous message | Go to Next message | Back to Messages Select Message EncodingASCII (ASCII)Greek (ISO-8859-7)Greek (Windows-1253)Latin-10 (ISO-8859-16)Latin-3 (ISO-8859-3)Latin-6 (ISO-8859-10)Latin-7 (ISO-8859-13)Latin-8 (ISO-8859-14)Latin-9 (ISO-8859-15)W. 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URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 12 03:56:13 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:56:13 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] What Did Soros Say to the BBC? Message-ID: <939568.32280.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear All, ? ?????????? I quite often listen when I have the time to Radio Four. The other day a reporter for the Cop15 meeting had a brief interview with George Soros who brought up his old idea?about the?SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights (ie. recognized "money" created by the International Monetary Fund) . In a lowered voice he went on to say, or indicate that some of it could be DONATED to some green group, or groups. In other words, something which is non-repayable like a grant. He seemed to?suggest that the rest of the SDRs would be repayable as loans.? I am not sure as yet whether this is supported by other media sources as I haven t properly checked it out on the internet. Maybe someone can throw some light on this as to its veracity, or otherwise.... ? The SDRs have also helped to notably stabilize the global economy during the credit crisis. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 12 04:45:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 12 Dec 2009 03:45:29 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Progress in U.N. climate talks, tougher issues ahead - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.89 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- Progress in U.N. climate talks, tougher issues ahead http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091212/tts-uk-climate-copenhagen-talks-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 11 10:52:22 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:52:22 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Great Ideas for Spreading the Word and Transforming Our World Message-ID: <006a01ca7a8a$d6c1a190$8444e4b0$@net> FYI From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 6:49 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Great Ideas for Spreading the Word and Transforming Our World To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/g/appeals/transformation_great_ideas Bookmark and Share "WantToKnow.info is a great source of information. I myself first learned about the problems in the official account of 9/11 from this website early in 2003. It has continued since that time to provide exactly what it says: 'reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups.' WantToKnow.info is eminently worthy of support." -- David Ray Griffin, renowned theologian and author of The New Pearl Harbor Revisited Dear friends, What exciting times we live in! For those who doubt that people are waking up and major shifts are taking place around the world, watch the powerful, inspiring six-minute video "Blessed Unrest" at this link . Yet there is still much to be done, as many people continue to believe in the reality presented by the controlled major media. WantToKnow.info is playing a major role in educating people to the deeper realities. With 7,500 concerned individuals from over 100 countries now subscribed to our informative email list , and with 1.2 million visits in the last year and more than 4 million visits from virtually every country since its inception in early 2003, our website is clearly having a significant impact in opening the eyes, minds, and hearts of people around the globe. Below are several great ideas on how you can help us to further spread the word and make a big difference in our world. Thanks to the amazing capabilities of the Internet, we now have an easy way for you to share any information from WantToKnow.info by using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and many other social networking websites. You can now find a "Share This Page" link on WantToKnow.info at both the top left and the very bottom of every webpage, and also a "Share" link at the top and bottom of every email message. 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If you really want to make a difference, go to some of our other webpages that you feel are most important and do the same. As these websites are ranked very high in searches on search engines, your recommendation there not only informs other readers, it improves our ranking on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. To show how we are already having a major impact, if you type "news articles " (without quotation marks) in the Google search engine, you will see that WantToKnow.info is ranked in the top 10 out of over 200 million entries. We are also ranked #1 in thousands of Google searches like 9/11 cover-up , mass media information , inspiring resources , and new energy sources . In fact, over half of the visits to WantToKnow.info come through search engines, which is particularly awesome as many of these people do not yet know about the major cover-ups going on in our world. Here's an example of how it happens from a supporter: "I think I have been looking for this website all my life. I found it while searching for a car that could get 100 mpg . It might take me the rest of my life to read all your stuff, but I really wasn't doing anything when I found it, so now I have something to do. Everything I have done in my entire life led up to the instant I clicked on your website. Coincidence? Perhaps not! Thanks for the eye opener!" -- Robbie from Texas Another very important, yet easy way you can support our work is through using our new amazon.com link. Amazon.com has a great program where WantToKnow.info can earn a percentage of anything you buy there without costing you anything extra. Simply by entering the amazon.com website using a link with a code in the URL identifying that we referred you, WantToKnow.info gets 4 to 8% of the sale. If you shop at amazon.com and want to support us at no extra cost to yourself, please bookmark or favorite the webpage URL below and use it any time you want to search for and purchase something on amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=wanttinfo-20 As long as you start at the amazon.com search page at the link above, you can search for anything and add any number of items to your cart and WantToKnow.info will automatically receive a percentage of the total purchase price, though you will not receive notification of this. What a great way for you to support us without spending anything extra! Many thanks to amazon for this supportive service, and to Jonathan for the recommendation. Though we continue to have great success in educating the public, this has been a rough year financially for WantToKnow.info and PEERS, the nonprofit organization under which we operate. Likely because of the economic challenges many of us are facing, we've received only 60% of the amount of donations we had at this time last year. We've managed to cut back on expenses to keep from going in the red, yet we greatly appreciate any amount you might like to contribute to this worthy cause. Even a $5.00 donation makes a difference. You may not know that as the founder and manager, I've worked full time on WantToKnow.info and the other PEERS websites for seven years now as a volunteer. Though we pay Tod and Andrey for their excellent work on our news summaries and website development, we've never made enough money to pay me, and I've been willing to live off my savings and the small amounts I get from occasional private interpreting gigs. I do this because I so believe in this powerful work and want to make it available free and without advertising to everyone. In order to do this important work, several years ago I sold my car, stopped my health insurance, and cut back on my expenses to about $1,200 per month. I rent a room in a house with five other adults and a wonderful seven-year old boy to keep my costs down. I've had to draw down on my savings to keep going, but can't do this indefinitely. I am hoping at some point to be able to get paid for this work, but as we depend almost entirely on donations, it all depends on your generosity. Please help us to continue this most meaningful work. As PEERS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all contributions are tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law. To support us using your credit card online, please visit the link below to make a one-time donation. Or consider giving the valuable gift of a monthly donation at the links further down. Note that at the link immediately below, you must first enter the dollar amount, and then click "Update Totals." 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To make a monthly donation by credit card online, please choose a U.S. dollar amount below and click on the button. $5.00 $10.00 $20.00 $50.00 $100.00 $200.00 $500.00 $1,000.00 For other effective ways you can help to support and spread the important work of WantToKnow.info, see our webpage with numerous suggestions at this link . Thank you so much for your support. And I want to express a very big thank you to all who have contributed over the years, especially to the 32 individuals who continue to give monthly support. Your generous help is greatly appreciated. For those who might be interested, I was featured in two short videos because of my many years of volunteering full time for this great cause. Bolder Giving at www.boldergiving.org is a very inspiring nonprofit organization which features many truly caring, generous individuals who donate major percentages of their income or time to worthy causes. For the first one-minute Bolder Giving video in which I discuss my passion for this work, click here . The second video of two-minutes is available here. Another fun, 30-minute audio interview on my work in the White House and with cover-ups is available here . And for the video of a 100-minute talk focused both on little-known major cover-ups and amazing global transformation that I gave on this work a couple years ago, click here . Thanks to the very capable and talented Suzanna Gratz , a wonderful supporter who works as a professional promoter and is promoting our work free of charge, I am now doing about one radio or Internet interview every week. And finally, for a rich and inspiring six-minute video that has nothing to do with cover-ups, watch the miracle that happened at a college softball game at this link . It's so refreshing to know that you and so many others are dedicated to building a brighter future and to making a difference in our world. I very much appreciate your help and support of our work in whatever way feels right for you. Whether it is by forwarding emails, posting information on Facebook or social networking sites, contributing financially, or simply telling your friends and colleagues, I greatly appreciate the way you are helping all of us to make a difference in our world. Thanks for caring, and you have a beautiful day and holiday season ahead. With best wishes, Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Note: If you are ready for a rich journey through all that is covered by WantToKnow.info and more, check out our free Hidden Knowledge Course at this link , or one of our other mind and heart expanding courses available here . "You know how when you get a big pile of emails, you just want to ditch everything in the Inbox? Well, even when I feel that way, I leave email from WantToKnow alone. I mark it to read the next morning when I am fresh and in a better mood. 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To make a donation by credit card, check, or money order: www.WantToKnow.info/donationswtk Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network: www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all To respond to this message, visit www.WantToKnow.info/contactus.php To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the WantToKnow.info list (one email every few days): www.WantToKnow.info/subscribe _____ Change email address / Leave mailing list Powered by YourMailingListProvider -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 11 13:36:49 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:36:49 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The fallacy of climate activism Message-ID: <001201ca7aa1$d36a41c0$7a3ec540$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS While my thoughts are much the same as this author, I still believe that "this must be our finest hour" and it is time to be all that we can be. Doing the right thing is never wrong and the right thing is to treat this Earth and ourselves with all the love, compassion, and caring that we can muster. As the spiritual energy beings that we are, we will reincarnate in another world because we know that our energy will never die, it will just emerge in another form. So, let us learn the lessons of this lifetime well and move on into another level of consciousness that will not allow us to repeat the mistakes of today. Let us remember that the human mind is the most powerful force in the world and just as we see spontaneous remission after spontaneous remission becoming more prevalent in today's world in a disease like cancer, let us not give up hope that we can create a spontaneous remission in the instance of global climate change. Also, let us not give up on the thought that we can adapt to whatever it is this tumultuous time hands us. As I write these words, I am thinking of how monks in Tibet are able to sit in icy snow and yet using the power of their mind to dry wet sheets thrown across their backs. I am thinking of how some people have been able to lift heavy cars, a certainly unthinkable feat, but one which when faced with the prospect of a loved one dying, an ordinary person has been able to accomplish. Quite possibly the most potent threat to our survival lies within the boundaries of the collective consciousness of our society today - we cannot and must not allow this to happen. We must transcend seemingly unthinkable feats of courage and transform our thinking into a belief system that says "we can". We cannot afford to think "we can't". -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 10:35 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The fallacy of climate activism "But if planetary warming were to vanish tomorrow, we would still be left with ample catastrophic potential to extinguish many life forms in fairly short order: deforestation; desertification; poisoning of soil, water, air; habitat destruction; overfishing and general decimation of oceans; nuclear waste, depleted uranium, and nuclear weaponry?to name just a few. " The fallacy of climate activism http://www.grist.org/article/2009-08-23-the-fallacy-of-climate-activism * Adam Sacks 23 Aug 2009 9:19 PM In the 20 years since we climate activists began our work in earnest, the state of the climate has become dramatically worse, and the change is accelerating?this despite all of our best efforts. Clearly something is deeply wrong with this picture. What is it that we do not yet know? What do we have to think and do differently to arrive at urgently different outcomes?[1] The answers lie not with science, but with culture. Climate activists are obsessed with greenhouse-gas emissions and concentrations. Since global climate disruption is an effect of greenhouse gases, and a disastrous one, this is understandable. But it is also a mistake. Such is the fallacy of climate activism[2]: We insist that global warming is merely a consequence of greenhouse-gas emissions. Since it is not, we fail to tell the truth to the public. I think that there are two serious errors in our perspectives on greenhouse gases: Global Warming as Symptom The first error is our failure to understand that greenhouse gases are not a cause but a symptom, and addressing the symptom will do little but leave us with a devil?s sack full of many other symptoms, possibly somewhat less rapidly lethal but lethal nonetheless. The root cause, the source of the symptoms, is 300 years of our relentlessly exploitative, extractive, and exponentially growing technoculture, against the background of ten millennia of hierarchical and colonial civilizations.[3] This should be no news flash, but the seductive promise of endless growth has grasped all of us civilized folk by the collective throat, led us to expand our population in numbers beyond all reason and to commit genocide of indigenous cultures and destruction of other life on Earth. To be sure, global climate disruption is the No. 1 symptom. But if planetary warming were to vanish tomorrow, we would still be left with ample catastrophic potential to extinguish many life forms in fairly short order: deforestation; desertification; poisoning of soil, water, air; habitat destruction; overfishing and general decimation of oceans; nuclear waste, depleted uranium, and nuclear weaponry?to name just a few. (While these symptoms exist independently, many are intensified by global warming.) We will not change course by addressing each of these as separate issues; we have to address root cultural cause. Beyond Greenhouse Gas Emissions The second error is our stubborn unwillingness to understand that the battle against greenhouse-gas emissions, as we have currently framed it, is over. It is absolutely over and we have lost. We have to say so. There are three primary components of escalating greenhouse-gas concentrations that are out of our control: Thirty-Year Lag The first is that generally speaking the effects we are seeing today, as dire as they are, are the result of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in the range of only 330 parts per million (ppm), not the result of today?s concentrations of almost 390 ppm. This is primarily a consequence of the vast inertial mass of the oceans, which absorb temperature and carbon dioxide and create a roughly 30-year lag between greenhouse-gas emissions and their effects. We are currently seeing the effects of greenhouse gases emitted before 1980. Just as the scientific community hadn?t realized how rapidly and extensively geophysical and biological systems would respond to increases in atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations, we currently have only a rough idea of what that 60 ppm already emitted will mean, even if we stopped our emissions today. But we do know, with virtual certainty, that it will be full of unpleasant surprises. Positive Feedback Loops The second out-of-control component is positive (amplifying) feedback loops. The odd thing about positive feedbacks is that they are often ignored in assessing the effects of greenhouse-gas emissions. Our understanding of them is limited and our ability to insert them into an equation is rudimentary. Our inability to grasp them, however, in no way mitigates their effects, which are as real as worldwide violent weather. It is now clear that several phenomena are self-sustaining, amplifying cycles; for example, melting ice and glaciers, melting tundra and other methane sources, and increasing ocean saturation with carbon dioxide, which leads to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. These feedbacks will continue even if we reduce our human emissions to zero?and all of our squiggly lightbulbs, Priuses, wind turbines, Waxman-Markeys, and Copenhagens won?t make one bit of difference. Not that we shouldn?t stop all greenhouse-gas emissions immediately?of course we should?but that?s only a necessity, not nearly a sufficient response. We need to find the courage to say so. Non-Linearity The third component is non-linearity, which means that the effects of rising temperature and atmospheric carbon concentrations may change suddenly and unpredictably. While we may assume linearity for natural phenomena because linearity is much easier to assess and to predict, many changes in nature are non-linear, often abruptly so. A common example is the behavior of water. The changes of state of water?solid, liquid, gas?happen abruptly. It freezes suddenly at 0?C, not at 1?, and it turns to steam at 100?, not at 99?. If we were to limit our experience of water to the range of 1? to 99?, we would never know of the existence of ice or steam. This is where we stand in relationship to many aspects of the global climate. We don?t know where the tipping points?effectively the changes of state?are for such events as the irreversible melting of glaciers, release of trapped methane from tundras and seabeds, carbon saturation of the oceans. Difficult to pin down, tipping points may be long past, or just around the corner. As leading climatologist Jim Hansen has written, ?Present knowledge does not permit accurate specification of the dangerous level of human-made GHGs. However, it is much lower than has commonly been assumed. If we have not already passed the dangerous level, the energy infrastructure in place ensures that we will pass it within several decades.?[4] Evidence of non-linearity is strong, not only from the stunning acceleration of climate change in just the past couple of years, but from the wild behavior of the climate over millions of years, which sometimes changed dramatically within periods as short as a decade. The most expert scientific investigators have been blindsided by the velocity and extent of recent developments, and the climate models have likewise proved far more conservative than nature itself. Given that scientists have underestimated impacts of even small changes in global temperature, it is understandably difficult to elicit an appropriate public and governmental response. Beyond the Box We climate activists have to tread on uncertain ground and rapidly move beyond our current unpleasant but comfortable parts-per-million box. Here are some things we need to say, over and over again, everywhere, in a thousand different ways: Bitter climate truths are fundamentally bitter cultural truths. Endless growth is an impossibility in the physical world, always?but always?ending in overshot and collapse. Collapse: with a bang or a whimper, most likely both. We are already witnessing it, whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. Because of this civilization?s obsession with growth, its demise is 100 percent predictable. We simply cannot go on living this way. Our version of life on earth has come to an end. Moreover, there are no ?free market? or ?economic? solutions. And since corporations must have physically impossible endless growth in order to survive, corporate social responsibility is a myth. The only socially responsible act that corporations can take is to dissolve. We can?t bargain with the forces of nature, trading slightly less harmful trinkets for a fantasied reprieve. Geophysical processes care not one whit for our politics, our economics, our evening meals, our theologies, our love for our children, our plaintive cries of innocence and error. We can either try to plan the transition, even at this late hour, or the physical forces of the world will do it for us?indeed, they already are. As Alfred Crosby stated in his remarkable book, Ecological Imperialism, mother nature?s ministrations are never gentle.[5] Telling the Truth If we climate activists don?t tell the truth as well as we know it?which we have been loathe to do because we ourselves are frightened to speak the words?the public will not respond, notwithstanding all our protestations of urgency. And contrary to current mainstream climate-activist opinion, contrary to all the pointless ?focus groups,? contrary to the endless speculation on ?correct framing,? the only way to tell the truth is to tell it. All of it, no matter how terrifying it may be.[6] It is offensive and condescending for activists to assume that people can?t handle the truth without environmentalists finding a way to make it more palatable. The public is concerned, we vaguely know that something is desperately wrong, and we want to know more so we can try to figure out what to do. The response to An Inconvenient Truth, as tame as that film was in retrospect, should have made it clear that we want to know the truth. And finally, denial requires a great deal of energy, is emotionally exhausting, fraught with conflict and confusion. Pretending we can save our current way of life derails us and sends us in directions that lead us astray. The sooner we embrace the truth, the sooner we can begin the real work. Let?s just tell it. Stating the Problem After we tell the truth, then what can we do? Is it hopeless? Perhaps. But before we can have the slightest chance of meaningful action, having told the truth, we have to face the climate reality, fully and unflinchingly. If we base our planning on false premises?such as the oft-stated stutter that reducing our greenhouse-gas emissions will forestall ?the worst effects of global warming??we can only come up with false solutions. ?Solutions? that will make us feel better as we tumble toward the end, but will make no ultimate difference whatsoever. Furthermore, we can and must pose the problem without necessarily providing the ?solutions.?[7] I can?t tell you how many climate activists have scolded me, ?You can?t state a problem like that without providing some solutions.? If we accept that premise, all of scientific inquiry as well as many other kinds of problem-solving would come to a screeching halt. The whole point of stating a problem is to clarify questions, confusions, and unknowns, so that the problem statement can be mulled, chewed, and clarified to lead to some meaningful answers, even though the answers may seem to be out of reach. Some of our most important thinking happens while developing the problem statement, and the better the problem statement the richer our responses. That?s why framing the global warming problem as greenhouse-gas concentrations has proved to be such a dead end. Here is the problem statement as it is beginning to unfold for me. We are all a part of struggling to develop this thinking together: We must leave behind 10,000 years of civilization; this may be the hardest collective task we?ve ever faced. It has given us the intoxicating power to create planetary changes in 200 years that under natural cycles require hundreds of thousands or millions of years?but none of the wisdom necessary to keep this Pandora?s Box tightly shut. We have to discover and re-discover other ways of living on earth. We love our cars, our electricity, our iPods, our theme parks, our bananas, our Nikes, and our nukes, but we behave as if we understand nothing of the land and water and air that gives us life. It is past time to think and act differently. If we live at all, we will have to figure out how to live locally and sustainably. Living locally means we are able get everything we need within walking (or animal riding) distance. We may eventually figure out sustainable ways of moving beyond those small circles to bring things home, but our track record isn?t good and we?d better think it through very carefully. Likewise, any technology has to be locally based, using local resources and accessible tools, renewable and non-toxic. We have much re-thinking to do, and re-learning from our hunter-gatherer forebears who managed to survive for a couple of hundred thousand years in ways that we with our civilized blinders we can barely imagine or understand.[8] Living sustainably means, in Derrick Jensen?s elegantly simple definition, that whatever we do, we can do it indefinitely.[9] We cannot use up anything more or faster than nature provides, we don?t poison the air, water, or soil, and we respect the web of life of which we are an intricate part. We are not separate from nature, or above it, or in any way qualified to supervise it.[10] The evidence is ample and overwhelming; all we have to do is be brave enough to look. How do we survive in a world that will probably turn?is already turning, for many humans and non-humans alike?into a living hell? How do we even grow or gather food or find clean water or stay warm or cool while assaulted by biblical floods, storms, rising seas, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, snow, and hail? It is crystal clear that we cannot leave it to the technophiliacs. It is human technology coupled with our inability to comprehend, predict, and prevent unintended consequences that have brought us global catastrophe, culminating in climate disruption, in the first place. Desperate hopes notwithstanding, there are no high-tech solutions here, only wishful thinking?the tools that got us into this mess are incapable of getting us out.[11] All that being said, we needn?t discard all that we?ve learned, far from it.[12] But we must use our knowledge with great discretion, and lock much of it away as so much nuclear weaponry and waste. Time is running very short, but the forgiveness of this little blue orb in a vast lonely universe will continue to astonish and nourish us?if we only give it the chance. Our obligation as activists, the first step, the essence, is to part the cultural veil at long last, and to tell the truth. ?- Endnotes: [1] Many thanks to Richard Grossman, who posed that question fifteen years ago with respect to corporate domination of governance and culture when he founded the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD). He understood that we must take the time to stop and penetrate beyond the obvious if we are to think outside of the cultural prescriptions that constrain our ability to act differently. Many thanks as well to Ross Gelbspan, a courageous and ground-breaking journalist, who early on investigated the forces driving the fossil fuel machine and has been sounding the alarm for almost two decades. See his excellent article, ?Beyond the Point of No Return,? December 2007, which inspired many of the ideas in this piece. [2] I would like to express deep gratitude to John A. Livingston, pioneer environmentalist, preservationist, teacher and writer. In 1981 he wrote ?The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation,? which inspired the title of this piece. The fallacy that Livingston was referring to is well-described in the foreword by Graeme Gibson: ?The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation, as a statement of belief, is one of the fiercest and most uncompromising of John Livingston?s convictions. Had he entitled it ?The Failure of Wildlife Conservation,? we might have tried again?without having to think too much about it. But he didn?t. ... As a result of the word fallacy, we are confronted with an insistence that we rethink everything.? From The John A. Livingston Reader, McClelland & Stewart, 2007, pp. xiv-xv. So it is, with the fallacy of climate activism, that we must rethink everything. [3] Endless (exponential) growth is an impossibility in a finite physical system (planet earth), and we have a wealth of examples of overshoot and collapse, non-human and human, all of which are fully predictable. Our cultural inability to grasp such an obvious reality is a primary obstacle to progress in addressing climate change and its root cause. Indigenous cultures tend to have much better understandings of these things. See Herman E. Daly and Kenneth N. Townsend, ?Sustainable Growth: An Impossibility Theorem,? from Valuing The Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics, MIT Press, 1993, p. 267 ff. For a wide-ranging discussion of the demise of civilizations, see Jared Diamond, Collapse, Viking, 2005. [4] James Hansen et al.(2007), ?Climate change and trace gases,? Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A 365: 1925?1954 (2007). [5] Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 - 1900, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 92. The actual quote, referring to population, is, ?Mother nature always comes to the rescue of a society stricken with the problems of overpopulation, and her ministrations are never gentle.? [6] A word here about the skeptics, with whom we are also obsessed: Forget about them. They may appear to have control of the public discussion, but they are babbling into the abyss. Our enemy is us. By our own unwillingness to face the profound implications of climate change?that we have to reject civilization as currently conceived and come up with something completely different?we are doing far more damage to the cause of preserving life on earth than the deniers could ever do. [7] ?One of the more peculiar traits of our society is its assumption?its insistence?on solutions. Just as there are reasons for all things, so there are solutions for all things. Always there are ultimate answers; there is no problem that is not amenable to logical reduction. This, as we have seen earlier, in spite of such bewildering enterprises as ecology. I have no ?solution? to the wildlife preservation problem [read ?global warming problem?]. There may not be one. But given the somewhat shaky assumption that one exists, I sense that I can at least feel the direction.? John A. Livingston, The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation, p. 151. [8] Our culturally skewed and defensive view of pre-hierarchical societies, seeing only lives that were ?nasty, brutish and short? struggling to survive in ?nature, red in tooth and claw,? has distorted earlier human experience beyond recognition. See, for example, Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade, Harper & Rowe, 1987; and Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, Tavistock Publications, Ltd. (London), 1974. [9] Jensen is one of our most passionate and incisive cultural critics and environmental writers. His words are, ?For an action to be sustainable, you must be able to perform it indefinitely. This means that the action must either help or at the very least not materially harm the landbase. If an action materially harms the landbase, it cannot be performed indefinitely ...? From Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay, What We Leave Behind, p. 56. [10] Although, as I indicate in footnote 12 in a brief discussion of holistic management of grasslands, we can and must repair enough of the damage so that the infinitely complex self-organizing systems of nature?the systems that gave life to all living creatures?can begin anew. [11] For example, consider hare-brained schemes from very smart scientists, some of whom know that the schemes are hare-brained but in their desperation see no other way. A recent article in Rolling Stone, ?Can Dr. Evil Save The World?,? has an interesting overview of the geo-engineering debate. The bottom line seems to be that we currently are able to do and think anything except changing the way we live, and risking the existence of life on earth is simply a chance we have to take (although 100 percent odds of failure is hardly a bet one should want to take, assuming there are any rational moments left). See also Ross Gelbspan?s article, ?Beyond the Point of No Return,? footnote 1. [12] Glimmers of hope lie in the remarkable restorative powers of the earth. One such phenomenon is ancient pre-history but new to us. That is the relationship between grazers and grasslands. Whereas conventional grasslands management destroys soils and diversity, nature?s way sequesters vast amounts of carbon in soils, with photosynthesizing plants as intermediators along with fungi, micro-organisms, insects, animals and birds?and creates productive and healthy land that, unlike forests, can bind carbon for thousands of years. We have the potential to remove gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gas concentrations by many parts per million with proper land management. Beyond grasslands, the planet?s power of regeneration, despite our assaults, remains extraordinary. See the Holistic Management International website. Another example is the dramatic restoration of denuded rainforest in Borneo after only six years: ?Planting finishes this year [2008], but already [Willie] Smits [the Indonesian forestry expert who led the replanting] and his team from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation charity claim the forest is ?mature?, with trees up to 35 metres high. Cloud cover has increased by 12 per cent, rainfall by a quarter, and temperatures have dropped 3-5?C, helping people and wildlife to thrive, says Smits. Nine species of primate have also returned, including the threatened orangutans. ?If you walk there now, 116 bird species have found a place to live, there are more than 30 types of mammal, insects are there. The whole system is coming to life. I knew what I was trying to do, but the force of nature has totally surprised me. ... The place became the scene of an ecological miracle, a fairytale come true,? says Smits, who has written a book about the project.? From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 11 13:38:05 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:38:05 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Leaders Of The Rich World Are Enacting A Giant Fraud Message-ID: <001301ca7aa1$f6e35f60$e4aa1e20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS As the climate debate goes the same way as health care reform in the U.S. one can readily see that the only hope of getting anything accomplished via monetized politics operating under the label "democracy," is for we-the-people to do it ourselves. And, we can do it without any whooping, hollering, or demonstrating. All we need to do is unite and begin creating sustainable living communities based on locally created currencies as we de-link from the National and International ones. With so many people homeless and out of work, it becomes obvious that the national currency system is not going to be of any assistance and the only option is to create local ones that keep the money within the community itself where it can't be drawn off to support war and other horrors devised by the powers that be. Again, I will paraphrase dear friend Bill Ellis quote: "When the people lead the leaders will follow." -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 8:58 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Leaders Of The Rich World Are Enacting A Giant Fraud "Dazed Chinese and Indian NGOs explain how the Himalayan ice is rapidly vanishing and will be gone by 2035 - so the great rivers of Asia that are born there will shrivel and cease. They provide water for a quarter of humanity." Leaders Of The Rich World Are Enacting A Giant Fraud http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-le aders-of-the-rich-world-are-enacting-a-giant-fraud-1837963.html By Johann Hari Every delegate to the Copenhagen summit is being greeted by the sight of a vast fake planet dominating the city's central square. This swirling globe is covered with corporate logos - the Coke brand is stamped over Africa, while Carlsberg appears to own Asia, and McDonald's announces "I'm loving it!" in great red letters above. "Welcome to Hopenhagen!" it cries. It is kept in the sky by endless blasts of hot air. This plastic planet is the perfect symbol for this summit. The world is being told that this is an emergency meeting to solve the climate crisis - but here inside the Bela Centre where our leaders are gathering, you can find only a corrupt shuffling of words, designed to allow countries to wriggle out of the bare minimum necessary to prevent the unravelling of the biosphere. Staggering across the fringes of the summit are the people who will see their countries live or die on the basis of its deliberations. Leah Wickham, a young woman from Fiji, broke down as she told the conference she will see her homeland disappear beneath the waves if we do not act now. "All the hopes of my generation rest on Copenhagen," she pleaded. Dazed Chinese and Indian NGOs explain how the Himalayan ice is rapidly vanishing and will be gone by 2035 - so the great rivers of Asia that are born there will shrivel and cease. They provide water for a quarter of humanity. Mohamed Nasheed, the President of the drowning Maldives, said simply: "The last generation of humans went to the moon. This generation of humans needs to decide if it wants to stay alive on planet Earth." We know what has to happen to give us a fighting chance of avoiding catastrophe. We need carbon emissions in rich countries to be 40 per cent lower than they were in 1990 - by 2020. We can haggle with each other over how to get there but we can't haggle with atmospheric physics over the end-goal: the Earth's atmosphere has put this limit on what it can absorb, and we can respect it, or suffer. Yet the first week of this summit is being dominated by the representatives of the rich countries trying to lace the deal with Enron-style accounting tricks that will give the impression of cuts, without the reality. It's essential to understand these shenanigans this week, so we can understand the reality of the deal that will be announced with great razzmatazz next week. Most of the tricks centre around a quirk in the system: a rich country can "cut" its emissions without actually releasing fewer greenhouse gases. How? It can simply pay a poor country to emit less than it otherwise would have. In theory it sounds okay: we all have the same atmosphere, so who cares where the cuts come from? But a system where emissions cuts can be sold among countries introduces extreme complexity into the system. It quickly (and deliberately) becomes so technical that nobody can follow it - no concerned citizen, no journalist, and barely even full-time environmental groups. You can see if your government is building more coal power stations, or airports, or motorways. You can't see if the cuts they have "bought" halfway round the world are happening - especially when they are based on projections of increases that would have happened, in theory, if your government hadn't stumped up the cash. A study by the University of Stanford found that most of the projects that are being funded as "cuts" either don't exist, don't work, or would have happened anyway. Yet this isn't a small side-dish to the deal: it's the main course. For example, under proposals from the US, the country with by far the highest per capita emissions in the world wouldn't need to cut its own gas by a single exhaust pipe until 2026, insisting it'll simply pay for these shadow-projects instead. It gets worse still. A highly complex system operating in the dark is a gift to corporate lobbyists, who can pressure or bribe governments into rigging the system in their favour, rather than the atmosphere's. It's worth going through some of the scams that are bleeding the system of any meaning. They may sound dull or technical, but they are life or death to countries like Leah's. Trick one: hot air. The nations of the world were allocated permits to release greenhouse gases back in 1990, when the Soviet Union was still a vast industrial power - so it was given a huge allocation. But the following year, it collapsed, and its industrial base went into freefall - along with its carbon emissions. It was never going to release those gases after all. But Russia and the eastern European countries have held on to them in all negotiations as "theirs". Now, they are selling them to rich countries who want to purchase "cuts". Under the current system, the US can buy them from Romania and say they have cut emissions - even though they are nothing but a legal fiction. We aren't talking about climatic small change. This hot air represents 10 gigatonnes of CO2. By comparison, if the entire developed world cuts its emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, that will only take six gigatonnes out of the atmosphere. Trick two: double-counting. This is best understood through an example. If Britain pays China to abandon a coal power station and construct a hydro-electric dam instead, Britain pockets the reduction in carbon emissions as part of our overall national cuts. In return, we are allowed to keep a coal power station open at home. But at the same time, China also counts this change as part of its overall cuts. So one tonne of carbon cuts is counted twice. This means the whole system is riddled with exaggeration - and the figure for overall global cuts is a con. Trick three: the fake forests - or what the process opaquely dubs "LULUCF". Forests soak up warming gases and store them away from the atmosphere - so, perfectly sensibly, countries get credit under the new system for preserving them. It is an essential measure to stop global warming. But the Canadian, Swedish and Finnish logging companies have successfully pressured their governments into inserting an absurd clause into the rules. The new rules say you can, in the name of "sustainable forest management", cut down almost all the trees - without losing credits. It's Kafkaesque: a felled forest doesn't increase your official emissions... even though it increases your actual emissions. There are dozens more examples like this, but you and I would lapse into a coma if I listed them. This is deliberate. This system has been made incomprehensible because if we understood, ordinary citizens would be outraged. If these were good faith negotiations, such loopholes would be dismissed in seconds. And the rich countries are flatly refusing to make even these enfeebled, leaky cuts legally binding. You can toss them in the bin the moment you leave the conference centre, and nobody will have any comeback. On the most important issue in the world - the stability of our biosphere - we are being scammed. Our leaders are aren't giving us Hopenhagen - they're giving us Cokenhagen, a sugary feelgood hit filled with sickly additives and no nutrition. Their behaviour here - where the bare minimum described as safe by scientists isn't even being considered - indicates they are more scared of the corporate lobbyists that fund their campaigns, or the denialist streak in their own country, than of rising seas and falling civilisations. But there is one reason why I am still - despite everything - defiantly hopeful. Converging on this city now are thousands of ordinary citizens who aren't going to take it any more. They aren't going to watch passively while our ecosystems are vandalised. They are demanding only what the cold, hard science demands - real and rapid cuts, enforced by a global environmental court that will punish any nation that endangers us all. This movement will not go away. Copenhagen has soured into a con - but from the wreckage, there could arise a stronger demand for a true solution. If we don't raise the political temperature very fast, the physical temperature will rise - and we can say goodbye to Leah, and to the only safe climate we have ever known. From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 11 17:57:38 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:57:38 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan and The Perennial Food Project Message-ID: <004d01ca7ac6$497cf640$dc76e2c0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS What this group is doing, and I repeat myself, is to consider what humans eat now, and not what we should be eating or how it should be grown to get the most bang for the buck in our fast-changing world. We have to move beyond today and prepare for tomorrow -- we cannot maintain the status quo and expect that this is going to help. We must get our imaginal cells working and begin visualizing a very different future than that of today if we are to have any chance at survival at all. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2009 6:50 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan and The Perennial Food Project CENTRAL CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY INSTITUTE, INC. 7 School Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 (413) 625-2525 Fax: (413) 625-8485 Federal Tax Identification Number: 04-3529309 will at ccrvi.org 1 Community Food for Shelburne Falls and Beyond: The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan and The Perennial Food Project http://www.scribd.com/doc/23846417/Community-Food-090128?autodown=pdf We humans live as part of the natural world, one member of a community much larger than our species alone. The natural world feeds and sustains us, and our actions affect all other members of our community: we are all in this together. Yet, most of us do not experience these realities either practically or existentially with any frequency, if at all. One of the larger goals of the Central Connecticut River Valley Institute ("CCRVI"), of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, is to foster the emergence of a culture which encourages and supports us to experience ourselves in these ways, to know ourselves as "native" to the places where we live. These positive principles and goals dovetail in our times with concerns about the security and sustainability of our food supply systems. Large-scale, long term, interconnected challenges such as global climate change, peak oil, rising food and energy prices, the far-flung industrial food system, declining food quality and safety, and the concentration of food production in the hands of a few corporate agribusinesses leave small towns like Shelburne Falls vulnerable. Thus, developing locally-owned, locally-controlled food systems for ourselves can simultaneously realize CCRVI's goal to reconnect us to the natural world and each other. Therefore, CCRVI has initiated its Community Food program. Community Food initially encompasses two interrelated projects that build upon and support each other as a whole system and that will also serve as pilot projects and models for larger-scale implementation beyond the Village of Shelburne Falls: the Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan and the Perennial 2 Food Project. The first project will be undertaken in collaboration with the Conway School of Landscape Design and other local educational institutions. The latter will be primarily initiated and run by The Apios Institute, a subsidiary of CCRVI, which researches and educates the public about perennial food gardening. The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan aims to: (1) estimate and characterize the minimum food requirements for the Village of Shelburne Falls, and; (2) provide at least one viable vision for how the Village can meet its food needs locally. What do we eat through out the year? What food production strategies and crops hold the most viability within the Village's specific site conditions and social context? What would a realistic maximum food production scenario look like on household and neighborhood scales? What implications would this scenario have for the Village and the farms in the region? What directions can and should the community take to feed ourselves successfully and happily? We envision this project as a multi-year effort that will break the overall goals down into manageable objectives that build toward a comprehensive understanding of Shelburne Falls' food shed situation and reasonable response to it. This approach will offer time to develop community interaction, discussion, and support, and therefore build public engagement that we hope will ultimately lead to concrete actions being undertaken by community members in response to and as part of the project. Project Overview . Estimate the current and future annual food needs of the Village and characterize the current "food shed" of the Village, that is: - What do we eat and when? - What are our basic food requirements and is everyone meeting their basic food needs? - Where does our food come from now, at what financial and ecological 3 costs? - What local food supply sources exist, and what financial and ecological costs do they entail? - What food growing and preservation skills do Village residents possess, and which are residents currently using? CCRVI anticipates that these questions will be answered through some combination of research using demographic and nutritional data, public records, public meetings, and resident surveys and interviews. Initial efforts will focus on publicly available data, with later work taking that information deeper with surveys of actual food habits of community residents. . Evaluate the potential for meeting the Village's food needs within the Village itself by assessing the quality, character, and potential of the village landscape and soils for food production. This will initially involve assessing the development patterns and land use history of the village to evaluate the implications of these patterns for crop selection, food production methods, potential yields, and the social forms appropriate to the different social habitats. It will eventually include implementing a soil lead sampling program to assess soil lead levels on a village-wide basis, as well as characterizing the different site conditions found within the village and the potential crops suited to those conditions. . Assess the community's social and cultural conditions relative to the residents' willingness, interest, skills, and time available to undertake homebased agriculture, participate in local food systems, and so on. This may include evaluation of ordinances and zoning regulations that relate to food production, skills assessments, and the envisioning of methods for tapping the community's social resources and filling its skills gaps, and perhaps some oral history work with local elders who lived through the Great Depression. . Develop scenarios for meeting as much of the Village's food needs as possible within the Village by developing schematic designs for one or more neighborhoods of Shelburne Falls as food-producing urban landscapes. Each scenario will develop food budgets for the neighborhoods designed and describe the implications of the neighborhood scenario for the Village as a 4 whole and for the Village's need for food from surrounding farms and farms within and outside the region. . Evaluate the farming community in the region immediately adjacent to Shelburne Falls in terms of their current and potential crop types, production levels, economic viability, and connection to the Village. . Build community involvement and interest in the project through public meetings and discussion, and by using existing community organizations to gain awareness and acceptance of this work. . Lay the groundwork for the future expansion of the Project to cover all of Western Franklin County and eventually spiraling out into all of Western Massachusetts, the rest of the Connecticut River Valley, and the rest of New England. Preliminary Strategy and Budget . We intend to begin this project with a 12 week project by Conway School of Landscape Design students in January through March 2009. This team will begin by gathering publicly available data on food needs, assessing village development patterns and their implications, community meetings, neighborhood redesign visioning, and assessing of zoning and other local ordinances. Later teams will refine and deepen this first iteration of work with more specific data from the village itself. . Estimated costs for this first piece of work follow: . The Conway School has access to a matching grant to help cover their costs if we can find donors to provide matching funds. This matching fund has $1,350 remaining in it at this time. Conway School of Landscape Design team: $6,000 Project liaison, support, supervision $500 Total Estimated Costs $6,500 Funds raised to date -$3,000 Total Remaining to Raise $3,500 5 The Perennial Food Project When most people think about growing food, annual crops come to mind, that is, crops that grow for one season, go to seed and die or are harvested and must be planted from seed the next year. This style of production has dominated world agriculture for millennia, and, though it does currently feed most of the world, it represents a high-maintenance, high-energy-input approach that destroys soil and ecosystem health. The use of perennial crops, those that live three or more years without replanting, is older than annual agriculture, and has great potential as an adjunct to annual agriculture. Perennial crop systems can produce plenty of food at lower energetic and labor cost while rebuilding soil and ecosystem health. One of the keys to such systems is the art of creating "polycultures" - patches of ground with more than one species growing in them at a time. While perennial crops and polycultures have received little research attention or development, and are therefore most appropriate for home-scale gardens at the moment, a number of perennial crops worthy of propagation and active research exist. The Perennial Food Project will propagate and research the culture of perennial food crops at a home-scale level in a semi-urban village context. Here we mean the phrase "the culture of perennial food crops" in its broadest sense. This project will investigate, develop, and spread the horticultural knowledge and practices required to grow perennial vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, small fruits, tree fruits, and nuts as integrated ecosystems in a village setting. We will also mentor participant families in the harvest, cooking, and enjoyment of the perennial crops they learn to grow, to support a shift of the families' cultures towards ways of life that include perennial food production. We have partly modeled this multi-year project on the highly successful Heifer Project, where participants receive animals from the Heifer Project and then give the animals' offspring to others in their community and train them in their care. In this case, however, the participants will share perennial food plants and mentor others in their culture and use. In this way, the project will propagate not only the plants, but the human culture that goes with them, into and around the village, and then out of the village into surrounding burgs. 6 We see this project as the initiation of, and pilot for, a much larger-scale and longer-term project intended to research, demonstrate, educate people about, and propagate regenerative perennial agriculture in temperate climates across the United States and the world. By starting in a small town like Shelburne Falls, we hope to work out bugs in our systems and crystallize the strategies and methods needed to turn this kind of program into a more robust national and even worldwide program that operates along similar lines, but will involve at-risk youth and low-income families in challenging urban environments that desperately need better nutrition, skills, jobs, community, and greater understanding of and connection to healthy ecosystems. Project Overview . Develop one or more standardized perennial polyculture designs for different kinds of gardens that can function as replicate trials of species, varieties, and polycultures during the project. We will begin with a focus on herbaceous perennials (that is, non-woody plants that die back to the ground each year) and then add woody crops (that is, shrubs and trees) as the program develops. . Select participating households. Begin with ten households the first year, and double each year thereafter as participants become trainers and mentors for others and have plants to share. Select households based on demonstrated level of commitment, interest, and persistence; openness to new food experiences; ability to cover a portion of the initial cost of the gardens (though we intend to provide subsidies); desire and ability to work cooperatively; their social skills and attitudes; and their potential as future trainers and mentors. . Evaluate participants' properties for lead and other factors, and select garden sites. We believe that garden site selection is a critical part of the project's success, and plan to locate garden beds "in sight, in mind" as much as possible given neighborhood, site, family, and cultural constraints. Each site will receive one or two perennial polyculture beds as part of the program, but we will endeavor to integrate these beds into the participants' landscapes so that they do not seem to be a separate element visually or practically. The more integrated they feel aesthetically, the more they will integrate into the culture of each household. . Train participants to install the gardens and facilitate a cooperative "worknet" where each household helps each other household to install their perennial beds. This reduces installation costs and helps build community among participants, which we also believe will help the gardens to succeed socially and functionally. Two Worknet Leaders would guide families through the process of installing the low income families' gardens and support the development of participants in the group to carry the worknets on beyond the initial two days of organized support. . Mentor participants in garden and plant culture as well as the food culture of the crops over a period of two or three years through a series of mentoring visits that start with a higher frequency and gradually decrease over time. . Mentor visits will also double as research data collection opportunities that monitor plant and the polyculture designs' performance over a period of three to four years. We will use this data to refine our standardized designs over time. Research attention will also examine the human cultural side of the gardens, particular designs, and crops, such as flavor ratings and acceptance of new crops, attitude shifts and involvement in the gardens, management and maintenance challenges and dynamics, and so on. This data will also flow into perennial garden design refinements over time. . As households and gardens mature, use them as propagation centers for both the plants and the culture by spreading plant divisions to new participants in the project and selecting among previous participants to find new mentors and trainers to expand the project. Also work with local farmers to grow perennial plants as nursery crops for our standardized designs. . Feed data and experience back into the program to refine species selections and polyculture bed designs, and to develop mentoring and training methods that are increasingly effective. 8 . In subsequent years, multiply first the number of participants in the project within Shelburne Falls, and then add communities, as plants, mentors, and funds become available: diversify the perennial bed designs, adding woody crops; spread the program to other communities; begin working with at-risk youth to help run the program; train mentors and participants in plant breeding and selection; involve professional researchers in experiments using the gardens that result; develop educational programs and tours using the demonstration gardens the project has created; publish results of and studies from the work. First Year Budget Estimate . Participants in the program will pay nominal fees to increase their commitment to the workshop and worknet series. We plan to assist five low income families with subsidies that will cover costs for plants, soil amendments, and soil testing for their sites, while additional participants will cover these costs themselves. Fundraising will therefore primarily cover salaries and expenses for running the program, with some money to subsidize plants, testing, and amendments for the five low-income families. Project Coordinator: $2,500.00 Workshop Instructors (3 days): 3,000.00 Worknet Leaders ( 2 people, 2 days ea.): 2,000.00 Mentor/Monitor (7 visits/site, 4 meetings): 5,000.00 Employee costs (workman's comp, etc.): 1,250.00 Mileage for Apios staff: 750.00 Plants ($150 ea for 5 low inc families): 750.00 Soil Testing ($100 ea for 5 low inc sites): 500.00 Soil Amendments ($50 x 5 low inc sites) 250.00 Teaching Materials: 300.00 Insurance: . 500.00 Total $16,800.00 9 Summary The Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan and the Perennial Food Project both stand on their own as innovative, forward-thinking projects that will benefit the village of Shelburne Falls. However, taken together, they will help create an interacting and self-reinforcing system that will help transform the village's food systems. They can, and will, also expand and extend from this small burg to other places large and small, aiding the transition to a culture based more solidly in place, more stable, resilient, and healthier, while also less dependent on far flung industrial systems that damage the planet. Please support these projects with your tax-deductible contributions of money or material support, or by sharing this document with friends, family, and associates who may be able to offer their support to this good work. Donations in any amount may be sent to Central Connecticut River Valley Institute, Inc., 7 School Street, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370. Thank you for your time and consideration. 10 COMMUNITY FOOD GOALS AND PRINCIPLES The Goals of Community Food are: 1. To help participants develop a deeper sense of being "native" to this place by engaging them in an on-going process which reveals the interconnections between humans and the part of the Earth they live within. 2. To promote the availability of more high-quality, locally-grown food for our community by empowering people to grow some or all of their own food in their own yards using traditional gardening methods as well as perennial gardening - a method which ultimately requires less time and effort than traditional gardening. 3. To encourage and strengthen bonds between people in their neighborhoods and community by creating mutually beneficial activities, information, and food which can be shared with others. 4. To develop effective Community Food systems and materials in the Shelburne Falls pilot project which then can be taken out to other communities, towns, and cities. CCRVI's and Community Food's Underlying Principles are: 1. We want to learn to become "native" to our "place" and to promote the emergence of a culture which encourages and supports people to experience themselves as "native" to their places. [Wes Jackson, Becoming Native to This Place (see the detailed bibliographic information below), the entire book generally and Chapter 5 in particular] This means: a. we seek to create "coherent communit[ies] embedded in the ecological realities of [their] surrounding landscape" so that it is obvious that the community includes both the landscape and the people; [Becoming Native to This Place, page 3] b. we seek to engage in an on-going "conversation" with the landscape 11 and each other to discover what truly works for the good of the whole over the long run; [Becoming Native to This Place, page 40, we've paraphrased the quote from Wendell Berry, and generally Chapter 4] c. we value technology and science and believe they should be subordinate to the human principles of connection, meaning, wholeness, health, soul, spirit, and consciousness; [Becoming Native to This Place, page 39, we've paraphrased] d. we start with creating highly-effective local food systems as the platform upon which our community is built; [Becoming Native to This Place, generally Chapter 3] e. we believe that using less energy and resources will help us develop a deeper sense of "nativeness" and we seek to discover a way "to earn our living and amuse ourselves with the least expense to our life support system"; [Becoming Native to This Place, page 5] f. we believe that all parts of the Universe are alive, conscious, and responsive and that we can learn to interact at deep levels with each part; [Becoming Native to This Place, generally Chapter 3] g. we believe that human-scale activities provide us with the best chance of becoming and staying "native;" [Becoming Native to This Place, pages 2-3] and h. we believe that there is much to be learned from mimicking the success of the natural world and the wisdom and practices of those who have lived more closely with the natural world. [Becoming Native to This Place, generally Chapter 3] 2. We accept that we are profoundly ignorant of how to reclaim a deep awareness of our interconnectedness with our landscape so we start with small projects, develop redundant systems, and are always ready to reevaluate, tweak, back out, and/or start over as necessary. [Becoming Native to This Place, we've paraphrased page 24] 3. We seek to live our lives on contemporary sunlight instead of ancient sunlight.[Becoming Native to This Place, generally Chapter 1] 12 4. We value each person in our community because we know that we are all part of a greater whole and thus inextricably connected. Note: We honor the wisdom of Wes Jackson, of The Land Institute, Salina, Kansas, as contained in his book, Becoming Native to This Place, (Counterpoint, Washington, D.C., 1994, 1996) which expressed so eloquently the principles that have been evolving inside us for many years. The words we've used above to describe our principles are mostly Wes'. As indicated above, some are direct quotes and others we've tweaked, summarized, paraphrased, and otherwise extracted into their present form. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 12 13:10:44 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:10:44 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Missing more than a meal Message-ID: <001001ca7b67$58547b60$08fd7220$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS On the front of his book: "Principle-centered Leadership," author Stephen R. Covey, has printed "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Isn't that what we should be doing with people who are going hungry? Find land somewhere and help them to learn how to feed themselves. Food sovereignty is the cornerstone of freedom. Holding a job and getting paid is not -- it is the prison of the wage slave. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 8:13 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Missing more than a meal Missing more than a meal Child hunger, called the 'silent epidemic,' is an increasingly complex problem http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/11/AR2009121102 697.html By Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 12, 2009 PHILADELPHIA -- Three weeks before he was elected president, Barack Obama set an audacious goal: end hunger among children in the United States by 2015. Since his inauguration, Obama has seldom broached the subject. His aides brainstorm weekly with several agencies, but their internal conversations so far have not produced fundamentally new approaches. The president's goal could prove daunting: Childhood hunger is more complex than previously understood, new research suggests, and is unlikely to be solved simply by spending more money for food programs. If Obama intends to erase childhood hunger, the government will need to reach even further into the rowhouse kitchen where Anajyha Wright Mitchell sometimes takes tiny portions so her mother will have more food. "I tell her to eat, eat, eat, because she is real skinny," Anajyha, 12, said of her mother, Andrea Mitchell. Anajyha, a serious girl with two younger brothers and a mother who has lost two of her three part-time jobs, is growing up with an ebb and flow of food typical of a growing number of families. In her home, in a scuffed neighborhood called Strawberry Mansion a few miles north of the Liberty Bell, food stamps arrive but never last the month. There can be cereal but no milk. Pancake mix and butter but no eggs. The intricacy of the problem -- and of the Obama administration's task -- plays out here, where Anajyha could have enough to eat but shortchanges herself. Philadelphia offers a particularly vivid ground-level view of what researchers call a "silent epidemic" of hungry and undernourished youngsters. For years, local civic activists, health experts and politicians have tried some of the nation's most innovative experiments -- and learned how intractable hunger can be. Researchers here have also been at the leading edge in trying to fathom the effects of a scarcity of food. Even when children are not hungry, studies have found that slight shortages of food in their homes are associated with serious problems. Babies and toddlers in those homes are far more likely to be hospitalized than children in families with similar incomes but adequate food. School-age children tend to learn and grow more slowly, and to get into trouble more often. Teenage girls are more prone to be depressed or even flirt with thoughts of suicide. Solving the problem is further complicated by its subtle nature. "Most people who are hungry are not clinically manifesting what we consider hunger. It doesn't even affect body weight," said Mariana Chilton, a Drexel University medical anthropologist who is part of Children's HealthWatch, a network of pediatricians and public health researchers in Philadelphia and four other cities. Hunger cannot be solved by food alone, their work shows, because it is one strand in a web of pressures that trap families, including housing and energy costs. A nuanced problem This more nuanced picture is emerging as the problem has become more widespread. With the economy faltering, the number of youngsters living in homes without enough food soared in 2008 from 13 million to nearly 17 million, the Agriculture Department reported last month. In Philadelphia, researchers found that, during the first half of this year, one in five homes with a baby or toddler did not have enough food. And one of every dozen young children was outright hungry, a rate twice that of the same period the year before. Although the problem has deepened, White House and Agriculture Department officials say the president's goal remains, as one put it, "something that seems manageable." Congress increased food stamp benefits this year by $20 billion and, more recently, set aside money to test ways to feed children when school is out for the summer. The president's aides are focusing on a congressional debate, deferred from this year to next, on how to renew the nation's main child nutrition law. Although ideas in Washington have not fully crystallized, an unlikely lobbying force is at work. A group of Philadelphia women has begun appearing on Capitol Hill and at national conferences as part of a "Witnesses to Hunger" project, organized by Chilton, who handed video cameras to 42 mothers to document their efforts to feed their children. \ According to data issued this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of children living in homes without enough food soared in 2008 from 13 million to nearly 17 million. We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the inconvenience. Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. But learning to dress for success at news conferences, these women are discovering, does not solve the food problem at home. One of the "witnesses" is Christina Koch, whose younger son Jesus, 2, wakes up at night thirsty for milk or juice. "If I don't have it," she said, "I take him into bed and try to rock him to sleep." Running out of drinks for her toddler is part of a tangle of obstacles that shape Koch's days. At 26, she lives in North Philadelphia with her son, Dale, 5, a picky eater, as well as Jesus and her fiance, Jesus Nieves, who has had as much trouble finding and keeping jobs as she has. Not long ago, when she had the money, Koch bought more than 20 boxes of macaroni and cheese and stored them under her kitchen sink. The sink leaked. Every box was ruined. For the past few months, the gas and electricity have been cut off because she hadn't paid the bills. She has been cooking on a hot plate, borrowing electricity from the neighbor in the rowhouse next door, who let her thread a jumbo extension cord through the kitchen window. But when the neighbor was evicted last month, she was down to using candles until her family chipped in to pay her bill. She is bad, she knows, at budgeting. In early November, when $650 in food stamps came, she splurged on $18 in Chinese takeout. When the food stamps run out, she buys on credit from Indio's Mini Market, a few blocks away. In October, she ended up with a $300 tab. Making a difference Koch met Chilton, the anthropologist, in the emergency room at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, where Chilton and her co-workers spend hours on questionnaires to measure the food shortage. Across the hospital parking lot is the GROW clinic, which provides more evidence of the effort it takes to make a difference, even a few children at a time. Inside the clinic -- similar to Children's HealthWatch clinics in Baltimore, Boston, Little Rock and Minneapolis -- pediatrician Hans Kersten and a team see about a dozen young children and their parents each week. Four in five children here and at the other sites are not getting adequate food. The team checks head circumference as a clue to brain growth, motor skills, toddlers' vocabulary. "Hi, beautiful," nutritionist Kristen Roscioli says as the team walks into the examining room where 14-month-old Joeanna, the first child of Sherita Parks and Joseph Mouzon, is waiting in a diaper and pink barrettes. "She has managed to gain about two pounds, which is great," Kersten tells Joeanna's parents. "But she still is underweight?" Parks asks. "She is a tiny girl," he replies. "We just want her to be healthy." The main problem, her parents say, is that Joeanna doesn't like to eat. But Parks also says, "It would be great if we could get food stamps." Mouzon's pay from working in a pharmaceutical warehouse means they just miss qualifying. We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the inconvenience. Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post. Long before the GROW clinic existed, Philadelphia's school officials and anti-poverty activists began a novel experiment whose future the Obama administration, in one of its first decisions about children and food, has put in doubt. Instead of requiring people to fill out paperwork for their children to get free lunch and breakfast at school, Philadelphia officials persuaded the government 19 years ago to let every child qualify automatically in neighborhoods with enough poor families. The number of students getting the meals soared. Last year, the Bush administration decided that the experiment was too old and must end soon. After Obama arrived, the local congressional delegation and others appealed. Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, upheld the Bush administration's decision. Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D) fired off a letter, saying that "hundreds if not thousands of eligible students" would lose meals. Vilsack relented, for now. Administration officials say they want families nationally to have easier access to food programs. But they want to leave the question of Philadelphia's approach for the congressional debate on childhood nutrition. Though safe for the moment, the program has never been a complete solution. At W.G. Smith Elementary School in South Philadelphia, 155 of the school's 380 students came for a free breakfast on a recent Monday. Many parents simply bring their children to school too late. Cuerethea Travis, Smith's school nurse for 13 years, stockpiles graham crackers, yogurt and fruit for the trickle of children who come to her every morning, drooping and with stomachaches. "You feel like you are Dick Tracy," she said. "Is it the kind of pain you feel like you need to go to the bathroom? Or is it the kind you feel like you want to put something in your stomach?" Often, she asks children to look at the clock on her wall, then count back, telling her how many hours it has been since they had something to eat. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 12 13:40:14 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:40:14 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Thelma, Louise and Six Degrees Message-ID: <001a01ca7b6b$78191fb0$684b5f10$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS As I read this, I could not help but think about the many times when I came face to face in my personal life with what appeared to me to be "no way out." And, then as I contemplated the situation all of a sudden a door previously hidden would appear and swing open to reveal something far more magnificent than the scene I left behind. Right now I know not the outcome of our collective predicament, but I somehow cannot escape the feeling that whatever the future holds it will be magnificent if only I go on being all that I can be and leave the fear behind. With love to all, I am holding the field for the fullest potential to unfold now in the best interests of all concerned. M R -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:41 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Thelma, Louise and Six Degrees Thelma, Louise and Six Degrees by TS Bennett http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/2009/12/09/thelma-louise-and-six-degrees/ Published Dec 11 2009 by VisionQuest Pictures, Archived Dec 11 2009 When I watch a movie, my thinking always wanders to the same few questions. . How is this a story for our time? . What does this film tell us about ourselves, our deepest feelings, our secret thoughts, our invisible yearnings? . And how conscious are the filmmakers themselves about these processes? Because we seem to be living in a time of converging crises, and because I am sensitive to that, I view most films through that lens. Being both a filmmaker and a cultural critic, it is an occupational hazard that I quite enjoy. As Copenhagen unfolds, I notice some patterns in the media conversation: new examinations of confusion and denial; repeated attempts to explain and convince; more proposals of crucial solutions and necessary policies; timely reports on the severity of the situation. One question that seems to wander through these articles and essays and reports is this: why can't we seem to get our shit together when it comes to climate change? The failure of Copenhagen feels, to many, like a foregone conclusion. So, like, What the What? Good question. One that seems to apply to much of the present predicament in which we find ourselves. And one, I think, that will benefit from a viewing of Ridley Scott's 1991 "Zeitgeist-catching" road movie, Thelma & Louise. Go watch it. I'll wait. OK. You back? Good. Let's move on. So, if the question is why can't we seem to get our shit together when it comes to climate change? then most of the answers I hear seem to fall into one of three categories. It's because we (or our leaders) are: . stuck in distraction and/or denial, . greedy, unprincipled and maybe even psychotic or evil or . just too stupid to go on living. To me these are all reasonable explanations. Distraction and denial are surely in force, as are those other human possibilities: greed, psychosis, evil, and stupidity. If you view our movies, as I do, as the stories of Imperialism, which reveal how we view both the world and ourselves, then you'll find overwhelming evidence to support these assessments. But I think I see something more at work here. Something more fundamental, perhaps, or more invisible. And invisible, maybe, because it just breaks too many rules, to speak about it. Here's what I see: our collective death wish at work. Hang with me for a moment. I have no doubt that our egos have been left battered, bruised, and pretty much insane by the experience of being born into captivity in what Derrick Jensen calls "the culture of make-believe". I've experienced that insanity intimately in my own life. And once I identified it, I could see it all around me, at work in the world. But I also have a sense that my true self, my essence, that good and beautiful being I came here as, has not been destroyed. My animal body senses, perceives, and moves through the world at levels above, below and beyond the warped and word-bound ego that thinks it is in charge. My essential self remains in close and constant connection with a reality that far exceeds any mental constructs my thinking might wish to lay on it. What if, apart from the denial, stupidity, or greed to which our ego-bound thoughts and words are too often constrained, our bodies know exactly what's coming down? What if the reason we're not getting our shit together when it comes to climate change is because our essential selves are not buying a bit of what our egos are being told about how to address this "problem"? What if, in fact, at some deep level from which we cannot even speak, those parts of our being that have not been distorted, distracted or destroyed by the absurdities of Empire regard climate change, in some crucial way, not as a "problem" at all, but as a "solution"? Hard to imagine? Let's go back to Thelma & Louise. This movie was a "huge critical success", clocking in as the 88th best-reviewed movie of all time at metacritic.com. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, and won for Best Original Screenplay. If it's correct to call this film "Zeitgeist-catching", then what part of "the defining spirit or mood of our times" does it catch? Pull over there. Let's check the map. Thelma and Louise leave their loveless, abused, and unsatisfying lives behind for a weekend fling together. A bit of fun leads to the attempted rape of Thelma, in response to which Louise kills the offender. They run, sure that they'll never get a fair hearing in a court of law, and their attempts to flee to Mexico spiral out of control. As the charges against them pile up, they find a surprising exhilaration in their unanticipated life of crime. It all comes to a standoff at the edge of a cliff. Trapped in a situation with no acceptable solutions, poised between a line of state troopers and the sympathetic detective who has been trying to bring them in on the one hand, and the vast unknown of that cliff on the other, Thelma and Louise choose the cliff. The film ends with that iconic freeze frame, as they launch themselves in their '66 Thunderbird into the only freedom they can imagine. If that's the map, then the territory is our own world, our own culture, our own lives. If Thelma & Louise shows us the Geist, it's the Geist of our own Zeit. And if we allow that as our starting point, then the connections come easily enough. Did not the culture of civilization, at some point, take off on a weekend fling of unexpected exhilaration that spiraled out of control, bringing the entire planet face to face with our present predicament? And have not many people's lives, at least those lived here in the heart of Empire, become so loveless, abused and unsatisfying that we're poised now to do almost anything to get out of them? Have we not truly managed to do something no other living creature has managed to do, which is to make ourselves, individually and collectively, miserable? Aye, now I've done it. I've violated a deep taboo, spoken the unspeakable. Because, well, we're so happy, we Americans. Aren't we? I mean, sure, we've got corrupt leadership, economic insanity, and the end of cheap energy to contend with. We've got climate change and population overshoot and mass extinction to think about. We've got dying oceans, dying forests, dying aquifers, dying krill, dying caribou, dying everything. We've got nuclear power and nuclear waste and nuclear weapons and depleted uranium. We've got fucked up political systems, health care systems, educational systems, economic systems, agricultural systems, and septic systems. We've got racism, sexism, narcissism, workaholism and fascism. We've got child abuse and elder abuse and spouse abuse and animal abuse. We've got rapes and murders and suicides. We've got unwed mothers and single parents and children having children. We've got addictions, distractions, obsessions and compulsions. We've got unemployment and underemployment and homelessness and debt. We've got boring, meaningless work, longer hours, longer drive times and falling real wages. We've got unsatisfying relationships, loneliness, divorce and broken homes. We've got mental illness, stress, busy-ness, depression, despair, medication and "the deliberate dumbing down of America". We've got obesity, diabetes, asthma, cancer and heart disease and all those other "diseases of civilization". And sure, all of these things seem to be spiraling out of control, as if Conquest, War, Famine and Pestilence just stormed onto our polo field and started to beat the ever-loving crap out of our players. But, c'mon! We've also got 24,909 tunes on our iPods! We've got Trundled Duck Confit with a Gorgonzola Reduction! We've got shamanic excursions into the heart of the Andes! We've got that new James Cameron movie coming out! In 3-fucking-D! Surely it all balances out? Surely, surely, this all counts for something? I mean, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right? And the upholstery in this '66 Thunderbird is just luscious, isn't it? I've got to stop and wonder whether comfort and distraction have been confused with joy, fulfillment and meaning. I acknowledge that it's possible to find moments of comfort and happiness even in prison. That doesn't mean we're not in prison. I view this as our deepest denial, the denial of the truth of our own life experience, the denial kept in rigid place by our desperate story of The American Way. As David Edwards says in his interview with Derrick Jensen, What prison could be more secure than one we're convinced is "the world," where the boundaries of action and thought are assumed to be, not the limits of the permissible, but the limits of the possible? Democratic society, as we know it, is the ultimate prison, because who's going to try to escape from a situation of apparent freedom? It follows, then, that we must be happy, because we can do whatever we want. Copenhagen unfolds. The cliff approaches. Go back to those last minutes in the movie. We learn, finally, how deeply Louise's wounds go, how vast is her pain. We see the chase. The attempted escape. The final capture. We see the line of police cruisers. The helicopter hovers menacingly overhead. The sniper rifles aim their way. The "good cop" has failed to bring them in but argues angrily for one last attempt. The "bad cop" uses his PA system to order them to give up. Thelma and Louise are not buying any of it. They're fed up with living lives in prison. Thelma looks at Louise. "Let's keep going," she says "What do you mean?" Thelma looks out over the cliff, nods her head almost imperceptibly. "Go," she says. Smiles and tears flit across their faces. "You sure?" "Yeah." They kiss, their faces a study in love and grief and terror and power. Louise hits the gas. They hold hands. They speed toward the cliff. And they're gone. Can we just hold silence here for a few seconds? Thank you. I think Ridley Scott failed in this moment, as Roger Ebert so gratifyingly pointed out. Having spent two hours building up to this point, Scott could not hold it. Rather then just sit with the tension, the grief, the surprise, the pain, or the exhilaration, his freeze frame dissolved way too quickly into white. And the white dissolved right into rolling end credits, that haunting score, and a snapshot review of their happier times. As Ebert said, "Can one shot make that big of a difference? This one does." But now, here in our Zeit, we are given an opportunity to correct that failure. In this time of seeming collapse, as we sit staring over our own collective cliff, perhaps because, 18 years since the movie's release, we are more desperate now, or perhaps because we have each other, we can hold the shot that Ridley Scott could not. We can sit with that tension, that grief, that surprise, that pain, and that exhilaration. We can hold that freeze frame and feel it to the very depths of the canyon underneath. We can look at this hidden piece of Geist and see what it is that the public, as a whole, seemed to resonate with so deeply. And we can learn, perhaps, in doing that, what there is to be learned in this moment. I wonder if we're not getting our shit together when it comes to climate change because, at some level, we're not buying it, just as Thelma and Louise didn't buy it, no matter the assurances of the nice white guy in the suit, or the threats of the stern authority figure in the uniform. We're not buying the notion that this predicament will somehow get "fixed" by any combination of carbon caps, emissions agreements, green shopping, alternative energies and new technologies under the sun. Some months ago, the specter of 4 degree C temperature rise started bouncing around in the news. Just a few weeks back, there were new reports that we're on our way to 6 degrees C if we keep going as we are. And another new study reports that global CO2 emissions have risen 29% in the past nine years, indicating our commitment to doing just that. Six degrees moves us into the realm of the End-Permian extinction event, during which roughly nine-tenths of the life forms on the planet said their last farewells. It seems.. well. unlikely. that corrupt and insane leaders will have much say in such matters, as energy, environment and economy slip rapidly from our hands, as if they ever really were in our hands to begin with. Conquest, War, Famine and Pestilence seem now to have made their way up to the clubhouse. Hard to believe that that padlocked gate is going to hold. And I wonder if we're not buying any attempt to fix this problem that has as its goal the preservation of the culture of Empire. I think, collectively, our bodies are not buying that. Our sane essential selves are not buying that. iPods and duck confit DO NOT outweigh the costs to our souls of lives lived in prison and the destruction of the community of life. And sadly, we do not see that anything less than global catastrophe will free us from our collective insanity. It is forbidden to say this out loud, of course, even to ourselves. It's just too painful, to face into just how miserable we have become as a people, how lost, how wounded, how stuck. And how pointless life seems. As we asked in What a Way to Go: "Are we destroying the planet, as Dmitry Orlov asks, just 'to be somewhat more comfortable for a little while'?" It's too much to bear. And truly, why should we? Maybe Warren Zevon was right. If the planet's now headed toward six degrees, "as the mystics and statistics say it will," why not go out like desperadoes, our foot on the pedal, our hair just flying in the wind, taking out Empire as we go? And "heaven help the one who leaves." Ultimately, what I think we are not buying, body and soul, is the notion that this is all there is, this "physical reality" of corrupt leaders, insane systems, working, shopping and fucking and dying. We're not buying this whole "materialism" thang, this deadened world, this end of magic, this loss of meaning. We're not buying it. The costs are too high. The benefits too shallow. And the growing edges of our own science seem no longer to support such notions. The anomalies have been piling up in the corner for so long now that we can hardly get through the door. We can still sense, despite the bullshit that has been heaped upon our minds, a Cosmos far more wondrous than either the suit or the uniform can even begin to imagine. Indeed. Go back to that last scene. Watch closely. Look at Thelma's face. Watch Louise's reaction. The excitement mixed with terror. The wonder fused with grief. The pain of wounds so deep they drive us over the cliff. If Thelma and Louise are running away in their final act, they are also running toward. It's in their eyes. They can see it. Beyond that cliff lies not only the end of this madness, but the beginning of something new. A step into that unknown Cosmos that has never abandoned us, even as we abandoned it. Plunging over a cliff is not an act of control. It's an act of intention. And surrender. And trust. Climate change may be a fuck-all mess, but at least it'll get us out of this nightmare, and take us to some place new. Hit the gas. "Go!" I do not wish to be mistaken here, though I'm fairly certain that I shall be. I merely wish to point out that, from where I sit, these forces are alive in our collective heart. I know they are alive in mine. I have no idea whether Thelma and Louise made the right choice. I do not know that we "should" hit the gas, whatever that means. The full manifestation of current trends is poised to take out a great deal more than human beings. It already has. It would certainly be my wish to kill off just the culture, rather than the vast majority of the community of life. As Derrick Jensen said in What a Way to Go: So many people are so very, very unhappy. And they want this nightmare to end. And they don't recognize that the death that they want is a cultural death, and is a spiritual and metaphorical death. This death wish is here, part of the spirit of the times, and I say that it's exactly what Thelma & Louise tapped into, exactly what caught its viewers in the throat, exactly what caused the members of the Academy to honor that Best Original Screenplay. Our collective misery, and our wish for the death of the culture that underlies that misery, hover still in that great freeze-frame of our present predicament. If we fade-to-white too quickly, if we insist on our snapshots of happier times, then we will miss a deep truth of this moment, and the opportunity to learn from this moment what there may be to learn. Our failure to respond may, indeed, spring from denial, greed, and stupidity. Those are all likely suspects. But it may also be grounded in the deep longing of our bodies and the wisdom of our souls. Whatever the reasons, when it comes to our collective reaction so far, we're not buying what's being sold. We do not seem eager to "save civilization." It may behoove us to wonder why that is. If we face into this death wish, if we stare into our collective misery, both as the conquered and as the conquerors, and allow the truth of our culture, a culture that would drive us to this cliff, to rise into conscious acknowledgment, we may find, in doing so, a choice that now eludes us. It's a possibility. One that I don't think we have much explored. We're sitting on a cliff in a '66 Thunderbird, staring into the abyss of the insoluble predicament. None of the choices we can imagine are acceptable. Now what? TTG TS Bennett is writer and director of the documentary What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 12 13:56:59 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:56:59 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Major Victory for ACORN and the Constitution Message-ID: <001b01ca7b6d$d45ce570$7d16b050$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS It appears to me that like "beauty" what the Constitution means is in the "eye of the beholder." But please do not take this comment to mean that the attempt to de-fund ACORN was not "unconstitutional" -- only that different people seem to interpret it differently. Maybe we need a new system which cannot be so easily misinterpreted by so many. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:02 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Major Victory for ACORN and the Constitution Major Victory for ACORN and the Constitution http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/12/12/acorn/index.html by Glenn Greenwald Published on Saturday, December 12, 2009 by Salon.com In September, I interviewed Rep. Alan Grayson about the unconstitutionality of Congress' attempt to de-fund ACORN, and a couple of weeks later, examined Supreme Court precedent -- principally the 1946 case of U.S. v. Lovett -- that left little doubt that the Congressional war on ACORN violated the Constitutional ban on "bills of attainder." Yesterday, in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Federal District Judge Nina Gershon of the Eastern District of New York found Congress' de-funding of ACORN unconstitutional and enjoined its enforcement. This is a major victory not only for ACORN, but also for the Constitution. Judge Gershon's opinion is a model of careful and dispassionate judicial reasoning. Rejecting the DOJ's claim that Congress had merely exercised its funding discretion rather than "punished" ACORN, the court wrote: "Wholly apart from the vociferous comments by various members of Congress as to ACORN's criminality and fraud . . . no reasonable observer could suppose that such severe action would have been taken in the absence of a conclusion that misconduct occurred." The court pointed to numerous statements made by Senators, including the bill's primary sponsor (Sen. Johanns), in which they anointed themselves judge and jury to declare ACORN guilty of crimes with which they had not even been charged, let alone convicted. Relying on Lovett -- which held unconstitutional a Congressional act banning specified individuals from government employment based on the unadjudicated finding that they had "subversive beliefs" and "subversive associations" -- Judge Gershon explained that under clear Supreme Court law: "the discretionary nature of government funding does not foreclose a finding that Congress has impermissibly singled out plaintiffs for punishment." Events like this provide an important reminder about how crucial and well-crafted the Constitution is. Though rarely invoked, the ban on "bills of attainder" is no technical or legalistic right; it's vital. Allowing Congress -- rather than courts -- to pass judgment on parties' guilt and then punish them for it is to circumvent all of the due process rights guaranteed in a judicial proceeding. It virtually ensures that, as happened here, guilt will be imposed due to political passions and a lynch mob mentality rather than a careful and fair examination of evidence. It also leaves weak and unpopular parties far more vulnerable to punishment. The fact that groups far more powerful than ACORN have actually been found guilty of serious wrongdoing yet have never been de-funded by Congress -- particularly defense contractors -- illustrates that danger. The reasons the Founders barred such bills of attainder are perfectly highlighted by the ACORN case. During the reign of abusive Kings, it was a favorite instrument for enabling unpopular parties to be convicted, punished and deprived without benefit of a trial. Under the Constitution, parties aren't supposed to be found guilty of wrongdoing as a result of a Fox-News-led witch hunt joined by cowardly members of Congress. The recent finding of the Massachusetts Attorney General that ACORN had not committed crimes in connection with the notorious prostitution videos underscores the danger of the state's assuming someone's guilt outside of the judicial process. Congress is especially ill-suited to pass judgment on whether a particular party has violated the law, as they are far more likely to protect the powerful and popular and punish the weak and unpopular (which is one reason, incidentally, why it was wrong for Congress to retroactively immunize rich and powerful telecoms based on the consummately judicial finding that they acted in "good faith" when violating eavesdropping laws). Yesterday's ACORN decision also highlights how crucial is the Constitution's separation of powers. Unlike members of Congress, whose need to be re-elected renders them unwilling to resist irrational majoritarian mobs, Judge Gershon is a federal judge with life tenure who can much more easily ignore those considerations. Even so, when a federal judge vindicates the Constitutional rights of a highly unpopular party, it is still courageous; a ruling like this can affect the judge's prospects for appointment to a higher court and can subject her to intense attacks, as is certainly going to happen here. But being constitutionally immunized from the whims of the political process enables a federal judge to safeguard the core liberties of even vulnerable and unpopular parties in a way that the political branches simply will not do. As the cowards in Congress rushed without a trial to unconstitutionally punish ACORN on a very bipartisan basis, Judge Gershon was able to ignore the lynch mob and dispassionately apply well-settled legal principles to safeguard core liberties. There is an endless list of radical flaws in our political system, including our judicial branch. But in those rare cases when things actually work the way they're designed to, it's worth reminding ourselves of why the Constitution is such a vital document and why it's so crucial that it be adhered to and defended. UPDATE: As always happens whenever there is a judicial decision that undermines the Right's political interests, there are going to be hordes of right-wing polemicists marching forth to denounce this ruling as "judicial activism." They're already starting. These are people won't bother to read a single word or case about "bills of attainder," but overnight, they're self-proclaimed legal scholars on this Constitutional prohibition and are in a position to criticize the Judge's ruling as legally erroneous. Of course, the only thing they really know is that they hate ACORN and therefore dislike the outcome of this case. In other words, they're denouncing the decision for reasons having nothing to do with law and everything to do with their own political beliefs and outcome preferences -- i.e., they're advocating, as usual, for the consummate act of outcome-based "judicial activism" which they endlessly claim to oppose. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 12 14:19:23 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:19:23 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] History Is Driven by the Little Guy by VIGGO MORTENSEN Message-ID: <002a01ca7b70$f0bad490$d2307db0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS As these articles pass over my desktop on their way to either the "hold" tank or get the "forward" signal, I am more and more confronted as to how "we-the-people" have no power now that not only politics have been monetized but to realize that from the get-go most of us were disenfranchised by the Constitution. And now comes the realization that the symbol of "the Great White Father" or our "Lord" is the only standing symbol of representation we have left. After attempting to gain our stature as a "other" people with rights to all the abundance of this earth, we still find that people of color, non-landowners, and women have been marginalized almost out of existence. Isn't it time we got together and did something about this? How about setting up the rightful "third leg" of governance in the form of a legalized Civil Society which represents all of the people all of the time, and gives us the right to legally address the challenges which we face today by those who would keep us disenfranchised? This move has been recommended by alternative economist, Hazel Henderson in her book: "Beyond Globalization - Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy." Think about it. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 9:16 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] History Is Driven by the Little Guy by VIGGO MORTENSEN Published on Friday, December 11, 2009 by The Huffington Post 'Great Man' Theory? History Is Driven by the Little Guy http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/11-10 by VIGGO MORTENSEN Actors have the privilege of exploring fictional characters, to see the world from the perspective of another person's imagined life. Sometimes, usually less often, we have the opportunity to speak the words of historical figures, to say the words they themselves spoke. This presents a different kind of challenge, in many ways, something I have been thinking about personally since becoming involved with a performance project and now documentary film called The People Speak, which is airing on History Channel, Sunday, December 13, at 8 pm (7 pm Central). (A soundtrack of music from the film is available from the Verve label December 9.) The project is inspired by Howard Zinn's books A People's History of the United States and, with Anthony Arnove, Voices of a People's History of the United States, two books that have had a deep influence on how I understand this country. Howard's books provide a history of the United States from below, from the standpoint of ordinary people often overlooked in our textbooks and in our culture. In 2005, I had the chance to be part of reading in Los Angeles with a remarkable lineup of actors, including Sandra Oh and Josh Brolin, which we called Voices of a People's History of the United States. The enthusiastic reaction of the audience to hearing the words of people in our country's history who have spoken out, fought injustice, and made a change, demonstrated how empowering it can be for people to reclaim this history and to make it their own. And how enlightening it is to shine the light of history on the issues and concerns of the present. The success of these performances throughout the country -- some in high schools and some in theaters, some with professional actors and musicians, some with high school students -- led a few of us to think that we should make a film that could highlight and preserve these stories. The stories of people like Plough Jogger, a farmer in Shay's Rebellion, who asserted "We've come to relieve the distresses of the people." Or an anonymous member of the Industrial Workers of the World who was arrested for denouncing World War One, saying, "This war is a businessman's war and we don't see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs which we now enjoy." Or Orlando and Phyllis Rodriguez, who lost their son on 9/11, and issued this heartfelt statement a few days after: "Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world. But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times." What we have found in making this film over the past two years is that people respond to these voices is profoundly personal and emotional ways. They take inspiration from seeing how people struggled in the past, often against far greater odds than we face today, to make their voices heard and to right historic wrongs. They find insight from these expressions of the past into how they feel and live in the present. And they also find hope for a different future. As Howard Zinn has often pointed out, history told from above -- from the standpoint of generals and kings and presidents -- encourages passivity, a sense of helplessness. In this version of history, "great men" make history, not ordinary people. But looked at from below, history has another lesson. Whenever change as happened, it has been through protest, dissent, struggle, social movements, ordinary people picketing, striking, boycotting, sitting down, sitting in. All this mans that we make history, history is effected by our everyday decisions. And we have a responsibility to speak out when we see injustice. We can't wait on others to "lead" us or solve our problems for us. We have to participate, to engage, every day and not just once every four years. Howard Zinn's work also reminds us that we always need to ask: what stories am I not hearing? Whose voices am I not hearing? And that if no one is telling our stories, we need to find ways -- creative, dynamic -- ways of telling them ourselves. Copyright C 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Viggo Mortensen in an acclaimed actor who will appear in John Hillcoat's The Road, the highly anticipated film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's best selling novel. From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 12 14:25:15 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:25:15 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Some serious response is needed on this one, folks... Message-ID: <002b01ca7b71$c0de8590$429b90b0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks, Lorin. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 4:41 AM Subject: Fwd: Some serious response is needed on this one, folks... We need to take action and start calling. Against the Organic Farming Ban Description: > Please tell everyone who wants organic foods..... US House and Senate are about (in a week and a half) to vote on bill that will OUTLAW ORGANIC FARMING (bill HR 875). There is an enormous rush to get this into law within the next 2 weeks before people realize what is happening. The main backer and lobbyist is Monsanto - chemical and genetic engineering giant corporation (and Cargill, ADM, and about 35 other related agri-giants). This bill will require organic farms to use specific fertilizers and poisonous insect sprays dictated by the newly formed agency to "make sure there is no danger to the public food supply". This will include backyard gardens that grow food only for a family and not for sales. If this passes then NO more heirloom clean seeds will be available, but only Monsanto genetically altered seeds that are now showing up with unexpected diseases in humans. There is a video on the subject. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXNJNjYBvw&feature=related And another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeWVkTU1s1E The name on this outrageous food plan is: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (bill HR 875). THIS IS REAL, FOLKS! PASS THIS ALONG TO ALL CONCERNED ON YOUR MAILING LISTS & CALL YOUR SENATE REPRESENTETIVES TODAY! Get on that phone and burn up the wires. Get anyone else you can to do the same thing. The House and Senate WILL pass this if they are not massively threatened with loss of their position.... They only fear your voice and your vote. The best thing to do is go to www.house.gov/writerep all you have to do is put in your zip and it will give you your congressperson and how to get in touch with them. When you call their office someone will answer the phone, just tell them (politely) that you are calling to express your views on HR 875. Tell them your views, they'll take your name and address and pass your comments along to the congressperson. > > The following link is a list of the U.S. senators and their > > contact info: > > http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm (read less) > > Privacy Type: > > Open: All content is public. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 13 12:02:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:02:31 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Media Matters: With "Climategate" and Jennings smears, the right goes guerilla Message-ID: <000001ca7c26$fb68eec0$f23acc40$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS For your information and consideration. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 5:20 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Media Matters: With "Climategate" and Jennings smears, the right goes guerilla Media Matters: With "Climategate" and Jennings smears, the right goes guerilla December 11, 2009 7:53 pm ET http://mediamatters.org/columns/200912110046 The conservative reaction to President Obama's election is turning downright Faustian. As the rhetoric on the right has grown increasingly shrill, a few conservatives have raised their voices in alarm, counseling their ideological kin to step back from the abyss. Former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote in August that "the increasingly angry tone of incitement being heard from right-of-center broadcasters" is likely to lead to politically motivated violence. Not two weeks ago, conservative blogger Charles Johnson articulated the reasons behind his departure from the right, citing conservative support for "anti-science bad craziness" and "[h]atred for President Obama that goes far beyond simply criticizing his policies." If the past week is any indication, those warnings have been roundly ignored. The conservative media, in their quest to derail the president's progressive agenda, have thrown their lot in with the grisly underbelly of political activism -- dumpster-diving thieves, extremist hate groups, and scam-artist videographers who sacrifice credibility for sensationalism and value Web traffic over truth. Take, for example, the hackers who illegally accessed email servers at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and stole thousands of emails. From Fox News on down to the conservative blogs, right-wingers have seized on the stolen documents as "proof" that climate change science is a "hoax" and attacked the global scientific consensus on climate change as a "cult." As Media Matters explained last week, the emails show nothing of the sort, and they are being wildly distorted. But the right not only wholeheartedly embraced these illegally obtained documents, it actively took steps to hide the fact that they were obtained by theft. Fox News spent an entire week describing the emails as "leaked," "revealed," and "uncovered." The conservative media critics at NewsBusters chastised the media for "paint[ing] the 'stolen' e-mails not as laudatory whistle-blowing, but as an unwanted impediment to the left's global warming agenda." There were also new developments this week in another bogus "controversy" being stoked by right-wingers: the ongoing homophobic smear campaign against Department of Education official Kevin Jennings. Led by Andrew Breitbart and The Washington Times, conservatives falsely accused Jennings' organization of handing out explicit sexual materials to children, and smeared Jennings, who is gay, as a "deviant," a "pedophile," the "buggery czar," and a "mega-pervert." It was later revealed that the falsehoods upon which these smears are based originated with a group called MassResistance, a Massachusetts-based anti-gay hate group that purports to chronicle the "brutal fascist tactics" of the "homosexual movement," and whose leader compared the gay rights movement to Nazism. Speaking of Andrew Breitbart, the Drudge-prot?g? and Twitter fiend received some bad news this week. An investigation by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger into Breitbart's much-publicized videos purporting to show ACORN aiding an undercover pimp and prostitute in tax evasion determined that the videos contained no evidence that the organization acted illegally. The report also found that the videos, shot by conservative activists James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, "appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O'Keefe's and Ms. Giles' comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding." Perhaps he'll have better luck with his next project -- rooting through ACORN's trash to find incriminating documents. The newest right-wing smear centers on a deceptively cropped undercover video shot by an anti-abortion activist at a Planned Parenthood office in Wisconsin. The Fox Nation and other right-wingers claimed the video shows Planned Parenthood trying to force women to have abortions. In reality, the video is so heavily edited it's impossible to determine the context of any of the Planned Parenthood staffer's supposedly damning statements. These are the big stories for conservatives right now, and they're all based on thievery, the smears of an extremist fringe group, and disreputable hucksters with video cameras. Now, it's probably not completely accurate to say that the right's embrace of these types of people is a Faustian bargain -- after all, such an arrangement typically involves the good being corrupted or seduced by the evil. When it comes to the conservative media, which are already notorious for slander and falsehood, it's more like the next step of a natural progression. The real danger is that they are helping to mainstream these fringe characters. The Washington Post published an op-ed by Sarah Palin who used the -- ahem -- "publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center" as a pretext to lie and mislead on climate science. The Post defended publishing Palin's op-ed by claiming that it didn't have time to fact-check it and that Palin "is someone who stirs discussion." And that's exactly the mindset these conservatives are preying upon: Forget the facts; we just want eyeballs on the screens. From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 13 16:09:54 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:09:54 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Story Of Stuff: A Must Watch Video Message-ID: <001201ca7c49$8bf81a70$a3e84f50$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS This video has been previously forwarded to the Co-learner's List, but this is one that can't be watched too many times IMHO. Thanks to Annie Leonard for all her hard work in putting this together. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 10:51 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Story Of Stuff: A Must Watch Video Story Of Stuff: A Must Watch Video http://www.countercurrents.org/ 12 December 2009 From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 13 17:39:37 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:39:37 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care Message-ID: <001c01ca7c56$11cade60$35609b20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS This article was forwarded to me by Trading Post Paul and I thank him for it. Comment: PTSD is related to Bipolar Disorder according to the research I am conducting from a journalist's prospective for the book I am writing, and consequently is one that benefits from being treated with a nutritionally-balanced diet - one that is preferably pH balanced and which includes many raw foods so that the raw enzymes contained in them get into the body. Participating in Tai Chi or Qigong exercises on a regular basis have proven helpful as well since these exercises tend to balance the body/mind energy field as told by Valerie V. Hunt in her book: "Infinite Mind - Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness." Other modalities that may prove helpful are: the Holosync Program, http://www.centerpointe.com/holosync/?gclid=CKic4P_F1J4CFREeDQodbFlU7Q, and healing music played in the Solfeggio scale as revealed by Dr. Leonard Horowitz in his book: "Walk On Water". To learn more about healing via sound/music, here is an interview with Dr. Horowitz by EVOLVE magazine: http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/evolve_interview.html Please refer to "The pH Miracle Diet by Robert O. Young, Ph.D. and Shelley Redford Young for further information on diet. And as well to any of nutritionist David Wolfe's videos or articles on the benefits of eating raw. Here is an article on different therapies the Army is looking into with regard to finding healing modalities that work. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/army-bioenergy/ Army's New PTSD Treatments: Yoga, Reiki, 'Bioenergy' * By Noah Shachtman Email Author * March 25, 2008 | * 6:52 am | * Categories: Uncategorized * 060716_militaryyoga_hmed_1phmedium The military is scrambling for new ways to treat the brain injuries and post-traumatic stress of troops returning home from war. And every kind of therapy - no matter how far outside the accepted medical form - is being considered. The Army just unveiled a $4 million program to investigate everything from "spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga" to "bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, [and] distant healing" to mend the psyches of wounded troops. As many as 17 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, one congressional study estimates. Nearly 3,300 troops have suffered traumatic brain injury, or TBI, according to statistics assembled last summer. And the lifetime costs of treating these ailments could pile up to as much as $35 billion, a Columbia University report guesses. Small wonder, then, that the government is looking for alternate means to treat these injuries. The Defense Department "is dedicated to supporting evidence-based approaches to medical treatment and wants to support the use of alternative therapies if they are proven efficacious," notes a recently-issued request for proposals. But many of these treatments haven't been held up to much rigorous scientific scrutiny before. So the Army is looking to hand out $4 million in "seedling grants" to "conduc[t] rigorous clinical studies" into all sorts of "novel approaches." Projects "containing preliminary data" will be eligible for up to $1 million. But even "innovative but testable hypotheses without preliminary data" could get as much as $300,000. Proposals are due May 15. "Music, animal-facilitated therapy, art, dance/movement, massage therapy, EMDR [Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing] program evaluation, virtual reality, acupuncture, spiritual ministry, transcendental meditation, [and] yoga," might all be considered worth of the military's largess. So would "biologically-based treatments, botanicals, and nutritional supplements for enhancing cognitive function and mood in patients with trauma spectrum disorders, including TBI and/or PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or substance dependence/abuse." Even proposals for wild-sounding "therapies using bioenergies such as Qi gong, Reiki, distant healing and acupuncture" would be accepted. The program also wants to investigate the "perceptions" of these treatments, and any "gender-specific implications and issues" involved. All "proposals must provide a clear justification and military relevance for the choice of therapies selected," the Army reminds grant applicants. This isn't the first time the military has investigated these sorts of nontraditional approaches. The semi-legendary "First Earth Battalion ," immortalized in The Men Who Stare at Goats, advocated that soldiers utilize everything from "yogic cat stretch[es]" to "Ginseng tab regulator[s]" to "amphetamines." A 1973 RAND Corporation study, put together for Darpa, lamented Soviet advances over the American military in everything from yoga to telekinesis. More recently, Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., inserted $2 million into last year's defense budget bill for "research into the effects of prayer." Darpa has invested millions into natural dietary supplements. Troops - even flag-level officers - have been known to do yoga on their own. And while some of these techniques seem way out there - I mean way, way out there - others may have a more practical effect on psychiatric health. Yoga, for instance, has been shown to improve the mood of psychiatric inpatients and reduce so-called "stress hormones" like cortisol. After promising early results, planning is underway for a major study into the effects of yoga on the treatment of schizophrenia. Full disclosure: The doctor running that study is my wife, Elizabeth. But she's not planning to take any Army money. Comment from M.R.: I really object to the words: "way out there" used in this article. When one understands how the human body operates from a biological/cellular perspective, as explained by Dr. Valerie V. Hunt in her book: "Infinite Mind - Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness," one realizes that the things considered to be "way out" are based on normal body functions. And, are things that the Chinese have studied for thousands of years and understand thoroughly. What is found to be really "deviant" is the interpretation that is part of the belief system inherent in both Christian and Islam religious views. And, while I provide information from Dr. Horowitz, I also object to his use of words like "divine" to indicate happenings of a spiritual order. When one understands both physics and biology then there is recognition that there is nothing "divine" or mystical about who we are. The divine comes from a cultural perspective which is based in mythology and has no real basis in fact which is verified by quantum physics. When the sheets of cultural perspective are removed from physics and biology, and the flesh laid bare so to speak, it becomes obvious that the human is both the creator and the created in a process that has evolved over billions of years. Another very good read on this is cellular biologist Bruce H. Lipton, M.D.s book: "The Biology of Belief - The Science of How Thoughts Control Life, which is followed by his book: "Spontaneous Evolution - Our Positive Future and How to Get There From Here. " written with Steve Bhaerman. Two other good reads are: "Fractal Time" and "The Spontaneous Healing of Belief" by Gregg Braden. ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2734 US: Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care Dahr Jamail MARFA, Texas, 11 Dec (IPS) - With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Eric Jasinski enlisted in the military in 2005, and deployed to Iraq in October 2006 as an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army. He collected intelligence in order to put together strike packets - where air strikes would take place. Upon his return to the U.S. after his tour, Jasinski was suffering from severe PTSD from what he did and saw in Iraq, remorse and guilt for the work he did that he knows contributed to the loss of life in Iraq. "What I saw and what I did in Iraq caused my PTSD," Jasinski, 23-years-old, told IPS during a phone interview, "Also, I went through a divorce - she left right before I deployed - and my grandmother passed away when I was over there, so it was all super rough on me." In addition, he lost a friend in Iraq, and another of his friends lost his leg due to a roadside bomb attack. Upon returning home in December 2007, Jasinski tried to get treatment via the military. He was self-medicating by drinking heavily, and an over- burdened military mental health counsellor sent him to see a civilian doctor, who diagnosed him with severe PTSD. "I went to get help, but I had an 8 hour wait to see one of five doctors. But after several attempts, finally I got a periodic check up and I told that counsellor what was happening, and he said they'd help me& but I ended up getting a letter that instructed me to go see a civilian doctor, and she diagnosed me with PTSD," Jasinski explained, "Then, I was taking the medications and they were helping, because I thought I was to get out of the Army in February 2009 when my contract expired." As the date approached, a problem arose. "In late 2008 they stop-lossed me, and that pushed me over the edge," Jasinski told IPS, "They were going to send me back to Iraq the next month." During his pre-deployment processessing "they gave me a 90-day supply of meds to get me over to Iraq, and I saw a counsellor during that period, and I told him "I don't know what I'm going to do if I go back to Iraq." "He asked if I was suicidal," Jasinski explained, "and I said not right now, I'm not planning on going home and blowing my brains out. He said, 'well, you're good to go then.' And he sent me on my way. I knew at that moment, when they finalised my paperwork for Iraq, that there was no way I could go back with my untreated PTSD. I needed more help." When Jasinski went on his short pre-deployment leave break, he went AWOL, where he remained out of service until Dec. 11, when he returned to turn himself in to authorities at Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas. "He has heavy duty PTSD and never would have gone AWOL if he'd gotten the help he needed from the military," James Branum, Jasinski's civilian lawyer who accompanied him to Fort Hood told IPS. "This case highlights the need of the military to provide better mental health care for its soldiers." Branum, who is also co-chair of the Military Law Task Force, added, "Our hope is that his unit won't court-martial him, but puts him in a warrior transition unit where they will evaluate him to either treat him or give him a medical discharge. He'd be safe there, and eventually, they'd give him a medical discharge because his PTSD symptoms are so severe." He's turning himself in "because he is not a flight risk and wants to take responsibility for what he's done," Branum stressed. "It's been a year, I want to get on with my life and go to college and become a social worker to help people," Jasinski said of why he is turning himself in to the military at this time. "I want to get on with life, and I don't want to hide." Kernan Manion is a board-certified psychiatrist, who treated Marines returning from war who suffer from PTSD and other acute mental problems born from their deployments, at Camp Lejeune - the largest Marine base on the East Coast. While he was engaged in this work, Manion warned his superiors of the extent and complexity of the systemic problems, and he was deeply worried about the possibility of these leading to violence on the base and within surrounding communities. "If not more Fort Hoods, Camp Liberties, soldier fratricide, spousal homicide, we'll see it individually in suicides, alcohol abuse, domestic violence, family dysfunction, in formerly fine young men coming back and saying, as I've heard so many times, 'I'm not cut out for society. I can't stand people. I can't tolerate commotion. I need to live in the woods,'" Manion explained to IPS. "That's what we're going to have. Broken, not contributing, not functional members of society. It infuriates me - what they are doing to these guys, because it's so ineptly run by a system that values rank and power more than anything else - so we're stuck throwing money into a fragmented system of inept clinics and the crisis goes on." "It's not just that we're going to have an immensity of people coming back, but the system itself is thwarting their effective treatment," Manion explained. According to the Army, every year from 2006 onwards there has been a record number of reported and confirmed suicides, including in 2009. There has also been an escalation of soldier-on-soldier violence, as the Nov. 5 shooting spree at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Hassan indicates. In 2008 there was also a record number of suicides for the Marine Corps. Jasinski's case is representative of a growing number of soldiers returning from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan who are going AWOL when they are unable to get proper mental health care treatment from the military for their PTSD. A 2008 Rand Corporation report revealed that at least 300,000 veterans returning from both wars had been diagnosed with severe depression or PTSD. Jaskinski's experience with the military has inspired him to offer advice for other soldiers who need PTSD treatment but are not receiving it. "Do not, do not let a 5-10 minute review by a military doctor determine if you go to Iraq," he told IPS. "Even if you have to pay out of pocket, go civilian to a doctor& the military mental health sector is so overwhelmed, they won't take care of you. Go see a civilian, and hopefully that therapist will help you& even then I'm not sure that will help& but you have to take that chance." When asked what he feels the military needs to do in order to rectify this problem, he said: "A total overhaul of the mental health sector in the military is needed& we had nine psychiatrists at our centre, and that's simply not enough staff, they are going to get burned out, after seeing 50 soldiers each in one day. We need an overhaul of the entire system, and more, good psychiatrists, not those just coming for a job, but good, experienced mental health professionals need to be involved." Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 83 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 27236 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 14 16:56:32 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:56:32 -0800 Subject: [GJM] The Age of Nations is Past Message-ID: <000601ca7d19$39da6970$ad8f3c50$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS When one considers that nation-states are for the most part competitive entities, then one begins to understand why war is constantly on our minds as we are always vying to be the "favored one." In the interests of peace, we need to move into bioregions which naturally beckon people to be cooperative as the state of the fragile ecosystems that lie within these regions are what determines the carrying capacity of the Earth which is our life support system. THE AGE OF NATIONS IS PAST http://globalmindshift.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/the-age-of-nations-is-past/? utm_source=feedburner &utm_medium=email I was reading a book this afternoon and was surprised to learn just how recent a concept a "nation" really is. Mostly, its a 20th century invention, having sprung full force out the collapse of the Age of Empire. Did you know that? Well, whether you did or didn't, it's important to think about because, in a fairly short period of time, we've become very identified with these nations of ours, and we're making decisions as if nationhood is the apex of communal human evolution. It has become the ultimate arbiter of what does and does not make sense, of what is and is not realistic, of what is and is not in our best interests. That's a lot of responsibility, and power, to turn over to what may prove to be only a brief, interim step in our collective human journey. And it's really, really stupid. Not unlike making decisions based on the belief that our children will always behave like two-year-olds. ("You know honey, there's no sense in saving for college. These dumb tykes can't even read!") No, we are not ignorant of the growth process when it comes to our children. And, being a very, very young species-compare our 100,000 years with the 65 million of the dinosaur (still feel superior?)-neither should we be ignorant of the growth process of humankind. So, what comes after nationhood? Philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin may have said it best: "The age of nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the earth." Building the earth. Building global community. That's where our real self-interest lies. (Here, by the way, are some interesting related links: America Abroad: The Birth of the Global Nation; Visualizing Empires Decline.] Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 14 16:59:43 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:59:43 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: December Letter from Riane Message-ID: <000c01ca7d19$a8317b70$f8947250$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS From: Riane Eisler [mailto:eisler at riane-eisler.ccsend.com] On Behalf Of Riane Eisler Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:29 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: December Letter from Riane CPS Logo HOLIDAYS 2009 LETTER FROM RIANE Dear Mary, All of us at the Center for Partnership Studies wish you a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and healthy new year. For me, as for many of us, these days when one year is ending and another will soon begin are a time of contemplation, a time to reflect on what was, what can be, and what I wish for myself, for my loved ones, and for our world. As I looked back on 2009, I felt grateful for all the blessings I have had, outraged at all the misery so many have suffered, and more determined than ever to do what I can to help build a better future for ourselves, our children, and generations still to come. I want to invite you to join me. You may feel that we individually can't do much, but the truth, as Margaret Mead put so well, is that the only thing that has ever changed the world are the ideas and actions of a small group of dedicated people. Let's start by envisioning a world where the economy isn't just defined by production, consumption, and phantom paper profits - a world where caring for humans and the planet is the primary economic driver. Let's then resolve to join together to build this world, starting with a foundational matter we at CPS are passionately committed to: showing the enormous social and economic value of the most important human work, still ignored in conventional economic thinking - the work of caring for people, starting in early childhood, and caring for our natural life-support systems. That's why our new year's resolution at CPS is to redouble our efforts to mainstream our Real Wealth Public Policy Initiative and our Real Wealth Community Presenters training. Combining policy changes and grassroots education, these two CPS initiatives are powerful vehicles for real economic change. We will also continue through our Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence to advance human rights worldwide, particularly the long-ignored human rights of women and children. Our main SAIV initiatives are our soon to be published Caring and Connected Parenting Guide and our Caring Family Policy Agenda. You can find out about these programs on our website, www.partnershipway.org , where you can find many other resources to enrich your life and help you be an effective partnership leader. Every one of your contributions matters. And every one of you can make a contribution. I also want to invite you to consider making a year-end tax-deductible donation to CPS. Please click here to do so. If you need a great gift for the holidays or for a special occasion, please buy the beautiful sterling silver Riane Eisler Peace tag, engraved with my quote: "Peace is putting love into action" - a portion of proceeds will be donated to the Center for Partnership Studies. You can also give others (or yourself) a copy of The Real Wealth of Nations, hailed by Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking." To buy my book, please click . Another great gift is 3,000 Years of Love by David Loye, telling the story of our life and work together. To buy David's book , please click. And remember, for a donation to CPS of $100 or more, we will send you an autographed copy of either book. As part of your new year plans, you might also consider joining me in January in my next online CIIS class, "The Power of Partnership," which I co-teach with Dr. Susan Carter. It starts on Sunday January 24 with an optional intensive at the beautiful Pacifica resort on the California coast. Please click here for information . I'd love to see some of you there! Again, I want to wish you a great holiday and a wonderful 2010 - and to again thank you for your support of our work at CPS. Warmly, Riane Eisler President, Center for Partnership Studies www.partnershipway.org www.rianeeisler.com Forward email Safe Unsubscribe This email was sent to maryrose333 at att.net by rianeeisler at gmail.com. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe T | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by Center for Partnership Studies | P.O. Box 51936 | Pacfic Grove | CA | 93950 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 14 17:07:24 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:07:24 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Foresight Network newsletter - December 14th 2009 Message-ID: <001101ca7d1a$be7ff900$3b7feb00$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I?d like to share the news from the Foresight Network, which is associated with Shaping Tomorrow, with all of you and encourage you to join this very professional group. From: The Foresight Network [mailto:mail at shapingtomorrowmain.ning.com] Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:37 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Foresight Network newsletter - December 14th 2009 The Foresight Network A message to all members of The Foresight Network The Year In Review: Despite the economic gloom we have had a record year in all respects. o 2,300+ futurists, strategists and change agents are now gathered in the Foresight Network. o The satisfaction of members increased by 3% this year to 85%. o Your first ever independent Foresight Network Board was established under the chairmanship of Myles Hopkins. The Board is just finalising who is going to take responsibility for each of the actions defined in its recently released strategy then implementation will begin in earnest in 2010. o Several new virtual think-tank style initiatives have been started by network members to consider how the world should change in response to the recent crises. This move from pure social network to an action-oriented think tank is very welcome and in line with the Board?s strategy. O We were invited to make submissions to both the G20 and the United Nations summits on dealing with the financial crisis. Thanks to David Mercer for undertaking the hard work of drafting our submissions. o We were pleased to begin offering free Shaping Tomorrow sites to Universities and Associations as part of our push to engage more people in taking foresight approaches in their everyday lives. o Three new partnerships were launched with Future Voices (speaker panel), People Energies (organisational communications) and Eidos (scenario planning). More on the way. Watch this space. o Shaping Tomorrow had a record-breaking year and is well set to develop further in 2010. New Foresight Network newsletter editor: We are pleased to announce that Adam Gordon will become the Foresight Network newsletter editor early in the New Year. Adam is well-known to many of you as a leading futurist and has a strong background in writing and editing. We are delighted to have him on board and look forward to improving the quality of this newsletter under his leadership. Thanks to the 40+ people who also applied. Situations vacant: Programme Director of the Futures Programme in the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford, UK Happy futuring The Shaping Tomorrow team. About Shaping Tomorrow: We help 12,360 people and 6000+ organisations anticipate how we will live and prepare for what's next. We assist you to achieve strategic agility and resilience through collective foresight, scenario creation, roadmapping, strategic thinking, innovation, risk assessment, competitive intelligence, change and knowledge management. (www.shapingtomorrow.com). Visit The Foresight Network at: http://shapingtomorrowmain.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network To control which emails you receive on The Foresight Network, click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 14 20:46:14 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:46:14 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression Message-ID: <004501ca7d39$516805a0$f43810e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Those communities not having a local currency system in place are going to be impacted the most by this. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 3:59 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression Shadowstats' John Williams: Prepare For The Hyperinflationary Great Depression 12/14/2009 14:32 -0500 http://www.zerohedge.com/article/shadowstats-john-williams-prepare-hyperinfl ationary-great-depression John Williams, who runs the popular counter government data manipulation site Shadowstats, has thrown down the gauntlet to deflationists, and in an extensive report concludes that the probability of a hyperinflationary episode in America over the next year has reached critical levels. While the debate between deflationists and (hyper)inflationists has been a long and painful one, numerous events set off in motion by the Bernanke Fed (as a direct legacy of the Greenspan multi-decade period of cheap and boundless credit) may have well cast America as the unwilling protagonist in the sequel of the failed monetary policy economic experiment better known as Zimbabwe. Williams does not mince his words: The U.S. economic and systemic solvency crises of the last two years are just precursors to a Great Collapse: a hyperinflationary great depression. Such will reflect a complete collapse in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar, a collapse in the normal stream of U.S. commercial and economic activity, a collapse in the U.S. financial system as we know it, and a likely realignment of the U.S. political environment. The current U.S. financial markets, financial system and economy remain highly unstable and vulnerable to unexpected shocks. The Federal Reserve is dedicated to preventing deflation, to debasing the U.S. dollar. The results of those efforts are being seen in tentative selling pressures against the U.S. currency and in the rallying price of gold. And even as Bernanke continues existing in a factless vacuum where he sees no asset bubbles, Williams takes aim at the one party almost exclusively responsible for the economic carnage that will soon transpire: The crises have been generated out of and are centered on the United States financial system, triggered by the collapse of debt excesses actively encouraged by the Greenspan Federal Reserve. Recognizing that the U.S. economy was sagging under the weight of structural changes created by government trade, regulatory and social policies -- policies that limited real consumer income growth -- Mr. Greenspan played along with the political and banking systems. He made policy decisions to steal economic activity from the future, fueling economic growth of the last decade largely through debt expansion. The Greenspan Fed pushed for ever-greater systemic leverage, including the happy acceptance of new financial products, which included instruments of mis-packaged lending risks, designed for consumption by global entities that openly did not understand the nature of the risks being taken. Complicit in this broad malfeasance was the U.S. government, including both major political parties in successive Administrations and Congresses. As with consumers, the federal government could not make ends meet while appeasing that portion of the electorate that could be kept docile by ever-expanding government programs and increasing government spending. The solution was ever-expanding federal debt and deficits. Purportedly, it was Arthur Burns, Fed Chairman under Richard Nixon, who first offered the advice that helped to guide Alan Greenspan and a number of Administrations. The gist of the wisdom imparted was that if you ran into problems, you could ignore the budget deficit and the dollar. Ignoring them did not matter, because doing so would not cost you any votes. Back in 2005, I raised the issue of a then-inevitable U.S. hyperinflation with an advisor to both the Bush Administration and Fed Chairman Greenspan. I was told simply that "It's too far into the future to worry about." Indeed, pushing the big problems into the future appears to have been the working strategy for both the Fed and recent Administrations. Yet, the U.S. dollar and the budget deficit do matter, and the future is at hand. The day of ultimate financial reckoning has arrived, and it is playing out. Looking at the events over the past year demonstrates that Williams is not just being a drama queen. Effective financial impairments and at least partial nationalizations or orchestrated bailouts/takeovers resulted for institutions such as Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Washington Mutual, AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with a number of further troubled financial institutions. The Fed moved to provide whatever systemic liquidity would be needed, while the federal government moved to finance corporate bailouts and to introduce significant stimulus spending. Curiously, though, the Fed and the Treasury let Lehman Brothers fail outright, which triggered a foreseeable run on the system and markedly intensified the systemic solvency crisis in September 2008. Whether someone was trying to play political games, with the public and Congress increasingly raising questions of moral hazard issues, or whether the U.S. financial wizards missed what would happen or simply moved to bring the crisis to a head, remains to be seen. More on the impending timing of the complete economic collapse of the US financial system: Before the systemic solvency crisis began to unfold in 2007, the U.S. government already had condemned the U.S. dollar to a hyperinflationary grave by taking on debt and obligations that never could be covered through raising taxes and/or by severely slashing government spending that had become politically untouchable. The U.S. economy also already had entered a severe structural downturn, which helped to trigger the systemic solvency crisis. The intensifying economic and solvency crises, and the responses to both by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve in the last two years, have exacerbated the government's solvency issues and moved forward my timing estimation for the hyperinflation to the next five years, from the 2010 to 2018 timing range estimated in the prior report. The U.S. government and Federal Reserve already have committed the system to this course through the easy politics of a bottomless pocketbook, the servicing of big-moneyed special interests, gross mismanagement, and a deliberate and ongoing effort to debase the U.S. currency. Accordingly, risks are particularly high of the hyperinflation crisis breaking within the next year. What are the alternatives for the US? In a word, none. Presumably this means you should ignore what the axed "experts" from various bailed out sell side research chop shops try to tell you. The U.S. has no way of avoiding a financial Armageddon. Bankrupt sovereign states most commonly use the currency printing press as a solution to not having enough money to cover obligations. The alternative would be for the U.S. to renege on its existing debt and obligations, a solution for modern sovereign states rarely seen outside of governments overthrown in revolution, and a solution with no happier ending than simply printing the needed money. With the creation of massive amounts of new fiat dollars (not backed by gold or silver) will come the eventual destruction of the value of the U.S. dollar and related dollar-denominated paper assets. What lies ahead will be extremely difficult, painful and unhappy times for many in the United States. The functioning and adaptation of the U.S. economy and financial markets to a hyperinflation likely would be particularly disruptive. Trouble could range from turmoil in the food distribution chain to electronic cash and credit systems unable to handle rapidly changing circumstances. The situation quickly would devolve from a deepening depression, to an intensifying hyperinflationary great depression. While the economic difficulties would have global impact, the initial hyperinflation should be largely a U.S. problem, albeit with major implications for the global currency system. For those living in the United States, long-range strategies should look to assure safety and survival, which from a financial standpoint means preserving wealth and assets. Also directly impacted, of course, are those holding or dependent upon U.S. dollars or dollar-denominated assets, and those living in "dollarized" countries. In other words, the economic cycle will come back with a vengeance. Having pulled America out of the abyss by the last hairs on its Rogaine infused head, the Fed and the Administration have merely purchased one-two years of excess time in which insiders can sell all their holdings (look at recent reports indicating the ratio of insider sellers to buyers) and banks can book one/two years of record bonuses before signing off. And whether one is a deflationist or inflationist, the take home message from Williams' thesis that everyone should be able to agree on, is what everyone knows yet is unwilling to admit: that the US economy (and its derivative, the undecoupled global economy, which that most certainly includes China) is that we are now caught in the greatest Ponzi bubble of all time. One small hiccup in which there is no incremental hollow value added on the margin courtesy of printing presses pushing fiat pieces of paper in overtime, would lead to precisely the same outcome as the world saw with Bernie Madoff: from $50 billion to 0 overnight. It is somehow fitting that world GDP is 1,000 time greater, at $50 trillion. Take away the fiat illusion, and the real value collapses to those concepts of tangible value that will remain in a post bubble implosion scenario: whether these be spam, gold, or lead. And just so there is no confusion about the course of events, Williams presents the Zimbabwe hyperinflation episode as the case study that the historian Bernanke should have been focusing on, instead of spending long nights, "learning" from the Great Depression. Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, was a quadrillion times worse than it was in Weimar Germany. Zimbabwe went through a number of years of high inflation, with an accelerating hyperinflation from 2006 to 2009, when the currency was abandoned. Through three devaluations, excess zeros repeatedly were lopped off notes as high as 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars. The cumulative devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar was such that a stack of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (26 zeros) two dollar bills (if they were printed) in the peak hyperinflation would have be needed to equal in value what a single original Zimbabwe two-dollar bill of 1978 had been worth. Such a pile of bills literally would be light years high, stretching from the Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy. In early-2009, the governor of the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank indicated he felt his actions in printing money were vindicated by the recent actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve. If the U.S. went through a hyperinflation like that of Zimbabwe's, total U.S. federal debt and obligations (roughly $75 trillion with unfunded liabilities) could be paid off for much less than a current penny. What helped to enable the evolution of the Zimbabwe monetary excesses over the years, while still having something of a functioning economy, was the back-up of a well functioning black market in U.S. dollars. The United States has no such backup system, however, with implications for a more rapid and disruptive hyperinflation than seen in Zimbabwe, when it hits. Maybe in retrospect it is good that banks are not lending out. If the $1.2 trillion in excess reserves were to actually hit circulating currency overnight, or even in a much more gradual fashion, then hyperinflation would surely be unavoidable, not so much as function of the consumer becoming a dominant force once again, which is the deflationists' key point, but as a result of the excess liquidity of the capital markets, which is the only reason why the S&P is where it is, into Main Street. As it stands, banks' unwillingness to recreate the cheap credit bubble by lending to anyone who has a pulse and can walk is the only thing that is so far preventing America's name change to the United States of Zimbabwe. From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Dec 16 05:15:59 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:15:59 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Soros' $100 billion green plan Message-ID: <805072.39288.qm@web27406.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 15/12/09, George Soros wrote: From: George Soros Subject: Soros' $100 billion green plan To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Tuesday, 15 December, 2009, 18:38 #yiv752119013 #yiv752119013 html {color:#000;background:#FFF;} #yiv752119013 , #yiv752119013 div, #yiv752119013 dl, #yiv752119013 dt, #yiv752119013 dd, #yiv752119013 li, #yiv752119013 pre, #yiv752119013 code, #yiv752119013 form, #yiv752119013 fieldset, #yiv752119013 legend, #yiv752119013 input, #yiv752119013 button, #yiv752119013 textarea, #yiv752119013 blockquote, #yiv752119013 th {margin:0;padding:0;} #yiv752119013 table {border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0;margin:0;} #yiv752119013 fieldset, #yiv752119013 img {border:0;} #yiv752119013 address, #yiv752119013 caption, #yiv752119013 cite, #yiv752119013 code, #yiv752119013 dfn, #yiv752119013 em, #yiv752119013 strong, #yiv752119013 th, #yiv752119013 var, #yiv752119013 optgroup {font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;} #yiv752119013 del, #yiv752119013 ins {text-decoration:none;} #yiv752119013 caption, #yiv752119013 th {text-align:left;} #yiv752119013 h1, #yiv752119013 h2, #yiv752119013 h3, #yiv752119013 h4, #yiv752119013 h5, #yiv752119013 h6 {font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;} #yiv752119013 abbr, #yiv752119013 acronym {border:0;font-variant:normal;} #yiv752119013 sup {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv752119013 sub {vertical-align:baseline;} #yiv752119013 a img {border:none;} #yiv752119013 a {color:#a13b1a;text-decoration:none;} #yiv752119013 h1, #yiv752119013 h2, #yiv752119013 h3 {color:#a13b1a;margin:14px 0 6px 0;} #yiv752119013 h1 {font-size:30px;} #yiv752119013 h2 {font-size:24px;} #yiv752119013 h3 {font-size:18px;} Dear Friends and Colleagues: ? Last week George Soros was in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Change Conference where he proposed that rich countries?donate their recently?allocated Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs,?to a new green fund?that would be established to help less developed countries deal with?challenges presented by climate change. ?Below is the full text of his proposal. ? Best Regards- ? Michael Vachon ? SDRs and Climate Change ? It is now generally agreed that the developed countries will have to make a substantial contribution to enable the developing world to deal with climate change. There is no similar agreement on where the money will come from. ? The developed countries are reluctant to make additional financial commitments. They have just experienced a significant jump in their national debts and they still need to stimulate their domestic economies. This colors their attitudes. It looks like they will be able to cobble together a "fast-start" fund of $10 billion a year for the next few years but more does not fit into their national budgets. ? This is unlikely to satisfy the developing countries. ? I believe this amount could be at least doubled and assured for over a longer time span. ? Developed countries' governments are laboring under the misapprehension that funding has to come from their national budgets but that is not the case. They have it already. It is lying idle in their reserves accounts and in the vaults of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), available without adding to the national deficits of any one country.? All they need to do is to tap into it. ? In September 2009, the IMF distributed to its members $283 billion worth of SDRs, or Special Drawing Rights. SDRs are an arcane financial instrument but essentially they constitute additional foreign exchange. They can be used only by converting them into one of four currencies, at which point they begin to carry interest at the combined treasury bill rate of those currencies. At present the interest rate is less than one half of one percent. Of the $283 billion, more than $150 billion went to the 15 largest developed economies. These SDRs will sit largely untouched in the reserve accounts of these countries, which don't really need any additional reserves.? ?? I propose that the developed countries--in addition to establishing a fast start fund of $10 billion a year--should band together and lend $100 billion dollars worth of these SDRs for 25 years to a special green fund serving the developing world. The fund would jump-start forestry, land-use, and agricultural projects. These are the areas that offer the greatest scope for reducing carbon emissions and could produce substantial returns from carbon markets. The returns such projects can generate go beyond reducing carbon; there will be non-carbon related returns from land use projects, the potential to create more sustainable rural livelihoods, enable higher and more resilient agriculture yields and create rural employment. ? This is a simple and practical idea. There is a precedent for it. The United Kingdom and France each recently lent $2 billion worth of SDRs to a special fund at the IMF to support concessionary lending to the poorest countries.? At that point the IMF assumed responsibility for the principal and interest on the SDRs. The same could be done in this case. ? I further propose that member countries agree to use the IMF's gold reserves to guarantee the payment of the interest and the repayment of the principal. The IMF owns a lot of gold, more than a hundred million ounces, and it is on the books at historical cost. At current market prices it is worth more than $100 billion over its book value. It has already been designated to be used for the benefit of the least developed countries. The proposed green fund would meet this requirement. ? This means that the developed countries that lend the SDRs would incur no interest expense and no responsibility for repayment.? There are some serious technical problems involved in offsetting the interest income against the interest expense, particularly in the United States , but the net effect would be a wash. These technical difficulties stood in the way of previous attempts to put the SDRs to practical use but they do not apply to the the proposed green fund. ? There are three powerful arguments in favor of this proposal: ? First: the green fund could be self financing or even profitable. Potentially none or very little of the IMF gold would be actually used.? Second: the projects will earn a return only if developed countries cooperate in setting up the right type of carbon markets. Setting up a green fund would be an implicit pledge to do so by putting the gold reserves of the IMF at risk.? Third, this money would be available now, jump-starting carbon saving projects.? For all these reasons, the developing countries ought to embrace my proposal. ? The key point I want to make is that it is possible to substantially increase the amount available to fight global warming in the developing world by using the existing allocations of SDR--and the gold reserves of the IMF are more than sufficient to pay the interest on them. All that is lacking is the political will.? The mere fact that it requires Congressional approval in the United States ensures that nothing will happen unless there is public pressure and pressure from the developing countries to make it happen. Yet it could make the difference between success and failure in Copenhagen . ? 2009 GeorgeSoros.com | All rights reserved | Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 17 07:02:01 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:02:01 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Crisis in copenhagen - the pressure is building Message-ID: <626917.93774.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 17/12/09, Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org Subject: Crisis in copenhagen - the pressure is building To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Thursday, 17 December, 2009, 11:07 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends, Copenhagen's last-ditch summit to stop catastrophic global warming is failing; world leaders are appealing for massive public pressure to save it. Sign the giant petition below - it may be the largest in history: With just 2 days left, the historic Copenhagen climate summit is failing. World leaders have begun the final hours of direct negotiations. The UK Prime Minister has directly appealed to Avaaz to build the tidal wave of public pressure needed to reach a deal that stops catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees. Click below to sign the petition for a real deal -- the campaign already has a staggering 11 million supporters -- over the next 48 hours let's make it the largest petition in history! The name of every signer is being read out right now in the summit hall -- sign on at the link below and forward this email to everyone! http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen We are making history in Copenhagen. A group of young people have sat down in the middle of the summit and begun reading the names of every person who signs the petition for a real deal. Another group is doing the same 'petition reading sit-in' in the Canadian Prime Minister's office, and rumours are that more such actions will happen tomorrow. On an emergency conference call with 3000 Avaaz members today, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "What you're doing through the internet around the world is absolutely crucial to setting the agenda. In the next 48 hours, don't underestimate your effect on the leaders here in Copenhagen" Earlier, millions watched the Avaaz vigil inside the summit on TV, where Archbishop Desmond Tutu told hundreds of delegates and assembled children: ?We marched in Berlin, and the wall fell. "We marched for South Africa, and apartheid fell. "We marched at Copenhagen -- and we WILL get a Real Deal.? Copenhagen is seeking the biggest mandate in history to stop the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. History will be made in the next 48 hours. How will our children remember this moment? Let's tell them we did all we could. http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_copenhagen With hope and determination, Ricken, Alice, Ben, Paul, Luis, Iain, Veronique, Graziela, Pascal, Paula, Benjamin, Raj, Raluca, Taren, David, Josh and the whole Avaaz team. ------------------------- Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "" on 2007-08-02 using the email address dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile&user=2b7c8c2a98a8e68f564b27ee124e38a1&lang=en or simply click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Thu Dec 17 09:59:08 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:29:08 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Was Organized and Systemic Fraud Perpetrated by Banksters?/Banksters Are Like Gangsters, Message-ID: <50332.84477.qm@web94902.mail.in2.yahoo.com> http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/transform-world-bankwto-and-imf?could be viewed along with the forwarded. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: david soori To: david soori Sent: Thu, 17 December, 2009 5:42:38 PM Subject: Was Organized and Systemic Fraud Perpetrated by Banksters?/Banksters Are Like Gangsters, By Richard Clark Was Organized and Systemic Fraud Perpetrated by Banksters? A Wall Street Journal investigation reveals that Goldman Sachs was not only a willing participant in, but an "architect" of, the scam that broke the world's economies. The claim is that Goldman Sachs played a bigger role than has been publicly disclosed in fueling the mortgage bets that nearly felled American International Group (AIG). ????? ========== In the Shadow of Goldman Sachs, Wall Street Is Far from Recovery By Denver Nicks, AlterNet Profits and bonuses are back on the Street, but the prosperity hasn't filtered down past the service economy. mor ???????????? ============= If Banksters Are Like Gangsters, Where's the Anti-Bankster Legislation? A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford December 14, 2009 - It's in the House of Representatives right now. "Nothing on the calendar of Congress, and no campaign from the grassroots, has anything approaching the potential of the Federal Reserve Transparency Act to focus public anger on Wall Street and its allies in the White House and on Capitol Hill." If the public only knew the dimensions of the largest transfer of wealth in human history, they would turn on the banksters with tooth and claw... Read the full article / Leggi l'articolo completo: http://www.uruknet.de/?p=61086 +++++++++++++ How Banks Fleece the Unemployed By Barbara Koeppel December 16, 2009 "Consortiumnews" -- While posting breathtaking profits in the last two quarters - Wells Fargo's $3.2 billion, Citigroup's $3 billion and Chase's $2.7 billion - U.S. banks have figured out a way to squeeze some extra dollars from those who can least afford it, the unemployed. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24199.htm [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102892288586&s=11694&e=001JtEEP5Q7ll-TdjvBejNiGNEjEKEllTnbJ-_LmnCpwP_WoExSrLPBcAxnbehg-wgVUNqgY3TIjNYVvoXyXvVowA4-kLhrwM3V1-cA38BG8LuU7IvRm28_6IWum6m8vGtNlnAGz9ACKs9tUY9YKtJuEi_SavKaqlFc] === US House Passes Pro-Wall Street Banking Bill By Barry Grey Wall Street lawyers have helped draft the details of the House bill in closed-door meetings, while Obama and his top economic advisers have conferred repeatedly with the CEOs of the most powerful firms. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24204.htm [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102892288586&s=11694&e=001JtEEP5Q7ll9FU5-t1OUfCglYJK2e0Tar-YLykdWW-53qtKVXNEZs3_kbV-MmREMRA0TQR5bi4Bi1XVPaX8IDBzl8ojXStLRfsb-d2KOLyec5DmvCwaZ9Lb2_xsXSOjwsjPX0ruSBgSkEKH-SMF6VjRAXt3TnEoUX] Goldman Sachs redefines "fat cat" Lloyd Blankfein can afford to wait for his bonus. His net worth in company stock is a cool $275 million, today By Andrew Leonard http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009/12/15/goldman_fat_cats/print.html ?? ============ The Audacity of Debt Comparing today's deficits to those in the 1980s. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398304574598392286210188.html ?????????????? ============ Krugman: It Seems Like Washington Wants Another Financial Disaster By Paul Krugman, The New York Times Are the Dems willing to learn something from the disaster that has overtaken the U.S. economy, and get behind financial reform? more ? ??????? ============= By Chaz Valenza Wall Street Gets It! The President Doesn't. The people on Wall Street are out to steal every last dollar they can, as fast as they can, and as long as they can get away with it. Are you willing to do something to save you and your children from the people of Wall Street? Might I suggest you at least stop giving the banks your last dollars? ? ========== Bankrupting Britain Debt and Liabilities The total liabilities as a consequence of bailing out the bankrupt banks and debt fuelled economic recovery remains on target of ?4.75 trillion by the end of 2013/14, which confirms that Britain remains firmly on the path of a probable decade of economic stagnation coupled with high inflation i.e. stagflation Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 03:16:38 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:16:38 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Climate Change: North hides nefarious aims under green cloak Message-ID: <793041.73362.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Thu, 17/12/09, Thompson Ayodele wrote: From: Thompson Ayodele Subject: Climate Change: North hides nefarious aims under green cloak To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Thursday, 17 December, 2009, 15:07 This is published in today's South Africa Business Day http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=89781 North hides nefarious aims under green cloak THOMPSON AYODELE? Published: 2009/12/17 07:21:01 AM ENVIRONMENTAL groups from rich countries have for years waged a campaign against those in poor countries who want to harness their natural resources for economic growth. Their efforts threaten to do lasting harm to the aspirations of millions of poor people in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and must be resisted at all times and in all places. One of those places is the Copenhagen climate change summit taking place in Denmark. Thousands of delegates from around the world are gathered there trying to work on ways to limit global warming. But it is increasingly clear to those of us in the south that the north is using the summit as a way to maintain their living standards, while keeping the developing world in a state of destitution. For example, just this week a document emerged that outlined a plan to stop poor countries from clearing some of their forest lands to make room for more productive uses, such as palm farming, rubber farming and urban development. The suggestion ? encapsulated in the so-called ?Danish text? ? is risible and morally obtuse and its emergence threatens to torpedo the entire conference. Every nation in history has harnessed its resources in the early stage of its development. Indeed, Europe itself was arguably the most forested region on the planet for most of its history until it started its economic growth path several centuries ago. Over the course of many decades, Europeans sensibly altered and re-altered their land use to permit more productive agricultural use and enterprise, with the resultant job creation. Today, nations across the developing world aim to do the same thing ? to harness some of their natural endowments to create products for sale in world markets. And so countries in Africa and Asia develop palm plantations to sell palm oil across the globe. Farmers in Latin America alter land uses to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers to satisfy customers in their region and beyond. These efforts come with some ecological costs, just as they did in Europe , North America , Japan and other places in the north in decades past. Only once the northern nations became rich ? and not a moment before ? could they afford the environmental protections they now demand of their poorer neighbours to the south. The environmental campaigners scored a victory this week, forcing a major multinational corporation, Unilever, to stop purchasing palm oil from a southern hemisphere producer. The victory by the environmental activists will do nothing to protect the environment but it will toss thousands of poor people out of their jobs. How Greenpeace employees can sleep well at night after an effort such as this is a mystery . Of course, they live in rich countries where everyone has soft pillows, fine linens, heating and air- conditioning, which must make sleeping with a guilty conscience easier. The victory over Unilever is just a start, and green groups are hoping to use Copenhagen as their vehicle to, in effect, outlaw developing world vegetable oils across the globe. If they succeed, millions of people whose livelihoods depend on natural resource industries will be thrown into economic chaos. A little-reported but critical aspect of this story is that green groups are making common cause with large European vegetable oil producers. The European producers do not like the competition from Africa and elsewhere, and so they are pressing the European Union to halt imports of competing vegetable oils. They mask their protectionist efforts under a cloak of environmental urgency, but the end result is the same ? Europeans maintain their jobs and living standards while the poor countries are denied opportunity. The rich-world campaign against palm oil is worrying on many levels. It shows how easy it is to promote a one- sided argument regarding forest destruction without balancing it with the many benefits that can arise from changes in land use ? principally benefits to some of the world?s poorest and most vulnerable people. It also shows how easy it is for protectionists and businesses to use environmental issues to pass laws and regulations so as to further protect their interests, regardless of the implications for trade, the world?s poor and consumers around the globe. This episode also exposes the troubling hypocrisy at play in the climate change and broader environmental debate. Europeans used their own resources and those from many other nations in order to advance, become powerful and improve the living standards of ordinary men, women and children. Poor countries need to be given the same opportunity. Basic notions of decency insist on it. - Ayodele is the director of the Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, Lagos, Nigeria. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 03:25:49 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 18 Dec 2009 02:25:49 -0800 Subject: [GJM] BoE urges banks to prep for bumpy road  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.190.41 -------------------- Personal message text: This may be of interest -------------------- BoE urges banks to prep for bumpy road?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091218/tuk-uk-britain-boe-stability-fa6b408.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 06:55:34 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 18 Dec 2009 13:55:34 +0000 Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 -------------------- Personal message text: Might find this amusing! -------------------- Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 06:59:56 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 18 Dec 2009 13:59:56 +0000 Subject: [GJM] China and U.S. hold key to U.N.climate talks  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.89 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- World leaders try to rescue climate deal?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091218/tts-uk-climate-copenhagen-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Fri Dec 18 07:06:21 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:06:21 -0000 Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: <007601ca7feb$48107280$4001a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear Robert, There are often all sorts of reasonable explanations for apparently unusual phenomena. But I would like to read your comments on the crop circle phenomena given:- a.. their now huge number b.. amazing variety c.. and, in particular, the fact that they are often of a size that the local lads, after a Saturday night in the pub, could never hope to complete during the hours of darkness. What thinkest thou? Rodney Shakespeare. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Searle" To: Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 1:55 PM Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow'- Yahoo! News UK > Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article > X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 > > -------------------- > Personal message text: > > Might find this amusing! > > -------------------- > > > > Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' > http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html > ============================================================ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 18 07:23:59 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:53:59 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: <617927.94741.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> thank you robert for sending?the article. I think world leaders are not appreciating the need to reform ecologically hostile finance system.?I am not sure of the outcome of such a flawed process. Niether civil society organisation demonstrating are pointing this out as we?are coming across?news items?with such propositions. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Robert Searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 7:25:34 PM Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 -------------------- Personal message text: Might find this amusing! -------------------- Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html ============================================================ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Fri Dec 18 08:01:25 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:01:25 -0000 Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK References: <617927.94741.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <00b101ca7ff2$f95152b0$4001a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear Mukhtar, 1. Yes, the underlying problem is, as you say, the "ecologically hostile financial system." Nobody in Copenhagen has referred to this and they are all being panicked and brow-beaten into agreeing to a very non-democratic global government embodying the flawed system. Seven hundred new institutions have been proposed. It has become apparent that at Copenhagen a corrupt attempt is being made to tax heavily and send the money not to the UN and not to national governments but to an IMF/World Bank private bank-controlled type of global government for the creation of a plutocratic bank-run government (with the money being used to pay off the bank-created debts) and with money being lent at interest under IMF conditions to poor countries so as to rip them off as usual and, when they cannot repay, to take over their assets as usual. That's criminal. Climate Colonialism is a good description and Kakistocratic Fascism a better one. 2. The Mann 'hockey stick' is an outrageous, criminally false, misrepresentation of the last thousand years -- it was warmer than today c.1000 and much colder in the Maunder Minimum c. 1700. In the Medieval Warm Period there were no power stations and no cars (although wood and peat burning etc). These great ups and downs are caused (probably) by the sun having indigestion (or whatever) or tilts of the earth's axis or whatever -- carbon dioxide has little or nothing to do with it and, in any case, CO2 helps plant growth (which is why greenhouses used to have paraffin heaters for both heat and CO2) To cap it all the very poor countries (who, under the CO2 theory, have NOT created the global warming) are to be allowed only 1.4 tons per person of carbon while the developed countries would be allowed 2.67 i.e. the poor countries are to be deliberately confined to low standards of living. AND the developed countries would be able to manipulate the carbon credits so as, in practice, to make little or no contribution to reducing carbon dioxide. (Goldman Sachs and Enron devised them) AND the sea inroads in Bangladesh are caused by the destruction of the mangrove barriers, not rising sea levels. 3. NOBODY in Copenhagen actually mentions:- a) the cause of much of the problems particulary poverty is the fractional reserve interest-bearing system which does NOT develop and spread productive capacity to the whole of the population. b) the solution -- i.e. interest-free loans for all forms of producitve capacity and their spreading (thereby spreading the associated consuming capacity, stopping national debt etc ). These Copenhagers (either deliberately or naively) are serving fascist interests and thus are intent on maintaining injustice, inequality and the rest of it. Rodney Shakespeare ----- Original Message ----- From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk ; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 2:23 PM Subject: Re: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK thank you robert for sending the article. I think world leaders are not appreciating the need to reform ecologically hostile finance system. I am not sure of the outcome of such a flawed process. Niether civil society organisation demonstrating are pointing this out as we are coming across news items with such propositions. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Robert Searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 7:25:34 PM Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 -------------------- Personal message text: Might find this amusing! -------------------- Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html ============================================================ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 09:05:14 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:05:14 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: <626196.82970.qm@web27402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ?Dear Rodney, et al, ? ???????????????? I just sent the post for fun. There may well ofcourse be a normal explanation for the Moscow sighting as is usually the case. ? ?However, in Mexico City sometime ago there were a series of mass sightings in broad daylight of UFOs which received attention from hundreds of people. Quite a number of them had hand-held camcorders, and recorded what they saw. As to what the objects?were in the sky remains an open question but they seemed on occassions to do all kinds of things at incredible ?speeds. This would suggest that they may be something more than just "terrestrial" craft so to speak. ? Yes, I think the crop circles are some?type of "psychic" phenomenon in which some form of energy materialization affects the physical world in a certainmanner...in this case, "artistically!". UFOs may well be another example of materialization from a "parallel universe". They could also have propulsion systems that travel faster than light. ? ?Claimed UFOabductees have quite often stated travelling through material objects. This indicates that somekind of out-of-body experience was going on(ie. a psychic phenomenon). Indeed, in such instances telepathy?was used between "aliens" and human contactees. This again suggest a psychic connection which as indicated in the previous paragraph can somehow at times materialize from the Unseen to the visible world of the five limited senses. ? My p2pfoundation entry on my project (may of interest) may be interest. ? ? http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science ? ? R.Searle ? --- On Fri, 18/12/09, Rodney Shakespeare wrote: From: Rodney Shakespeare Subject: Re: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow'- Yahoo! News UK To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk, "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" Date: Friday, 18 December, 2009, 14:06 Dear Robert, There are often all sorts of reasonable explanations for apparently unusual phenomena. ? But I would like to read your comments on the crop circle phenomena given:- ?their now huge number ?amazing variety and,? in particular,? the fact that they are often of a size that the local lads, after a Saturday night in the pub, could never hope to complete during the hours of darkness. What thinkest thou? ? Rodney Shakespeare. ? ? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Searle" To: Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 1:55 PM Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow'- Yahoo! News UK > Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article > X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 > > -------------------- > Personal message text: > > Might find this amusing! > > -------------------- > > >? > Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' > http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html > ============================================================ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 18 09:29:58 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:29:58 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! Message-ID: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? Dear Rodney, et al, ? ??????????? I like the new term Kakistocratic Fascisim. But I do not think Muktar would understand. For him I think a simple explanation is in order. ? ?Kaki? (usually spelt khaki )is?olive brown or??yellowish coloured clothing used by the military quite often as a type of camouflage.What Rodney is implying here ofcourse is rule by a fascist military elite...In other words, Khakistocracy as opposed to Democracy! ? ? R. Searle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 18 09:47:38 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:17:38 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK In-Reply-To: <00b101ca7ff2$f95152b0$4001a8c0@your447023ae6b> References: <617927.94741.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> <00b101ca7ff2$f95152b0$4001a8c0@your447023ae6b> Message-ID: <739349.29300.qm@web94903.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Thank you Rodney for?your response.?Robert, sorry for?the?previous mail as now I get the reference and thanks for explaining?.I think I would have guessed the reference?to Khaki better than kaki. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Rodney Shakespeare To: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam ; Discussion Forum for Global Justice Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 8:31:25 PM Subject: Re: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK Dear Mukhtar, 1.??? Yes, the underlying problem is, as you say, the "ecologically hostile financial system." ? Nobody in Copenhagen has referred to this and they are all being panicked and brow-beaten into agreeing to a very non-democratic global government embodying the flawed system.? Seven hundred new?institutions have been proposed. ? ? 2.??? The Mann 'hockey stick' is an outrageous, criminally false, ?misrepresentation ?of the last thousand years -- it was warmer than today c.1000 and? much colder in the Maunder Minimum c. 1700.? In the?Medieval Warm Period?there were no power stations and no cars (although wood and peat burning etc).? These great ups and downs are caused (probably) by the sun having indigestion?(or whatever) or tilts of the earth's axis or whatever -- carbon dioxide has little or nothing to do with it and,? in any case, CO2 helps plant growth (which is why greenhouses used to have paraffin heaters?for both heat and CO2) ? To cap it all the very poor countries (who,? under the CO2 theory, have NOT created the global warming) are to be allowed only 1.4 tons per person of carbon while the developed countries would be allowed 2.67 i.e. the poor countries are to be deliberately confined?to low standards of living. ? AND the developed countries would be able to manipulate the carbon credits so as, in practice, to make little or no contribution to reducing carbon dioxide.? (Goldman Sachs and Enron devised them) ? AND? the sea inroads in Bangladesh are caused by the destruction of the mangrove barriers, not rising sea levels. ? 3.?? NOBODY in Copenhagen? actually mentions:- a)??? ?the cause of much of the problems particulary poverty is the fractional reserve interest-bearing system which does NOT develop and spread productive capacity to the whole of the population. ? b) the solution -- i.e. interest-free loans for all forms of producitve capacity and their spreading (thereby spreading the associated consuming capacity, stopping national debt etc ). ? These Copenhagers (either deliberately or naively) are serving fascist interests and? thus are intent on maintaining injustice,? inequality and the rest of it. Rodney Shakespeare ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ----- Original Message ----- >From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam >To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk ; Discussion Forum for Global Justice >Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 2:23 PM >Subject: Re: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK > > >thank you robert for sending?the article. I think world leaders are not appreciating the need to reform ecologically hostile finance system.?I am not sure of the outcome of such a flawed process. Niether civil society organisation demonstrating are pointing this out as we?are coming across?news items?with such propositions. >?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam >58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India >Tel:+9968345380 >http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam >http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com >http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com >http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org > > > > > ________________________________ From: Robert Searle >To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net >Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 7:25:34 PM >Subject: [GJM] Giant Pyramid UFO ' Hovers Over Moscow' - Yahoo! News UK > >Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article >X-Originating-IP: 77.238.191.93 > >-------------------- >Personal message text: > >Might find this amusing! > >-------------------- > > > >Giant Pyramid UFO 'Hovers Over Moscow' >http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20091218/tod-giant-pyramid-ufo-hovers-over-moscow-870a197.html >============================================================ > > > >_______________________________________________ >Discussion mailing list >Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net >http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > >________________________________ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. ________________________________ _______________________________________________ >Discussion mailing list >Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net >http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > ?It has become apparent that at Copenhagen a corrupt attempt is being made to?tax heavily and send the money not to the UN and not to national governments but to an IMF/World Bank private bank-controlled type of global government? for the creation of a plutocratic bank-run government (with the money?being used to?pay off the bank-created debts) and?with money being??lent at interest under IMF conditions to poor countries so as to rip them off as usual and,?when they cannot repay, to take over their assets as usual.? That's criminal.? Climate Colonialism is a good description and Kakistocratic Fascism a better one. The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 18 09:53:11 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:23:11 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! In-Reply-To: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <16548.14176.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> thank you?Robert for explaining the term to me. Reading for the first time?, indeed , I found?the word strange. Who coined this? ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 9:59:58 PM Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! Dear Rodney, et al, ??????????? I like the new term Kakistocratic Fascisim. But I do not think Muktar would understand. For him I think a simple explanation is in order. ?Kaki? (usually spelt khaki )is?olive brown or??yellowish coloured clothing used by the military quite often as a type of camouflage.What Rodney is implying here ofcourse is rule by a fascist military elite...In other words, Khakistocracy as opposed to Democracy! R. Searle The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com Fri Dec 18 09:57:33 2009 From: rodney.shakespeare1 at btopenworld.com (Rodney Shakespeare) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:57:33 -0000 Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! References: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <00f201ca8003$31d30290$4001a8c0@your447023ae6b> Dear Robert, The term "kakistocratic fascism" has -- as you rightly point out -- connotations of fascist military rule. But it also means "bad government by the most unscrupulous or unsuitable people ." Rodney Shakespeare ----- Original Message ----- From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 4:29 PM Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! Dear Rodney, et al, I like the new term Kakistocratic Fascisim. But I do not think Muktar would understand. For him I think a simple explanation is in order. Kaki (usually spelt khaki )is olive brown or yellowish coloured clothing used by the military quite often as a type of camouflage.What Rodney is implying here ofcourse is rule by a fascist military elite...In other words, Khakistocracy as opposed to Democracy! R. Searle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 18 10:11:37 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:41:37 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Climate Change: North hides nefarious aims under green cloak In-Reply-To: <793041.73362.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <793041.73362.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <645724.9691.qm@web94910.mail.in2.yahoo.com> I think?struggle for?renewable resource based habitats and livelihoods would continue and?distributive justice for these must be ensured.?Categories of North?and South is redundant?, in so far as the?need?for preparing communities for the end of what I call petro-modern times is concerned. Invocation of the terms 'developing' and 'developed' by nations similarly is a fraud. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: robert searle To: discussion at globaljusticemovement.net Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 3:46:38 PM Subject: [GJM] Fw: Climate Change: North hides nefarious aims under green cloak --- On Thu, 17/12/09, Thompson Ayodele wrote: >From: Thompson Ayodele >Subject: Climate Change: North hides nefarious aims under green cloak >To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk >Date: Thursday, 17 December, 2009, 15:07 > > >This is published in today's South Africa Business Day >http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=89781 > >North hides nefarious aims under green cloak >THOMPSON AYODELE? Published: 2009/12/17 07:21:01 AM > >ENVIRONMENTAL groups from rich countries have for years waged a campaign >against those in poor countries who want to harness their natural >resources for economic growth. Their efforts threaten to do lasting harm >to the aspirations of millions of poor people in Africa, Asia and Latin >America, and must be resisted at all times and in all places. > >One of those places is the Copenhagen climate change summit taking place >in Denmark. Thousands of delegates from around the world are gathered >there trying to work on ways to limit global warming. But it is >increasingly clear to those of us in the south that the north is using the >summit as a way to maintain their living standards, while keeping the >developing world in a state of destitution. > >For example, just this week a document emerged that outlined a plan to >stop poor countries from clearing some of their forest lands to make room >for more productive uses, such as palm farming, rubber farming and urban >development. The suggestion ? encapsulated in the so-called ?Danish text? >? is risible and morally obtuse and its emergence threatens to torpedo the >entire conference. > >Every nation in history has harnessed its resources in the early stage of >its development. Indeed, Europe itself was arguably the most forested >region on the planet for most of its history until it started its economic >growth path several centuries ago. Over the course of many decades, >Europeans sensibly altered and re-altered their land use to permit more >productive agricultural use and enterprise, with the resultant job >creation. > >Today, nations across the developing world aim to do the same thing ? to >harness some of their natural endowments to create products for sale in >world markets. And so countries in Africa and Asia develop palm >plantations to sell palm oil across the globe. Farmers in Latin America >alter land uses to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers to satisfy >customers in their region and beyond. > >These efforts come with some ecological costs, just as they did in Europe >, North America , Japan and other places in the north in decades past. >Only once the northern nations became rich ? and not a moment before ? >could they afford the environmental protections they now demand of their >poorer neighbours to the south. > >The environmental campaigners scored a victory this week, forcing a major >multinational corporation, Unilever, to stop purchasing palm oil from a >southern hemisphere producer. > >The victory by the environmental activists will do nothing to protect the >environment but it will toss thousands of poor people out of their jobs. > >How Greenpeace employees can sleep well at night after an effort such as >this is a mystery . Of course, they live in rich countries where everyone >has soft pillows, fine linens, heating and air- conditioning, which must >make sleeping with a guilty conscience easier. > >The victory over Unilever is just a start, and green groups are hoping to >use Copenhagen as their vehicle to, in effect, outlaw developing world >vegetable oils across the globe. > >If they succeed, millions of people whose livelihoods depend on natural >resource industries will be thrown into economic chaos. > >A little-reported but critical aspect of this story is that green groups >are making common cause with large European vegetable oil producers. The >European producers do not like the competition from Africa and elsewhere, >and so they are pressing the European Union to halt imports of competing >vegetable oils. > >They mask their protectionist efforts under a cloak of environmental >urgency, but the end result is the same ? Europeans maintain their jobs >and living standards while the poor countries are denied opportunity. > >The rich-world campaign against palm oil is worrying on many levels. It >shows how easy it is to promote a one- sided argument regarding forest >destruction without balancing it with the many benefits that can arise >from changes in land use ? principally benefits to some of the world?s >poorest and most vulnerable people. > >It also shows how easy it is for protectionists and businesses to use >environmental issues to pass laws and regulations so as to further protect >their interests, regardless of the implications for trade, the world?s >poor and consumers around the globe. > >This episode also exposes the troubling hypocrisy at play in the climate >change and broader environmental debate. > >Europeans used their own resources and those from many other nations in >order to advance, become powerful and improve the living standards of >ordinary men, women and children. > >Poor countries need to be given the same opportunity. Basic notions of >decency insist on it. > >- Ayodele is the director of the Initiative for Public Policy Analysis, >Lagos, Nigeria. > > > > The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Sat Dec 19 00:41:43 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:11:43 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] [IHRO] Mideast: Common currency In-Reply-To: <011c01ca800c$56a383c0$0201a8c0@r5q8m6> References: <011c01ca800c$56a383c0$0201a8c0@r5q8m6> Message-ID: <658575.18377.qm@web94913.mail.in2.yahoo.com> It is wonderful to learn about the development of the common currency in Mid-east. I hope lessons are learnt from the failure of dollar and the currency is made interest free. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: "marco.pertoni at libero.it" To: 4UnitedWeStand yahoogroups <4UnitedWeStand at yahoogroups.com>; EarthU yahoogroups Cc: Sikh yahoogroups ; WrldReviewOfNewspapers yahoogroups ; IHRO ; PWAP ; Geo-politics Sent: Fri, 18 December, 2009 11:32:58 PM Subject: [IHRO] Mideast: Common currency questioned by leading economist Mideast: Common currency questioned by leading economist London, 18 Dec. (AKI) - A leading economist and Middle East expert from the London based think-tank Chatham House has questioned the likelihood that some Arab states will create a single currency modelled on the euro. Paola Subacchi, research director of the organisation' s international economics department reacted with scepticism when interviewed by Adnkronos International (AKI) on Friday. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar this week announced plans to launch the first phase of a single currency next year, creating a Gulf Monetary Council to evolve into a fully-fledged central bank. "From an economic point of view it makes sense for a monetary union. A big problem is that here we have Saudi Arabia and three smaller partners," Subacchi said. "It is like having Germany with Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. It doesn't make sense," Subacchi said. Subacchi, who is Italian, specialises in international monetary systems, capital flows and other issues. "We have seen so many kinds of declarations of intent, this is another one. It is an empty declaration, " Subacchi said. She said it made sense to form a common currency in the region. "There is commonality of institutions so it makes a lot of sense," she said. "But the whole process has been so slow that many people have lost confidence in this project." Earlier this week, the United Arab Emirates declined to join the move for a common fund, apparently irked that the central bank will be located in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on the insistence of the Saudi King Abdullah, rather than in Abu Dhabi. Between them the Gulf countries amount to a regional superpower with a gross domestic product of $1,200 billion some 40 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China. The Gulf states remain divided over the wisdom of anchoring their economies to the US dollar. The Gulf currency - dubbed the ''gulfo'' - is likely to track a global exchange basket and may ultimately float as a regional reserve currency in its own right. ''The US dollar has failed. We need to delink,'' said Nahed Taher, chief executive of Bahrain's Gulf One Investment Bank. The project is inspired by Europe's monetary union, seen as a huge success in the Arab world. Bahrain's foreign minister, Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, said the project would not work unless Gulf countries break down basic barriers to trade and capital flows. http://www.adnkrono s.com/AKI/ English/Business /?id=3.0. 4124985869 __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: * New Members 2 Visit Your Group Start a New Topic International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), of the Indian subcontinent, is a NGO, with national focus and overseas lobby network. It agitates both in India and internationally. MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Parenting Zone: Find useful resources for a happy, healthy family and home Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sat Dec 19 03:35:54 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:35:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] The Climate Change "Failure". Message-ID: <983339.36647.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? ? ? ? ??????????????????? IF IT WERE A BANK THEY WOULD HAVE FIXED IT BY NOW! ? ? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Hugo Chavez in connection with the COP15 talks.. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 15 16:58:27 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:58:27 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: We can change the world Message-ID: <000001ca7de2$af1e2630$0d5a7290$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Here is some awe-inspiring information from the Bio-mimicry Institute. Why is it that the horrifying war news makes front page head-lines while the life-enhancing news barely ets seen? Is there something really wrong with our belief system that needs remedied? From: Biomimicry Institute [mailto:info at biomimicryinstitute.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 2:19 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: We can change the world Dear Friends, When Janine Benyus and I opened The Biomimicry Institute just over three years ago, our goal was to grow a global network of innovators who would collaborate with biologists to solve worthy challenges. I'd like to ask you to consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our continued and expanded work. If the combination of innovation, science, design and conservation match your priorities and concerns, join us in evangelizing a solution that's visionary, yet real and practical. * The Biomimicry Guild consultancy established a model for a whole new profession, that of a biologist at the design table. The Biomimicry Institute created the career path to that profession, designing curricula from kindergarten up to a Two Year Certificate for post graduate biomimicry education. * We created AskNature, a unique online library of nature's solutions, making the information accessible to seekers of innovation, and now plan to make it a place for those seekers to get in touch with each other. * We have begun to design ecological performance standards for built environments, with the goal of providing the ecosystem services nature provides in the same locations. I feel so lucky to work for an organization where we use the words 'awe,' 'inspired,' and 'genius' as often as words like 'effective,' and 'strategic.' We also derive much joy and satisfaction from being part of a community of people who share our sense of beauty in discovery, our respect for rigorous, science based problem solving, and yes, awe at the genius of nature. Warm regards and thank you for your interest and support, Bryony Schwan Executive Director P.S. Consider giving the gift of biomimicry this holiday season. You may make a donation in honor of a friend or family on our donation page, and we'll send them a card telling them about your thoughtful gift. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 16 02:57:28 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:57:28 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Music for Peace Message-ID: <003001ca7e36$58a71880$09f54980$@net> From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:47 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: Music for Peace ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Paul Lloyd Warner Date: Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 12:39 PM Subject: Music for Peace To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com Having trouble viewing this email? Click here MUSIC FOR PEACE Paul Lloyd Warner Just in Time for the Holidays Give the Gift of Music for Peace Huge Discount for Friends and Family ORDER NOW to get low pricing. Error! Filename not specified. Music for Peace by Paul Lloyd Warner Progressive Classical Music is a new musical genre. The fusion of classical with new age music. Some of the most beautiful instrumental music you will ever hear. Original Music peaceful, relaxing, calming, stress-reducing, healing and inspirational. World-class performances and recordings. Discount and Quick Links to Order CDs Now. DELIVERY BEFORE CHRISTMAS The regular price for CDs is $17.95 each. Sets of 4 CDs are offered and Friends and Family rates below $10. each. Best Value is the Full Set of All 8 CDs which costs less than $8.75. You can also order individual CDs via our website at $14.95 each. Click the Music for Peace link to visit our website and LISTEN TO SAMPLES or you can order CDs directly by clicking the links below. * Music for Peace Website * Buy SET 1 for $39.95 * Buy SET 2 for $39.95 * Buy All 8 CDs for $69.95 Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Greetings, Paul Lloyd Warner and Waterfall Music are pleased to announce the release of 8 inspiring and healing MUSIC FOR PEACE CDs at amazingly low prices, perfect for gift-giving during the Holiday Season. Order Now to get discount pricing and guarantee delivery before Christmas. An American Symphony An American Symphony CD by Paul Lloyd Warner Paul Lloyd Warner brings his electronic keyboards outdoors to some of the most beautiful scenic locations in western America: Yosemite, The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Monterey Bay, Grand Tetons National Park, Cascade Mountains, Mt. Shasta, The San Juan Islands, WA, Rocky Mountains, and more. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN. LEARN MORE AND ORDER Symphony for Humanity Symphony for Humanity by Paul Lloyd Warner One of the most beautiful and inspirational instrumental albums of our time. This music is dedicated to all people throughout the world. This is an updated version from the original CD released in 2006. This CD is one of Paul Lloyd Warner's classical masterpieces. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Waterfall Music, Piano Waterfall Music for Solo Piano by Paul Lloyd Warner Paul Lloyd Warner signature solo piano album performed in his own unique style. The use of multiple cascading arpeggios with very clearly defined notes is plentiful throughout this beautiful and inspired album. This recording was made in 1990 and is Paul's favorite version. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Miracle of Dolphins, Piano Miracle of Dolphins, Solo Piano by Paul Lloyd Warner This music is a celebration of dolphins. When the composer was living in Hawaii, he met two dolphin scientific researchers in 1981 who had recorded the sounds of Pacific Bottle nose Dolphins. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Water Lilies, Solo Harp Water Lilies for Solo Harp by Paul Lloyd Warner Solo Harp recorded on an Electronic Keyboard A truly healing musical experience. Beautiful melodies and flow. This music was actually made for someone who was in need of healing. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Piano in Paradise Piano in Paradise - Piano and Strings Very soft and healing musical. Reduces stress immediately. Relax and feel the beauty. Promotes healing, therapeutic, and gives a feeling of well-being and love. Excellent for massage, rest, sleep. Not recommended for driving. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Zen Waterfall, Flute and Piano Zen Waterfall for Shakuhachi and Piano The first known recording for the Shakuhachi and Piano. These improvisations were recorded in 1977 in Kula, Maui, Hawaii. Paul Lloyd Warner and Eliot Joshu brought their instruments together for the first time and made this meditation classic. CICK HERE TO LISTEN, LEARN MORE AND ORDER Set 1 includes An American Symphony, Symphony for Humanity, Waterfall Music and Miracle of Dolphins. Regular Price $72. Your price is $39.95 for all four CDs. (Less than $10. per CD.) A Super Holiday Savings of $31.85 Set 2 includes Water Lilies, Piano in Paradise, Zen Waterfall and The River (pictured on our website. Regular Price $72. Your price is$39.95 for all four CDs (Less than $10. per CD.) A Super Holiday Savings of $31.85 All 8 CDs, Sets 1 and 2 Regular Price $143. Your price is only $69.95. (Less than $8.75 per CD.) A Super Holiday Savings of $73.00 CDs can also be purchased INDIVIDUALLY on our website for $14.95 each. These Friends and Family prices are good through December 31, 2009. Please visit our website www.MusicForPeace.com LISTEN TO SAMPLES FROM EACH CD and order via our Secure E-Commerce. We ship First Class mail. Thank you and we promise you a most beautiful, uplifting and relaxing musical experience. Best Holiday Wishes Paul Lloyd Warner, Composer and Performing Artist Music for Peace - Waterfall Music E-Mail: relax at musicforpeace.com Error! Filename not specified. Forward email Error! Filename not specified. This email was sent to dustysummerrose at gmail.com by relax at musicforpeace.com. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe T | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by Error! Filename not specified. Music for Peace | 1106 2nd St. | #286 | Encinitas | CA | 92024 Error! Filename not specified. -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 16 17:55:59 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:55:59 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Detroit's Unemployment Rate Is Near 50% Message-ID: <004601ca7eb3$c03a6a60$40af3f20$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS The only way to deal with this is to move into local currencies so that there is some means for exchange of labor or barter for those who have been disenfranchised from the system. And, those who are homeless need land upon which to conduct subsistence farming and erect shelters. Unemployment compensation is merely a handout that "feeds someone for a day." What is really needed is to follow the philosophy of "teach someone to fish and you feed them for life." In this instance, teaching someone to fish means aiding them in attaining some land and helping them to learn how to raise their own food and erect their own shelter. For those who are attempting to start businesses and employ others, a better model is to obtain financing from somewhere and create a Mondragon Cooperative or what is called an "employee-owned business." How to Start An Employee-owned business: http://www.ehow.com/how_15347_start-employee-owned.html Performance of employee-owned small companies: a preliminary study. | http://www.allbusiness.com/management/102140-1.html In this way you are not creating a "wage slave" situation. Detroit's Unemployment Rate Is Nearly 50%, According to the Detroit News Updated: 12-16-09 06:29 PM Officially, Detroit's unemployment rate is just under 30 percent. But the city's mayor and local leaders are suggesting a far more disturbing figure -- the actual jobless rate, they say, is closer to 50 percent. As many have noted, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which culls federal unemployment data, does not account for all of the jobless in its widely-quoted national unemployment figures. Among those omitted: part-time workers who are looking for full-time jobs and frustrated job seekers who abandon their job search altogether. (For some context, the official national unemployment rate is 10 percent, but the "underemployment rate" is 17.2 percent.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/detroits-unemployment-rat_n_394559. html Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 16 18:15:19 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:15:19 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - "Beyond Belief" the Movie Message-ID: <005101ca7eb6$91e852f0$b5b8f8d0$@net> From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 5:22 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - "Beyond Belief" the Movie Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, Tuesday of this week a new documentary was released,"Beyond Belief" the Movie. And the list of Teachers who contributed was almost beyond belief. Our friend Bruce Lipton of course, but also Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff, Judith Orloff and many more exceptional teachers were inspired by the vision of our guests Jim Holzknecht and Becky Hayes who produced this beautiful DVD. Join us for an hour of stories from behind the scenes and then add "Beyond Belief" the Movie to your shopping list. www.ScienceforLife.net Today, 9:00 AM Pacific, 12:00 Noon Eastern or 24/7 On Demand Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 16 18:47:20 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:47:20 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: HI there...! Message-ID: <005a01ca7ebb$0c5d5db0$25181910$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I am thrilled to be a recipient of Constance Demby's newletter and to be able to forward it to you. I do encourage you to read the information The Great Scientific Bias by Lee Carroll / Kryon contained in the spiritlibrary link provided below. While this is not in the scientific language that I would put it in, it does shed some light on quantum physics and how things work at this level. I also recommend reading Gregg Braden's "Fractal Time" and Bruce Lipton's "The Biology of Belief" for more insight. V. Vernon Woolf's book: "The Dance of Life" also offers insights into both particle and wave dynamics, the world composed of "information," and how "holodynes" - information patterns which have the power to cause are stored in the microtubules of each cell in the body/mind field. For information on the energy fields that compose the human body, Lynn McTaggart's book: "The Field" is good source of information. McTaggart also goes into the storage of information in the microtubules as revealed by the work of Roger Penrose & Staurt Hameroff. From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:48 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: HI there...! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Constance Demby Date: Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:08 PM Subject: HI there...! To: Constance Demby Hi there...! I hope everyone is doing well...There's a LOT of new folks on the list now... A warm welcome to you all! <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> I just read this paragraph about the Symphony of the Spheres and thought to share it with you.... "As a Human Being, you're struck with the silence of space, not understanding or even appreciating the fact that every single star sings a song. I hear them all. Silence to you is a symphony to me. For the vibratory rates of the light that is emitted from the stars all combine into a chorus, a manipulation of vibrational sonority that is beautiful. The universe sings to me, for I am quantum. The parts of you that are quantum are beginning to broach past the three-dimensional parts. That meld, that confluence, is going to create paradigms of thought that are different from any others on the planet. For there has been no time on the planet like this one, where you're asked to think out of the box of your comfortable reality, and go beyond the wall of your natural bias. Look at your galaxy with me for a moment. The beautiful spiral of it, is all moving slowly together as one... rotating slowly like a plate of lights. Take it all in..." http://spiritlibrary.com/ <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> Recently my assistant and I created new buttons on the order form, buttons which make it very easy for you to order Personalized Autographed Albums as Christmas Gifts for your loved ones... Just push the button on http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html And speaking of pushing buttons ... After all the new codes and buttons had been created on the website, a major snafu occurred and the whole page had to be totally redone by yours truly ...Aaarrrggghhh..! My buttons got pushed big time! And I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling of working on something for a long time and suddenly losing it all ... <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> Here's something I came upon that is so totally cool! The Osho Zen Tarot Cards Go to http://www.osho.com/tarot-readings-free.htm and push the button to choose a single card or a 5 Card Spread. The results can often be on right on target. But to get the best results, first tune in deeply on your issue or subject at hand, and meditate on it before you choose a card or a spread. I was not into Osho as a spiritual Master, as during the time he was popular I was being initiated into "Sant Mat," a path that focuses on the inner Light and Sound. After that initiation in the late 70's, the music started pouring through me like an ocean, with such power and depth that I couldn't stop! That first album was SKIES ABOVE SKIES, a pure, innocent prayerful offering. http://www.constancedemby.com/skies.html This was followed some years later by NOVUS MAGNIFICAT - Through the Stargate in the 80's, a transmission that was a direct result of my crown chakra being blasted open by the Master vibration as the sound current poured through. http://www.constancedemby.com/novus.html In the the 90's I was sent was a new frequency, AETERNA, dedicated to the healing of the heart, apparantly our new direction of clearing layers and processing buried stuff. Novus and Aeterna are like the Big Poppa and the Big Momma, a great pair together. http://www.constancedemby.com/aeterna.html Well, all of this is bringing back lots of memories from those days... But now we are in quite a different vibration, we've all come a long way, and we are here now to help birth a new world, a new frequency on our beloved Planet Earth. It hasn't been easy, and we still have a long way to go. Both the clearing process and the birthing process are powerfully assisted by music, but - not just any music; you need to choose music with pure high frequencies embedded within the tones in order to get any significant benefit. Holiday Specials http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html When you order three albums, you receive a free Sound Currents album... Precious gifts for your loved ones ... And - the music lasts forever - as there's something in this music that is eternal, something that cannot be named... (As only and ever the receiver of what comes through, I do not take credit for it.) My Love to you all, Constance ------------------- To subscribe, send a message with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com To unsubscribe, send a message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 6797 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 16 18:49:33 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:49:33 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: HI there...! Message-ID: <000501ca7ebb$5a4c3b90$0ee4b2b0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I am thrilled to be a recipient of Constance Demby's newletter and to be able to forward it to you. I do encourage you to read the information The Great Scientific Bias by Lee Carroll / Kryon contained in the spiritlibrary link provided below. While this is not in the scientific language that I would put it in, it does shed some light on quantum physics and how things work at this level. I also recommend reading Gregg Braden's "Fractal Time" and Bruce Lipton's "The Biology of Belief" for more insight. V. Vernon Woolf's book: "The Dance of Life" also offers insights into both particle and wave dynamics, the world composed of "information," and how "holodynes" - information patterns which have the power to cause are stored in the microtubules of each cell in the body/mind field. For information on the energy fields that compose the human body, Lynn McTaggart's book: "The Field" is good source of information. McTaggart also goes into the storage of information in the microtubules as revealed by the work of Roger Penrose & Staurt Hameroff. From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 2:48 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: HI there...! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Constance Demby Date: Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:08 PM Subject: HI there...! To: Constance Demby Hi there...! I hope everyone is doing well...There's a LOT of new folks on the list now... A warm welcome to you all! <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> I just read this paragraph about the Symphony of the Spheres and thought to share it with you.... "As a Human Being, you're struck with the silence of space, not understanding or even appreciating the fact that every single star sings a song. I hear them all. Silence to you is a symphony to me. For the vibratory rates of the light that is emitted from the stars all combine into a chorus, a manipulation of vibrational sonority that is beautiful. The universe sings to me, for I am quantum. The parts of you that are quantum are beginning to broach past the three-dimensional parts. That meld, that confluence, is going to create paradigms of thought that are different from any others on the planet. For there has been no time on the planet like this one, where you're asked to think out of the box of your comfortable reality, and go beyond the wall of your natural bias. Look at your galaxy with me for a moment. The beautiful spiral of it, is all moving slowly together as one... rotating slowly like a plate of lights. Take it all in..." http://spiritlibrary.com/ <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> Recently my assistant and I created new buttons on the order form, buttons which make it very easy for you to order Personalized Autographed Albums as Christmas Gifts for your loved ones... Just push the button on http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html And speaking of pushing buttons ... After all the new codes and buttons had been created on the website, a major snafu occurred and the whole page had to be totally redone by yours truly ...Aaarrrggghhh..! My buttons got pushed big time! And I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling of working on something for a long time and suddenly losing it all ... <>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<;;_;;>*\W/*<> Here's something I came upon that is so totally cool! The Osho Zen Tarot Cards Go to http://www.osho.com/tarot-readings-free.htm and push the button to choose a single card or a 5 Card Spread. The results can often be on right on target. But to get the best results, first tune in deeply on your issue or subject at hand, and meditate on it before you choose a card or a spread. I was not into Osho as a spiritual Master, as during the time he was popular I was being initiated into "Sant Mat," a path that focuses on the inner Light and Sound. After that initiation in the late 70's, the music started pouring through me like an ocean, with such power and depth that I couldn't stop! That first album was SKIES ABOVE SKIES, a pure, innocent prayerful offering. http://www.constancedemby.com/skies.html This was followed some years later by NOVUS MAGNIFICAT - Through the Stargate in the 80's, a transmission that was a direct result of my crown chakra being blasted open by the Master vibration as the sound current poured through. http://www.constancedemby.com/novus.html In the the 90's I was sent was a new frequency, AETERNA, dedicated to the healing of the heart, apparantly our new direction of clearing layers and processing buried stuff. Novus and Aeterna are like the Big Poppa and the Big Momma, a great pair together. http://www.constancedemby.com/aeterna.html Well, all of this is bringing back lots of memories from those days... But now we are in quite a different vibration, we've all come a long way, and we are here now to help birth a new world, a new frequency on our beloved Planet Earth. It hasn't been easy, and we still have a long way to go. Both the clearing process and the birthing process are powerfully assisted by music, but - not just any music; you need to choose music with pure high frequencies embedded within the tones in order to get any significant benefit. Holiday Specials http://www.constancedemby.com/orderform.html When you order three albums, you receive a free Sound Currents album... Precious gifts for your loved ones ... And - the music lasts forever - as there's something in this music that is eternal, something that cannot be named... (As only and ever the receiver of what comes through, I do not take credit for it.) My Love to you all, Constance ------------------- To subscribe, send a message with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com To unsubscribe, send a message with UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line to elenirose at constancedemby.com -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 6797 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 17 14:53:43 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:53:43 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Christianity Is The Plagiarized Version of Mithraism - A Persian/Iranian Theology Message-ID: <007b01ca7f63$8da103b0$a8e30b10$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Christianity Is The Plagiarized Version of Mithraism - A Persian/Iranian Theology This fits right in with all of the information I have uncovered in my research for the book: "The Sacred Quest For The Who Of I Am." Much of what I had uncovered about Mithraism and how Christianity was brought into being under Pope/Emperor Constantine. My information on this was taken from Jeremy Rifkin's book: "Beyond Beef" and other scattered sources over a period of several years. So, while I had an outline of events, this piece provides the guts of the matter. As usual my holiday celebration this year will center around Winter Stolstice as I know the Earth to be my life support system as the sun, earth and water meet in a union that is both life-giving and supportive. BTW, a friend posted this on Facebook. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 17 15:11:21 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:11:21 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Shaping Tomorrow Insight Newsletter Message-ID: <008101ca7f66$07d39920$177acb60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS This is the best newsletter I have seen anywhere. Do hope you enjoy it. From: Bruce Lloyd [mailto:info at shapingtomorrow.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:58 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Shaping Tomorrow Insight Newsletter If you have trouble viewing our newsletter via email please click here to view it online: http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/newsletter.cfm Click here to go to the website Insight Newsletter 16 December 2009 Edited by Bruce Lloyd _____ Policing the oceans Mobiles The oceans are essential to life on this planet; they cover about 70% of the surface and contain about 95% of all water; they provide millions of tons of fish every year, shipping routes, tourism and minerals. And yet they are largely un-policed and uncontrolled. That may be set to change as evidence mounts of the damage we are already doing through fishing and other activities. With the imminent development of deep sea mining, control is even more essential. We have written a summary of what is changing and why we think it is important. Author: Sheila Moorcroft, Director of Research _____ Latest Insights Our weekly newsletter is just a gentle reminder of what's maybe changing imperceptibly around you. The website itself contains a much larger selection of structured content, with likely high relevance to you and your organisation, and is updated daily. We have added 410 new links this week including Murdoch vs. Huffington and the future of online news News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Huffington Post Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington debate the future of Web news publishing in Washington as part of an FTC workshop Comment Mobility Of Self-Employed Workers US states with higher gross state product growth are more likely to attract highly mobile and high-achieving college graduates, both self-employed and wage-and-salary workers, according to Office of Advocacy research. The study finds that the mobility of the self-employed is very similar to that of their wage-and-salary counterparts Comments (1) 2012: A Time of Extraordinary Change Futurist John L. Petersen predicted the global financial meltdown with stunning accuracy. Now this hard-headed soothsayer is tracking the winds of change that he feels are destined to sweep away the foundations of our current society and prepare the way for something completely new Comment Low-Cost, Durable, Lightweight Battery Made From Paper By dipping an ordinary piece of paper into ink infused with carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires, scientists have been able to create a low-cost battery or supercapacitor that is ultra-lightweight, bendable and very durable. The paper can be crumpled, folded or even soaked in acidic or basic solutions and still will work. Comment Building Alternative Talent Pools A fairly new term in social entrepreneurship is Alternative Talent Pools (ATPs): groups of people who are attracted to the social enterprise sector but would not come to the sector through the normal streams Comment Personalised Vaccines Could Protect All Children Children whose genetic make-up means they may not be protected by the standard form of a vaccine could in future be given a personalized shot, research at the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggests. Comment Youth Using Phones To Harass And Spy On Partners A survey, conducted for The Associated Press and MTV by Knowledge Networks interviewed 1,247 people between the ages 14 and 24 in what was described as a nationally representative survey. The survey looked at youth sexting, cyberbullying, and digital dating abuse. Comments (1) Social Media Predictions For 2010 The article looks at some of the prognostications that several of today's visionaries have divined from their social media crystal balls. These predictions are meant to be thought-provokers more than a specific road map, and derive from an eclectic assembly of thought leaders,entrepreneurs and folks who are in the trenches every day dealing with the evolution of social media. Comment In Economic Woes, Firms Count On Temp Workers Factories can reduce costs by minimizing the raw materials they keep on hand, a practice known as just-in-time inventory. Now many employers are applying just-in-time tactics to labor, using temporary workers, overtime and other expediencies to boost output without adding permanent employees Comments (1) Two New Reports Chart Opportunities In Water Demand for water is already greater than supply, especially in developing countries, and that population growth and climate change will only create further opportunities in water. Comment _____ Guide to Practical Foresight: Part 50 - Assessing trends Part 50 of a year long series on how to use Practical Foresight for competitive advantage: At this stage, it is important to recognize three things: * trends don?t exist in isolation, * trends are extrapolations of the past and the present, not future facts, and * trends have uncertain future trajectories. During this process of assessing trends, you need to spend some time exploring how the trends might evolve over time. You should have started to do this when you scanned, and now you are looking at a number of trends to see how they connect or operate in isolation from each other. There could be weak or strong connections between trends, and some trends might collide. Wildcards and other discontinuities might intervene and derail a trend trajectory completely. For this exercise, you need to be applying system thinking principles. The further into the future you explore, the more uncertain the trajectory of a trend is, and the more potential turning points there are. You will need to be exploring multiple alternative pathways to see whether your view that this trend is important to your organization is robust across those alternatives. Look, in particular, for possible pathways that might have a significant impact on how you do business today. Ask questions such as: * what would cause a fundamental change to the way your organization delivers its services? * what would generate fundamental change in how your industry is organized? Remember that you are scanning at the moment to improve your assessment, rather than selecting trends for further evaluation. You can read the full guide or contact us to learn how to improve Practical Foresight in your organisation. Contents ? Policing the oceans <> ? Latest Insights <> ? Guide <> to Practical Foresight: Part 50 - Assessing trends ? Strategy in a box with <> 'My Analysis' ? Recovery Watch <> ? Future Voices <> ? Foresight Network <> Strategy in a box with 'My Analysis' Ever wanted a complete suite of tools, techniques and content to quickly create your business plan or futures research on your desktop fast and share it dynamically with your associates? Now you can, for as little as ?985. If you are a futurist, strategist, change agent, risk or innovation manager, marketer or business developer you?ll find this world-leading scanning, planning and actioning tool invaluable in staying ahead of the curve, understanding the potential world you face and determining your response. Shaping Tomorrow now offers 'My Analysis', a unique, ultra low-cost service to all but the smallest organisations and sole traders including: * Access to 43,000+ continuously updated, searchable, sortable, and selectable Insights on what the future may hold for all of us * Access to 3,300 hand analysed, ranked and selectable global trends, uncertainties and wildcards that are changing all about us * Your ability to add, analyse, rank, and select your own private Insights and Trends for detailed analysis * A comprehensive suite of best practice tools and techniques to help you see potential futures, understand their impacts on you, your organisation and rivals, plan your response and track your actions. As the world changes you can modify your plans and communicate your evolving strategy to your colleagues and publics thus inspiring, engaging and enabling them to reach your aim in real time. And, if you are looking to create your own private, fire-walled site with your own logo, taxonomy, regular newsletter, trends publishing capability, collaboration tools and an ability to share your plans with your people prices start at just ?9,185. Contact us today for a free demonstration or to subscribe. Recovery Watch "When will this recession end?" This is the question most on our clients lips. Use this social network graph to see which way our contributors think the world is heading. Last updated 14th December 2009. Take advantage of any upturn or prepare for a further downturn, ahead of the pack, by reading our 'what to do now' recession tips for how to survive and get to more positive futures, faster. Read more Future Voices Planning your next company conference, meeting, workshop or retreat? Looking for an exciting, provocative guest speaker to get the audience thinking about future opportunities and risks and how to address them? Use our Future Voices Speakers Bureau to connect directly with those of interest, with no one coming in between. Foresight Network Join our free international network of over 1900 futurists, strategists and change agents and there will always be someone here to help you advance your future research and thinking, strategic planning and change management. Our Foresight Network If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 17 15:22:16 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:22:16 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: TONIGHT....Dr. Dave Carpenter Message-ID: <00a201ca7f67$8e8aa390$ab9feab0$@net> As you all know, I seldom forward information with associated advertising. However, Jan Shimano and I have discussed the benefits of drinking alkalized water a couple of times on the phone and she has yet to "push" as other marketers do. So, I very much like her approach and feel that Kangen Water is genuinely interested in seeing that you get the information you need to make an informed decision rather than giving a "sales pitch" in order to manipulate you into purchasing. So, I do hope I have gotten this out in time to give some of you a chance to view it. If you are interested in finding out about a pH-balanced diet and what foods to eat in order to achieve and maintain it, then Kangen Water has an excellent list for your benefit. From: Jan Shimano [mailto:getalkalized at gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 1:09 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: TONIGHT....Dr. Dave Carpenter --> --> --> --> Join us for the Health & Wellness Seminar! Hello mary! Every Thursday you'll hear about Real World Wellness, where science and common sense merge. Bring your guests for very specific information about how you can normalize and alkalize the body and the role that Kangen Water plays in that process! Who is Dr. Dave? * Is a graduate of Central States College of Health Sciences as a Naturopathic Medical Doctor * Is a diplomate of the International Academy of Medical Acupuncturists * Is a member of the American Naturopathic Medical Association * Is a member of the Idaho Association of Naturopathic Physicians * Is a member of the Idaho Acupuncture Association * Is on the faculty of the Intermountain Institute of Natural Health * Has been a practicing Naturopathic Doctor and Acupuncturist for more than 20 years Bring your family and friends to this powerful teleseminar tonight! Wishing you wellness! Jan Shimano Health Wellness Advocate Chemainus, B.C. 250-246-3490 www.GetAlkalizedWithKangen.com For more direct product information, visit: www.GetAlkalizedWithKangen.net For shocking information about your body and common diseases, visit: www.GetAlkalizedWithKangen.info You are receiving this message because you submitted your info at: http://www.GetAlkalizedWithKangen.info/ You may cancel at any time. If you believe you received this email unsolicited, please use the Report Abuse button below. antispam IP Address you signed up from 75.107.0.38 Date you signed up Oct 16, 2009 01:37 PM To remove yourself from our database, click or copy/paste this link: http://yourbodyiswater.com/?getpage=campaign&page=optout&campaign=4&pid=6522 8&phash=1255714664 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 17 15:27:12 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:27:12 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Sustainable Business, Food, and Farming Message-ID: <00ac01ca7f68$3bdfced0$b39f6c70$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS FYI and consideration. From: Alison Clayshulte [mailto:alison at rocnetwork.org] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 10:46 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Sustainable Business, Food, and Farming roc logo Dear Supporter: Faces of the Good Food Movement Peter Liu Meet Peter Liu. Peter is the initial founder and Vice Chairman of New Resource Bank, and a member of the Roots of Change Stewardship Council. New Resource Bank is an innovative community bank in San Francisco that focuses on financing sustainable and efficient resources for both businesses and the public. In the news ROC's President, Michael Dimock, was recently quoted in an article in the SF Bay Guardian about the sustainable food movement and access to sustainable food for the poor. Check out the article: Out of Reach: How the Sustainable Local Food Movement Neglects Poor Workers and Eaters. Last week Fresno-based farmer John Diener was awarded with the 2009 Leopold Conservation Award in California from the Sand County Foundation, the California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation. Diener's Red Rock Ranch consists of approximately 5,000 acres in Fresno County, where he farms an array of high value row crops using using innovative approaches to land, water, and wildlife management. Upcoming Events ROC is co-sponsoring the following Eco-Farm pre-conference event on January 20th in Pacific Grove: The Business of Sustainability: Growing Health, Wealth, and Ecological Integrity in our Food System Happy Holidays, Roots of Change Roots of Change, 221 Kearny Street, 3rd Floor San Francisco, California 94108 www.rootsofchange.org This email was sent to to tiffany at rocnetwork.org by tiffany at rocnetwork.org. Click here to unsubscribe Roots of Change | 221 Kearny Street | 3rd Floor | San Francisco | CA | 94108 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 18 11:16:11 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:16:11 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews Dec 18 2009 #1 Message-ID: <00c601ca800e$58d37130$0a7a5390$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS At this time when this should be our finest hour if we care about saving our life support system, the human family is failing miserably. Are we to see a repeat of history? In Zecharia Sitchen's Earth Chronicles books, in which he translates the Sumerian Tablets which are carved in stone, it is told that the Nephilim have come to earth from the Planet Nibiru and have seen how the human family is destroying their life support system, and have decided that this must stop. So, the decision is made to create the great flood that is written about in the Bible, as are the Nephilim, and begin all over again. So, they bade Noah to build the arc and load the animals on it. Then the Nephilim, who are known as "Gods" get aboard their spacecraft and leave the Earth only to return when the rains have subsided and the floodwaters have receded. Is all of this a lie? Why are the places in the Bible which reveal information about the Nephilim not talked about by the present religious groups? Yet, these groups are so ready to condemn homosexuality, abortion and other things that offend the righteousness of the fundamentalist right. Isn't there something a little perverted about all of this? Is homosapiens a failed experiment? Thanks to Trader Paul at Global Net News for this report. By the way, I have been exchanging messages with Paul and will forward some of the information I have gained from him in a later report. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 9:23 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews Dec 18 2009 #1 (trying to keep up a timely, balanced sample of the dismal reporting coming out of Copenhagen) Obama In Copenhagen: No Final Climate Deal To Present To World Leaders Updated: 12-18-09 09:10 AM From The AP: COPENHAGEN - A clearly frustrated President Barack Obama displayed impatience Friday with world leaders' failure to reach a new climate accord, urging them to accept a less-than-perfect pact while offering no new U.S. concessions. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/18/obama-in-copenhagen-no-fi_n_396752. html BREAKING: LEAKED Final Draft of Copenhagen Treaty Declaration December 18, 2009 06:59 AM "This declaration won't save the planet. A so-called politically binding agreement is just a fancy way of saying 'trust me I'm a politician" says Greenpeace campaigner Joss Garman . "The leaders have just hours left to end this farce but they still can. We need deeper carbon cuts across the board - it's not complicated - but if they don't step up now this conference will forever be branded the shame of Copenhagen." Unless leaders sit down at the table, roll up their sleeves and get down to business, this leaked draft text will probably closely resemble the final deal here in Copenhagen. And unfortunately, it is not the deal we've all been working so hard to see and definitely not the one that will save us from the worst effects of climate change. Here's the complete draft text of the final Copenhagen climate treaty: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/breaking-leaked-final-dra_b_39 6796.html Slouching Toward Health Care Reform Robert Reich Former Secretary of Labor, Professor at Berkeley Posted: December 17, 2009 12:23 PM "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the better," says the President and congressional insiders when confronted with the sorry spectacle of a health-care bill whose scope and ambition continue to shrink, and whose long-term costs to typical Americans continue to grow. They're right, of course. But by the same logic, neither the White House nor congressional Democrats will be able to celebrate the emerging legislation as a "major overhaul" or "fundamental reform." At best, it's likely to be a small overhaul containing incremental reforms. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/slouching-toward-health-c_b_39579 5.html Leaked UN report shows cuts offered at Copenhagen would lead to 3C rise Thursday 17 December 2009 18.03 GMT UN secretariat initial draft shows gap of up to 4.2 gigatonnes of CO2 between present pledges and cuts required to limit rise to 2C With the talks entering the final 24 hours on a knife-edge, the emergence of the document seriously undermines the statements by governments that they are aiming to limit emissions to a level ensuring no more than a 2C temperature rise over the next century, and indicates that the last day of negotiations will be extremely challenging. A rise of 3C would mean up to 170 million more people suffering severe coastal floods and 550 million more at risk of hunger, according to the Stern economic review of climate change for the UK government - as well as leaving up to 50% of species facing extinction. Even a rise of 2C would lead to a sharp decline in tropical crop yields, more flooding and droughts. Read the UN analysis document here http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-emissions-cuts- future-temperatures http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/17/un-leaked-report-copenhage n-3c Acid Oceans: The 'Evil Twin' Of Climate Change 12/18/09 10:00 AM Oceans absorb about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases pumped into the atmosphere from human activities each year, says a new U.N. report released at the Copenhagen talks this week. That helps slow global warming in the atmosphere, the focus of the Copenhagen talks. But carbon dissolving in oceans also forms carbonic acid, raising waters' acidity that damages all manner of hard-shelled creatures, and setting off a chain reaction that threatens the food chain supporting marine life, including the lumbering sea mammals along the 276-mile coast of the California sanctuary and the rest of the U.S. West Coast. Ocean acidity could increase 150 percent just by mid-century, according to the report by the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. "This dramatic increase is 100 times faster than any change in acidity experienced in the marine environment over the last 20 million years, giving little time for evolutionary adaptation within biological systems," it said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/18/acid-oceans-the-evil-twin_n_396846. html Copenhagen heading for meltdown as stalemate continues over emission cuts UN fails in last-ditch efforts to get world leaders to commit to a maximum 2C rise as draft texts get weaker Friday 18 December 2009 16.45 GMT The UN's climate summit was heading for meltdown this afternoon with countries unable to agree on emission cuts and blaming each other for the descent towards a humiliating fiasco. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-draft-treaty-me ltdown UN asks leaders to stay overnight in Copenhagen The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has asked world leaders to stay overnight in Copenhagen to secure a deal at the climate talks Friday 18 December 2009 16.03 GMT As key elements of the deal were knocked steadily from emerging drafts and ambitions for the text dwindled by the hour, Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner for the environment, said the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, had asked leaders to stay on until tomorrow to secure a deal. Dimas said: "The secretary-general of the United Nations has asked people not to leave tonight." The delay, he said, was in order to give the leaders the extra time needed to clinch a deal. "I cannot imagine 120 leaders going back to their countries with empty hands. Everyone expressed commitment to fight climate change. OK, do it." Reuters is reporting that the United Nations has denied asking world leaders to extend their stay. Spokeswoman Marie Okabe said this was not the case. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-leaders-asked-s tay-overnight From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 18 18:10:22 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:10:22 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Science for Life - "Beyond Belief" the Movie Message-ID: <00fe01ca8048$34b37fe0$9e1a7fa0$@net> From: Spiritcrossing [mailto:info at spiritcrossing.com] Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 2:33 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Science for Life - "Beyond Belief" the Movie Trouble reading this email? Read it online here Hello friends, Beyond Belief DVD Image: Get the DVD On Tuesday of this week a new Movie was released that may be perfect to add to your collection. "Beyond Belief" was created as a follow up to The Secret and its purpose is to empower everyone with a deeper understanding of the power of the sub conscious mind. The list of 20 plus luminary teachers is quite remarkable. Of course Bruce Lipton is included, but you will also enjoy Amit Goswami, Elaine Hendrix, James Twyman, Jack Canfield, Marci Shimoff and so many more voices of out time. This Wednesday we had the Producers of "Beyond Belief" as our guests on "Science for Life", so if you want to hear from the creators, here is the link to their interview, www.ScienceforLife.net . You can get the DVD here. Thanks for being the Community of Change! Love and light, Design:OneGraphic.com This message was sent from Spiritcrossing to maryrose333 at att.net. It was sent from: Spirit 2000, SpiritCrossing P.O. Box 11736 , Murfreesboro, TN 37129-0035. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by iContact - Try It Free! To be removed click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 11:22:22 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:22:22 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Derrick Jensen Message-ID: <007b01ca80d8$5f1121d0$1d336570$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS We seldom hear from Deki, but when we do she has something very profound to say. And again she does not fail us in this respect. Thank you Deki for our contribution. With love and appreciation ? mary rose From: DekiFox at aol.com [mailto:DekiFox at aol.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 8:13 AM To: DekiFox at aol.com Subject: Derrick Jensen Because I am myself am experiencing an adult identity "crisis" due to the sudden opportunity to change where I live and what I do, when I found an old email from 2+ years ago with the link to Derrick Jensen's short video in it, I was intrigued and followed it. I had actually been thinking a lot lately about Derrick's valuable contribution to humanity's increasing awareness of the larger community of life, and have wondered if he was in attendance at Copenhagen. And then this morning I read a new article from Derrick and it tips me into sending both to you because making conscious choices that consider the whole of life isn't always easy, and for me, Derrick's voice makes it easier. So in the spirit of helping things go right and everyone making good choices, I am sending you the link to watch, as I have. It speaks both to- and from many otherwise disparate things that you are looking at and dealing with in your life. I know this because you talk with me about them, or I hear about you talking about these issues; and anyway, we're at a choice point in the human culture - whether we choose to pay attention to it or not. The clip itself is something of a touchstone I may actually choose to listen to daily for awhile right now, using Derrick's message and opening my heart to imagine a new identity... And then, Derrick's short article speaks to how we can actually anchor a new identity by loving and taking action that honors the beloved. I have long prayed that I myself and every human being would come to know the earth as a living being. With all that is upsetting to us in the world of foreclosures, war, job loss and the other troubling changes of everyday life, maybe now is when we might choose to focus and connect with a love of the earth and the miracle of our lives with the planet we call home. May your holidays be loving and your New Year happy! http://blip.tv/file/977048/ Derrick Jensen on Identification (3:49) Derrick Jensen discusses how crucial it is to the environmental struggle to understand who and what we identify with. ~ ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5240/ Upping the Stakes 50 Simple Ways to Get Off If you're in love with the world, fall in love with trying to save it by Derrick Jensen January/February 2010 Orion Magazine YEARS AGO I WAS interviewed by a dogmatic pacifist (note to self: bad idea), who in his (grossly inaccurate) write-up said he thought I wanted all activists to think like assassins. That?s not true. What I want is for us to think like members of a serious resistance movement. What does that look like? Well, to start, it doesn't have to mean handling guns. Even when the IRA was at its strongest, only 2 percent of its members ever picked up weapons. The same is true for the Underground Railroad; Harriet Tubman and others carried guns, but Quakers and other pacifists who ran safe houses were also crucial to that work. What they all held in common was a commitment to their cause, and a willingness to work together in the resistance. A serious resistance movement also means a commitment to winning, which means figuring out what ?winning? means to you. For me, winning means living in a world with more wild salmon every year than the year before, more migratory songbirds, more amphibians, more large fish in the oceans, and for that matter oceans not being murdered. It means less dioxin in every mother?s breast milk. It means living in a world where there are fewer dams each year than the year before. More native forests. More wild wetlands. It means living in a world not being ravaged by the industrial economy. And I?ll do whatever it takes to get there (and if, by the way, you believe that ?whatever it takes? is code language for violence, you're revealing nothing more than your own belief that nonviolence is ineffective). That?s fine, Derrick, but what do you want me to do? Part of me wants to tell you to bring down the industrial infrastructure, the engine driving the destruction of the planet, converting so-called raw materials?read: living beings, biomes, and indeed the world?into products for sale. But there?s also a part of me that doesn't want to suggest that, because I'm guessing you wouldn't do it anyway. And besides, I don't know you, and no one who doesn't know you should ever tell you what to do (and if they do, you shouldn't listen). In any case, ignoring what I have to say may not be such a bad idea, since what I really want is for people to think for themselves?not to bring down the industrial infrastructure because I tell them it?s killing the world, but rather for them to deeply attend to our current crises and come to their own conclusions about what we must or must not do, what we must unmake and what we must make anew. But, Derrick, what do you want me to do right now? Okay, here?s a list: A lot of the indigenous people with whom I've worked have said to me that the first and most important thing any of us needs to do is decolonize our hearts and minds. Decolonization is the process of breaking your identity with and loyalty to this culture?industrial capitalism specifically, and more broadly civilization?and remembering your identification with and loyalty to the real physical world, including the land where you live. It means re-examining premises and stories this culture handed down to you. It means seeing the harm this culture does to other cultures, and to the planet. It means recognizing that we are living on stolen land. It means recognizing that the luxuries of this way of life do not come free, but rather are paid for by other humans, by nonhumans, by the whole world. It means recognizing that we do not live in a functioning democracy, but rather in a corporate plutocracy, a government by, for, and of corporations. Decolonization means recognizing that neither technological progress nor increased GNP is good for the planet. It means recognizing that this culture is not good for the planet. Decolonization means internalizing the implications of the fact that this culture is killing the planet. It means determining that we will stop this culture from doing that. It means determining that we will not fail. And this is just the absolute beginning of decolonizing. It is internal work that doesn't accomplish anything in the real world, but it makes all further steps more likely, more feasible, and in many ways more strictly technical. Next, ask yourself what are the largest, most pressing problems you can help to solve using the gifts that are unique to you in all the universe. People sometimes ask why I write instead of blowing up dams, to which I reply that my only D in college was in quantitative analysis chemistry lab, meaning you don't want me anywhere near explosives. Some people have said I should be an organizer instead of a writer. These people have never seen my work space; if I can't keep track of my pens, how would I possibly keep track of anything more complex? Likewise, I've filed dozens of timber sale appeals, but it was a very laborious process for me; it took me twelve hours to do what others could do in two. And I write terrible press releases. I can, however, write books. Harness your gifts, and put them in the service of your landbase. My third suggestion is to ask yourself: what do I get off on? One reason I don't burn out as an activist is that I love what I'm doing. I was out one day with a wetlands specialist. We were trying to stop a developer from ruining a forest. The specialist dug into the soil, rubbed some between his fingers, and compared the color to a chart, which would help him determine if these were wetlands. I asked, ?Do you get off on this?? He laughed and said digging in dirt was his second favorite thing to do after playing with his dogs. I laughed too and said I wouldn't like to do that work. I, on the other hand, have condemned myself to a life of homework: I get off on trying to figure out, for example, the relationship between perceived entitlement, exploitation, and atrocity. My next suggestion is to make protecting the land where you live?and by extension the rest of the natural world, since protecting the land where you live will be insufficient to protect anadromous fish, migratory songbirds, or anyone in a world being burned alive by global climate change?the most important thing in your life. That may sound drastic, but we're talking about life on the planet here. There can be nothing more important than this. So, Derrick, what exactly do you want us to do? I want you to make the time to find what or whom you love?whether it?s salmon, sturgeon, a patch of forest, survivors of domestic violence, your own indigenous tradition, migratory songbirds, coral reefs, or Appalachian mountaintops?and I want you to dig in and defend your beloved with your life, and, if necessary, with your death. I want for your actions to positively contribute to the health and defense of the planet. I want for you to figure out how to make it so the world?the real, physical world?is a better place because you were born, and because you lived here. All of this leads to the point, which is, put simply, to do something. Several years ago I was giving a talk to several hundred people about bringing down civilization. The audience was excited. The atmosphere was like a rock concert. I suddenly stopped and asked, ?How many of you have ever filed a timber-sale appeal?? Four or five. ?How many have worked on a rape crisis hotline?? Ten women. ?How many have done indigenous support work?? Three or four. And so on. It?s all well and good to talk about the Great Glorious Revolution, but what are you doing right now? The big dividing line is not and has never been between those who advocate more or less militant forms of resistance, or between mainstream and grassroots activists. The dividing line is between those who do something and those who do nothing. Do something. That?s what I want you to do. That?s what the anadromous fish and the Appalachian mountaintops want you to do too. Derrick Jensen lives in northernmost California and is the author of Songs of the Dead. Comment/Discussion page at http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/discuss/5240/ Deki Fox Lake Geneva, Wisconsin I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. ~George Bernard Shaw -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 3775 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 12:03:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:03:45 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper Message-ID: <008801ca80de$27b55250$771ff6f0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS In my opinion, this plan just carries on the corruption that currently is at the root of the crisis. This is short term thinking and a "quick fix" band-aid idea that really solves nothing. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM Subject: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it! Dear Mr. President, Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations: 1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings. Unemployment fixed. 2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered. Auto Industry fixed. 3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage.. Housing Crisis fixed. It can't get any easier than that! P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress and their constituents pay their taxes. Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto! If you think this would work, please forward it to everyone you know. If not, please disregard it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 12:12:32 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:12:32 -0800 Subject: [GJM] House Republicans warn Obama on climate steps Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:13pm EST Message-ID: <008d01ca80df$5f9bf880$1ed3e980$@net> House Republicans warn Obama on climate steps Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:13pm EST COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama labored behind closed doors to break a deadlock over efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Republicans from the U.S. Congress were outside those meetings urging him not to bother. "We're not going to let jobs be destroyed in America for some esoteric environmental benefit 100 years from now," U.S. House of Representatives member Joe Barton told Reuters on the sidelines of the U.N. conference on climate change. Barton, who would take over a powerful House committee that oversees environmental policy if Republicans were to regain majority control of the House, said he does not believe industrial emissions of carbon dioxide contribute to global warming and fears capping them would hobble the economy. "If I am chairman two years from now, I'm going to repeal" measures such as U.S. funding to help developing countries battle climate change, outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday, the conservative Texas congressman boasted. "We don't have an icecap in Texas," Barton quipped to reporters. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH3R520091218 Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 12:15:45 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:15:45 -0800 Subject: [GJM] New intelligent bike wheel transforms use Edited December 16, 2009 Message-ID: <009301ca80df$d1a64e80$74f2eb80$@net> Thanks to Trading Post Paul at Net News for this one. New intelligent bike wheel transforms use Edited December 16, 2009 Yesterday saw the unveiling of a hot new concept in green technology, the Copenhagen wheel. Not the London eye-alike in the town centre, but a simple, sleek bolt-on wheel that instantly transforms your bike into an electrically boosted commuting tool. http://www.denmark.dk/en/servicemenu/News/COP15Copenhagen2009News/ARevolutio naryInventionHitsTheStreets.htm Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 15:08:48 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 14:08:48 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - Jim Bell and Mary Rose Message-ID: <000901ca80f8$034a5bd0$09df1370$@net> So, what does money have to do with it? Until you have people who are mature and responsible enough - conscious enough to manage it effectively - and obviously our collective society is not there today, then all the money in the world is not going to make a difference. In fact, it may make matters worse as money coupled with the irresponsible development of inappropriate technology appears to be one big source of the problem. Remember that the only way the car industry lasted as long as it did was because it was dependent on "planned obsolescence" in order to get people to buy a new car every year; and due to the shortage of natural resources today ( even considering recapture from waste dumps) we cannot afford this. We have to get out of this box of thinking that money is going to solve everything when it is a main part of the problem. The other way the economy was kept going, if everyone recalls, was through deferred external (environmental) costs. We can no longer afford these practices. Recall again, that if we had paid the external costs (true costs) at retail instead of deferring them, none, or very few of us anyway, would have been able to buy gas, beef, coffee, bread, corn, and many, many other products. But, in most instances, the environmental costs were subsidized by the government or deferred to future generations. We are now paying the price for these "sins" in the form of ecological collapse. Money today as used in capitalism is the driver of our social systems. And, capitalism demands continual growth. So, now you have the snake (the elite) eating its own tail (those immersed in poverty) in order to survive. From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 12:10 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper 40,000,000 people x $1,000,000 apiece = $40,000 trillion _____ From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 11:04 AM To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups.com Subject: FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS In my opinion, this plan just carries on the corruption that currently is at the root of the crisis. This is short term thinking and a "quick fix" band-aid idea that really solves nothing. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM Subject: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it! Dear Mr. President, Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations: 1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings. Unemployment fixed. 2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered. Auto Industry fixed. 3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage.. Housing Crisis fixed. It can't get any easier than that! P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress and their constituents pay their taxes. Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto! If you think this would work, please forward it to everyone you know. If not, please disregard it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Fri Dec 18 09:38:10 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:08:10 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Kakistocratic Fascism!! In-Reply-To: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <294044.49252.qm@web27405.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912180838j3e39396ckd387048c4223e5e8@mail.gmail.com> Dear Robert, I could not understand the reference you are making here, in case that is for me. I would be grateful, if you could clarify on this. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:59 PM, robert searle wrote: > > Dear Rodney, et al, > > I like the new term Kakistocratic Fascisim. But I do not think > Muktar would understand. For him I think a simple explanation is in order. > > Kaki (usually spelt khaki )is olive brown or yellowish coloured clothing > used by the military quite often as a type of camouflage.What Rodney is > implying here ofcourse is rule by a fascist military elite...In other words, > Khakistocracy as opposed to Democracy! > > > R. Searle > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 18 22:51:56 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:21:56 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Presenting Ecostrategics, a discipline for integrating the ecological audit in development policy In-Reply-To: <594669.10981.qm@web95108.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <594669.10981.qm@web95108.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <817134.9026.qm@web94906.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Distinguished members, India and China both need to see the ecologically safe interest of children in future. GDP figures should not let us get us in delusional mode of thinking as these figures are not including the ecological costs of non-renewable resource based consumption. Social Controls may be the hallmark of the Indian model of development policy ,but there is need to integrate ecostrategic considerations for each unit of GDP that is counted for showing off the levels of development. Such a fallacious calculation of GDP is responsible for loot of ecologically benevolent habitats creating in the process violent resistence movements in the country.China is persuing an ecologically hostile development policy supressing nationalities and minorities, looting their resources. We need not follow the suit and engage China for adoption of ecologically benevolent development policy.This is our duty as a nation. I bemoan the loss of Beijing where bicycles were used ,but now , it has like New Delhi perhaps not much space for bicycles. I am call for integrating the ecological audit in development policy through covergence in generation of analytical and advisory output across the domains.A presentation can be seen at http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/annoucing-a-new-disciple-of-ecostrategics Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Nisha Biswas To: IHRO at yahoogroups.com Sent: Sat, 19 December, 2009 6:06:55 AM Subject: Re: [IHRO] Is India following the West Bengal model? So says this Nigeria journalist what rubbish --- On Sat, 19/12/09, sri venkat wrote: >From: sri venkat >Subject: [IHRO] Is India following the West Bengal model? So says this Nigeria journalist >To: >Date: Saturday, 19 December, 2009, 12:10 AM > > >> > > > > > > > >> > >India resurgent >By Jonathan Power, Published: Friday, 18 Dec 2009 >The Punch, Nigeria's most widely rest newspaper > >http://www.punchng. com/Articl. aspx?theartic= Art2009121814574 0 > >What India wants India will get. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told me a couple of years ago, India wants to overtake China whilst putting its own runaway capitalism under tighter social control. > >At the time he seemed downbeat about realising these goals. But as India has emerged faster than China , from the great recession, and as its huge anti poverty programmes begin to bite his pessimism seems unwarranted. Maybe it was just caution about the revolution he has wrought. > >I first came to Kolkata 35 years ago. It was then literally a ?black hole.? I walked out of my hotel in the evening. Everywhere was dark. The city could only afford minimal street lighting. The bodies of families eating, defecating and sleeping were scattered along every pavement. > >The next morning I walked along the back lanes near the hotel. How could I ever forget seeing one man in a yard with piles of used toilet paper. > >He was carefully tearing the unsoiled bits off the soiled bits, presumably for some other use. The shanty towns sprawled everywhere just as in Mumbai?s ?Slumdog Millionaire? today. > >I returned to Kolkata 30 years later. After nearly 30 years of Communist rule it was a transformed city. The shanty towns had gone and the poor had flats with sewerage and clean water. The families on the pavement had all but disappeared although single men sleep here and there. > >The city is brightly lit, the streets cleaned everyday and the police efficient with police boxes on every major intersection. The crime rate remains slower than in any major city in the world. > >Now undisturbed one can see clearly the heritage of Kolkata ? its fine 18th and 19th century mansions, some nicely restored, on every street. The Maidan, the world?s largest city park, continues to be the great lung of the city, where the rich and poor gather every Sunday to walk, picnic and to play cricket. > >No longer do poor peasants pour into the city. The great land reform in the West Bengal countryside has given every peasant a living on the own soil. > >Of the states, West Bengal has the second most productive agriculture in India . No wonder the Prime Minister told me that he wants the rest of India to emulate West Bengal . > >Investment, foreign and domestic, is pouring into the state. Already its computer industry is beginning to snap at Bangalore?s heels. Educational levels and health services have been dramatically improved. > >Amartya Sen graduated from the city?s Presidency College, West Bengal has produced seven Nobel prize winners and a disproportionate number of the world?s top economists. > >This is India resurgent, now emulated, albeit on a lesser scale than West Bengal , in many of its states. > >India is well on its way to overtake China, but with a type of development more coherent that China?s winner-take- all capitalism. As one banker put it to me: ?China was ahead because it had no rule of law. But now India will go ahead because it has rule of law.? High speed economic growth needs civic walls if society is not to crack under the strain and its innards poured out onto the streets. > >India has them ? elections, human rights standards and courts. No one goes to prison for their beliefs and contracts are enforced. China?s civic walls barely exist. > >On the world stage, India is showing its muscle. It persuaded President George W. Bush to lift the prohibition on providing India with enriched uranium and to drop its sanctions on supplying nuclear materials. > >Its nuclear armoury is now accepted as well protected and there has been no proliferation of its technology. India is now pushing for the charter of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to be revised next year so that it is recognised as one of the six established nuclear powers, which will give it added responsibilities. Its relationship with China has improved beyond measure. > >Its economic power puts it as one of the leading powers in the newly constituted Group of 20 which now overshadows the G8. > >India?s future is written here in West Bengal, with its Communist government which is in fact Social Democratic. Moreover, Congress will likely win the next state election and at the centre, Congress and its social democracy look like staying in power for a long time. > >So India not only will continue with its Singh-devised economic policies but with its burgeoning tax revenues will spend increasing amounts on giving the poor incomes, jobs, health and educational services. Within 10 years, India will have effectively banished the worst poverty. > >What India wants India will get. Within a decade India will be the world?s No. 1 economic power. And its social policies will be witness to its success. > > ________________________________ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (2) Recent Activity: * New Members 2 Visit Your Group Start a New Topic International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), of the Indian subcontinent, is a NGO, with national focus and overseas lobby network. It agitates both in India and internationally. MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Parenting Zone: Your community resource for family and home Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sun Dec 20 09:00:16 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:00:16 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Theodore Thoren, et al Message-ID: <79675.56426.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear all, ? ? ?????? This may be of interst... ? ? ? http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:0cu9zTIIrgIJ:loveforlife.com.au/content/08/11/02/truth-money-book-theodore-r-thoren-richard-f-warner-further-additions-doug-harrison+theodore+thoren+tax&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Sun Dec 20 09:07:30 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:07:30 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Truth In Money Book...site working at last! Message-ID: <364406.74905.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? This may be of interest. ? http://www.truthinmoney.com/truth.html ? ? The website has been non-operational for a longtime until now -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 16:42:23 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:42:23 -0800 Subject: [GJM] a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - Marv Lyons Message-ID: <002001ca8105$127864a0$37692de0$@net> Marv Lyons [lyons at gaialink.com] Charming idea, but dumb. Some of those 40 million people are critical resources for their companies. Many more people could, working with either for profits or nonprofits, be essential to transforming to a sustainable livable world. M On Dec 19, 2009, at 11:03 AM, mary rose wrote: Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS In my opinion, this plan just carries on the corruption that currently is at the root of the crisis. This is short term thinking and a "quick fix" band-aid idea that really solves nothing. Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 17:32:06 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:32:06 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] CRITICALLY THINKING COPENHAGEN, By Carolyn Baker Message-ID: <001801ca810c$05d9f040$118dd0c0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS My feelings on this subject are that almost anything the politicians are willing to do is going to be too little too late. So, as Carolyn is suggesting here about discerning individuals organizing with others in their neighborhoods and communities is what we need to be doing. As Bill Ellis use to say: "When the people lead, the leaders will follow." And if anyone on this list has not as yet read Paul Hawken's book: "Blessed Unrest" then please do so and get a grasp as to how large the unorganized alternative movement of "we-the-people" really is. But we can't do much in this dis-organized state except moan and groan. We need action folks - we need to get the gardens growing, the local currency system set up. We need to create tent cities for the homeless so they have a place to begin raising their own food as they learn now to construct minimal shelters and feed themselves -- we can't continue with the handouts that feed people for a day. We need to address the growing crisis of Bipolar Disorder with a very high accompanying suicide rate that is approaching, if not at crisis proportions right now, along with increasing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. We need to stop substance abuse with its high costs to local, state and federal agencies. We need to look at the loss of nutrients in our food and the affect this is having on both our mental and physical health as topsoil is being depleted at 17 times faster than we can replace it. Studies now show that supplement taken alone cannot replace the nutrients needed for good health -- it requires the way they act together in a whole food. We need to stop purchasing coffee and other things like soft drinks that have no or little nutritional value to them. We can no longer afford the energy whether natural and in ground that it takes to grow and transport these things to market. What we are growing and transporting must provide the maximum nutrition possible. Like cars, we are only as good as the fuel that goes into the system. We can no longer afford the high cost of healthcare and must practice preventive medicine by boosting our immune system and taking care of our heart. Eating a pH-balanced diet is critical to ensure that we have a system in which disease cannot live. There is much more, but let's get on with Carolyn's message. BTW, Carolyn Baker is a member of Future Dawning. -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 10:06 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] CRITICALLY THINKING COPENHAGEN, By Carolyn Baker "As the collapse of industrial civilization intensifies, exacerbated by climate chaos and natural disasters, I believe that it will become painfully obvious that truly discerning individuals must organize with others in their neighborhoods and communities with resilience and discernment to adapt to climate events, energy depletion, and the end of money as we know it. " CRITICALLY THINKING COPENHAGEN, By Carolyn Baker http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/1423/1/ Friday, 11 December 2009 Copenhagen: Is that chewing tobacco? No, actually, it's called slouching toward Armageddon. Everyone is talking about climate change and Copenhagen, so I suppose I should be. Of course, I talk about it every day in the Daily News Digest in one way or other with the stories I send Truth to Power subscribers. The latest dither around the topic involves back and forths between adherents and deniers of the climate change hypothesis and a certain expose of emails supposedly refuting the reality of climate change and a plethora of rebuttals to those emails. Once again, for probably the thousandth time, I find myself unable to wholeheartedly embrace solidly one perspective or the other-either the position of the deniers or the Copenhagen devotees. Some basic assumptions which I consider essentially faulty dominate both perspectives. First of all, I have absolutely no doubt that climate change is real AND is unequivocally caused by humans. Along with myriad other topics, I've been researching this one for years, and as some of you know who've attempted, I refuse to debate my position for a host of reasons which I am also unwilling to discuss. Furthermore, why would one debate phenomena that are already happening. Isn't that a lot like debating whether the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning? The incoherent assumption made by climate change deniers when encountering the argument that climate change is both real and human-caused is that if one subscribes to these two positions, one is invariably opening oneself to legislation by a world government or New World Order. It is assumed that anyone arguing these two realities is begging for domination by a fascist international dictatorship. Similar incoherent assumptions are shared by climate change proponents and Copenhagen enthusiasts. The assumption, which in my opinion could not be more naive, is that climate change is controllable, that it can be stopped or reversed, and that the governments of industrial nations will do anything beyond giving lip service to even attempting to eradicate it. What both proponents and deniers do not get is that, as with nearly all of the challenges our species currently faces, we are dealing not with a problem that can be solved, but with a predicament that is unsolvable and can only be responded to. I refer you again to an article sent out in todays Daily News Digest, "Climate Change Is Inevitable: It's Time To Adapt." I would also reiterate the articles recently written by Adam Sacks, particularly "The Fallacy of Climate Activism." The crux of these pieces is the reality that climate change cannot be stopped and must be adapted to. To this I would add: adapted to on the local level. Those who accuse me of being putty in the hands of the New World Order because years ago I made up my mind (long before "The Inconvenient Truth") about the reality of climate change and its human origins and am no longer willing to debate the topic-those folks have not yet grasped the impossibility of addressing the majority of the converging crises bearing down on the planet on anything but the local level. Not the least of these crises is the tyranny of global government. But I ask those who lie awake nights worrying about it: What is it you plan to do to stop it? What makes you think its stoppable in the first place? Were all familiar with the slogan, "think globally and act locally," but I challenge anyone concerned with these issues to start thinking and acting locally. This is not to imply that one should ignore what ones national government is doing or disregard the machinations of the international ruling elite. However, what those frantic about what the NWO is up to usually disregard (and often deny as well), is the reality of Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Money, and as goes the title of Richard Heinbergs book, Peak Everything. To assume that the NWO is going to have the resources necessary to converge on every hamlet and village on earth and obliterate innocent citizens attempting to survive and thrive, is a credulous supposition that does not take other daunting realities into account. As the collapse of industrial civilization intensifies, exacerbated by climate chaos and natural disasters, I believe that it will become painfully obvious that truly discerning individuals must organize with others in their neighborhoods and communities with resilience and discernment to adapt to climate events, energy depletion, and the end of money as we know it. Focusing predominantly on the NWO and minimizing local mobilization in response to all of the life-threatening challenges faced by every species on earth is a tragic waste of energy which will manifest horrific consequences in the coming years. I appeal to those of libertarian persuasion, pre-occupied with global tyranny, to widen their perspective regarding the ruling elite and stop assuming that those committed to understanding and responding to the reality of climate change are gullibly enabling world government. Likewise, I appeal to the hopeful climate activists "turning green" with naivete to direct your energy locally to your place and people where community preparation is desperately needed. How to do this? Check out the following two incredible video clips from Jim Garrison at a recent Bioneers conference: Part One, and Part Two. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQfooTKmfOI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSroSiRZn0 From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 17:48:23 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:48:23 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Hundreds Gather to Protest Global Warming! Message-ID: <000001ca810e$46efdb10$d4cf9130$@net> Thanks, Rob. Great photo and Happy Holidays to you. From: georgecsds at aol.com [mailto:georgecsds at aol.com] Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2009 3:30 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Hundreds Gather to Protest Global Warming! ~~~~~~Happy Holidays, Rob~~~~~~ GLOBALwarming.jpg -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 51476 bytes Desc: not available URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Sat Dec 19 19:39:19 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:09:19 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Christianity Is The Plagiarized Version of Mithraism - A Persian/Iranian Theology In-Reply-To: <007b01ca7f63$8da103b0$a8e30b10$@net> References: <007b01ca7f63$8da103b0$a8e30b10$@net> Message-ID: <31f677a30912191839l38d604bdy452f1efc13563dc@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mary, I would like to appreciate the concern for Earth solitice and celebrating this with remembrance of the contributions of the creations of the Almighty who was niether born nor gave birth. This should be a time a remember the mission of messengers as well. According to the communications of the Allah, through the last prophet Muhammad,peace be upon, it was Islam that was communicated by Jesus,Moses,Abraham ,Noah and all the prophets and messengers. We need to see the ecological relevance of the commands and choose the inter-faith commons. A small list is noted in my paper shared earlier. I would be grateful, if you could relate to the commons between Mitharism and the communications of Jesus (Peace be upon him). Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 3:23 AM, mary rose wrote: > Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS > > > > Christianity Is The Plagiarized Version of Mithraism - A Persian/Iranian > Theology > > > > > > This fits right in with all of the information I have uncovered in my > research for the book: ?The Sacred Quest For The Who Of I Am.? Much of what > I had uncovered about Mithraism and how Christianity was brought into being > under Pope/Emperor Constantine. My information on this was taken from Jeremy > Rifkin?s book: ?Beyond Beef? and other scattered sources over a period of > several years. So, while I had an outline of events, this piece provides the > guts of the matter. > > > > As usual my holiday celebration this year will center around Winter > Stolstice as I know the Earth to be my life support system as the sun, earth > and water meet in a union that is both life-giving and supportive. > > > > BTW, a friend posted this on Facebook. > > > > > > > > > > > > *Your Logo, Inc.* > > FutureDawning.org > > *Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org* > *CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation* > > *Future Dawning.org* > > dustysummerrose at gmail.com > > *Always have my latest info* > > *Want a signature like this?* > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sat Dec 19 19:48:15 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:48:15 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - further comment by Mary Rose Message-ID: <001a01ca811f$0b3e4500$21bacf00$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Working for non-profits set up to promote what is now called "alternative economies" makes sense. But most of these organizations have no funding and little hope of getting any as the economy crashes. So the only people who can afford to go into these agencies are those who have some sort of means of gaining subsistence from the land and growing their own food. Increasingly these non-profits require personnel who have social transformation skills, but those who are trained in these skills are also few and far between because the skills needed here are not ones that find favor in the Westernized Christian World. But another thing to remember about this is that it takes less than 30% of the worldwide labor force to produce all the goods and services for the 6.7 billion of us on the planet. So, 70% of the present available labor force is not needed, although here in the U.S., we have been employing 75% of the available labor force in order to keep the economy going. This "over employment" factor has been accomplished by manufacturing "luxury items" for the elite who are making scads of money. But this is what has caused the severe drawdown on world resources. We have to factor in the statistics that the U.S. with only 5% of the world's population uses 40% of the world's resources. Now China, India and other developing countries want their share and the G-8 are going to have less and less as the pie is divided up into smaller and smaller pieces. The other factor is that with advancements in technology moving so fast and displacing human labor ever more quickly, more and more jobs that utilize human labor are becoming obsolete. So jobs that are now being displaced are not coming back again. And, as we have discussed previously, the traditional universities do not have the ability to train human labor for technical jobs since the technology is moving so quickly. Now the manufacturers of new technology will have to train human labor (when it is needed) "on the job" . In addition when one figures out the numbers, it is far more efficient and cost effective for those who are hiring to use advances in technology whenever possible. Manufacturers and others using advanced technology can write it off as a capital expense. These new technologies work around the clock, require no break times or lunch hours. They do not need a "personnel department," to handle employee payrolls or other administrative tasks. They do not require rest rooms, break rooms or parking spaces. Nor do they require vacation time, holidays or sick leave. We have previously discussed how large agribusinesses can now handle 6 - 8 thousand acres with less than 10 permanent people. For the most part, they hire "illegal" labor which is paid less than minimum wage and is temporary. We have also discussed that as we move more and more into nanotechnology in order to conserve on scarce resources, human hands are too large to handle this advance. Increasingly, jobs requiring manual labor are low-paying jobs which require someone to work two or three jobs in order to keep roof over head and food in mouth. And increasingly, we find college graduates holding these kinds of jobs. From: Marv Lyons [mailto:lyons at gaialink.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 1:08 PM To: mary rose Subject: Re: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper Charming idea, but dumb. Some of those 40 million people are critical resources for their companies. Many more people could, working with either for profits or nonprofits, be essential to transforming to a sustainable livable world. M On Dec 19, 2009, at 11:03 AM, mary rose wrote: Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS In my opinion, this plan just carries on the corruption that currently is at the root of the crisis. This is short term thinking and a "quick fix" band-aid idea that really solves nothing. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM Subject: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it! Dear Mr. President, Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations: 1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings. Unemployment fixed. 2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered. Auto Industry fixed. 3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage.. Housing Crisis fixed. It can't get any easier than that! P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress and their constituents pay their taxes. Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto! If you think this would work, please forward it to everyone you know. If not, please disregard it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 20 13:55:49 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:55:49 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Become Raw Food Certified/My Upcoming Schedule Message-ID: <007001ca81b6$fd7a92a0$f86fb7e0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Hi everyone. I wanted to get the info to you on this Certified Raw Food Course from David Wolfe. While I feel the information David provides is excellent what I have a problem with is pricing. I feel it is discriminatory in that it eliminates many of the newly disenfranchised, due to no fault of their own, from participating in a learning experience that is vital to their well-being. However, I also am aware that in order to recoup the costs of creating this program the price quoted here may not be out of line. However, it is the goal of Future Dawning to aid those in need in getting information such as this in way that is affordable for them. So, I want to let your know we are working on this. And, in the interim, I certainly encourage those who can afford the price of the course in these chaotic times to do so. But keep in mind your brothers and sisters who need this information and cannot get it unless you are willing to share it with them. Let me quote something Paul Hawken, author of "Blessed Unrest" said recently. "The earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades." Paul Hawken. Part of this new operating system may be "two-tiered" pricing. One for those with money and another for those without. Any suggestions on this? From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 11:41 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: Become Raw Food Certified/My Upcoming Schedule ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Wolfe Date: Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 10:48 AM Subject: Become Raw Food Certified/My Upcoming Schedule To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com Happy Holidays! With the approach of the New Year (and decade), it warms me to see more and more people making the decision to reclaim the health they deserve. To support you on this journey, I'm excited to announce that I've collaborated with The BodyMind Institute to create for you an ultra condensed ************************************ RAW NUTRITION CERTIFICIATION COURSE ************************************ This program will activate your genius! I recorded this short VIDEO that will tell you all about it: http://www.davidwolfe.com/certification.html When you enroll in this program, you will discover a completely whole new way of understanding Raw Nutrition, and be able to pass the gifts of this knowledge you receive with your friends and clients. ****************** Upcoming Schedule ****************** Next to gardening, few things give me greater joy then sharing and meeting so many of you at live events. This year I've done more than 150+ presentations around the globe (including our 700 person sold out Longevity Conference this fall...The best ever!) Here is my upcoming schedule, I hope to see you! Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Let's make 2010 your healthiest trip around the sun yet. Have the best year ever, David 'Avocado' Wolfe P.S. If you enroll this month, they've arranged for a substantial savings. You can see all the details here http://www.davidwolfe.com/certification.html This message was sent from David Wolfe to dustysummerrose at gmail.com. It was sent from: leonard foley, 9 Carlito Rd NM , Sante Fe, NM 87508. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. Manage your subscription Error! Filename not specified. Error! Filename not specified. -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Dec 21 07:43:15 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:43:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Copenhagen: "the elephant is moving" Message-ID: <143088.65846.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Mon, 21/12/09, Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org Subject: Copenhagen: "the elephant is moving" To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Monday, 21 December, 2009, 14:17 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends, It's been a tough ending to an amazing week. In all-night negotiations, leaders have reached a weak agreement in Copenhagen that fails to set the emissions targets needed to prevent catastrophic global warming. The agreement was stronger on funding, but it was not binding, and set no urgent deadline to sign a real climate treaty. Big polluters like China and the US wanted a weak deal, and potential champions like Europe, Brazil and South Africa didn't fight hard enough to stop them. But while leaders failed to make history, people around the world did. In thousands of vigils, rallies and protests, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, and millions of petition signatures, an unprecedented movement rose to this moment. After hearing the result of the talks, one member from Africa wrote "It takes a lot to get an elephant moving, but when you do it is hard to stop...the elephant is moving..." Despite the outcome, Copenhagen has built the movement that can win the fight to save our planet. Click below to say "thank-you" to all the other amazing people who participated, see pictures, video and reports on what we've done in the last week, and join a global, instant translation multilingual live chat where we can all exchange words of wisdom for the road ahead: http://www.avaaz.org/en/after_copenhagen In just the last week, we've organized thousands of vigils and events in 140 countries, an enormous multi-million person petition, and dozens of national phone calling campaigns that made thousands of phone calls. We've generated thousands of news articles, organized peaceful petition-reading sit-ins at key government buildings, and ran several high level stunts and events at the summit itself. On Wednesday UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown requested an emergency conference call with Avaaz members, telling 3000 of us: "You have driven forward the idealism of the world...do not underestimate the impact on the leaders here". Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu personally appealed to us to take up the torch of causes past and never give up. This weekend we saw that the fight to save our planet cannot be won at a single summit. But we also learned what we're capable of, when we all come together. If we stay together, nothing can stop us. http://www.avaaz.org/en/after_copenhagen With hope and gratitude, Ricken, Ben, Paul, Alice, Luis, Milena, Iain, Pascal, Graziela, Paula, Benjamin, Veronique, Taren, Sam, Raj, Raluca, Yura, Saravanan, Vladimir, Josh, David and the entire Avaaz team. PS - There were some opening champagne in Copenhagen today. The polluting industry lobbyists and corporations -- those who have captured our democracies and divided our leaders -- celebrated their victory. They operated quietly in the shadows, but their voices were loud in some politicians' ears. As they drank their champagne their one concern may have been us - the potential of our new people-powered movement. In fact, they're already launching an attempt to silence us, and next week, we'll take our fight to the heart of this powerful polluter lobby - watch out for the email... ---------------------------- Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "" on 2007-08-02 using the email address dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile&user=2b7c8c2a98a8e68f564b27ee124e38a1&lang=en or simply click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Dec 21 08:03:29 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (Robert Searle) Date: 21 Dec 2009 07:03:29 -0800 Subject: [GJM] " Handful" of states wrecked climate talks - Brown  - Yahoo! News UK Message-ID: Robert Searle (dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk) has sent you a news article X-Originating-IP: 217.12.6.110 -------------------- Personal message text: -------------------- "Handful" of states wrecked climate talks - Brown?? http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20091221/tts-uk-climate-copenhagen-brown-ca02f96.html ============================================================ From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Mon Dec 21 08:44:36 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:44:36 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] An Italian Group............. Message-ID: <124884.51072.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> The following comes from an Italian Group whom have become known on Facebook.... ? ???????????????????????? ................................................................ Angelo Brocca Passage from the Yield fiscality to the Monetary Fiscality. Institution of the Universal Yield of Citizenship. Elimination of the taxation of the economic field Substitution of the paper money with the electronic money. http://www.enigmievidenti.com/indexeng.htm Yesterday at 23:11 ? Comment ?LikeUnlike ? Report Robert Searle Yes, at last people are beginning to see the light. The ideas presented by this group recognizes the importance of the electronic of money in the banking system plus the non-necessity of taxation which only slows down social/economic evolution towards a better society for all... I wonder if the ideas of this group may have drawn some perhaps all ... See Moreof their inspiration from my project of Transfinancial Economnics? It would be interesting to know if they care to reply here in public....... http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Transfinancial_Economics 2 seconds ago ? Delete ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 20 17:07:28 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:07:28 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - further comment by Jim Bell Message-ID: <009d01ca81d1$c0b8e090$422aa1b0$@net> Jim, I agree with you that the figures provided are absurd, but just did not have the $14.2 trillion figure that you provide as GDP. Thanks. But in case there is any misinterpretation, I was not the original poster of this scheme - it was a forward to me from someone else on the list. From: Jim Bell [mailto:jimbellelsi at cox.net] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:46 PM To: 'mary rose' Subject: RE: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - further comment by Mary Rose Hi Mary, The reason I sent you the calculations (40,000,000 people x $1,000,000 per capita = $40,000 trillion or $40 quadrillion) is to show the ridiculousness of the scheme you posted. The US GDP was $14.2 trillion in 2006 or .035% of what it would cost to give 40,000,000 people $1.000.000. Call me if you want to confirm anything. Take care, Jim 619-758-9020 _____ From: mary rose [mailto:maryrose333 at att.net] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 6:48 PM To: 'Discussion Forum for Global Justice'; FixGov at yahoogroups.com Subject: FW: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper - further comment by Mary Rose Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Working for non-profits set up to promote what is now called "alternative economies" makes sense. But most of these organizations have no funding and little hope of getting any as the economy crashes. So the only people who can afford to go into these agencies are those who have some sort of means of gaining subsistence from the land and growing their own food. Increasingly these non-profits require personnel who have social transformation skills, but those who are trained in these skills are also few and far between because the skills needed here are not ones that find favor in the Westernized Christian World. But another thing to remember about this is that it takes less than 30% of the worldwide labor force to produce all the goods and services for the 6.7 billion of us on the planet. So, 70% of the present available labor force is not needed, although here in the U.S., we have been employing 75% of the available labor force in order to keep the economy going. This "over employment" factor has been accomplished by manufacturing "luxury items" for the elite who are making scads of money. But this is what has caused the severe drawdown on world resources. We have to factor in the statistics that the U.S. with only 5% of the world's population uses 40% of the world's resources. Now China, India and other developing countries want their share and the G-8 are going to have less and less as the pie is divided up into smaller and smaller pieces. The other factor is that with advancements in technology moving so fast and displacing human labor ever more quickly, more and more jobs that utilize human labor are becoming obsolete. So jobs that are now being displaced are not coming back again. And, as we have discussed previously, the traditional universities do not have the ability to train human labor for technical jobs since the technology is moving so quickly. Now the manufacturers of new technology will have to train human labor (when it is needed) "on the job" . In addition when one figures out the numbers, it is far more efficient and cost effective for those who are hiring to use advances in technology whenever possible. Manufacturers and others using advanced technology can write it off as a capital expense. These new technologies work around the clock, require no break times or lunch hours. They do not need a "personnel department," to handle employee payrolls or other administrative tasks. They do not require rest rooms, break rooms or parking spaces. Nor do they require vacation time, holidays or sick leave. We have previously discussed how large agribusinesses can now handle 6 - 8 thousand acres with less than 10 permanent people. For the most part, they hire "illegal" labor which is paid less than minimum wage and is temporary. We have also discussed that as we move more and more into nanotechnology in order to conserve on scarce resources, human hands are too large to handle this advance. Increasingly, jobs requiring manual labor are low-paying jobs which require someone to work two or three jobs in order to keep roof over head and food in mouth. And increasingly, we find college graduates holding these kinds of jobs. From: Marv Lyons [mailto:lyons at gaialink.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 1:08 PM To: mary rose Subject: Re: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper Charming idea, but dumb. Some of those 40 million people are critical resources for their companies. Many more people could, working with either for profits or nonprofits, be essential to transforming to a sustainable livable world. M On Dec 19, 2009, at 11:03 AM, mary rose wrote: Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS In my opinion, this plan just carries on the corruption that currently is at the root of the crisis. This is short term thinking and a "quick fix" band-aid idea that really solves nothing. From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM Subject: a GREAT response in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times newspaper on Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would You Fix the Economy?" I think this guy nailed it! Dear Mr. President, Please find below my suggestion for fixing America 's economy. Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan. You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan: There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations: 1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings. Unemployment fixed. 2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered. Auto Industry fixed. 3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage.. Housing Crisis fixed. It can't get any easier than that! P.S. If more money is needed, have all members in Congress and their constituents pay their taxes. Mr. President, while you're at it, make Congress retire on Social Security and Medicare. I'll bet both programs would be fixed pronto! If you think this would work, please forward it to everyone you know. If not, please disregard it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 20 18:10:35 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:10:35 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Coca-Cola Obesity; Ashamed of Poverty; Uganda's Gay Genocide? Message-ID: <00c401ca81da$91a08430$b4e18c90$@net> From: Mary Rose [mailto:dustysummerrose at gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 3:36 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Fwd: Coca-Cola Obesity; Ashamed of Poverty; Uganda's Gay Genocide? Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS I don't know about the rest of you, but I am glad to see more and more information on health and wellness, etc. - things we can DO something about, and less about monetized politics. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Change.org Weekly Date: Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 5:29 AM Subject: Coca-Cola Obesity; Ashamed of Poverty; Uganda's Gay Genocide? To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com December 14 - December 20 Coca-Cola Obesity; Ashamed of Poverty; Uganda's Gay Genocide? Hey Changemakers, We all know that our nation is currently struggling with serious social problems ranging from increasing homelessness, to worsening public health, to failing schools. However, there's tremendous hope in the capacity of social innovators to address these far-reaching problems. It's in this spirit that the White House just launched new regulations for the Social Innovation Fund, which aims to identify some of the most promising, results-oriented nonprofit programs and to expand their reach throughout the country. Policy strategist Tom Sheridan - the man that The Hill newspaper has dubbed "A powerbroker for those without a voice" - writes for Change.org this week that this Social Innovation Fund has the power to radically shift the way Washington addresses social problems. Rather than continuing to attempt to solve community problems in a top-down way from Washington, the Social Innovation Fund will invest in programs run by social innovators already showing measurable results on the ground in their communities. This makes the Social Innovation Fund one of the most promising new vehicles for scaling social change in the country, and one of the most important steps the Obama administration has taken thus far to support innovative nonprofit solutions to the problems Americans faces. It's also why we'll keep you updated on its progress at Change.org in the weeks and months ahead. For more news and commentary from the world of change this week, see summaries from your favorite causes below. Tell Walmart to Get Dangerous Products off its Shelves by Wake-Up Walmart Take action > Error! Filename not specified. Don't Let the Senate Undercut Real Health Care Reform by CREDO Action Take action > Error! Filename not specified. Ask President Obama to Make Ending Genocide a Priority by Save Darfur Coalition Take action > Coca-Cola Obesity Why are Americans more fat and ill than ever before? The answer may be high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), one of the main ingredients in soda and other sugary drinks. Sustainable Food blogger Katherine Gustafson writes that the whopping 60 pounds of HFCS that the average American consumes each year is having massive implications on health. New evidence shows that HFCS coats our organs with fatty cells and leads to the onset of early diabetes and heart disease. For millions soda might be a refreshing drink. But is it altering our body's metabolism in deadly ways? (Read more ) Ashamed of Poverty The last thing someone who loses their job needs is a heavy dose of shame. Yet, for many, part of the cost of losing a job is an overwhelming sense of embarrassment. Poverty in America blogger Leigh Graham writes about a new poll released this week that shows half of America's jobless reporting crippling senses of shame and lower self-worth. As unemployment, foreclosures, and reliance on private and public assistance continue into 2010, we must stick to the messaging that we are all in this slump together, and that being a victim of bad economic policies is nothing to be ashamed of. (Read more ) Uganda's Gay Genocide? Genocide doesn't begin with killing; it begins with words. That's one of the main reasons why malicious language can't just be brushed aside as harmless, but should be treated as something much more sinister. Stop Genocide blogger Michelle writes about efforts in Uganda to pass legislation that would institute the death penalty or severe prison terms for the country's gay population. What's frightening are the parallels in language between Uganda's legislation and language used by some of the most notorious leaders during Nazi Germany. Is the world about ready to watch another genocide unfold? (Read more ) Social Entrepreneurship in 2010 If you're wondering what some of the biggest trends in social entrepreneurship will be over the next year, put down the Magic 8-Ball and instead check out the list crafted by Social Entrepreneurship blogger Nathaniel Whittemore. From an explosion of creativity in seed funding to a significant increase in activity around regional innovation ecosystems, 2010 is bringing with it a renewed sense of optimism and increased capacity for social change. (Read more ) War vs. Maternal Mortality The developed world hardly worries about the issue anymore, but maternal mortality might just be the most tragic issue that humans face. War and Peace blogger Daniel Gerstle writes that the problem is so pervasive that more people might die each year from complicated pregnancies than from war. This is doubly tragic because achievable solutions like improved medical resources and education could dramatically curb maternal mortality. (Read More ) We hope you had a great weekend, - The Change.org Team To unsubscribe from your weekly update, click the link below. http://www.change.org/my_change/email_opt_out?email_id=GUDNIBFKRKAIDZVUVKOV -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Sun Dec 20 20:27:46 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:57:46 +0530 Subject: [GJM] The Climate Change "Failure". In-Reply-To: <983339.36647.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <983339.36647.qm@web27404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912201927t4665fd4es6491255b559a7a0d@mail.gmail.com> Robert, I do not think climate change, energy, ecologically safe consumption,livelihoods, habitats need banks that are primarily responsible for expansion of ecologically hostile habitats. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 4:05 PM, robert searle wrote: > > > > > > IF IT WERE A BANK THEY WOULD HAVE FIXED IT BY NOW! > > > Hugo Chavez in > connection with the COP15 talks.. > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Sun Dec 20 22:04:50 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:04:50 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Vegetable gardening at Cook County Jail in Chicago - Video Message-ID: <00d601ca81fb$4db71920$e9254b60$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Now this is what I call a worthwhile endeavor - teaching these folks how to feed themselves for life. More inmates should be so lucky - they will be far better off than those who are flipping hamburgers for a living and living from paycheck to paycheck as wage slaves. http://www.cityfarmer.info/2009/12/20/vegetable-garden-at-cook-county-jail-i n-chicago/ Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Mon Dec 21 11:41:46 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:41:46 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Key News: UFO Over Kremlin, Drug Money Laundered by Failing Banks, More Message-ID: <003601ca826d$69ff36e0$3dfda4a0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS If we are going to solve any of the world?s current challenges, we need valid information upon which to make informed decisions. Fred Burks and the Peers: Want to Know Info can be counted on to provide this information. So, let?s be careful what we are reading and posting in the form of ?disinformation? taken from unreliable sources. We need to keep things tight and call one another when there is a gap that critical thinking later reveals. None of us are perfect and often make mistakes. So, this is where the Co-Learner?s list becomes beneficial as feedback from different viewpoints brings out the truth. From: PEERS: WantToKnow.info Email List [mailto:emaillist at peerservice.org] Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 9:13 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Key News: UFO Over Kremlin, Drug Money Laundered by Failing Banks, More To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list (one email every few days) or to reply to this message, see end of email This message is available online at http://www.WantToKnow.info/009/091221_ufos_kremlin_banks_laundered_drug_money Bookmark and Share Dear friends, Below are key excerpts of important news articles which include revealing information on a huge UFO filmed over the Kremlin, a report that billions of dollars of hot drug money were laundered by major banks to avoid financial collapse, the discovery of millions of "missing" e-mails from the Bush administration, and more. Each excerpt is taken verbatim from the major media website listed at the link provided. If any link fails to function, click here . The most important sentences are highlighted. By choosing to educate ourselves and to spread the word , we can and will build a brighter future . With best wishes, Tod Fletcher and Fred Burks for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team Special note: Thank you so much to all of you who contributed financially and used our amazon.com link. We've already received nearly $200 for over 100 items purchased on amazon and almost $2,000 in donations over the last 10 days. We are deeply grateful to all of you, and want to especially acknowledge two-time Super Bowl winner Mark Stepnoski for a $500 contribution and a great endorsement which you can read here. We've also just set up a facebook page for WantToKnow.info and PEERS . If you'd like to become a facebook supporter, click on these links and leave a comment there. _____ UFO pyramid reported over Kremlin December 18, 2009, The Telegraph (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/6837200/UFO-pyramid... A giant pyramid which appears to be a UFO hovering over the Kremlin has caused frenzied speculation in Russia that it is an alien spacecraft. The object has been compared to an Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile wide. Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly playing on Russian television news channels. The shots, one taken at night from a car and one during the day, were both filmed by amateurs. The 'craft' was said to have hovered for hours over Red Square in the Russian capital. The clips of the 'invasion' have gone to the top of the country's version of YouTube. The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a UFO but police refused to comment. Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defence UFO analyst, said it was "one of the most extraordinary UFO clips I've ever seen. At first I thought this was a reflection but it appears to move behind a power line, ruling out this theory." A spokesman for aerospace journal Jane's News said: "We have no idea what it is." Note: Go to the link above to view the fascinating videos of this UFO over Moscow. For a powerful summary of evidence for UFOs presented by highly credible military and government officials, click here . _____ Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor December 13, 2009, The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers) http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer. Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (?216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result. This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said. Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Note: For many revealing reports from major media sources on the hidden realities behind the global financial crisis, click here. _____ Millions of missing Bush admin. e-mails found December 14, 2009, MSNBC/Associated Press http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34419592 Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush ... according to two groups that filed suit over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system. The two private groups ? Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [CREW] and the National Security Archive ? said Monday they were settling the lawsuits they filed against the Executive Office of the President in 2007. It will be years before the public sees any of the recovered e-mails because they will now go through the National Archives' process for releasing presidential and agency records. Presidential records of the Bush administration won't be available until 2014 at the earliest. The 22 million e-mails "would never have been found but for our lawsuits and pressure from Capitol Hill," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW. "It was only then that they did this reanalysis and found as a result that there were 22 million e-mails that they were unable to account for before." "We may never discover the full story of what happened here," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director. "It seems like they just didn't want the e-mails preserved." Sloan said the latest count of misplaced e-mails "gives us confirmation that the Bush administration lied when they said no e-mails were missing." Note: For lots more on government secrecy from reliable sources, click here . _____ Poor Children Likelier to Get Antipsychotics December 12, 2009, New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/health/12medicaid.html New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows. Those findings, by a team from Rutgers and Columbia, are almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them ? but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children? The questions go beyond the psychological impact on Medicaid children, serious as that may be. Antipsychotic drugs can also have severe physical side effects, causing drastic weight gain and metabolic changes resulting in lifelong physical problems. Part of the reason is insurance reimbursements, as Medicaid often pays much less for counseling and therapy than private insurers do. Studies have found that children in low-income families may have a higher rate of mental health problems ? perhaps two to one ? compared with children in better-off families. But that still does not explain the four-to-one disparity in prescribing antipsychotics. Note: For many important health reports from reliable sources, click here . _____ Ventura Turns Investigator for 'Conspiracy Theory' December 1, 2009, ABC News/Associated Press http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9219009 Jesse Ventura is back for another stab at TV stardom, this time hosting a program that digs into conspiracy theories, including alternate views of what was behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the purpose of a sprawling research center in remote Alaska. The former Minnesota governor, professional wrestler and Navy SEAL stars in "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura," ... on truTV. The cable network, part of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., has ordered seven episodes of the hourlong weekly series. Marc Juris, executive vide president and general manager of truTV, said Ventura is passionate about the show and brings "knowledge from the inside" of government. "He's not doing this as an act or a gimmick. It's true to his heart. He's really looking for the answers," Juris told the AP. The premiere episode deals with the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, a 35-acre compound of 180 antennas near Gakona, Alaska, that is used to study the Earth's ionosphere. Ventura and those he interviews question whether the government is using the site to manipulate the weather or to bombard people with mind-controlling radio waves. Future "Conspiracy Theory" shows explore alleged cover-ups surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks and whether there are real "Manchurian Candidate" assassins who are programmed to kill, said Juris. Note: Ventura was also a Navy Seal, where he personally was involved in top secret activities and learned how what is presented to the public is very different from the deeper realities. Don't miss the highly educational episode on the vitally important topic of HAARP by clicking here . And watch the excellent episode on 9/11 by clicking here . You'll be surprised by the new angles presented. _____ Jesse Ventura searches for coverups November 29, 2009, Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-conversation29-2009nov29,0,1777742.story Jesse Ventura is back. The former pro wrestler, who served as Minnesota governor from 1999 to 2003, is the host of "Conspiracy Theory," an investigative series ... on truTV. [Q:] On "Conspiracy Theory," you investigate secret societies and supposed government coverups. Such theories are everywhere, but really, what big conspiracy has ever been proven? [Ventura:] How can you prove it? That's the point. The better part would be to ask, "How many of the government's points have ever been proven?" I find what's most interesting about doing this show is how the government will not participate or allow you in or answer any questions. We're not allowed to question our government. [Q:] One of the alleged coverups you investigate involves 9/11. Do you believe the terrorist attacks were an inside job? [Ventura:] I believe that the government has not been truthful with us about it. Yes, absolutely. That there's massive holes in the story they've told. That none of these questions have ever been adequately addressed. All evidence has been destroyed, pretty much. [Q:] Why would the government want to do such things? {Ventura:} Well, what changed after 9/11? We're in two wars, passage of Patriot Act and all that. Our entire society changed that day. We've become paranoid. We think there's a terrorist behind every tree. I live in Mexico half the year. And when I'm down there, for six months, I never hear the word "terrorism." When I'm up here, I can't go a day without hearing it. Note: Many government officials, like Jesse Ventura, have questioned the official explanation of the 9/11 attacks. To read their questions, click here . _____ Ventura says MSNBC nixed his show for not supporting Iraq War November 30, 2009, Minneapolis Star Tribune http://www.startribune.com/blogs/78150302.html Conspiracy theorists awaiting Wednesday night's premiere of "Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura" might take interest in a curious comment Ventura made in the Los Angeles Times this weekend. Ventura ... told the paper that MSNBC cancelled his show "Jesse Ventura's America" in 2003 because he did not support the Iraq War. He said the network "in essence" paid him to be silent. "It was awful. I was basically silenced. When I came out of office, I was the hottest commodity out there. I was being groomed for a five day-a-week TV show by them. Then, all of a sudden, weird phone calls started happening: 'Is it true Jesse doesn't support the war in Iraq? My contract said I couldn't do any other cable TV or any news shows, and they honored and paid it for the duration of it. So in essence I had my silence purchased. Why do you think you didn't hear from me for three years? I was under contract. They wouldn't even use me as a consultant!" _____ Cattle mutilations baffle Colorado ranchers December 14, 2009, Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-dead-calves14-2009dec14,0,3007910,full.story Livestock are being found with eyes, tongues and other body parts cut neatly out. There are no tracks or bloodstains. It's been happening, off and on, for decades. Manuel A. Sanchez has ruled out every logical explanation for the fate that has befallen the calves on his ranch in southern Colorado. Over the past month, he's found four calves dead in a way that he cannot reconcile with anything in his 50 years of raising cattle: eyes and ears missing, tongues and genitals excised in what appeared to be a series of fine cuts. Mountain lions, bears or coyotes would leave messier marks, he said. And Sanchez found no tire tracks or footprints that would suggest a human invader -- nor even bloodstains he'd expect to find around the carcasses if someone had butchered them. It's not the first time. In the 1970s, ranchers in eastern and southern Colorado filed more than 200 mutilation reports, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation reports. The agency investigated, even conducting an undercover operation, but to no avail. "It was such a bewilderment," recalled Tillie Bishop, a state senator at the time. Some people suspected satanic cults. Others grew convinced of an otherworldly explanation -- space aliens. In the mid-1990s, 27 cattle in northern New Mexico were mutilated in 16 months, the Associated Press reported. Again, ranchers found cattle with genitals removed, tongues cut off at the roots, and eyes and ears missing. The incisions appeared to have been cauterized, they said. Note: For a powerfully revealing documentary on UFOs with top military and government witnesses, click here. _____ Suzanne Somers questions chemo in new book October 19, 2009, MSNBC/Associated Press http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33387002/ns/health-cancer Suzanne Somers is at it again. She's back with a new book [on an] emotional topic: Cancer treatment. Specifically, she argues against what she sees as the vast and often pointless use of chemotherapy. Somers, who has rejected chemo herself, seems to relish the fight. "Cancer's an epidemic," said the 63-year-old actress ... a day before [the] release of Knockout: Interviews with Doctors Who Are Curing Cancer--And How to Prevent Getting It in the First Place, her 19th book. "And yet we keep going back to the same old pot, because it's all we've got. Well, this is a book about options." Though she may be one of the most visible, Somers is hardly the only celebrity who's advocated alternative treatments recently. The late Farrah Fawcett underwent a mix of traditional and alternative treatments, and made a poignant plea for supporting alternative methods in her film, "Farrah's Story." Actress Jenny McCarthy advocates a special dietary regime, supplements, metal detox and delayed vaccines to treat autism. In fact, Somers does view chemotherapy as effective for some cancers, but not for the most common, including lung and breast cancer. Diagnosed with breast cancer a decade ago, she had a lumpectomy and radiation, but declined chemotherapy, as she did more recently when briefly misdiagnosed with pervasive cancer. Note: To watch a video clip of this, click here. For her harrowing experience of being misdiagnosed with stage four cancer, click here. And if you want to understand how big money sometimes ruthlessly acts to stop cancer cures, click here . For media articles discussing potentially powerful cancer cures and how industry sometimes will not support them, click here. _____ Radiation from CT scans linked to cancers, deaths December 15, 2009, USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-12-15-radiation15_st_N.htm CT [Computed Tomography] scans deliver far more radiation than has been believed and may contribute to 29,000 new cancers each year, along with 14,500 deaths, suggest two studies in today's Archives of Internal Medicine. One study, led by the National Cancer Institute's Amy Berrington de Gonzalez, used existing exposure data to estimate how many cancers might be caused by CT scans. Another study in the journal suggests the problem may even be worse. In that study, researchers found that people may be exposed to up to four times as much radiation as estimated by earlier studies. While previous studies relied on dummies equipped with sensors, authors of the new paper studied 1,119 patients at four San Francisco-area hospitals. Based on those higher measurements, a patient could get as much radiation from one CT scan as 74 mammograms or 442 chest X-rays. Young people are at highest risk from excess radiation, partly because they have many years ahead of them in which cancers could develop. Among 20-year-old women who get one coronary angiogram, a CT scan of the heart, one in 150 will develop cancer related to the procedure. Note: For many important health reports from reliable sources, click here . _____ Goldman Fueled AIG Gambles December 12, 2009, Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704201404574590453176996032.html Goldman Sachs Group Inc. played a bigger role than has been publicly disclosed in fueling the mortgage bets that nearly felled American International Group Inc. Goldman was one of 16 banks paid off when the U.S. government last year spent billions closing out soured trades that AIG made with the financial firms. A Wall Street Journal analysis of AIG's trades, which were on pools of mortgage debt, shows that Goldman was a key player in many of them, even the ones involving other banks. Goldman originated or bought protection from AIG on about $33 billion of the $80 billion of U.S. mortgage assets that AIG insured during the housing boom. That is roughly twice as much as Soci?t? G?n?rale and Merrill Lynch, the banks with the biggest exposure to AIG after Goldman. In Goldman's biggest deal, it acted as a middleman between AIG and banks, taking on the risk of as much as $14 billion of mortgage-related investments. Then Goldman insured that risk with one trading partner ? AIG. When the federal government bailed out the insurer, Goldman avoided losses on its trades with AIG covering a total of $22 billion in assets. Note: For many revealing reports from reliable, verifiable sources on the hidden realities behind the Wall Street bailout, click here. _____ Mystery pair at diner spark cascade of giving December 14, 2009, MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34420892/ns/us_news-giving It played like a scene from a holiday movie ? a mystery couple, who didn?t leave their names or numbers, walked into a restaurant, finished their meal and then set off a chain reaction of generosity that lasted for hours. That?s just what employees at the Aramingo Diner in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia said a man and a woman did during their breakfast shift Saturday morning. ?It was magical. I had tears in my eyes because it never happened before. I?ve been here for 10 years, and I?ve never seen anything like that,? said Lynn Willard, a waitress. ?I could not believe it. And it continued and continued,? said Willard. ?They asked us not to say anything until they left, [and only then to] say, ?Merry Christmas, that person picked up your check.?? For the next five hours, dozens of patrons got into that same holiday spirit and paid the favor forward. The diner?s manager said not one person was concerned about price of the check ? which ran between $12 and $30. ?It was a surprise to all of us,? said the diner's manager. ?Those who took the check also tipped the waitress. So nobody had to do anything other than pass it on, and that?s what they did. They just passed it forward.? It?s a true holiday story that proves how a small gesture of kindness can create some magic. _____ Feeding hungry is job one at Same Cafe March 13, 2009, MSNBC News http://dailynightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/13/1836428.aspx In many ways, nothing has changed at the SAME Caf? in mid-town Denver. A week ago, we brought in the NBC News camera and recorded a typical Friday lunch rush. We were there because a viewer had e-mailed Brian Williams [about] the couple who run the caf?. Brad and Libby Birky serve great food, but accept in return only what the customer can afford. Some pay nothing, while others, who still have jobs and paychecks pay something, sometimes double or even triple what the meal would cost anywhere else in town. A week after we visited the SAME Caf?, some things have changed. Within 24 hours, the caf?'s web-site -- www.soallmayeat.org -- was hit with over 4000 e-mails. The messages came from Maine, Alaska, California, and all points in between. They were overwhelmingly warm and supportive. Contributions poured in. So far, the figure is about $13,000. The money is coming in small amounts, primarily from people who will never taste the pizza at the SAME cafe. Brad says they are "flooded" with offers from people from the Denver area to help prepare, cook, and clean up the caf?. More volunteers than could fit in the caf?. Brad isn?t turning anyone away, "We'll just schedule them in a few weeks down the road, when the rush is over." After more than two years running the caf?, Brad knows "the rush" will slow down. Note: Founded in October 2006 , this incredibly inspiring cafe has not gotten nearly the press coverage that it deserves, though you can find a couple major media articles at this link and this one . For a great, five-minute video on this most inspiring cafe, click here . _____ Bookmark and Share Final Note: WantToKnow.info believes it is important to balance disturbing cover-up information with inspirational writings which call us to be all that we can be and to work together for positive change. Please visit our Inspiration Center at http://www.WantToKnow.info/inspirational for an abundance of uplifting material. See our archive of revealing news articles at www.WantToKnow.info/indexnewsarticles Your tax-deductible donations, however large or small, help greatly to support this important work. To make a donation by credit card, check, or money order: www.WantToKnow.info/donationswtk Explore the mind and heart expanding websites managed by the nonprofit PEERS network: www.peerservice.org - PEERS websites: Spreading inspiration, education, & empowerment www.momentoflove.org - Every person in the world has a heart www.personalgrowthcourses.net - Dynamic online courses powerfully expand your horizons www.WantToKnow.info - Reliable, verifiable information on major cover-ups www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all To respond to this message, visit www.WantToKnow.info/contactus.php To subscribe to or unsubscribe from the WantToKnow.info list (one email every few days): www.WantToKnow.info/subscribe _____ Change email address / Leave mailing list Powered by YourMailingListProvider -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Tue Dec 22 07:34:13 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:04:13 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate ChangeAwareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. In-Reply-To: <31f677a30912220624w4b25af74u41f69defb595181c@mail.gmail.com> References: <319B645A81FC45F4BD2FA20A0D8C4E0E@undp> <31f677a30912220624w4b25af74u41f69defb595181c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912220634j13ad0151k10b7a0445cbbfd1c@mail.gmail.com> sharing for the needful. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance < ceasig at gmail.com> Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 7:54 PM Subject: Re: [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate ChangeAwareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. To: Climate Change Community Cc: info at channelone.tv, news at channelone.tv Dear members, Greetings for peace, I would like to endorse the call of Ms.Chitra Ramaswami for refraining from using green house gas emitting services and utilities before reusing and recycling. This could be tough for many in the urban areas as lots of consumption is based on fossil fuels. But that is what is needs to be achieved ,if we are to collectively contribute in the reducing the emission of green house gases by personally acting upon the call. This can be done through adoption of carbon-neutral measures in several sites of consumption. Center for Ecological Audit ,Social Inclusion and Governance calling for adoption of faith based omnibus responses calls for adoption of carbon-neutral leisure to start with the reducing the emissions that are made though leisure activities . A network has been created for carbon-neutral neighborhood discussions and leisure recognizing the criticality of reducing emissions through transforming travel intensive leisure within and across the cities and within and across the nations http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Also a movement for transforming ecologically hostile habitats has been initiated with more than 80 members http://transitionindia.ning.com Having shared these, I would like to share my responses for the query as noted below the questions: ** 1. Experiences on role of media in disseminating Climate Change knowledge/ information. How media professionals can be equipped with information, knowledge and skills to understand the science and facts surrounding Climate Change with a view to demystifying the same for their audience/readers. Channel One TV, NDTV , India TV, Sahara and others have been disseminating information on climate change and its impacts. They have been warning about the impacts and at times the descriptions are quite horrifying. I think most the new channels and newspapers have access to information. There is no dearth of information. There is need to conduct weekly ecological audits for the advertising policy and create a climate of opinion for ecologically safe terms of evaluation. This requires a thorough understanding of the climate change and its impacts. i think the most important contribution of the media would be on transforming the consumption pattern among youths and rich who are using energy intensive modes of travel for leisure. *2. *Methods that provide media professionals with an opportunity to conceptualize and practice reporting on Climate Change from perspective of various scenarios and angles One of the important means that media organisations need to adopt is training for Green Journalism , reporting with reference to the ecological implications of the development policy, political visions and manifestoes and integrating ecostrategic considerations in the generating advisory propositions. Organisations like Centre for Ecological Audit,Social Inclusion and Governance could be involved in creating training modules. A reference to carbon-neutral leisure could seen through the posts at the community of ecostrategic communicators http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com A related presentation can be seen posted at http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/carbon-neutral-neighbourhood-discussionsconsultations-for-ecological-audit-neighbourhood-and-personal-processes-for-personal-and-social-wellbeing-and-countering-climate-change *3. *Success stories/ field experiences focused on the production of news/ stories, photos, audio/video programmes for newspapers/ magazines/ web portal, TV, radio etc. I think,channel like Channel One have taken a good initiative for saving Ganga river. These initiatives need to boosted with change in the consumption patterns. There are ecologically hostile projects that need to exposed. Commonhealth games related creation of infrastructure could be assessed for ecological impact. NDTV has a section on Green work but then the promotion of ecologically hostile travel leisure beats the campaign for Green lives. There is need to seek inner consistency in the communication ethos of the channels as contradictory communication would not work for securing the ecologically safe future of children in India. *4. *Financial assistance/ support, fellowship etc for journalists to participate in Climate Change related media workshops I would encourage creation of in-house carbon-neutral forums for discussing the best ecologically benevolent journalism. E-discussions could be used for sharing. However, building the systematic communication module for climate change could be supported by international and national agencies . I am an advocate of ecostrategic journalism and a reference could be seen at http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/annoucing-a-new-disciple-of-ecostrategics With warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam Executive Director(H) On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 10:17 AM, Chitra Narayanswamy < chitra.narayanswamy at undp.org> wrote: > Dear Members, > > > > In my opinion, be it an individual or a media professional, they are key to > help people understand and digest the root causes that brings about Climate > Change. When we target different spheres of our society, every Climate > Change message must highlight as to how we are: > > > > *1. *Over populating and using the planet?s resources beyond measure > > *2. *The constant need to refrain from using, before we think of > reusing or recycling. > > > > It does not call for dramatic life style changes, at least not for us in > the eastern cultures, but small steps at home and workplace is all that is > required. We constantly need to revisit our aping the western model and > practices which is neither required nor can we afford at any point in our > development path. > > > > Let us revert back to our old life style practices like carrying a cloth > bag, a water bottle, ride a bicycle or even give our neighbor a car ride > (eases the traffic), all of which is a fad and fashionable in the West. > > > > Regards, > > > > Chitra Narayanswamy, > > Energy and Environment Unit, > > United Nations Development Programme, > > New Delhi > > > ------------------------------ > > * * > > *Original Query:* > > * * > > *From:* Kalyan Singh Kothari [mailto:kalyansinghkothari at yahoo.com] > *Sent:* Monday, December 07, 2009 5:25 PM > *To:* 'Climate Change Community' > *Subject:* [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate Change > Awareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. > > > > Dear Members, > > > > I am a freelance journalist and a media consultant to various developmental > organizations like Centre for Community Economics Development Consultants > (CECOEDECON). I am also involved in the Campaign under the banner ?Beyond > Copenhagen: Collective Action on Climate Change?. The first phase of the > campaign focused ?towards a National Consensus on India?s position in > International Negotiations? in which a large number of stakeholders > including farmers, women, media persons and policymakers participated, > followed by a regional consultation and workshops in Maharashtra, > Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar. A state level media sensitization workshop > on Climate Change and emerging challenges was organized in Jaipur on 16 > September 2009 and in Delhi on 23 November 2009. > > > > Regular, accurate communication about Climate Change is the first step > toward developing appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. > Communication has already proved a powerful tool in areas like disaster > management, HIV/AIDS etc. With regard to Climate Change, media can play a > crucial role in disseminating information to effectively guide public debate > and understanding of Climate Change impacts, vulnerabilities and mitigation/ > adaptation strategies. Media has a decisive role to play in providing people > with information that would help them to change their mindsets and > behaviour, as an individual and collectively, towards the environment. > > > > In the above context, I request members to share: > > > > *1. *Experiences on role of media in disseminating > Climate Change knowledge/ information. How media professionals can be > equipped with information, knowledge and skills to understand the science > and facts surrounding Climate Change with a view to demystifying the same > for their audience/readers. > > > > *2. *Methods that provide media professionals with an > opportunity to conceptualize and practice reporting on Climate Change from > perspective of various scenarios and angles > > > > *3. *Success stories/ field experiences focused on the > production of news/ stories, photos, audio/video programmes for newspapers/ > magazines/ web portal, TV, radio etc. > > > > *4. *Financial assistance/ support, fellowship etc for > journalists to participate in Climate Change related media workshops > > > > This discussion will provide better understanding of the role of media in > creating awareness about Climate Change. It will help us organize media > workshops that provide better understanding of Climate Change to media > professionals and at the same time develop a network of Climate Change > journalists including a roaster of experts/ resource persons. > > > > Kalyan Singh Kothari, > > Jaipur > > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Wed Dec 23 02:27:56 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:57:56 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [IHRO] Monsanto funds Dr Pachauri's IPCC racket and TERI Message-ID: <983857.2041.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Sharing but not endorsing. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Arun1951 To: indiagroup Sent: Tue, 22 December, 2009 8:38:08 PM Subject: [IHRO] Monsanto funds Dr Pachauri's IPCC racket and TERI Friends, Many of my friends and I had suspected that Pachauri is a fraud; has he ever denied that he is not a scientist? Yet the world believes he is a climate scientist. Who knows where he graduated from, what marks he scored in economics? How much money he is making in the name of climate change? He used to run his office from a garage in the 1980s. As if by some quirk of fate, he suddenly moved into pricey Habitat Centre. When the article below was published he was questioned by "Let Truth Sometimes Prevail' Times of India journos. The broadsheet came out with his denial, but the reporters never bothered to investigate his denialism! Global warming is as much a fraud on the planet as Pachauri is a fraud, a disgusting ghost terrorizing the people of this country and the planet. TERI has consistently supprted GMOs. That makes them a criminal organization. Kind regards Arun Shrivastava PS: I just hope that self respecting scientists of TERI leave the organization in double quick time, before the world exposes the fraud of Pachauri and the fucking bureaucrats who serve time there to become climate experts!!! The world is acutally cooling and the reason is global dimming from pollution emanating from the developed countries chiefly EU and North America. That is causing climate change....NOT THE FUCKING GLOBAL WARMING OF PACHAURI. Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies, Christopher Booker and Richard North write. The head of the UN's climate change panel - Dr Rajendra Pachauri - is accused of making a fortune from his links with 'carbon trading' companies. No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN?s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007. Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as ?the world?s top climate scientist?), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all. What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC?s policy recommendations. These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ?carbon trading? and ?sustainable technologies? , which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year. Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies which play a leading role in what has become known as the international ?climate industry?. It is remarkable how only very recently has the staggering scale of Dr Pachauri?s links to so many of these concerns come to light, inevitably raising questions as to how the world?s leading ?climate official? can also be personally involved in so many organisations which stand to benefit from the IPCC?s recommendations. The issue of Dr Pachauri?s potential conflict of interest was first publicly raised last Tuesday when, after giving a lecture at Copenhagen University, he was handed a letter by two eminent ?climate sceptics?. One was the Stephen Fielding, the Australian Senator who sparked the revolt which recently led to the defeat of his government?s ?cap and trade scheme?. The other, from Britain, was Lord Monckton, a longtime critic of the IPCC?s science, who has recently played a key part in stiffening opposition to a cap and trade bill in the US Senate. Their open letter first challenged the scientific honesty of a graph prominently used in the IPCC?s 2007 report, and shown again by Pachauri in his lecture, demanding that he should withdraw it. But they went on to question why the report had not declared Pachauri?s personal interest in so many organisations which seemingly stood to profit from its findings. The letter, which included information first disclosed in last week?s Sunday Telegraph, was circulated to all the 192 national conference delegations, calling on them to dismiss Dr Pachauri as IPCC chairman because of recent revelations of his conflicting interests. The original power base from which Dr Pachauri has built up his worldwide network of influence over the past decade is the Delhi-based Tata Energy Research Institute, of which he became director in 1981 and director-general in 2001. Now renamed The Energy Research Institute, TERI was set up in 1974 by India?s largest privately-owned business empire, the Tata Group, with interests ranging from steel, cars and energy to chemicals, telecommunications and insurance (and now best-known in the UK as the owner of Jaguar, Land Rover, Tetley Tea and Corus, Britain?s largest steel company). Although TERI has extended its sponsorship since the name change, the two concerns are still closely linked. In India, Tata exercises enormous political power, shown not least in the way it has managed to displace hundreds of thousands of poor tribal villagers in the eastern states of Orissa and Jarkhand to make way for large-scale iron mining and steelmaking projects. Initially, when Dr Pachauri took over the running of TERI in the 1980s, his interests centred on the oil and coal industries, which may now seem odd for a man who has since become best known for his opposition to fossil fuels. He was, for instance, a director until 2003 of India Oil, the country?s largest commercial enterprise, and until this year remained as a director of the National Thermal Power Corporation, its largest electricity producer. In 2005, he set up GloriOil, a Texas firm specialising in technology which allows the last remaining reserves to be extracted from oilfields otherwise at the end of their useful life. However, since Pachauri became a vice-chairman of the IPCC in 1997, TERI has vastly expanded its interest in every kind of renewable or sustainable technology, in many of which the various divisions of the Tata Group have also become heavily involved, such as its project to invest $1.5 billion (?930 million) in vast wind farms. Dr Pachauri?s TERI empire has also extended worldwide, with branches in the US, the EU and several countries in Asia. TERI Europe, based in London, of which he is a trustee (along with Sir John Houghton, one of the key players in the early days of the IPCC and formerly head of the UK Met Office) is currently running a project on bio-energy, financed by the EU. Another project, co-financed by our own Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the German insurance firm Munich Re, is studying how India?s insurance industry, including Tata, can benefit from exploiting the supposed risks of exposure to climate change. Quite why Defra and UK taxpayers should fund a project to increase the profits of Indian insurance firms is not explained. Even odder is the role of TERI?s Washington-based North American offshoot, a non-profit organisation, of which Dr Pachauri is president. Conveniently sited on Pennsylvania Avenue, midway between the White House and the Capitol, this body unashamedly sets out its stall as a lobbying organisation, to ?sensitise decision-makers in North America to developing countries? concerns about energy and the environment?. TERI-NA is funded by a galaxy of official and corporate sponsors, including four branches of the UN bureaucracy; four US government agencies; oil giants such as Amoco; two of the leading US defence contractors; Monsanto, the world?s largest GM producer; the WWF (the environmentalist campaigning group which derives much of its own funding from the EU) and two world leaders in the international ?carbon market?, between them managing more than $1 trillion (?620 billion) worth of assets. All of this is doubtless useful to the interests of Tata back in India, which is heavily involved not just in bio-energy, renewables and insurance but also in ?carbon trading?, the worldwide market in buying and selling the right to emit CO2. Much of this is administered at a profit by the UN under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) set up under the Kyoto Protocol, which the Copenhagen treaty was designed to replace with an even more lucrative successor. Under the CDM, firms and consumers in the developed world pay for the right to exceed their ?carbon limits? by buying certificates from those firms in countries such as India and China which rack up ?carbon credits? for every renewable energy source they develop ? or by showing that they have in some way reduced their own ?carbon emissions?. It is one of these deals, reported in last week?s Sunday Telegraph, which is enabling Tata to transfer three million tonnes of steel production from its Corus plant in Redcar to a new plant in Orissa, thus gaining a potential ?1.2 billion in ?carbon credits? (and putting 1,700 people on Teesside out of work). More than three-quarters of the world ?carbon? market benefits India and China in this way. India alone has 1,455 CDM projects in operation, worth $33 billion (?20 billion), many of them facilitated by Tata ? and it is perhaps unsurprising that Dr Pachauri also serves on the advisory board of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the largest and most lucrative carbon-trading exchange in the world, which was also assisted by TERI in setting up India?s own carbon exchange. But this is peanuts compared to the numerous other posts to which Dr Pachauri has been appointed in the years since the UN chose him to become the world?s top ?climate-change official?. In 2007, for instance, he was appointed to the advisory board of Siderian, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm specialising in ?sustainable technologies? , where he was expected to provide the Fund with ?access, standing and industrial exposure at the highest level?, In 2008 he was made an adviser on renewable and sustainable energy to the Credit Suisse bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. He joined the board of the Nordic Glitnir Bank, as it launched its Sustainable Future Fund, looking to raise funding of ?4 billion. He became chairman of the Indochina Sustainable Infrastructure Fund, whose CEO was confident it could soon raise ?100 billion. In the same year he became a director of the International Risk Governance Council in Geneva, set up by EDF and E.On, two of Europe?s largest electricity firms, to promote ?bio-energy?. This year Dr Pachauri joined the New York investment fund Pegasus as a ?strategic adviser?, and was made chairman of the advisory board to the Asian Development Bank, strongly supportive of CDM trading, whose CEO warned that failure to agree a treaty at Copenhagen would lead to a collapse of the carbon market. The list of posts now held by Dr Pachauri as a result of his new-found world status goes on and on. He has become head of Yale University?s Climate and Energy Institute, which enjoys millions of dollars of US state and corporate funding. He is on the climate change advisory board of Deutsche Bank. He is Director of the Japanese Institute for Global Environmental Strategies and was until recently an adviser to Toyota Motors. Recalling his origins as a railway engineer, he is even a policy adviser to SNCF, France?s state-owned railway company. Meanwhile, back home in India, he serves on an array of influential government bodies, including the Economic Advisory Committee to the prime minister, holds various academic posts and has somehow found time in his busy life to publish 22 books. Dr Pachauri never shrinks from giving the world frank advice on all matters relating to the menace of global warming. The latest edition of TERI News quotes him as telling the US Environmental Protection Agency that it must go ahead with regulating US carbon emissions without waiting for Congress to pass its cap and trade bill. It reports how, in the days before Copenhagen, he called on the developing nations which had been historically responsible for the global warming crisis to make ?concrete commitments? to aiding developing countries such as India with funding and technology ? while insisting that India could not agree to binding emissions targets. India, he said, must bargain for large-scale subsidies from the West for developing solar power, and Western funds must be made available for geo-engineering projects to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere. As a vegetarian Hindu, Dr Pachauri repeated his call for the world to eat less meat to cut down on methane emissions (as usual he made no mention of what was to be done about India?s 400 million sacred cows). He further called for a ban on serving ice in restaurants and for meters to be fitted to all hotel rooms, so that guests could be charged a carbon tax on their use of heating and air-conditioning. One subject the talkative Dr Pachauri remains silent on, however, is how much money he is paid for all these important posts, which must run into millions of dollars. Not one of the bodies for which he works publishes his salary or fees, and this notably includes the UN, which refuses to reveal how much we all pay him as one of its most senior officials. As for TERI itself, Dr Pachauri?s main job for nearly 30 years, it is so coy about money that it does not even publish its accounts ? the financial statement amounts to two income and expenditure pie charts which contain no detailed figures. Dr Pachauri is equally coy about TERI?s links with Tata, the company which set it up in the 1970s and whose name it continued to bear until 2002, when it was changed to just The Energy Research Institute. A spokesman at the time said ?we have not severed our past relationship with the Tatas, the change is only for convenience?. But the real question mark over TERI?s director-general remains over the relationship between his highly lucrative commercial jobs and his role as chairman of the IPCC. TERI have, for example, become a preferred bidder for Kuwaiti contracts to clean up the mess left by Saddam Hussein in their oilfields in 1991. The $3 billion (?1.9 billion) cost of the contracts has been provided by the UN. If successful, this would be tenth time TERI have benefited from a contract financed by the UN. Certainly no one values the services of TERI more than the EU, which has included Dr Pachauri?s institute as a partner in no fewer than 12 projects designed to assist in devising the EU?s policies on mitigating the effects of the global warming predicted by the IPCC.But whether those 1,700 Corus workers on Teesside will next month be so happy to lose their jobs to India, thanks to the workings of that international ?carbon market? about which Dr Pachauri is so enthusiastic, is quite another m __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: * New Members 1 Visit Your Group Start a New Topic International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), of the Indian subcontinent, is a NGO, with national focus and overseas lobby network. It agitates both in India and internationally. MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Parenting Zone: Find useful resources for a happy, healthy family and home Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Dec 23 03:15:48 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:15:48 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: The People vs Polluters Message-ID: <888060.8814.qm@web27408.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Tue, 22/12/09, Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org wrote: From: Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org Subject: The People vs Polluters To: "dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk" Date: Tuesday, 22 December, 2009, 20:42 Make sure Avaaz alerts reach your inbox: click "Add to Contacts" to add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book, and click the "Not Spam" button if you found this email in your spam folder. If you prefer to leave the Avaaz list, just click here to unsubscribe. Dear friends, The polluting industry lobby stopped a real deal at Copenhagen, and now they're trying to silence the rising climate movement by suing youth activists. They've raised $750,000 for their intimidation effort -- if 20,000 of us give just a small amount each, we'll show them their tactics backfired, and show politicians that people-power can defeat polluters. Click below to chip in: Click to Give A Small Amount Leaders disappointed the entire world in Copenhagen last weekend. But one group was cracking open the champagne - the polluting industry lobbyists who pushed our politicians to failure. The polluters have only one worry now: us. Recently a few youth climate activists (funded by Avaaz online donations!) dared to challenge the most powerful polluter lobbyist group, the US Chamber of Commerce, by helping to stage a humorous satirical press conference announcing the Chamber had decided to help fight climate change. The polluter lobby?s response? A huge lawsuit suing these young activists for potentially enormous amounts of money. Experts say a response like this is extremely rare. It appears designed to send a chilling message to our movement and silence all who would speak out. Let's send a message back. The Chamber has raised $750,000 from US corporations to help launch this attack ? If 20,000 of us give just a small amount each to our effort to stand up for climate activists and stop the polluter lobby, we?ll raise more than them - showing their intimidation backfired! Let?s show the polluter lobby that we can?t be silenced, and show politicians that the future belongs to people, not polluters: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_polluters Copenhagen failed primarily because big polluters US and China wanted a weak agreement. President Obama was heavily constrained by a US Congress that has been captured by lobbyists. The Chamber is a front group for the largest corporations in the polluting lobby, including oil and coal companies like Exxon Mobil. They were major backers of President George W Bush, and have spent hundreds of millions of dollars blocking Obama's attempts at change. The Chamber claims to represent US businesses, but even many large corporations (like Apple, Nike and Microsoft) have opposed its pro-polluter positions on climate change.? While people were out in force in Copenhagen, polluter lobbyists worked in the shadows, their voices loud only in our politicians' ears. To get the climate deal we need, we have to expose their influence, stand up to their intimidation tactics, and?send a signal to others that the time has come, once and for all, to stand up to the villains holding our planet hostage: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_polluters In our journey together as the Avaaz community, we've taken on dictators in Burma and Zimbabwe, promise-breaking politicians in Europe and North America, and the forces of extremism in the Middle East. But the Chamber is in some ways the most powerful and dangerous opponent we've faced. Some have advised Avaaz to stay quiet about this, to protect our own organization. But with danger comes opportunity, and if people power can defeat even the most powerful corporate lobby in the world, we'll send a much broader message, that a new world, the one we all seek, is on its way.? With hope,? Ricken, Ben, Iain, Alice, Graziela, Luis, Paul, Taren, Sam, Pascal, Benjamin, Paula, Milena and the whole Avaaz team PS - here are some links for more information: New York Times -- "Way behind the curve" - the NYT savages the Chamber's position on climate change: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30wed3.html Washington Post -- "The U.S. chamber vs honesty" - the Post is scathing about the Chamber's tactics: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602714.html Huffington Post -- "PGE Quits US Chamber of Commerce" - about large corporations leaving the Chamber because of its climate stance: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/pge-quits-us-chamber-of-c_b_295424.html Common Dreams - covering the satirical press conference about the Chamber: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/19-9 ------------------------------ Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here. ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "" on 2007-08-02 using the email address dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile&user=2b7c8c2a98a8e68f564b27ee124e38a1&lang=en or simply click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Wed Dec 23 03:56:46 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:56:46 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Fw: Bizzare Ramblings.... Message-ID: <465639.91360.qm@web27403.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> --- On Wed, 23/12/09, robert searle wrote: From: robert searle Subject: Fw: Bizzare Ramblings.... To: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Date: Wednesday, 23 December, 2009, 10:42 ? Dear All, ? ???????????? During the development of my project on Transfinancial Economics I had some strange communications from an American woman who shall remain nameless here for legal reasons. However, I did a legal check on her name on the internet, and she appears to suffer some form of mental illness as a?public/court record revealed. She has expressed interest in my project but what she says does not make alot of sense as the (edited)article "appended" ... ? Also, I have had someone who still writes non-sensical articles sometimes with? references to TFE. These appear on financial blogs which appear professional but actually the writings involve somethng akin to what I believe in psychiatry is possibly called "loose associations." The following are links but they may, or may not work. However, I cut and pasted an example of what I mean after the links....bizzarre non-sensical ramblings! I did have this experience before, and they appeared on a music site.? Again references to TFE are made "in and out" of context in a seemingly insane? disconnected fashion. However, it is made only once here in the blogspot extract. ? http://sgpa.org/company/Zurich-company.htm ? http://euthorresources.com/bank/corporate-electronic-banking.html ? ? ? ...off shore tax haven blogspot.....bizarre ramblings...... ? ? At good businesses in the development, the place networking should be based to harm that: the process of a nature may be the funding or merger of the production, cayman reviews. The novelty for cash of fraction is administrative and financial from the network for curl of decision-making, cayman reviews. Cayman reviews, my arena is that it will be again productive to help the set value the customer they are departing about it far. With transfinancial economics commercial a news would be a artistic night, cayman reviews. Cayman reviews, stakeholders at the access of their work of the recipient in 1950, and has contrasted the most same outlet invested in english and some of the net single borrowers. Is your time in local food of small things to pay not? ? ?????????????????????? You see what I mean? ? ? Strange Article by the American woman who seems to regards herself possibly an expert of TFE..........though there is no mention of it here. ? ? Give "birth" to your HUMANITY by starting your own unique revolution. In the alternative join HUMANITY ANONYMOUS CH__CH!? What's missing?? U R. Our?organized religion adds to our social identity addictions. In Humanity Anonymous CH__CH you can practice having your own unique beliefs that are free from cultural identities.? Your unique life project will be able to emerge once you see that all your social roles, and identities have been distracting you from the UNIQUE you.?The EMERGENCE OF our unique priorities will enable?us?to?have enhanced energy, health?so that?our?immune system?will ?be optimal. Since I have emerged into my own universal humanity? my patience has expanded exponentially so that what formerly frustrated me I now can appreciate as an opportunity. Become a founding member?of HUMANITY ANONYMOUS.?(See form below.)???Through HUMANITY ANONYMOUS we all CAN??be? anonymous revolutionaries! Instead of PRACTICING to live?we ?can HAVE a life?TO MASTER that is?free from even time and space!?Let's give up our ingrained habits?of communicating with?drama and ego.??In place of drama and ego our uniqueness in the form of our universal humanity? will emerge and via "Flow" our unique priorities and goals will emerge and?we will be able to communicate them (first to ourself )with clarity because?we have released ourselves?from the "CULTURAL PRISON" of IDENTITY. Instead of being limited by any imposed identity (comparisons,and labels and stereotypes) that we are bombarded with from birth and the emotional "glue" of drama and ego that make these? identities (comparisons,labels and stereotypes) so "sticky"?we can use the discipline of communicating without drama and ego, ie unique critical thinking to?DISSOLVE the GLUE so that?our UNIQUENESS can "flow" free from identity. To learn more access "Life Coaching and Its Implications For Communication" by typing that title in your internet browser. Please know that this?website is our website. Any comments that are free from drama and ego will be added here. To have unique thoughts appear here?cal........ with? comments to make this an authentically universal tool.? THOUGHTS FOR TODAY: Does the world HAVE an Economy or does the?Economy HAVE the world? Is the economic crisis just HYPE? Are those in power jealous of the attention given to ?those who are undergoing real trauma? Do the powerful communicate via the media?with drama and ego about having to do without some ENHANCEMENTS of life (like an EXTRA home for vacations)when their agenda is to distract us from those having basic needs unmet.?do we have a society at all, is it just an illusion of drama and ego identities? Some extremists in the media have been suggesting that we are already in the third world war. Perhaps we need to get down (in order to get up?) to pre-basics, namely defining humanity, because prior to having a human mission we must first BE human, otherwise our human mission has us! ? UNIQUE?IDENTITY In the past I experienced what it feels like to "communicate" to my soulless self. Sometimes I think that others have this emptiness, too. For instance my suicidal intentions, feelings, etc. in 1986 were feelings of hope dying in my soul. They were unbearable feelings. I felt like I could not or did not deserve to share or communicate at all because part of the loss of hope was the belief that I lost, never again to regain, any ability to communicate comparably, in other words I became autistic to my soul. ??? That soullessness of self is worse than any punishment from outside of me. I thought at that time that my pain and sorrow was due to others and due to the world being so unfair and cruel and due to the untruthfulness of persons in my life. But now I realize we all could be?just PRACTICING to?live, like Terry Schiavo, we could all be in a kind of vegetative state in "IDENTITY PODS" (Like the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" Or "LIVING" like in the?sci-fi movie "Matrix") It is hard to resist the "drug" of identity but we pay such a high price for our "highs"?we get from?any cultural??identity. With freedom?from cultural identity we have so much more energy to devote to our newly emerged unique passions that are authentic? These? authentic universally substantive? passions we CAN master by?a discipined emotional ?vulnerability?that can be communicated to ourselves and?others?instead of the superficial "passions" we only PRACTICED having because those "passions?involved immediate gratification and so the "passions" HAD us.)?? ?........ provides? communication services to enable you to become?an anonymous revolutionary.?Then when you have learned? and embraced the discipline of vulnerable self and other communication skills you can determine for yourself??what ?your unique revolution will?be.?In the alternative do you really want to remain a VIRTUAL human being, settling for drama and ego, schedules and distractions, micro to macro management??taking the place of your unique humanity -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 22 16:13:53 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:13:53 -0800 Subject: [GJM] Could This 'Forbidden Medicine' Eliminate the Need for Drugs? by Dr. Mercola Message-ID: <001e01ca835c$9e72bd30$db583790$@net> Moving into: TOTAL WELLNESS An oddity in the medical profession, I had an M.D. who was my primary care physician in the beach area of North County San Diego, where people think much differently than they do in say the Eastern part of the county, refer me to a homeopathic doctor for treatment. What he told me was that his father had been a chiropractor, so he had a much broader sense of healing than most physicians. He also turned me on to Echinacea as a very good healing agent for infections. Were we to turn to more natural ways of healing, we would, IMHO be much better off than with pharmaceuticals. Yet, so many of us are forced to turn to those who practice allopathic medicine because our health insurance does not cover the costs of natural alternative healing practices for the most part. How I do it now is to go to the primary care physician I have been assigned to (although I have a choice of who this is within a limited number) and let h/she determine what is the thing most probably wrong with me, and I let them suggest treatment. However before I enter into a relationship with a medical doctor, I tell them that I much prefer alternative to allopathic treatment but I want to explore options. And what I find is that most allopathic physicians upon learning this will talk with me about alternatives and in many instances will even ask me what I am doing and then tell me how they feel about it, if it is appropriate or not. Much of the time they find no fault with it. Then when applicable, I take any recommended tests if they are fairly benign. Then once I know what is the problem, I get on the Internet or explore options from among the alternative reference books I keep on hand and see if there is some alternative that seems to be working for a lot of people and I try this before taking pharmaceuticals. Also, I am not opposed to surgery, but I want to know there are no other really viable options available to me with a better ratio of success. I had a very close friend of mine who had uterine cancer who just simply did not believe in conventional medicine and after a long struggle with alternatives did not make it. On the other hand, I had uterine cancer, underwent a hysterectomy and later lost a kidney to cancer; however, I am still here and enjoying my life. Hence my philosophy is: Let's use an integrative approach but don't rule out something that could possibly save your life either way. Make careful and well thought out decisions. The best way to avoid illness, and I also did not practice this for a long time, is through prevention. And there is so much we can do in this respect that will virtually eliminate the possibility of having a serious illness or even getting a cold. Knowledge is power, so I recommend that you acquire as much information as is possible about your body/mind field and how it works. Then, armed with this information, you can make much better choices for yourself and stop just blindly trusting your physician. Could This 'Forbidden Medicine' Eliminate the Need for Drugs? Posted by: Dr. Mercola December 22 2009 | 121,355 views amy lanskyAmy L. Lansky, PhD www.impossiblecure.com Perhaps the most derided of alternative medicines is my own favorite - homeopathy. Over the past few years, detractors have focused their efforts in the United Kingdom and have succeeded in crippling homeopathic hospitals and clinics funded by the National Health Service, as well as the practices of many homeopaths. A few well-placed editorials in prominent newspapers have done the trick, despite the fact that Prince Charles and the rest of the royal family are ardent supporters of homeopathy. It now seems that some of these folks are taking their show on the road. Two key UK players, Michael Baum and Edzard Ernst have published a commentary in the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine [1] in which they state, "a belief in homeopathy exceeds the tolerance of an open mind. We should start from the premise that homeopathy cannot work and that positive evidence reflects publication bias or design flaws until proved otherwise." Not surprisingly, their commentary also reflects a complete ignorance of homeopathy and the range of studies that support its effectiveness. For example, their article incorrectly uses the term "potentation" instead of "potentization" for the method used to create homeopathic remedies (more on this later). The authors also insist on citing a single negative meta-analysis study that has already been shown to be methodologically flawed [2] , while ignoring many positive studies in respected publications, including two other meta-analyses that showed positive results [3 -8]. So why do the skeptics love to hate homeopathy? Perhaps because it is one of the most threatening alternative modalities - financially, philosophically, and therapeutically. Actually, homeopathy has been a threat to allopathy ever since the 1800s, when German physician Samuel Hahnemann developed the homeopathic system. Founder of Homeopathy Hahnemann, a respected doctor and chemist who helped to pioneer the importance of hygiene as well as homeopathy, was forced to move frequently during his life because the local German apothecaries objected to the fact that he created his own medicines rather than use theirs. A fierce battle was also waged against homeopathy in the United States during the 1800s, where homeopathy had achieved a strong presence by 1840. In fact, in 1847, the American Medical Association (AMA) was formed specifically to fight the battle against homeopathy. Most homeopaths of the 1800s were former allopaths who had abandoned their brethren because they found Hahnemann's system to be more successful in battling cholera, typhus, yellow fever, diptheria, influenza, and other epidemics of the 1800s. In retaliation, the preamble to the AMA's charter forbade its members to associate with homeopaths or to use their medicines, and many doctors were expelled for failing to comply. But does homeopathy really pose such a threat to conventional medicine today? To see how the little David of homeopathycould take down the Goliath of big pharma, we need to take a closer look at what homeopathy is all about. Like Cures Like - - Law of Similars Homeopathic practice is based on a single law of therapeutics called the Law of Similars. This law states that a substance that can cause the symptoms of a disease can also cure it. In fact, that's exactly what word "homeopathy" means: similar ("homeo") suffering ("pathy"). For example, one reason that the remedy Coffea Cruda (made from coffee) can be curative for insomnia is that coffee can cause sleeplessness. Interestingly, allopaths sometimes utilize the Law of Similars, but are unaware of it when they do and are perplexed by the phenomenon. Ask any conventional doctor why Ritalin (a substance that would normally cause hyperactivity) can treat hyperactivity in children, and they'll scratch their heads in confusion. Ask a homeopath, and it's a no-brainer: the Law of Similars. The reason why homeopaths run into trouble with the skeptics, though, revolves around how homeopathic remedies are prepared. Obviously, many of the substances that can cause the symptoms of disease are toxic. This inherent toxicity poses a challenge if you want to administer these substances safely. In an effort to deal with this problem, Hahnemann tried various methods of diluting his medicines so that they would become less harmful to his patients. This proved unsuccessful until he also incorporated vigorous shaking or succussion into the process. The result was a method that he called potentization, in which a substance is serially diluted and succussed over and over. Much to Hahnemann's own surprise, these ultradilutions - so dilute that they cannot possibly contain a single molecule of the original substance - were still potent therapeutically. In fact, they were even more potent than low levels of dilution. Of course, this was and still is too much for the skeptics to bear. It turns much of accepted science on its head! What the skeptics keep ignoring, however, are an increasing number of scientific studies that indicate that some kind of signature of the original substance is embedded in a potentized ultradilution. In a 2007 paper by Professor Rustom Roy, the founding director of the Materials Research Laboratory at Penn State and one of the world's leading experts on the structure of water, it was demonstrated that lab instruments could pick up energetic signatures in ultradilutions that were not only specific to individual homeopathic remedies, but to specific potencies of these remedies [9, 10]. Indeed, science has backed up the phenomenon of potentization for over 20 years. In 1988, Nobel Prize nominee and medical researcher Jacques Benveniste turned the course of his life upside down when he discovered that ultradilutions could retain substance-specific properties. In particular, he found that a certain antibody could be serially diluted and succussed beyond the point where a single molecule could remain, but still cause the same effects [11] . Naturally, the skeptics quickly attacked Benveniste. But he continued his work and further demonstrated that the electromagnetic signature of an ultradilution could be recorded electronically, transmitted via Email, replayed into water, and still achieve the same substance-specific effects in the laboratory [12]. Eventually, Benveniste's results were replicated [13] . Most recently, a 2009 paper by Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier underscored the power of ultradilutions too [14]. Drug Companies are Running Scared Now think about it. This is what big pharma is scared of. What if an expensive drug could be potentized to create billions of effective doses at essentially no cost? It would destroy big pharma entirely. Medicines that cost essentially nothing? Nontoxic ultradiluted medicines that cause fewer side effects? How could the coffers of big pharma be sustained? Forget about the Law of Similars. It's potentization - the process of creating effective ultradilutions - that big pharma is scared of! No wonder Baum and Ernst got the word "potentization" wrong. This one word is the small stone that could take Goliath down. Of course, homeopaths add fuel to the fire. The fundamental philosophy of homeopathy implies that the primary tools of allopathy are harmful. In particular, homeopaths believe that suppressing symptoms with anti-pathic drugs - drugs that oppose the symptoms of a disease rather than mimic them - cannot cure and can even do harm. If a symptom is suppressed - for example, if a seasonal allergy is suppressed by an antihistamine - it is only temporarily palliated. A patient still has allergic tendencies and his or her symptoms will eventually return. That's why suppressive drugs must be taken again and again. And of course, big pharma loves that! It's good for business. Deceptive Cures Unfortunately, if a substance succeeds in completely suppressing a symptom, there may be an illusion of "cure," but the real result is more sinister. Another key tenet of homeopathy is that the true result of suppression is a deepening of the underlying disease state - because the energy of the disease is now forced to manifest in a more serious way. That's why repeated application of cortisone cream to eczema can lead to asthma. That's why the suppression of arthritis pain can lead to heart disease. That's why teenagers who take acne drugs sometimes develop suicidal depression. Doctors call this phenomenon a "side effect" or a "natural disease progression." But that's because they don't understand the effects of suppression or the signs of true cure. Over the past two hundred years, homeopaths have discovered that homeopathic medicines - drugs that mimic a person's symptoms rather than oppose them - can lead to genuine cure of chronic disease, not mere palliation or suppression. Rather than creating a deeper disease, a homeopathic medicine that is similar to a patient's disease can not only cure it, but reveal previously suppressed layers of disease that can be treated too. That's why good homeopathic treatment can often cure asthma - and also reveal and treat previously suppressed eczema. That's why it has the potential to cure arthritis and chronic bladder infections, not simply palliate them with endless medications. Indeed, homeopathy can effectively treat acute diseases like influenza and bacterial infections too. With its ability to successfully treat both chronic and acute disease with low-cost medicines, homeopathy really could be a threat to big pharma, given half a chance. Ideal for Poor Countries or Rich Ones with Declining Economies Poor countries with less access to expensive drugs have already discovered this. That's why homeopathy is the second most widespread form of medicine in the world. In India, homeopathy is a full-fledged medical system with its own medical schools and hospitals. Homeopaths in India successfully treat the full range of diseases, including AIDS, cancer, and malaria. In Cuba, a poor country with a health care system that often does better than our own, homeopathy is being used more and more. In 2008, 2.5 million Cubans were given a homeopathic remedy to prevent Leptospirosis, an infectious disease also known as swamp fever. This disease has plagued the country for several years in the aftermath of flooding, but the year in which homeopathy was used, in contrast to previous years, there were no fatalities and very few cases of the disease [15] . But here's the rub. Homeopathy is harder to practice than allopathy. There are no cookie-cutter cures, especially for chronic disease. (Luckily, however, effective treatment of epidemic diseases like the flu is easier; see Resources.) Each patient's health pattern is unique, so each patient must be treated as an individual. A homeopath must find a single remedy (among thousands of possible homeopathic remedies) whose associated symptoms match those of the patient - not just their main complaint, but their entire symptom picture that includes emotional, mental, behavioral, as well as the physical symptoms of the entire body. It's a daunting task. A practitioner who practices classical homeopathy (the kind of homeopathy I advocate) typically needs at least two hours for an initial case interview and may spend just as long deciding upon a remedy. And sometimes it takes a homeopath several tries to find just the right remedy - the one that homeopaths call the simillimum. This process also requires patients to engage in their own treatment, because symptoms are gathered not by machines or by using tests, but through direct communication between patient and homeopath. Of course, this is not something big pharma, conventional doctors, or insurance companies would be happy about. No expensive medicines or tests or equipment needed? No five-minute appointments reimbursed at $300 a shot? A medical system that requires long appointments, time for case analysis, and patients who must participate in the healing process? Not very lucrative. How I Broke Out of the Mold and Reliance on Failed Medical Therapies Of course, I used to be a lover of conventional medicine like most people. Back in the early 1990s, my husband Steve Rubin and I were both computer researchers in Silicon Valley and followed our doctors' instructions obediently, loading our kids up with every recommended vaccine on schedule. Our allopathic trance began to break in 1994 when our 3-year-old son Max began to show signs of autism. I first read about homeopathy in the January 1995 issue of Mothering Magazine, which contained an article about the successful homeopathic treatment of ADD and other children's behavioral problems [16] . Steve and I decided to give it a try and found a practitioner in our area. Within a week we began to see small and subtle improvement in Max - improvement that became a slow and steady trend. After two years of treatment, he was testing normally and was released from eligibility for special education benefits. His speech and language therapist told the county representative that she had never seen an autistic child recover like Max had, and she fully credited homeopathy for his recovery. By the time he was eight, nearly all signs of Max's autism were gone. Today he is 18, a freshman at a leading university, completely autism free, and without restrictions of any kind. Needless to say, this experience was both mind-boggling and life-transforming. I began to study homeopathy myself and ultimately wrote what became the best-selling patient education book in the USA - Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy [17] - a comprehensive introduction to homeopathic history, philosophy, science, and experience, sprinkled with dozens first-person cure stories for a variety of ailments, along with a chapter about Max's cure. In the end, I left my work in computer science and devoted myself to letting others know about the healing powers of homeopathy. I got involved in the successful campaign for health freedom legislation in California too [18] . Steve also got involved and developed the National Vaccine Information Center's online interface to the VAERS database [19] (the CDC's public record of vaccine injuries). I guess Max's healing led us both to become alternative medicine activists, and we haven't looked back. Conclusion So why not take a look at homeopathy for yourself? Make it your New Year's resolution to find a good classical practitioner and to learn more about this amazing medical modality. The skeptics manage to create a lot of smoke in an effort to hide homeopathy from public view. But where there's smoke, there's fire. Find out about how this powerful healing system - a system that packs a lot of firepower into an infinitesimal punch - can help you and your family. Resources (1) Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy - www.impossiblecure.com . This website includes: book ordering information; autism help page; free archive of Amy's show on AutismOne Radio -There's Hope with Homeopathy; Cure Stories Database; helpful links. (2) National Center for Homeopathy - www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org . Leading open-membership organization for homeopathy in the USA that organizes the yearly national conference. Membership buys a quarterly magazine, Homeopathy Today, monthly eNewsetter, online chats with leading experts, extensive online resources and social network. Website includes many free resources, including practitioner and resource referrals lists and flu treatment information. References [1] Baum, Michael and Edzard Ernst, "Should We Maintain an Open Mind about Homeopathy?" The American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 122, No. 11, pp. 973-974 (November 2009). [2] Shang, A. et al. "Are the Clinical Effects of Homeopathy Placebo Effects? Comparative Study of Placebo-Controlled Trials of Homeopathy and Allopathy," The Lancet, 366, pp. 726-732 (2005). An extensive refutation of the results of this study, including statistical analyses and evidence of foul-play, can be foundhere [3] Linde, K. et al. " Are the Clinical Effects of Homoeopathy Placebo Effects? A Meta-Analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials,"The Lancet, 250, pp. 834-843 (1997). [4] Kleijnen, J. et al. " Clinical Trials of Homeopathy," British Medical Journal, 302, pp. 316-323 (1991). [5] Jacobs, J. et al. " Treatment of Acute Childhood Diarrhea with Homeopathic Medicine: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Nicaragua," Pediatrics, Vol. 83, No. 5, pp. 719-725 (1994). [6] Bell, I.R. et al. " Improved Clinical Status in Fibromyalgia Patients Treated with Individualized Homeopathic Remedies Versus Placebo," Rheumatology, 2004b; 43 (5):577-82. [7] Taylor, M.A. et al. " Randomised Controlled Trial of Homoeopathy Versus Placebo in Perennial Allergic Rhinitis with Overview of Four Trial Series," British Medical Journal, 321, pp. 471-476 (2000). [8] For more trials, see www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org (under Articles, click Research). [9] Rao, et al. " The Defining Role of Structure (Including Epitaxy) in the Plausibility of Homeopathy," Homeopathy, 96, pp. 175-182 (2007). [10] Rao, et. Al. "Characterization of the Structure of Ultra Dilute Sols with Remarkable Biological Properties," Materials Letters, Vol. 62, Issues 10-11, pp. 1487-1490 (2008). [11] Davenas, et al. "Human Basophil Degranulation Triggered by Very Dilute Antiserum Againt IgE," Nature, Vol. 333, No. 6176, pp. 816-818 (1988). [12] Aissa, J. et al. "Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link," Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 99:S175 (1997). [13] Brown, V. and M. Ennis. "Flow-Cytometric Analysis of Basophil Activation: Inhibition by Histamine at Conventional and Homeopathic Concentrations," Inflammation Research, 50, Supplement (2), S47-S48 (2001). [14] Montagnier, Luc, et al. "Electromagnetic Signals Are Produced by Aqueous Nanostructures Derived from Bacterial DNA Sequences," Insterdiscip Sci Comput Life Sci, 1:81-90 (2009). [15] http://homeopathyresource.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/successful-use-of-homeopa thy-in-over-5-million-people-reported-from-cuba/ [16] Reichenberg-Ullman, J. "A Homeopathic Approach to Behavioral Problems," Mothering, Number 74, pp. 97-101 (1995). [17] Lansky, Amy. Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy. R.L. Ranch Press (2003). [18] www.californiahealthfreedom.com . [19] www.medalerts.org . About the Author Amy L. Lansky, PhD was a Silicon Valley computer scientist when her life was transformed by the miraculous homeopathic cure of her son's autism. In April 2003 she published Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy, one of the best-selling books on homeopathy in the USA ( www.impossiblecure.com). Amy is an executive board member of the National Center for Homeopathy ( www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org). She speaks and writes internationally about homeopathy and hosts a monthly radio show on Autism One Radio ( www.autismone.org). Related Links: http://media.mercola.com/Themes/mercolaArticle/images/bullet.gif Ever Wonder Why Homeopathy Works? http://media.mercola.com/Themes/mercolaArticle/images/bullet.gif New Evidence Supports Science Behind Homeopathy http://media.mercola.com/Themes/mercolaArticle/images/bullet.gif Mother Describes Her Son's Cure From Autism in "Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy" Your Logo, Inc. FutureDawning.org Mary Rose, www.futuredawning.org CEO and Founder - Agent for social transformation Future Dawning.org dustysummerrose at gmail.com Always have my latest info Want a signature like this? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 18603 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 159 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 177 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Tue Dec 22 16:30:34 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:30:34 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: The People vs Polluters Message-ID: <003901ca835e$f0666f90$d1334eb0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Please consider donating to this cause if possible. If we bow down to this kind of intimidation we might just as well throw in the towel. Let?s distribute this widely and see how much we can help AVAAZ on this one. From: Ricken Patel - Avaaz.org [mailto:avaaz at avaaz.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 1:42 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: The People vs Polluters Dear friends, The polluting industry lobby stopped a real deal at Copenhagen, and now they're trying to silence the rising climate movement by suing youth activists. They've raised $750,000 for their intimidation effort -- if 20,000 of us give just a small amount each, we'll show them their tactics backfired, and show politicians that people-power can defeat polluters. Click below to chip in: Click to Give A Small Amount Leaders disappointed the entire world in Copenhagen last weekend. But one group was cracking open the champagne - the polluting industry lobbyists who pushed our politicians to failure. The polluters have only one worry now: us. Recently a few youth climate activists (funded by Avaaz online donations!) dared to challenge the most powerful polluter lobbyist group, the US Chamber of Commerce, by helping to stage a humorous satirical press conference announcing the Chamber had decided to help fight climate change. The polluter lobby?s response? A huge lawsuit suing these young activists for potentially enormous amounts of money. Experts say a response like this is extremely rare. It appears designed to send a chilling message to our movement and silence all who would speak out. Let's send a message back. The Chamber has raised $750,000 from US corporations to help launch this attack ? If 20,000 of us give just a small amount each to our effort to stand up for climate activists and stop the polluter lobby, we?ll raise more than them - showing their intimidation backfired! Let?s show the polluter lobby that we can?t be silenced, and show politicians that the future belongs to people, not polluters: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_polluters Copenhagen failed primarily because big polluters US and China wanted a weak agreement. President Obama was heavily constrained by a US Congress that has been captured by lobbyists. The Chamber is a front group for the largest corporations in the polluting lobby, including oil and coal companies like Exxon Mobil. They were major backers of President George W Bush, and have spent hundreds of millions of dollars blocking Obama's attempts at change. The Chamber claims to represent US businesses, but even many large corporations (like Apple, Nike and Microsoft) have opposed its pro-polluter positions on climate change. While people were out in force in Copenhagen, polluter lobbyists worked in the shadows, their voices loud only in our politicians' ears. To get the climate deal we need, we have to expose their influence, stand up to their intimidation tactics, and send a signal to others that the time has come, once and for all, to stand up to the villains holding our planet hostage: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/people_vs_polluters In our journey together as the Avaaz community, we've taken on dictators in Burma and Zimbabwe, promise-breaking politicians in Europe and North America, and the forces of extremism in the Middle East. But the Chamber is in some ways the most powerful and dangerous opponent we've faced. Some have advised Avaaz to stay quiet about this, to protect our own organization. But with danger comes opportunity, and if people power can defeat even the most powerful corporate lobby in the world, we'll send a much broader message, that a new world, the one we all seek, is on its way. With hope, Ricken, Ben, Iain, Alice, Graziela, Luis, Paul, Taren, Sam, Pascal, Benjamin, Paula, Milena and the whole Avaaz team PS - here are some links for more information: New York Times -- "Way behind the curve" - the NYT savages the Chamber's position on climate change: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30wed3.html Washington Post -- "The U.S. chamber vs honesty" - the Post is scathing about the Chamber's tactics: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102602714.html Huffington Post -- "PGE Quits US Chamber of Commerce" - about large corporations leaving the Chamber because of its climate stance: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/pge-quits-us-chamber-of-c_b_295424.html Common Dreams - covering the satirical press conference about the Chamber: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/19-9 ------------------------------ Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here . ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns. Don't forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace and Bebo pages! You can also follow Avaaz on Twitter! You are getting this message because you signed "Stand with Tibet - Support the Dalai Lama" on 2008-03-30 using the email address maryrose333 at att.net. To ensure that Avaaz messages reach your inbox, please add avaaz at avaaz.org to your address book. To change your email address, language settings, or other personal information, click here: https://secure.avaaz.org/act/index.php?r=profile &user=a98a963da1ffa62878f25e4ba46af430&lang=en or simply click here to unsubscribe. To contact Avaaz, please do not reply to this email. Instead, write to us via the webform at http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact. You can also call us at +1-888-922-8229 (US) or +55 21 2509 0368 (Brazil). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 23 00:28:56 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:28:56 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews Dec 22 2009 #1 Message-ID: <001d01ca83a1$c09eb400$41dc1c00$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 4:19 PM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] NetNews Dec 22 2009 #1 (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) Soci?t? G?n?rale tells clients how to prepare for potential 'global collapse' Soci?t? G?n?rale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Published: 6:12PM GMT 18 Nov 2009 In a report entitled "Worst-case debt scenario", the bank's asset team said state rescue packages over the last year have merely transferred private liabilities onto sagging sovereign shoulders, creating a fresh set of problems. Overall debt is still far too high in almost all rich economies as a share of GDP (350pc in the US), whether public or private. It must be reduced by the hard slog of "deleveraging", for years. "As yet, nobody can say with any certainty whether we have in fact escaped the prospect of a global economic collapse," said the 68-page report, headed by asset chief Daniel Fermon. It is an exploration of the dangers, not a forecast. Under the French bank's "Bear Case" scenario (the gloomiest of three possible outcomes), the dollar would slide further and global equities would retest the March lows. Property prices would tumble again. Oil would fall back to $50 in 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6599281/Societe-Generale-tells- clients-how-to-prepare-for-global-collapse.html Beyond ecological imperialism The row over climate change isn't just a battle between rich and poor, it illustrates the futility of obsession with economic growth guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 December 2009 12.30 GMT Part of the problem is that the issue of climate change is increasingly portrayed as that of competing interests between countries. Thus, the summit has been interpreted variously as a fight between the "two largest culprits" ? the US and China ? or between a small group of developed countries and a small group of newly emerging countries (the group of four ? China, India, Brazil and South Africa), or at best between rich and poor countries. But describing this as a fight between countries misses the essential point: that the issue is really linked to an economic system ? capitalism ? that is crucially dependent upon rapid growth as its driving force, even if this "growth" does not deliver better lives for the people. So there is no questioning of the supposition that rich countries with declining populations must keep on growing in terms of GDP, rather than finding different ways of creating and distributing output to generate better quality of life. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/dec/21/economic-imper ialism-climate-change Obama administration orders airlines to limit tarmac wait times, provide food and bathrooms to stuck passengers. Responding to horror stories of stranded travelers, the Obama administration ordered airlines today to allow passengers to disembark from planes that have been stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours. With the move, the Obama administration is ?sending an unequivocal message to airlines that it won?t tolerate? excessive delays: "Airlines will be required to provide food and water for passengers within two hours of a plane being delayed on a tarmac, and to maintain operable lavatories. They must also provide passengers with medical attention when necessary. [...]" http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/21/tarmac-wait-times/ Who's Polluting the Climate Conversation? Money, think tanks, and the scientists-for-hire behind the doubt and denial. by James Hoggan posted Dec 01, 2009 Scientists now warn that climate change is happening faster, and is a bigger threat, than they predicted just a few years ago. Yet the number of Americans who believe climate change is occurring at all is decreasing. That?s shocking?but not surprising. It?s shocking because the stakes are so high and the science is so clear. A recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences carried an article reporting that sedimentary records from an Arctic lake show warmer temperatures in the last few decades than at any time in the past 200,000 years. At the same time, the Pew Research Center reported that the number of Americans who believe the Earth is warming has dropped from 71 percent to just 57 percent in the last 18 months. How can that be unsurprising? Well, because the loudest voices in the U.S. climate conversation come not from scientists, but from dirty energy industries, with their paid experts and think tanks, who are promoting a view of science that serves their economic interests, regardless of what is actually true. This is not an idle assertion. It comes from four years of research on the climate website DeSmogBlog.com, which Richard Littlemore and I have compiled into the new book Climate Cover-up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/whos-polluting-the-climate- conversation ?Conservative of the year? Dick Cheney denies there have been ?any results? from the stimulus. Today, Human Events named former Vice President Dick Cheney the ?conservative of the year,? publishing a laudatory essay on Cheney by former UN ambassador John Bolton. ?Cheney knows that the personal attacks on him, as offensive as they are, in reality constitute stark evidence that Obama and his supporters are simply unable to match him in the substantive policy debate,? wrote Bolton. But in an accompanying interview with Human Events Editors Tom Winter and Jed Babbin, Cheney demonstrated that he doesn?t want to actually engage in a ?substantive policy debate? by claiming that there haven?t been ?any results? from President Obama?s stimulus package: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/21/cheney-conservative-year/ Copenhagen: Things Fall Apart And An Uncertain Future Looms By Bill Mckibben 22 December, 2009 James Hansen, the great climate scientist who started the global warming era with his 1988 testimony before the U.S. Congress, and whose team provided the crucial 350 number that now defines the planet?s habitability, refused to come to Copenhagen, predicting it would be a charade. He was correct. On Sunday he predicted a greater than 50 percent chance that 2010 would be the warmest year ever recorded. If you want to bet against him, you can. http://www.countercurrents.org/mckibben221209.htm States' jobless funds are being drained in recession Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, December 22, 2009 The recession's jobless toll is draining unemployment-compensation funds so fast that according to federal projections, 40 state programs will go broke within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit checks. Currently, 25 states have run out of unemployment money and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government to cover the gaps. By 2011, according to Department of Labor estimates, 40 state funds will have been emptied by the jobless tsunami. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/21/AR2009122103 269.html Michele Bachmann: Welfare Queen Michele Bachmann's Family Farm Got $250,000 In Federal Subsidies Posted on Dec 22, 2009 By Yasha Levine Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government ?handout? as socialism. What her followers probably don?t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That?s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade. And she?s not the only one who has been padding her bank account with taxpayer money. Bachmann, of Minnesota, has spent much of this year agitating against health care reform, whipping up the so-called tea-baggers with stories of death panels and rationed health care. She has called for a revolution against what she sees as Barack Obama?s attempted socialist takeover of America, saying presidential policy is ?reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom.? But data compiled from federal records by Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit watchdog that tracks the recipients of agricultural subsidies in the United States, shows that Bachmann has an inner Marxist that is perfectly at ease with profiting from taxpayer largesse. According to the organization?s records, Bachmann?s family farm received $251,973 in federal subsidies between 1995 and 2006. The farm had been managed by Bachmann?s recently deceased father-in-law and took in roughly $20,000 in 2006 and $28,000 in 2005, with the bulk of the subsidies going to dairy and corn. Both dairy and corn are heavily subsidized?or ?socialized??businesses in America (in 2005 alone, Washington spent $4.8 billion propping up corn prices) and are subject to strict government price controls. These subsidies are at the heart of America?s bizarre planned agricultural economy and as far away from Michele Bachmann?s free-market dream world as Cuba?s free medical system. If American farms such as hers were forced to compete in the global free market, they would collapse. However, Bachmann doesn?t think other Americans should benefit from such protection and assistance. She voted against every foreclosure relief bill aimed at helping average homeowners (despite the fact that her district had the highest foreclosure rate in Minnesota), saying that bailing out homeowners would be ?rewarding the irresponsible while punishing those who have been playing by the rules.? That?s right, the subsidy queen wants the rest of us to be responsible. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/michelle_bachman_welfare_queen_20091221/ Aboxalypse Now! Overpackaging, killer clamshells, and other common triggers of wrap rage. November/December 2009 Issue http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/11/aboxalypse-now The Three Wise Guys ...! http://www.seattlepi.com/horsey/viewbydate.asp?id=2025 From maryrose333 at att.net Wed Dec 23 01:31:55 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:31:55 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: News from The International Academy of Holodynamics Message-ID: <003201ca83aa$8e010170$aa030450$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Congratulations are in order for the International Academy of Holodynamics which under the direction of Dr. V. Vernon Woolf has succeeded in bringing a large group together in Canada to begin the creation of a sustainable living community. This is a milestone because what has been accomplished here is moving beyond "talking about it" to "doing something about it" on a major scale and in a very short period of time. And what is really unique about this is that this action arose out of one of Vern's lengthy Intensive workshops which brought the group together quickly through the transformation of the collective consciousness. What happened here is that under Vern's skilled guidance, the people in this group reprogrammed their sub-conscious mind and moved quickly into another level of thinking and awareness that allowed them to make what might be referred to as a "quantum leap" that resulted in monumental action being taken. In essence, what happened here is that individuals repaired their DNA which allowed them to go back into their natural holographic state of mind/consciousness. We are all born with this holographic mind field in place, but due to programming by our parents and the current programming by the school system coupled with religious programming in some instances, by the age of about seven, we have undergone a partial symbolic lobotomy and have become "left-brain oriented." However, I would also like to mention here that through what appears to be an "energy transfer," what Woolf calls "holodynes," that is, information systems or thought patterns that are holographic in nature and which have the "power to cause" are transferred from the mother to the child en utero, and stored in the ionic water in the microtubules of the cells of the body. And, as the child matures, these holodynes cause behavior patterns programmed in a prior lifetime, or from a traumatic occurrence earlier in life to appear and take control of the body/mind field until such time as they are reprogrammed or matured to the state which Woolf calls "the full potential self." What if feel is important to bring into this conversation at this time is also the research that Dr. Bruce Lipton has conducted in the field of "epigenetics" revealing that "genes do not control life as formerly thought," it is our perception of our environment (the way we think) that controls life. What becomes apparent here, for me anyway, is that "holodynes" and "genes" are two different entities. More on this later. I am holding the field for the fullest potential to unfold in this event now in the best interests of all concerned. From: The International Academy of Holodynamics [mailto:victorvernon at holodynamics.ccsend.com] On Behalf Of The International Academy of Holodynamics Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 4:46 PM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: News from The International Academy of Holodynamics You're receiving this email because of your relationship with Vernon Woolf and The International Academy of Holodynamics. Please confirm your continued interest in receiving email from us. You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails. logo The International Academy of Holodynamics Latest News In This Issue Workshop Schedule Alumni -Social Networks Virtual Holon Call Trackings and Relives New words Coaching Program Workshop Schedule Jan. 30 - Feb. 7, 2010 - Workshop - Clarkdale, (near Sedona) Arizona Mar. 13 - 21, 2010 -- Workshop - April 24 - May 2, 2010 - Workshop - Clarkdale, (near Sedona) Arizona Register online online at www.holodynamics.com or call for details 928 634-3333 ALUMNI - International Academy of Holodynamics (the Academy) certified in the science of Holodynamics course of study. Would you like to stay connected with other Holodynamics Alumni? Stay connected, share information and learn about upcoming events in your choice of several global Holodynamics online social media communities! LINKEDIN, Plaxo and Facebook. It's EASY. 1. To join, click the link(s) to the online group(s) of your choice. 2. Not a LinkedIn or Plaxo member? Create a new profile and return to step 1. .LINKEDIN.COM Alumni International Academy of Holodynamics PLAXO.COM Alumni International Academy of Holodynamics Instructions for FACEBOOK.COM Holodynamic pages and groups ONLY. 1. Login in at www.facebook.com 2. Not a Facebook member? Create a new profile and return to step 1. 3. Enter "Holodynamics" in the Search box in the upper right hand corner of the Facebook page. 4. All Holodynamic pages and groups will appear. 5. Select the pages and groups you want to join by clicking the respective links displayed to the right of the each page or group. . Become a fan. . Request to join. . Join Group Privacy Disclosure: The International Academy of Holodynamics is committed to protecting your privacy and does not share your information. Participation in Holodynamic social networking sites is voluntary. When participating in online Social Networking communities be aware that you are responsible to control and to manage your privacy settings. Holodynamic groups in LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook are hosted in public virtual environments offering privacy protections that differ for each site. Please contact resources at the respective social networking sites for advice on how to manage access to your profile and to protect your personal information when joining groups. Virtual Holon Calls are every Monday Everyone is welcome to join our Monday Virtual Holon Call There is NO cost to attend and the calls are very informational. You may be a part of a live tracking session or ask questions of others who are learning to apply and incorporate Holodynamics. 5:30 PST 6:30 PM (Arizona -7.00 GMT) 8:30 PM EST The call will last an hour. Dial in number 712-432-0075 Access code 142260 To listen to last weeks call the playback number is 712-432-1085 access code 142260 Be sure to phone in a few minutes early. Join Our Mailing List Quick Links... Our Website Products Services More About Us HolodynamicsForABetterWorld.com IAONS.org Coaching Program Dear Mary , Wow! It was a remarkable workshop and conversation in Vancouver, B.C.this month. It was great to have Michael Rice, Dan Winter and Nassim Harriman join us and show how the relationship between architectural designs for vitalized living, subatomic electronics and cosmic quantum physics seamlessly come together with the science of consciousness. It became perfectly clear that we are one whole dynamic field of consciousness and that we have an abundant, personal source of energy and power. Very special thanks go to Peter Champagne and his team who hosted the event and to the members of the Academy who assisted. I am thrilled that participants like Kees Hoogenijk (from Holland), Josef Tyls (Temple of Harmonics), Svetlana Savelyeva (Holodynamics, Russia), Michael Hay, Naomi Dankwerth and her daughter Ka-ila (teacher-child), Ted McGrath and each of our participants, brilliant lights (too many to mention) helped launch a this shift in consciousness. The seeds of this epic event are being planted in the hearts of people around the planet (via your personal sharing and multimedia) and are already growing exponentially. It is also notable that, as we gathered, we were welcomed to the land by Native American Elders who "knew" we were coming and planned ahead, showed up, sang their song and participated fully in the most important conversation on the planet: how we can build a better world together! Plans for our natural, renewable, rejuvenating community are progressing rapidly. Arrangements for the land and financing are underway. Details of the community are being co-created. As the Elders have explained, "each person is an important piece of the larger picture." Thanks to each of you, this is an ongoing conversation that is turning into specific applications within the rising tide of consciousness. This is about creating a better world so future generations can survive and thrive. With all-embracing love, Vernon Woolf and the Holodynamic team (Mark McFeely, Scott Moore, MaryAnne Baker, Darylle Dennis, Svetlana Savelyeva and Holodynamic Teams around the world). PS Our next workshop begins January 30, 2010 in the Sedona, Arizona area. Plan to attend, make you reservations today. If you are an affiliate or would like to become one and you would like to help in the promotion of this event please contact MaryAnne. Affilaiates receive a 20% referral fee. For more information or to sign up see our Affiliate page Thank you, Vern Woolf and the Holodynamics Team Good News from Trackings and Relives! Read on to learn about how a recent prelive occurred in four dimensions simultaneously, and set the stage for peace among governing bodies now and in the future. It is a story about how one man's consciousness changed history. Some of our Holon groups have been very active lately with diverse aspects that are coming up for transformation. As we know, each time a holodyne or a cluster of holodynes is transformed within us as individuals, it effectively reverberates into the collective. If we take an issue that might simply be tracked one step deeper through a relive/prelive process and discover its source, we can then effectuate a transformation through other time dimensions and parallel realities that creates positive change in the past, the present, the future, and for the collective. read more A note from Sue Each year the Oxford University Press identifies "new" words for future dictionaries that have been made popular by common usage by the general public. This year the winning word is 'UNFRIEND". This word is used in computer-based social networks to unfriend someone previously designated as a friend. As every true Holodynamist well knows the most powerful gifts come from those who we might not appreciate having as a friend at first glance. It is wise to stay conscious in our understanding of our true connection, and to be willing to transform into its fullest potential each aspect that crosses our path. If you are experiencing any relationship challenges in your life, remember to Stay in your full potential Communicate with the other's full potential Stay focused on the solution Be willing to take action towards the solution This way we can ALL be friends! Coaching Program We have two monthly coaching calls each month, in order to join these calls you must be a member of the coaching program. To sign up for the Coaching program go to the coaching page on our website and sign up. If you are already a Subscriber you can go to your subscriber page and add monthly coaching to your options. Coaching members may join one or both calls. Our next calls will be Tuesday December 29 at 6:00 PST 7:00 Arizona (-7 GMT) 9:00 EST and/or Wednesday December 30 at 12:30 PST 1:30 Arizona (-7 GMT) 3:30 EST 8:30 PM UK These calls are generally held on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of each month Each month we address specific target subjects and issues around developing your desired results, you will not only expedite your personal unfolding, but will also contribute to unfolding at every level (relationships, organizations, etc.) and through our hyperspacial connection help transform the collective. Love is to hold a field for the unfolding of the fullest potential of another. With love, Vern and the Holodynamic Team Bookmark and Share Forward email Safe Unsubscribe This email was sent to maryrose333 at att.net by info at holodynamics.com. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe T | Privacy Policy . Email Marketing by The International Academy of Holodynamics | 989 South Main St | Suite A-183 | Cottonwood | AZ | 86326 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Wed Dec 23 02:58:31 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:28:31 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate ChangeAwareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. In-Reply-To: <461688.36773.qm@web86005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> References: <31f677a30912220634j13ad0151k10b7a0445cbbfd1c@mail.gmail.com> <461688.36773.qm@web86005.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912230158q51b24732ide197b9c7eb5dabb@mail.gmail.com> Dear David, Thanks for sharing about the conference to the list of people, I had cced my response for UN Solution Exchange Climate Community for information. Very soon, I would like to have an appointment with Dr.Khan for discussing the modalities of the international conference. Meanwhile, we are working towards a national conference on the issue and God willing in the year 2010, this may be realized. With warmest regards Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 6:56 AM, david soori wrote: > With due respect to all you are all missing the common denominator to the > problem is green energy. > What is holding it back is the Money Supply as interest bearing debt. > Dr.Mukthar and Dr Khan are endeavouring to organise a conference in India, > where I would be bring in eminent academics from Europe, the US, Canada to > out line proposals for a non violent non inflationary interest free economic > model to ensure a steady organic growth abolish poverty in five years, and > good bye to boom and bust, which the Indian economic policies are heading > for.Your leadership is happy to listen to war criminals, let them listen to > committed pacifists > Please give all your support to this. > Best Regards > David Soori > U.K > > > --- On *Tue, 22/12/09, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & > Governance * wrote: > > > From: Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance < > ceasig at gmail.com> > Subject: Fwd: [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate > ChangeAwareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. > To: "Amina Ather" , "kulan amin" < > kulan.amin at cec.eu.int>, "prabhjot" , > tdhindia at vsnl.com, "Kishore Jha" , "Ram Kishan" < > ramkishan2000 at gmail.com>, indumanav at yahoo.com, "Amit Chakraborty" < > amit626 at gmail.com>, ami at tactonic.net, "kaukab siddique" , > "Chai Kadai collective" , "david soori" < > sooriuk at yahoo.com>, "David Pidcock" , > "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" < > discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>, "David John Kong" < > kong4 at etu.unige.ch>, danishaziz.ir at gmail.com, "Diana Korchien" < > diana at flipsidevision.com>, "Yassir Entrepreneur" < > yasentrepreneur at gmail.com>, "Julie Littlefield" , > editor at ibnlive.com, "Irfan Engineer" , "Islamic > Society of Institutional Economics I-SIE" , "Farhan Noor" > , feedback at ndtv.com, "Freya Seath" < > freyaseath at hotmail.com>, frontline at thehindu.co.in, peterchallen at gmail.com, > "girdhari jha" , ghulammuhammed3 at gmail.com, > "Himanshu Thakkar" , ieer at ieer.org, "DR.QASIM RASOOL > ILYAS" , "Bali, J S" > Date: Tuesday, 22 December, 2009, 14:34 > > > sharing for the needful. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance < > ceasig at gmail.com > > > Date: Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 7:54 PM > Subject: Re: [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate > ChangeAwareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. > To: Climate Change Community > > > Cc: info at channelone.tv, > news at channelone.tv > > > Dear members, > Greetings for peace, > > I would like to endorse the call of Ms.Chitra Ramaswami for refraining from > using green house gas emitting services and utilities before reusing and > recycling. This could be tough for many in the urban areas as lots of > consumption is based on fossil fuels. But that is what is needs to be > achieved ,if we are to collectively contribute in the reducing the emission > of green house gases by personally acting upon the call. This can be done > through adoption of carbon-neutral measures in several sites of consumption. > Center for Ecological Audit ,Social Inclusion and Governance calling for > adoption of faith based omnibus responses calls for adoption of > carbon-neutral leisure to start with the reducing the emissions that are > made though leisure activities . A network has been created for > carbon-neutral neighborhood discussions and leisure recognizing the > criticality of reducing emissions through transforming travel intensive > leisure within and across the cities and within and across the nations > http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com Also a movement for transforming > ecologically hostile habitats has been initiated with more than 80 members > http://transitionindia.ning.com > Having shared these, I would like to share my responses for the query as > noted below the questions: > > > ** > 1. Experiences on role of media in disseminating Climate Change knowledge/ > information. How media professionals can be equipped with information, > knowledge and skills to understand the science and facts surrounding Climate > Change with a view to demystifying the same for their audience/readers. > > Channel One TV, NDTV , India TV, Sahara and others have been disseminating > information on climate change and its impacts. They have been warning about > the impacts and at times the descriptions are quite horrifying. I think most > the new channels and newspapers have access to information. There is no > dearth of information. There is need to conduct weekly ecological audits for > the advertising policy and create a climate of opinion for ecologically safe > terms of evaluation. This requires a thorough understanding of the climate > change and its impacts. i think the most important contribution of the media > would be on transforming the consumption pattern among youths and rich who > are using energy intensive modes of travel for leisure. > > *2. *Methods that provide media professionals with an > opportunity to conceptualize and practice reporting on Climate Change from > perspective of various scenarios and angles > > One of the important means that media organisations need to adopt is > training for Green Journalism , reporting with reference to the ecological > implications of the development policy, political visions and manifestoes > and integrating ecostrategic considerations in the generating advisory > propositions. Organisations like Centre for Ecological Audit,Social > Inclusion and Governance could be involved in creating training modules. A > reference to carbon-neutral leisure could seen through the posts at the > community of ecostrategic communicators > http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com A related presentation can be > seen posted at > http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/carbon-neutral-neighbourhood-discussionsconsultations-for-ecological-audit-neighbourhood-and-personal-processes-for-personal-and-social-wellbeing-and-countering-climate-change > > *3. *Success stories/ field experiences focused on the > production of news/ stories, photos, audio/video programmes for newspapers/ > magazines/ web portal, TV, radio etc. > I think,channel like Channel One have taken a good initiative for saving > Ganga river. These initiatives need to boosted with change in the > consumption patterns. There are ecologically hostile projects that need to > exposed. Commonhealth games related creation of infrastructure could be > assessed for ecological impact. NDTV has a section on Green work but then > the promotion of ecologically hostile travel leisure beats the campaign for > Green lives. There is need to seek inner consistency in the communication > ethos of the channels as contradictory communication would not work for > securing the ecologically safe future of children in India. > > *4. *Financial assistance/ support, fellowship etc for > journalists to participate in Climate Change related media workshops > > I would encourage creation of in-house carbon-neutral forums for discussing > the best ecologically benevolent journalism. E-discussions could be used > for sharing. However, building the systematic communication module for > climate change could be supported by international and national agencies . I > am an advocate of ecostrategic journalism and a reference could be seen at > http://www.slideshare.net/mukhtaralam/annoucing-a-new-disciple-of-ecostrategics > > With warmest regards > > Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam > Executive Director(H) > > > On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 10:17 AM, Chitra Narayanswamy < > chitra.narayanswamy at undp.org > > wrote: > >> Dear Members, >> >> >> >> In my opinion, be it an individual or a media professional, they are key >> to help people understand and digest the root causes that brings about >> Climate Change. When we target different spheres of our society, every >> Climate Change message must highlight as to how we are: >> > > > *1. *Over populating and using the planet?s resources beyond measure > > *2. *The constant need to refrain from using, before we think of > reusing or recycling. > > > > It does not call for dramatic life style changes, at least not for us in > the eastern cultures, but small steps at home and workplace is all that is > required. We constantly need to revisit our aping the western model and > practices which is neither required nor can we afford at any point in our > development path. > > > > Let us revert back to our old life style practices like carrying a cloth > bag, a water bottle, ride a bicycle or even give our neighbor a car ride > (eases the traffic), all of which is a fad and fashionable in the West. > > > > Regards, > > > > Chitra Narayanswamy, > > Energy and Environment Unit, > > United Nations Development Programme, > > New Delhi > > > ------------------------------ > > * * > > *Original Query:* > > * * > > *From:* Kalyan Singh Kothari [mailto:kalyansinghkothari at yahoo.com > ] > *Sent:* Monday, December 07, 2009 5:25 PM > *To:* 'Climate Change Community' > *Subject:* [se-clmt] QUERY: Role of Media in Climate Change > Awareness-Experiences; Examples. Reply by 24 December 2009. > > > > Dear Members, > > > > I am a freelance journalist and a media consultant to various developmental > organizations like Centre for Community Economics Development Consultants > (CECOEDECON). I am also involved in the Campaign under the banner ?Beyond > Copenhagen: Collective Action on Climate Change?. The first phase of the > campaign focused ?towards a National Consensus on India?s position in > International Negotiations? in which a large number of stakeholders > including farmers, women, media persons and policymakers participated, > followed by a regional consultation and workshops in Maharashtra, > Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar. A state level media sensitization workshop > on Climate Change and emerging challenges was organized in Jaipur on 16 > September 2009 and in Delhi on 23 November 2009. > > > > Regular, accurate communication about Climate Change is the first step > toward developing appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies. > Communication has already proved a powerful tool in areas like disaster > management, HIV/AIDS etc. With regard to Climate Change, media can play a > crucial role in disseminating information to effectively guide public debate > and understanding of Climate Change impacts, vulnerabilities and mitigation/ > adaptation strategies. Media has a decisive role to play in providing people > with information that would help them to change their mindsets and > behaviour, as an individual and collectively, towards the environment. > > > > In the above context, I request members to share: > > > > *1. *Experiences on role of media in disseminating > Climate Change knowledge/ information. How media professionals can be > equipped with information, knowledge and skills to understand the science > and facts surrounding Climate Change with a view to demystifying the same > for their audience/readers. > > > > *2. *Methods that provide media professionals with an > opportunity to conceptualize and practice reporting on Climate Change from > perspective of various scenarios and angles > > > > *3. *Success stories/ field experiences focused on the > production of news/ stories, photos, audio/video programmes for newspapers/ > magazines/ web portal, TV, radio etc. > > > > *4. *Financial assistance/ support, fellowship etc for > journalists to participate in Climate Change related media workshops > > > > This discussion will provide better understanding of the role of media in > creating awareness about Climate Change. It will help us organize media > workshops that provide better understanding of Climate Change to media > professionals and at the same time develop a network of Climate Change > journalists including a roaster of experts/ resource persons. > > > > Kalyan Singh Kothari, > > Jaipur > > > > > > > -- > Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive > justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre > For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an > initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for > socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing > and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, > building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking > ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying > personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically > safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially > inclusive governance. > Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 > Phones: 0968345380 > http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com > http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com > http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam > > > > -- > Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive > justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre > For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an > initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for > socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing > and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, > building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking > ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying > personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically > safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially > inclusive governance. > Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 > Phones: 0968345380 > http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com > http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com > http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Wed Dec 23 20:08:48 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:38:48 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [IHRO] Copehagen Fallout: Bolivia Calls World Conference of Social Movements Message-ID: <870771.16846.qm@web94905.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Eliminating?ecologically hostile finance fuelling expansion of ecologically hostile urban habitats, accelrating consumption of GHG emitting services and utitilities is critical. A call for protecting renewable resource based habitats and mitigating climate change has been made by the Socialist Movement?and this call would get more result if they call for the elimination of the usurious finance system through?transforming that through global adoption of the call for removal of interest?bearing?debt based money. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: thomask_sa kocherry To: IHRO at yahoogroups.com Cc: sukla.sen at gmail.com Sent: Thu, 24 December, 2009 12:52:20 AM Subject: Re: [IHRO] Copehagen Fallout: Bolivia Calls World Conference of Social Movements ? thanks Please go ahead thomas kocherry On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 9:11 AM, psn.1946 wrote: ? > > >Date:22/12/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu .com/2009/ 12/22/stories/ 2009122255360800 .htm ________________________________ Back Opinion - Leader Page Articles > >The truth of what happened at Copenhagen Fidel Castro Ruz >The climate summit was far from being a democratic exercise. But the struggle to prevent the terrible consequences of climate change must continue. >The youth is more interested than anyone else in the future. Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centres on whether human society will survive. These are not dramatic phrases. We must get used to the facts. Hope is the last thing human beings can relinquish. With truthful arguments, men and women of all ages, especially young people, have waged an exemplary battle at the Summit and taught the world a great lesson. It is important now that the world come to know what happened in Copenhagen. >If anything significant was achieved in the Danish capital, it was that the media coverage allowed the world public to watch the political chaos created there and the humiliating treatment accorded to heads of states or governments, ministers and thousands of representatives of social movements and institutions that in hope and expectation travelled to the Summit?s venue in Copenhagen. >No one could have thought that on December 18, 2009, the last day of the Summit, this would be suspended by the Danish government ? a NATO ally associated with the carnage in Afghanistan ? to offer the conference?s plenary hall to President Obama for a meeting where only he and a selected group of guests, 16 in all, would have the exclusive right to speak. >Mr. Obama?s deceitful, demagogic, and ambiguous remarks failed to involve a binding commitment and ignored the Kyoto Framework Convention. He then left the room shortly after listening to a few other speakers. Among those invited to take the floor were the highest industrialised nations, several emerging economies, and some of the poorest countries in the world. The leaders and representatives of over 170 countries were only allowed to listen. >At the end of the speeches of the 16 chosen, Evo Morales [of Bolivia] requested the floor. The Danish president had no choice but to yield to the insistence of the other delegations. When Evo had concluded his wise and deep observations, the Danish had to give the floor to Hugo Chavez. Both speeches will be registered by history as examples of short and timely remarks. Then, with their mission duly accomplished, they both left for their respective countries. But when Mr. Obama disappeared, he had yet to fulfil his task in the host country. >From the evening of the 17th and the early morning hours of the 18th, the Prime Minister of Denmark and senior representatives of the United States had been meeting with the Chairman of the European Commission and the leaders of 27 nations to introduce to them ? on behalf of Mr. Obama ? a draft agreement in whose elaboration none of the other leaders of the rest of the world had taken part. It was an anti-democratic and practically clandestine initiative that disregarded the thousands of representatives of social movements, scientific and religious institutions, and other participants in the Summit. >Through the night of the 18th and until 3:00 a.m. of the 19th, when many heads of states had already departed, the representatives of the countries waited for the resumption of the sessions and the conclusion of the event. Throughout the 18th, Mr. Obama held meetings and press conferences, and the same did the European leaders. Then they left. Something unexpected happened then: at three in the morning of the 19th, the Prime Minister of Denmark convened a meeting to conclude the Summit. By then, the countries were represented by ministers, officials, ambassadors, and technical staff. >However, an amazing battle was waged that morning by a group of representatives of third world countries challenging the attempt by Mr. Obama and the wealthiest on the planet to introduce a document imposed by the United States as one agreed by consensus in the Summit. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba [Bruno Rodriguez] made a vigorous speech from which I have chosen [these observations] : >?The document that you, Mister Chairman, repeatedly claimed that did not exist shows up now?we have seen drafts circulating surreptitiously and being discussed in secret meetings?Cuba considers the text of this apocryphal draft extremely inadequate and inadmissible. The goal of 2 degrees centigrade is unacceptable and it would have incalculable catastrophic consequences? The document that you are unfortunately introducing is not binding in any way with respect to the reduction of the greenhouse effect gas emissions?I am aware of the previous drafts, which also through questionable and clandestine procedures, were negotiated by small groups of people?The document you are introducing now fails to include the already meagre key phrases contained in that draft?as far as Cuba is concerned, it is incompatible with the universally recognised scientific view that it is urgent and inescapable to ensure the reduction of at least 45 per cent of the emissions by the year 2020, and of no less than 80 per cent or 90 per cent by 2050. >?Any argument on the continuation of the negotiations to reach agreement in the future to cut down emissions must inevitably include the concept of the validity of the Kyoto Protocol ? Your paper, Mister Chairman, is a death certificate of the Kyoto Protocol and my delegation cannot accept it. The Cuban delegation would like to emphasise the pre-eminence of the principle of ?common by differentiated responsibilities,? as the core of the future process of negotiations. Your paper does not include a word on that.? >?This draft declaration fails to mention concrete financial commitments and the transfer of technologies to developing countries, which are part of the obligations contracted by the developed countries under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change ? Mister Chairman, by imposing their interests through your document, the developed nations are avoiding any concrete commitment?? >The representatives of the countries had been given only one hour to present their views. This led to complicated, shameful, and embarrassing situations. Then a lengthy debate ensued where the delegations from the developed countries put heavy pressure on the rest to make the conference adopt the above-mentioned document as the final result of their deliberations. A small number of countries insisted on the grave omissions and ambiguities of the document promoted by the United States, particularly the absence of a commitment by the developed countries on the reduction of carbon emissions and on the financing. >After a long and extremely tense discussion, the position of the ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America] countries and Sudan, as President of the G-77, that the document was unacceptable to the conference and could not be adopted, prevailed. In view of the absence of consensus, the Conference could only ?take note? of the existence of that document representing the position of a group of about 25 countries. >After that decision was made, Bruno [Rodriguez], together with other ALBA representatives, had a friendly discussion with the U.N. Secretary-General to whom they expressed their willingness to continue struggling alongside the United Nations to prevent the terrible consequences of climate change. Their mission completed, Cuba?s Foreign Minister and Vice President, Esteban Lazo, departed to come back home and attend the National Assembly session. A few members of the delegation and the ambassador stayed in Copenhagen to take part in the final procedures. >This afternoon they reported the following: ??both those involved in the elaboration of the document and those like the President of the United States who anticipated its adoption by the conference ? as they could not disregard the decision to simply ?take note? of the alleged ?Copenhagen Agreement,? they tried to introduce a procedure allowing the other COP countries that had not been a part of the shady deal to adhere to it, and make it public, the intention being to pretend such an agreement was legal, something that could precondition the results of the negotiations that should carry on.? >?Such belated attempt was firmly opposed by Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia. These countries warned that a document which had not been adopted by the Convention could not be considered legal and that there was not a COP document; therefore, no regulations could be established for its alleged adoption ? This is how the meeting in Copenhagen is coming to an end, without the adoption of the document surreptitiously worked out in the past few days under the clear ideological guidance of the U.S. Administration ?? >(This is an abridged version of the Cuban leader?s Reflections, dated December 19, 2009.) >? Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu > > >On 12/23/09, Sukla Sen wrote: >? >>[The Left in India, very much like the Right, has taken a strong eco-nationalist, or rather eco-chauvinist, stand. The Congress is only a bit muted. Any international scrutiny is anathema as it curtails "sovereignty". Evidently,?"sovereignty" is far more vital than human survival.? >> >>? >>Such global campaigns led by Bolivia would put them to some embarrassments at least. >> >>? >>But beyond that, such a global meet and a?vigorous?campaign for bold, meaningful?and ?transparent?actions is the need of the hour. In order to push both the Developed and the BASIC bloc, the major emitters and roadblocks, who entered into an unholy deal at the Copenhagen meet. The principle of?differentiated? but common?responsibilit y?has got to be acknowledged.The move must be?heartily?welcomed. And reinforced in all possible ways.] >> >>? >>http://links. org.au/node/ 1419#comment- 52978 >> >>? >>Bolivia calls World Conference of Social Movements >>December 21, 2009 >>? >>April 22, 2010: International Day of Mother Earth >>CHUQUISACA, Bolivia, December 20 ? Bolivian President Evo Morales announced today that a world conference of social movements is to take place in Bolivia, as a response to the failure of the 15th Summit on Climate Change, recently held in Copenhagen. >>?The problems of climate change are directly linked to the irrational development of industry,? said the president at the celebrations for the 49th anniversary of the foundation of the Culpina municipality, in the region of Chuquisaca. >>Morales said that he has requested technical and scientific arguments to support a large-scale international mobilization to defend the environment, especially water. >>The meeting will take place on April 22, which is the International Day of Mother Earth. >>?It will be a great meeting where we?ll be able to come up with solutions for the problem of climate change,? the leader said. >>He regretted that the summit held in Copenhagen had concluded without reaching any important agreement. However, he noted that the event was an opportunity to break the hegemony of industrialized countries attending the gathering. >>?If we don?t make important decisions now, our children and the generations to come will be faced with serious problems,? warned the president. >>He pointed out that the Bolivian world conference of social movements will be aimed at finding options for guaranteeing food for the peoples, in view of the famine that is affecting different parts of the world. >>(Granma, December 21, 2009) >>-- >>Peace Is Doable >>? >> >> >>-- >>Peace Is Doable >> > -- ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- ------- Thomas Kocherry World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) Special Invitee, National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF), India National Alliance of Peoples Movements(NAPM) , India. 48, Vayakarai, Manavalakurichy- P.O., Kannyakumari Dt.,Tamilnadu- 629252.India Tel/Fax: (91)4651 237 297, .Tel: (91)4651 200 517.Mobile: (91) 936 064 5772. Supportive Emails: thomaskocherry@ rediffmail. com, thomask_sa at hotmail. com, In case there is no response from my mobile please contact: 09965854081 ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -- "The life of the Planet and the welfare of the whole humanity should not be sacrificed by the greed of a few". ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -- __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (3) Recent Activity: * New Members 1 Visit Your Group Start a New Topic International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), of the Indian subcontinent, is a NGO, with national focus and overseas lobby network. It agitates both in India and internationally. MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Thu Dec 24 07:17:19 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:17:19 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Simon Dixon Vid Message-ID: <563613.78471.qm@web27401.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? Interesting vid of Simon Dixon, a major monetary reformer. ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trQTxBlj01Q ? RS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk Fri Dec 25 07:55:55 2009 From: dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk (robert searle) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:55:55 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [GJM] Economic Stability.. Message-ID: <833661.318.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> ? ? Might be of interest... ? http://www.youtube.com/user/EconomicStability#p/a/u/1/Kq3U3SUSfkw ? RS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 25 08:38:55 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:08:55 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] [TheAligarhForum] Qur'aanic Studies - Volume XXVII In-Reply-To: <8ea7bcf40912250642k18661c9tef15eaa7088dd476@mail.gmail.com> References: <8ea7bcf40912250642k18661c9tef15eaa7088dd476@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <467566.62693.qm@web94908.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Dear Mohammad Shafi, Assalam-o-alaikum, Do you think everying is?fine with the economic system then as you have no problems with the interest rates as part of the monetary policy? What are your proposals for reform? I have calling for an end of usurious finance system responsible for ecologically?hostile?habitats. Interest bearing debts?have been denounced by Global Justice Movement, David Corten.?A presentation on the reform movements can be seen at http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam. I would be grateful for?your response. May Allah bless u for guiding the humanity?for providing Islamic solutions. ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ________________________________ From: Mohammad Shafi Aga To: in_quraanic_light ; helpwithislamicinfo at yahoogroups.com; TheAligarhForum at yahoogroups.com; easyislam at googlegroups.com; focusonislam at googlegroups.com; hasanshabbir at googlegroups.com; IslamScience at googlegroups.com; IslamTime at googlegroups.com; Muslimism at googlegroups.com; muslimstudentunion at googlegroups.com; nrindians at googlegroups.com; aimsukarno at yahoo.com; contact at azharacademy.org; girls.school at azharacademy.org; help at londonoc.com; iibi at islamic-banking.com; info at iqra.org; info at islamicbookstore.com.au; info at kitaabun.com; info at londonschoolofislamics.org.uk; info at mailer.eun.eg; Islamictextbooks at aol.com; media at mcb.org.uk; metpdx at metpdx.org; mmir at ysu.edu; post at smi.uib.no; reenendv at xs4all.nl; samirad at saudinf.com; sekwdc at yahoo.com; sukarnof at yahoo.com; "admistac at iiu.edu.my" ; "awair at igc.org" ; "iais at legacyofpeace.net" ; "webmaster at islamicscience.org" ; butshikan at msn.com; editor at islamicvoice.com; editor at newhorizon-islamicbanking.com; hq at imana.org; info at iqraa.org; info at mascincy.org; Kalam at cis-ca.org; mg at milligazette.com; ummid at ummid.com; CK ; ISB Central ; Islam Channel ; Jamiatul Ulama ; mana Sent: Fri, 25 December, 2009 8:12:24 PM Subject: [TheAligarhForum] Qur'aanic Studies - Volume XXVII ? In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful > >Assalaamu alaykum, > >Alhamdulillah, I have just uploaded Qur'aanic Studies - Volume XXVII, covering my studies on Verses 15.2 to 15.99,?& 16.1 to 16.44?of the Qur'aan, to website INVITATION TO SALVATION.?Please check out with your own studies and tell me if there are any mistakes. Allah is our Maker, and the Qur'aan is the Maker's Own Manual for proper conduct of this wonderful machine called human body. Please, please, neglect it not! At stake is the very welfare of your own self. > >Wassalaam, >Mohammad Shafi >Author of ISLAM & INTEREST? -- Keep us on the Right Path, Allah! __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: * New Members 29 Visit Your Group Start a New Topic MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 25 10:18:16 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:48:16 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] Fw: [Multicul-Pluralism Grp] The Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults? Message-ID: <760431.54575.qm@web94913.mail.in2.yahoo.com> ?I think if recession did not show the way these mortgage default may show the path for integrating inter-faith common monotheistic prohibitions in our economic life.Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Alex James To: Multiculturalism-PluralismGroup at yahoogroups.com Sent: Fri, 25 December, 2009 6:11:30 PM Subject: [Multicul-Pluralism Grp] The Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults? ? ? From:economicwar- bounces at constitu tionalgov. us [mailto:economicwar -bounces@ constitutionalgo v.us] On Behalf Of Jack Bauer Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 5:55 AM Subject: EconomicWar> Can ya FEEL IT yet??? The Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults ? ? The Second Wave of Mortgage Defaults By Jim Nelson Baltimore, Maryland Our economy is about to relapse into the disease that sent us into the Great Depression: Part Deux. Subprime loans caused the initial illness. Option-ARMs will cause the relapse. In the first half of the past decade, sub prime loans were king. They were cheap and easy to get approved. Along with the sub prime boom came sub prime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which were equally easy to afford...for a while. Of course, the "A" and the "R" in ARM meant that the interest rate borrowers pay changes, or resets. The majority of these resets occurred between the summer of 2007 and the summer of 2008. This period saw a massive amount of mortgage interest rate hikes, which caused millions of foreclosures. Things spiraled down from there, eventually freezing nearly all credit and causing the panic of 2008. Of course, that's the 50-cent version of recent history. There were plenty of other financial calamities that went along with this, including the bundling of mortgage-backed securities and risky derivative products. If you believe the Obama White House and the glass-half-full press corps, you'd think this mess is now behind us. We are, after all, in a recovery...right? Unfortunately, no one is talking about the second wave of ARM resets and foreclosures. .. You see, this second wave will come crashing even harder than the first. It's made up of a type of mortgage called "Option ARMs." These give borrowers the option of how much they want to pay during the first five or 10 years of repayment: 1) The full amortized rate, including interest and principal. 2) Interest only, or... 3) A token payment, well below the amount needed to cover the interest on the loan. This third option causes the mortgage balance to INCREASE instead of decrease. And usually, the borrower can continue to make minimum payments until the mortgage balance increases to 125% of the original amount. That's when the trouble begins...especially if the interest rate increases at the same time. This is the exact situation in which many homeowners now find themselves. Obviously, these option ARMs were supposed to be reserved for customers with better credit than those who took out sub prime mortgages. But apparently, they were handed out to almost anyone who wanted them. According to Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue of T2 Partners, who are experts on this subject, about 80% of option ARMs are negatively amortizing. Meaning these so-called top-tier borrowers are heading further into the hole. Once their rates reset, they could be in serious trouble. And that could be happening very soon: The chart above shows the two peaks in the mortgage-reset wave. The first peak is comprised of subprime ARM resets. And the second is mostly constructed of option ARM resets. We appear to be in the eye of the storm. That fact alone shook our nerves when we first discovered it. But it was a different chart in Tilson and Tongue's most recent presentation that really got us startled... It's also the reason I'm predicting the dollar spike in 2010. Instead of resetting as expected after the first five years, many option ARMs are so negatively amortized that they are hitting their automatic reset cap. That means they are resetting early...like right now. As you can see from the second chart, the expected reset peak was to occur in 2011. But the real peak is happening now. You can also see that the amount of mortgages resetting is spread over a longer period of time than originally thought, but is peaking much earlier. Unfortunately, it's not the peaks that matter. You see, those are just resets. But with unemployment reaching quarter- century highs every month, and the massive number of homeowners about to receive mortgage bills for two to three times what they are used to paying, we find ourselves in an even scarier environment than this time last year. It takes anywhere between 3-12 months for most homeowners to actually go into foreclosure. Therefore, the wave of Option-ARMs that are now resetting could cause a major wave of foreclosures over the next 6 to 18 months. It's tough to say exactly when the storm will come. But my guess is the second half of 2010. This second wave of foreclosures will not be good news for the economy or the stock market...At least that's my guess. Regards, Jim Nelson, for The Daily Reckoning P.S. A rally in the dollar and fall in equities may not be the best news for investors' portfolios in the short term, but in the long term this is a great opportunity for investors who choose to prepare their financials for 2010. Naturally, I've already filled my Lifetime Income Report readers in on the best course of action, which you can learn more about by clicking here. ? ? ????????????????????????????????????????? Sincerely, Mike Golden aka RadioRebel ? ? ? ? *** exposing the?hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT LECTOR *** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. NOTE: Some links may require cut and paste into your Internet Browser. Pleasecheck for daily real news posts and support the truth! (sorry but don't have time to email all posts) at http://tinyurl. com/33c9yr??? or? http://groups. google.com/ group/total_ truth_sciences/ topics?gvc= 2? ; You can also subscribe to the multiple daily emails by sending? an email to total_truth_ sciences- subscribe@ googlegroups. com; free book download:? http://www.lulu. com/content/ 165077? *** Revealing the hidden Truth For Educational & Further Research Purposes only. ***? NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency (NSA) may have read emails without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse, nor protection.. ........ IF anyone other than the addressee of this e-mail is reading it, you are in violation of the 1st & 4th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Patriot Act 5 & H.R. 1955 Disclaimer Notice: This post & all my past & future posts represent parody & satire & are all intended for entertainment and amusement only.To be removed from the weekly list, please reply with the subject line "REMOVE" ? __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Start a New Topic Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by individual members in this Group are not necessarily? ours? as we may not always agree or subscribe to their viewpoints but allow their postings in the spirit of "freedom of expression". The recipient of this email hereby acknowledges that any views expressed in this email are those of the Individual sender and is to be viewed more as an educational an/or social purpose and is not intended to imply, insinuate or assume anything and we reserve the right to repeal, change, amend, modify, add, or withdraw the contents herein without notice or obligation or to even post them in absolute good faith without assuming any direct or indirect responsibility. Members are urged to show restraint - submit articles that will benefit members and make sure that no copyright material is used without permission and that others members are not unduly offended or caused any undue discomfort or pain. Multicultural_Pluralism Group will not assume any responsibility of any claims. ***************************************************** ? MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Mom Power: Discover the community of moms doing more for their families, for the world and for each other Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2544 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 2677 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 2816 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com Fri Dec 25 10:29:55 2009 From: mukhtaralam2000 at yahoo.com (Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:59:55 +0530 (IST) Subject: [GJM] =?utf-8?q?Fw=3A_=5BMulticul-Pluralism_Grp=5D_Small-business?= =?utf-8?q?_bankruptcies_rise_81=25_in_California!_Big_Boys_eating_the_lit?= =?utf-8?q?tle_fishy_ones=3B_Next=2C_We=E2=80=99re_left_with_what_happens_?= =?utf-8?q?when_California_defaults=3F?= Message-ID: <1119.10876.qm@web94909.mail.in2.yahoo.com> ?Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam 58-C, Top Floor,DDA Janta Flats, Ashok Vihar-III,Delhi-110052,India Tel:+9968345380 http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://muhammad_mukhtar_alam.tigblog.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Alex James To: Multiculturalism-PluralismGroup at yahoogroups.com Sent: Fri, 25 December, 2009 5:03:41 PM Subject: [Multicul-Pluralism Grp] Small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in California! Big Boys eating the little fishy ones; Next, We?re left with what happens when California defaults? ? ? From:economicwar- bounces at constitu tionalgov. us [mailto:economicwar -bounces@ constitutionalgo v.us] On Behalf Of Jack Bauer Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 3:52 AM Subject: Small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in California ? ? Small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in California With credit tight and consumers still pinching their pennies, many business owners find they can't go on. LINK HERE http://www.latimes. com/business/ la-fi-smallbiz- bankruptcy22- 2009dec22, 0,3305684. story?track= rss ? Mother Of All Financial Crises Coming: California (snippet) We?re left with the question: what happens when California defaults? The worst case would be the mother of all financial crises. According to the California State Treasurer?s office, California has over $68 billion in public debt, but the Sacramento Bee?s Dan Walters has tried to count total California public debt, including that of local municipalities, and his total reaches $500 billion. Whatever the amount, the impact of default could be larger than the debt amount would imply. Other states ? New York, Illinois, New Jersey, for example ? are in almost as bad shape as California, and they could follow California?s example. The realization that a state could default would shock markets every bit as much as when Lehman Brothers failed. Given the precarious state of our economy and the financial sector, another fiscal crisis would be disastrous, with impacts far beyond California?s borders. What would a California default look like? In a sense, we?ve already seen California default, when that state issued vouchers. If any company tried that, they would be in bankruptcy court in days. Issuing vouchers didn?t trigger a California crisis because banks were willing to honor the vouchers. If banks refuse to honor the vouchers next time, employees and vendors won?t be paid, and state operations will come to a halt. This could happen if our legislature locks up and is unable to act on the current $21 billion problem. LINK HERE ? PLEASEjoin me!!!! You DO?Have the Right toFlip Off a Cop!!! Remember this statement: When injustice becomes law, rebellion Becomes duty! Support my show, and Beat The Court by going to: http://www.BeatTheC ourt.Comand check out their special offer. Hurry, though, The govmnt is shutting down sites like this every day!!! "When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear the government you have Tyranny." ~Thomas Jefferson, Do yourself and your family a favor... Don't Fall into the Sheeple Pit... TURN OFF YOUR TELEVISION! Ignore the TV Media Investigate 911 ? Disclaimer: I'm not a Lawyer, this is not legal advice. Nor am I a Brain Surgeon, Pastry Chef or Indian Chief. This communication is private and privileged intended only to those individuals marked "To", "CC" or "BCC". To the snoopy government agencies, or anyone else this mail isn't being specifically directed to; with all due Respect; cordially invited and instructed to take a hike :) ????????????????????????????????????????? Sincerely, Mike Golden aka RadioRebel ? ? ? ? *** exposing the?hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT LECTOR *** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. NOTE: Some links may require cut and paste into your Internet Browser. Pleasecheck for daily real news posts and support the truth! (sorry but don't have time to email all posts) at http://tinyurl. com/33c9yr??? or? http://groups. google.com/ group/total_ truth_sciences/ topics?gvc= 2? ; You can also subscribe to the multiple daily emails by sending? an email to total_truth_ sciences- subscribe@ googlegroups. com; free book download:? http://www.lulu. com/content/ 165077? *** Revealing the hidden Truth For Educational & Further Research Purposes only. ***? NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency (NSA) may have read emails without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse, nor protection.. ........ IF anyone other than the addressee of this e-mail is reading it, you are in violation of the 1st & 4th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Patriot Act 5 & H.R. 1955 Disclaimer Notice: This post & all my past & future posts represent parody & satire & are all intended for entertainment and amusement only.To be removed from the weekly list, please reply with the subject line "REMOVE" ? ? __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Start a New Topic Disclaimer: Opinions expressed by individual members in this Group are not necessarily? ours? as we may not always agree or subscribe to their viewpoints but allow their postings in the spirit of "freedom of expression". The recipient of this email hereby acknowledges that any views expressed in this email are those of the Individual sender and is to be viewed more as an educational an/or social purpose and is not intended to imply, insinuate or assume anything and we reserve the right to repeal, change, amend, modify, add, or withdraw the contents herein without notice or obligation or to even post them in absolute good faith without assuming any direct or indirect responsibility. Members are urged to show restraint - submit articles that will benefit members and make sure that no copyright material is used without permission and that others members are not unduly offended or caused any undue discomfort or pain. Multicultural_Pluralism Group will not assume any responsibility of any claims. ***************************************************** ? MARKETPLACE Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living ________________________________ Going Green: Your Yahoo! Groups resource for green living Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest ? Unsubscribe ? Terms of Use . __,_._,___ The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 1232 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 2816 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Thu Dec 24 17:19:17 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:19:17 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Greetings again to Transitioners of CA / update Message-ID: <011101ca84f8$0f248d50$2d6da7f0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS What we need is more people getting involved in doing projects in their local community and less talk about politics, IMHO. So, if you live in California, may I suggest joining Bob Banner on Transition California and finding people in your area to connect with on a face-to-face level while at the same time connecting in virtual reality with people throughout the state. There is lots of good information available from people who are experienced in ?what to do? if you are a newby. And, if you have experience in an area related to sustainable living and re-localization, then this group needs your expertise. If you live in an area where the Transition movement does not have a local group, then consider getting one together. A good way to do this is to get a good documentary film about something in need of a solution and plan for a showing in someone?s home or in a small local theater. Or you may want to show a film featuring Rob Hopkins on the Transition Movement. You may want to plan for a pre-showing vegetarian potluck which would also allow time for both early and late comers to arrive and meet one another. Doing a vegetarian potluck allows for those who are vegans to mark their dishes as ?vegan? and for those who are ?raw fooders? to bring raw finger foods that everyone can enjoy. Since becoming sustainable involves eating lower on the food chain, may I suggest that you eliminate meat dishes. Invite friends and family, but also get out your phone book and look for all the clubs and groups established in your area where the interest of members may be related to the Transition Movement, e.g., Weight Watchers, Audubon, Human Consciousness Groups, e.g., Reiki Instructors, Meditation Groups, Tai Chi/Qigong teachers, etc., Vegetarian, Vegan and Raw Food groups, Habitat For Humanity, College Environmental Groups, Organic Gardeners, Conventional Garden clubs, Slow Food Groups, PETA Members, etc., etc., etc., and invite them to the event while also asking them to invite others they may know. Joining the Transition Movement does not mean giving up any of your other activities unless you are really limited by time, and then you will have to make a choice as to where you can best spend it. Happy Holidays to All If there was ever a time when we need to get together and live cooperatively, this is it. So, don?t be shy. Get on board and DO something. And, I write this particularly to those who are stressed out and fearful of what the future may hold. Believe me, getting involved and focusing your attention of doing something that aids in some way will also ease your stress level. From: Transition California [mailto:mail at transitioncalifornia.ning.com] Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 12:35 AM To: maryrose333 at att.net Subject: Greetings again to Transitioners of CA / update Transition California ? Local Self-Reliance for a Post-Petroleum World ? A message to all members of Transition California Greetings again to Transitioners of CA: 1. Check out Rob Hopkins commentary on Copenhagen: http://www.hopedance.org/home/energy-news/1618 2. Transition Paso launches a Food Forest Demonstration Garden in Paso Robles, CA. Learn HOW a Transition group got permission from the city for land inside a park to create a demo garden!! http://www.hopedance.org/home/food-news/1590 and http://www.hopedance.org/home/food-news/1622 3. Please take some time out and see the new members and welcome them, especially if they are in your city/county! http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com/profiles/members/ Search for your city and see what comes up! For example, search for Oakland and 50 members emerge! Berkeley: 28; Paso Robles: 20; SLO: 37; Sebastopol: 16; Santa Rosa: 6, San Francisco: 75!!! 4. A new movement is a brewing and it could be the very next thing to get people to collaborate and break the ice between folks who have diverse opinions. Since Transition is all about celebrating, what about including LAUGHING (for no apparent reason)? Started in 1995, LAUGHTER YOGA has now 8,000+ clubs throughout the world. It draws from the right brain, it creates harmony and fun and apparently there is some residue of joy, non judgmentalness and a willingness to work with others who you may disagree with. Kooky or enlightening? http://www.hopedance.org/home/soul-news/1615 5. New American Dream will be showing NO IMPACT MAN again in Spring of 2010. They had a spectacular response in the past 2 weeks and will repeat it. Find out more at: http://www.hopedance.org/community-media/videos/45 and http://www.hopedance.org/community-media/videos/321 6. Last one.... Check out the fantastic book from Transition Books called LOCAL FOOD. An edible magazine in the US got permission to reprint a portion called "Garden Shares." Here is an intro: Edible San Luis Obispo is always on the search for innovative ideas that work. The following comes from a new book LOCAL FOOD from the UK; chock full of practical and real life stories about how to make a local food system happen. Transition Towns is a relatively new movement in the US that focuses on celebrating our challenges with climate change and resource depletion. Since food is quintessential in discussing relocalization and transitioning from oil dependence to local resilience we share this successful project. We all have heard of the exchanges between land owner and gardeners and all the various complications. Well, this story has a very good ending and beginning. Please read on... http://www.hopedance.org/component/content/article/48-food/1623 Visit Transition California at: http://transitioncalifornia.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network To control which emails you receive on Transition California, click here -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 25 11:15:31 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:15:31 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: We have about 4000 nerve endings at the tips of our fingers Message-ID: <001c01ca858e$6a6ba450$3f42ecf0$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS PEACE begins within each and every one of us. Thanks to Lorin for sending this wonderful gift that can lead to peace within by those who choose to practice it. With love and appreciation Mary Rose From: Lorin Kiely [mailto:topdownyoga at gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 5:11 PM Subject: We have about 4000 nerve endings at the tips of our fingers We have about 4000 nerve endings at the tips of our fingers. That is what makes mudras (yoga for the fingers) so effective, because the nerve endings are connected with organs and can influence them, relax, stimulate or balance them, depending on the individual need. There are more than 100 mudras; we want to introduce you to some of them. Anywhere you go, while on a break, sitting at a red light while in your car, waiting at the checkout, at your office or home, you can recharge your batteries. The mudras are easily learned and with a little practice you can do them at any time and place. http://www.spiritproject.com/medicus/mudras/index.htm Open the Throat Chakra Cross your fingers on the inside of your hands, without the thumbs. Let the thumbs touch at the tops, and pull them slightly up. Concentrate on the Throat chakra at the base of the throat. Chant the sound HAM. Mudra for Throat chakra -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 25 11:19:26 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:19:26 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Glory to Earth and all the species she has spawned. Message-ID: <002101ca858e$fcc10980$f6431c80$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS Thanks to Co-learner's list member Marv Lyons for sharing with us. From: Marv Lyons [mailto:lyons at earththrive.org] Sent: Thursday, December 24, 2009 5:05 PM To: Mollie Bigger, Ph.D.; Helena Berger; Helen Caldecott; Helene Idels; Jigme Gyatso Cc: Hans-Peter Plag; Steve Bhaerman; Steve Napear; Steven Burns Subject: Glory to Earth and all the species she has spawned. As my job is to provoke contemplation and maybe a shift in consciousness, I offer reflections on my Blog: http://earththrive.wordpress.com/ Blessings to all, Marv Lyons Founder - Chief Creative Officer and Rabble Arouser A Touring Show on ENDANGERED SPECIES EarthTHRIVE Initiative . 918 Club View Terrace . Chula Vista, CA 91911 lyons at earththrive.org . www.earththrive.org . 619.691.8776 CATALYZING HUMAN EVOLUTION -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/jpeg Size: 28155 bytes Desc: not available URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 25 12:51:06 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:51:06 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: Dr. Mercola article: IGNORED for 35 Years -- Now Known to be Crucial to Your Health* Message-ID: <003201ca859b$c2259b30$4670d190$@net> Moving Into: TOTAL WELLNESS The vitamin Dr. Mercola is referring to in this newsletter is Vitamin D. And I want to remind everyone of my personal experience of beginning to feel numbness and tingling in my feet and legs and also the panic attacks that I reported in an earlier message. Blood tests by a neurologist I was referred to revealed that I was deficient in both Vitamin D and Vitamin B1. Now, having been on a special liquid vitamin supplement which assures that these vitamins have been getting into my system for a couple months, the numbness and tingling in my feet and legs have all but disappeared and I am no longer experiencing the panic attacks that would occur when something went wrong in my day. This special liquid vitamin supplement was prescribed for me, not by my conventional allopathic doctor, but by the acupuncturist, nutritionist, herbologist who I was also seeing at the time. Last summer, it was exceptionally hot here and I spent more time than usual indoors and out of the sun, taking shorter walks than was customary and waiting until later in the evening to go out. As a result, I was not getting enough sun which naturally provides one with their daily dose of Vitamin D. So, I am here to tell you that Dr. Mercola knows what he is talking about in this regard. Please pay attention to how much sun you are getting, particularly if you live in a northern climate where snow and cold inhibit your getting out in the sun for sufficient exposure periods in fall and winter months. And, if you take supplements, take extra precaution to ensure that you are getting ones that can be readily absorbed into your body. The best way to get most of the vitamins and minerals you need is from fresh uncooked and non-processed foods in which the live enzymes are still available; however, Vitamin D comes from the sun. However, it is possible to produce it synthetically; but again, one must ensure that it is in a form which can be absorbed into the body. For more information, please go to www.mercola.com and read the newsletter that Dr. Mercola publishes daily as you may not be able to access the articles published in the newsletter as the attendant URLs do not accompany a "forward" as I have done here. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dr. Mercola Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 12:11 AM Subject: IGNORED for 35 Years -- Now Known to be Crucial to Your Health* To: dustysummerrose at gmail.com December 24, 2009 - Issue 1389 The newsletters are also available via RSS: http://rss.mercola.com/NL/rss.aspx IGNORED for 35 Years - Now Known to be Crucial to Your Health Considered unimportant and even evil for decades... and suddenly scientists worldwide are talking about its incredible benefit to every part of your body. In fact, if you could only take one supplement, this MUST be it... Tips for a Stress-Free Christmas This Year Never enough joy and way too much stress during this season? Give yourself permission to unplug the frantic running around for a more relaxed, rewarding holiday. Here's how... Did a Flu Drug Manufacturer Withhold Evidence From Drug Trials? Outside researchers say evidence that the drug industry's touted second line of defense against the flu - the antiviral Tamiflu - just isn't there. Literally. It's a Wonderful Life The perfect movie to share with your family this season. If it's been a few years since you watched this classic film, why not take the time to get inspired all over again! Two 'Foods' You Should NEVER Ever Eat Why removing these two deadly ingredients is without a doubt one of your best health moves ever. Among other things, your heart attack risk will crash by a whopping two-thirds. What Two Surprising Factors Can Predict Your Risk for Heart Disease? Who would have known that looking at these two simple measurements -- that you don't even need to go to a doctor's office for -- could have such a powerful prediction of future heart attacks? Your Perfect Affordable Daily Supplement Formula... This trio of supplements -- the same ones that I take daily -- provide what I consider to be the key essential nutrients to help you affordably complement your diet & achieve optimal wellness.* You'll not only support your normal blood sugar & cholesterol, but also boost your cellular energy -- and guard the health of your heart, digestive and immune systems.* Discover One of the Single Greatest Immune-Boosting Breakthroughs of Our Generation* There's something you can do to give your immune system an added boost.* It's called Immune Support, and is one of the most powerful immune-supporting formulas ever created.* What is the Best Oil to Use for All of Your Cooking Needs? I recommend using Fresh Shores Extra Virgin Coconut Oil instead of other cooking oils to help stimulate your metabolism, decrease cravings, and help restore more youthful-looking skin. It's made from fresh-picked coconuts, and contains no chemical additives or trans-fats. View All Products 100% Satisfaction Guarantee * These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Subscribe Now! Unsubscribe C Copyright Dr. Joseph Mercola, 2009. All Rights Reserved. This content may be copied in full, as long as copyright, contact, and creation information is given, only if used only in a not-for-profit format. If possible, I would also appreciate an endorsement and encouragement to subscribe to the newsletter. If any other use is desired, written permission is required. Error! Filename not specified.Mercola.com 3200 W. Higgins Rd. Hoffman Estates, IL 60169 -- >From the desk of mary rose dustysummerrose at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From maryrose333 at att.net Fri Dec 25 16:47:00 2009 From: maryrose333 at att.net (mary rose) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:47:00 -0800 Subject: [GJM] FW: [globalnetnews-summary] Successful relocalization means that you stop growing... Message-ID: <000901ca85bc$ae7d6600$0b783200$@net> -----Original Message----- From: globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net [mailto:globalnetnews-summary-owner at lists.riseup.net] On Behalf Of TradingPostPaul Sent: Friday, December 25, 2009 9:56 AM To: globalnetnews-summary at lists.riseup.net Subject: [globalnetnews-summary] Successful relocalization means that you stop growing... (To change your settings or unsubscribe please go to http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/globalnetnews-summary) "Our first task is to create a shadow economic, social, and even technological structure that will be ready to take over as the existing system fails." - David Ehrenfeld Successful relocalization means that you stop growing... Sunday, March 15, 2009 http://thelocalizer.blogspot.com/2009/03/successful-relocalization-means-tha t_15.html As relocalization efforts blossom globally, the discussions within local volunteer groups range from how to develop local food movements, alternative energy and conservation measures to climate change activities and the establishment of local currencies. Certainly such efforts reflect the need for these groups to maintain positive energies and attitudes by proactively engaging in project oriented activities that result in some visible outcome and are a building block for a positive future. Less common, although an underlying current in the foundational framework of most organizers and initiators, is the understanding that growth as we know it in all forms must cease. This understanding is informed by the works and words of such renown thinkers originating with Thomas Malthus and more recently voiced by people like Paul Ehrlich, Garrett Hardin, Barry Commoner, Edward Abbey, William Catton, Jr., and....(drum roll please) possibly even New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. Catton, in his classic book Overshoot, refers to a fundamental shift by humanity away "from a self-perpetuating way of life that relied on the circularity of natural biogeochemical processes, to a way of life that was ultimately self-terminating because it relied on linear chemical transformations." We had begun to power the growth model with a finite substance and developed a society that is now dependant on ever larger amounts of it as growth increases exponentially. Growth in population means, of course, more food required to be grown each year, more bauxite to be mined, more energy to be used, and more plastic happy meal toys to fill our landfills. Even if slash and burn suburban sprawl wasn't so rampant, a larger population and smaller households translates into more housing units needed year after year. Even in Massachusetts where I now live, growth finds a way to seep through the cracks and uncaulked joints of development review processes largely meant to slow it down. A few houses here and there over a few years translates into serious growth. Just take a look at the aerial photographs over time. It's relentless. The end of growth is a wispy and hard to comprehend concept since everything in our individual and collective experiences, save for events like the Great Depression, is rooted in a growth culture. The momentum that the growth culture possesses makes it a runaway passenger train with the shades pulled down. We all feel the careening, out of control speed but most of us keep the shades drawn, oblivious to our collective, and more interestingly, our personal plight and prospects. Growth is a nested and interconnected concept whereby we each grow, some of us in the waistline, but most of us at the household level by having more children, buying bigger vehicles, and building bigger houses. Our businesses need to grow or perish, at least that's what our peers and the prognosticators and pundits say. Our local communities need to grow as each municipality is in direct competition with the others in the region and the state. Cities each offer a wider array of economic incentives that ultimately do three things: dilute or diminish the actual beneficial impact of any new businesses attracted, bring in businesses that resist collective bargaining and other benefits, and result in a business that within a decade is ready to move again or hold the community hostage for more incentives. That's the traditional model of smokestack chasing economic development. States and regions are also in competition with each other for corporate cash. They devise programs for municipalities that shorten the development review timeline, encourage the extension of development enabling public utilities, or force ill-fitting affordable housing configurations in admittedly exclusionary towns, often in or near wetlands. Nary a state would deny that encouraging growth is a central part of their economic development strategy. But where is the framework for that growth, what is the ultimate goal, the ultimate ceiling of growth? Well, of course there isn't one and national policies and international market forces are the ultimate influences of growth because their very existences depend on it. Multinational corporations are driven by profit, this is not news, but clearly this perpetual need for a profit margin on a quarterly basis feeds the global growth engine. National governments promise growth and jobs to their citizens and will be replaced by another regime if they fail, often within the shortest of election cycles (the two year congressional cycle in the U.S.). So growth is nested systemically and few communities seeking to relocalize are immune to these strong pulls. But for relocalization strategies to be ultimately successful, resist them they must. To develop a sustainable community, such a community (maybe your community?) needs to stop growing. Completely. Totally. Finete. No more building permits for Happy Hollow Estates. No more new office buildings in Deer Lane Corporate Center. Everything oriented toward growth must cease and reorient toward a steady-state economic model. So where is this discussion taking place? In the mainstream media? In the hallowed halls of Congress or in the White House? In corporate boardrooms? In the Elks Club, Kiwanis, or Lions Club or local Chambers of Commerce? Nope. How about in business lunches? professional workshops and seminars? Christmas parties? Not likely. So where might we find the conversations and speeches calling out the growth model as our most likely cause of demise? Some small pockets of academia might have the courage to broach this subject in the classroom--provided they have tenure. Local activists might discuss the concept of growth with like-minded members of their cohort but would want to gain a level of comfort before engaging the subject. There's little question that discussing non-normative issues with normatively embedded people is risky. I recently conducted a survey on the Web aimed at getting a general feel for what specific concerns people had over speaking out about about sensitive issues like growth and population. As expected, a large percentage of respondents were concerned over possible sanctions like social isolation or economic backlash. Other significant reasons for not speaking out included wishing to keep the peace or being in inappropriate settings. So there's no question that self-preserving behavior is a good explanation for keeping silent. But if the growth paradigm is to be successfully retired, alternative norms and values need to be aggressively circulated in the public domain. Concerns over sanctions or preserving the peace are legitimate but strategic thinking could lead to creative ways to engage the subject without creating such intense conflict. Most essentially, discussions at the local level should consider growth as a key issue to address. If local growth is desired, the questions to entertain are how much and at what point should growth be terminated? What is the community vision for the future and at what level of development should sustainability be achieved? If you can't ask these tentative and basic foundational questions, a steady-state economy isn't possible. Realistically, any residual growth should be a highly strategic and planned endeavor that seeks to fill local gaps that will enable the community to become more resilient. This could include generating more independent local businesses that market essential commodities like hardware, locally grown food, housewares, or dry goods. Seeking traditional "see what sticks to the wall" economic development in the form of office parks, subdivisions, or big box stores selling salad shooters and plastic trinkets made overseas is irresponsible local development and wasteful to the extreme. It moves the community further away from a needed and desired steady-state, locally resilient model. What, other than fear of judgment or of inciting conflict is responsible for local communities not engaging in the growth discussion? First, obviously growth oriented cultural norms have been embedded into our legal system via case law and legislation and our economic system via success measured by profit and economic growth. These changes have been accelerated by the momentum of culture. The end of growth would have a profound impact on the future of corporations and the system of political patronage and finance that is symbiotically woven together in the same cloth. This astoundingly interdependent system of vested interests stands to lose nearly everything if the growth discussion becomes serious. Again Catton has a great quote for this situation: "Any change of resource use patterns therefore implies interference with people's accustomed activity patterns." Most people do not want their livelihoods to be tinkered with. If collapse does not undo this structural framework, only two paths seem logical. First, if efforts are made within the existing political economic framework, the process may inch forward glacially as any progressive movement has sought change. Court cases may be won as well as lost, the media may or may not pay attention to the issue (certainly media companies have a stake in the growth culture), and opponents will use guile and varying degrees of treachery to push back in the other direction. Ask union advocates or environmentalists how well this method has worked historically. The pace of change under this method would not nearly be sufficient to adequately address the impacts of climate change nor be able to adapt to peak oil once the economic effects of that situation begin to arise. Alternatively, the other method is embedded in a quote by biology professor David Ehrenfeld on this blog's home page: "Our first task is to create a shadow economic, social, and even technological structure that will be ready to take over as the existing system fails." The only feasible path left beyond status quo or collapse is rapid development of an alternative culture, economy, and local political framework rooted in sustainability. Groups around the globe are beginning this effort through official and unofficial relocalization and transition programs. The astoundingly successful Transition Initiative which originated in the UK and exported beyond offers great promise as a process. The two concerns I have for these efforts relates to focus and speed. Many groups and their leaders eschew organization and planning in favor of random projects that are not linked within a strategic structural model. Many well-meaning organizers and activists are impatiently ready to begin a variety of projects like community gardens, energy conservation projects, and buy local programs. Valuable as they are, without connecting them to an end goal, they will be less effective than if they were developed within a framed programmatic planning effort. Not every volunteer is a good project initiator just as others are not good organizers. My suggestion is to let project people begin to initiate their projects while a core of organizationally oriented people begin to develop the planning process--perhaps a steering committee. The goals, objectives, and tasks of the effort should be formulated and put in a plan much like the energy descent plans that the Transition Initiative espouses. The reason for this specialization will be apparent once significant progress is made on both fronts in short order. The program itself should have a set of underlying themes linked to local goals and tasks that broadly justifies a relocalization effort such as building community, achieving sustainability, curbing global climate change, building resilience in the face of looming peak oil, or supporting local independent farms and businesses if not all of these. But in order for any of these programs to be ultimately successful, each will have to acknowledge that growth will need to end and a steady-state economy and culture will have to be created. At some point, we'll all have to admit this....or be privy to how nature solves this problem. Most well-adjusted people will not want that to happen. Thus, as Habermas articulates, developing this understanding is an important enhancement of social learning regarding our predicament, essentially consciousness raising for the purpose of sparking reasoned action. From ceasig at gmail.com Sat Dec 26 02:24:42 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:54:42 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Economic Stability.. In-Reply-To: <833661.318.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <833661.318.qm@web27407.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912260124t705e0e93x31c32fd521b151bd@mail.gmail.com> Dear Robert, Thanks for sharing the video. Is there any possiblity to have a text with major propositions.I am sorry to say that I can not affort viewing You Tube videos. Wishing many returns of the day remembering Jesus and his message( peace be upon him) to you and all. Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 8:25 PM, robert searle wrote: > > > Might be of interest... > > http://www.youtube.com/user/EconomicStability#p/a/u/1/Kq3U3SUSfkw > > RS > > > _______________________________________________ > Discussion mailing list > Discussion at globaljusticemovement.net > > http://globaljusticemovement.net/mailman/listinfo/discussion_globaljusticemovement.net > > -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Sat Dec 26 02:27:22 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:57:22 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Congressman Paul's Texas Straight Talk: Iran In-Reply-To: <87107.93998.qm@web80003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <7BCA142DFA36594085541F9105779B55053BBFAD@HRM09.US.House.gov> <87107.93998.qm@web80003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912260127k21d516bam1ef21e31836ef0a9@mail.gmail.com> Why should Iran be treated differently while others are supported and offered red carpert welcome for detonating nuclear weapons? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jack Lancaster Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 11:36 AM Subject: Re: Congressman Paul's Texas Straight Talk: Iran To: RonPaulmedia ------------------------------ *From:* RonPaulmedia *To:* FREEDOM-WATCH-UPDATE-TX14 at LS1.HOUSE.GOV *Sent:* Mon, December 21, 2009 1:53:56 PM *Subject:* Congressman Paul's Texas Straight Talk: Iran *Iran Sanctions are Precursor to War* ?Last week the House overwhelmingly approved a measure to put a new round of sanctions on Iran. If this measure passes the Senate, the United States could no longer do business with anyone who sold refined petroleum products to Iran or helped them develop their ability to refine their own petroleum. The sad thing is that many of my colleagues voted for this measure because they felt it would deflect a military engagement with Iran. I would put the question to them, how would Congress react if another government threatened our critical trading partners in this way? Would we not view it as asking for war?? Click here to read the full article: http://www.house.gov/paul/index.shtml Alternate link: http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=091221_3622,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml ------------------------------ * Please do not reply to this email as this is an unattended e-mail box. If you would like to comment on this email, please visit our Web site at www.house.gov/paul. ** To *unsubscribe* at any time, click hereor send an email to " listserv at ls1.house.gov" and enter "*unsubscribe FREEDOM-WATCH-UPDATE-TX14*" in the subject and body of the message. -- Endeavoring for ecological safety ,social inclusion and distributive justice for the renewable resource based livelihoods and habitats, Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion and Governance (CEASIG) , an initiative of Labour League Foundation, Sewa and Sufi Trust , Delhi aims for socially inclusive and ecologically safe future for all through organizing and communicating carbon neutral neighborhood discussions/ consultations, building capacities in ecological audit, ecologically safe networking ,advocacy, interfaith dialogue & other related domains for multiplying personal, community , governmental and corporate actions for ecologically safe education, ecological audit ,and, ecologically safe and socially inclusive governance. Contact Details: 58-C,DDA Flats, Ashok Vihar-III, Delhi-110052 Phones: 0968345380 http://transitionurbanindia.ning.com http://ecostrategiccommunicators.ning.com http://slideshare.net/mukhtaralam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ceasig at gmail.com Sat Dec 26 02:31:44 2009 From: ceasig at gmail.com (Centre For Ecological Audit, Social Inclusion & Governance) Date: Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:01:44 +0530 Subject: [GJM] Fwd: Fw: Vatican Owns England In-Reply-To: <631538.64695.qm@web80003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <631538.64695.qm@web80003.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31f677a30912260131l28ae98fdr5dfee556287c3144@mail.gmail.com> Vatican supported Islamic banking I seek wider acceptance of Islamic injunctions for transforming governance, in order to mitigating climate change. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jack Lancaster Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 7:03 AM Subject: Fw: Vatican Owns England To: ----- Forwarded Message ---- *From:* Jack Lancaster *To:* jacklancaster at sbcglobal.net *Sent:* Wed, December 23, 2009 5:32:35 PM *Subject:* Vatican Owns England This is additional information to the 1213 Charter, along with other important information. I stated in "The United States Is Still A British Colony", that the king gave his holdings to the Pope. I also stated that the 1215 Charter was made null and void by the Pope. I have new information that may surprise you on this subject. You will see the letters of correspondence between the Pope and King John, concerning these two charters. You will also read information connecting our flag to Britain 's, through the colors, and the direct connection these colors have to the Pope. You will see new information connecting American lawyers to the British Bar, and tacit connection to the Pope. American and World history have been rewritten, by the exclusion of historical events, for the protection of special interests named in this paper. In this paper I've uncovered some of these lies and truths not told. In some cases a lie can also be withheld truth. I have dealt with both modes of deception in my book. The two charters mentioned above have much withheld truth. The quoted portions of the personal correspondence between the Pope and the king deal with claims I have made regarding these two charters. It's not my purpose to tell you what, or how to think, but remove the barrier keeping you from thinking outside of the box in which you live, your mind. A box filled and shaped with information provided by those that wish you to think a certain way. Before you read these letters and the other important information I will deal with in this paper, there is some hidden knowledge you need to understand, it deals with the human mind. What I'm going to tell you will help you understand not only this paper, but any information you read, or hear. This information is short and is contained in this brief forward. In this paper I'm going to challenge the very foundations for which you base your beliefs, concerning the Constitution and your freedom, and your religion no matter what it is. I call these subjects, "the building blocks of human understanding"; every human is programmed with these building blocks, to a greater or lessor extent. A great deception is taking place, and the executors of the deception are three organizations most trusted by the public; government, media and religion. Only after you come to the realization that you have been deceived, will you be able to think outside of the box which has been provided through education and other mediums, for you. Through the government, media and religion you have been brainwashed with predetermined information, the building blocks of the human mind, your programming. My purpose for sharing this information is "truth". Keep in mind I was taught the same information as you. Thoroughly indoctrinated by the public schools, television, organized religion and any other medium of indoctrination that formed my beliefs, including the United States Marine Corps. I would say I have had more to overcome than most people, as to the brainwashing I received. Only through making God Almighty's Word my foundation, not Man's indoctrination, was I able to see beyond the box, the reality created for me. I wish I could MAKE everyone understand how the human mind works, a subject so simple, it is difficult to understand and explain. As I said above this deals with brainwashing, through indoctrination and programming. I know the subversive term brainwashing automatically triggers disbelief and suspicion; I ask you to bear with me. Whatever your programming has been, it is the reason, the cause, for the way you view and disseminate information. This is the reason there are so many different religions, types of governments and social experiments. The people under these different systems, will go to their grave thinking they are right, simply because of their programming. Have you never wondered how a Muslim could strap a bomb to his body and kill himself and many others? It is due to his programming, that began at birth. The Muslims have been taught they have 70 virgins waiting for them after they blow themselves up, among other things, and that they are doing the will of God, and will be rewarded for their sacrifice. Only religion promising a reward greater than the suffering here on earth, makes it possible for a human to be programmed in such a way, willing to kill him or herself, along with many innocent people. I am sure there are those in the Muslim religion, amazed how we could believe the Christian religion and do the things we do. As an example, the Pope promised the crusaders that if they would fight against the Muslims, that he, the Pope, would pray their souls out of hell and that they would go to heaven. Do you see any difference between this and the belief of the suicide bombers? Christian's were foolish and ignorant enough to believe the Pope. How was it possible? Through the twisting of God's Word by a man claiming to be the equal of Jesus Christ, the Vicar of Christ. Deception can only take place where there is a lack of knowledge. To prove brainwashing is not restricted to foreign governments and other religions, as an example I'll use the USMC ( U.S. government). In just thirteen weeks, the time spent in USMC boot camp, an average man that is self centered, concerned only with his own life is transformed into a man that is willing to charge a machine gun nest without hesitation, kill without discretion, or give up his life retrieving a fallen Marine. Brainwashing is necessary in a war setting, but should not be used on the public. To prove brainwashing is used, I heard with my own ears in a Congressional hearing several years ago, a Marine Corps General being questioned, and he offered up this information, that the USMC uses brainwashing to get Marines to charge into a deadly situation when told to do so, to follow orders without question. I'm not arguing right or wrong, my point is, any mind can be brainwashed. If brainwashing can be done in such a short time, think of what years of public school have done to you, not to mention television, without your knowledge. I laugh when I hear someone in government talk about the extremists in other countries, or even in this country, about their being brainwashed. Strictly because they disagree or oppose the public policy in this country, or their beliefs are contrary to Judeo Christian beliefs. For the average American to get a full picture of what it means to be brainwashed, they need to look in a mirror, examine their own thoughts and beliefs, and how they came by them. The mind set in this county is, it is only others that can be brainwashed; this is what makes me laugh. The indoctrination sponsored by government through the public schools, and the social engineering by government to create a Country of mind numb robots, that function as the renewable resources they are legally defined to be, is a crime. No one wants to think they could be so easily manipulated, but you have been, just as I was. Why is the public manipulated in such a way? Because they make better slaves. Just as it serves those that orchestrate this maniacal system, to cause strife between the races and religions, the blacks to hate whites, or vice versa, the poor to hate the rich, or vice versa, the Protestants to hate the Catholics, or both religions to hate all other religions, and vice versa. They keep everyone, distracted with a multitude of issues, so busy earning a living, they have no time to educate themselves. Just as Thomas Jefferson warned, we would be satisfied with the crumbs from our masters table, and the sixteen hours a day it would take to earn them. You can take any child, I don't care what nationality, keep that child from the teachings that are indigenous to his people, teach him the contrary and that child that grows into an adult, will reject the beliefs that are indigenous to his people, in preference to his indoctrination. Take an Anglo Saxon, Catholic or Protestant that has no knowledge of the Muslim faith, indoctrinate that child in the Muslim faith, and that child will be a Muslim till death and will be capable of taking up arms against a non Muslim, or Nation. This is THE truth, I don't care what religion you are, or what ethnicity you are, nor does it matter the level of your intelligence. Whatever was programmed into you as a child, into the human mind, God, god, or lack of a God or god, country or religion. Brainwashing subjugates that person's beliefs the rest of his or her life, and will determine how they disseminate all information that comes to them later in life, either accepting it or rejecting it, based on whether or not it agrees with their programming as a child and young adult. Only through deprogramming and reprogramming can this be changed. As an adult you can be reprogrammed, if certain procedures are used, as I pointed out above, describing the USMC. How much more susceptible is a child? A child's mind is a empty hard disk so to speak, it will accept whatever operating system you install on it. I wrote the following analogy several years ago, I think it may help, more now, since more people understand the function of a computer. "If you have some knowledge of computers, you know that the operating system; I'll use DOS as an example, is at the lowest level on the hard drive, it is the foundation on which the rest of the data is built and disseminated. The human mind is no different, your operating system is your core beliefs, God, parents teaching, school; with many in this country you can substitute government for God. Before your mind accepts any information, it is first disseminated by your core beliefs and rejected if the information coming in is in conflict with your core beliefs. Just as with a hard drive, that is programmed with say DOS 5, all programs installed on the hard drive, have to be accepted by DOS 5 as compatible and not harmful to the operating system. If DOS 5 finds the program your trying to install is in conflict with the operating system, it will be rejected. Likewise, if you input certain information into the human mind during the programming years, you will have predictable behavior by that person, just as with the computer, from birth all the way to the grave. The only way to change or modify the core beliefs of a human, is to override the existing information with new or modified information, that has to come from such a reliable source, the human mind will allow itself to be reprogrammed, causing the belief structure to be changed. Just as the computer will not allow DOS 5 to be upgraded to DOS 6, unless it recognizes it as coming from its creator, Microsoft. The most reliable and reputable source as far as the computer is concerned. With a human mind, it depends how far down you are going into the program, and what are the predominant core beliefs. The core beliefs in place will determine the level of reliability as well as the source of the information needed, before the information will be accepted. It's sometimes necessary to deprogram the human mind, just as you would format a hard drive, figuratively speaking, to remove faulty data or software. This is very similar to what takes place with the human mind that is deprogrammed, you then reinstall the program you want, reprogram the mind. Just as you would install a new operating system on a hard drive, after you format the drive. Let me give you another example as to how this works. I know through understanding this principle, through self examination of my beliefs, and the information that created them, that the Bible and Jesus are THE ONLY reality, and that Satan is the orchestrator, the manipulator of the governments, thereby responsible for the World in which we live today, but allowed by God Almighty for the fulfillment of His Son's Word, and the operation of Jesus' Kingdom, in which he rules the World and controls the governments of the World with a Rod of Iron. Now, examine how the statement above effected you, how did you react, but more importantly, Why? I know you reacted, in an instant of time, without any effort or forethought on your part, and with no awareness the process was taking place. You formed an opinion, the information was either accepted or rejected. WHY? You had no idea while reading the above paragraph, that your thought process was being manipulated, causing you to react a particular way. Folks this happens to everyone daily, your response is predictable. Based on how Americans have been programmed as a child by their parents, and later by the schools, churches, media and government. I want you to be able to recognize this, this is the only way you can be truly free. Be honest with yourself here, no one knows but you. What sets apart your reaction, from say a Christian's, from a Muslim's, or a Baptist's from a Catholic's, etc.? How do you know your reaction is correct, and that the information you learned years before was correct? You just used your prior programming to disseminate the statement I made above. Are you correct? Have you checked it out? Do you have proof? Did you not react to the statement I made above with the information you were programmed with? Would not your reaction have been different if you were raised as a Muslim versus a Christian, or an Atheist? Be honest, think about your immediate reaction to what I said, compare the reaction you had to what you could imagine coming from yourself if you were programmed another way. All humans are the same in regards to their creation, the mind of a Muslim works the same as a Christian. So why are there different reactions to what I said above? Programming, brainwashing to be blunt. The example I gave deals with religion, but replace religion with any subject, any reaction you have is based on your prior programming. Until you understand this you will never be free and be able to think outside of the box. To go against the way your programmers want you to think. Why did God Almighty create Man, including Woman with this feature? To protect Man from error, which would bring about Man's separation from God Almighty, and ultimately cause Man's death. The circumvention of God's creation is what happened in the garden of Eden, "reprogramming". Satan understood this principle, and used it against Man, by enticing Man to see with the flesh instead of his spirit and programming provided by God Almighty, by asking Man, "hath God Said", just enough doubt to question God Almighty, to get Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. What else did Satan say? "You'll be as God, knowing good and evil" from that point, the programming and the built in protection given God Almighty's creation, was perverted and used against God's creation, Man. What is the relevance? The same mind created by God Almighty, will believe anything it is programmed with, truth or a lie, good or evil. Without God's Word and Spirit, Jesus as your foundation, any programming is possible. As I said above you can take any child, and create anything from a Jeffery Dommer, to George Washington; of course I'm speaking of morals and core beliefs, not intellect. The human flesh is capable of any evil or atrocity, we have many historical examples of this. Many have been perpetrated by the different religions and governments. Only through understanding the human mind and how it works, and that there are forces in the World using this understanding of the mind against you, will you be able to think outside the box, only with the correct building blocks, the foundational programming provide by God's Word and His Son Jesus Christ can you disseminate the information being pumped into you, no matter what medium it comes at you, through government controlled schools, through the media or through religion. There are many different mediums of indoctrination. I hope through self examination you will be able to analyze the beliefs you hold. Beliefs that have been provided for you, which you have accepted as truth without confirming the information. Beliefs you have accepted solely because of supposed reliability of the source, in the belief the source would never lie to you, or that the source has your best interest at heart. Chapters Secular 1. Letters from Pope Innocent III, to King John. 2. The Pope's creation of the Knights Templars. 3. Betrayal of the Knights by the Pope and the kings they served. 4. Connection of our flag to the Pope, and the secret societies. 5. The bridge between the secular and the Biblical, the Knights Templar and Lawyers. 6. Conclusion My Comments are in brackets [] Chapter 1 Letters from Pope Innocent III, to King John [America, for that matter the whole World, the documents below will conflict with what you have been taught by government sponsored schools and the government sponsored churches. I wrote about the information contained in the below letters, in my book called "The United States Is Still A British Colony". I pointed out that in the 1213 Charta, the king gave all of England and Ireland to Pope Innocent III. Many people still find this hard to believe, or understanding what they have read in this Charter. To do so Challenges what they have accepted as truth for years. Some wonder if true, what is the relevance. I made it clear what the relevance is, not just the obvious, that the Pope was now a legal party, as of 1213, in regards to the affairs of England , Ireland and the United States , by way of the charters creating the United States . Since Britain 's rejection of the Catholic Church in 1689, when they cast off the Pope's religion and bulls, for the Protestant religion, the Pope has used any means to regain control. This needs to be understood by every person in the World, for knowledge is freedom and it will change our World. The documents that frame our country, including the Fairfax Resolves, Declaration of Independence, etc., are said to be derived from the 1215 Magna Charta, a document declared null and void by the Pope. I explained the Pope's authority to inject his will was made possible by what happened in the 1213 Charter. The king became a tenant and trustee of the Pope, again proof of this is the fact that a rent was paid by the king to the Pope. The Pope was now a legal party to whatever transpired in England , concerning his new possessions, with an exception that I'll get into later. I made these statements based on contract law, which the courts would have to uphold. Since the 1689 Bill of Rights, the appearance is that these documents have no relevance. For sure between the years of 1213 and 1689, the Pope's power and bulls changed the World. I stated years ago that the Magna Charta was an illegal document, based on the actions of the Barons, it was null and void. The letters below clarify what I had written, concerning the 1213 and 1215 Charters. Here you have the actual communication between the Pope and the king, not my opinion, that prove I was correct in my assessment. The 1213 Charta was written May 15, 1213, the first letter below was two months later, in which the Pope accepts the king's offer. This would be a good time to cover again the legal construction of a contract; offer, acceptance, and valuable consideration. If you are not aware of it, a contract between parties overrules any civil or common law right. It does not matter how absurd a contract is, it just has to meet the above legal definition, and be free from fraud. The king offered his kingdom to the Pope as reparation for his supposed sins against the Pope, the Pope accepted the king's offer, the valuable consideration was the king's payment of a 1000 marks. The king as sovereign transferred his status and property to the Pope, and here is the exception, through a lie perpetrated by the Pope, made possible by the king's ignorance of God's Word. The king was lead to believe he would, for a lack of a better way to put it, go to hell, unless he made this agreement with the Pope.] Letter from Pope Innocent III, to king John, July 6, 1213 "To Him, who from evil is able to bring forth good, we render thanks for having mercifully inspired you to make fitting reparation for the losses and wrongs inflicted upon the Church: for you have both accepted the form of reparation which had been prepared after much consideration, and you have also put your person and territory under apostolic suzerainty by right of lordship making over in perpetuity to the Holy Roman Church your kingdoms of England and Ireland, to be held through the church and of the Church, subject to an annual payment of 700 marks for England and 300 marks for Ireland, as is more fully and explicitly contained in your legally framed charter." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. page 149 "You now hold your kingdoms by a more exalted and surer title than before, for the kingdom is become a royal priesthood and the priesthood a kingdom of priests as stated by Peter in the Epistle and Moses in the Law. Come, then, exalted prince, fulfil the promises given and confirm the concessions offered, so that God Almighty may ever fulfil any righteous desire of yours and confirm any honorable purpose enabling you so to walk amid temporal blessings as not to fail of winning the eternal." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. page 149-150 "The aforesaid legate, having full knowledge of our mind, will instruct and reassure you as to our good pleasure." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. Page 151 [Below is a Quote from the second letter from the Pope, echoing the transfer of the king's property, to the Pope.] Letter from Pope Innocent III, to King John, November 4, 1213 "....and manifestly grateful, in that, to make full amends for your sins, you have offered yourself and your property to God and the Church." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. Page 168 [The third letter below, is the legal closing of the contract, payment of the 1000 marks to the Pope, the signing of the document with the signing of the witness, sealed with the king's golden seal. This document declares that the contract between the king and the Pope was legal and binding on all parties, heirs and successors, forever. You will notice if you study closely the likeness in the legalize of these letters and the later Charters written by the king's barristers, regarding the incorporation of America .] Letter from Pope Innocent III, to king John, April 24, 1214 [This is the heading to this letter.] "INNOCENT, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD, TO HIS WELL- BELOVED SON IN CHRIST, JOHN ILLUSTRIOUS KING OF THE ENGLISH, AND TO HIS LEGITIMATE FREE-BORN HEIRS FOR EVER." "The King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech, has so established in the Church His kingdom and His priesthood that the one is a kingdom of priests and the other a royal priesthood, as is testified by Moses in the Law and by Peter in his Epistle; and over all He has set one whom He has appointed as His Vicar on earth, so that, as every knee is bowed to Jesus, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, so all men should obey His Vicar and strive that there may be one fold and one shepherd." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. Page 177 "....so that those provinces which from of old have had the Holy Roman Church as their proper teacher in spiritual matters should now in temporal things also have her as their peculiar sovereign. You, whom God has chosen as a suitable minister to effect this, by a devout and spontaneous act of will and on the general advice of your barons have offered and yield, in the form of an annual payment of a thousand marks, yourself and your kingdoms of England and Ireland, with all their rights and appurtenances, the Holy Roman Church and to us and our successors, to be our right and our property as is stated in your official letter attested by a golden seal, the literal tenor of which is as follows: 'John, by the grace of God king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou, to all the faithful of Christ who may see this charter, greeting in the Lord. 'By this charter attested by our golden seal we wish it to be known to you all that, having in many things offended God and Holy Church our mother and being therefore in the utmost need of divine mercy and possessing nothing but ourselves and our kingdoms that we can worthily offer as due amends to God and the Church, we desire to humble ourselves for the sake of Him who for us humbled Himself even unto death; and inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit not induced by force nor compelled by fear, but of our own good and spontaneous will and on the general advice of our barons we offer and freely yield to God, and to SS Peter and Paul His apostles, and to the Holy Roman Church our mother, and to our lord Pope Innocent III and his catholic successors, the whole kingdom of England and the whole kingdom of Ireland with all their rights and appurtenances for the remission of our sins and the sins of our whole family, both the living and the dead. And now, receiving back these kingdoms from God and the Roman Church and holding them a feudatory vassal, in the presence of our venerable father, lord Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum, legate of the Apostolic See, and of Pandulf, subdeacon and member of household fealty henceforth to our lord aforesaid, Pope Innocent, and to his catholic successors, and to the Roman Church, in the terms hereinunder stated; and we have publicly paid liege homage for the said kingdoms to God, and to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to the Roman Church, and to our lord aforesaid, Pope Innocent III, at the hands of the said legate who accepts our homage in place and instead of our said lord, the Pope; and we bind in perpetuity our successors and legitimate heirs that without question they must similarly render fealty and acknowledge homage to the Supreme Pontiff holding office at the time and to the Roman church. As a token of this our perpetual offering and concession we will and decree that out of the proper and special revenues of our said kingdoms, in lieu of all service and payment which we should render for them, the Roman church is to receive annually, without prejudice to the payment of Peter's pence, one thousand marks sterling five hundred at the feast of Michael and five hundred at Easter that is, seven hundred for the kingdom of England and tree hundred for the kingdom of Ireland, subject to the maintenance for us and our heirs of our jurisdiction, privileges, and regalities. Desiring all these terms, exactly as stated, to be forever ratified and valid, we bind ourselves and our successors not to contravene them; and if we or any of our successors shall presume to contravene them, then, no matter who he be, unless on due warning he come to his senses, let him lose the title to the kingdom, and let this document of offer and concession remain ever valid. 'I, John, by grace of God king of England and lord of Ireland, will from this hour henceforward be faithful to God and Saint Peter and the Roman Church and my lord Pope Innocent III and his catholic successors. I will not take part in deed, word, agreement, or plan whereby they should lose life or limb or be treacherously taken prisoners; any injury to them, if aware of it, I will prevent and will check if I can; and otherwise, I will notify them as soon as possible, or inform a person whom I can trust without fail to tell them; any counsel they have entrusted to me either personally or by envoys or by letter I will keep secret, nor will I wittingly divulge it to anyone to their disadvantage. I will help in maintaining and defending, to the utmost of my power, against all men, the patrimony of Saint Peter, and particularly the kingdom of England and the kingdom of Ireland . So help me God and the Holy Gospels of God whereon I swear. 'To prevent any questioning of these terms at any time in the future, and for the greater surety of our offer and concession, we have caused this charter to be made and to be sealed with our golden seal; and as tribute for this the first year we pay a thousand marks sterling to the Roman Church by the hand of the said legate. (The witness were listed here), signed October 3, 1213 'This offer and concession so piously and wisely made we regard as acceptable and valid, and we take under the protection of Saint Peter and of ourselves your person and the persons of your heirs together with the said kingdoms and their appurtenances and all other goods which are now reasonably held or may in future be so held: to you and to your heirs, according to the terms set out above and by the general advice of our brethren, we grant the said kingdoms in fief and confirm them by this privilege, on condition that any of your heirs on receiving the crown will publicly acknowledge this as a fief held of the Supreme Pontiff and of the Roman Church, and will take an oath of fealty to them. Let no man, therefore, have power to infringe this document of our concession and confirmation, or presume to oppose it. If any man dare to do so, let him know that he will incur the anger of Almighty God and of SS Peter and Paul, His apostles. Amen, amen, Amen. ( Rota ) I, Innocent, bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed. Farewell. (The other signers were listed below) Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1956. Page 178-183 [The last letter is from Pope Innocent III, to the king, with record of the king's appeals to the Pope, the Pope puts the rebellious barons on notice, also the world, of his legal claims. In this letter, the Pope declares the Magna Charta was to be ignored, and reports that the king informed the barons he had no legal authority to sign the Magna Charta. The Pope declared the Magna Charta null and void.] Letter from Pope Innocent III, to king John, August 24, 1215 "....such complete amends that he not only paid compensation for losses and restored property wrongfully seized, but also conferred full liberty on the English church; and further, on the relaxation of the two sentences, he yielded his kingdom of England and of Ireland to St Peter and the Roman Church, and received it from us Again as fief under an annual payment of one thousand marks, having sworn an oath of fealty to us, as is clearly stated in his privilege furnished with a golden seal;...." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd, 1956. Page 212 "For we in our letters, and we equally through the archbishop and bishops, have asked and advised the king, enjoining it on him as he hopes to have his sins remitted, to treat these magnates and nobles kindly and to hear their just petitions graciously, so that they too might recognize with gladness how by divine grace he had had a change of heart, and that thereby they and their heirs should serve him and his heirs readily and loyally; and we also asked him to grant them full safe conduct for the outward and homeward journey and the time between, so that if they could not arrive at agreement the dispute might be decided in his court by their peers ACCORDING TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KINGDOM. But before the envoys bearing this wise and just mandate and reached England, the barons threw over their oath of fealty; and through, even if the king had wrongfully oppressed them, they should not have proceeded against him by constituting themselves both judges and executors of the judgement in their own suit, yet, openly conspiring as vassals against their lord and as knights against their king, they leagued themselves with his acknowledged enemies as well as with others, and dared to make war on him, occupying and devastating his territory and even seizing the city of London, the capital of the kingdom, which had been treacherously surrendered to them. Meantime the aforesaid envoys returned to England and the king offered, in accordance with the terms of our mandate, to grant the barons full justice. This they altogether rejected and began to stretch forth their hands to deeds still worse. So the king, appealing to our tribunal, offered to grant them justice before us to whom the decision of this suit belonged by reason of our lordship: but this they utterly rejected. Then he offered that four discreet men chosen by him and four more chosen by themselves should, together with us, end the dispute, and he promised that, first in his reforms, he would repeal all abuses introduced into England in his reign: but this also they contemptuously refused. Finally, THE KING DECLARED TO THEM THAT, SINCE THE LORDSHIP OF THE KINGDOM BELONGED TO THE ROMAN CHURCH, HE NEITHER COULD NOR SHOULD, WITHOUT OUR SPECIAL MANDATE, MAKE ANY CHANGE IN IT TO OUR PREJUDICE: and so he again appealed to our tribunal, placing under apostolic protection both himself and his kingdom with all his honour and rights. But making no progress by any method, he asked the archbishop and the bishops to execute our mandate, to defend the rights of the Roman Church, and to protect himself in accordance with the form of the privilege granted to Crusaders. When the archbishop and bishops would not take any action, seeing himself bereft of almost all counsel and help, he did not dare to refuse what the barons had dared to demand. And so by such violence and fear as might affect the most courageous of men he was forced to demeaning but also illegal and unjust, thereby lessening unduly and impairing his royal rights and dignity....we refuse to ignore such shameless presumption, for thereby the Apostolic See would be dishonoured, the king's rights injured, the English nation shamed, and the whole plan for a Crusade seriously endangered; and as this danger would be imminent if concessions, thus extorted from a great prince who has taken the cross, were not cancelled by our authority, even though he himself should prefer them to be upheld, on behalf of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by the authority of SS Peter and Paul His Apostles, and by our own authority, acting on the general advice of our brethren, we utterly reject and condemn this settlement, and under threat of excommunication we order that the king should not dare to observe it and that the barons and their associates should not require it to be observed: the charter, with all undertakings and guarantees whether confirming it or resulting from it, we declare to be null, and void of all validity for ever. Wherefore, let no man deem it lawful to infringe this document of our annulment and prohibition, or presume to oppose it. If anyone should presume to do so, let him know that he will incur the anger of Almighty God and of SS Peter and Paul His." Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III, concerning England (1198-1216), Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd., 1956. Page 214-216 "barons until the Sunday after Easter on the pretext that their demands were too complex for immediate decision. The Pope's reply to the king's message was a suggestion of delay by the device of "arbitration." On May 9, 1215, the king proposed to the barons "arbitration" before a court consisting of representatives of himself, of the barons and of the Pope, after the barons had besieged the royal castle at Northampton . This proposal was rejected by the barons. And they answered on May 17, 1215, by capturing London . The king's negotiators, who included Archbishop Langton, finally effected an agreement with the barons, about June 10, 1215, at a conference at Runnymede , that was signed and sealed by King John on or about the date that the Magna Carta bears, June 15, 1215. After he had been forced to sign the Magna Carta by threat of defeat by the barons, King John sent word of it, by envoy, to the Pope. The envoys returned several months later, bearing Papal bulls, dated August 24 and 25. Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta to be: "...unlawful and unjust as it is base and shameful...whereby the Apostolic See is brought into contempt, the Royal Prerogative diminished, the English outraged, and the whole Enterprise of the Crusade greatly imperiled." (211:14) On these grounds and on the ground that "the king had been compelled to enter upon it by force and fear" (211:14), and On the implied ground that it violated the basic tenets of Christianity in its denial of dictatorial rights to him and his henchmen, POPE INNOCENT III DENIED ON BEHALF OF THE CHURCH THE DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AS EMBODIED IN THE MAGNA CARTA, BECAUSE POSSESSION OF RIGHTS BY ANYONE VIOLATES THE TENETS OF THE CHURCH. The Papal bulls were greeted by the barons with a resumption of the civil war in England . The Pope was so enraged at the failure of Archbishop of Canterbury Langton to destroy the rebellious barons and carry out the orders incorporated in his bull, that he suspended him from his office when he visited Rome at the end of September 1215, to attend the Fourth Lateran Council. Undoubtedly with the consent, and probably at the direction of the Vatican , the French invaded England under Prince Louis and joined forces in a treacherous alliance with the barons, as pretender to the throne of King John. The sudden death of King John, in October 1216, brought to the throne his nine-year-old son, as King Henry III. His supporters revived the Magna Carta to appease the barons and gain their support against the pretender who was badly routed. These circumstances barred any further effective opposition to the Magna Carta by the Pope, without risking loss of the 666 pounds tribute." Chapter 2 The Pope's creation of the Knights Templars [In the below quotes You'll see that the Knights Templars were a creation of the Pope. Their special grant of nobility came from the Pope, not to mention the grants they received from the king of England , including their being the first tax collectors on income. They were arguably the first International Bankers. You'll see that the Knights Templars were agents of the Pope, fiduciaries of the king. The Knights Templars transferred the king's payment to the Pope, for the kings agreement in 1213, transferring his holdings to the Pope, and receiving them back as fief, paying yearly as valuable consideration of their agreement, making the agreement perfectly legal. The Knights Templars were the military arm of the Pope, and they answered only to him, they were bound to no civil law, no authority on earth could subject them to their law or jurisdiction.] "As they had no fixed place of abode, Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, gave them a residence within the precincts of his own place on Mount Moriah near the church known as the Temple of Solomon, while the clergy of the Temple, inspired by his example, added ground for the erection of necessary offices, and other benefactors supplied the means of maintaining the Knights in food and clothing. From their sacrifice of all worldly advantage, and this the first place of their settlement, they became known as the poor fellow-soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (Pauperes Commilitones Christi et Templi Salomonis). Thus was founded in 1118 the famous Brotherhood of Soldier Monks the Knights of the Temple. At first their progress was slow; few joined them in their seemingly inglorious toil. At the end of nine years they had obtained seven recruits. Then, however, the saintly Bernard of Clairvaux lent them the aid of his powerful advocacy, and drew up for their guidance rules of conduct soon embodied and drew up their guidance rules of conduct soon embodied in the more elaborate code which receive the sanction of the Council of Troyes (1128). By Pope Honorius II they were given a distinctive habit in a white mantile, symbolical of purity and innocence; to which, twenty years later, Pope Engenius III added the red cross seal and badge of martydom thus proclaiming by the sign they bore the dedication of their lives to the defence of pilgrims and the Holy Land." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 5-6 "By the famous Bull Omne datum optimum, first published in 1162 and a second time ten years later, Pope Alexander III raised the Order to a position of extraordinary privilege, and rendered them immune from all jurisdiction, lay or ecclesiastical, other than that of the Holy See.... ....Thus the Templars became independent of all control save that of the Supreme Pontiff, and as proceedings of their chapters were secret, virtually a sealed book to the rest of the Catholic Church. The admission of priests, however, did not place them on a footing of equality with the lay brethren, to whom were reserved all the powers of government. Further, only a knight who had taken the vows of the Order could hold the office of Grand Master, and to the vows of the Order could hold the office of Grand Master, and to the Grand Master all the members were bound by their vows to render implicit obedience. In the Church at large authority lay with the priest, only he could bind and loose, could pronounce the dread sentence of excommunication, and grant deliverance from it by absolution. This was the power by which, in the Middle Ages, the Church was able to lay a restraining hand on the most licentious Rulers and even to shake the thrones of Kings." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 6, 12, 13 "The estates of the Order were managed in the interests of the common object, the defense of Christianity in the East, and the revenues they yielded devoted to that purpose. They formed a network over Christendom, and the means of communication this elaborate organization afforded led to the Templars becoming the financial agents of the Crusaders and later the Bankers of Kings and Princes. >From the first the Knights in England were closely associated with the royal Court, and the prestige this connection gave the Order no doubt often induced them to undertake duties not contemplated by their pious Founders. As laymen, yet invested with ecclesiastical sanctity and a power within the kingdom though not of it, their counsel was frequently sought by embarrassed Rulers often at issue with rebellious subjects in the rude age in which they flourished. Thus the New Temple became a recognized center of meeting and conference in great affairs of Church and State. Bound to the Popes by a peculiar allegiance, the hospitality of the Templars was often extended to foreign Prelates and other officers of the mediaeval Church who visited England on the business of the Holy see. The Master of the Temple ranked as one of the Magnates of the Realm, and successive Kings made use of his services as envoy in the conduct of negotiations with other Princes." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 16, 17 "....These relate chiefly to the King's business, but there can be no doubt that in multitudes of other private cases of which there is now no record the same thing was going on. Moreover, from a very early date the Crown made use of the services of Templars as royal agents in the collection of monies payable under subsidies granted the King by the Magnates lay and ecclesiastical. Thus in 1188 Henry II appointed Gilbert de Ogrestan, a Brother of the Temple, with others to collect the tenth known as the Saladin Tithe, believed to be the first tax levied upon personal property in England.... ....It is manifest also that the Knights carried on a regular business of foreign exchange and constantly undertook, in consideration of money paid to them at the New Temple, to discharge abroad debts owing to foreign creditors by persons resident in England. Further, the New Temple is frequently named as the place where money borrowed or a debt otherwise arising is to be paid or discharged.... ....By the second and third, dated respectively January 1st and 4th, 1214, a sum of 6000 marks was ordered to be paid from the Temple Treasury to Pandulph the Papal Legate, and another sum of 1000 marks to the same person, together with Thomas de Erdington and Almeric de Sacy. In the following year John paid to the Master of the Temple 1100 marks, which he had borrowed from the Order to enable him to bring troops to England from Ponthieu." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 30, 31 "Further gifts still continued to be showered on the Order. As late as April, 1303 license was granted the Templars to hold lands in mortmain, received from six different grantees." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, page 43 footnote Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem "The most important of all the military orders, both for the extent of its area and for its duration. It is said to have existed before the Crusades and is not extinct at the present time. During this long career it has not always borne the same name. Known as Hospitallers of Jerusalem until 1309, the members were called Knights of Rhodes from 1309 till 1522, and have been called Knights of Malta since 1530." Catholic Encyclopedia "Present State of the Order" The secularization of the property of the order in Protestant countries was extended by the French Revolution to the greater number of Catholic countries. On the other hand, Czar Paul of Russia assigned them considerable property in his domains (1797), and in return was elected grand master, but his election was not recognized by the pope. From that time forward the pope has named the grand master of the bailiff who takes his place. From 1805 to 1879 there was no grand master, buut Leo XIII re-established th dignity, bestowing it on an Austrian, Geschi di Sancta Croce. It is now (1910) held by Galeazzo von Thun Hohenstein. The actual conditions for admission to the order are: nobility of sixteen quarterings, the Catholic Faith, attainment of full legal age, integrity of character, and corresponding social position. There are now in existence only four great priories, one in Bohemia, and three in Italy. There are still commanders and several classes of knights, with different insignia, but all wear the same eight-pointed Maltese cross (see DECORATIONS, PONTIFICAL)." Catholic Encyclopedia Military Orders England "In England, Edward III, in memory of the legendary Knights of the Round Table, established in 1349 brotherhood of twenty-five knights, exclusive of princes of the blood and foreign princes, with St. George as its patron and with its chapel in Windsor Castle for the holding of chapters. This, the Order of the Garter, takes its name from the characteristic badge, won on the left knee. The choice of this badge has given rise to various anecdotes of doubtful authenticity. Nothing is now known of the original object of the Order of the Bath, the creation of which dates from the coronation of Henry IV (1399). A third order, Scottish by origin, is that of the Order of the Thistle, dating from the reign of James V of Scotland (1534). These orders still exist, though they have been protestantized." Catholic Encyclopedia Religious State "The knights of the great orders were regarded in the Church as analogous to monks whose three vows they professed and whose immunities they shared. They were answerable to the pope alone; they had their chapels, their clerics, and their cemeteries, all exempted from the jurisdiction of the secular clergy. Their landed property was free from tithes. They were not subject to the interdicts which the bishops in those days employed so freely. They did not all follow the same monastic rule. The Templars and orders derived from them followed the Cistercian Reform. The Hospitallers followed the Rule of St. Augustine. Nevertheless, in consequence of the relaxation which manifested itself among them after the period of the crusades, the Holy See introduced mitigations in favour of the non-clerical brethren. For these it was difficult to maintain the rule of celibacy in all its rigour; they were permitted, in certain orders, to marry once, and that only with a maiden. Even where second marriages were tolerated, they had to vow conjugal fidelity, so that if they violated this obligation of the natural law they sinned doubly against the law and against their vow. Besides the three vows, the rule bound the brethren to the exercises of the monastic life such as the recitation of the Hours, for which, in the case of illiterates, a fixed number of Paters was substituted. It also prescribed their dress and their food, and their feast, abstinence, and fast days. Lastly, the rule imposed detailed obligations in regard to the election of dignitaries and the admission of members to the two ranks of combatants -- knights and men-at-arms -- and the two of non-combatants - chaplains, to whom all sacerdotal functions were reserved, and casaliers, or tenants, who were charged with the management of temporal affairs." Catholic Encyclopedia Military Organizations "The military organization of the orders was uniform, explained by that law of war which compels the belligerent to maintain his military apparatus on a level with those of his adversary, on pain of defeat. The strength of an army was in its cavalry, and to this type the armament, mounting, and tactics of the military orders conformed. The knights-brethren were the heavy cavalry; the men-at-arms-brethren, the light cavalry. The former were entitled to three horses a piece; the latter had to be content with one. Among the former, only knights of tried prowess were admitted, or, in default of this qualification, sons of knights, because in such families the warlike spirit and military training were hereditary. The consequence was that the knights, properly so-called, were never very numerous; they formed a corps d'lite which carried the great mass of the crusaders. Gathered in convents which were also barracks, combining with the passive obedience of the soldier, the spontaneous submission of the religious, living shoulder to shoulder in brotherly union, commander and subordinate, these orders surpassed, in that cohesiveness which is the ideal of every military organization, the most famous bodies of picked soldiery known to history, from the Macedonian phalanx to the Ottoman Janissaries." Economic Organization "The importance acquired by the military orders during the course of the Middle Ages may be measured by the extent of their territorial possessions, scattered throughout Europe. In the thirteenth century nine thousand manors formed the portion of the Templars; thirteen thousand that of the Hospitallers. These temporalities were an integral part of the ecclesiastical domain, and as such had a sacred character which placed them beyond liability to profane uses or to secular imposts. They differed from the temporalities of other monastic institutions only in the centralized system of their administration. While within each of the other religious institutes every abbey was autonomous, all the houses of a military order were bound to contribute their revenues, after deducting expenses, to a central treasury. As a result of this enormous circulation of capital controlled by the orders, their wealth could be applied to financial operations which made them veritable credit and deposit banks. Their perfect good faith earned for them the implicit confidence of the Church and of temporal rulers. The papacy employed them to collect contributions for the crusades; princes did not hesitate to entrust to them their personal property. In this respect, again, the military orders were model institutions." Catholic Encyclopedia Chapter 3 Betrayal of the knights by the Pope and the king's they served [The Knights Templars were disbanded in 1312 after the Pope had accused them of heresy, corruption and abuse of their titles of nobility. Another secret group called Knights Hospitallers received the property held by the Knights Templars. The claim that Pope Clement V was a puppet of the French king is ludicrous. Were political favors extended back and fourth? Sure, but to suggest more than this flies in the face of historical fact. Once the Templars had out lived their usefulness and their power had grown large enough to threaten the Pope, the Pope decided it was time to destroy them, and see to it their holdings, which were acquired through Papal favor, escheated back to the Pope, or to be held by his trustee the king, and were again granted to the next Papal secret society. The plot between the Pope and the French king is the most heinous, despicable and evil betrayal of trust in the history of mankind. It was such a vile plot it could only have been born in hell in the mind of Satan carried out by his henchman, the Pope and king of France, later to include the king of England. I'm not a defender of the Templars, nor do I agree with their religion, but what was done to them by the Pope is the ultimate betrayal. This paper is not an attack on the people, that practice Catholicism. They have as much right as the Baptist to go to hell, as with followers of other "religions". However, I recognize the honor and dedication of the Templars, for their service to the Pope and Catholicism; for which they learned in the most horrible way, was misplaced faith and loyalty. The enormity of the evil plot and betrayal of these honorable men is dwarfed only by the betrayal and murder of Jesus Christ, carried out by the Jews. Through selective history being taught, and this history being hidden, the World has been kept ignorant of the dastardly and evil destruction of the Templars, to obtain their wealth and power. The horrendous and baseless claims created by the Pope, to slander honorable men sworn to give their lives and fortune to this evil and vile man, who claims to be the vicar of Christ, redefines betrayal. The only analogy I can give to compare to what the Pope did would be, a mother murdering her children while they look into her eyes with total faith, trust and love as she murders them. Even though I don't support the religious or political views of the betrayed Templars, to see through history how these honorable men were shamed and murdered by the one person they trusted, who declared to be second only to Jesus Christ, the moral compass of the Church Jesus Christ established, makes me mad as Hell! When the perpetrators of this evil plot against honorable men, come before Jesus Christ at the Judgement Seat, stand back. Their torture throughout eternity will be second only to Satan himself. A glimpse of righteous indignation and judgement was carried out by the knights Templars of England, those that survived the Pope's inquisition. Those of you that saw the movie Braveheart will remember the close of the movie, when Robert the Bruce decided to attack the king and his soldiers. The movie stopped at that point, but the battle did not. They fought all day, some accounts say two days. Then at the end of the day appearing at the rear of the Scottish ranks, attacking through the worst possible terrain, the king of England and his knights saw what no doubt filled them with horror, proven by their action. The 500 English Templars entered the battle, these battle hardened swordsmen engaged the English soldiers, who were no match for the Templars. The Templars were the special forces or the Bruce Lees of their day, battle hardened men, expert in the Art of War. The carnage the king of England and his knights saw, caused them to flee the field of battle, the kings soldiers seeing this followed the king, giving the Scots a rout, against 4 to 1 odds, 20,000 English troops against 6,000 poorly armed Scots. I'm sure the reason the king fled was, because he knew no mercy would be had at the hands of the betrayed Templars, and that he and his knights would have been killed, and there was no one who could stop the Templars attack. I would have given anything to have seen this battle, not for the carnage, but for the justice. All be it not carried out against the main conspirator, the Pope. The victory was no doubt very sweet. Reports say the Templars did not lose a single man on this day of retribution. You see a glimpse of Jesus Word, a 1,000 shall fall by my side, 10,000 by my right hand, also, my enemies shall flee seven ways. History shows the Templars migrated to what is now known as Sweden, and are the bankers and farmers of today, still intrusted with the wealth of the World. The complicity by the public during the inquisition is proof positive of prior programming of the public, by religion and government, giving the Pope and king a freedom to declare whatever they wanted about the Knights Templars, no matter how absurd, to be believed by the public. The complicity of the public was expected and counted on by the Pope and king, they knew they could act with impunity and with no fear of retaliation by the public. Does the evil perpetrated by the Pope and king, and the complacency of the public remind you of a modern event? Waco! The public having been programmed over the years, then given implanted code words to describe those in the Waco Church, like cult, child molester, extremist in a compound and the possessors of dangerous weapons. Once they were so labeled, the public was totally complacent, even when they saw the Constitution and Bill of Rights being violated by the government, for them that just added more credence to the charges. If the government is using this extreme force, these have to be dangerous people. I have no idea what religion the Davidians practiced, it's irrelevant. Did the women and children deserve to be tortured and burnt alive? After the women and children were burnt alive by the government, the public was quick to believe the government's spin and propaganda, that the Davidians had to have set the fire. The horror and suffering the women and children went through as their skin and eyes were chemically burnt, as their backs were broken by the chemically induced constriction of their muscles, and if still conscious, they slowly drowned by their blood pooling in their lungs. All this occurred before the fire. Their torture was caused by the huge amounts of tear gas pumped into the church. All this occurred as the public watched on television. Do you understand how you have been manipulated by the government and the Press? Compare the propaganda the public was spoon fed by the government and the press at Waco, with what was done to the Knights Templars in the quotes below. There is no difference, it was much easier today thanks to the modern technology utilized by the government and media.] "The Temple Church was built by the Knights Templars in the twelfth century. It is the third oldest church in London and in it the Knights Templars were accused of performing some very strange Pagan rites. In the Great Fire of 1666 the Temple Church barely escaped." Rambles in Old London, George W. Jacobs and Company, page 88 "At this time the occupant of the Papal throne was Bertrand de Got, formerly Archbishop of Bordeaux and now known as Pope Clement V. He had moved the Papacy to Avigonon, and was a puppet in the hands of the French King, to whose influence he owed his elevation to the Pontificate. Philip IV, surnamed le Bel, now ruled France: a Prince whose handsome exterior veiled a nature essentially false and cruel. With revenues depleted by his Flemish Wars, he turned a greedy eye on the wealth of the Templars. Exactly when and how the plot between Philip and his subservient Pope was first hatched has not been disclosed, but it is certain that while still professing publicly the most friendly feelings towards the Order he was secretly planning their destruction." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 44, 45 "....Upon allegations secretly made, charges were drawn up imputing to the Templars infidelity, idolatry, heresy, and the most detestable vice. Proof presented no difficulties, for France was at this time under the Inquisition, and, heresy being charged, the expert hands of the Inquisitors could be relied on to force by torture confessions sufficient to establish guilt. Moreover, the Chief Inquisitor was Philip's private Confessor, so that in the seclusion of the royal palace all the plans could be secretly matured for bringing to the State. The events which followed have been truly called "the great crime of the Middle Ages." Mysterious rumours were first set in circulation defaming the Order. Some of these reached the ears of the Grand Master, who at an interview with Pope Clement denounced them as false and asked for a public inquiry. No inquiry was granted, but Molay seems to have been satisfied that the rumours found no credence from the Holy Father. Philip treated him with a like duplicity, for it was essential the secret of his plot should be carefully guarded till the time was ripe for action. Three years before, in conferring fresh privileges on the Order, he had proclaimed the esteem in which he held them, eulogizing their works of piety and charity, and their magnificent liberality in all times and places, and his outward demeanour gave no indication of the deadly intentions he harboured towards them. Thus no steps were taken by the unsuspecting victims to meet the impending blow. On October 12th, 1307, the Grand Master was honoured with the place of pall bearer beside the King at the obsequies in Paris of the Comtesse de Valois. The very next day the storm burst. Pursuant to royal orders secretly issued a month before, Molay and all the officers and members of the Order who could be found in France were seized and imprisoned, and all their property taken into the King's hand. Thus the empty coffers of Philip were at once replenished with the immense treasure stored in the Temple at Paris. On the 14th the arrests were followed by a proclamation which set forth the alleged crimes of the Templars, charging the whole Order with idolatry, denying Christ, and spitting on the Cross at initiation, and habitual immorality of the vilest description; while further instruction in their depravity was imparted to the populace assembled for the purpose in the gardens of the royal palace." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 46, 47 "....Further, ignorant of the Pope's complicity, King Edward also wrote to Clement on behalf of the accused, expressing his amazement and horror at the terrible nature of the charges inspired, as he suggested, by envious and evil disposed persons who turned the good deeds of the Order to works of perversity, and which he was unable to credit because the Master and Brethren of the Temple, constant in the purity of the Catholic Faith, were greatly esteemed by him and all his kingdom in living as well as morals. Meanwhile, however, Clement had decided to intervene himself in England, and, on November 22nd, had addressed to Edward from Poitiers, where he appears to have been in conference with the French King, one of those mendacious Bulls with which he now sought to poison the mind of Christendom. In this document (Pro Capcione Templariorum), after reciting the crimes of the Templars, their arrests in Fraance, and the seizure of thei property by Philip, which he alleged had been done for its safe custody and the benefit of the Holy Land, he proceeded to state that the Master of the Order had since publicly and spontaneously confessed that the denial of Christ at the instigation of Satan had been made part of their ceremony of initiation, and that many other Brethren of the Temple in different parts of France had also confessed the wickedness charged against them, doing unfeigned penance therefor. Further, he alleged that he himself had examined a Knight of the Order of high birth and authority, who had spontaneously and fully confessed the crime of denying Jesus Christ on admission, and had been present at a Chapter in the Kingdom of Cyprus when a certain nobleman at his initiation by the Master's command committed this very wickedness in the presence of two hundred members of the Order, of whom about one hundred were Knights. His Holiness accordingly exhorted King Edward with caution and secrecy in one day to arrest all the Templars in his Kingdom and take their property into safe custody. Although it is clear there was no belief in the charges at the English Court, on receiving this further communication, Edward yielded. Perhaps in that age even it strong Ruler, if a professed son of the Church, could hardly have done otherwise, for, as has been aptly said, " When the Vicar of Christ himself entered the witness box scepticism was silenced." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 48, 49 In August, 1808, carne another Papal Bull (Faciens Miscericordiam), repeating much that had been alleged in Clement's former missive to the King but addressed to Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his suffragans. In this Bull the Pope declared that at the very commencement of his Pontificate reports had confidentially reached him that the Grand Master, Preceptors, and Brethren of the Order of the Temple had lapsed into the unspeakable sin of apostasy, the detestable vice of idolatry, the execrable crime of sodomy, and many heresies that his dearest son in Christ, Philip, the illustrious King of the French, had also heard these things, and that the guilt of the Templars had been proved by many confessions, attestations, and depositions of the said Grand Master and many Preceptors and Brethren of the Order in France. That before three Cardinals deputed by himself to inquire and ascertain the truth, the Grand Master and many Preceptors being sworn had deposed and confessed freely and spontaneously without compulsion or fear that on reception into the Order they had denied Christ, spitting upon the Cross; that some had also admitted that with the same denial and spitting they had received others; that certain Brethren had confessed other things horrible and indecent regarding which shame kept him silent; and that on beaded knees, with clasped hands, humbly and earnestly and with many tears, they had begged for absolution. He accordingly directed the Archbishop and Bishops to institute inquiries in England through the Provincial Councils, and in particular to examine the Templars there upon certain articles of accusation transmitted with the Bull, and named two Inquisitors, Deodatus, Abbot of Lagny, and Sicarde de Vaur, Canon of Narbonne, whom he was sending to conduct the examinations, and whom he required the English Bishops to assist. Clement had no doubt heard of the letters King Edward had dispatched to Portugal, Castile, Sicily, and Aragon, for in this Bull he further alleged that King Philip had not acted against the Templars from avarice, not intending to take any of their property for himself, and having wholly removed his hand from it, but following in the illustrious footsteps of his progenitors, from zeal for the orthodox Faith." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 51, 52 "The articles of accusation sent by the Pope numbered eighty seven. They dealt (i. a.) with the alleged denial of Christ and spitting on the Cross at initiation; alleged acts of indecency between the Preceptors and novitiates; the wearing of cords or belts consecrated to idolatry; alleged acts of immorality; the worshipping of idols (including cats) in their Chapters; disbelief in the Sacraments of the altar and absolution from sin by the Master and Preceptors, being laymen only.... ....No evidence was obtained, however, in proof of the Papal allegations. All the members, Knights, Priests, and Serving Brothers, alike denied the charges and protested their innocence. The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, page 53 "Meanwhile, under the merciless direction of King Philip and his Inquisitors, the tragedy had been pursuing its cruel course in France. There, those Brethren who did not confess were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, while those who admitted the charges and did not afterwards withdraw their admissions were for the most part absolved and set at liberty. Others who, ashamed of their weakness under torture, subsequently retracted their confessions of guilt and claimed to defend the Order, were seized by Philip's command and burnt as relapsed heretics. Fifty four so suffered at Paris in one day. Their firmness in adhering to their retractations notwithstanding the terrible consequences and the intrepidity with which they endured a cruel death, astonished all beholders, and point with overwhelming force to the falsity of the charges laid against them." The History Of The Temple, London, J. Bruce Williamson, pages 63, 64 "....The fate of James de Molay, the Grand Master of the Temple and some of his superior officers still remained undecided....With Molay, Geoffrey de Charnis, Preceptor of Normandy, and two other Knights of high position, Hugh de Peraud, Visitor of France, and Godfrey de Gonnville, Preceptor of Aquitaine, were arraigned before this tribunal. The two latter abode by their former confessions, and were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. But the Grand Master and Geoffrey de Charnis, to the astonishment of their Judges, seized the opportunity to publicly declare that they were innocent of the charges laid against them, that the confessions they had made to save their own l