Love is always present, in the world, in nature, in us. What changes is our realisation of it.
Sending you a hearty smile from nature, dear Clara.
love without end, Sandavala
Happy New Year to you!
May every great new day
bring you sweet surprises--
Peace & Happiness in abundance.
Happy New Year to you,
And when the new year’s done,
May the next year be even better,
Full of pleasure, joy and fun.
Nice to see u here.
Hope that we all will contribute to reduce the illetiracy,poverty and to promote education,rule of law and peace for safer and just globe.
Hi it’s good to know you. Stay blessed.
Regards, love and peace.
Rashad.
Chairman: Hope development organization.
Email: chairman@hopedevelopment.org
www.hopedevelopment.org
.The contested election in Iran highlights the need for international election monitors, and I am pushing for a UN General Assembly resolution to study the possibility of such a service (Nothing is ever done at the UN without a first "study" phase). Diplomats are now at work on the issues that will be presented when the General Assembly starts mid-September. Thus letters proposing the idea should be sent now. I propose two short letters which would be sent with my article below which sets out in more detail what such a service should be. One letter should go to the Mission of your country.. The second letter should go to the President of the General Assembly. The President must work by consensus so that he rarely takes any public initiative. However he likes to know what is going on, what new ideas may be around. Sometimes he can help informally. The President for this year is H.E. Mr Ali Abdussalam Treki, Mission of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations, 309-315 East 48th Street, New York, NY, 10017. He should be addressed as "Your Excellency"
I put below the sample letter addressed to the US Ambassador with the US Mission address. Normally, all ambassadors are addressed as "Your Excellency" with no "Dear" However US protocol uses "Dear Ambassador and the person's name". With your help, I think that the issue can come to the attention of many governments.
Best wishes, Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
H.E. Dr Susan Rice, Permanent Representative, US Mission to the UN, 799 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017-3505:
Dear Ambassador Rice:
The contested election results in Iran reflect the need to have international election monitors. The presence of such monitors encourages free and fair elections. The election monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have provided useful help in elections in States in transition toward democracy.
We believe that the United Nations should have a universal election-monitoring agency. A General Assembly resolution establishing a study of such an election monitoring service would be welcome. Therefore I am pleased to send you a recent article on the topic. We hope that the US will take a lead for such a resolution this fall. Sincerely yours (or Respectfully yours) XYZ
International Election Monitors:
Agents of Free Elections
Rene Wadlow*
The post-election demonstrations in Iran which have led to deaths and arrests indicate that a large number of Iranians believe that the election count has been the result of fraud. The regime had hoped to prevent a massive show of democratic stirring by a show of force and by cutting off means of communication — web sites and cellphones. However, the fact that hundreds of thousands came out on the avenues of Tehran and in less numbers in other cities indicates a failure of the repressive policies. Even if large protests do not continue, a ‘wind of change’ has blown over Iran.
The Iranian government had declined the offers of international monitoring of the elections, and thus the world community is left with only the word of the Iranian government that the election process was free and fair. The wide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — 62.6 percent against some 34 percent for his main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi, goes against earlier opinion polls and an increasing popularity of Moussavi in the late stages of the election campaign. Mir Hussein Moussavi had been Prime Minister during the long and costly-in-life war with Iraq (1980-1988).
After four years of President Ahmadinejad’s weak economic policies as well as his confrontation with many other countries, many Iranians were looking for a change. For the elections, President Ahmadinejad tried to build his support in the rural areas with last moment rural development efforts which his opponents saw as transparent ‘bribes’. He had lost much support among educated Middle Class urban voters who wanted a better standard of living, employment opportunities for the young, and greater personal freedoms.
Thus, the election could have been close even if Ahmadinejad had won fairly, having the resources of the State at his control. Now, there is great scepticism concerning the outcome both in Iran and in the world community. The scepticism is so great that a promise by the Guide of the Iranian regime, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been made concerning a recount in certain contested areas. However, electoral fraud is rarely at the counting stage. One can recount a stuffed ballot box and come up with the same number of votes. This is why the whole electoral process needs to be monitored by independent election agents.
Citizens of the World have often called for international, basically UN supervision, of elections. The organization of elections remains a prerogative of the national – administrative sub-divisions of the State, and local governments. However, in cases where the election campaign can be tense and prone to violence as was the presidential election of Zimbabwe, or when there has been a past history of fraud, international, independent monitors are important agents of fair elections and help to protect human rights, to strengthen the rule of law and to ensure pluralistic democracy.
Election observation work is an important activity for the 56 member States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights housed in Warsaw, Poland. The Office for Democratic Institutions, originally called the Office for Free Elections, first played an important role in the democratic transition in post-communist countries. While its observation of elections is its most visible task, the Office also conducts a number of other useful election-related activities: reviewing electoral legislation, training observers, and publishing guidelines and handbooks about electoral issues.
The Office for Democratic Institutions is concerned with a wholistic approach to election monitoring including the following:
- Respect for basic fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of assembly, of association, and expression;
- Respect for the civil and political rights of the candidates and voters;
- Compilation of accurate voter lists;
- Equal opportunities to campaign in a free environment;
- Equitable access to the media;
- Impartial election administrative bodies;
- Unhindered access for international and domestic election observers;
- Effective representation and participation of women:
- Effective representation of national minorities;
- Access for disabled voters;
- Honest and transparent counting and tabulation of the votes;
- Effective complaints and appeals process with an independent judiciary.
The United Nations has no comparable permanent election monitoring office, but on an ad hoc basis the UN played an important monitoring role in the first multi-racial elections in South Africa, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has provided election aid and monitoring in countries such as Nepal as that country was coming out of a decade of armed violence.
The Iranian government would have been wise to request international monitoring for its presidential elections. Now it is too late. It is unlikely that a new election will be held to replace the contested one. The Iranian elections have indicated a wide current of support for change. The hesitations of the ruling circle concerning post-election manifestations have highlighted division of views within this ruling circle. The demonstrations have also indicated to the world community as a whole the need for independent election monitoring. Steps should be taken quickly for the UN to provide such services drawing on the rich experience of the OSCE.
*Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
Alice O. Howell
The Heavens Declare: Astrological Ages and the Evolution of Consciousness
(Wheaton, IL: Quest Books,2006, 281pp.)
There are a number of currents of thought which hold that humanity is coming to the end of an historical cycle and is entering into a new age with the start of the new millennium. The most widely spread of these currents of thought is a complex of ideas and practices known as the New Age or the Age of Aquarius. The contemporary New Age began as a movement based on astrological interpretations of history. Every two thousand years or so humanity moves into a new age in which civilization is predominately influenced by the qualities of the particular astrological sign that rules that age. As Alfred North Whitehead has written “In each age of the world distinguished by high activity, there will be found at its culmination some profound cosmological outlook, implicitly accepted, impressing its own type on the current springs of action.”
Thus the Age of Aquarius derives its name from western astrology which holds that each astrological age is determined by the passage of the Earth’s vernal equinox within a particular constellation. It is said that we are transiting from the Piscean period, which inaugurated the Christian era (symbolized by the fish sign used by the early Christians) to the Aquarian Age symbolized by the bearer of water. In this astrological tradition, the Piscean period was preceded by the Age of Aries and the Age of Taurus, of which the ram and the bull are the symbols — animals which are significant in earlier spiritual traditions.
The New Age is often seen as a movement toward self-discovery, a way to harmonize self-awareness with a consciousness of the totality of Nature. In addition to developing earlier forms of Western psychology, there is a growing interest in discovering the Higher Self drawn from Indian philosophy, with its emphasis on yoga, tantra, and the energy centers of the body (the charkas and the kundalini). The Tibetan forms of Buddhism, the Japanese school of Zen, Taoism and its techniques of acupuncture have also contributed much to New Age thought and techniques.
In the New Age there will be a realignment of the Yin and the Yang, the balance between feminine and masculine energies. This balance must be found within each person but also within society as a whole. The role and energies of women must be brought to the fore to balance again what has been a long dominance of the masculine, the patriarchal nature of our institutions. The ever-increasing role of women and women’s groups is a sign of this re-equilibrium.
The New Age draws much of its energy from its emphasis on synergy — the parts working for the common good. As the anthropologist Gregory Bateson has written, our task is to discover “the pattern that connects”, the wholeness underlying the diversity. This implies a New Age way of thinking in terms of patterns and wholeness, interconnections and reawakening.
At the end of each Age, a challenge appears that sets the stage for the coming age, our challenge is to see the unity of life. We are in a watershed period between two ages that requires a radical shift in how we understand human nature and our interdependent relationship with our environment. In this new planetary era, a harmonious future depends on our capacity to live beyond self-interest and to strive for the common good. Most significantly, New Age thought stresses that the common good is not just for the well-being of the human community but for all the kingdoms of life.
Alice Howell, influenced by the work of C.G. Jung and astrological analysis has written a useful guide to the start of the New Age.
Greetings: (Tell Everyone) Be apart of a bigger plan..... The World is coming together!
It is the world that is going to make a difference in stopping the wars and obtaining the peace collectively! Please sign in to let your voice be heard!
>
> I would like to welcome everyone to the Spiritual Fasting Group starting on 11th of January for at least 21 days. Fasting is very powerful to bring forth things in your life that are positive and remove anything that is negative. Fasting purifies the spirit and enhance the mind and body to a healthier life. See below:
>
> Know that all human hearts are welcome here, regardless of one's color, creed, condition or philosophy, because everyone is just like you and me--wanting happiness, and disliking suffering. In other words, seeking joy and freedom from suffering is the birthright of all living beings (not just us humans).
>
> The word 'spiritual' has many connotations, but all of us who've done prolonged, skillful fasting know our mind is clearer, sharper and more efficient--a greater clarity of consciousness. By using this fasting-enhanced clarity, our journey into the human interior can reward us with many essential correctives to the extreme materialism of our external culture and its dominant sciences. Also, just as our own inner-mind becomes clearer, our own extrasensory instinct becomes keener. Thus, we find ourselves more in tune with the gentle voice of Nature and its Natural Laws. And so, the increase in energy prolonged fasting confers is our own reward for getting back in touch with these so-called Laws of Nature.
>
> World Peace and World Love
News: Wars and rumors of Wars around the world, Palestinians and Jews are being murdered, Poverty, Environment dying, Fla. woman likely jumped overboard (suicide), In Phila. 6 dead and 3 wounded (violence), Cheyenee, Wyo earthquakes 3 days straight, China border 3 tremors Dec. 27th and In May 80,000 people killed from earthquakes and more. It is imperative that we fast and ask for the relief of suffering around the world. What affects one affects all!!!!! If need advice on how to fast, please ask at anytime-we have a teacher to teach us.
I am pleased to send you an article on the need for reconciliation bridge-builders in areas of tensions and conflicts as in eastern Congo. Just as world citizens had pushed in the 1950s for the creation of UN Forces with soldiers specially prepared for peace-keeping service, so now we are again pushing for a new type of world civil servant. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have all contributed actively to military-peacekeeping forces. Perhaps these same countries can take a lead in forming reconciliation teams. Your support and advice would be most appreciated. With best wishes, Rene Wadlow
East Congo — Need for Reconciliation Bridge-Builders
Rene Wadlow
On bridges are stated the limits in tons
of the loads they can bear.
But I’ve never yet found one that can bear more
than we do.
Although we are not made of roman freestone,
nor of steel, nor of concrete.
From “Bridges” – Ondra Lysohorsky
Translated from the Lachian by Davis Gill.
Violence is growing in the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, basically the administrative provinces of North and South Kivu. The violence could spread to the rest of the country as Angolan troops may come to the aid of the Central Government as they have in the past while Rwandan and Ugandan troops are said to be helping the opposing militia led by Laurent Nkunda. While Nkunda and his Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) say that they are only protecting the ethnic Tutsi living in Congo, Nkunda could emerge as a national opposition figure to President Joseph Kabila, who has little progress to show from his years in power.
There is high-level recognition that violence in Congo could spread, having a destabilizing impact on the whole region. UN diplomats, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, have stressed that a political solution — not a military one — is the only way to end the violence, and they are urging the presidents of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania to work together to restore stability. The instability, along with Congo’s vast mineral and timber riches have drawn in neighboring armies who have joined local insurgencies as well as local commanders of the national army to exploit the mines and to keep mine workers in near-slavery conditions.
The United Nations has some 17,000 peacemakers in Congo (MONUC), the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission, but their capacity is stretched to the limit. Recently, the General in command of the UN forces, Lieutenant General Vicent Diaz de Villegas of Spain resigned his post after seven weeks — an impossible task. Their mission is to protect civilians, some 250,000 of which have been driven from their homes since the fighting intensified in late August 2008. The camps where displaced persons have been living have been attacked both by government and rebel forces — looting, raping, and burning. UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, is asking for an additional 3,000 soldiers, but it is not clear which states may propose troops for a very difficult mission. While MONUC has proven effective at securing peace in the Ituri district in north-eastern Congo, it has been much less successful in the two Kivu provinces.
The eastern area of Congo is the scene of fighting at least since 1998 — in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid-1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the Kivus, fleeing the advance of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, now become the government of Rwanda. Many of these Hutu were still armed, among them, the “genocidaire” who a couple of months before had led the killings of some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda. They continued to kill Tutsi living in the Congo, many of whom had migrated there in the 18th century.
The people in eastern Congo have lived together for many centuries and had developed techniques of conflict resolution, especially between the two chief agricultural lifestyles: that of agriculture and cattle herding. However, the influx of a large number of Hutu, local political considerations, a desire to control the wealth of the area — rich in gold, tin and tropical timber — all these factors have overburdened the local techniques of conflict resolution and have opened the door to new, negative forces interested only in making money and gaining political power.
UN peace-keeping troops are effective when there is peace to keep. What is required today in eastern Congo is not so much more soldiers under UN command, than reconciliation bridge-builders, persons who are able to restore relations among the ethnic groups of the area. The United Nations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations need to develop bridge-building teams who can help to strengthen local efforts at conflict resolution and re-establishing community relations. In the Kivus, many of the problems arise from land tenure issues. With the large number of people displaced and villages destroyed, it may be possible to review completely land tenure and land use issues.
World citizens were among those in the early 1950s who stressed the need to create UN peace-keeping forces with soldiers especially trained for such a task. Today, a new type of world civil servant is needed — those who in areas of tension and conflict can undertake the slow but important task of restoring confidence among peoples in conflict, establishing contacts and looking for ways to build upon common interests.
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
Hi Clara,
That bird you have looks wonderful. We have some white cockatoos in our area, also some black ones, and from time to time, they fly over our house.
iPeace.us
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Warm regards, Eva
Sending you a hearty smile from nature, dear Clara.
love without end, Sandavala
Happy New Year to you!May every great new day
bring you sweet surprises--
Peace & Happiness in abundance.
Happy New Year to you,
And when the new year’s done,
May the next year be even better,
Full of pleasure, joy and fun.
Hi ! namaste ,..... my love , best wishes and peace for you.
Find out where they came from habits that we have todayThank you!
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Love,peace
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http://www.ipeace.me/xn/detail/2217368:Topic:2233089?xg_source=activity
Nice to see u here.
Hope that we all will contribute to reduce the illetiracy,poverty and to promote education,rule of law and peace for safer and just globe.
Global Citizen
Waris
Regards, love and peace.
Rashad.
Chairman: Hope development organization.
Email: chairman@hopedevelopment.org
www.hopedevelopment.org
.The contested election in Iran highlights the need for international election monitors, and I am pushing for a UN General Assembly resolution to study the possibility of such a service (Nothing is ever done at the UN without a first "study" phase). Diplomats are now at work on the issues that will be presented when the General Assembly starts mid-September. Thus letters proposing the idea should be sent now. I propose two short letters which would be sent with my article below which sets out in more detail what such a service should be. One letter should go to the Mission of your country.. The second letter should go to the President of the General Assembly. The President must work by consensus so that he rarely takes any public initiative. However he likes to know what is going on, what new ideas may be around. Sometimes he can help informally. The President for this year is H.E. Mr Ali Abdussalam Treki, Mission of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to the United Nations, 309-315 East 48th Street, New York, NY, 10017. He should be addressed as "Your Excellency"
I put below the sample letter addressed to the US Ambassador with the US Mission address. Normally, all ambassadors are addressed as "Your Excellency" with no "Dear" However US protocol uses "Dear Ambassador and the person's name". With your help, I think that the issue can come to the attention of many governments.
Best wishes, Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
H.E. Dr Susan Rice, Permanent Representative, US Mission to the UN, 799 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017-3505:
Dear Ambassador Rice:
The contested election results in Iran reflect the need to have international election monitors. The presence of such monitors encourages free and fair elections. The election monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have provided useful help in elections in States in transition toward democracy.
We believe that the United Nations should have a universal election-monitoring agency. A General Assembly resolution establishing a study of such an election monitoring service would be welcome. Therefore I am pleased to send you a recent article on the topic. We hope that the US will take a lead for such a resolution this fall. Sincerely yours (or Respectfully yours) XYZ
International Election Monitors:
Agents of Free Elections
Rene Wadlow*
The post-election demonstrations in Iran which have led to deaths and arrests indicate that a large number of Iranians believe that the election count has been the result of fraud. The regime had hoped to prevent a massive show of democratic stirring by a show of force and by cutting off means of communication — web sites and cellphones. However, the fact that hundreds of thousands came out on the avenues of Tehran and in less numbers in other cities indicates a failure of the repressive policies. Even if large protests do not continue, a ‘wind of change’ has blown over Iran.
The Iranian government had declined the offers of international monitoring of the elections, and thus the world community is left with only the word of the Iranian government that the election process was free and fair. The wide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — 62.6 percent against some 34 percent for his main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi, goes against earlier opinion polls and an increasing popularity of Moussavi in the late stages of the election campaign. Mir Hussein Moussavi had been Prime Minister during the long and costly-in-life war with Iraq (1980-1988).
After four years of President Ahmadinejad’s weak economic policies as well as his confrontation with many other countries, many Iranians were looking for a change. For the elections, President Ahmadinejad tried to build his support in the rural areas with last moment rural development efforts which his opponents saw as transparent ‘bribes’. He had lost much support among educated Middle Class urban voters who wanted a better standard of living, employment opportunities for the young, and greater personal freedoms.
Thus, the election could have been close even if Ahmadinejad had won fairly, having the resources of the State at his control. Now, there is great scepticism concerning the outcome both in Iran and in the world community. The scepticism is so great that a promise by the Guide of the Iranian regime, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been made concerning a recount in certain contested areas. However, electoral fraud is rarely at the counting stage. One can recount a stuffed ballot box and come up with the same number of votes. This is why the whole electoral process needs to be monitored by independent election agents.
Citizens of the World have often called for international, basically UN supervision, of elections. The organization of elections remains a prerogative of the national – administrative sub-divisions of the State, and local governments. However, in cases where the election campaign can be tense and prone to violence as was the presidential election of Zimbabwe, or when there has been a past history of fraud, international, independent monitors are important agents of fair elections and help to protect human rights, to strengthen the rule of law and to ensure pluralistic democracy.
Election observation work is an important activity for the 56 member States of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights housed in Warsaw, Poland. The Office for Democratic Institutions, originally called the Office for Free Elections, first played an important role in the democratic transition in post-communist countries. While its observation of elections is its most visible task, the Office also conducts a number of other useful election-related activities: reviewing electoral legislation, training observers, and publishing guidelines and handbooks about electoral issues.
The Office for Democratic Institutions is concerned with a wholistic approach to election monitoring including the following:
- Respect for basic fundamental freedoms such as the freedom of assembly, of association, and expression;
- Respect for the civil and political rights of the candidates and voters;
- Compilation of accurate voter lists;
- Equal opportunities to campaign in a free environment;
- Equitable access to the media;
- Impartial election administrative bodies;
- Unhindered access for international and domestic election observers;
- Effective representation and participation of women:
- Effective representation of national minorities;
- Access for disabled voters;
- Honest and transparent counting and tabulation of the votes;
- Effective complaints and appeals process with an independent judiciary.
The United Nations has no comparable permanent election monitoring office, but on an ad hoc basis the UN played an important monitoring role in the first multi-racial elections in South Africa, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has provided election aid and monitoring in countries such as Nepal as that country was coming out of a decade of armed violence.
The Iranian government would have been wise to request international monitoring for its presidential elections. Now it is too late. It is unlikely that a new election will be held to replace the contested one. The Iranian elections have indicated a wide current of support for change. The hesitations of the ruling circle concerning post-election manifestations have highlighted division of views within this ruling circle. The demonstrations have also indicated to the world community as a whole the need for independent election monitoring. Steps should be taken quickly for the UN to provide such services drawing on the rich experience of the OSCE.
*Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
leaves it fly for peace.
The Heavens Declare: Astrological Ages and the Evolution of Consciousness
(Wheaton, IL: Quest Books,2006, 281pp.)
There are a number of currents of thought which hold that humanity is coming to the end of an historical cycle and is entering into a new age with the start of the new millennium. The most widely spread of these currents of thought is a complex of ideas and practices known as the New Age or the Age of Aquarius. The contemporary New Age began as a movement based on astrological interpretations of history. Every two thousand years or so humanity moves into a new age in which civilization is predominately influenced by the qualities of the particular astrological sign that rules that age. As Alfred North Whitehead has written “In each age of the world distinguished by high activity, there will be found at its culmination some profound cosmological outlook, implicitly accepted, impressing its own type on the current springs of action.”
Thus the Age of Aquarius derives its name from western astrology which holds that each astrological age is determined by the passage of the Earth’s vernal equinox within a particular constellation. It is said that we are transiting from the Piscean period, which inaugurated the Christian era (symbolized by the fish sign used by the early Christians) to the Aquarian Age symbolized by the bearer of water. In this astrological tradition, the Piscean period was preceded by the Age of Aries and the Age of Taurus, of which the ram and the bull are the symbols — animals which are significant in earlier spiritual traditions.
The New Age is often seen as a movement toward self-discovery, a way to harmonize self-awareness with a consciousness of the totality of Nature. In addition to developing earlier forms of Western psychology, there is a growing interest in discovering the Higher Self drawn from Indian philosophy, with its emphasis on yoga, tantra, and the energy centers of the body (the charkas and the kundalini). The Tibetan forms of Buddhism, the Japanese school of Zen, Taoism and its techniques of acupuncture have also contributed much to New Age thought and techniques.
In the New Age there will be a realignment of the Yin and the Yang, the balance between feminine and masculine energies. This balance must be found within each person but also within society as a whole. The role and energies of women must be brought to the fore to balance again what has been a long dominance of the masculine, the patriarchal nature of our institutions. The ever-increasing role of women and women’s groups is a sign of this re-equilibrium.
The New Age draws much of its energy from its emphasis on synergy — the parts working for the common good. As the anthropologist Gregory Bateson has written, our task is to discover “the pattern that connects”, the wholeness underlying the diversity. This implies a New Age way of thinking in terms of patterns and wholeness, interconnections and reawakening.
At the end of each Age, a challenge appears that sets the stage for the coming age, our challenge is to see the unity of life. We are in a watershed period between two ages that requires a radical shift in how we understand human nature and our interdependent relationship with our environment. In this new planetary era, a harmonious future depends on our capacity to live beyond self-interest and to strive for the common good. Most significantly, New Age thought stresses that the common good is not just for the well-being of the human community but for all the kingdoms of life.
Alice Howell, influenced by the work of C.G. Jung and astrological analysis has written a useful guide to the start of the New Age.
Rene Wadlow
Peace and Love to you and your bird
It is the world that is going to make a difference in stopping the wars and obtaining the peace collectively! Please sign in to let your voice be heard!
>
> I would like to welcome everyone to the Spiritual Fasting Group starting on 11th of January for at least 21 days. Fasting is very powerful to bring forth things in your life that are positive and remove anything that is negative. Fasting purifies the spirit and enhance the mind and body to a healthier life. See below:
>
> Know that all human hearts are welcome here, regardless of one's color, creed, condition or philosophy, because everyone is just like you and me--wanting happiness, and disliking suffering. In other words, seeking joy and freedom from suffering is the birthright of all living beings (not just us humans).
>
> The word 'spiritual' has many connotations, but all of us who've done prolonged, skillful fasting know our mind is clearer, sharper and more efficient--a greater clarity of consciousness. By using this fasting-enhanced clarity, our journey into the human interior can reward us with many essential correctives to the extreme materialism of our external culture and its dominant sciences. Also, just as our own inner-mind becomes clearer, our own extrasensory instinct becomes keener. Thus, we find ourselves more in tune with the gentle voice of Nature and its Natural Laws. And so, the increase in energy prolonged fasting confers is our own reward for getting back in touch with these so-called Laws of Nature.
>
> World Peace and World Love
News: Wars and rumors of Wars around the world, Palestinians and Jews are being murdered, Poverty, Environment dying, Fla. woman likely jumped overboard (suicide), In Phila. 6 dead and 3 wounded (violence), Cheyenee, Wyo earthquakes 3 days straight, China border 3 tremors Dec. 27th and In May 80,000 people killed from earthquakes and more. It is imperative that we fast and ask for the relief of suffering around the world. What affects one affects all!!!!! If need advice on how to fast, please ask at anytime-we have a teacher to teach us.
HAPPY NEW YEAR & PEACE AND LOVE FR 2009;
Gracias...
Greetings from Izmir-Turkey
East Congo — Need for Reconciliation Bridge-Builders
Rene Wadlow
On bridges are stated the limits in tons
of the loads they can bear.
But I’ve never yet found one that can bear more
than we do.
Although we are not made of roman freestone,
nor of steel, nor of concrete.
From “Bridges” – Ondra Lysohorsky
Translated from the Lachian by Davis Gill.
Violence is growing in the eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, basically the administrative provinces of North and South Kivu. The violence could spread to the rest of the country as Angolan troops may come to the aid of the Central Government as they have in the past while Rwandan and Ugandan troops are said to be helping the opposing militia led by Laurent Nkunda. While Nkunda and his Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) say that they are only protecting the ethnic Tutsi living in Congo, Nkunda could emerge as a national opposition figure to President Joseph Kabila, who has little progress to show from his years in power.
There is high-level recognition that violence in Congo could spread, having a destabilizing impact on the whole region. UN diplomats, led by Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, have stressed that a political solution — not a military one — is the only way to end the violence, and they are urging the presidents of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania to work together to restore stability. The instability, along with Congo’s vast mineral and timber riches have drawn in neighboring armies who have joined local insurgencies as well as local commanders of the national army to exploit the mines and to keep mine workers in near-slavery conditions.
The United Nations has some 17,000 peacemakers in Congo (MONUC), the UN’s largest peacekeeping mission, but their capacity is stretched to the limit. Recently, the General in command of the UN forces, Lieutenant General Vicent Diaz de Villegas of Spain resigned his post after seven weeks — an impossible task. Their mission is to protect civilians, some 250,000 of which have been driven from their homes since the fighting intensified in late August 2008. The camps where displaced persons have been living have been attacked both by government and rebel forces — looting, raping, and burning. UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, is asking for an additional 3,000 soldiers, but it is not clear which states may propose troops for a very difficult mission. While MONUC has proven effective at securing peace in the Ituri district in north-eastern Congo, it has been much less successful in the two Kivu provinces.
The eastern area of Congo is the scene of fighting at least since 1998 — in part as a result of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda in 1994. In mid-1994, more than one million Rwandan Hutu refugees poured into the Kivus, fleeing the advance of the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front, now become the government of Rwanda. Many of these Hutu were still armed, among them, the “genocidaire” who a couple of months before had led the killings of some 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda. They continued to kill Tutsi living in the Congo, many of whom had migrated there in the 18th century.
The people in eastern Congo have lived together for many centuries and had developed techniques of conflict resolution, especially between the two chief agricultural lifestyles: that of agriculture and cattle herding. However, the influx of a large number of Hutu, local political considerations, a desire to control the wealth of the area — rich in gold, tin and tropical timber — all these factors have overburdened the local techniques of conflict resolution and have opened the door to new, negative forces interested only in making money and gaining political power.
UN peace-keeping troops are effective when there is peace to keep. What is required today in eastern Congo is not so much more soldiers under UN command, than reconciliation bridge-builders, persons who are able to restore relations among the ethnic groups of the area. The United Nations, national governments, and non-governmental organizations need to develop bridge-building teams who can help to strengthen local efforts at conflict resolution and re-establishing community relations. In the Kivus, many of the problems arise from land tenure issues. With the large number of people displaced and villages destroyed, it may be possible to review completely land tenure and land use issues.
World citizens were among those in the early 1950s who stressed the need to create UN peace-keeping forces with soldiers especially trained for such a task. Today, a new type of world civil servant is needed — those who in areas of tension and conflict can undertake the slow but important task of restoring confidence among peoples in conflict, establishing contacts and looking for ways to build upon common interests.
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
That bird you have looks wonderful. We have some white cockatoos in our area, also some black ones, and from time to time, they fly over our house.
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