Eradication of Poverty

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Poverty is one of the major obstacles to peace. Here we fight poverty.

Website: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/intldays/IntlDay/index.html
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International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Poverty is not just a matter of subsistence. Poverty encompasses the absence of opportunity to partake of the very things we take for granted: food, housing, education, training, work opportunities, and most severely, it denies the right to a fruitful life. Poverty drives individuals to extremes just so as to survive.Others lose hope, faith and will.

Despair drives parents to sell children, teenagers sell their bodies for a pittance and societies crumble incrementally under the pressure of living on nothing.

Values and norms lose meaning as the fight to live through hunger and a spot in a drain pipe for sleep out of the rain, fighting over that extra sniff of glue are all that some children learn about being disposable and invisible to the greater world

And what do we lose in the process? Human potential. We lose a child’s discovery of their own mind, a child who through play and exploration would otherwise uncover the wealth of their own talent and what they could possibly contribute to the world

As you brush off a child who begs to wash your car windows as you wait for a red light, or a kid asks to take your shopping trolley, don’t just imagine it being your own child, but see the scientist, the musician, the economist, the community leader, the teacher, whose potential dies in your looking the other way……

The choice is yours… and yours…and yours And mine! We can make poverty history if we want it to be.

There is this idea that poverty is something that born and bred in developing nations: media and commerce have created the illusion of a great divide… and it is often relegated to a developmental one.

Truth is Poverty is spawned in your own home. It starts in the mind. It grows roots in the soil of apathy and it spreads like a cancer among the backstreets of everything you and I pretend not to see. It flourishes among the garbage bags of everything we take for granted: running water, a bed, warmth, family, holidays, birthday wishes, even a simple smile which lets you know someone has SEEN you, acknowledge your existence…

Poverty is not just a matter of money. Poverty is what comes from living beyond the realm of those in need of a helping hand.

Give, so a girl can development her self confidence and become self-reliant.

Give, so a young man need not prostitute himself to foreign holiday makers,

Give, so that a man need not traffic his child for 50dollars.

Give a Damn… it goes farther than just a Dime …. And BE the difference in their lives and your own.

Poverty like illness knows no boundaries. Wealth does not protect one from it and poverty itself does not make you immune to its impact.

With the current tumbling of the world’s financial markets, the loss of billions around the world offers all of us an opportune moment of reflection. The first Wall Street Crash sent the world into an economic nightmare. These days governments rally together at the speed of light in a financial rescue mission….

And it still does not change one aspect of the status quo…

Those stuck in poverty remain stuck in the mud or rambling knee deep in disease infected refuse landfills, which is home to seagulls and homeless children: it feeds a pittance to some anonymous stricken family in the back streets of Bogota, children scramble bottles together for enough small change to kill the cold off their skin for a night.

Walk around your own city without stepping over some homeless anonymous entity and ask yourself how difficult is it to care…

Poverty Day: Take part! Care enough so there does not have to be one next year!

Create opportunities for Trade rather than Aid.

It's in our hands and hearts... if we choose to have a mind to.....

some pictures courtesy of flickr.com

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Comment by silvia costantino on October 21, 2008 at 3:34am: If you have difficulty reading this email, please visit www.celestinevision.com

Global Prayer Project
Prayer, Meditation & Discussion
with James & Salle Redfield
via Live Teleconference & Webcast

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Tuesday, October 21
8-9 pm Eastern/US
click here to convert to your local time

If you can't join us, please hold a supportive prayer vision for the world at that time...

This week's prayer visualization
Fear and panic have wracked the world during this financial crisis as people everywhere have seen their houses declining in value, their retirement accounts plunging, and their jobs threatened. But what we need is the peace of spiritual connection in order to hear guidance and to make the right moves. Let's continue to visualize and confirm an opening to spiritual connection and wisdom during this time of crisis and political choice.

Follow-up discussion
A new consensus is emerging on how to find peace and attract an abundant life, even in crisis.
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Teleconference:
Call 212/461-5860 OR 646/519-5860
Caller ID: 6999#

The phone line will open at 7:55pm EDT. Call the number above and follow the directions. Once you are connected to the call, please say your name and where you are from, and then press *6 to mute yourself so the noise level will be kept to a minimum. Each participant will be responsible for their own long-distance phone charges.

Live Webcast @ www.celestinevision.com
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Our twice-monthly gatherings have been making a powerful difference, both in people's individual lives and the world at large. Many of you have written us saying that the energy generated from this network of spiritually-minded participants is "indescribable," and we look forward to continuing this healing circle of focused prayer. Like all prayer experience devoted to helping others, many participants have felt the results in their own bodies and received guidance for their own lives.

Research tells us that the more people praying together, the more powerful the prayer and the greater the level of energy felt by the participants. We invite you to join the largest regular prayer network in the world. If you would like to take an active role in maintaining a circle of positive intention across the globe, while going deeper and heightening your own spirituality, join us on Tuesday, October 21.
_______

US & CANADA
Tuesday, October 21
8 pm New York
5 pm Los Angeles

AUSTRALIA
Wednesday, October 22
11 am Sydney

EUROPE
Wednesday, October 22
1 am London
_______

Let's see how large we can grow, and how much difference we can make...

Blessings,
James Redfield
Salle Merrill Redfield

EXTENDING PRAYER FIELDS
For centuries, religious scriptures, poems, and philosophies have pointed to a latent power of mind within all of us that mysteriously helps to affect what occurs in the future. We are now finding that this prayer power is a field of intention, which moves out from us and can be extended and strengthened, especially when we connect with others in a common vision.
The Eleventh Insight

© James Redfield 2008

Comment by Rick on October 17, 2008 at 8:49pm: Tatiana speaks below of what is being done here in San Francisco by our mayor, Gavin Newsom...my wife, Chellie and I have direct experience in this...from street level. We are "homeless"...living in a tent on Mission Creek...a relatively safe area in this city. We are both full-time college students, taking advantage of the programs offered. Chellie is disabled and could have a SRO in the Tenderloin, but refuses because we would be separated...she would be in a room in a very dangerous area, and I would still be on the street, only allowed to visit during the day. We WILL make it here and are doing what we can to help others, telling them of the opportunities offered...feeding those who sleep nearby from our "open-air kitchen", cooking what we can get from food-banks after our money and food-stamps run out. We have a tent and this lap-top...much more than most in our situation, and for this we are truly grateful...we have each other...we share a strong faith in the Goddess. I am humbly thankful for our many blessings. Poverty? In my heart and soul, I am rich beyond all measure. Peace and much Love to all...in Her Light. )O(

Comment by peter on October 17, 2008 at 4:55pm: When The Power of Love overcomes The Love of Power,The World will know Peace(Sri Shinmoy)

Comment by Jan Hall on October 17, 2008 at 1:21pm: Yesterday I found out that a coworker has trouble providing enough nutritious food for his children. I'm going to do something simple, start inviting them for dinner on a regular basis. I know this is a small step, but it is simple and I will do it, not just think it.
I'm going to look at the link that Rolf Stuber provided.
Jan

Comment by Rolf Stuber on October 17, 2008 at 9:54am: Stand up against hunger and poverty!
take action - over 50 online campaigns against poverty!
invite your friends to take action too.
thanks
rolf

Comment by Krishnakumar Sreekandath on October 17, 2008 at 5:05am: Hi all, I wish everyone involved worldwide a beautiful, funfilling and productive day on the 17th, the World Poverty Day ! In the meantime here in Kerala we are carrying on with our activities as usual. As a mark of solidarity with my brothers and sisters worldwide participating in this event, I have decided to cut down further on the food intake. I already have a habit of eating my food fully without wasting any whereever I am I I fully realise that the present world system is such that we, a privlaged few are eating more than what we need to keep us healthy while some of our fellow human beings are starved of basic amenities like food and water. I pray to God Almighty to help us to work for and eradicate poverty from the face of earth.
Kris Sreekandath
ps- attached is a picture of the poorman's food here in Kerala called Kanji (rice grovel) being made in open air as a symbolic gesture of solidarity.

Comment by lamyae on October 16, 2008 at 11:45pm: Dear parteners,
This is a special day ,everyone has to go out and try to help the best he can.We can all share something even if it's a smile,it let stonger and happier.working together can definetely make us powerful and lead us to change many bad things in this world.peace & love to everyone

Comment by Maria** on October 16, 2008 at 6:36pm: Bless you all
have a peaceful loving day!

Comment by maryse on October 16, 2008 at 3:27pm: lets help the children realize their dreams,,,,,

Comment by maryse on October 16, 2008 at 3:24pm: Journeys withinourcommunity a non profit organization helping south east asian communities, including cyclone Nargis victims in Burma