Leonard DavidLiveScience Senior WriterLiveScience.com
Fri Feb 24, 2:04 PM ET
A population milestone is about to be set on this jam-packed planet.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the population here on this good Earth is projected to hit 6.5 billion people.
Along with this forecast, an analysis by the International Programs Center at the U.S.
Census Bureau' points to another factoid, Robert Bernstein of the Bureau's Public Information Center advised LiveScience. Mark this on your calendar: Some six years from now, on Oct. 18, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion folks.
These are estimates, of course, but clear trends emerge from the data behind them.
Population profile
A report issued by the Bureau in March 2004 noted that world population hit the 6-billion mark in June 1999. "This figure is over 3.5 times the size of the Earth's population at the beginning of the 20th century and roughly double its size in 1960," the study explained.
Even more striking is that the time required for the global population to grow from 5 billion to 6 billion—just a dozen years—was shorter than the interval between any of the previous billions.
On average, 4.4 people are born every second.
The population on Earth today is nearly four times the number in 1900 [graph]. Behind that phenomenal global increase is a vast gulf in birth and death rates among the world's countries. But according to population experts, this gulf is not a simple divide that perpetuates the status quo among the have and have-not nations.
Birth dearth
"What is worrisome about this demographic divide is not the differences among nations' population growth rates, but the disparities associated with these trends ... disparities in living standards, health, and economic prospects," explained Mary Kent, co-author along with Carl Haub, of a Population Reference Bureau report issued last month titled "Global Demographic Divide."
Kent, editor of the Population Bulletin, and Haub, a senior demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, reported that news of declining population in Europe fueled concern about a global "birth dearth," but there is continuing population growth in developing countries. The question, they asked, is which demographic trend is the world facing?
"The reality is that both trends are occurring," Haub said. "The dramatic fertility decline during the 20th century coincided with improved health, access to family planning, economic development, and urbanization."
Kent and Haub also reported that most countries will experience population growth through 2050, as the world adds a projected 3 billion more people to the total.
Remarkably, despite the many new developments over the past 50 years, one fact looks very much the same, explained Kent and Haub: Populations are growing most rapidly where such growth can be afforded the least—an observation that has changed little over time, they said
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Interview with WALMART doc producer
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALThe Beef with Wal-MartRobert Greenwald's documentary "Wal-Mart, the High Cost of Low Price," premieres in Germany at the Berlin International Film Festival. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, he describes the challenge of taking on one of the world's largest multinational corporations, and why it's scared of him.
Wal-Mart: Low prices for customers, low pay for workers.Robert Greenwald's film "Wal-Mart, the High Cost of Low Price" has been a controversial attention getter in the US due to its critical, almost rabid, attack on the business and personnel practices of the retail behemoth. In the documentary, current and former Wal-Mart employees excoriate the company for gender and racial discrimination, under-paying, and health benefits so pathetic that employees are encouraged to go on public assistance. The film also shows small town America being destroyed by the big box stores -- which drive smaller, family-run establishments out of business -- and ends with communities rallying together to keep Sam Walton's global superstore from elbowing into their towns. In previous documentaries, Greenwald has taken on ultra-conservative Fox News network, Enron and the Iraq War. On Saturday, he premiered the newly cut international version of the film at the Berlin International Film Festival. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about his film and what he describes as a global Wal-Mart threat that will make life worse for workers in the countries where the megastore sells its wares and for those in China and elsewhere where people produce the goods it markets.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What image of America will people get from this film?Greenwald: Wal-Mart pretends to represent something about America that I think is false. They are only interested in picking your pockets for an extra nickel. I hope the film creates a counter narrative saying that that all kinds of good Americans -- red state, blue state, black, brown, white, rich, poor -- are being hurt by Wal-Mart.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What was your personal experience in dealing with Wal-Mart while making the film?Greenwald: We did the film without them knowing about it for as long as possible because we knew this culture of fear that they intentionally encourage around the world. We knew it would be harder to get people to talk if they knew about the film, so we worked in secret for six months. Then we went public and asked Wal-Mart to participate. They refused. The first thing they did was criticize me for being one-sided after they refused to participate in the film! Look, the hypocrisy is really quite extraordinary.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You talked to current and former Wal-Mart employees. Were the workers afraid to talk?Greenwald: There was tremendous fear, a lot of people hung up the phone on us. Others closed the door when we arrived -- even after they had agreed to be filmed. Again, it's this international pattern where Wal-Mart uses its size and money in an effort to scare people. Some of the managers interviewed in the film were later defamed by Wal-Mart, which accused them of all sorts of things that were lies.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your American film distributor mentioned here in Berlin that there have been problems getting the film picked up for distribution in certain countries. Greenwald: As we see in the film, Wal-Mart engenders fear. People who work there are afraid to lose their jobs if they, in any way, try to improve their working environment or join a union. Wal-Mart is doing everything it can to encourage this attitude of "Hey, you better watch out. Don't mess with us."
SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the US, the film was shown in small groups, at churches, community centers as part of a social movement. Do you expect the same thing to happen here in Europe?Greenwald: In the United States, with "Wal-Mart", we created an alternative distribution plan. We used the Internet to reach hundreds of thousands of people and people set up screenings in their homes, churches and schools. It's a phenomenal and exciting way of reaching people. I'm thrilled that I don't have to rely on any gatekeepers. But in Europe, we'll screen this in traditional theaters. Still, I hope the film and the social movement connected with it can help alert people before it's too late. But I have to stress it's not just the film, but the film tied to the social organizing, the protesting of the building of new Wal-Marts, and the way the chain does business. Their business practices are international, and therefore there have to be international solutions to stopping them.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your film has been much talked about in the US, yet you re-cut it for international distribution. What did you want to change? Greenwald: I have hundreds of hours of footage. The international version gave me a much desired opportunity to focus on the international import and the way that Wal-Mart affects many countries, and so I was able to have a more extended section on Germany, on the United Kingdom, on Canada. The section on factory workers in China who produce many of the goods sold in Wal-Marts was a little fuller.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wal-Mart has not had much success in Germany, a country where unions still have a stronger presence than in the United States. Greenwald: The good news side of it here is that because they took over existing companies, they were forced to deal with the unions. I included that information in the US version because I wanted people in America to know that despite Wal-Mart's battle to keep unions out of its stores in the US, it is forced to work with them in other countries where it does business. If it can work with the unions in Europe, why can't it do the same in America?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: A Wal-Mart employee in Germany gets more than a month of vacation a year. Greenwald: The Wal-Mart model is comprised of many things -- but at its core is the idea of exploiting the workers, exploiting customers, doing anything to make a nickel. Fortunately because they do have protections in Germany, they're not allowed to do it. So we'll see over time whether they're allowed to penetrate and have as much control in Germany and Europe as they do in other places, where they have enormous and disproportionate control over food, the environment and all kinds of things.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: On the Wal-Mart Web site, there's a video that dissects the trailer for your film, it's called "3 lies in 3 minutes" and goes pieces by piece, saying all your facts are wrong. Greenwald: We have facts, and I have invited Wal-Mart many, many times to debate me on this issue. They refused. What are they afraid of? I'm happy to show them our information. I'm happy to show them not only the people in the film, but the tons of others. But they won't -- they've hired political hacks to advise them and they are running this like a political campaign which includes a personal smear campaign against me. They released a 13-page document attacking me personally that included bad reviews of TV movies I did years ago. Why is that relevant?
Interview conducted by Susan Stone
Wal-Mart: Low prices for customers, low pay for workers.Robert Greenwald's film "Wal-Mart, the High Cost of Low Price" has been a controversial attention getter in the US due to its critical, almost rabid, attack on the business and personnel practices of the retail behemoth. In the documentary, current and former Wal-Mart employees excoriate the company for gender and racial discrimination, under-paying, and health benefits so pathetic that employees are encouraged to go on public assistance. The film also shows small town America being destroyed by the big box stores -- which drive smaller, family-run establishments out of business -- and ends with communities rallying together to keep Sam Walton's global superstore from elbowing into their towns. In previous documentaries, Greenwald has taken on ultra-conservative Fox News network, Enron and the Iraq War. On Saturday, he premiered the newly cut international version of the film at the Berlin International Film Festival. He spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about his film and what he describes as a global Wal-Mart threat that will make life worse for workers in the countries where the megastore sells its wares and for those in China and elsewhere where people produce the goods it markets.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What image of America will people get from this film?Greenwald: Wal-Mart pretends to represent something about America that I think is false. They are only interested in picking your pockets for an extra nickel. I hope the film creates a counter narrative saying that that all kinds of good Americans -- red state, blue state, black, brown, white, rich, poor -- are being hurt by Wal-Mart.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What was your personal experience in dealing with Wal-Mart while making the film?Greenwald: We did the film without them knowing about it for as long as possible because we knew this culture of fear that they intentionally encourage around the world. We knew it would be harder to get people to talk if they knew about the film, so we worked in secret for six months. Then we went public and asked Wal-Mart to participate. They refused. The first thing they did was criticize me for being one-sided after they refused to participate in the film! Look, the hypocrisy is really quite extraordinary.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You talked to current and former Wal-Mart employees. Were the workers afraid to talk?Greenwald: There was tremendous fear, a lot of people hung up the phone on us. Others closed the door when we arrived -- even after they had agreed to be filmed. Again, it's this international pattern where Wal-Mart uses its size and money in an effort to scare people. Some of the managers interviewed in the film were later defamed by Wal-Mart, which accused them of all sorts of things that were lies.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your American film distributor mentioned here in Berlin that there have been problems getting the film picked up for distribution in certain countries. Greenwald: As we see in the film, Wal-Mart engenders fear. People who work there are afraid to lose their jobs if they, in any way, try to improve their working environment or join a union. Wal-Mart is doing everything it can to encourage this attitude of "Hey, you better watch out. Don't mess with us."
SPIEGEL ONLINE: In the US, the film was shown in small groups, at churches, community centers as part of a social movement. Do you expect the same thing to happen here in Europe?Greenwald: In the United States, with "Wal-Mart", we created an alternative distribution plan. We used the Internet to reach hundreds of thousands of people and people set up screenings in their homes, churches and schools. It's a phenomenal and exciting way of reaching people. I'm thrilled that I don't have to rely on any gatekeepers. But in Europe, we'll screen this in traditional theaters. Still, I hope the film and the social movement connected with it can help alert people before it's too late. But I have to stress it's not just the film, but the film tied to the social organizing, the protesting of the building of new Wal-Marts, and the way the chain does business. Their business practices are international, and therefore there have to be international solutions to stopping them.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Your film has been much talked about in the US, yet you re-cut it for international distribution. What did you want to change? Greenwald: I have hundreds of hours of footage. The international version gave me a much desired opportunity to focus on the international import and the way that Wal-Mart affects many countries, and so I was able to have a more extended section on Germany, on the United Kingdom, on Canada. The section on factory workers in China who produce many of the goods sold in Wal-Marts was a little fuller.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Wal-Mart has not had much success in Germany, a country where unions still have a stronger presence than in the United States. Greenwald: The good news side of it here is that because they took over existing companies, they were forced to deal with the unions. I included that information in the US version because I wanted people in America to know that despite Wal-Mart's battle to keep unions out of its stores in the US, it is forced to work with them in other countries where it does business. If it can work with the unions in Europe, why can't it do the same in America?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: A Wal-Mart employee in Germany gets more than a month of vacation a year. Greenwald: The Wal-Mart model is comprised of many things -- but at its core is the idea of exploiting the workers, exploiting customers, doing anything to make a nickel. Fortunately because they do have protections in Germany, they're not allowed to do it. So we'll see over time whether they're allowed to penetrate and have as much control in Germany and Europe as they do in other places, where they have enormous and disproportionate control over food, the environment and all kinds of things.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: On the Wal-Mart Web site, there's a video that dissects the trailer for your film, it's called "3 lies in 3 minutes" and goes pieces by piece, saying all your facts are wrong. Greenwald: We have facts, and I have invited Wal-Mart many, many times to debate me on this issue. They refused. What are they afraid of? I'm happy to show them our information. I'm happy to show them not only the people in the film, but the tons of others. But they won't -- they've hired political hacks to advise them and they are running this like a political campaign which includes a personal smear campaign against me. They released a 13-page document attacking me personally that included bad reviews of TV movies I did years ago. Why is that relevant?
Interview conducted by Susan Stone
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Google.org gets GE Gold star
Google gets a G.E. Gold star for the aggressive formulation of
their philanthropic division Google.org. www.google.org
Biggest star goes of course to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
for making it not only cool for the rich to give but expected.
Google signs on do-good doctor to head charity
By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Google extended its maverick reputation on Tuesday by appointing a tech-savvy doctor who fought smallpox as the first chief of the company's nascent philanthropic arm. Larry Brilliant's life has ranged from civil rights marches with Martin Luther King to working as physician to the Grateful Dead and leading high-tech ventures.
His appointment is an important milestone for the online search giant's $1 billion charitable arm, Google.org, launched four months ago with a focus on poverty, the environment and energy. It ranks in the top 50 of an estimated 66,000 U.S. philanthropic groups. Biggest is the $29 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
As Google.org's executive director, Brilliant, 61, will play a key role in its start-up and in refining its focus, said Gene Tempel, head of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
Google said it chose Brilliant because of his experience battling blindness overseas and with the World Health Organization in fighting intractable problems such as smallpox. "Those are things that have helped make the world a better place," said Sheryl Sandberg, the Google executive who coordinated a search that included hundreds of candidates.
Brilliant said he took the job because it combines two subjects — health and technology — that have been his life's work. He said he also was drawn by the "don't be evil" corporate mantra advanced by the online search giant's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. "This 'don't be evil' slogan permeates every cell in their being," he said.
Brilliant said his medical background did not signal an impending shift by Google.org to fighting disease, a field now dominated by the Gates foundation. Rather, improving health is an integral part of fighting poverty. "It's two sides of the same coin," he said.
Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said Brilliant's health work is a signal that Page and Brin "care about health and the underclass."
Brilliant most recently was chairman of the Seva Foundation, which he founded in 1979. Seva says its projects in India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Tanzania helped restore sight to 2 million blind people.
He also was CEO of Cometa Networks, a joint venture of Intel, IBM and AT&T that sought to develop a national Wi-Fi system before it was dissolved in 2003. He also was CEO of Internet service company SoftNet Systems. Brilliant also holds a telecom patent.
Yet it is his background as a hippie-turned-doctor and tech executive that led Fast Company magazine to dub him the "quintessential baby boomer."
He was born in Detroit and received an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1965 and a medical degree from Wayne State University. He arrived in San Francisco during the famous 1967 "Summer of Love." He met one of the 1960s icons, the Grateful Dead, and spent two years traveling with his wife and 40 other hippies through Europe and the Middle East.
Brilliant is the latest Google hire with a Dead connection. The company's legendary corporate chef, Charlie Ayers, was the band's chef.
their philanthropic division Google.org. www.google.org
Biggest star goes of course to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
for making it not only cool for the rich to give but expected.
Google signs on do-good doctor to head charity
By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — Google extended its maverick reputation on Tuesday by appointing a tech-savvy doctor who fought smallpox as the first chief of the company's nascent philanthropic arm. Larry Brilliant's life has ranged from civil rights marches with Martin Luther King to working as physician to the Grateful Dead and leading high-tech ventures.
His appointment is an important milestone for the online search giant's $1 billion charitable arm, Google.org, launched four months ago with a focus on poverty, the environment and energy. It ranks in the top 50 of an estimated 66,000 U.S. philanthropic groups. Biggest is the $29 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
As Google.org's executive director, Brilliant, 61, will play a key role in its start-up and in refining its focus, said Gene Tempel, head of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
Google said it chose Brilliant because of his experience battling blindness overseas and with the World Health Organization in fighting intractable problems such as smallpox. "Those are things that have helped make the world a better place," said Sheryl Sandberg, the Google executive who coordinated a search that included hundreds of candidates.
Brilliant said he took the job because it combines two subjects — health and technology — that have been his life's work. He said he also was drawn by the "don't be evil" corporate mantra advanced by the online search giant's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. "This 'don't be evil' slogan permeates every cell in their being," he said.
Brilliant said his medical background did not signal an impending shift by Google.org to fighting disease, a field now dominated by the Gates foundation. Rather, improving health is an integral part of fighting poverty. "It's two sides of the same coin," he said.
Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said Brilliant's health work is a signal that Page and Brin "care about health and the underclass."
Brilliant most recently was chairman of the Seva Foundation, which he founded in 1979. Seva says its projects in India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Tanzania helped restore sight to 2 million blind people.
He also was CEO of Cometa Networks, a joint venture of Intel, IBM and AT&T that sought to develop a national Wi-Fi system before it was dissolved in 2003. He also was CEO of Internet service company SoftNet Systems. Brilliant also holds a telecom patent.
Yet it is his background as a hippie-turned-doctor and tech executive that led Fast Company magazine to dub him the "quintessential baby boomer."
He was born in Detroit and received an undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan in 1965 and a medical degree from Wayne State University. He arrived in San Francisco during the famous 1967 "Summer of Love." He met one of the 1960s icons, the Grateful Dead, and spent two years traveling with his wife and 40 other hippies through Europe and the Middle East.
Brilliant is the latest Google hire with a Dead connection. The company's legendary corporate chef, Charlie Ayers, was the band's chef.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
More from Isaac
in mid-January, a bombshell was dropped on the front pages of The Independent, one of Britain’s most trustworthy newspapers. The headline: Green Guru Says: ‘We Are Past the Point of No Return.’ Who is this Green Guru? He is James Lovelock, a leading environmental scientist here in the U.K. About thirty years ago Lovelock proposed a new view for the Earth’s biosphere that he dubbed ‘bio-cybernetic universal system tendency.’ His theory conceived of the Planet as a self-regulating super organism that was actually alive! Sound familiar? His initial target audiences were other environmental researchers and climatologists, but they virtually ignored him and the theory. It was the newly burgeoning environmental ‘green’ and New Age movements that embraced the idea of a conscious, living Planet. They came to regard the Earth as Mother, and she needed to be respected, not abused (cue Indigenous wisdom, ala Mayans, ala Native Americans, etc.). It took some time, but eventually the entire scientific establishment became convinced of the accuracy of Lovelock’s model, that, quote, ‘the Earth possesses a planetary control system, founded on the interaction of living organisms with their environment, which has operated for billions of years to allow life to exist.’
Now, he says, we are facing the unthinkable, that these very systems (he refers to them as feedback systems) that the Planet uses to sustain life are now working against us. We have done too much to add to the global warming via greenhouse gases, at a time while the Sun has been busily heating up the Planet (see Solar Max Cycle). Now the Earth’s feedback control systems are amplifying the effects into an exponential temperature increase, and it is unstoppable. Or, so the theory goes.
After I absorbed Mr. Lovelock’s editorial and the two accompanying articles, I felt tears welling up in me, a kind of recognition that tells me that my feelings about this began decades ago. Mr. Scientist may be wrong, and he may be right, but he recognized a long time ago that there is a thread of connectivity in all of the Planet’s systems and the life in, on and above it, and we cannot ignore the potential in his warnings. Nor is there any reason to abandon hope. We do, however, need to remove our blinkers and our tinted glasses and see clearly, for denial is useless and untenable, and the unthinkable may be upon us. According to Lovelock, time is not on our side. Awhile back when I heard Eckhart Tolle say (‘Even the Sun Will Die’) that unless there is a major arising of the new consciousness, we have as little as 100 years left before the Planet can no longer support our species, or many other life forms as well. That statement was from 2001.
There is no way to know what exactly what Gaia will do, or how things will unfold, but the signs are here and now. Indigenous elders the world over are greatly concerned about what the climate is doing. The Inuit tribes cannot hunt because the ice is melting. The polar bears are drowning because the ice is melting. Islands in the Southwestern Pacific are drowning because the ice is melting. Welcome to Water and Fire Redux.
Years ago at a presentation in Sedona, a questioner asked Ariel what more could be done to save the Earth. The answer shocked everyone. Ariel said that the Earth did not need saving, and that She was quite capable of saving Herself. Furthermore, She had a Divine mandate to do whatever was necessary in order to regain equilibrium and ascend into a new _expression of Herself, with or without us, if necessary.
The process we are in is the awakening from the Dream of Unconsciousness, and part of that unconsciousness is how humanity, through 250 years of linear, reductionist thinking, has cut itself off from the intricate and intimate world of Nature. The Planetary body is now reacting like it has a fever, and the immune system is beginning to kick in to fight the invaders…us.
How we respond, spiritually, ethically, and in actuality will determine the quality of our re-entering into a harmonious and synergistic relationship with Nature and the Earth. Nothing less than a total commitment to Planetary needs over human rights is what the challenge will be. There seems to be little time left to ponder whether we act, only how quickly we rise to the occasion. To respond will require us to become spiritual ecologists.
Many of you may deny what is coming. Many more will wonder ‘what can I do, and what must be done?’ Yes, a change in our consciousness IS required, along with an equally expanded capacity to love and serve spiritually through our devotion to this Planet’s welfare. Asking for guidance from our Source and the Earth will reawaken our intuition and instinct as to what ideas and actions contribute to the affirmation of Life, and it must arise from something other than our desire to fix stuff so that we can continue as we have been.
As Lovelock states, we must first and foremost ‘do nothing that would harm the patient (Earth).’ Each individual, each region and then each nation must act locally in caring for the Planet. It is not in the scope of this newsletter to list all the possible actions and tools that would assist in this process. However, I have included links in the section following this to all the source articles for your investigations (‘LINKS TO ARTICLES ON GAIA’). Also, the Internet can provide us all access to a reliable database for culling the information which will serve for the adventure of our lives.
Almost a year ago, as I was experiencing a shift in awareness about the nature of all things and of non-things, of unity and duality, I was exposed to an idea that God did not inhabit Creation, had nothing to do with it in the first place, and that in truth this is an imperfect Universe that is the product of our collective errors, imperfections and separation-ridden minds. Sounds complicated I know, but basically, even though I know that this reality isn’t truly ‘Reality’, somehow it just didn’t make sense that all that is glorious and beautiful in the Universe is just some happy accident of our consciousness. That the Divine can exist inside of us as our own True Nature, and not exist in Nature Herself is another form of separation.
We may have done ourselves in by playing at being the Creator a long time ago (the Fall?), and all that is not in harmony or beautiful are the distortions of that in the pattern of Creation. Since we’ve forgotten how it all happened in the first place, how could we possibly understand how to live in harmony on Earthly Paradise? That’s just it, we can’t! We still don’t understand how it all works together and how it all functions, or otherwise we wouldn’t have made the choices we collectively and individually made in the past in the first place! So, I have come back to my ‘senses’ and can now see that Gaia and I are as one, as God and I are One, and I will never split things up again.
All that we see as destructive and ugly outside of us is inside of our minds, and it is just projected onto the Universe and by inference, Gaia. However, the Essence of that creation is also in us and of us. Whatever is going on with Gaia, and our Sun, is inside of us. Edgar Cayce said as much in the 1930’s, and it’s been reiterated by many others for millennia.
Also, for the past three years Lynn and I have been shown how our collective denial of the Sacred Fire, the innocent sexuality/sensuality within all of us, especially the denial of the Feminine at core levels, has led to our current predicament with the environment. This also applies to every other facet of life here on Gaia, as we are all involved with the reconciliation of opposites. Individually and jointly, we will be sharing more about how a radical shift in our understanding of relationships and sexuality will be vital part of the healing of our personal and collective past, and cooperating with Planetary change. When we make any sort of disconnect within our minds, the repercussions are multidimensional and exponential, and the easiest way to resolving all the conflicts is the principle of unity. The words of Yeshua the Christ in the Nag Hammadi scrolls state it simply and purely…’when you make the male as the female, and the female as the male; when you make the two one, and the inside becomes to outside, and the outside the inside, then you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Our bodies are from Gaia’s body. Our collective mind is intimately meshed with the Planet. Through our eyes, Gaia has seen Herself from space, and we now recognize that no matter how temporary it might be for, She is our Mother, our Home, and for reasons beyond us, our destiny is inexorably bound up with Hers. Back in the beginning of my work with Archangel Ariel, she (he) used to start public events with a bad joke. Ariel would say that he (she) had bad news and good news, and asked which one the group would want to hear first. Sometimes folks would ask for the bad news first, other times it would be the good news. But the answer was always to the same for both, ‘It is the end of the world, as you have known it.’
We have proven that we are unreliable stewards of this Planet, and therefore we are humbled to open ourselves and ask for a Higher Wisdom to permeate our consciousness so that we may learn to finally live in harmony with Gaia, and the rest of Creation as well. Otherwise, the Universe, and in particular this Earth, will continue to reflect to us our misbegotten creations, and the Earth will eventually do what is necessary to self-regulate and re-balance itself.
Begin the dialog between your Spirit, your Soul, your humanity and the Planet. Listen well, and follow your Divine Intuition and your human instincts. Pray globally…act locally. We’re all in this together…all of Us.
Peace be with you,
Isaac
P.S. Recommended Reading – ‘The Revenge of Gaia’ by Prof. James Lovelock, ‘The Way’, by Edward Goldsmith, ‘The Symbiotic Planet’ by Lynn Margulis.
Now, he says, we are facing the unthinkable, that these very systems (he refers to them as feedback systems) that the Planet uses to sustain life are now working against us. We have done too much to add to the global warming via greenhouse gases, at a time while the Sun has been busily heating up the Planet (see Solar Max Cycle). Now the Earth’s feedback control systems are amplifying the effects into an exponential temperature increase, and it is unstoppable. Or, so the theory goes.
After I absorbed Mr. Lovelock’s editorial and the two accompanying articles, I felt tears welling up in me, a kind of recognition that tells me that my feelings about this began decades ago. Mr. Scientist may be wrong, and he may be right, but he recognized a long time ago that there is a thread of connectivity in all of the Planet’s systems and the life in, on and above it, and we cannot ignore the potential in his warnings. Nor is there any reason to abandon hope. We do, however, need to remove our blinkers and our tinted glasses and see clearly, for denial is useless and untenable, and the unthinkable may be upon us. According to Lovelock, time is not on our side. Awhile back when I heard Eckhart Tolle say (‘Even the Sun Will Die’) that unless there is a major arising of the new consciousness, we have as little as 100 years left before the Planet can no longer support our species, or many other life forms as well. That statement was from 2001.
There is no way to know what exactly what Gaia will do, or how things will unfold, but the signs are here and now. Indigenous elders the world over are greatly concerned about what the climate is doing. The Inuit tribes cannot hunt because the ice is melting. The polar bears are drowning because the ice is melting. Islands in the Southwestern Pacific are drowning because the ice is melting. Welcome to Water and Fire Redux.
Years ago at a presentation in Sedona, a questioner asked Ariel what more could be done to save the Earth. The answer shocked everyone. Ariel said that the Earth did not need saving, and that She was quite capable of saving Herself. Furthermore, She had a Divine mandate to do whatever was necessary in order to regain equilibrium and ascend into a new _expression of Herself, with or without us, if necessary.
The process we are in is the awakening from the Dream of Unconsciousness, and part of that unconsciousness is how humanity, through 250 years of linear, reductionist thinking, has cut itself off from the intricate and intimate world of Nature. The Planetary body is now reacting like it has a fever, and the immune system is beginning to kick in to fight the invaders…us.
How we respond, spiritually, ethically, and in actuality will determine the quality of our re-entering into a harmonious and synergistic relationship with Nature and the Earth. Nothing less than a total commitment to Planetary needs over human rights is what the challenge will be. There seems to be little time left to ponder whether we act, only how quickly we rise to the occasion. To respond will require us to become spiritual ecologists.
Many of you may deny what is coming. Many more will wonder ‘what can I do, and what must be done?’ Yes, a change in our consciousness IS required, along with an equally expanded capacity to love and serve spiritually through our devotion to this Planet’s welfare. Asking for guidance from our Source and the Earth will reawaken our intuition and instinct as to what ideas and actions contribute to the affirmation of Life, and it must arise from something other than our desire to fix stuff so that we can continue as we have been.
As Lovelock states, we must first and foremost ‘do nothing that would harm the patient (Earth).’ Each individual, each region and then each nation must act locally in caring for the Planet. It is not in the scope of this newsletter to list all the possible actions and tools that would assist in this process. However, I have included links in the section following this to all the source articles for your investigations (‘LINKS TO ARTICLES ON GAIA’). Also, the Internet can provide us all access to a reliable database for culling the information which will serve for the adventure of our lives.
Almost a year ago, as I was experiencing a shift in awareness about the nature of all things and of non-things, of unity and duality, I was exposed to an idea that God did not inhabit Creation, had nothing to do with it in the first place, and that in truth this is an imperfect Universe that is the product of our collective errors, imperfections and separation-ridden minds. Sounds complicated I know, but basically, even though I know that this reality isn’t truly ‘Reality’, somehow it just didn’t make sense that all that is glorious and beautiful in the Universe is just some happy accident of our consciousness. That the Divine can exist inside of us as our own True Nature, and not exist in Nature Herself is another form of separation.
We may have done ourselves in by playing at being the Creator a long time ago (the Fall?), and all that is not in harmony or beautiful are the distortions of that in the pattern of Creation. Since we’ve forgotten how it all happened in the first place, how could we possibly understand how to live in harmony on Earthly Paradise? That’s just it, we can’t! We still don’t understand how it all works together and how it all functions, or otherwise we wouldn’t have made the choices we collectively and individually made in the past in the first place! So, I have come back to my ‘senses’ and can now see that Gaia and I are as one, as God and I are One, and I will never split things up again.
All that we see as destructive and ugly outside of us is inside of our minds, and it is just projected onto the Universe and by inference, Gaia. However, the Essence of that creation is also in us and of us. Whatever is going on with Gaia, and our Sun, is inside of us. Edgar Cayce said as much in the 1930’s, and it’s been reiterated by many others for millennia.
Also, for the past three years Lynn and I have been shown how our collective denial of the Sacred Fire, the innocent sexuality/sensuality within all of us, especially the denial of the Feminine at core levels, has led to our current predicament with the environment. This also applies to every other facet of life here on Gaia, as we are all involved with the reconciliation of opposites. Individually and jointly, we will be sharing more about how a radical shift in our understanding of relationships and sexuality will be vital part of the healing of our personal and collective past, and cooperating with Planetary change. When we make any sort of disconnect within our minds, the repercussions are multidimensional and exponential, and the easiest way to resolving all the conflicts is the principle of unity. The words of Yeshua the Christ in the Nag Hammadi scrolls state it simply and purely…’when you make the male as the female, and the female as the male; when you make the two one, and the inside becomes to outside, and the outside the inside, then you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’
Our bodies are from Gaia’s body. Our collective mind is intimately meshed with the Planet. Through our eyes, Gaia has seen Herself from space, and we now recognize that no matter how temporary it might be for, She is our Mother, our Home, and for reasons beyond us, our destiny is inexorably bound up with Hers. Back in the beginning of my work with Archangel Ariel, she (he) used to start public events with a bad joke. Ariel would say that he (she) had bad news and good news, and asked which one the group would want to hear first. Sometimes folks would ask for the bad news first, other times it would be the good news. But the answer was always to the same for both, ‘It is the end of the world, as you have known it.’
We have proven that we are unreliable stewards of this Planet, and therefore we are humbled to open ourselves and ask for a Higher Wisdom to permeate our consciousness so that we may learn to finally live in harmony with Gaia, and the rest of Creation as well. Otherwise, the Universe, and in particular this Earth, will continue to reflect to us our misbegotten creations, and the Earth will eventually do what is necessary to self-regulate and re-balance itself.
Begin the dialog between your Spirit, your Soul, your humanity and the Planet. Listen well, and follow your Divine Intuition and your human instincts. Pray globally…act locally. We’re all in this together…all of Us.
Peace be with you,
Isaac
P.S. Recommended Reading – ‘The Revenge of Gaia’ by Prof. James Lovelock, ‘The Way’, by Edward Goldsmith, ‘The Symbiotic Planet’ by Lynn Margulis.
Smoothing out the edges
I hope you have time to read this months Spiritlife newsletter. These are
indeed urgent times on the Planet. What more can I do? I thought to myself
after reading it. And so I decided to smooth out the edges a bit so to speak
on the G.E! Initially, I just wrote for my own clearing. Not being on the radio
for the first time in 21 years, I had to put all that energy (Gemini moon)
somewhere I guess! But then it became more than that---I feel Spirit wants
me to really put my chart of "communication to the masses" to good use HERE
and Now.
We now have spiritual updates and correspondence from some
pretty impressive folks. Barbara Stabiner on the East Coast, Reverend
Janice "HOPE" Gorman here in the Midwest allows us to reprint her messages,
Isaac in Scotland, and
I thought it might be a good idea to get a broad look at the Emergence occuring
on TV and film. From that perspective I'm happy to note that we'll have an
exciting new correspondent who has both experience in a spiritual medium
AND in film to review all the great material that is popping up to awaken us
all. So stay tuned! Alot to review already here in the U.S. with television
shows "Medium" based on Alison Dubois experiences, "Ghost Whisperer"
based on James Van Praagh's gifts, the "WHat the Bleep" phenomenon on
the big screen and the upcoming "Celestine Prophesies"
I'd like to have a global human rights correspondent as well so if you have
suggestions please email me and in the meantime I'll continue to post on
Mother Earth, human rights, and energy
changes as well.
Some days lately all I feel like doing is sleeping! The energy
is coming in so furiously that Rev. Gorman has said it can literally knock our
bones out of alignment! So not too surprising that visits to the chiropractor
have become part of my routine to take care of myself.
Knees were giving me some trouble so I slowed
down at the gym to get my back and knees realigned and am now easing back
into it. High energy headaches used to occur only in very public places like an
airport or the mall or school play but now I suffer from them all to regularly.
Working on integrating it all so I don't feel so tired and the headaches can be
manageable! But am happy to have you here. Stick with me as the G.E
continues to evolve and as always feel free to email me anything you'd like to
hear more about.
Jill
indeed urgent times on the Planet. What more can I do? I thought to myself
after reading it. And so I decided to smooth out the edges a bit so to speak
on the G.E! Initially, I just wrote for my own clearing. Not being on the radio
for the first time in 21 years, I had to put all that energy (Gemini moon)
somewhere I guess! But then it became more than that---I feel Spirit wants
me to really put my chart of "communication to the masses" to good use HERE
and Now.
We now have spiritual updates and correspondence from some
pretty impressive folks. Barbara Stabiner on the East Coast, Reverend
Janice "HOPE" Gorman here in the Midwest allows us to reprint her messages,
Isaac in Scotland, and
I thought it might be a good idea to get a broad look at the Emergence occuring
on TV and film. From that perspective I'm happy to note that we'll have an
exciting new correspondent who has both experience in a spiritual medium
AND in film to review all the great material that is popping up to awaken us
all. So stay tuned! Alot to review already here in the U.S. with television
shows "Medium" based on Alison Dubois experiences, "Ghost Whisperer"
based on James Van Praagh's gifts, the "WHat the Bleep" phenomenon on
the big screen and the upcoming "Celestine Prophesies"
I'd like to have a global human rights correspondent as well so if you have
suggestions please email me and in the meantime I'll continue to post on
Mother Earth, human rights, and energy
changes as well.
Some days lately all I feel like doing is sleeping! The energy
is coming in so furiously that Rev. Gorman has said it can literally knock our
bones out of alignment! So not too surprising that visits to the chiropractor
have become part of my routine to take care of myself.
Knees were giving me some trouble so I slowed
down at the gym to get my back and knees realigned and am now easing back
into it. High energy headaches used to occur only in very public places like an
airport or the mall or school play but now I suffer from them all to regularly.
Working on integrating it all so I don't feel so tired and the headaches can be
manageable! But am happy to have you here. Stick with me as the G.E
continues to evolve and as always feel free to email me anything you'd like to
hear more about.
Jill
Friday, February 17, 2006
New Spiritlife message
Well worth the wait. Latest message from my friend Isaac George comes
from Yeshua. Jesus. Christ. And it is a powerful one. Moved me to tears.
Take time to read it and really absorb it. For past messages check my archive
and Isaacs site www.isaacariel.com This message has quite a bit of urgency
not just for lightworkers but all of humanity. I love the Native American tone
which I'll comment on in a different post- Jill
‘Blessings Beyond Measure’
The Christ Presence through Isaac GeorgeFebruary 9th, 2006
‘I greet you in the Spirit of Love and appreciation from the Heart of All That Is, and I Am exceedingly joyful to share with you at this time. All who read these words will feel the blessing that is always available when the heart is undefended, and the mind is at ease, and in that framework, I will begin.
Right now, as you read these words, you and all that you know is being blessed. You may wonder what I mean by ‘blessed’, especially as you look around yourself at the world of forms and effects. But then, many are the words that I have spoken, many still do not understand what was meant in those words. Nonetheless, though chaos and insanity appears to accelerate among the children of God on the Earth, there is at this time a higher availability of blessings from the Holy Spirit being shed upon all of humanity.
For when the need is the greatest, even in the darkest dark, the blessings of Love without limits increases in manifold ways to pierce the veils of mind and perception, and to awaken the most hardened of hearts. Such is the nature of compassion of the Father-Mother for all, without condition or requirement.
Within the power of prayer and the practice of being in stillness, in meditation, the most profound aspect is the cultivation of gratitude. There has been a popular statement used by those who seek abundance in their lives, that ‘gratitude is the attitude.’ As simplistic as this sounds, it is actually the basis for becoming an instrument of miracles, and I do have some experience with that. Gratitude is the state of accepting the unending blessings that are given in each moment by the Creator to you, and to all of Life. It is the affirming of trust in the process and abundance of Life, and the surety of the meeting of all requirements before they are even voiced, or even before you know you require them!
Gratitude is the first component in conscious cooperation with what is so. Without it there would be no miracle, no manifestation of the Love of God. Gratitude acknowledges the blessings that are beyond measure and present at every moment within creation. All that is needed to experience that state of Grace is to be thankful first, before asking for anything. Gratitude also acknowledges that you are not the ‘doer’, but that through which the ‘doing’ may happen. You’re the wire, and you carry the energy. Another way of saying it is to begin to see yourself as the Light of the World, and cultivating being grateful for that. Here is the best part; you don’t have to work at it! All you do is use the gratitude to alter your perceptions about the way you see your own life, and then you’ll see the situations in the world differently. Forgiveness works in the same manner, by accepting what is so without resistance, and if you look at the word, you can see that it means to give in advance, which is certainly a something that gratitude does for the one who is grateful.
The Planet Earth is responsive to gratitude. Numerous peoples who have lived within the balance of Nature have always acknowledged through prayers of thanksgiving what the Earth, and the Sun, provides for them. The archetypes here are easy to see; the Sun is the Son, or Christ principle, which gives the nurturing love unceasingly and without discrimination to all of the children of the Creator, whether animate or inanimate, animal, plant, mineral, or human. The Earth is the Mother principle, which receives the Love from the Sun and converts it into forms that the creatures may use for sustenance and shelter. The Earth is grateful to the Sun in its own way, though it isn’t necessarily useful to ascribe human attributes to anything else in creation. No longer is it useful to project yourselves onto any aspect of form, and then worship that form, no matter how benevolent it appears to be. Remember instead to direct all gratitude to the Lord of the Soul, the High Self, and the rest finds its own level naturally.
The blessings of being grateful will be beneficial in good times and most especially in the times that appear to be not so good. No matter how challenging and unstable things may become, if you can open your Heart of Hearts to feeling grateful about your being a living child of a very real Father-Mother, then everything else is relatively unimportant. One day, the Sun will expand and envelope the Earth and many other planets of this solar system, and then in a blinding flash, even the Sun will wither and eventually perish. Should there be mourning for the demise of the Earth? Of what good would that be? Why not remember the blessings beyond measure that the Earth gave to so many aspects of the One Life instead. That is the honoring that releases you from the past, and awakens you in the now moment. This form of gratitude is important now, not just in some distant future whose destiny has already been written.
The Planet is your Mother, a symbol of your Heavenly Mother. How grateful have you been today for your body, which is made up from all the elements found in Her? How grateful have you been to have the experience you are having, just so it could awaken you to the glory that you are beyond form? Until you can appreciate the dirt, you cannot free yourself from its grasp. Until you love your temple, you cannot ascend to the stars and eventually beyond them in to the mansion worlds. The numinous Presence of All That Is has given you Life, the Christ in you desires that you have abundant Life beyond measure, and it all exists within each atom, molecule, cell, organ and bone of you.
Even though the form of the body is transitory, it does not respond well to disdain and judgment. Can you yet reanimate your body after it has exhausted itself and ceased to function? Do you think I was able to carefully calculate how I was going to resurrect the body after it was pierced and battered? No, it was through gratitude and surrendering the perception of the death of the body as being ‘real’ that enabled it to be reanimated by my Spirit. The earth quaked when that body perished upon a cross of wood. When you have a heartquake, you will have quickened the body to a frequency of gratitude that will render it capable of things you have not yet imagined.
Now, the body of the Earth is like unto your body, and vice versa. If you take care of your vehicle, yet you do not honor the Earth, then your gratitude is in vain. The same Loving Presence that gives you consciousness, and makes your heart, lungs and brain work also permeates the substance of the Earth. As you do it unto the Earth, you do it unto yourself. Not only are you and the Father-Mother one, you and the Planet are one.Seen in that understanding, it then should not come as any surprise that if the Planet is ailing and is activated into a mode of self-preservation, that you may also be having either vague or strong feelings of disquiet and dis-ease. Only those who have unconsciously or deliberately numbed themselves against their connection to the natural world will be unawares of the shifts occurring deep within the Earth, and deep within themselves. By being awake and grateful, you gather a potential to awaken many who are caught up in the identification of themselves with artificial, beliefs, concerns and life actions that do not honor themselves or the Planet which supports their very life.
Therefore, extending the blessings that you are constantly receiving to the Earth strengthens the awareness of the interdependence of all Life, and affirms life on all levels. Remember, you are not here to save the Earth. You are here to harmonize with the Earth through regaining your balance as a spiritual being. Truly, the return of the Feminine, the Goddess principle, is designed to heal the deep inner split of the inner masculine and feminine within each Soul, reuniting through the Sacred Marriage of opposites and finally regaining the original innocence, the Edenic state of the Illumined Heart that was lost so long ago.
Please know that it has always been known that the outcome of that moment was never in doubt, and that this moment is just another step in the healing of all Creation. The cells of your body yearn for your Spirit to fully possess it, just as a woman desires her beloved, just as the Earth receives the embrace of the Son/Sun. The deepest ecology you can practice is to make love to the Earth! Indeed, in every thought, word or deed you demonstrate how you feel toward Her, and how you regard yourself and Spirit. Become spiritual ecologists, and till the inner garden and the outer garden with equal regard and respect.
Blessings are being poured out to you, here and now. Open your hearts and allow yourself to receive all good things that the Father-Mother would love to give to you.Be a Light to the World, and remember to walk upon the Earth in balance. Practice gratitude, and the way will open to you to step into a blessed relationship with Nature and the Universe. Above all, listen to your inner voice, and follow the nudges and instincts that come from Mother Earth. When you honor her, you reestablish a bond that is no less powerful than that of a mother for her child. Consider the possibility that the Earth and your body are a critical part of the Plan of Salvation. Oh yes, and remember that the most profound part is gratitude. It is the secret of miracles.
Peace be unto you. I Am with you always.’
End Message
Note: All Rights Reserved, ©Spiritlife 1999-2006. Interested parties may freely distribute via the Internet for private use only. Permission for any other use (reprints and publications) is henceforth automatically granted, provided all appropriate credits with contact information are provided. Thank you for your consideration.
from Yeshua. Jesus. Christ. And it is a powerful one. Moved me to tears.
Take time to read it and really absorb it. For past messages check my archive
and Isaacs site www.isaacariel.com This message has quite a bit of urgency
not just for lightworkers but all of humanity. I love the Native American tone
which I'll comment on in a different post- Jill
‘Blessings Beyond Measure’
The Christ Presence through Isaac GeorgeFebruary 9th, 2006
‘I greet you in the Spirit of Love and appreciation from the Heart of All That Is, and I Am exceedingly joyful to share with you at this time. All who read these words will feel the blessing that is always available when the heart is undefended, and the mind is at ease, and in that framework, I will begin.
Right now, as you read these words, you and all that you know is being blessed. You may wonder what I mean by ‘blessed’, especially as you look around yourself at the world of forms and effects. But then, many are the words that I have spoken, many still do not understand what was meant in those words. Nonetheless, though chaos and insanity appears to accelerate among the children of God on the Earth, there is at this time a higher availability of blessings from the Holy Spirit being shed upon all of humanity.
For when the need is the greatest, even in the darkest dark, the blessings of Love without limits increases in manifold ways to pierce the veils of mind and perception, and to awaken the most hardened of hearts. Such is the nature of compassion of the Father-Mother for all, without condition or requirement.
Within the power of prayer and the practice of being in stillness, in meditation, the most profound aspect is the cultivation of gratitude. There has been a popular statement used by those who seek abundance in their lives, that ‘gratitude is the attitude.’ As simplistic as this sounds, it is actually the basis for becoming an instrument of miracles, and I do have some experience with that. Gratitude is the state of accepting the unending blessings that are given in each moment by the Creator to you, and to all of Life. It is the affirming of trust in the process and abundance of Life, and the surety of the meeting of all requirements before they are even voiced, or even before you know you require them!
Gratitude is the first component in conscious cooperation with what is so. Without it there would be no miracle, no manifestation of the Love of God. Gratitude acknowledges the blessings that are beyond measure and present at every moment within creation. All that is needed to experience that state of Grace is to be thankful first, before asking for anything. Gratitude also acknowledges that you are not the ‘doer’, but that through which the ‘doing’ may happen. You’re the wire, and you carry the energy. Another way of saying it is to begin to see yourself as the Light of the World, and cultivating being grateful for that. Here is the best part; you don’t have to work at it! All you do is use the gratitude to alter your perceptions about the way you see your own life, and then you’ll see the situations in the world differently. Forgiveness works in the same manner, by accepting what is so without resistance, and if you look at the word, you can see that it means to give in advance, which is certainly a something that gratitude does for the one who is grateful.
The Planet Earth is responsive to gratitude. Numerous peoples who have lived within the balance of Nature have always acknowledged through prayers of thanksgiving what the Earth, and the Sun, provides for them. The archetypes here are easy to see; the Sun is the Son, or Christ principle, which gives the nurturing love unceasingly and without discrimination to all of the children of the Creator, whether animate or inanimate, animal, plant, mineral, or human. The Earth is the Mother principle, which receives the Love from the Sun and converts it into forms that the creatures may use for sustenance and shelter. The Earth is grateful to the Sun in its own way, though it isn’t necessarily useful to ascribe human attributes to anything else in creation. No longer is it useful to project yourselves onto any aspect of form, and then worship that form, no matter how benevolent it appears to be. Remember instead to direct all gratitude to the Lord of the Soul, the High Self, and the rest finds its own level naturally.
The blessings of being grateful will be beneficial in good times and most especially in the times that appear to be not so good. No matter how challenging and unstable things may become, if you can open your Heart of Hearts to feeling grateful about your being a living child of a very real Father-Mother, then everything else is relatively unimportant. One day, the Sun will expand and envelope the Earth and many other planets of this solar system, and then in a blinding flash, even the Sun will wither and eventually perish. Should there be mourning for the demise of the Earth? Of what good would that be? Why not remember the blessings beyond measure that the Earth gave to so many aspects of the One Life instead. That is the honoring that releases you from the past, and awakens you in the now moment. This form of gratitude is important now, not just in some distant future whose destiny has already been written.
The Planet is your Mother, a symbol of your Heavenly Mother. How grateful have you been today for your body, which is made up from all the elements found in Her? How grateful have you been to have the experience you are having, just so it could awaken you to the glory that you are beyond form? Until you can appreciate the dirt, you cannot free yourself from its grasp. Until you love your temple, you cannot ascend to the stars and eventually beyond them in to the mansion worlds. The numinous Presence of All That Is has given you Life, the Christ in you desires that you have abundant Life beyond measure, and it all exists within each atom, molecule, cell, organ and bone of you.
Even though the form of the body is transitory, it does not respond well to disdain and judgment. Can you yet reanimate your body after it has exhausted itself and ceased to function? Do you think I was able to carefully calculate how I was going to resurrect the body after it was pierced and battered? No, it was through gratitude and surrendering the perception of the death of the body as being ‘real’ that enabled it to be reanimated by my Spirit. The earth quaked when that body perished upon a cross of wood. When you have a heartquake, you will have quickened the body to a frequency of gratitude that will render it capable of things you have not yet imagined.
Now, the body of the Earth is like unto your body, and vice versa. If you take care of your vehicle, yet you do not honor the Earth, then your gratitude is in vain. The same Loving Presence that gives you consciousness, and makes your heart, lungs and brain work also permeates the substance of the Earth. As you do it unto the Earth, you do it unto yourself. Not only are you and the Father-Mother one, you and the Planet are one.Seen in that understanding, it then should not come as any surprise that if the Planet is ailing and is activated into a mode of self-preservation, that you may also be having either vague or strong feelings of disquiet and dis-ease. Only those who have unconsciously or deliberately numbed themselves against their connection to the natural world will be unawares of the shifts occurring deep within the Earth, and deep within themselves. By being awake and grateful, you gather a potential to awaken many who are caught up in the identification of themselves with artificial, beliefs, concerns and life actions that do not honor themselves or the Planet which supports their very life.
Therefore, extending the blessings that you are constantly receiving to the Earth strengthens the awareness of the interdependence of all Life, and affirms life on all levels. Remember, you are not here to save the Earth. You are here to harmonize with the Earth through regaining your balance as a spiritual being. Truly, the return of the Feminine, the Goddess principle, is designed to heal the deep inner split of the inner masculine and feminine within each Soul, reuniting through the Sacred Marriage of opposites and finally regaining the original innocence, the Edenic state of the Illumined Heart that was lost so long ago.
Please know that it has always been known that the outcome of that moment was never in doubt, and that this moment is just another step in the healing of all Creation. The cells of your body yearn for your Spirit to fully possess it, just as a woman desires her beloved, just as the Earth receives the embrace of the Son/Sun. The deepest ecology you can practice is to make love to the Earth! Indeed, in every thought, word or deed you demonstrate how you feel toward Her, and how you regard yourself and Spirit. Become spiritual ecologists, and till the inner garden and the outer garden with equal regard and respect.
Blessings are being poured out to you, here and now. Open your hearts and allow yourself to receive all good things that the Father-Mother would love to give to you.Be a Light to the World, and remember to walk upon the Earth in balance. Practice gratitude, and the way will open to you to step into a blessed relationship with Nature and the Universe. Above all, listen to your inner voice, and follow the nudges and instincts that come from Mother Earth. When you honor her, you reestablish a bond that is no less powerful than that of a mother for her child. Consider the possibility that the Earth and your body are a critical part of the Plan of Salvation. Oh yes, and remember that the most profound part is gratitude. It is the secret of miracles.
Peace be unto you. I Am with you always.’
End Message
Note: All Rights Reserved, ©Spiritlife 1999-2006. Interested parties may freely distribute via the Internet for private use only. Permission for any other use (reprints and publications) is henceforth automatically granted, provided all appropriate credits with contact information are provided. Thank you for your consideration.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Anti Walmart movie spin
I want to preface this posting by reiterating that I
want no part of the political rhetoric and duality that currently is so
prevalent in our American media and water cooler chat. I generally shy
away on writing anything that could pull that bad juju mix of energy in.
So that being said, I naively emailed my deeply conservative brother about
the Walmart documentary facts as a suggestion for his talk show. He
emailed me back that it's full of lies---and to check out
Byron York of National Review's article about it. I was confused.
What would be the point of that? But I wanted to see for myself
and read some of Byrons articles. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald happens
to be an activist liberal. So immediately that brings up the duality dance
I suppose. But really, in watching the film, I felt Greenwald was quite
neutral in his approach. I didn't feel it was a political attack at all
(see Farenheit 9/11) and honestly aside from a mention of the staggering
amount of Federal subsidies given to Walmart nationwide without so much
as a mention of the current Presidents name, I didn't feel there was anything
political whatsoever in the message. Further, Byrons article lashes out at
the "false claims" in the film. Why? Well, The filmmakers feature
a store owner of H &H hardware who's store apparently went out of business
3 months BEFORE Walmart arrived. Okay. So?..... 3 MONTHS. Not 3 Years.
Maybe clever editing did make it seem to be simultaneous to the
Walmart opening but it was only implied not falsely stated. Further,
Greenwald says the banker said H & H had been devalued so sharply due to
the fact that the "Walmart was coming." Can't get any more clear than that
now can you?
Even stranger than their lack of a point is the fact that this store owner who
personally talks about his business suffering in the film is
now speaking out against the makers of the film to say "Well, they had their
agenda and I don't really agree with it etc" Well, with all due respect who WAS
that man then speaking throughout the film about how much it had hurt his
community? It's as if someone got to this man or the political
duality got him to pick a side and change his tune. Either way- NOTHING
I've read bashing the film has changed my mind. I still will never shop there.
Besides, how do they all feel about the sweat shop workers in China
who get 18 cents an hour? It's an important film. Watch it.
Another FOX Attack On Robert Greenwald's WalMart Film
Robert Greenwalds film Wal Mart- The High Cost Of Low Price has opened this week with over 7,000 screenings nationally and internationally. Held in private homes, community centers, churches and neighborhood pubs, there have been reports of record turnouts everywhere. Last night Byron York, National Review, joined Brit Hume on Special Report to discredit the documentary. 11/15/05
Here is a transcript of Hume interviewing York about what he discovered during his investigation of the film. York claimed that the story told about H&H Hardware was not true despite what the owner of the business said in the film.
Jim Gilliam, the Producer, had this statement in response to York's allegations.
It's actually quite difficult to pin a store closing directly on Wal-Mart. It can be argued over again and again what was the real and true cause for the store closing. But this story was incredibly clear cut, and a poignant example of the Wal-Mart effect. The Hunters were preparing for Wal-Mart's arrival, and seeking a loan to compete... they went to the bank, who devalued their property and wouldn't do it... their reason? When Wal-Mart comes to town, there will end up being a bunch of empty stores that no one can sell.. So the bank actually SAID it was because of Wal-Mart.. doesn't get any more direct than that. The Hunters weren't even given the chance to compete. The mere annoucement of a new Wal-Mart is enough to shut businesses down.
comment: Wal Mart will spend millions trying to fight the Greenwald film but it will be money down the drain. Wal Mart-The High Cost Of Low Price will will not dissappear in a few months because Robert Greenwald has started a movement that will continue while he moves on to the next project.
Jill St. John
want no part of the political rhetoric and duality that currently is so
prevalent in our American media and water cooler chat. I generally shy
away on writing anything that could pull that bad juju mix of energy in.
So that being said, I naively emailed my deeply conservative brother about
the Walmart documentary facts as a suggestion for his talk show. He
emailed me back that it's full of lies---and to check out
Byron York of National Review's article about it. I was confused.
What would be the point of that? But I wanted to see for myself
and read some of Byrons articles. Filmmaker Robert Greenwald happens
to be an activist liberal. So immediately that brings up the duality dance
I suppose. But really, in watching the film, I felt Greenwald was quite
neutral in his approach. I didn't feel it was a political attack at all
(see Farenheit 9/11) and honestly aside from a mention of the staggering
amount of Federal subsidies given to Walmart nationwide without so much
as a mention of the current Presidents name, I didn't feel there was anything
political whatsoever in the message. Further, Byrons article lashes out at
the "false claims" in the film. Why? Well, The filmmakers feature
a store owner of H &H hardware who's store apparently went out of business
3 months BEFORE Walmart arrived. Okay. So?..... 3 MONTHS. Not 3 Years.
Maybe clever editing did make it seem to be simultaneous to the
Walmart opening but it was only implied not falsely stated. Further,
Greenwald says the banker said H & H had been devalued so sharply due to
the fact that the "Walmart was coming." Can't get any more clear than that
now can you?
Even stranger than their lack of a point is the fact that this store owner who
personally talks about his business suffering in the film is
now speaking out against the makers of the film to say "Well, they had their
agenda and I don't really agree with it etc" Well, with all due respect who WAS
that man then speaking throughout the film about how much it had hurt his
community? It's as if someone got to this man or the political
duality got him to pick a side and change his tune. Either way- NOTHING
I've read bashing the film has changed my mind. I still will never shop there.
Besides, how do they all feel about the sweat shop workers in China
who get 18 cents an hour? It's an important film. Watch it.
Another FOX Attack On Robert Greenwald's WalMart Film
Robert Greenwalds film Wal Mart- The High Cost Of Low Price has opened this week with over 7,000 screenings nationally and internationally. Held in private homes, community centers, churches and neighborhood pubs, there have been reports of record turnouts everywhere. Last night Byron York, National Review, joined Brit Hume on Special Report to discredit the documentary. 11/15/05
Here is a transcript of Hume interviewing York about what he discovered during his investigation of the film. York claimed that the story told about H&H Hardware was not true despite what the owner of the business said in the film.
Jim Gilliam, the Producer, had this statement in response to York's allegations.
It's actually quite difficult to pin a store closing directly on Wal-Mart. It can be argued over again and again what was the real and true cause for the store closing. But this story was incredibly clear cut, and a poignant example of the Wal-Mart effect. The Hunters were preparing for Wal-Mart's arrival, and seeking a loan to compete... they went to the bank, who devalued their property and wouldn't do it... their reason? When Wal-Mart comes to town, there will end up being a bunch of empty stores that no one can sell.. So the bank actually SAID it was because of Wal-Mart.. doesn't get any more direct than that. The Hunters weren't even given the chance to compete. The mere annoucement of a new Wal-Mart is enough to shut businesses down.
comment: Wal Mart will spend millions trying to fight the Greenwald film but it will be money down the drain. Wal Mart-The High Cost Of Low Price will will not dissappear in a few months because Robert Greenwald has started a movement that will continue while he moves on to the next project.
Jill St. John
Walmart movie
Really enjoyed the Walmart documentary now out in video stores.
"Walmart: High cost of low prices" done by brave new films.
www.bravenewfilms.org If you are caught up in the political
duality you'd say oh this is a liberal wacko film full of lies. I'm
not political and I didn't feel it was embedded in toxic political
duality. The post-release spin is but the documentary itself speaks
for itself and everyone should watch it. Critics say "Will it really
keep millions of Americans from shopping at Walmart? No"
This is probably sadly true. But that doesn't mean that
I will. I didn't shop there to begin with but I certainly won't now.
If you are a Lightworker- watch it and tell others to watch it.
www.walmartmovie.com
Here are some of the facts from the movie. More on the efforts
to discredit the film in another post. Energy is packing a real
punch. Hang in there!
Wal-Mart currently faces lawsuits in thirty-one different States for wage and hour abuses potentially involving hundreds of thousand workers!!!
Wal-Mart is paying eleven million dollars to settle Federal allegations it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.
Wal-Mart is facing a class-action lawsuit for discrimination against $1.6 million former and current female employees.
Currently in the U.S. there are 26,699,678 SQUARE FEET of empty WAL-MARTS
2004: WAL-MART fined $3.1 MILLION by EPA, the largest ever for a retailer, for Clean Water Act violations in TEXAS, COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, MICHIGAN, SOUTH DAKOTA, NEW JERSEY, TENNESSEE and UTAH
Cost for WAL-MART Factory Worker to Assemble: $0.18=Retail cost at Wal-Mart: $14.96
Data provided by Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee
WAL-MART Imported $18 BILLION from CHINA in 2004
"The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US $18 billion this year [2004], keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years."
Source: Jiang Jingjing,
Lee Scott earnings for 2005: $27,207,799
Data computed from Wal-Mart Stores 2005 Proxy Statement; includes long-term incentives awarded in 2005 and contemporary value of stock options.
Average WAL-MART Hourly Sales Employee Earnings: $13,861
"On average, Wal-Mart sales clerks -- "associates" in company parlance -- pulled in $8.23 an hour, or $13,861 a year, in 2001, according to documents filed in a lawsuit pending against the company."
Source: Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week,
October 6, 2003. Primary source information on 2001 wage data is from the testimony of Dr. Richard Drogin, in Dukes v. WM.
HELEN WALTON: $18.0 BILLION
ALICE WALTON: 18.0 BILLION
JOHN WALTON: 18.2 BILLION
ROB WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
JIM WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
A WAL-MART Worker may donate money from their paycheck to the CRITICAL NEED FUND, a program to aid other employees in times of crisis, like a fire or tornado.In 2004, WAL-MART Employees gave OVER $5 MILLION to help fellow workers
Source: Form 990, Wal-Mart Associates in Critical Need Fund, 2004
The Walton Family gave $6,000
Source: Walton Family Foundation
Source: David Armstrong and Peter Newcomb, ed., "The 400 Richest Americans,", Forbes, September 24, 2004.
Cost of WAL-MART Jet Fleet: $125,350,000
Data provided by Jeff Fiedler, Food and Allied Service Trades, AFL-CIO
The WALTON FAMILY Has Given LESS THAN 1% of Their Wealth to CharityBill Gates has given 58%
Source: Business Week, "The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists" [PDF file], November 29, 2004.
$7,000 ANTI-UNION CAMERA PACKAGE per store
$30,000 UNDERCOVER SPY VAN per store (but typically NO security cameras in parking lots for customer safety!
$100,000 24 hour ANTI-UNION HOTLINE
$7,000,000 Rapid response team with CORPORATE JET
Source: Data provided to the producers by Stan Fortune, former manager and 17-year employee of Wal-Mart
"Walmart: High cost of low prices" done by brave new films.
www.bravenewfilms.org If you are caught up in the political
duality you'd say oh this is a liberal wacko film full of lies. I'm
not political and I didn't feel it was embedded in toxic political
duality. The post-release spin is but the documentary itself speaks
for itself and everyone should watch it. Critics say "Will it really
keep millions of Americans from shopping at Walmart? No"
This is probably sadly true. But that doesn't mean that
I will. I didn't shop there to begin with but I certainly won't now.
If you are a Lightworker- watch it and tell others to watch it.
www.walmartmovie.com
Here are some of the facts from the movie. More on the efforts
to discredit the film in another post. Energy is packing a real
punch. Hang in there!
Wal-Mart currently faces lawsuits in thirty-one different States for wage and hour abuses potentially involving hundreds of thousand workers!!!
Wal-Mart is paying eleven million dollars to settle Federal allegations it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.
Wal-Mart is facing a class-action lawsuit for discrimination against $1.6 million former and current female employees.
Currently in the U.S. there are 26,699,678 SQUARE FEET of empty WAL-MARTS
2004: WAL-MART fined $3.1 MILLION by EPA, the largest ever for a retailer, for Clean Water Act violations in TEXAS, COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, MICHIGAN, SOUTH DAKOTA, NEW JERSEY, TENNESSEE and UTAH
Cost for WAL-MART Factory Worker to Assemble: $0.18=Retail cost at Wal-Mart: $14.96
Data provided by Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee
WAL-MART Imported $18 BILLION from CHINA in 2004
"The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US $18 billion this year [2004], keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years."
Source: Jiang Jingjing,
Lee Scott earnings for 2005: $27,207,799
Data computed from Wal-Mart Stores 2005 Proxy Statement; includes long-term incentives awarded in 2005 and contemporary value of stock options.
Average WAL-MART Hourly Sales Employee Earnings: $13,861
"On average, Wal-Mart sales clerks -- "associates" in company parlance -- pulled in $8.23 an hour, or $13,861 a year, in 2001, according to documents filed in a lawsuit pending against the company."
Source: Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week,
October 6, 2003. Primary source information on 2001 wage data is from the testimony of Dr. Richard Drogin, in Dukes v. WM.
HELEN WALTON: $18.0 BILLION
ALICE WALTON: 18.0 BILLION
JOHN WALTON: 18.2 BILLION
ROB WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
JIM WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
A WAL-MART Worker may donate money from their paycheck to the CRITICAL NEED FUND, a program to aid other employees in times of crisis, like a fire or tornado.In 2004, WAL-MART Employees gave OVER $5 MILLION to help fellow workers
Source: Form 990, Wal-Mart Associates in Critical Need Fund, 2004
The Walton Family gave $6,000
Source: Walton Family Foundation
Source: David Armstrong and Peter Newcomb, ed., "The 400 Richest Americans,", Forbes, September 24, 2004.
Cost of WAL-MART Jet Fleet: $125,350,000
Data provided by Jeff Fiedler, Food and Allied Service Trades, AFL-CIO
The WALTON FAMILY Has Given LESS THAN 1% of Their Wealth to CharityBill Gates has given 58%
Source: Business Week, "The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists" [PDF file], November 29, 2004.
$7,000 ANTI-UNION CAMERA PACKAGE per store
$30,000 UNDERCOVER SPY VAN per store (but typically NO security cameras in parking lots for customer safety!
$100,000 24 hour ANTI-UNION HOTLINE
$7,000,000 Rapid response team with CORPORATE JET
Source: Data provided to the producers by Stan Fortune, former manager and 17-year employee of Wal-Mart
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Energy
Going to repost the Energy update as its really a
Jan-Feb-March energy update.
Worth rereading again.
Energy is moving so fast one day blends in to another!
Just watched the documentary on Walmart
"High cost of Low prices"---plenty
to post about that in the coming days!
New to our video store and probably yours
I urge you to rent it. Some great movement in this regard
with the Enron
documentary and course the fast food documentary
"Super Size Me" in seeing
just how deceitful the collective consciousness can become.
I emailed my brother, who
does a highly visible radio talk show, all the facts
on the Walmart movie that are
shown throughout and posted on the web site
www.walmartmovie.com and he
said it's full of lies. I'll investigate link he gave me
more out of curiousity of how conservatives can spin this one!
TV movement includes great shows like Medium based on
the gifts of Allison Dubois, Ghost Whisperer featuring James Van Praaghs stories,
Supernatural and more. More on that to come but meantime, thanks to all of
you who are stopping by :) I have a location track here at the G.E. no counter or
anything else but am always amazed at how Universal the message is. Reaching
India, Israel, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Finland, Ireland
and more. Let me just say I send you much love and gratitude for stopping by!
If you have something specific and energy related that you would like me to write
about or see here at the GE- email me at betweenthelight@hotmail.com
Peace be with you! Jill
Winter 2006 Energy Upate: channeled by Barbara Stabiner Jan. 2006.
"We realize that you as well as many others are going through an anxiety provoking time from your perspective in time. It is not our perspective in our time to get through your befuddlement's. Be aware that the DNA process, of which you call reincarnation , is but those memories that have been in the in the cells of time activating from lifetime to lifetime IS the problems of which you face today. Finishing up all those lifetimes is not an easy task. All things now should clear soon enough and be out in the open to those who are sensitive enough to feel these energies and get better from this point timeless now. We are but in the crossroads between old injuries and new lessons and creating all those things that you never dreamed possible. Remember, the lesson of men is one of healing through letting go. Every human has limitations on what they can or will do. Not everyone will bike ride with a helmut on or adhere to safety rules. As everyone has or uses different talents and abilities do you have to close onself off of the myriad of possibilities that can still be attainable? You just have to WANT to use different dance steps! We need to remind you that this has been the bondage to your own fears and self- limitations that need to be banished.You shall feel a surge of temporary relief from some of your problem situations and even distance from some people. This is a graduation of some vibrational adjustment in the weighing and balancing of new thought processes. This is not even the time to solve everything that has gone awry. It is a period of respite that enables you to gain a better perspective of what faces you, and you might find out it may not be as bad as you feel now.There is no sacrifice to be called to. You are merely feeling forced to recognize the necessity of change. Doesn't it involve letting go of one thing to gain another? Whether this concerns personal relationships/personal growth...it may be the time to relinquish some of your old long cherished dreams as whatever you have processed, may not, at this time, be ultimately what you want now. In other words, there may have been times that you wanted something and they did not happen. Currently, it now may come through perhaps in a different way and in a way as the energies are shifting, you no longer want it. This period (of time) has to filter out over the next few months and run it's course.The winding road to February shall sparkle with feelings of recogniton of what must be done, Then..get it done! The pores shall open to the new air we breathe, a song we may hear and slowly the spirit has lifted. Life has always been a continuance of time and experiences but now a rush to do and have all that is needed in those new pictures you are painting in your mind. It is not necessarily the pastels but the brilliance of colors to feel in your refreshed tempo. The dance of life comes next. From HOPELESS, HAZY, HAPPY,HONORS, HARMONY..HELLO? Anybody listening? This is true HEAVEN! To name a few HOW'S... How does grass grow? It is seeded from the pollen and placed where you are wanting it fertilized and green with heavenly dew. It is up to you to bless it and take care for all your gardens as they do grow without the weeds"God bless..........© 2006 Barbara Stabiner. All rights reserved.You may make copies of this message and distribute in any media so long as you credit the author, include the copyright notice
Jan-Feb-March energy update.
Worth rereading again.
Energy is moving so fast one day blends in to another!
Just watched the documentary on Walmart
"High cost of Low prices"---plenty
to post about that in the coming days!
New to our video store and probably yours
I urge you to rent it. Some great movement in this regard
with the Enron
documentary and course the fast food documentary
"Super Size Me" in seeing
just how deceitful the collective consciousness can become.
I emailed my brother, who
does a highly visible radio talk show, all the facts
on the Walmart movie that are
shown throughout and posted on the web site
www.walmartmovie.com and he
said it's full of lies. I'll investigate link he gave me
more out of curiousity of how conservatives can spin this one!
TV movement includes great shows like Medium based on
the gifts of Allison Dubois, Ghost Whisperer featuring James Van Praaghs stories,
Supernatural and more. More on that to come but meantime, thanks to all of
you who are stopping by :) I have a location track here at the G.E. no counter or
anything else but am always amazed at how Universal the message is. Reaching
India, Israel, Brazil, Spain, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Finland, Ireland
and more. Let me just say I send you much love and gratitude for stopping by!
If you have something specific and energy related that you would like me to write
about or see here at the GE- email me at betweenthelight@hotmail.com
Peace be with you! Jill
Winter 2006 Energy Upate: channeled by Barbara Stabiner Jan. 2006.
"We realize that you as well as many others are going through an anxiety provoking time from your perspective in time. It is not our perspective in our time to get through your befuddlement's. Be aware that the DNA process, of which you call reincarnation , is but those memories that have been in the in the cells of time activating from lifetime to lifetime IS the problems of which you face today. Finishing up all those lifetimes is not an easy task. All things now should clear soon enough and be out in the open to those who are sensitive enough to feel these energies and get better from this point timeless now. We are but in the crossroads between old injuries and new lessons and creating all those things that you never dreamed possible. Remember, the lesson of men is one of healing through letting go. Every human has limitations on what they can or will do. Not everyone will bike ride with a helmut on or adhere to safety rules. As everyone has or uses different talents and abilities do you have to close onself off of the myriad of possibilities that can still be attainable? You just have to WANT to use different dance steps! We need to remind you that this has been the bondage to your own fears and self- limitations that need to be banished.You shall feel a surge of temporary relief from some of your problem situations and even distance from some people. This is a graduation of some vibrational adjustment in the weighing and balancing of new thought processes. This is not even the time to solve everything that has gone awry. It is a period of respite that enables you to gain a better perspective of what faces you, and you might find out it may not be as bad as you feel now.There is no sacrifice to be called to. You are merely feeling forced to recognize the necessity of change. Doesn't it involve letting go of one thing to gain another? Whether this concerns personal relationships/personal growth...it may be the time to relinquish some of your old long cherished dreams as whatever you have processed, may not, at this time, be ultimately what you want now. In other words, there may have been times that you wanted something and they did not happen. Currently, it now may come through perhaps in a different way and in a way as the energies are shifting, you no longer want it. This period (of time) has to filter out over the next few months and run it's course.The winding road to February shall sparkle with feelings of recogniton of what must be done, Then..get it done! The pores shall open to the new air we breathe, a song we may hear and slowly the spirit has lifted. Life has always been a continuance of time and experiences but now a rush to do and have all that is needed in those new pictures you are painting in your mind. It is not necessarily the pastels but the brilliance of colors to feel in your refreshed tempo. The dance of life comes next. From HOPELESS, HAZY, HAPPY,HONORS, HARMONY..HELLO? Anybody listening? This is true HEAVEN! To name a few HOW'S... How does grass grow? It is seeded from the pollen and placed where you are wanting it fertilized and green with heavenly dew. It is up to you to bless it and take care for all your gardens as they do grow without the weeds"God bless..........© 2006 Barbara Stabiner. All rights reserved.You may make copies of this message and distribute in any media so long as you credit the author, include the copyright notice
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Excerts from Jolie's interview on her latest passion
EXCLUSIVE: Angelina Jolie Tells 'Nightline' About Finding Her Life's Purpose Oscar-Winning Actress Tells Cynthia McFadden About Her Work for the World's Most Vulnerable Children Feb. 2, 2006 — Angelina Jolie dazzled dignitaries and turned the media spotlight on refugees last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. As a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Jolie sees attending the session as part of her advocacy work for the world's most vulnerable children. Over the last four years, the Oscar-winning actress has traveled to refugee camps and orphanages in dozens of countries, often under dangerous conditions. She told Cynthia McFadden in an exclusive interview with "Nightline" that she attended the exclusive meeting in Davos each year to ensure that the "elites talk about the camps." The meeting draws a dozen or so heads of state along with CEOs of the world's most powerful companies. Watch the full interview tonight on "Nightline" at 11:35 ET. "I went through so many stages for the first year, I just cried," she said. "I went through a period of just being really frustrated and angry and thinking: 'I can fix this; we can all fix this.'" 'Know Your Rights' Jolie is part of Hollywood's elite. She reportedly is paid more than $10 million a picture. Yet she told McFadden she felt a void in her life. "I think everybody needs a sense of purpose," she said. "I'd been working on films and doing things to try to work on my own career, my own life, so there was an emptiness in me." Jolie took her position at UNHCR in 1991. She was determined to use her celebrity to highlight the plight of refugees around the world. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document she holds dear. She has even posted it on a wall of her home. She says it's not just a document for dreamers. "Human rights are the law. It's the law, and we haven't been treating it that way," she said. "Education, that's article 26 — children's education. Everyone has the right to an education, a free education." Jolie is so passionate about the issue, she has "know your rights" tattooed on her back. While Jolie has traveled to refugee camps all over the world, she has also found a cause closer to home. She has donated a half-million dollars to provide lawyers for children who have come to the United States alone to seek asylum. "I met this young woman who was locked in a cell, and she was clearly trafficked and she was a very pretty, young thing on her own," Jolie said. "I found out that not only do they not have translators, but they're not given lawyers." Protecting AIDS Orphans There are 15 million children orphaned by AIDS. Jolie went to the Capitol last November to celebrate the signing of a bill designed to help AIDS orphans. Under the new legislation, orphans will receive a full program of community-based care, but the program is yet to be funded. "I'd like to put a lot of heat under the administration to fund it," Jolie said. However, she acknowledges still being "shy" in Washington. Surprisingly, Jolie, known for doing a number of her own stunts in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," claims Washington intimidates her. "I'm not shy when it comes to how much I care about something or if I feel that I have a right to talk about it because I've seen it firsthand," she said. "But it's still that little punk kid in me that didn't do so well in school that gets shy." Dual Roles Her insights into the painful lives of so many of the world's children have not made her cynical about Hollywood, she says. "I went to Darfur [Sudan] and Tanzania for two weeks the first trip I made, and it just changed me, wrecked me. I was a different person when I came back," she said. "I talked to my mum for three hours." "I had to present something at an awards ceremony two weeks later, and I was sure, I thought I'm going to go on, I'm just going to hate this. I'm going to think everybody is false and shallow." But Jolie says her experience in refugee camps makes her more empathetic to those around her. "I ended up seeing all the people on the red carpet as: 'God, they must have just spent hours trying to put themselves together and their kids are maybe watching.' I just felt for everybody in the room." She appreciates the power of her celebrity and acknowledges that it gives her more influence in her advocacy work. "The part of me that would like to just become a field officer tomorrow knows that I can do more good with one foot on one side, and one foot on the other." The Joys of Motherhood Jolie is pregnant and has two adopted children — Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 1. She said she would like to have "lots of babies." "I'd love to adopt just a bunch more kids, have a few, and, just be traveling, be home, or, you know, not working the next few months," she said. "I haven't worked much this year, and it's been really nice."
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(other language versions)
Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
(other language versions)
Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Angelina's Interview on Nightline and the UNHCR
Good interview Angelina. You go girl. Graciously putting the heat on! Trying to find more
information on the bill you have helped passed that is signed by President but stalled?!!
The one that assures human rights and legal rights to Aids orphans entering the country.
Once I find I will post here along with the Declaration of Human Rights document that
was referred to. Keep up the good work and way to put your money where your mouth
is (1/3 of your Hollywood millions!) The Universe is smiling. The chasm is brighter.
But now for some important basic facts that aren't so pleasant
UNHCR
The basics from soliejolie.com an Angelina Jolie fan site
In 1950, the U.N General Assembly established the UNHCR or otherwise known as United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees. The organisation then had just 3 years to resettle a staggering 1.2 million refugees in Europe who had unfortunately been left homeless by global rivalry. The situation got worse over the years. There was a large increase in the number of refugees and so the order was extended to 5 years and eventually the General Assembly removed the mandate and left the UNHCR time until refugee situations were resolved. Now, there are more than 6000 workers helping 17.1 million people in over 100 countries all over the world. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Prize awards in the last 50 years for their constant effort to help refugees and for providing aid to more than 50 million people.
UNHCR at work
Refugees are people who have been made to flee their home countries because of situations involving conflict over race, religion or nationality and who do not wish to retire home. UNHCR has the job of protecting these people and attempt to help them begin their lives over in a much better surrounding.
The agency must respect every refugees human rights and guarantee that no person shall be returned to a country where they are in fear of persecution.The UNHCR staff including field workers and goodwill ambassadors work in many different countries all over the world from capital cities to isolated camps on country borders. Refugees face many fears of violence and sexual assault and workers must ensure that these persons do not feel under any threat from this nature of violence and they feel secure in their environments.
The agency must find appropriate solutions to get people back to their homes in safety and endeavor to make sure they come to no harm.
UNHCR Changes
When UNHCR was first founded it was a somewhat small agency as refugee numbers and situations were a lot less then but it has greatly increased to becoming a immense organization with offices in 112 countries all over the world. It since has a budget of $1 billion per year, the ability of providing material relief and legal protection and the capability of helping an increased number of displaced people.
Refugee is the term used for a person who has had to flee their homeland and seek refuge in another country but there are many millions of people who are in related circumstances but are not legally qualified as refugees. These people then are not qualified for the relief or protection. There are around 20-25 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) worldwide. They have fled from their homes, usually during wars, but have not left their homeland to seek a new home. UNHCR assists to over 4.4 million of these people but there is a new debate-taking place as to how humanitarian communities can supply more sustained aid to these people.
Emergency Relief
Protection and material assistance are permanent. UNHCR can only put forward legal protection is a persons needs, which include shelter, food, water, sanitation and medical care are met likewise. Resource tents are made using blue plastic sheets and are instantly recognisable in large-scale emergencies including operations in various countries such as Chad Iraq and Afghanistan to help people.
Quick Impact Projects (QIP’s) were invented by UNHCR. These projects include rebuilding schools and clinics, repairing roads and building bridges and wells. The project attempts to create a divide between long-term aid and emergency aid.
Solving the problem
After World War II, UNHCR had to strive to resettle many refugees. The numbers of refugees were increasing and the countries receiving the refugees had a change in attitude. Most countries and states accepted these people but only on a temporary basis. The bulk of refugees would sooner return home.
To help, UNHCR provides transportation, seeds and farming tools and handles finances. When it is not possible for refugees to return to their homeland they must be permanently settled in countries where they first sought asylum.
Averting Disaster
UNHCR is strong enough to handle large-scale emergencies but it is sometimes possible to avert emergencies from occurring. It tries to prevent large population movements from trouble areas by using resources. Early warning systems can be put in place to prevent conflicts before they get out of hand.
Partners
Over the years, refugee and humanitarian crises have increased and become more complicated, UNHCR now works with many more other organisations. The main sister organisations are World Food Programme (WFP) which is a supplier of basic food to refugees, the U.N children’s fund (UNICEF), the world health organisation (WHO), the U.N development programme (UNDP), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Funding
Funds are needed to help people and most funds UNHCR uses comes from voluntary contributions, usually from the government but also from other organisations and individual donations. UNHCR also accepts contributions such as tents, medical aid such as medicines and trucks or aircraft.
The number of persons involved with UNHCR rose dramatically by 1994 hitting 27 million and its budget also rose to $1 billion annually. It has several budget programmes including support programmes to cover emergencies, etc.
A Helping Hand
Countries produce millions of refugees every century and the numbers keep increasing. Every country in the world has been affected in some way by refugee related issues. Countries that are unspoiled from any chaos still provide shelter, food and aid to many refugees. After the Cold Wars, Europe became crowded with millions of displaced persons and has recently become a light of hope to many other persons.
People can become a refugee in a matter of days. They can lose their homes, jobs and even families. They are not any danger towards others but they just need a place to shelter and plenty of help until they can reorganize their lives again. Once the situations in their homelands return to normal, most refugees prefer to return to their homes although some may stay in the countries they have sought shelter to.
Helping All Over the World
The UNHCR how gives aid and assistance in many countries. These countries include:
EuropeThere is a high amount of asylum and immigration and it is highly politicised. The number of asylum decreased dramatically in 2003, governments still introduce new laws to attempt to reduce the in pouring.
The Balkans Many problems remain here even though there has been considerable progress to make changes after the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. After the wars, more than 2 million people returned home but still 600,000 people remain displaced across the area.
North Caucasus50,000 displaced persons still receive assistance from UNHCR after the war in Russian Republic of Chechnya.
The Palestinian IssueThere are more than 4 million Palestinian refugees are reported globally. Most of them are under the care of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency but UNHCR helps the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who are outside the UNRWA operational zone.
IraqMore than 3 million Iraqi civilians went into exile and a further 1 million people were uprooted inside the country during Saddam Hussein’s rule. UNHCR now helps 100,000 refugees in Iraq and the largest number are Palestinians.
AfghanistanMore than 3.5 refugees and displaced persons from Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. However, more than 2 million still remain in Pakistan and Iran.
Horn of AfricaThere are still many refugees remaining in this area. More than 900,000 Somalis and Southern Sudanese are in constant refuge in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Following the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, more than 180,000 Sudanese fled to Chad.
Central Africa There are still 1.2 million refugees remaining throughout many of the states in central Africa. However, many refugees are now thankfully returning home.
information on the bill you have helped passed that is signed by President but stalled?!!
The one that assures human rights and legal rights to Aids orphans entering the country.
Once I find I will post here along with the Declaration of Human Rights document that
was referred to. Keep up the good work and way to put your money where your mouth
is (1/3 of your Hollywood millions!) The Universe is smiling. The chasm is brighter.
But now for some important basic facts that aren't so pleasant
UNHCR
The basics from soliejolie.com an Angelina Jolie fan site
In 1950, the U.N General Assembly established the UNHCR or otherwise known as United Nations High Comissioner for Refugees. The organisation then had just 3 years to resettle a staggering 1.2 million refugees in Europe who had unfortunately been left homeless by global rivalry. The situation got worse over the years. There was a large increase in the number of refugees and so the order was extended to 5 years and eventually the General Assembly removed the mandate and left the UNHCR time until refugee situations were resolved. Now, there are more than 6000 workers helping 17.1 million people in over 100 countries all over the world. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Prize awards in the last 50 years for their constant effort to help refugees and for providing aid to more than 50 million people.
UNHCR at work
Refugees are people who have been made to flee their home countries because of situations involving conflict over race, religion or nationality and who do not wish to retire home. UNHCR has the job of protecting these people and attempt to help them begin their lives over in a much better surrounding.
The agency must respect every refugees human rights and guarantee that no person shall be returned to a country where they are in fear of persecution.The UNHCR staff including field workers and goodwill ambassadors work in many different countries all over the world from capital cities to isolated camps on country borders. Refugees face many fears of violence and sexual assault and workers must ensure that these persons do not feel under any threat from this nature of violence and they feel secure in their environments.
The agency must find appropriate solutions to get people back to their homes in safety and endeavor to make sure they come to no harm.
UNHCR Changes
When UNHCR was first founded it was a somewhat small agency as refugee numbers and situations were a lot less then but it has greatly increased to becoming a immense organization with offices in 112 countries all over the world. It since has a budget of $1 billion per year, the ability of providing material relief and legal protection and the capability of helping an increased number of displaced people.
Refugee is the term used for a person who has had to flee their homeland and seek refuge in another country but there are many millions of people who are in related circumstances but are not legally qualified as refugees. These people then are not qualified for the relief or protection. There are around 20-25 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s) worldwide. They have fled from their homes, usually during wars, but have not left their homeland to seek a new home. UNHCR assists to over 4.4 million of these people but there is a new debate-taking place as to how humanitarian communities can supply more sustained aid to these people.
Emergency Relief
Protection and material assistance are permanent. UNHCR can only put forward legal protection is a persons needs, which include shelter, food, water, sanitation and medical care are met likewise. Resource tents are made using blue plastic sheets and are instantly recognisable in large-scale emergencies including operations in various countries such as Chad Iraq and Afghanistan to help people.
Quick Impact Projects (QIP’s) were invented by UNHCR. These projects include rebuilding schools and clinics, repairing roads and building bridges and wells. The project attempts to create a divide between long-term aid and emergency aid.
Solving the problem
After World War II, UNHCR had to strive to resettle many refugees. The numbers of refugees were increasing and the countries receiving the refugees had a change in attitude. Most countries and states accepted these people but only on a temporary basis. The bulk of refugees would sooner return home.
To help, UNHCR provides transportation, seeds and farming tools and handles finances. When it is not possible for refugees to return to their homeland they must be permanently settled in countries where they first sought asylum.
Averting Disaster
UNHCR is strong enough to handle large-scale emergencies but it is sometimes possible to avert emergencies from occurring. It tries to prevent large population movements from trouble areas by using resources. Early warning systems can be put in place to prevent conflicts before they get out of hand.
Partners
Over the years, refugee and humanitarian crises have increased and become more complicated, UNHCR now works with many more other organisations. The main sister organisations are World Food Programme (WFP) which is a supplier of basic food to refugees, the U.N children’s fund (UNICEF), the world health organisation (WHO), the U.N development programme (UNDP), the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Funding
Funds are needed to help people and most funds UNHCR uses comes from voluntary contributions, usually from the government but also from other organisations and individual donations. UNHCR also accepts contributions such as tents, medical aid such as medicines and trucks or aircraft.
The number of persons involved with UNHCR rose dramatically by 1994 hitting 27 million and its budget also rose to $1 billion annually. It has several budget programmes including support programmes to cover emergencies, etc.
A Helping Hand
Countries produce millions of refugees every century and the numbers keep increasing. Every country in the world has been affected in some way by refugee related issues. Countries that are unspoiled from any chaos still provide shelter, food and aid to many refugees. After the Cold Wars, Europe became crowded with millions of displaced persons and has recently become a light of hope to many other persons.
People can become a refugee in a matter of days. They can lose their homes, jobs and even families. They are not any danger towards others but they just need a place to shelter and plenty of help until they can reorganize their lives again. Once the situations in their homelands return to normal, most refugees prefer to return to their homes although some may stay in the countries they have sought shelter to.
Helping All Over the World
The UNHCR how gives aid and assistance in many countries. These countries include:
EuropeThere is a high amount of asylum and immigration and it is highly politicised. The number of asylum decreased dramatically in 2003, governments still introduce new laws to attempt to reduce the in pouring.
The Balkans Many problems remain here even though there has been considerable progress to make changes after the Balkan Wars in the 1990s. After the wars, more than 2 million people returned home but still 600,000 people remain displaced across the area.
North Caucasus50,000 displaced persons still receive assistance from UNHCR after the war in Russian Republic of Chechnya.
The Palestinian IssueThere are more than 4 million Palestinian refugees are reported globally. Most of them are under the care of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency but UNHCR helps the 400,000 Palestinian refugees who are outside the UNRWA operational zone.
IraqMore than 3 million Iraqi civilians went into exile and a further 1 million people were uprooted inside the country during Saddam Hussein’s rule. UNHCR now helps 100,000 refugees in Iraq and the largest number are Palestinians.
AfghanistanMore than 3.5 refugees and displaced persons from Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. However, more than 2 million still remain in Pakistan and Iran.
Horn of AfricaThere are still many refugees remaining in this area. More than 900,000 Somalis and Southern Sudanese are in constant refuge in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Following the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, more than 180,000 Sudanese fled to Chad.
Central Africa There are still 1.2 million refugees remaining throughout many of the states in central Africa. However, many refugees are now thankfully returning home.
More for Poor not War
"Angelina is living proof of the power we all have -- every one of us -- to make a difference," said a woman close to the actress' effort. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were among the luminaries who met with international officials to talk about the struggle against world poverty and disease. Since 2001, Jolie has traveled to impoverished and war-torn countries as a U.N. goodwill ambassador.(Anja Niedringhaus/ AP )
Maybe the lack of action of any sort of real global movement to help is
because people don't really know how bad it truly is. Our media certainly
with their 24/7 news channels- do not spend one minute of one day covering
it. So, super infinitely small as it is- I'm just trying to do something and hope
you'll do the same. Because I'd like to think we start speaking up as we emerge
into the New World. Thanks for listening. I promise, for those of you who
are detatched from it all, I will stick mostly to energy changes but please
allow me this vent today:
When I saw the US budget proposal on defense spending I
was stunned.
How come we don't use the billions and billions and
billions to help the millions and millions of children dying every day of starvation?
How come we don't do more? Is it because there is no oil there?
WHY?
What difference does it truly make if we don't do everything in our power
to save lives that can easily be saved not end more lives? That what you do
to the LEAST of my brothers you do unto me.
And yes, I know thousands of people are
still suffering in the aftermath of Katrina. It upsets me and I pray for them.
Especially the poor who had nothing to begin with. And I know many will say
take care of them first before we help starving children or refugees on another
continent. But we DID give them unprecedented emergency aid. And I WOULD
rather see this war money go to helping them- the poor-restart... certainly that
would be much easier to take.
But I also say to all Americans, horrific as it was, Katrina is just a daily, if not
hourly occurance in other countries. 10,000+ died in poor areas of Afghanistan.
Yes=KATRINA TIMES TEN. Thousands of babies die hourly in their mothers arms.
From lack of food. Hard for any mother pr father to barely pause to comprehend.
Bill Gates calls it the worlds greatest challenge. Vaccines and empowerment and food
for 3rd world countries not new software or the latest Windows
product. He is awakened enough to know we should do everything we can to help.
Maybe the lack of action of any sort of real global movement to help is
because people don't really know how bad it truly is. Our media certainly
with their 24/7 news channels- do not spend one minute of one day covering
it. So, super infinitely small as it is- I'm just trying to do something and hope
you'll do the same. Because I'd like to think we start speaking up as we emerge
into the New World. Thanks for listening. I promise, for those of you who
are detatched from it all, I will stick mostly to energy changes but please
allow me this vent today:
When I saw the US budget proposal on defense spending I
was stunned.
How come we don't use the billions and billions and
billions to help the millions and millions of children dying every day of starvation?
How come we don't do more? Is it because there is no oil there?
WHY?
What difference does it truly make if we don't do everything in our power
to save lives that can easily be saved not end more lives? That what you do
to the LEAST of my brothers you do unto me.
And yes, I know thousands of people are
still suffering in the aftermath of Katrina. It upsets me and I pray for them.
Especially the poor who had nothing to begin with. And I know many will say
take care of them first before we help starving children or refugees on another
continent. But we DID give them unprecedented emergency aid. And I WOULD
rather see this war money go to helping them- the poor-restart... certainly that
would be much easier to take.
But I also say to all Americans, horrific as it was, Katrina is just a daily, if not
hourly occurance in other countries. 10,000+ died in poor areas of Afghanistan.
Yes=KATRINA TIMES TEN. Thousands of babies die hourly in their mothers arms.
From lack of food. Hard for any mother pr father to barely pause to comprehend.
Bill Gates calls it the worlds greatest challenge. Vaccines and empowerment and food
for 3rd world countries not new software or the latest Windows
product. He is awakened enough to know we should do everything we can to help.
120 billion for Iraq? !!!
For one year?
Total defense budget almost half a trillion?!!!
Total defense budget almost half a trillion?!!!
WASHINGTON - yahoo news feb 2 2006
President next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior
Pentagon'officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.
Senior defense officials provided the totals on condition of anonymity because the defense budget will not be publicly released until Monday. The figures did not include spending for wars in Iraq and which the Bush administration said Thursday would total $120 billion this year
President next week will request a $439.3 billion Defense Department budget for 2007, a nearly 5 percent increase over this year, according to senior
Pentagon'officials and documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
The spending plan would include $84.2 billion for weapons programs, a nearly 8 percent increase, including billions of dollars for fighter jets, Navy ships, helicopters and unmanned aircraft. The total includes a substantial increase in weapons spending for the Army, which will get $16.8 billion in the 2007 budget, compared with $11 billion this year.
Senior defense officials provided the totals on condition of anonymity because the defense budget will not be publicly released until Monday. The figures did not include spending for wars in Iraq and which the Bush administration said Thursday would total $120 billion this year
New planet bigger than Pluto
By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer Wed Feb 1, 10:48 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet.
The astronomers who spotted the icy, rocky body — informally called 2003 UB313 — had reported only a rough estimate of its size based on its brightness.
But another group of researchers has come up with what is believed to be the first calculation of UB313's diameter.
By measuring how much heat it radiates, German scientists led by Frank Bertoldi of the University of Bonn estimated that UB313 was about 1,864 miles across. That makes it larger than Pluto, which has a diameter of about 1,429 miles.
"It is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status," Bertoldi said in a statement.
Details were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Some astronomers have debated over what is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The difficulty is there is no official definition and some argue that setting standards like size limits opens the door too wide.
Michael Brown, the astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who discovered UB313 and announced it last July, said the Germans' measurement seemed plausible. He said his team is using the
Hubble Space Telescope to directly figure out its size.
Brown previously reported that UB313 was thought to be larger than Pluto and estimated that it was most likely between 1,398 miles and 2,175 miles in diameter.
If it is determined to be the 10th planet, it would be the farthest-known body in the solar system.
LOS ANGELES - Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet.
The astronomers who spotted the icy, rocky body — informally called 2003 UB313 — had reported only a rough estimate of its size based on its brightness.
But another group of researchers has come up with what is believed to be the first calculation of UB313's diameter.
By measuring how much heat it radiates, German scientists led by Frank Bertoldi of the University of Bonn estimated that UB313 was about 1,864 miles across. That makes it larger than Pluto, which has a diameter of about 1,429 miles.
"It is now increasingly hard to justify calling Pluto a planet if UB313 is not also given this status," Bertoldi said in a statement.
Details were published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Some astronomers have debated over what is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The difficulty is there is no official definition and some argue that setting standards like size limits opens the door too wide.
Michael Brown, the astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who discovered UB313 and announced it last July, said the Germans' measurement seemed plausible. He said his team is using the
Hubble Space Telescope to directly figure out its size.
Brown previously reported that UB313 was thought to be larger than Pluto and estimated that it was most likely between 1,398 miles and 2,175 miles in diameter.
If it is determined to be the 10th planet, it would be the farthest-known body in the solar system.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Exxons record earnings
DALLAS – For anyone stunned by the size of Exxon Mobil Corp.’s $36.13 billion profit in 2005 – the highest ever for a U.S. company – some Wall Street analysts have a message: there’s more to come.
“Unless (energy) prices collapse, earnings in 2006 will make 2005 look like a cake walk,” said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit.
That would be good news for Exxon investors, who, like the company, have benefited enormously from high oil and natural-gas prices. But Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at the industry’s latest profit surge, renewing calls for a windfall profits tax, as well as for increased investment in refining capacity and alternative fuels.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., on Monday said Congress should enact a consumer rebate on oil company profits.
Last November he introduced legislation for such a rebate, but the proposal was rejected.
Given Exxon’s record profits, Congress needs to take another look at the proposal, Dorgan said in a release.
“Consumers have all the pain and the big oil companies have all the gain, and that’s simply not fair,” he said. “Congress can and should move to correct that, and this news just may be spark that makes it happen.”
The proposal would add a50 percent tax on oil company revenue from sales of oil at more than $40 per barrel.
Experts said there wasn’t much that could be done in the short term to lower the price of gasoline, which now hovers around $2.34 a gallon nationwide.
“As long as demand stays high, people will have to pay more,” said David E. Dismukes, an energy economist and associate director at Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies.
Exxon said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit climbed 27 percent to $10.71 billion.
And with annual revenue of $371 billion – an amount that exceeds Saudi Arabia’s estimated gross domestic product in 2005 – Exxon will likely dethrone Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from atop the Fortune 500 when it’s released this spring. Wal-Mart, whose fiscal year runs through January, had $290.29 billion in revenue through December.
Exxon said its average sale price for crude oil in the U.S. during the quarter was $52.23 a barrel, compared with $38.85 a year earlier. It sold natural gas in the U.S., on average, for $11.34 per 1,000 cubic feet, compared with $6.61 during the same period a year ago.
While strong commodity prices underpinned the record earnings, Exxon executives said the company also deserved credit for completing projects on time while keeping costs in check.
“Our record results show a disciplined approach and we continue to deliver superior value to our shareholders,” the company’s vice president of investor relations, Henry Hubble, told analysts in a conference call.
Exxon’s results lifted the combined 2005 profits for the country’s three largest integrated oil companies to more than $63 billion.
ConocoPhillips said last Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 51 percent to $3.68 billion, while annual income climbed 66 percent to $13.53 billion. Two days later, Chevron Corp. said its fourth-quarter earnings rose 20 percent to $4.14 billion, while annual income jumped 6 percent to $14.1 billion.
Exxon spent $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter to buy back 92 million of its own shares, and raised its dividend to 32 cents per share for the first quarter, compared to 29 cents per share last quarter.
Hubble said Exxon spent $17.7 billion in 2005 to find and develop oil and gas, a $2.8 billion jump from the year before. He said projects in Qatar, Nigeria and Russia would keep the company “well-placed for continued growth.”
But the oil industry’s stellar results renewed talk among some politicians for a windfall profit tax that would push companies to invest even more in new production and refining capacity.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who sharply criticized oil executives appearing before Congress in November, on Friday said the Bush Administration and Federal Trade Commission needed to “put an end to gouging.” She then suggested that FTC stood for “Friend to Chevron.”
On Monday, the eve of President Bush’s State of the Union address, Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, weighed in.
“The federal government has a responsibility to make sure that these companies continue to innovate instead of just profiting from the status quo,” he said. “These companies should be investing in developing new sources of fuel and new technologies, like hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuels, that will ease our dependence on foreign oil and help consumers save.”
Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he planned to introduce legislation on Tuesday mandating that all cars sold in the U.S. be able to run on both gasoline and ethanol, a corn derivative.
Analysts said they are not worried about any political fallout from the industry’s soaring profits.
“I hope the capitalist system would promote and applaud the hard work of companies that have been smart and lucky to achieve good earnings for shareholders,” said Tina Vital, analyst for Standard & Poors.
Exxon shares rose $1.82, or 3 percent, to close at $63.11 on the New York Stock Exchange. That is near the upper end of its 52-week trading range of $51.35 to $65.96.
“The outlook is looking a lot better for them,” said Jacques Rousseau, analyst for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co. “I think you’ll see more momentum.”
Quarterly revenue ballooned to $99.66 billion from $83.37 billion a year ago but came in shy of the $100.72 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter, which was the first time a U.S. public company generated more than $100 billion in sales in a single quarter.
By segment, exploration and production earnings rose sharply to $7.04 billion, up $2.15 billion from the 2004 quarter, reflecting higher crude oil and natural-gas prices. Production decreased by 1 percent due to the lingering effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which battered the Gulf Coast in August and September.
The company’s refining and marketing segment reported a 2 percent increase in earnings to $2.39 billion, while profits at its chemicals business declined by $413 million to $835 million because of higher raw materials costs.
Exxon’s profit for the year was the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst for Standard & Poor’s. He said the previous high was Exxon’s $25.3 billion profit in 2004. The third best performance belongs to Citigroup Inc., which posted net income of $24.64 billion in 2005.
“Unless (energy) prices collapse, earnings in 2006 will make 2005 look like a cake walk,” said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit.
That would be good news for Exxon investors, who, like the company, have benefited enormously from high oil and natural-gas prices. But Democratic lawmakers expressed outrage at the industry’s latest profit surge, renewing calls for a windfall profits tax, as well as for increased investment in refining capacity and alternative fuels.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., on Monday said Congress should enact a consumer rebate on oil company profits.
Last November he introduced legislation for such a rebate, but the proposal was rejected.
Given Exxon’s record profits, Congress needs to take another look at the proposal, Dorgan said in a release.
“Consumers have all the pain and the big oil companies have all the gain, and that’s simply not fair,” he said. “Congress can and should move to correct that, and this news just may be spark that makes it happen.”
The proposal would add a50 percent tax on oil company revenue from sales of oil at more than $40 per barrel.
Experts said there wasn’t much that could be done in the short term to lower the price of gasoline, which now hovers around $2.34 a gallon nationwide.
“As long as demand stays high, people will have to pay more,” said David E. Dismukes, an energy economist and associate director at Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies.
Exxon said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit climbed 27 percent to $10.71 billion.
And with annual revenue of $371 billion – an amount that exceeds Saudi Arabia’s estimated gross domestic product in 2005 – Exxon will likely dethrone Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from atop the Fortune 500 when it’s released this spring. Wal-Mart, whose fiscal year runs through January, had $290.29 billion in revenue through December.
Exxon said its average sale price for crude oil in the U.S. during the quarter was $52.23 a barrel, compared with $38.85 a year earlier. It sold natural gas in the U.S., on average, for $11.34 per 1,000 cubic feet, compared with $6.61 during the same period a year ago.
While strong commodity prices underpinned the record earnings, Exxon executives said the company also deserved credit for completing projects on time while keeping costs in check.
“Our record results show a disciplined approach and we continue to deliver superior value to our shareholders,” the company’s vice president of investor relations, Henry Hubble, told analysts in a conference call.
Exxon’s results lifted the combined 2005 profits for the country’s three largest integrated oil companies to more than $63 billion.
ConocoPhillips said last Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 51 percent to $3.68 billion, while annual income climbed 66 percent to $13.53 billion. Two days later, Chevron Corp. said its fourth-quarter earnings rose 20 percent to $4.14 billion, while annual income jumped 6 percent to $14.1 billion.
Exxon spent $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter to buy back 92 million of its own shares, and raised its dividend to 32 cents per share for the first quarter, compared to 29 cents per share last quarter.
Hubble said Exxon spent $17.7 billion in 2005 to find and develop oil and gas, a $2.8 billion jump from the year before. He said projects in Qatar, Nigeria and Russia would keep the company “well-placed for continued growth.”
But the oil industry’s stellar results renewed talk among some politicians for a windfall profit tax that would push companies to invest even more in new production and refining capacity.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who sharply criticized oil executives appearing before Congress in November, on Friday said the Bush Administration and Federal Trade Commission needed to “put an end to gouging.” She then suggested that FTC stood for “Friend to Chevron.”
On Monday, the eve of President Bush’s State of the Union address, Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, weighed in.
“The federal government has a responsibility to make sure that these companies continue to innovate instead of just profiting from the status quo,” he said. “These companies should be investing in developing new sources of fuel and new technologies, like hydrogen fuel cells and alternative fuels, that will ease our dependence on foreign oil and help consumers save.”
Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he planned to introduce legislation on Tuesday mandating that all cars sold in the U.S. be able to run on both gasoline and ethanol, a corn derivative.
Analysts said they are not worried about any political fallout from the industry’s soaring profits.
“I hope the capitalist system would promote and applaud the hard work of companies that have been smart and lucky to achieve good earnings for shareholders,” said Tina Vital, analyst for Standard & Poors.
Exxon shares rose $1.82, or 3 percent, to close at $63.11 on the New York Stock Exchange. That is near the upper end of its 52-week trading range of $51.35 to $65.96.
“The outlook is looking a lot better for them,” said Jacques Rousseau, analyst for Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and Co. “I think you’ll see more momentum.”
Quarterly revenue ballooned to $99.66 billion from $83.37 billion a year ago but came in shy of the $100.72 billion Exxon posted in the third quarter, which was the first time a U.S. public company generated more than $100 billion in sales in a single quarter.
By segment, exploration and production earnings rose sharply to $7.04 billion, up $2.15 billion from the 2004 quarter, reflecting higher crude oil and natural-gas prices. Production decreased by 1 percent due to the lingering effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which battered the Gulf Coast in August and September.
The company’s refining and marketing segment reported a 2 percent increase in earnings to $2.39 billion, while profits at its chemicals business declined by $413 million to $835 million because of higher raw materials costs.
Exxon’s profit for the year was the largest annual reported net income in U.S. history, according to Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst for Standard & Poor’s. He said the previous high was Exxon’s $25.3 billion profit in 2004. The third best performance belongs to Citigroup Inc., which posted net income of $24.64 billion in 2005.
Light shines on the shadows
Planets aligned in such a way as to continue to shine the light on the cockroaches
so to speak. All is in Divine order and acceleration will continue as long as those
who are "asleep at the wheel" continue to awaken to the true reality before them.
Do not pretend it isn't happening or swipe truth away and stuff it down. Face it
and deal with it in your own job, life, marriage, friendships etc. You'll shed the
old skin easier then you think. Like the snake who transforms it's skin over and over.
Like the butterfly that arrives from its cocoon state. Godspeed. Jill
By MARCUS KABEL, AP Business Writer Tue Jan 31, 7:22 PM ET
Tom Coughlin, 57, pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 28 years in prison and a $1.35 million penalty, but prosecutors have likely recommended a reduced sentence as part of a plea bargain.
The judge ordered a presentencing report that will take up to four months to prepare.
Wal-Mart lawyers referred Coughlin to federal prosecutors after discovering Coughlin had embezzled money from the company and used expense vouchers to buy products as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix. They estimated losses at up to $500,000.
In federal court, Coughlin spoke only when he was asked questions by U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson. Afterward, defense lawyers issued a statement in which Coughlin accepted responsibility for "serious personal mistakes in judgment."
"This was not an easy decision. I regret the embarrassment this matter has caused my family and friends and I thank them for their support, love and friendship," Coughlin said in the statement.
In documents filed with the court, Coughlin specifically admitted defrauding the company to pay for the care of his hunting dogs, lease a private hunting area, upgrade his pickup truck, buy liquor and a cooler, and receive $3,100 in cash.
As the company vice chairman, Coughlin received a base salary of $1.03 million in his final year with the company. A filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission' last April said Coughlin also received $3.09 million in bonuses and other income in fiscal 2005. Coughlin held about $20 million in Wal-Mart stock, according to an SEC filing last February.
The former executive said his guilty plea was in the best interest of his family, friends and community. He remained a Wal-Mart cheerleader, asking associates "to pull together in fulfilling Sam Walton's dream of creating the world's greatest retailer."
Prosecutors recommended a sentence but Dawson sealed the plea agreement. The judge said he was concerned that he read many of the plea deal's details in newspapers before any documents were filed with his court.
Nothing was mentioned in court about restitution.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the ordeal has been "embarrassing and painful."
"Someone we expected to operate with the highest integrity let us down in a very public way. Wal-Mart has high ethical standards and the way we handled this matter makes it clear that every associate will be held to these standards with no exception," Williams said.
Coughlin retired as Wal-Mart vice chairman last year and gave up his spot on the company board in March after Wal-Mart referred him to prosecutors. The matter was taken up by a grand jury in Fort Smith.
In November, former Coughlin subordinate Robert E. Hey Jr. agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and testify for the government in return for parole instead of prison time.
Besides giving the case to federal prosecutors, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart filed suit last year to end Coughlin's multimillion-dollar retirement agreement and to recover money.
However, that lawsuit was dismissed by an Arkansas judge who said both sides had signed a pledge as part of Coughlin's retirement deal not to pursue any claims against each other for any reasons. Wal-Mart has said it will appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
According to filing of information that was filed with the plea, Coughlin specifically admitted to:
falsifying a travel expense voucher to pay $700 allegedly for travel and meeting expenses, but which was actually for the care of Coughlin's hunting dogs;
using a false invoice for $6,500 to pay for a private hunting lease;
using a false expense statement to cover $2,695 for upgrades to his 1999 Ford truck, which he claimed as reimbursement for meeting expenses;
using fraudulently obtained gift cards to pay for a cooler, two cases of Smirnoff, two cases of Miller Light beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a carton of tequila, and other items from a Sam's club in Joplin, Mo.
using a false invoice to receive a check for $3,100 that was cashed and the funds provided back to Coughlin for his personal use;
filing a false tax return.
No mention was made in court of Coughlin's claim that he used money obtained from Wal-Mart to pay for anti-union activism. Wal-Mart has said there is no such project.
so to speak. All is in Divine order and acceleration will continue as long as those
who are "asleep at the wheel" continue to awaken to the true reality before them.
Do not pretend it isn't happening or swipe truth away and stuff it down. Face it
and deal with it in your own job, life, marriage, friendships etc. You'll shed the
old skin easier then you think. Like the snake who transforms it's skin over and over.
Like the butterfly that arrives from its cocoon state. Godspeed. Jill
By MARCUS KABEL, AP Business Writer Tue Jan 31, 7:22 PM ET
Tom Coughlin, 57, pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a false tax return. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 28 years in prison and a $1.35 million penalty, but prosecutors have likely recommended a reduced sentence as part of a plea bargain.
The judge ordered a presentencing report that will take up to four months to prepare.
Wal-Mart lawyers referred Coughlin to federal prosecutors after discovering Coughlin had embezzled money from the company and used expense vouchers to buy products as varied as snakeskin boots, hunting trips and Bloody Mary mix. They estimated losses at up to $500,000.
In federal court, Coughlin spoke only when he was asked questions by U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson. Afterward, defense lawyers issued a statement in which Coughlin accepted responsibility for "serious personal mistakes in judgment."
"This was not an easy decision. I regret the embarrassment this matter has caused my family and friends and I thank them for their support, love and friendship," Coughlin said in the statement.
In documents filed with the court, Coughlin specifically admitted defrauding the company to pay for the care of his hunting dogs, lease a private hunting area, upgrade his pickup truck, buy liquor and a cooler, and receive $3,100 in cash.
As the company vice chairman, Coughlin received a base salary of $1.03 million in his final year with the company. A filing with the
Securities and Exchange Commission' last April said Coughlin also received $3.09 million in bonuses and other income in fiscal 2005. Coughlin held about $20 million in Wal-Mart stock, according to an SEC filing last February.
The former executive said his guilty plea was in the best interest of his family, friends and community. He remained a Wal-Mart cheerleader, asking associates "to pull together in fulfilling Sam Walton's dream of creating the world's greatest retailer."
Prosecutors recommended a sentence but Dawson sealed the plea agreement. The judge said he was concerned that he read many of the plea deal's details in newspapers before any documents were filed with his court.
Nothing was mentioned in court about restitution.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said the ordeal has been "embarrassing and painful."
"Someone we expected to operate with the highest integrity let us down in a very public way. Wal-Mart has high ethical standards and the way we handled this matter makes it clear that every associate will be held to these standards with no exception," Williams said.
Coughlin retired as Wal-Mart vice chairman last year and gave up his spot on the company board in March after Wal-Mart referred him to prosecutors. The matter was taken up by a grand jury in Fort Smith.
In November, former Coughlin subordinate Robert E. Hey Jr. agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and testify for the government in return for parole instead of prison time.
Besides giving the case to federal prosecutors, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart filed suit last year to end Coughlin's multimillion-dollar retirement agreement and to recover money.
However, that lawsuit was dismissed by an Arkansas judge who said both sides had signed a pledge as part of Coughlin's retirement deal not to pursue any claims against each other for any reasons. Wal-Mart has said it will appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
According to filing of information that was filed with the plea, Coughlin specifically admitted to:
falsifying a travel expense voucher to pay $700 allegedly for travel and meeting expenses, but which was actually for the care of Coughlin's hunting dogs;
using a false invoice for $6,500 to pay for a private hunting lease;
using a false expense statement to cover $2,695 for upgrades to his 1999 Ford truck, which he claimed as reimbursement for meeting expenses;
using fraudulently obtained gift cards to pay for a cooler, two cases of Smirnoff, two cases of Miller Light beer, a bottle of Jack Daniels, a carton of tequila, and other items from a Sam's club in Joplin, Mo.
using a false invoice to receive a check for $3,100 that was cashed and the funds provided back to Coughlin for his personal use;
filing a false tax return.
No mention was made in court of Coughlin's claim that he used money obtained from Wal-Mart to pay for anti-union activism. Wal-Mart has said there is no such project.
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