PEACE WILL PREVAIL ON EARTH
February 11, 2008
Rising Phoenix Series #43: Hope and Revelations Aplenty
Hello everysoul!
Another hefty 44,000+ words compilation for your review. I was wondering what possible comment I could offer to enlighten some of the crucial elements of this snapshot of fast evolving events on the train of our civilization careening towards an uncertain future.
Just as I was about to send this out, this came to my attention. Please take 4 minutes to watch this gripping, empowering video...
The Battle For America Has Begun - "We do the dirty work of democracy" http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19314.htm
Back in touch soon through the new Meditation Focus coming your way next Saturday... but always in touch through the magick of Oneness radiating from our hearts...
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com
P.S. Your feedback is as always welcomed and may be included in a coming compilation - unless you prefer it is not. Circulating this compilation (or any part of it) and personally inviting your correspondents to subscribe to this list would also help enlarge the circle of people who have access to this material. Please include the following note and the URL address for the archived copy below along with your forwards, so others may have the opportunity to explore the original copy, if they so choose.
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STATS for this compilation: Over 44,000 words and 206 links provided.
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THE QUOTES
"I have been a long-term reader of your newsletters and wish to thank you for the splendid work you do in answering folks and compiling the lists. I have some photos that may interest you on my site of possible faeries, sylphs and devas - also some terrific orbs or spheres of light. As the world quickens - and as we feel that some people's imaginations may need a positive boost - we have also have provided a vision for a new earth and an article on multidimensional unity. So, may I say, In Unity!"
- Cedar (cedar@celticgardens.com.au) -- Taken from the ERN guestbook
"We who can read these words are civilized people who have been mentally conditioned by the culture of civilization and the industrial society from birth. We have precepts loaded into our subconscious minds which cause us to see reality in a certain way. To a native Maya person in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, the earth speaks through them. They live integrated with the earth in their everyday energy systems and in their mental attitudes. To them the fact that the earthlife has manifest these living things around us, and us, means that we are children of the Mother Earth and we speak as one of the voices of the earth. To the Maya this is obvious on a deep level. To us it is an interesting intellectual proposition only, because we have been conditioned by a cultural upbringing that filters out this deep understanding and we do not mentally link our life with the life of the living earth. To the Maya security is the earth and its care. The Maya live with the earth and feed from its natural bounty. Historically for a million years our species has been very successful. We have been adapted to the earth life. We lived within the ecological web and energy flows of the earth."
- William H. Kötke -- Taken from The Revolution That Is Arising From THE EARTH below - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as it offers many examples of ways to survive in a sustainable manner the coming onslaught of environmental destructions and civilization disintegration.
"One month from now is the Ohio primary and I'm running for re-election to the House of Representatives. I'm also being outspent 5 to 1. Corporate interests are converging on Cleveland in an effort to try to knock me out of Congress. I need your help to make sure that there continues to remain in the United States Congress a voice of truth, a voice of courage, a voice of integrity. I want to continue to serve in Congress to stand up for my constituents and their economic rights: the right to a job, to health care for all, to retirement security, for the education of their children. I need your help in order to do that. These interests groups have enabled television ads to be run against me for 2 weeks running and I haven't had the resources to be able to go back on television and to respond to them. But with your contribution I'll be able to do that. So please go to our website right now at http://kucinich.us/contribute.html and give us the resources that we need to beat back this corporate challenge. I'm confident that with your help I'll be able to continue to be the voice in the United States Congress that you count on to be heard in times of crisis. We need to regain our country. We need to sweep aside the fear that has engulfed this country. We need to set back the greed that is undermining this country. I'm prepared to do that and I'm prepared to do that with your help."
- Dennis Kucinich (4 Feb 2008) -- Make sure to read Is Dennis Kucinich Getting McKinney'd below!
"The 0.5 million global US-NATO-linked opiate drug-related deaths plus 6.6 million post-invasion Afghan excess deaths bring an upper estimate of the carnage due to the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan to 7.1 million deaths. If we include excess deaths associated with UK-US actions against Iraq in the period 1990-2008 (about 4 million) then the gruesome carnage of the Bush I plus Bush II Asian Wars now totals about 11 million excess deaths (and this ignores the impact of the Bush Wars through oil price rises and other factors on Third World avoidable deaths). Occupied Afghanistan is the New Auschwitz of the US and its complicit allies."
- Dr Gideon Polya -- Taken from Top US Lawyer And UNICEF Data Reveal Afghan Genocide
CONTENT
1. Correspondence with Joe and the Recorder
2. Message from Atmos
3. Call of the Dolphins for Peace On Earth
4. The Revolution That Is Arising From THE EARTH
5. A Book Review of Vladimir Megre's book "Anastasia"
6. AWAKENING THE DREAMER, CHANGING THE DREAM
7. About Star Kids and why they're here now
8. Open Letter To the UFO Community and Other Concerned Citizens
9. Is Dennis Kucinich Getting McKinney'd
10. High-Quality Loose Change Final Cut on Google Video
11. Rain forests fall at 'alarming' rate
12. Pictures reveal truth about Japan's 'scientific' whaling
13. U.S. doctor links radio waves from cell phone towers to cancer, Alzheimer’s, senility, dementia, Parkinson’s and Autism
14. ttp://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/020408_shoot_americans.htm">U.S. Troops Asked If They Would Shoot American Citizens
15. The Strangulation of Gaza
16. New Book Details Mass Killings and Brutal Mistreatment of Germans at the End of World War Two
17. ttp://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7998">Fragile Dollar Hegemony: Iran's Oil Bourse could Topple the Dollar
WORTHY OF YOUR ATTENTION
A New Dream - The Story of the Pachamama Alliance (12 min 10 sec video) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=443237131434838449&hl=en
Note from Jean: I highly recommend watching this video and getting involved with the Pachamama Alliance. This is a powerful means to mobilize ultimately millions of people in the global effort now underway to save our planet from ecoblivion in the very near future.
Amazing pictures of cloaked spaceships in the sky
http://www.greatdreams.com/donut.htm
Just scroll to view the various pics. The last one at the bottom is fantastic!
Huge rise in British UFO sightings (8/02/2008)
http://tinyurl.com/yvnnch
Clusters of up to 100 mysterious objects, bright white lights and strange, triangular shaped objects are just some of a huge surge in UFO sightings reported to the Ministry of Defence last year.
MAJOR RESEARCH PAPER AVAILABLE ONLINE ON UFO PHOTOGRAPHS IN NORWAY
http://forgetomori.com/2008/ufos/norway-in-ufo-photos/
We are happy to announce the release of the complete, expanded version of our joint paper “Norway in UFO Photographs: The First Catalogue“, a 206-page report that includes, in addition to an amazing number of pictures, a catalogue of case summaries, a statistical analysis of data, and a bibliography, as well as the full catalogue spreadsheet. The report is written in English and it can be found in the following link: http://www.divshare.com/download/3676380-e4
World meditation on March 21th
http://www.kachina.net/%7Ealunajoy/solarwave2008.html
THE FINAL EMPIRE: THE COLLAPSE OF CIVILIZATION AND THE SEED OF THE FUTURE
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/
There is a link to the first chapter of this book which sheds a lot of light on this subject. After reading the book, as I see it, we are all part of an enormous Ponzi scheme (the book draws parallels with cancer), which started some 10,000 years ago when "civilization" got its start, in which, basically, the cat called "unrestrained greed" was let out of the bag. Humans of "advanced" societies have been ruining their living environment ever since, and when one place will no longer support them, or when one form of commerce can no longer be continued, they move on and conquer some other place or find a new destructive activity. Natives practicing sustainable lifestyles are displaced, killed or enslaved. It is amazing this could be kept up for so long, but the whole scheme may be reaching its ultimate conclusion in our lifetimes. There is not much any of us can do about it. Generally speaking, you either work for it, or you are being victimized by it. The book offers some hope by suggesting ways to return to a sustainable lifestyle when civilization can no longer support us. Awareness may be the only hope.
Satire: BUSH's REAL STATE OF THE UNION
http://globalresearch.ca/audiovideo/presaddress.mov
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE “STATE OF THE UNION”
http://www.heartcom.org/NewWorldGame.htm
A look at the new World Game defining, refining, and shining a more enlightned "Net reality" (all-connected conscience) (...) The U.S. now spends more for defense each year than ALL other countries of the world combined. Endless war policies are required to sustain this military-industrial monopoly. Peace policies are publicly promoted but privately suppressed by monopoly forces intent on sustaining a climate of terror and war that justifies war powers of martial law, suspending Constitutional law in the process. A “health care” monopoly likewise sustains an equally predatory medical-industrial complex that profits form mass degenerative disease. Prevention policies and holistic healing breakthroughs are suppressed as an enemy to monopoly medicine’s profit from drugs for whatever ails you. CLIP Recommended by Chris Rudy (chrisrudy@wispwest.net)
US Election: not another Bush
Yesterday, the leading candidates for the next President of the United States became clear. They are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, and the winner will decide whether the nightmare of the Bush foreign policy is reversed or continued for another 4 years. US citizens will choose their president, but global public opinion matters to them--they know that US respect in the world has plummeted under Bush, and they want a President who can deliver change. In the next few days, our uniquely global community has a real chance to influence the finalist candidates as they develop their campaign strategy. Click below to read and endorse our letter to the candidates. We'll publish it in US newspapers and deliver it personally to the Clinton, Obama and McCain campaigns--we need at least 100,000 people to sign it this week – so please sign and forward this email to friends right away: http://www.avaaz.org/en/us_change_course/8.php The message of the letter is simple: we are all in this together. The world is ready to partner with the US, but we need to see a real change of course from the Bush years. The letter is based on a poll of the Avaaz community, which found that our top 3 requests for change in US policy are: 1. Help the world stop global warming 2. Respect universal human rights 3. Use diplomacy to prevent war and resolve conflict - There is a real chance that the candidates could adopt this simple agenda for change, but every day brings more risk that they will commit to another direction.
21 Things You Didn't Know You Can Recycle
http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/caq/articles/21Things.cfm
Garbage... Americans produce more and more of it every year, when we need to be producing less. Even the most waste-conscious among us can feel overwhelmed by the amount of household waste that goes beyond what municipal recyclers and compost bins can handle. That’s why our editors spent the summer of 2007 investigating the state of waste management in our country, putting this list togther for you, explaining how we can get serious about the three R’s – reducing, reusing, and recycling — and divert more waste away from landfills. (To download the entire recycling issue of the Quarterly, visit our archives page.)
Unintentionally Hilarious Signs to Brighten Your Day
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/2/5/unintentionally-hilarious-signs-to-brighten-your-day.aspx
Frozen Grand Central - TOTALLY COOL!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo&eurl=http://7.gmodules.com/
Recommended by Richard & Sandra (srkeber@msn.com) who wrote: "This is so beautiful and fun – my heart leaps to watch it - but the reactions of the uninvolved people are really familiar. Years ago, when we were in our late 20’s, early 30’s we traveled around Europe in a big English Bedford bus with a street theater group called The Human Family – we did “events” like this in cities and towns and at “arts festivals” all over the continent during the social-upheaval/insanity year of 1968 – I haven’t heard of it happening at all during the 40 years since until now."
Changing the world - one loan at a time
http://www.kiva.org
Recommended by Jamara Janine Gruber (aramaj@gmx.ch) who wrote: "I just made a loan to someone in the developing world using a revolutionary new website called Kiva. You can go to Kiva's website and lend to someone in the developing world who needs a loan for their business - like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks. Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent - and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going. The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back - and Kiva's loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly. (...) It's finally easy to actually do something about poverty - using Kiva I know exactly who my money is loaned to and what they're using it for. And most of all, I know that I'm helping them build a sustainable business that will provide income to feed, clothe, house and educate their family long after my loan is paid back. Join me in changing the world - one loan at a time." What others are saying about www.Kiva.org: 'Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.' -- BBC 'If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.' -- CNN Money'Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.' -- The Wall Street Journal 'An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity... All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.' -- Entrepreneur Magazine
New Internationalist DU Special Now Available Online
http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/160.html
I'll have more on this in my next compilation...
U.S. Soldiers Are Sick of It (08.12.06)
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2006/08/71585
ALSO RECOMMENDED
Obama, Romney lead in California on Super Tuesday (Feb 5, 2008) VOTE FRAUD AGAIN?? OBAMA HAD THERE A 13% LEAD IN THE LAST POLL BEFORE THE VOTE, YET HILLARY WON BY A WHOPPING 10% LEAD... FISHY!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN0345866120080205
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama surged to a big lead over Hillary Clinton in California hours before "Super Tuesday" voting began in 24 states, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Tuesday. (...) On a sprawling day of coast-to-coast voting, the biggest ever in a U.S. primary race, the U.S. presidential contenders in both parties were fighting to win a huge cache of delegates to this summer's nominating conventions. In California, which alone provides more than one-fifth of the Democratic delegates needed for the nomination, Obama led Clinton by 49 percent to 36 percent, the poll found. The margin of error was 3.3 percentage points. Clinton pulled into a 5-point lead in New Jersey, 46 percent to 41 percent, after being tied on Monday. Obama held a 45 percent to 42 percent edge on Clinton in Missouri. Both polls had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. Obama had a 20-point edge in Georgia, aided by a more than 3-to-1 lead among black voters. CLIP
Hundreds of Thousands of Non-Partisan Voter Ballots May Not be Counted in California's Open Democratic Primary Election (2/6/2008)
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5659
Alright, we've got a bona fide mess here in Los Angeles County. We covered this a bit earlier tonight, but have been speaking with various precinct captains and trying to figure out exactly what's going on. As mentioned it's a confusing mess, and could indeed be shaping up as "California's Butterfly Ballot" as far as we can tell. (...) Here’s the trouble: In the voting booth, voters must then mark a bubble on the ballot that confirms the voter is indeed voting on a Democratic ballot. If they fail to mark, their ballots go uncounted. And further, if a voter neglects to fill in this bubble, a voting machine will not return the ballot because the vote is counted as an under-vote. In Los Angeles County alone, 776,000 voters are susceptible to double bubble trouble. CLIP
How Clinton Won California
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020708L.shtml
Hillary Clinton: A Bilderberg Presidency - European elite back Democratic frontrunner
http://www.oldthinkernews.com/Articles/oldthinker%20news/hillary_clinton.htm
(...) When asked by Grove if Clinton will be "good for business," Rothschild replies,"First of all, Hillary will be good for America. And so if we care about our country —which all of my fellow capitalists do —we'll be very pleased that she's president."Writing in the Council on Foreign Relations publication Foreign Affairs, Hillary Clinton outlines her agenda if elected president. Iran is in Clinton's sights, along with regional government, and likely support of the North American Union - and possibly a Pan-American union - with a "policy of vigorous engagement" with Latin America. Regarding Iran, Clinton echoes the rhetoric coming from President Bush and the Neo-cons CLIP
Hillary's List (Feb 8)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8036
Republican strategies to guarantee that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination - "Clinton will be the Democrat, and I don't know who the Republican will be, but the election will be about the war on terror and the Republican will win." - Karl Rove, Fox News, December 2007 - Many astute Republicans believe that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the salvation of their party. On Super Tuesday, it is time that the American people take a serious look at why the opposition party favors the nomination of the former First Lady. (...) The important point in Wehner's thesis echoes the opinions of Karl Rove and Dick Morris: Clinton would be easy prey, while Obama would be extremely difficult to defeat because of his message of change - and his formidable political and rhetorical gifts. CLIP
Does The Brownshirt Party Have Aces Up Its Sleeve? (08/02/08)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19308.htm
The Brownshirt Party has chosen John “hundred year war” McCain as its presidential candidate. Except for Cheney, Norman Podhoretz, and billy kristol, McCain is America’s greatest warmonger. In a McCain Regime, Cheney will be back in office with another stint as Secretary of War. Norman “Bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran” Podhoretz will be Undersecretary for Nuclear War with General John “Nuke them” Shalikashvili as his deputy. Rudy Giuliani will be the Minister of Interior in charge of Halliburton’s detention centers into which will be herded all critics of war and the police state. billy kristol will be chief White House spokesliar. The whole gang will be back--Wolfowitz, Perle, Wurmster, Feith, Libby, Bolton. America will have a second chance to bomb the world into submission.With the majority of voters sick of war, sick of lies, sick of fraud from the Federal Reserve and Wall Street, and sick of stagnant and falling incomes, McCain is poised to capture 20% of the vote--the Christian Zionists, the rapture evangelicals, and the diehard macho flag-waving thugs who believe America is done for unless “Islamofacists” are exterminated. (...)_ On the other hand maybe the Brownshirts have a plan. What could the plan be?They can steal the election with the Diebold electronic voting machines and proprietary software that no one is allowed to check. There are now enough elections on record with significant divergences between exit polls and vote tallies that a stolen election can be explained away. The Democrats have been house trained to acquiesce to stolen elections. The voters, whose votes are stolen, dismiss the evidence as “conspiracy theories.”Or what about a well-timed orchestrated “terrorist attack” to drive fearful Americans to the war candidate. False flag events are stock-in-trade. Hitler used the Reichstag fire to turn German democracy into a dictatorship overnight. CLIP
Obama Campaign Projects Deadlocked Race After Primaries Finish (Feb. 6)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aHVRn9HAldqg&refer=us
(Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama's campaign is forecasting that the Democratic presidential race will remain deadlocked after the primaries end, and the outcome may depend on a fight over whether delegations from Florida and Michigan are counted.By the time the last primary is held June 7, Obama's advisers project he will have 1,806 delegates to 1,789 for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, according to a document outlining the scenario that was inadvertently attached to a release on delegate counts from yesterday's Super Tuesday primaries. The forecast doesn't include Florida and Michigan, which were stripped of delegates by the Democratic National Committee for holding primaries ahead of the schedule set out by the party. Clinton, who won uncontested primaries in both states, is vowing a fight to have those delegates -- slated to be 366 in total -- seated at the nominating convention. "This is only one of an infinite number of scenarios,'' Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said, adding that the release of the information was unintended. Another issue is the so-called super delegates, 796 Democratic officials and officeholders who aren't bound by the results of primaries and caucuses. Obama's campaign projects about half will be pledged to either the Illinois senator or Clinton, and the rest could swing the nomination. CLIP
Clinton has lead with party insiders (Feb 10) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080210/ap_on_el_pr/superdelegates;_ylt=Av9mnP7DeiBEAoq195oSXdqs0NUE
WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton retains her lead among suddenly critical Democratic Party insiders even as Barack Obama builds up his delegate margin with primary and caucus victories across the country, according to a survey by The Associated Press. Of the 796 lawmakers, governors and party officials who are Democratic superdelegates, Clinton had 243 and Obama had 156. That edge was responsible for Clinton's overall advantage in the pursuit of delegates to secure the party's nomination for president. According to the AP's latest tally, Clinton has 1,125 total delegates and Obama has 1,087. A candidate must get 2,205 delegates to capture the nomination. The numbers illustrate not only the remarkable proximity between the two candidates, but also the extraordinary influence superdelegates could wield in determining who becomes the nominee. Both campaigns are aggressively pursuing superdelegates, trumpeting their endorsements the moment they are secured. CLIP
The Winter of Our Discontent (February 6, 2008)
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=029823&From=News
The same fate awaits the Democrats: it looks like the pledged delegates – that is, delegates won fair and square in a primary – are going in their majority to Obama, while the "super-delegates" – party bigwigs appointed by the Powers-That-Be – could give the nomination to Hillary. This could set up a situation where the party Establishment defies the apparent will of the voters and crowns Hillary in a super-delegate "coup." One can almost feel the resentment, disappointment, and building anger that will rise up and smite the Democrats if and when this occurs. The whole process then becomes a metaphor for the cause of widespread voter alienation – the rise of a permanently-entrenched political class in America, similar to that which once wielded power in the former Soviet Union. CLIP
Current Electioneering of Net reality…
http://www.heartcom.org/ElectionCircus.htm
Looks like the election circus "Fix” is in! According to some insider reports, Hillary is already appointed to win via power elite superdelegates, perhaps with Obama as Vice-Pres. What a dream ticket for manipulating the populist vote on the basis of gender preference, racial bias, and political contempt for Republican policies. This dog and pony show is merely an attempt to legitimize a corrupt election process co-opted by Wall Street vested interests in corporate power without Constitutional principle. CLIP
Barack Obama and the Euphoria of Madness (Feb. 7, 2008)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/263/263_cover_1_keeping_it_real_obama_euphoria.html
(...) Never mind that Barack Obama, contrary to corporate myth, was never in reality a so-called grassroots, political, "community activist," but was in fact a financially paid, funded, and comfortable opportunist who did not lay his life on the line in any serious manner for disenfranchised people. (...) Never mind that Barack Obama has indicated both verbally and in writing that he favors "unilateral" US military actions against other nations, which is both dangerously absurd and in direct contravention and flagrant violation of international law. (...) Those who ignore reality and the lessons of history do so at their own peril. Ignoring reality, whether in a state of euphoria or not, is nonetheless a sure recipe for disaster.
The Bush Financial Bust of 2008: "It's All Downhill From Here, Folks" (February 8, 2008)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8033
(...) America's place in the world has been guaranteed not by what it produces but by what it consumes. The American consumer has been the locomotive that drives the global economy. Now that engine has been derailed by the reckless monetary policies of the Fed and by shortsighted financial innovation. When equity bubbles collapse; everybody pays. Demand for goods and services diminishes, unemployment soars, banks fold, and the economy stalls. That's when governments have to step in and provide programs and resources that keep people working and sustain business activity. Otherwise there will be anarchy. Middle class people are ill-suited for life under a freeway overpass. They need a helping hand from government. Big government. Good-bye, Reagan. Hello, F.D.R.The Bush stimulus plan is a drop in the bucket. It'll take much, much more. And, we're not holding our breath for a New Deal from George Walker Bush.
Bush's $3 trillion budget (February 5, 2008)
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/4442
President Bush is sending Congress a $3 trillion spending blueprint that would provide a big boost to defense and protect his signature tax cuts.It seeks sizable savings in government health care programs and puts the squeeze on much of the rest of government, but it would still generate near-record budget deficits over the next two years. Even before receiving the document Monday, Democrats were attacking it for slashing programs to help the poor while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy. (...) Democrats say Bush's budget is built on flawed math. Beyond 2009, the budget plan does not include any money to keep the alternative minimum tax, which was aimed at the wealthy, from ensnaring millions of middle-income people. It also includes only $70 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, just a fraction of the $200 billion those wars are expected to cost this year. CLIP
Pentagon Seeks Record Level in 2009 Budget
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020408K.shtml
Thom Shanker, of The New York Times, writes: "As Congress and the public focus on more than $600 billion already approved in supplemental budgets to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for counterterrorism operations, the Bush administration has with little notice reached a landmark in military spending. When the Pentagon on Monday unveils its proposed 2009 budget of $515.4 billion, annual military spending, when adjusted for inflation, will have reached its highest level since World War II."
Top US Lawyer And UNICEF Data Reveal Afghan Genocide (8 February, 2008)
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya080208.htm
The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 with the ostensible excuse of the Afghan Government’s “protection” of the asserted Al Qaeda culprits of the 9/11 atrocity that killed 3,000 people. In the light of as many as 6.6 million post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan as of February 2008 (see below), it is important to consider the major problems with this Bush-ite and neo-Bush-ite version of events as summarized below: (...) What is happening in Afghanistan is an Afghan Holocaust. One sees that post-invasion under-5 infant deaths in Occupied Afghanistan (2.3 million) vastly exceeds the number of Jewish children murdered by the Nazis in World War 2 (1.5 million). The upper estimate of post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan (6.6 million out of an average 2001-2008 Afghan population of about 25 million) exceeds the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War 2 ( 5.6 million out of 8.2 million Jews in German-occupied Europe in the period 1941-1945) CLIP
The Coming Collapse of Globalization (February 8, 2008)
http://www.satyacenter.com/center-newsletters-coming-collapse-of-globalization
(...) Meanwhile, US taxpayers are being set up to bail out the extremely rich institutions and individuals who have profited the most by creating the present debacle. This is an unacceptable, immoral, and undemocratic outcome, to say the least.It is time to have a full-throated public discussion about the necessary re-structuring of our financial system so it will benefit everyone, and not just the elites who gamble with our world’s financial future in their members-only digital casinos, secure in the knowledge that they will get to keep all their winnings, and that in the event they lose their shirts, Uncle Sam will be happy to buy them a new tuxedo in time for them to appear at the next glittering virtual financial soiree.It is hardly surprising that the Presidential candidates in America have no stomach for such a discussion. This crisis is a bi-partisan crisis. It is a crisis created by the last twenty-five years of consensus governance, and implicates all of Washington and Wall Street. Unfortunately, just bleeding American taxpayers for a trillion dollars or so will not be enough to avoid a global recession, and perhaps a global loss of confidence in the Federal Reserve, the stock exchanges, and the banking system. Nor will a Gargantuan bailout necessarily guarantee that we can avoid a lengthy recession, perhaps to be followed by a long-lasting global depression. Reregulation of the American financial system is necessary to avoid a repetition of this Mother of all Financial Collapses. This crisis is partly caused by the immense concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, which means that wealthy institutions and individuals have vast pools of “hot money” available to them, and they are chasing high yield in risky financial instruments fabricated from risky real estate deals, investment fads and risky corporate restructurings that are sold around the world in various stock exchanges. This hot money chases high yield and as it flows into various types of investments, bubbles are created. Thus we have a bubble economy. CLIP
John F. Kennedy vs The Federal Reserve
http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/thefederalreserve.htm
On June 4, 1963, a virtually unknown Presidential decree, Executive Order 11110, was signed with the authority to basically strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the United States Federal Government at interest. With the stroke of a pen, President Kennedy declared that the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank would soon be out of business. The Christian Law Fellowship has exhaustively researched this matter through the Federal Register and Library of Congress. We can now safely conclude that this Executive Order has never been repealed, amended, or superceded by any subsequent Executive Order. In simple terms, it is still valid. (...) President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and the United States Notes he had issued were immediately taken out of circulation. (...) Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to all future presidents not to interfere with the private Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. It seems very apparent that President Kennedy challenged the "powers that exist behind U.S. and world finance". With true patriotic courage, JFK boldly faced the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt: 1) war (Viet Nam); and, 2) the creation of money by a privately owned central bank. His efforts to have all U.S. troops out of Vietnam by 1965 combined with Executive Order 11110 would have destroyed the profits and control of the private Federal Reserve Bank. CLIP
Big Media and The New World Order - The Murdoch Empire by Stephen Lendman (February 7, 2008)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8024
(...) Today's media barons control the world as opinion makers. Like in Orwell's world, they're our national thought control police gatekeepers sanitizing news so only the cleansed residue portion gets through with everything people want most left out - the full truth all the time. They manipulate our minds and beliefs, program our thoughts, divert our attention, and effectively destroy the free marketplace of ideas essential to a healthy democracy they won't tolerate.None more ruthlessly than Murdoch and the info-entertainment empire he controls. Its flagship US operation is Fox News that Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) calls "the most biased name in news....with its extraordinary right-wing tilt." (...) Murdoch and the rest of the dominant media fail the test. Their concentrated power blunt democracy by destroying its essential free marketplace of ideas. Today, social control substitutes for diversity, free expression, and an informed electorate; pro-business ideology trumps the greater good; and the single-minded pursuit of profit triumphs over beneficial social change. Combating it means confronting the media barons who are as determined as Murdoch to squash us. Organizations like Free Press are doing it. It's a "national nonpartisan organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates." It aims to "generate policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector" promoting greater diversity. The more democratic our media, the more accountable government will be to public concerns. Free Press focuses on four broad areas to help: "media ownership" for greater competition and diversity; "independent and public media" free from the single-minded pursuit of profit; "internet freedom" from corporate control; and "media reform" of a corrupted system aided by government that must end. To happen, public participation is essential, and for that organizations like Free Press are crucial. Corporate media control is the core issue of our time along with overall corporate dominance with governments as their handmaiden. Democracy and a free society are impossible unless that changes. It's we the people vs. the Murdochs of the world, and we've only just begun fighting back.
Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches - U.S. Agents Seize Travelers' Devices (February 7, 08) ORWELLIAN!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604763_pf.html
Nabila Mango, a therapist and a U.S. citizen who has lived in the country since 1965, had just flown in from Jordan last December when, she said, she was detained at customs and her cellphone was taken from her purse. Her daughter, waiting outside San Francisco International Airport, tried repeatedly to call her during the hour and a half she was questioned. But after her phone was returned, Mango saw that records of her daughter's calls had been erased.A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself.Maria Udy, a marketing executive with a global travel management firm in Bethesda, said her company laptop was seized by a federal agent as she was flying from Dulles International Airport to London in December 2006. Udy, a British citizen, said the agent told her he had "a security concern" with her. "I was basically given the option of handing over my laptop or not getting on that flight," she said.The seizure of electronics at U.S. borders has prompted protests from travelers who say they now weigh the risk of traveling with sensitive or personal information on their laptops, cameras or cellphones. In some cases, companies have altered their policies to require employees to safeguard corporate secrets by clearing laptop hard drives before international travel. (...) At least two major global corporations, one American and one Dutch, have told their executives not to carry confidential business material on laptops on overseas trips, Gurley said. In Canada, one law firm has instructed its lawyers to travel to the United States with "blank laptops" whose hard drives contain no data. CLIP
AP Confirms Secret Camp Inside Guantanamo
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020708J.shtml
Andrew O. Selsky, of The Associated Press, reports: "Somewhere amid the cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells where hundreds of men suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban have been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded - a jailhouse so protected that its very location is top secret. For the first time, the top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7. In an interview with The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby also provided a few details about the maximum-security lockup."
The Truth About Canada
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771041655
Some important, Some Astonishing, and Some Truly Appalling Things All Canadians Should Know About Our Country -- Renowned as a passionate Canadian, best-selling author Mel Hurtig has combed through world statistics to see how Canada really measures up – and the results are astonishing, and often shocking. This book is about how Canada has changed, very much for the worse, in the last twenty years. As a result of these profound (often hidden) changes, we are no longer the people we think we are. To take one example, the Canadian media usually leaves us with the impression that Canadians are really heavily taxed. Yes, compared to the U.S.A., the usual point of comparison. No, compared to other countries with our standard of living, other OECD countries, for example; there we come in 23rd on the high-tax scale. The shocks in this book build up, chapter by chapter. How do we rank in the world in voter turnout? Try 109th. Number of physicians per 100,000 population: Try 54th. Our rank in reducing pollution? 126th out of 146 countries. Some of the statistics are internal, comparing Canada then and now. They back up two of the book’s most powerful themes; the failure of Canadian big business to turn record profits into ongoing investment in our country, and (no coincidence) the sellout of our assets at a rate that no other country would allow. This statistics-based book ranges across all areas of our lives – including health, wages, productivity, culture, the media (“the most concentrated in the world”), and much else. Mel Hurtig’s message is that we can’t do anything to fix the direction we’re drifting in unless we recognize it – and recognize The Truth About Canada.
Judge: Navy not exempt from sonar ruling (Feb 5, 2008)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080205/ap_on_re_us/navy_sonar;_ylt=ArBhjBpHkGOKs8qcsu1JU42s0NUE
LOS ANGELES - The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that may harm whales, despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday. The Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act" and a court injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision. (...) Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore did not say what the military's next legal move may be.Government attorneys can appeal Cooper's decision to the 9th Circuit or could ask the appeals court to allow sonar exercises until the appeal is resolved.Scientists have said that loud sonar can damage the brains and ears of marine mammals, and that it may mask the echoes some whales and dolphins listen for when they use their own natural sonar to locate food. CLIP
Kenya: In Diplomatic Intensive Care (Feb 4, 2008)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/kenyaindiplomaticintensivecare;_ylt=AtxJYjXrxlkqowqSJBDC7wSs0NUE
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon jetted into Kenya on Friday for a round of talks aimed at easing Kenya's post-election crisis, traveling what has been a path well-trodden by high-profile diplomats as the world tries to keep the chaos here from mutating into all-out ethnic war. Already in Kenya was Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan, who is mediating negotiations between President Mwai Kibaki's government and the opposition Orange Democratic Movement of Raila Odinga, who claims that Kibaki's associates stole the vote through massive vote rigging. Nelson Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, who is a U.N. expert on humanitarian issues as well as a former First Lady of Mozambique, has flown in to help bring the parties together. Former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mpaka is here, Ghana's President John Kufuor came and went, and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, a businessman who helped negotiate an end to apartheid, is expected to arrive shortly. The steady flow is a stark contrast to other crises in Africa. Last week, for example, the International Rescue Committee issued a report saying that 45,000 continue to die every month as a result of Congo's civil war. Zimbabwe's economy is still deteriorating fast - well beyond the international spotlight. And Amnesty International said Friday that conflict between the army and armed groups in Chad is only getting worse.Analysts say there are many reasons for Kenya to get so more attention: It is an economic hub whose port delivers supplies to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia and South Sudan; and it is an important U.S. ally in the War on Terror. And the potential for even greater mayhem in Kenya remains high. Both Annan and former U.S. President Bill Clinton have acknowledged their failure to prevent or stop the Rwanda genocide. And while western pundits may dismiss the comparison, for Kenyans, the fear of a second Rwanda is very real. "I can see the beginnings of an ethnic conflict, I really can," says Mwalimu Mati, a local political activist. "Everyday, you've got more deaths, and these are in slums; they say Kibaki supporters were attacked or Odinga supporters were attacked, that's just code for Kikuyu and Luo [the respective tribes of the president and his rival]." (...) So far, about 850 people have been killed in Kenya's crisis, and at least 250,000 displaced. CLIP
Kenya: Media Not Innocent
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020308F.shtml
Inter Press Service's Kwamboka Oyaro says, "The media was partly blamed for the Rwandan genocide 14 years ago which left nearly one million people dead in 100 days. 'Kill the Inkotanyi [cockroaches]!' a local radio station urged its listeners at the time." A recent self-audit, "'30 Days in Words and Pictures: Media Response in Kenya During the Election Crisis' ... of the role local media played in the post-election violence revealed that media - especially vernacular radio stations - might be partly to blame for the on-going violence sparked off by the announcement of Mwai Kibaki as winner of the December 27 elections."
Kenya Death Toll Surpasses 1,000
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020508H.shtml
Kenya rivals ready to discuss power-sharing (Feb 10)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/kenya_crisis_dc;_ylt=AkhExko4bDtAGXCVpZSM0MROs6YB
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's rival parties geared up on Sunday to thrash out a power-sharing agreement to end a deadly crisis over President Mwai Kibaki's
Full Coverage: Kenya
http://news.yahoo.com/fc/World/Kenya;_ylt=AqZAyIUM7oELH3sp1ATzQxG9F4l4
Medicinal plants 'facing threat' (19 January 2008)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7196702.stm
Hundreds of medicinal plants are at risk of extinction, threatening the discovery of future cures for disease, according to experts.Over 50% of prescription drugs are derived from chemicals first identified in plants.But the Botanic Gardens Conservation International said many were at risk from over-collection and deforestation.Researchers warned the cures for things such as cancer and HIV may become "extinct before they are ever found".The group, which represents botanic gardens across 120 countries, surveyed over 600 of its members as well as leading university experts. They identified 400 plants that were at risk of extinction. These included yew trees, the bark of which forms the basis for one of the world's most widely used cancer drugs, paclitaxel. (...) But the report said as well as future breakthroughs being put at risk, the situation was likely to have a consequence in the developing world.It said five billion people still rely on traditional plant-based medicine as their primary form of health care. Report author Belinda Hawkins said: "The loss of the world's medicinal plants may not always be at the forefront of the public consciousness."However, it is not an overstatement to say that if the precipitous decline of these species is not halted, it could destabilise the future of global healthcare."And Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, added: "Nature has provided us with many of our medicines."Scientists are always interested in what they can provide and so it is a worry that such plants may be at risk."
CLIMATE CHANGE: Africa, South Asia Could Face Famines (Feb 1, 2008)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41041
BROOKLIN, Canada (IPS) - Climate change will cause major disruptions in the global food system, and adaptation to those changes needs to begin immediately, experts say.Otherwise one-fifth of the world's population could starve and millions of others become climate refugees, forced by heat and drought to abandon their lands and hunt for food elsewhere in the coming decades. To prevent this nightmarish future, researcher David Lobell says the world community should focus its efforts where climate threats are likely to make the greatest impacts. "We used historical data to determine what food-producing regions of the world were most sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall," said Lobell, author of the study published in the journal Science today. "Impoverished regions of Southern Africa and South Asia will be hit first and hardest by climate change," Lobell told IPS from his office at Stanford University's Programme on Food Security and the Environment. Other climate risk hot spots include Central America and Brazil. The analysis compared 20 climate change models for those areas and determined that average temperatures would rise one-degree Celsius in most areas by 2030. (...) Around the world, soils are in decline, largely because of the focus on increasing crop yields. Agriculture depends on using solar energy from the sun to recycle nutrients from the soils into crops that we eat. However, if the nutrients removed from the soils are not replaced, soils become depleted. Recent research has found that chemical fertilisers do not replace these nutrients but rather mask declining soil quality. Equally important is the problem of soil erosion. As reported by IPS last September, 100,000 square kilometres of land becomes degraded or turns into desert every year. However, climate change is expected to boost agriculture output in some countries such as Canada and Russia, which would have longer growing seasons. That raises equity issues and requires a rethinking of global grain stocks, and whether these should remain largely in private hands and where they should be physically stored, says Tansey. "What is clear is that there are serious flaws in a (current) food system that globally leaves more than 850 million people undernourished and over one billion overweight (300 million of them obese)," he wrote.
Why a World-Wide Famine is Coming:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/02/07/cnoil107.xml
Vulnerable regions of the world face the risk of famine over the next three years as rising energy costs spill over into a food crunch, according to US investment bank Goldman Sachs. CLIP
Rising CO2 levels: A double whammy for the food supply (February 04, 2008) http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020408EC.shtml
(...) Daniel Taub, Brian Miller and Holly Allen analysed more than 220 experiments in which plants were exposed to levels of carbon dioxide that ranged from the present ambient level to about double the existing level. They discovered that as the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere goes up, the protein in wheat, barley, rice, potatoes and soy beans diminishes, in some cases quite sharply.Barley lost 15.3 per cent of its protein, potatoes lost 14 per cent, rice and wheat lost almost 10 per cent. Soy beans fared better, but even they lost 1.4 per cent of protein. As these plants absorb more carbon dioxide into their tissues, the researchers found, they do so at the expense of other compounds, including those which are essential parts of proteins. This may all seem rather esoteric, but a 10- to 15-per-cent shortfall in the protein available to 40 per cent of the world's population should make everyone sit up and take notice because the effects would be felt pretty quickly by the other 60 per cent, too. CLIP
Obesity Becoming World Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020408HA.shtml
"Projected to be a bigger threat to life than AIDS and malaria combined, obesity is quickly becoming the world's most severe health-care crisis. As waistlines grow alarmingly, so do concerns over the impact an unhealthy population could have on everything from medicine to the economy."
Scientists warn of looming water supply crisis (Jan 31)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080131/ts_afp/usclimateresearchwater_080131203429
They argue that radical water cycle changes will be widespread and that past trends can no longer be relied upon when planning future water management. "Our best current estimates are that water availability will increase substantially in northern Eurasia, Alaska, Canada and some tropical regions, and decrease substantially in southern Europe, the Middle East, southern Africa and southwestern North America," said lead author Christopher Milly, a research hydrologist with the US Geological Survey. More frequent droughts can also be expected in drying areas, he added. "Even with aggressive mitigation, continued warming is very likely given the residence time of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the thermal inertia of the Earth system," the authors concluded. The article says that new models must be used to prepare for floods or droughts, determine the size of water reservoirs and decide how to allocate for residential, industrial and agricultural uses. This is a massive undertaking seeing as annual global investment in water infrastructure is more than 500 billion dollars a year and these are made under outdated assumptions that the water cycle will fluctuate within a relatively narrow historical band. "Historically, looking back at past observations has been a good way to estimate future conditions," Milly said." But climate change magnifies the possibility that the future will bring droughts or floods you never saw in your old measurements. "Climate change has already resulted in changes to rainfall patterns and river flows and created a greater risk of flooding in some areas, the authors wrote. Rising sea levels will "heighten risk of contamination of coastal freshwater supplies" while a "poleward expansion of the subtropic dry zone" is reducing water runoff levels. CLIP
Ban Ki-moon warns that water shortages are increasingly driving conflicts (6 February 2008)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25527
Many of today’s conflicts around the world are being fuelled or exacerbated by water shortages and climate change is only making the situation worse, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today.Briefing an informal Assembly session on the crises in Kenya, Darfur and Chad, as well as his recent trip to Europe and Africa, Mr. Ban noted that he told the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month that “increasingly, fights are erupting over such basic human needs as water or arable land.“I find this trend deeply worrying, especially because such shortages are only projected to grow in coming years,” he said, adding that water also underpins many of the world’s key development challenges – food, the environment, health and economic well-being.“Water shortages are at the core of many of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), one of which is to reduce by half the number of people without safe access to water by 2015. When you consider the health and development challenges facing the poorest of the world’s population – diseases like malaria or TB [tuberculosis], rising food prices, environmental degradation – the common denominator often seems to be water.”
The World's Rubbish Dump: A Garbage Tip That Stretches From Hawaii to Japan (5 February 2008)
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020608EB.shtml
A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said. The vast expanse of debris - in effect the world's largest rubbish dump - is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States." (...) Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute. Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said. According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food. Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Dr Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles - the raw materials for the plastic industry - are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen.
Scientists Identify "Tipping Points" of Climate Change
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020508EA.shtml
Reporting for The Independent UK, Steve Connor says that "Nine ways in which the Earth could be tipped into a potentially dangerous state that could last for many centuries have been identified by scientists investigating how quickly global warming could run out of control." A major international investigation by dozens of leading climate scientists has found that the "tipping points" for all nine scenarios - such as the melting of the Arctic sea ice or the disappearance of the Amazon rainforest - could occur within the next 100 years. The scientists warn that climate change is likely to result in sudden and dramatic changes to some of the major geophysical elements of the Earth if global average temperatures continue to rise as a result of the predicted increase in emissions of man-made greenhouse gases. Most and probably all of the nine scenarios are likely to be irreversible on a human timescale once they pass a certain threshold of change, and the widespread effects of the transition to the new state will be felt for generations to come, the scientists said. "Society may be lulled into a false sense of security by smooth projections of global change. Our synthesis of present knowledge suggests that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point within this century under anthropogenic [man-made] climate change," they report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (...) Irreversible Changes: - Arctic sea ice: some scientists believe that the tipping point for the total loss of summer sea ice is imminent. - Greenland ice sheet: total melting could take 300 years or more but the tipping point that could see irreversible change might occur within 50 years. - West Antarctic ice sheet: scientists believe it could unexpectedly collapse if it slips into the sea at its warming edges. - Gulf Stream: few scientists believe it could be switched off completely this century but its collapse is a possibility. - El Niño: the southern Pacific current may be affected by warmer seas, resulting in far-reaching climate change. - Indian monsoon: relies on temperature difference between land and sea, which could be tipped off-balance by pollutants that cause localised cooling. - West African monsoon: in the past it has changed, causing the greening of the Sahara, but in the future it could cause droughts. - Amazon rainforest: a warmer world and further deforestation may cause a collapse of the rain supporting this ecosystem. - Boreal forests: cold-adapted trees of Siberia and Canada are dying as temperatures rise.
End In Sight For Deadly Mammograms (2-9-8)
http://www.rense.com/general80/spit.htm
What your spit can tell you about breast cancerDear Friend,Scientists have discovered a new way of testing for breast cancer that could make the mammogram a thing of the past-and it's about time. The test could potentially be far more accurate than the old-school mammograms-not to mention much safer. If this catches hold in the medical community, women can say goodbye to those breast- smashing vise grips. Now, all they'll have to do is open wide and say, "Ahh."U.S. scientists are developing a breast cancer screening test that checks a woman's saliva for evidence of the disease. They say they've identified 49 proteins in saliva that can actually distinguish healthy women from those with benign breast tumors and those with malignant breast tumors. CLIP
How Vaccines Can Damage Your Brain (February 08, 2008)
Mercury and Aluminum Accumulate In The Brain With Every Flu Vaccination
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/How-Vaccines-Can-Damage-Your-Brain-49839.aspx
Vaccines, Depression and Neurodegeneration After Age 50: Another Reason to Avoid the Recommended Vaccines. It has been estimated that 14.8 million Americans suffer from major depressive disorder and of this number 6 million are elderly. If we include anxiety disorders, which commonly accompany depression, the number jumps to 40 million adults. At a cost of $44 billon dollars a year just for care of the seniors, this impacts the national budget as well. Depression later in life tends to last longer and be more severe than at younger ages. It is also associated with a high rate of suicide. (...) We have also seen that in many cases a person will be injected with several vaccines during a single office visit and that this means their body is exposed to a very large dose of immune adjuvant. Compelling studies, using many animal species as well as humans, have shown that this overactivates brain inflammatory mechanism that can last for years. In addition, several additives to vaccines, such as mercury and aluminum, are powerful brain toxins that are known to accumulate in the brain over years and can trigger brain inflammatory/excitotoxic mechanisms. Vaccine contaminants, such as bacteria, mycoplasma and viral fragments can also produce prolonged brain inflammation and neurodegeneration. Because the elderly already have high levels of inflammatory cytokines, they are at a special risk. The very young (babies and small children) are at a high risk because their brains are undergoing the most rapid development at the very time they receive the greatest number of vaccinations -- the first two years of life. In fact, they receive 22 vaccines during the first year of life, one of which contains a full pediatric dose of mercury. Like adults, they receive many inoculations (up to 9 inoculations) in one office visit. This is insane and in my estimation, criminal. CLIP
EMF-Omega-News 9. February 2008
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/4691084/
Omega-News Collection 9. February 2008
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/4691090/
1.
I BELIEVE MANY OF YOU WILL BE INTERESTED TO REVIEW THIS RECENT CORRESPONDENCE
Dear Jean,
It has been awhile since I last tried to contact you. I am still a reader of your compilations, and I am happy that you have included a reference to the website for the Letters from Christ from time to time. As you are probably aware, the book "Christ Returns -- Speaks His Truth" has now been published in book form, both in English and Spanish. The website http://www.christsway.co.za has been redesigned, and it now contains a link for readers to purchase the book directly from the publisher. My only interest is in helping the Recorder to make people aware of the book and website. Thank you for your continued friendship.
Joe Beckett
joe489@earthlink.net
AND MY REPLY WAS
Dear Joe
Nice to hear from you. Thanks for your appreciation.
I'm certainly aware that the book we had been waiting for so long is now available and I've ordered 3 copies recently, one for me, one for the owner of the French publishing company from Montreal that will hopefully publish the French version I intend to create thanks to the financial support of Pierre Cloutier - the 3rd copy is for him - a generous spiritual healer from Quebec who is covering the translation cost of the Matthew book (the 2nd one) I'm currently translating and who will most likely agree to similarly cover the translation cost of "Christ Returns -- Speaks His Truth" when I'll be ready to undertake this task sometimes next October - the publisher wants me to translate a small book on shamanism after the 2nd book from Suzy and Matthew.
Incidentally, in case you missed this, here is what I have included last December 9, 2007 in the Meditation Focus #179: Standing Tall networked to nearly 5000 email recipients:
From: http://www.aei.ca/~cep/MeditationFocus179.htm
4.
Message from the Recorder
I have been profoundly moved by the tremendous response to Christ's Call for people to dedicate themselves to his membership with the prime intention of overcoming the ego and helping to build the Era of Love and Peace on Earth. I felt passionately that Members should feel a sense of momentous occasion, an awareness of the presence of Christ, and a feeling that this is indeed a powerful unshakeable link between each Member and Christ. I had a vision of a Holy Page, a true sanctuary in consciousness dedicated to Christ, thus drawing his consciousness into the Holy Page - making it Christ's Page. You will be able to go to http://christsway.co.za/. If ordered right away, and if they print and ship as they advertise, the book(s) should be in YOUR hands in time for Christmas. Following is the link to the publisher and to the book: http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail~bookid~47023.aspx
I want to express my enormous gratitude to the dear people who were so very generous in making donations to have both the English and Spanish books printed, when so many readers are affirming they have found Christ's Letters at exactly the right time in their lives.
With abundant love and joy in Christ
Recorder
Note: Details about all the related Spanish material can be found through http://www.caminodecristo.com/
I felt this was the best context to make this announcement.
And in case you are not aware of this, I've also reformatted and offered to all on the ERN list the latest message received from Christ through The Recorder - as you can review at http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/pdf/NewMessageA4.pdf (and http://www.earthrainbownetwork.com/pdf/NewMessageUS.pdf for the US format of paper for those in North America who would like to print it as we don't have A4 format paper here as you know - it is the same as what is available at http://christsway.co.za/members/membership.pdf only slightly better formatted (IMHO)
Of course, The Recorder had reviewed it entirely and approved it.
Do you have any idea if many people have ordered the English version of the book so far? I'm each time surprised and disappointed to notice that the web counter at http://christsway.co.za/ is showing that so very few people visit this site - now it shows 27,278 - merely 3000 more than a year ago... (Or is there some problem with this web counter?)
I'd like to hear what are you doing or planning to do to help improve the exposure this vital book is getting?
Is there anything else you'd like me to do in this regard as I suppose this was the purpose of your email to me?
Light and blessings to you ;-)
Jean
AND THE RECORDER TO WHOM I'D EMAILED A Cc OF THIS CORRESPONDENCE REPLIED:
Dear Jean
Thank you so very much for all the tremendous and invaluable assistance you have given the New Message.
I wrote some time back to ask whether you knew of a website designer who would help me finalise the Sanctuary. However, no one was needed. Step by step, all our difficulties have been finally ironed out spiritually, and on the reading, below, my email to Members of Christway before Christmas (details of which I had completely forgotten) I am deeply moved to see that the vision I described at that time has exactly and fully been brought into being on the website. This Membership has truly caught the attention of sincere people and over 50 people have dedicated their hearts, time and energies to creating the Era of Peace and Love on Earth.
Heartfelt thanks for all the re-formatting you have done for the New Message. Many new names have come into the website in the form of Dedications and they must have come via your publications.
I see you have expressed concern about the meagre number of people visiting the website. Until you did such wonderful promotional work for Christ's way, there were only an average of 250 hits each month, with your help, they increased to about 1000 a month. Valerie is experiencing a big increase in visitors and the Spanish people are expressing great joy in finding Christ's Letters, because these people have left the Catholic Church but retained their love of Christ.
This, of course, is the truly sensational part of the entire history of Christ's Letters. I never dreamt that I was being disciplined and educated to give Christ a means to return to de-bunk church dogma and to comfort people who had always felt a deep kinship with Him. The BIG NEWS is that Christ has returned to clean up Jesus' original work on Earth and carry it a stage further with scientific explanations. I would never have dared to even think of such a possibility when channelling Christ's Letters. My only thought then was my absolute joy in being able to present to the world the knowledge which had enabled me to pull through all my tremendous difficulties successfully.
Dearest Jean, I know you must be horrified when you read the BOOK and see that the original formatting was adopted. You will have read the Foreword giving my reasons why this was done. Truly, Christ urges readers to ponder rather than read the Letters. However, I know how deeply you care about language and formatting.
And so, for you, to make your work easier upon your nerves, I will give you permission to do your own re-formatting. Again, I thank you that you are planning to do the translation in October.
I am so glad Joe opened the door for me to be able to write you again. I have been praying in this regard.
With sincere love and gratitude
The Recorder
AND MY REPLY WAS:
Dearest Recorder
Thank you for your wonderfully appreciative comments above. It is always with an immense pleasure that I read your thoughts as expressed in human wording - meaning, I love to connect with your soul energy through the words that you use to express your feelings and thoughts, as it is in connecting through our spiritual essence that we can best approach and sense our common divine nature.
Of all the people with whom I've exchanged correspondence, you are undoubtedly the one who has stirred the most my own inner divine feelings and offered me the best opportunities to express in words some of the nuggets of golden wisdom that each awakening soul can unearth through turning one's attention to the repository of higher consciousness lying dormant, most of the time, in all of us. The more we direct our sentient feelings towards our Universal Creator always vibrantly radiant in us, under all the slumber-inducing blankets of self-forgetfulness we wrapped ourselves into, the more we can walk in the company of our oh! so beloved Common Source of All That We Truly Are - beneath all the layers of illusion and ego projections we have created over aeons of universal wanderings.
I'd like to share a moment of Grace with you as this is what now comes to mind. Two days ago, as I was country-skiing on the vast frozen Saguenay river here, alone and enthralled by the magnificent wilderness surrounding me, I came at some point to a stop and, while contemplating the sun piercing through the clouds, I realized how sublime this instant of awareness was in the grand universal scheme of All That is, reminding myself the vast stretches of time it took for the universe to bring to existence the exact conditions I was observing at that moment, the billions of exploding novas it took to cook up the very chemical elements forming my body and the paradise of experimental living our planet had become after over 400 millions years of unrelenting creative drive to experiment with and design ever more intricately complex life forms, quickly reviewing in fast-forward motion all that had led my sentient awareness to be able at that point in the infinite time continuum to connect in awed adoration with the One Creator of It All observing through my consciousness and lavishly participating in the very thoughts and feelings He/I/We were experimenting...
Such fleeting moments of intense Oneness, such soul-blowing "aha!" experiences always dissipate too quickly, soon to recede in the rear-view mirror of our ever rebounding and attention grabbing lifetimes' experiences... and we somehow forget these bliss-filled, tear-welling moments of Grace...
I felt I had to share this, soul to soul with you, to both help me briefly recapture the gist of what I felt and as a gift of appreciation for the jewels of Christ's wisdom you've managed to let flow through you in your own Quest for blissful Oneness with All That Is.
Coming back to your letter above, I'm very happy to read that your vision of the Christ Sanctuary on the Web has taken shape with the growing number of committed Christ Servers now joining in and that you are pleased with the current number of visits to the Christ's Way website. If one is to recall how small and slowly growing was the number of Christ followers and initiates at first, then, all things considered, it is a fitting appreciation of things to consider that with such a highly, soul-refined path now offered through Christ's new ministration for our times, it would be following such a similar incremental progression in this outer world of manifestation... and it thus bodes well for the future evolution of this rekindling of the original universal wisdom on Earth through one of the many expressions of the Christic field of consciousness in the multidimensional universe.
However, with your permission, and as means to further the good cause, I'd like to share in my next compilation this correspondence between Joe, me and you, so as to offer an insider view to other spiritual seekers on this list on how things are evolving within the fledging movement you have created, as you've been guided to do from Within. This would also offer a renewed opportunity, for those who may have overlooked up to this point the existence of Christ Returns - Speaks His Truth, to avail themselves of this important knowledge and first-hand account of the many important messages and perspectives Christ now offers to humanity.
Light, Love and blessings to you
Jean
2.
Forwarded by Ricardo (ricardos@auroville.org.in)
From: http://www.treeofthegoldenlight.com/First_Contact/mike_quinsey/channeled%20messages/February%202008/02.04.08Atmos.htm
Atmos - 4 February 2008
It will not be too long before the realisation will hit you that the long awaited changes are becoming evident. We see a public outcry over corruption that will move certain people to take action. There are many of you waiting for an opportunity to join the ranks of those who are prepared to come out openly as witnesses. There is a continual loosening of the hold the last cabal have over you, and they are experiencing their own demise and know it to be so. We continue to monitor their plans, and it is our intention to limit the extent of their power. It is the covert actions that mainly attract our attention, and we will not allow an escalation of the war in the Middle East.
It is our presence that is your assurance of a total victory over the dark forces. The wheels that were set in motion a long time ago have traveled slowly, but it has been a steady progress resulting in your increased levels of consciousness. This in turn has upped the Light quotient upon Earth, and it is reaching out to more souls than ever. The Light is creating an intricate web all around you that spreads far and wide, and is connecting with the higher grids and bringing them to Earth. There is absolutely no way that the dark can prevent the full manifestation of it, and they will certainly be prevented from carrying out any ideas of reversing the process through mass destruction.
If you can but stand aside and enjoy the signs of change, it is an exciting time to be upon Earth. You are privileged to see and experience a breaking free from the control of the darkness, that has held you down for eons of time. The Creator has decreed that you shall now move on, and although you encounter resistance there is an air of belief that is lifting you up. There is no need to feed the energy of fear, as it cannot touch you unless you allow it. It has no place in the Light that creates balance and harmony, because it is the vibration of Love.
You are going through a period of change that enables you to learn much about the people around you. The dark challenges each of you to concede to its demands, but you must stand up to them and make way for a new dispensation that will return your freedom. It is your determination to establish by right through the Laws of the Universe, a pathway that will release you from the dark energies. One and will be bathed in the Light and the promise of Ascension. Your time in the lower vibrations is almost over, and for many of you its lessons have already been well learnt. There is a certain sadness that not everyone has reached that point, but since there is in reality no time and your lives are infinite, it follows that every soul will eventually rise up again.
Do not worry about the future where your loved ones and friends are concerned. Each chooses their own path to illumination and freedom from the dark. There is no time limit to achieve it, and no coercing of anyone to follow any one particular path as opposed to another. It is as we often emphasise your choice entirely, although if desired you will receive guidance from Higher Beings who fully understand the meaning and purpose of life. The Creator has given you absolute freedom to experience as you choose, and no one of the higher dimensions would interfere with your freewill choice. It follows that your choice will be honored, even if it should take you into the realms of the dark.
For those of you who are trying hard to cut your ties with the dark energies, there are Beings quite close to you who understand your desires. They will with your approval, direct your life in such a way that you can find a path forward. Sometimes in your quieter moments when you are at peace and one with everything, they are able to come near to you and impress their thoughts upon you. They can guide you by putting ideas into your mind, but that it no way represents any form of mind control. It does exist and is practiced by the dark forces, but you will first have to be susceptible to those particular vibrations. Stay in your Light, be calm and dispel any fear, and you will have your protection in place.
The dark play a dirty game but that is part of the challenge that you have to overcome. They will tempt you with promises of material success, but often those who move to their side become prisoners of their own desires. Forget your earthly troubles as they will soon be overcome. Keep your eyes on the Promised Land, that in your case is a new Earth that has been completely restored to its original pristine beauty. Live in your uplifted consciousness and the Light and Love that has no ending and reaches into All That Is.
See what is happening around you, and understand it as part of the necessary cleansing that will allow the Light to continue manifesting. As the truth of your manipulation and abuse by the dark forces becomes known, be as calm as you can as any falling back into anger or hatred will only add to the negative energies. Man is an emotional Being, and that is played upon by those who seek to keep you in a state of chaos and fear. Accept that if you try, you can keep your negative emotions in check, and you will feel so much better for it. You do not yet fully realize what an important part they play where your health and well being is concerned.
So many of you now sense that major changes are afoot, and it is becoming obvious that Man cannot continue on his present path to destruction. The dark can no longer hide their true intentions, and as they now find resistance to their plans they become careless and reckless for all to see. You the people are the key to all that is now occurring, and we count you as our allies upon Earth. You have power beyond your realisation, and what you now envision will carry the energies of change. We of the Galactic Federation are ready to join forces with you, but first we look to you to do your part in bringing the last cabal down. We do not mean that you are alone in this action, as we are always working with you. However, as you are on Earth you have certain advantages over us.
I am Atmos from Sirius, and we are not just your friends but also your family. It follows that we love you dearly, and would wish for you a total success in your endeavors to bring change to Earth, and we are with you all of the way.
Thank you Atmos.
Mike Quinsey
3.
From: "B. Wise Productions" (bewise@souledout.org)
Hello Jean,
We received the following email and are spreading the word! You might want to include the Dolphin meditation email in your newsletter.
We liked the meditation so much we added it to our Delphinus (Dolphin) constellation page: http://www.souledout.org/cosmology/highlights/delphinushighlights/delphinushighlights.html#call
Receiving this email has been a serendipitous occurrence since we are featuring Delphinus on our meditation calendar for Feb. 7, the very daythe email arrived! In addition the Dolphin constellation is impressing us with serendipity as the new lunar cycle begins.
February 7 calendar entries can be found here:
http://www.souledout.org/calendar/index.html
MagicAll!
Susan and Kate at B.Wise Productions
http://souledout.org/
---
From: Kap Parra (oceanmaiden@cox.net)
Subject: Call of the Dolphins for Peace On Earth
Date: 7 Feb 2008
This message is shared with you freely with the desire and divine intention to share Global Peace. It is a call for unity from the dolphins, the only thing they ask is that you share it with one other person even if that person is to be yourself, if you have access to a website, e-mail list, online magazine/hard copy magazine, my space, hold workshops (print out and share). The intention is to share, holding the vibration energy of healing the planet with harmonious and unconditional love.
If you feel you would like to connect with me, I would love to hear from you.
Peace, Love, and Illumination
Kathy
---
From: http://www.childrenofthenewearth.com/free.php?page=articles_free/parra_kathy/article1
Call of the Dolphins for Peace On Earth…
Begin by taking three breaths, breathing in through your nose and exhaling through the mouth (like dolphins do through their blowholes) with each breath you see yourself bathed with rainbow light..
Now imagine a stairway in which you wind down, you very gently step down each step one by one and with each step you feel a warm fresh ocean breeze.
The staircase leads you to the oceans sand; when you step onto the sand; it feels warm, soft and clean.
You look out into the distance where you see bright purple amethyst crystals coming up out of the water and dolphins swimming around them.
The dolphins begin swimming in closer to you; they invite you to come out into the ocean with them. You gently put your feet into the water, you are not afraid, as the dolphins carry you to the shallow waters to where the amethyst crystals are.
They set you on one of the crystals and beautiful purple light showers you, healing any fears, stress or worries you have, again you feel safe knowing the dolphins are Master healers and will always take care of you.
The dolphins ask you to hold out your hands, in it they place “The Earth” It is not heavy, but light and buoyant like a beach ball.
You cradle it with your loving arms, like a newborn child. They with you begin to chant the words
“Heal Mother Earth” “So it is; so it shall be”
“Heal Mother Earth” So it is; so it shall be”
“Heal Mother Earth” So it is; so it shall be”
White and purple light illuminate the Earth; you feel the healing instantly. Staying with this for a few minutes, you then return the Earth to the Dolphins; they gently place the Earth on the amethyst crystals, where it will embrace the light and love in which you nurtured and nourished it with..
The dolphins take you back to the sandy shores where you feel refreshed, re-energized and your hands illuminate rainbow light from them, they ask you to carry this light to all you encounter with the message
“We are One” --- “We are One” --- “We are One”
You thank the dolphins, and they thank you for your healing energy, YOU are a Master healer and Creator is your source.
You begin walking back up the stairway with a calmness and peace knowing that Mother Earth is happy, healthy, healed and full of radiant light, love and joyful abundance, resonating
“Peace on Earth” --- “Peace on Earth” --- “Peace on Earth”
And may peace be with you my beloved...
4.
From: http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/earth_speaks.htm
The Revolution That Is Arising From THE EARTH
by William H. Kötke
The planetary elite are compelled to continue on their path of growth leading toward planetary domination. The international bankers through their control of the industrial world’s privately owned central banks maintain a tether on the money system through their control of the U.S. dollar as the currency of international trade. One important mechanism that allows this is that the largest item in international trade - oil - is sold in dollars. In order to insure the continuance of the dollar economy, they must be able to choose which currency oil is sold for or control the oil - or both. The center of the empire, the U.S., is maintained by debt as the petrodollars and other dollars come into the U.S. at the rate of at least two and a half billion per day (purchasing U.S. government bonds) in order to continue the cycle, which keeps the empire and its military power expanding As the elite carry out their strategies of domination they are racing against time. The monster trends of Peak Oil and energy exhaustion, climate change which will severely disrupt the seasons of growth in the food supply system, the weakness of the dollar and ecological collapse are pursuing them. An exponentially growing world population with growing material consumption based on dwindling resources and a dying planet won’t work, but they have no other option to maintain their power and profit.
Seeds of Change
As the industrial system spins toward exhaustion, seeds of change are sprouting at the base. The people at the base are not revolting in order to take the power that the elite have but are revolting to take power over their own lives. In Argentina, after the Neoliberal apparatchniks collapsed the economy and devastated the middle class leaving massive unemployment, the workers began to take over the factories and run them themselves, with all employees receiving the same wage. The great documentary, The Take, details the story of one factory take-over by the employees against a background of over two hundred factory take-overs. Earlier, the people at the base had begun to move when the courageous “The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” began to organize and demonstrate. These were women who had family members disappeared and were demonstrating in the face of a vicious fascist military dictatorship which is estimated to have murdered at least thirty thousand people. The courage of the mothers was an important factor in bringing down the fascists and spreading courage and inspiration to the working people.
The economy had crashed under the military dictatorship and then after electoral politics was reorganized, the economy revived to some extent and then it crashed again under the auspices of the Neolibs in the IMF and World Bank. President Carlos Menem who had acquiesced to them was tagged as the culprit.
In the final scenes of the documentary, The Take, Menem had gone down in disgrace and a new election was being prepared. Suddenly, the new factory worker/owners saw that the political class had gone down to central casting and thrown up a slate of the same tired old political characters. Even Menem ran again, though Nestor Kirchner won.
When the film makers questioned the worker/owners about this they symbolically shrugged their shoulders. The machinations of electoral politics preformed by the political/financial class had become only marginally relevant to them. They had taken power in their neighborhoods, on the factory floor and in the head office.
The Mondragon Cooperatives
The Basque people exist in Northern Spain, centered in the Pyrenees mountains. Their culture and population exist partly in France and partly in Spain. They are an ancient people and one of only several peoples of Europe who have a language that is not Indo-European, the grain eating patriarch herders who invaded Europe from Central Asia thousands of years ago. The Basque culture, centered in the mountains, is land - based in small, fertile, productive farms and hamlets. Though cities and towns have grown up in some areas, the cultural roots exist in a system in which each small farm was inherited within the family and the surname of each member of the family was the same as the ancient name of the farm. This and the manner of farming and interaction were inherited from the ancient past.
In addition to the land - based culture, the Basque in the Twentieth Century had become significant industrialists with their iron mines, industries and international trade. This was mixed with the chaos of the Spanish Civil War and the establishment of Francisco Franco as the head of the Spanish fascist state. The economic environment was not welcoming to innovation during the Franco regime as the fascist state was lead by financiers and politicians who had a foot in both realms much like in the present United States. Nonetheless the Mondragon cooperative movement grew out of this soil. As described in the classic study, We Build The Road As W e Travel, by Roy Morrison, eleven young people purchased a small bankrupt factory that produced paraffin cooking stoves. The year was 1954. Since that time the Mondragon cooperative movement has grown to tens of thousands of workers and dozens of enterprises networked together and anchored by their own bank the Caja Lboral Popular, owned by the enterprises.
Growing out of this context, the individuals are not simply farm cooperative workers, industrial workers or even bank workers but the movement has a wider and deeper reach. One of the guiding principles of the movement is equilibrio. Morrison says,
“The Mondragon cooperative system is informed by an essentially ecological consciousness. Ecology, conventionally defined as the relationship of living things to their environment, is understood here to encompass social as well as biological reality and their interaction. Today, Mondragon’s ecological consciousness is manifested not primarily through environmentalism, but through the practice of a social ecology: the pursuit of equilibrio is fundamentally connected to the basic ecological principle of diversity and unity, or, in social terms, freedom and community. Its promise is basic change that will harmonize both social life and the relationship between the social and natural worlds.”
Writer Steven Curtis Jackobs says,
“Basque leadership styles are unauthoritarian, involve consensual processes, and are aimed at harmonizing the group’s feeling for collective ends with possible suspicion and lack of trust. A neighborhood’s elected representative does not simply wield power, but builds consensus for group projects. This process often encounters problems of suspicion arising from individual and class differences. These are reflected in the relative difficulty of establishing agricultural cooperatives and point to the nonutopian nature of the Basque situation.”
Ten percent of the cash flow of the network is invested in the communities and in charitable institutions, while another principle is to maintain as little spread between the bottom wage and the top as possible. In this amazing movement from the base, coming out from under a fascist political/financial class as it did, the Mondragon cooperatives show a way to build resilient community social institutions. This social health will be valuable as we head into the future of the exhaustion of industrial society and its fragmentation.
These areas are only a portion of the movement of people at the base who are acting to protect and enhance their communities even under the trampling impact of raw industrial capitalism. India especially, has a number of home - grown movements attempting to protect and strengthen their local social fabric. One would be remiss not to mention the cooperatives of the state of Kerala in India and of the many grassroots movements that the amazing eco/feminist Vandana Shiva was been associated with and has publicized.
Beyond Oil
In 2003, Richard Heinberg published his seminal book, The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. His study concerns the observation that the production of crude oil will peak and then begin to decline to its end. At this point most of the oil producing countries of the world have declining production. Heinberg, who is a faculty member at New College of California, Santa Rosa campus, projects that we are now at the peak of world production of crude oil. This, as he suggests, will have immeasurable impact on the exponentially exploding world population living on oil. He also suggests that this will collapse the capitalist economies which must have growth in order to survive.
Following the publication of his book, he and others who were also following these trends have swung into action to notify the world’s populations of the impending apocalypse. Many are now involved. The flagship organization of this effort is the Post Carbon Institute, http://www.postcarbon.org led by Julian Darley. Under the umbrella of this organization a Relocalization network has been organized, http://www.relocalize.net . The effort of these local groups is to examine and take action concerning the local community life support systems with the obvious view that soon the outside energy supports will decrease or stop.
With amazing speed this network has mushroomed. There are now one hundred and thirty eight community groups in twelve countries. The relocalization group in Willits, California, http://www.willitseconomiclocalization.org is one of the cutting edge points. Their project teams are assessing and taking action on all points of the community’s survival support areas. Their teams are focused on eight areas; business, culture/education, energy, food, health, shelter, transportation and water.
Each of their project team’s focus is quite comprehensive. For example the Business project team’s focus is,
"...a Sustainable Mix of Businesses in our area, Business Financing, Small Business Incubation, Finding productive uses of Waste Streams from Business (preferably as raw material for another businesses), Employment, Vocational Training, Local Market Structures, Local Currency, and Bartering Systems."
Their Food project team at this point has three areas that they work on, the Mainstreet Community Garden, the Gleaners and Brookside Farm http://www.energyfarms.net/willits">http://www.energyfarms.net/willits . This year the Gleaners have collected tons of food from the local area and donated it to local charities and food banks. Their Brookside farm is in full production and a salient point there is the installation of a micro-hydro system.
We all know the numbers of the percentage of the population in the old days who were agrarian and produced food and the small percentage now who produce the food for industrial citizens. We are members of the industrial society. We purchase our survival systems with money. We do not go out to the back forty and cut some wood for our wood cookstove and heater. We are a population who’s survival systems are huge organizations that stretch to ethereal heights which we cannot see and only vaguely understand and over which we have little control. But the base is moving to protect itself and the relocalization effort offers great encouragement.
The Earth Speaks
We who can read these words are civilized people who have been mentally conditioned by the culture of civilization and the industrial society from birth. We have precepts loaded into our subconscious minds which cause us to see reality in a certain way. To a native Maya person in the State of Chiapas, Mexico, the earth speaks through them. They live integrated with the earth in their everyday energy systems and in their mental attitudes. To them the fact that the earthlife has manifest these living things around us, and us, means that we are children of the Mother Earth and we speak as one of the voices of the earth. To the Maya this is obvious on a deep level. To us it is an interesting intellectual proposition only, because we have been conditioned by a cultural upbringing that filters out this deep understanding and we do not mentally link our life with the life of the living earth.
To the Maya security is the earth and its care. The Maya live with the earth and feed from its natural bounty. Historically for a million years our species has been very successful. We have been adapted to the earth life. We lived within the ecological web and energy flows of the earth. Our traditional migratory patterns carried us over our gathering areas. In the season when the game were fat in one place we went there, when the berries were ripe in another we went there. Our success was adaptation to the life of the earth. We also had a culture that respected the earth and living things. The proposition is simple. We are alive, we live because of the other living things which feed us, we are obligated to respect and encourage those other living things so that we too can live.
Though this simple logic escapes civilization, it is obvious that we must begin to fashion a culture that has these values at the center, if our species is to survive. Our culture teaches us that wealth is the central value of human life and that wealth is our security. When we left our forager/hunter life and began agriculture, civilization and empire, we began a way of life that was not integrated with the life around us but ran a net ecological deficit of the earth’s fertility. The earth’s flesh; the topsoils, the forests, the fish stocks and the other species began to decline and recede. Thousands of years ago the effects of this culture were displayed in the early empires of Sumeria and Babylon in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. With irrigated agriculture they managed to exhaust and salinize the soils to the extent that today one third of the possible arable land in Iraq still cannot be used because of salinization caused by the early empires. With agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation, they so destroyed the land that the river borne erosion material has filled in the gulf for one hundred and eighty five miles!
Now the mouth of the river enters the ocean that far from where it did before the culture of civilization began.
The culture of the Maya of Chiapas is not like that of civilization. They are survival remnants of a culture impacted by imperial colonization. In order to protect themselves, their culture and their living world, they have risen up in resistance. In many parts of the Southern Hemisphere the indigenous at the base are arising but the EZLN, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, were the lead. The Zapatistas are anti-capitalist but no propagandist could get away with calling a Native American an industrial communist. They are more properly termed anti-civilization, Against civilization in its present form.
Chiapas is one of the richest states in Mexico in terms of industrial resources and has the poorest people. The Maya know well the effects of “civilization” - empire, war, colonization and exploitation by the elites. Against this backdrop they have begun to change some of the forms of governance of their own communities such as the role of women and the position of the elders. Women are now occupying positions of authority and the elders authority is being relegated to the sphere of traditions and culture rather than clan power in all the aspects of life.
They are creating a new kind of culture out from under the burden of colonialism http://www.ezln.org . They have a culture of sharing, cooperation and care of the earth. This is being made the cultural basis of governance. They scorn the political class along with the electoral politics which is their control mechanism. The Zapatistas control from the base through community meetings. Theirs is a culture of human community rather than social isolates in mass industrial society who vote periodically for a list of names. They have power over the way of life of their community rather than voting on someone in a far-off parliament.
In their areas they have created parallel governments quite unlike the colonial government they are shouldering aside. One of the strong moves has been to take back the power to educate their youth. In mass industrial society the education of the youth is conducted by educational institutions governed by the elites who make sure that this is tailored to the needs of those elites and the industrial society that they control. By having control of the minds of the youth they are able to inculcate the reality view of industrial society with all it purposes, values and meanings. Nearly all of the artifacts of industrial culture are purchased from industry. The transportation, housing, food, water, and then the cultural world view provided electronically provides a near seamless reality that has little to do with life and living things but with power, profit and violence. The violence of three killings per hour on television is reflected in the violence to the earth and the violence of imperial wars of conquest to feed the maw of the machine that runs a net deficit of the earths’ fertility in order to insure its survival.
To the Zapatistas, transferring to the young the tremendously valuable fund of information that the species has amassed is certainly possible without also placing it in the context of the values of industrial civilization. They even have plans for a Zapatista university. But the manner of teaching is different. In their view the teacher comes to class to learn just like the students. It is a combined inquiry and the contribution of each participant is valuable. An important ingredient in their culture is respect; respect for the elders, respect for the earth and respect for each other. Life is valuable. They do not perpetuate a hierarchical command system.
Eco Villages and the New Aborigines
The immediate world problem is the net deficit of the earths’ fertility. This is solved by self-sufficient communities. The eco villages which are being formed around the world are pointed toward self-sufficiency. Eco villages grew, in part, out of the intentional community movement that began to swell in the late nineteen sixties. As the global recognition of the plight of the earth’s life grew, so did the eco village movement.
The “live in balance with nature” phrase does not necessarily mean adopting a loin cloth and eating roots and berries. The fact is that there are far too few roots and berries left. We can although, create ways of living that are self-sufficient and that do pay obeisance to the successful million year history of our species.
Of course there are many “eco villages” in various cultures around the world that are still near self-sufficiency but the new eco village movement within the machine of industrial society is significant. We in industrial civilization are culturally conditioned to associate power with wealth. In reality, from top to bottom, our daily lives are governed by huge mass institutions over which we have little or no control. All our survival systems are controlled by mass institutions. We have little fundamental control of our lives. Our picture of “freedom” is to have enough money to do “whatever we want”. But this is not real power on the planet earth. Being able to create one’s habitation, feed oneself through one’s own efforts and live in a real human community that serves the developmental needs of each individual and the community is real power.
The eco village movement is a follow-on to the resources developed by the “alternative community” activists. These resources are many. They involve alternative medicine as an alternative to industrial medicine. Herbalism, aromatherapy, chiropractic, body work ,which is often called energy medicine, acupuncture, nutrition and many others are resources that are popular. Gender equality is a very strong theme. Grassroots, consensus government is seen as real democracy. In the realm of habitation local materials such as straw bale, cob, adobe and other alternatives to industrial construction are emphasized. This is usually combined with passive or active solar advantages in addition to water harvesting systems. Various alternative energy systems have been perfected.
The pleasure of providing one’s food has gone beyond the European row crop system to the far more sophisticated Permaculture http://www.permacultureactivist.net . The practice of permacultue has spread world-wide. In some aspects Permaculture is a way of designing (or planting) one’s area and watershed with a high diversity of human and ecologically useful species that all fit together into plant communities. It is based in perennial plants, does not turn the soil on the broadscale and through its diversity provides a healthy, balanced diet. Permaculture can restore soil fertility while providing more food per acre than can industrial agriculture. This comparison is somewhat unfair to the industrial system which grows monocrops on vast areas with the purpose of sucking up soil fertility by the use of annual plants for profit. Its purpose is not to feed people, but to force surpluses from the earth for profit. Permaculture on the other hand does not produce massive surpluses of monocrops, its purpose is to feed people. It can although, produce specialty crops for the local famers markets or village barter centers.
People leaving the disintegrating human culture of industrial society have experimented with many social forms. Celibacy, monogamy and group marriage are possibilities. Ritual and the creation of traditions are important. The content of our daily lives are important. How we relate to each other and how we relate to the youth are important. In community there are mentors for the youth, uncles, aunts, elders. In the impoverished human culture of industrial society the young are deposited in front of a television and then when they are a little older they are stuffed into a mass educational institution preparing them to become another industrial cipher.
In traditional cultures of our species, the youth were taught how to be human. This is artfully shown in the book, Seven Arrows, by Hyemeyohsts Storm from the Cheyenne culture of the North American Great Plains. An African couple, both who came from a small, traditional village in Ghana have been valuable resources for the intentional community movement. Sobonfu E. Some http://www.sobonfu.com and her husband Malidoma Patrice Some http://www.malidoma.com help us understand what life-centered, human village life is like.
People are returning to the land and community in many forms. The direction is set and there are many paths. One unique path is a method using traditional capitalist techniques to reach that goal. Globalecovillage (http://www.amarillo.globalecovillage.com/GEV-VHD.htm) led by Biosphere II architect Phil Hawes has created a stock company listed on Wall Street to reach that goal of designed ecovillages.
The elephant in the room is the Global Ecovillage Network http://gen.ecovillage.org/ that involves tens of thousands of villages. This is a world-wide network of ecovillages that shows that rather than having to adopt a loin cloth, the ancient human values of our species can be established at the next higher turn of the spiral with eco villages all over the world connected and communicating over the internet like a global mind. A small solar panel or a micro hydro, a telephone connected to a satellite and there you have it. The eco village is not a retreat backwards into some kind of insignificance.
The burgeoning movement is shown by a statement from the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). “Network members include large networks like Sarvodaya (11,000 sustainable villages in Sri Lanka); EcoYoff and Colufifa (350 villages in Senegal); the Ladakh project on the Tibetian plateau; ecotowns like Auroville in South India, the Federation of Damanhur in Italy and Nimbin in Australia; small rural ecovillages like Gaia Asociación in Argentina and Huehuecoyotl, Mexico; urban rejuvenation projects like Los Angeles EcoVillage and Christiania in Copenhagen; permaculture design sites such as Crystal Waters, Australia, Cochabamba, Bolivia and Barus, Brazil; and educational centres such as Findhorn in Scotland, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales, Earthlands in Massachusetts, and many more.” In the U.S. there are presently eighty-three villages affiliated with the network. One can imagine the creative ideas that flow between all of these villages!
GEN is divided into three areas: GEN - Europe and Africa http://www.gen-europe.org , GEN - Oceania and Asia http://genoa.ecovillage.org/ , and the Eco Village Network of the Americas http://gen.ecovillage.org .
The worm has turned. In former decades revolutionaries vied to grab the industrial power of the elites in order to redistribute wealth. Now we have seen what the “wealth” of the industrialist/banker has done to the earth and our future. Now we in the culturally poor but “wealthy” societies are looking to the “richness” of a new kind of human culture that cannot be directed but can only grow out of the base.
The base is in motion. The earth is speaking. Those involvedwith infinite demands upon finite resources will not survive but the earth will survive along with those children embedded within her.
By William H. Kötke, author of Garden Planet: The Present Phase Change of the Human Species, available at http://www.gardenplanetbook.com Amazon, Barnes and Noble and retail bookstores. He is also the author of the newly reprinted underground classic, The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and the Seed of the Future, which may be seen at http://www.thefinalempirebook.com
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Related articles:
A Plan to Save the Life of the Earth Including the Human Being
http://www.rainbowbody.net/Finalempire/theplan.htm
In discussion one often hears the refrain, “Oh, we can’t kill the earth. The earth will survive us,” as if that dispels the massive destruction of the planet’s life. Well maybe the ants and cockroaches will survive but the morality of we humans destroying the life of the earth back to the cockroaches must be addressed. These types of comments are made by civilized people, members of industrial society who have little relationship to the life of the earth. Because of the life that we are forced to lead due to the structure of industrial society, we do not have familiarity with the larger life that supports us. (...) The great power of humans is not petroleum, it is creativity and adaptation. We can create the future world. Humans need food, shelter and love. With Permaculture we can restore ecosystems, build soil and produce more food per acre than the industrial system. These projects exist now. One can go look at them. Shelter exists. Examples of “alternative” houses can be viewed that heat and cool themselves without outside energy inputs. Intentional communities exist which focus on positive vibrations of cooperation, mutuality and love. How much more do we need to know?We would not be trying to save the world as we know it, we would be looking at the future world and working toward it. There will be a massive apocalypse. “Civilization” has overshot its life support systems so far that it is irretrievable. Traditional agriculture drains the fertility of the soil unless large amounts of organic material are fed to the soil community to replace it. In our culture we have a tradition of “farmed out” lands. The industrial system has boosted food production by injecting artificial fertilizers into exhausted soils. Now, more than half the world’s population eats because of the added production caused by fossil fuel derived fertilizers. Now, we reach the peak of fossil fuel production while the population continues to explode. This is only one of the factors of the general overshoot phenomenon. The Plan is to establish self-sufficient, population- stable, seed communities, wherever possible with the expectation that some or most of them would survive the apocalypse. These then become the seed of the future human species. Most species devote much energy to raise and prepare a future for their young. For our species to endure, we civilized humans must come up to that level of maturity. CLIP
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? A Review of William H. Kotke's: The Final Empire -- by Dan Armstrong
http://www.flyingdisk.com/finalemp.htm
Any honest appraisal of the way modern society enters the twenty-first century must indeed be glum. So dark is the human stain upon the planet, one must wonder if some retrograde virus has invaded our consciousness. Certainly brilliance has shown through periodically in the ten thousand years of human civilization, but voracious urban expansion and unconscionable waste have ravaged the living surface of the planet. There seems no heed in the harvest of our forests. Industrial and automobile emissions have entirely altered the chemistry of the atmosphere and the air we breath. We must soon expect a great die-off of sea life in our polluted oceans. All genetic material is seriously scorched with toxins and irradiation. No sudden mutation, no global epidemic, no catastrophic earth event would be