Temple Illuminatus2024-03-29T09:45:52ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGAhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12220410273?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=world-peace-ring&user=224pjsuu7sjuh&feed=yes&xn_auth=noWhat Can We Learn From the World’s Most Peaceful Societies?tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-06-02:6363372:Topic:36356702023-06-02T22:49:37.783ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<h2 class="article-title">What Can We Learn From the World’s Most Peaceful Societies?</h2>
<h3>A multidisciplinary team of researchers is discovering what makes some societies more peaceful than others.</h3>
<span class="article-meta">BY<span> </span><a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/profile/peter_coleman">PETER T. COLEMAN</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/profile/douglas_fry">DOUGLAS P. FRY</a><span> </span>| JUNE 7, 2021…</span><br />
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<h2 class="article-title">What Can We Learn From the World’s Most Peaceful Societies?</h2>
<h3>A multidisciplinary team of researchers is discovering what makes some societies more peaceful than others.</h3>
<span class="article-meta">BY<span> </span><a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/profile/peter_coleman">PETER T. COLEMAN</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/profile/douglas_fry">DOUGLAS P. FRY</a><span> </span>| JUNE 7, 2021</span><br />
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<div class="article-body"><div class="article-entry"><p>Given the grinding wars and toxic political divisions that dominate the news, it might come as a surprise to hear that there are also a<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/">multitude of sustainably peaceful societies</a><span> </span>thriving across the globe today. These are communities that have managed to figure out how to live together in peace—internally within their borders, externally with neighbors, or both—for 50, 100, even several hundred years. This simple fact directly refutes the widely held and often self-fulfilling belief that humans are innately territorial and hardwired for war.</p>
<div class="article-image alignleft"><img alt="What does it take to live in peace? The <a href=“<a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/”>Sustaining">http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/”>Sustaining</a> Peace Project</a> is finding out." src="https://ggsc.s3.amazonaws.com/images/made/images/uploads/What_Can_We_Learn_from_the_Worlds_Most_Peaceful_Societies_300_200_int_c1-1x.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px none; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: inline-block; width: inherit;"/><span class="article-caption">What does it take to live in peace? The<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/">Sustaining Peace Project</a><span> </span>is finding out.</span></div>
<p>The international community has struggled with a similar<span> </span><a href="https://theglobalobservatory.org/2018/03/half-the-peace-fear-challenge-promoting-peace/">attention-to-peace deficit disorder</a>. In fact, the United Nations has been attempting for decades to pivot from crisis management to its primary mandate to “sustain international peace in all its dimensions.” Yet by its own<span> </span><a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/5724aae44.html">account</a>, “the key Charter task of sustaining peace remains critically under-recognized, under-prioritized, and under-resourced globally and within the United Nations.”</p>
<p>Science could play a crucial role in specifying the aspects of community life that contribute to sustaining peace. Unfortunately, our understanding of more pacific societies is limited by the fact that<span> </span><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4614-3555-6_1">they are rarely studied</a>. Humans mostly study the things we fear—cancer, depression, violence, and war—and so we have mostly studied peace in the context or aftermath of war. When peaceful places are studied, researchers (much like the U.N.) tend to focus primarily on negative peace, or the circumstances that keep violence at bay, to the neglect of positive peace, or the things that promote and sustain more just, harmonious, prosocial relations. As a result, we know much more about how to get out of war than we do about how to build thriving, peaceful communities.</p>
<p>In response to this gap in our understanding of how to sustain peace, an<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/team">eclectic group of scholars</a><span> </span>started gathering together in 2014. We are psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, astrophysicists, environmental scientists, political scientists, data scientists, and communications experts, who are interested in gaining a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of lasting peace. We also share an appreciation of the benefits of using methods from complexity science to better visualize and model the complex dynamics of such societies, and as a platform for communicating with one another across such different disciplines to develop a shared understanding of stable, peaceful societies and of peace systems.</p>
<p>Peace systems are clusters of neighboring societies that do not make war with each other, and<span> </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00692-8">anthropological and historical cases</a><span> </span>of such non-warring social systems exist across time and around the globe. None of the five Nordic nations, for instance, have met one another on the battlefield for over 200 years. Other examples of peace systems include 10 neighboring tribes of the Brazilian Upper Xingu River basin, the Swiss cantons that unified to form Switzerland in 1848, the Iroquois Confederation, and the E.U.</p>
<p>The mere existence of peace systems challenges the assumption that societies everywhere are prone to wage war with their neighbors—and what we have gleaned from studying these societies is promising.</p>
<h2>Finding the seeds of peace</h2>
<p>Our journey to date has been circuitous but fruitful. It began with a dive into the published science on peacefulness, which helped us to identify some of the more influential scholars in this area. We then surveyed this group to identify their sense of the most central components of achieving lasting peace (74 experts from 35 disciplines responded), and then invited the respondents to a day-long workshop to make sense of the<span> </span><a href="https://ac4.earth.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/Expert%20survey%20on%20peace%20sustainability-%20Report%20%281%29.pdf">findings</a>. Next, our core team worked with this information to develop a basic conceptual model of sustaining peace.</p>
<p>The focus of our model is simple. It views the central dynamic responsible for the emergence of sustainably peaceful relations in communities as the thousands or millions of daily reciprocal interactions that happen between members of different groups in those communities, and the degree to which more positive interactions outweigh more negative. That’s it. The more positive reciprocity and the less negative reciprocity between members of different groups, the more sustainable the peace.</p>
<p>In other words, peace is not just an absence of violence and war, but also people and groups getting along prosocially with each other: the cooperation, sharing, and kindness that we see in everyday society. Sustaining peace happens through positive reciprocity:<span> </span><em>I show you a kindness and you do me a favor in return, multiplied throughout the social world a million times over.</em></p>
<p> Next, we started gathering together all the relevant science on positive or negative intergroup reciprocity. For example, studies on Mauritius, the most peaceful nation in Africa, have found intentionality in how members of different ethnic groups speak with one another in public. Mauritians of all stripes tend to be respectful and careful in their daily encounters with others. This even translates to differences in how journalists and editors report the news, and how teachers, politicians, and clergy take up their roles in society. These findings suggest that the citizens of this highly diverse nation do not take their peacefulness for granted—they recognize that it must be cultivated and protected.</p>
<p>We then organized these variables by three levels (individual, group, and society) and by their dominant effects (promoting peacefulness or preventing violence). Here are the elements we found promoted peace and nonviolence in individuals (the micro level):</p>
<br />
<table>
<tbody><tr><th>EVIDENCE ON PEACE-PROMOTING (INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS)</th>
<th>EVIDENCE ON NONVIOLENCE (INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS)</th>
</tr>
<tr><td><u>Motives</u><ul>
<li>Endorsement of self-transcendent values</li>
<li>Endorsement of openness</li>
<li>Endorsement of cooperative orientation</li>
<li>Endorsement of peace beliefs</li>
</ul>
<u>Cognitions</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Strength of moral reasoning and a broad moral scope</li>
<li>Degree to which intergroup beliefs are malleable</li>
<li>Degree of neural plasticity</li>
<li>Fluency of language for peacefulness</li>
<li>Strength of global identity</li>
</ul>
<u>Affect</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Levels of empathy and compassion</li>
<li>Level of hopefulness and positivity</li>
<li>Level of general trust</li>
</ul>
<u>Behavior</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Degree of willingness to compromise</li>
<li>Level of mindfulness</li>
</ul>
<br/><br/></td>
<td><u>Motives</u><ul>
<li>Endorsement of nonviolent values and attitudes</li>
<li>Low levels of authoritarianism</li>
<li>Low endorsement of ethnocentrism</li>
<li>Degree to which basic needs are met</li>
</ul>
<u>Cognitions</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Level of social identity complexity</li>
<li>Level of constructive conflict resolution skills</li>
<li>Level of integrative complexity</li>
</ul>
<u>Affect</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Low levels of fear, anger, and negativity reservoirs</li>
<li>Low levels of humiliation</li>
<li>Low level of perceived threat</li>
</ul>
<u>Behavior</u><br />
<ul>
<li>Active positive engagement with members of outgroups</li>
<li>Degree of perspective taking</li>
<li>Level of outgroup tolerance</li>
<li>Degree of self-regulation</li>
<li>Level of capacity for forgiveness</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><br/>Here are the factors that promote peace and nonviolence on the family and community (or “meso”) level:</p>
<br />
<table>
<tbody><tr><th>EVIDENCE ON PEACE-PROMOTING (COMMUNITY ELEMENTS)</th>
<th>EVIDENCE ON NONVIOLENCE (COMMUNITY ELEMENTS)</th>
</tr>
<tr><td><ul>
<li>Degree to which parenting norms stress warmth, caring, and nurturance</li>
<li>Degree of physical synchronization across groups</li>
<li>High ratios of positivity-to-negativity in parenting</li>
<li>High levels of education and literacy</li>
<li>Degree of cooperative task, goal, and reward structures</li>
<li>Degree to which meaningful superordinate identity groups unify across differences</li>
<li>Level of a strong shared identity as a peaceful community</li>
<li>Degree of peaceful language in media and daily discourse</li>
<li>Degree of early access to tolerance and multiculturalism in education</li>
<li>Degree of peace ceremonies and symbols</li>
<li>Strength of shared peace vision and understanding</li>
<li>Degree to which leaders model peaceful values</li>
<li>Degree of shared egalitarian values and norms</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td><ul>
<li>Degree of open and comprehensive collective remembering</li>
<li>Strength of taboos against violence</li>
<li>Respect for gender equity</li>
<li>Levels of effective mechanisms for procedural and distributive justice</li>
<li>Degree of access to crosscutting structures</li>
<li>Level of access to mechanisms for constructive conflict resolution</li>
<li>Degree to which human rights are respected</li>
<li>Degree of effective treatment of past trauma</li>
<li>Levels of equitability of opportunity structures</li>
<li>Degree of economic equality across groups</li>
</ul>
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>And, finally, at the macro level of society and internationally, we found these qualities that promote positive intergroup interactions—and those that prevent or mitigate negative relations:</p>
<br />
<table>
<tbody><tr><th>EVIDENCE ON PEACE-PROMOTING (MACRO ELEMENTS)</th>
<th>EVIDENCE ON NONVIOLENCE (MACRO ELEMENTS)</th>
</tr>
<tr><td><u>Effectiveness and resilience of civil society</u><ul>
<li>Degree of free flow of information</li>
<li>Degree to which transcultural elite model constructive, nonviolent action</li>
<li>Level of gender parity in leadership</li>
<li>Strength of norms regarding territorial acquisition and decolonization</li>
<li>Degree to which governance structures tend toward integration, egalitarianism, and democracy</li>
<li>Degree of economic interdependence</li>
<li>Levels of cultural and civilian exchanges</li>
</ul>
<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></td>
<td><ul>
<li>Degree of good governance that emphasizes unity, integrity, and fairness</li>
<li>Degree of transparency of institutions</li>
<li>Levels of coordination between local governments, civil society, and international organizations</li>
<li>Presence and effectiveness of a social safety net</li>
<li>Presence and effectiveness of early warning systems</li>
<li>Degree of minority inclusion</li>
<li>Commitment to a fair, healthy, and functioning economy</li>
<li>Degree to which media offer accurate, nuanced accounts</li>
<li>Strength of the Rule of Law</li>
<li>Commitment to sustainable development policies and practices</li>
<li>Effectiveness of regional organizations that support peace</li>
<li>Effectiveness and function of global organizations and institutions</li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>We then began to<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/peace-tech/visualizing-sustainable-peace">map</a><span> </span>the effects that each of these variables have on positive and negative group interactions, and on the other variables in the system. This is called<span> </span><a href="https://www.foresightfordevelopment.org/sobipro/54/1231-tackling-obesities-future-choices-obesity-system-atlas">causal-loop diagramming</a>, and entails synthesizing the findings from hundreds of studies on dozens of variables to understand one simple dynamic: how they increase the chances that members of in-groups treat members of out-groups positively and inclusively rather than negatively and exclusively. This visualization gives us a coherent, birds-eye view of a larger system of peace dynamics.<br/><img src="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/Peace_dynamics.jpg" alt="" height="1023" width="1200"/></p>
<p>At this point, our in-house astrophysicist, Larry Liebovitch, went rogue one long weekend and decided to mathematize this model (I believe with the aid of lots of caffeinated soda), developing an<span> </span><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002764219859618">algorithm</a><span> </span>that captured its core dynamics. This allowed us to build a<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/peace-tech/mathematical-model">computer simulation</a><span> </span>that invites us (and you) to play with the different variables in the model to see how increasing or decreasing them might change patterns in this complex system.</p>
<p>Through this work, we’ve found that sustaining peace can be understood as a high ratio of positive intergroup reciprocity to negative intergroup reciprocity that is stable over time. In fact, this is exactly the type of interpersonal dynamic that<span> </span><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/mathematics-marriage">researchers</a><span> </span>have found to lead to more thriving, stable marriages and families. This simple micro-dynamic of peacefulness has allowed us to begin to connect the dots between the multitude of variables investigated in thousands of studies across dozens of disciplines relevant to sustaining peace. This more basic and comprehensive approach to thinking about peace offers scholars, policymakers, and the public a sense of its complexity and simplicity, as well as (with the aid of the math model) insight into how particular policies and programs may result in intended, unintended, and even quite harmful consequences.</p>
<p>In parallel to building the math model, Doug Fry and Geneviève Souillac went back into the tomes of ethnographic studies that they had compiled over decades on peaceful societies and peace systems, and with their students coded for variables that they had found through<span> </span><a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/the-human-potential-for-peace-9780195181784?cc=us&lang=en&#:~:text=In%2520The%2520Human%2520Potential%2520for,and%2520the%2520potential%2520for%2520peace.">previous research</a><span> </span>to be prominent in these societies. This allowed them to conduct a<span> </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00692-8">comparison study</a><span> </span>between 16 peace systems (such as the Nordic countries since 1815 and the Orang Asli of Malaysia) and 30 non-peace systems.</p>
<p>During this time, another subgroup of the team began developing new ways of measuring trends relevant to sustaining peace. The most promising of these forays to date has been working with data scientists on the development of two types of word lexicons:<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/peace-speech?token=b88142bd91898f7c31b7cb0719e0e156251e110d">one for peace speech and one for conflict speech</a>. This has been done by employing machine learning and natural language processing methods to comb through millions of newspaper articles published within highly peaceful and highly conflictual societies. The goal of this initiative is to fill the gap that currently exists for metrics that allow us to better track and therefore promote positive peace.</p>
<p>Finally, we have also been engaging directly with peaceful communities and those struggling to find peace. This has entailed building local partnerships and holding dialogues between our scientists and community stakeholders.</p>
<p>This work began in the<span> </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341326233_Mapping_Sustainable_Peace_in_the_Basque_Country_A_Ground-truthing_Pilot_of_the_Sustainable_Peace_Project?channel=doi&linkId=5ebaf07492851c11a864e85c&showFulltext=true">Basque region of Spain</a>, a society recently emerging from civil war and hungry for peace, but currently involves working with diverse sets of stakeholders living in<span> </span><a href="https://ac4.earth.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/Mauritius%20Report%20%281%29.pdf">Mauritius</a><span> </span>and Costa Rica. This has taught us about the critical importance of local understanding of some of the key variables.</p>
<p>For example, religious differences can be a source of great divisiveness in many communities. However, in Mauritius, a highly religious nation with large populations of Hindus, Christians, and Muslims, religiosity is tempered by tolerance and taboos around proselytizing, as well as a general belief in the value of spirituality, no matter the denomination. Such contextualization of variables highlights the limitations of the current inclination to employ top-down, one-size-fits-all indices to track and rank national peacefulness, and the need for more locally informed methods.</p>
<h2>What peaceful societies have in common</h2>
<p>Even a cursory glimpse at our<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/peace-tech/visualizing-sustainable-peace">causal-loop diagram</a><span> </span>of the science on sustaining peace gives you a sense of the highly complex nature of the system of drivers. We have<span> </span><a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-84567-001">found</a><span> </span>that there are many different paths to peacefulness through both our review of the science and our conversations with community members living in peace. In fact, most of the societies that currently rank as highly peaceful—the Nordic nations, New Zealand and Australia, Costa Rica, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic, Canada, and Qatar—came to peace through very different processes and maintain it through distinct means.</p>
<p>However, when our team<span> </span><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00692-8">systematically compared</a><span> </span>a sample of peace systems with a randomly selected comparison group, we discovered that peace systems tend to share certain commonalities:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Overarching common identities</strong>, such as shared national or regional identities (like Africans, Latin Americans, or Christians) that emphasize commonalities between different ethnic groups.</li>
<li><strong>Greater positive interconnectedness and independence</strong><span> </span>in the realms of economics, ecology, and security. In other words, they have public spaces, institutions, and activities that bring members of different groups together and help them realize that their fates are closely linked.</li>
<li><strong>Stronger non-warring norms, values, rituals, and symbols</strong>, like commemorations of successful peacemakers and monuments that celebrate the prevention of war. In fact, using a machine learning technique called Random Forest, we discovered that the single most important contributor to peace is non-warring norms, followed in decreasing importance by non-warring rituals, non-warring values, mutual security dependencies, superordinate institutions, and economic interdependence. This suggests that developing norms that are supportive of positive reciprocal social relationships may be more important for peace than previously assumed.</li>
<li><strong>Peace language in the press</strong>. We have been developing a<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/peace-speech?token=b88142bd91898f7c31b7cb0719e0e156251e110d">technique</a><span> </span>to help us measure and track the power of peace speech—peaceable language for building and maintaining more peaceful communities. Our preliminary findings are promising, suggesting that the distinct qualities of conflict vs. peace words in our lexicons are related to the relative “tightness/ordered” versus “looseness/creative” nature of the terms. In other words, journalism in peaceful places seems to employ language of a looser, more open, playful nature, while reporting from non-peaceful societies reflects tighter, more closed, or bureaucratic language.</li>
<li><strong>A greater degree of peace leadership</strong><span> </span>from politicians, corporations, clergy, and community activists who help establish a vision and set a course toward peace. Peace leadership occurred, for instance, when the<span> </span><a href="http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dekanahwideh_1E.html">Iroquois</a><span> </span>peace prophet unified five warring tribes and replaced the weapons of war with dialogue and consensus-seeking. Other bastions of peacefulness like Costa Rica and the E.U. have evidenced similar visionary leadership for peace.</li>
</ul>
<p>Ultimately, we have found that when these different peace variables align and reinforce one another, virtuous cycles are often created that become more resistant to changing conditions. This, we suggest, is the essence of sustainability.</p>
<p>There is still much to learn. We recently launched a<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geu2xw3GPps">short video</a><span> </span>and a<span> </span><a href="http://sustainingpeaceproject.com/">public website</a><span> </span>that provides an overview of the project and the team, which includes a map locating contemporary societies sustaining peace, an interactive version of the causal-loop diagram that allows users to explore the evidence behind it, and an interactive version of the mathematical model that encourages users to plug in values and play with the model.</p>
<p>In the end, it is vital to remember that peace exists today in pockets all around the globe, and that the more we study and learn from such societies, the higher our chances of building a global peace system for all. Peace is possible—and the more we understand, the more probable it becomes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>LINK:<a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_can_we_learn_from_the_worlds_most_peaceful_societies">https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_can_we_learn_from_the_worlds_most_peaceful_societies</a></p>
</div>
</div> INVESTING IN OUR PLANET: INSIGHTS FROM EARTHDAY.ORG’S EARTH WEEK 2023tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-04-22:6363372:Topic:36340562023-04-22T23:17:38.778ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<div><div class="container"><div class="row justify-content-center"><div class="col-lg-8"><h3 class="post-date">APRIL 22, 2023</h3>
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<p>Earth Day is an annual, poignant reminder of the profound impact human activity has had on the environment and the urgent need to Invest in Our Planet in…</p>
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<p>Earth Day is an annual, poignant reminder of the profound impact human activity has had on the environment and the urgent need to Invest in Our Planet in order to protect our future. As we face an increasingly uncertain climate and a rapidly changing world, it is more important than ever to shift our collective consciousness towards a deeper understanding of humanity’s role in this crisis. The challenges we face are urgent, but they also represent an opportunity for us to come together to take bold action and fight for equity and prosperity.</p>
<p>Earth Week 2023 has served as a powerful catalyst for this awakening, inspiring us to take responsibility for our actions and to work together in innovative ways to build a sustainable and just world. EARTHDAY.ORG brought leaders from across all sectors together in a series of Earth Day Live webinars to highlight the most pressing environmental issues of our time and provide tangible solutions. In case you missed them, here are the eight main takeaways from EARTHDAY.ORG’s Earth Week series:</p>
<h3>“BRANDS WHO INVEST IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY ARE MORE PROFITABLE AND MORE SUSTAINABLE.”</h3>
<p>During EARTHDAY.ORG’s kick off to Earth Week, fresh solutions were brought to the table for the fashion industry’s devastating waste problem. These solutions focused on the circular economy, recycling fibers in a textile-to-textile approach, and reducing the number of clothes produced. Natasha Franck, Founder of EON, emphasized the need for traceability. Constanza Gomez, Co-founder of Sortile, presented a tool for efficiently identifying the composition of clothes, and Pete Majeranowski, President of Circ, showcased his innovative molecular recycling technology. To watch<span> </span><em>Fashion’s Age of Invention – Part II: Toward a Balance with Nature</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phOgMeir0b0&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“YOUR VOICE IS AN ESSENTIAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE. EXPERIENCE HELPS CREATE UNDERSTANDING AND THE ABILITY TO CREATE POLICIES FOR ALL TO HAVE A PROSPEROUS FUTURE.”</h3>
<p>Young people must understand the choices they make today have a profound impact on the future. It’s crucial to get involved in your community and use your voice as an essential tool to effect change. Elected officials and environmental advocates from all levels of the U.S. government gathered in honor of Earth Week to discuss the importance of sustainability, the integration of environmental legislation, and the role of civic engagement in demanding equitable solutions to climate change. From Representative Sophie Phillips of Delaware and Mayor Ravinder Bhalla of Hoboken to Adriano Espaillat’s Advisor, Robert Hogan, real life examples, like the<span> </span><a href="https://www.earthbill.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth Bill</a>, were shared to encourage a holistic and intersectional approach to Invest in Our Planet. To watch<span> </span><em>Activating Elected Officials at All Levels for Earth Day</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9yZq2-LRzE&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“EVERY REVOLUTION STARTS WITH EDUCATION. WE CAN DO THIS (EQUITABLE CLIMATE CURRICULA) IN 4 OR 5 YEARS, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO TAKE A GENERATION.”</h3>
<p>Kathleen Rogers, Johnny Dabrowski, and Max Falcone from EARTHDAY.ORG sat down with leaders from Earth Uprising, COP 28, Education International, and Global Partnerships for Education (GPE) to address this fact: education is the key to solving climate change. With COP28 on the horizon, climate education has taken center stage. Education is one of the most fundamental solutions to climate change, and progress has already been made in improving environmental literacy worldwide. However, there is still a long way to go, and it is crucial for world leaders to invest in education to create a pipeline of green jobs and build green economies in all countries, not just the Global North. Climate justice is social justice. Youth is the key to promoting action, and embedding climate education in schools is the key to transforming systems to see this justice. To watch<span> </span><em>Climate Education at COP28: The Road to Climate Literacy and Equitable Education</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eqWRTqbhUY&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“WE NEED TO GET SERIOUS. WE NEED TO BE OUT OF OUR SUITES AND IN THE STREETS FIGHTING AGAINST THE CLIMATE CRISIS.”</h3>
<p>It is feasible and possible to end plastic pollution by 2040 if we have the political will to get it done, but we must also address the root causes of the issue. The petrochemical industry plays a significant role in plastic pollution, targeting vulnerable communities and causing serious health issues. We need to shift from fossil fuels to clean energy and hold these industries accountable for their harmful practices. Additionally, we must end the “litter bug” narrative placing the blame solely on consumers. Greenwashing must also be eliminated. We need to educate and inform consumers about the true impact of plastic pollution and promote circular solutions like refillable and renewable containers. It’s time to prioritize the well-being of our planet and end the profit-over-people mentality. To watch<span> </span><em>Ending Plastic Pollution:The Role the Petrochemical and Tobacco Industries Play in Plastic Pollution</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFX49o16tsY&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“EVERYTHING THAT IS WITHIN US IS WITHIN HER. WHEN WE RECONNECT WE ARE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND AND ADVOCATE FOR MOTHER EARTH.”</h3>
<p>Healthy soil is the foundation of our planet. It connects the world above the soil to the living world below it, bringing healing to the land and body, and reconnecting our bodies to the ecosystem to bring balance and harmony. Being a steward of the soil means advocating for the plants, trees, microbiomes, and bacteria living in our environment, giving more than we take from the land, and mimicking nature and its processes. It is important to treat Earth as a living being and to form a relationship with our planet through the power of intention and thought when interacting with our environment.To watch<span> </span><em>Stewards of the Soil: Addressing the Climate Crisis From the Ground Up</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkHmGRTKUyM&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“WAITING FOR YOUR LATTE? YOU CAN DO SOME GOOD.”</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.sankaristudios.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">KATOA</a>, a new video game released today (April 22nd), offers players two-fold benefits by connecting the virtual environment to real-world biomes and educating them about climate literacy. The game’s developers,<span> </span><a href="https://www.sankaristudios.com/meet-sankari" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sankari Studios</a>, partnered with nonprofits globally, including EARTHDAY.ORG, to fund critical conservation initiatives. As players complete missions, they earn impact points which translate into real money for conservation efforts. The game offers escapism, education, and fulfillment while allowing players to contribute to conservation efforts worldwide. KATOA and its developers invite players to join them in being one of the first to download it this Earth Day. To learn more and watch<span> </span><em>Gaming for Good: A Catalyst for Environmental Change</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7hxKAckHkE&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“WE CAN BE OVERWHELMED BY THE SITUATION (CLIMATE CRISIS) OR FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CREATIVITY OF THE SOLUTIONS.”</h3>
<p>As the effects of climate change continue to worsen, it’s becoming increasingly clear that traditional methods of addressing the crisis are not enough. That’s where web3 and blockchain technology, like<span> </span><a href="https://celo.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Celo</a>, come in. By providing a toolset for mass coordination and enabling decentralized systems with no hierarchy, web3 can help tackle the big problems posed by climate change. With blockchain’s ability to create a tamper-proof and transparent system, it becomes an incredible accountability tool bringing corporate greenwashing to light and addressing the climate funding gap. By encouraging more efficient transactions and renewable energy sources, smart contracts can help feed green energy back into the grid and enable the energy transition. With a focus on collaboration, trust, and incentive, there’s a role for blockchain in all drivers of climate change, making it an exciting tool to help fight the climate crisis. To learn more about Celo and watch<span> </span><em>Why Blockchain? Accelerating & Funding Climate Solutions at Scale</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78SCSkYsDs&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<h3>“OUR VERY FUTURE DEPENDS ON HUMANS GRASPING HOW CRITICAL OUR TINY, BEAUTIFUL PLANET IS.”</h3>
<p>Space travel has the power to inspire humanity by providing a unique perspective on our planet. Astronauts often return from missions with a new understanding of Earth’s fragility and a desire to take action towards social and environmental causes. The new perspective of space travel can be leveraged to address the climate crisis and inspire positive change. Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot speech, inspired by the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth, serves as an urgent call to action for the new commercial space age. To learn more about<span> </span><a href="https://spaceperspective.com/?atrkid=V3ADWF95DD0F9_126951591747_kwd-409464238227__583501339618_g_c___&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw6IiiBhAOEiwALNqncdjIAoWO82u5FQffpseOxP57L4vGU6j0Tv4gA51WQWIOqK19wPCmvRoCtuEQAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Space Perspective</a><span> </span>and watch<span> </span><em>How Seeing Our Finite Planet From the Hostile Blackness of Space Can Drive Positive Change</em>, please click<span> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kUVs77tJU4&list=PL8_2fIy9Hxy-vZMg98GFEiKbEmiy9oLXv&index=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>.</p>
<p>Addressing the climate crisis requires a holistic approach including innovation, education, funding, and equity. Education is key in creating awareness and promoting sustainable practices, while funding is necessary for research and development of sustainable technologies and initiatives. Additionally, equity is crucial in ensuring the burden of climate change is not disproportionately felt by vulnerable communities. It is essential for governments, private organizations, and individuals to take collective action to address the climate crisis, and by prioritizing green innovation, universal climate education, proper funding, and equity, we can make significant progress in making a sustainable future happen today. To learn more about how to get involved in the environmental movement and Invest in Our Planet, please visit<span> </span><a href="https://www.earthday.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.earthday.org/.</a></p>
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<div class="author-block my-5"><div class="container"><div class="row py-4"><div class="col-4 col-md-2 col-lg-2"><img class="author-image" src="https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/560cd73cffca8f89204f25794f5a09ed?s=96&d=mm&r=g" alt="Madison Aughinbaugh"/></div>
<div class="col-8 col-md-10 col-lg-10"><h3><a href="https://www.earthday.org/author/aughinbaughearthday-org/">Madison Aughinbaugh</a></h3>
<p>LINK: <a href="https://www.earthday.org/investing-in-our-planet-insights-from-earthday-orgs-earth-week-2023/">https://www.earthday.org/investing-in-our-planet-insights-from-earthday-orgs-earth-week-2023/</a></p>
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</div> Maintain International Peace and Securitytag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-04-22:6363372:Topic:36339722023-04-22T23:11:34.670ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<h1 class="page-header">Maintain International Peace and Security</h1>
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<div class="image-metadata"><span class="photo-credit">Togolese peacekeepers from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) patrol Menaka in 2018. Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist countries to…</span></div>
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<h1 class="page-header">Maintain International Peace and Security</h1>
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<div class="image-metadata"><span class="photo-credit">Togolese peacekeepers from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) patrol Menaka in 2018. Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist countries to navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. UN Photo/Marco Dormino</span></div>
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<div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12"><p>The United Nations was created in 1945, following the devastation of the Second World War, with one central mission: the maintenance of international peace and security. The UN accomplishes this by working to prevent conflict, helping parties in conflict make peace,<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/deploying-peacekeepers">deploying peacekeepers</a>, and creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish. These activities often overlap and should reinforce one another, to be effective.</p>
<p>The UN Security Council has the primary responsibility for international peace and security. The General Assembly and the Secretary-General play major, important, and complementary roles, along with other UN offices and bodies.</p>
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<div class="col-md-5 col-sm-12"><h2 class="heading-underlined-blue">Security Council</h2>
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<p class="photo-credit">The Security Council unanimously adopting resolution 2497 (2019) extending the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA). UN Photo/Loey Felipe</p>
<p>The<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/">Security Council</a><span> </span>takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of aggression. It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle it by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms of settlement. Under<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-vii/index.html">Chapter VII<span> </span></a>of the UN Charter, the Security Council can take enforcement measures to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such measures range from<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/information">economic sanctions</a><span> </span>to international military action. The Council also establishes<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en">UN Peacekeeping Operations</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/dppa-around-world">Special Political Missions</a>.</p>
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<div class="col-md-5 col-sm-12"><h2 class="heading-underlined-blue">General Assembly</h2>
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<p class="photo-credit">Learn more about the UN General Assembly.</p>
<p>The<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/en/ga/">General Assembly</a><span> </span>is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. Through regular meetings, the General Assembly provides a forum for Member States to express their views to the entire membership and find consensus on difficult issues. It makes recommendations in the form of General Assembly<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/documents/general-assembly-resolutions/index.html">resolutions</a>. Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security, admission of new members and budgetary matters, require a two-thirds majority, but other questions are decided by simple majority.</p>
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<h2 class="heading-underlined-blue topmargin-lg">How does the UN maintain international peace and security?</h2>
<div class="row grey-well bottommargin"><div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12"><h3>Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation</h3>
<p>The most effective way to diminish human suffering and the massive economic costs of conflicts and their aftermath is to prevent conflicts in the first place. The United Nations plays an important role in<span> </span><a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/united-nations-conflict-prevention-and-preventive-diplomacy-action">conflict prevention</a>, using<span> </span><a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/prevention-and-mediation">diplomacy</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/peacemaking-mandate/secretary-general">good offices</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/">mediation</a>. Among the tools the Organization uses to bring peace are<span> </span><a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/current-presences">special envoys</a><span> </span>and<span> </span><a href="https://dppa.un.org/en/dppa-around-world">political missions</a><span> </span>in the field.</p>
<h4 class="top-padding">Special and Personal Representatives, Envoys and Advisers of the Secretary-General</h4>
<p>The Secretary-General of the United Nations has Special and Personal Representatives, Envoys and Advisers<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/global-leadership/home">in many areas of the world</a>.</p>
<h4 class="top-padding">UN Office for West Africa</h4>
<p>The UN Office for West Africa, in Dakar, Senegal was the first regional conflict prevention and peacebuilding office of the United Nations. Its overall mandate was to enhance contributions of the UN towards the achievement of peace and security in West Africa and promote an integrated regional approach in addressing issues that impact stability in West Africa. It was<span> </span><a href="https://unowas.unmissions.org/">recently merged</a><span> </span>with the Office of the Special Envoy for the Sahel (OSES) into a single entity.</p>
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<p class="photo-credit">What is Conflict Prevention?</p>
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<div class="row grey-well bottommargin"><div class="col-md-6 col-sm-12"><h3>Peacekeeping</h3>
<p><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en">Peacekeeping</a><span> </span>has proven to be one of the most effective tools available to the UN to assist countries to navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace. Today's multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/advancing-political-solutions-to-conflict">political processes</a>, protect civilians, assist in the<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/disarmament-demobilization-and-reintegration">disarmament</a>, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support constitutional processes and the organization of elections, protect and promote<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/promoting-human-rights">human rights</a><span> </span>and assist in restoring the<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/building-rule-of-law-and-security-institutions">rule of law</a><span> </span>and extending legitimate state authority.</p>
<p>Peacekeeping operations get their mandates from the UN Security Council; their troops and police are<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/troop-and-police-contributors">contributed</a><span> </span>by Members States; and they are managed by the<span> </span><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/department-of-peace-operations">Department of Peace Operations</a><span> </span>and supported by the<span> </span><a href="https://operationalsupport.un.org/en">Department of Operational Support</a><span> </span>at UN Headquarters in New York.</p>
<p>There are<span> </span><a href="http://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate">12 UN peacekeeping operations</a><span> </span>currently deployed and there have been a total of 71 deployed since 1948. In 2019, the Secretary-General launched the<span> </span><a href="https://www.un.org/en/A4P/">Action for Peacekeeping Initiative (A4P)</a><span> </span>to renew mutual political commitment to peacekeeping operations.</p>
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<p class="photo-credit">Life as a UN Peacekeeper</p>
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<div class="col-md-12 col-sm-12"><h4 class="horizontal-line-top-blue-arrow"><a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/where-we-operate">UN Peacekeeping operations</a><span> </span>by region</h4>
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<p>LINK: <a href="https://www.un.org/en/our-work/maintain-international-peace-and-security">https://www.un.org/en/our-work/maintain-international-peace-and-security</a></p>
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</div> Happy Earth Day! Giving thanks for all that Mother Earth provides us – GLOBALtag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2023-04-22:6363372:Topic:36339702023-04-22T23:09:18.764ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<h1 class="fl-post-title">Happy Earth Day! Giving thanks for all that Mother Earth provides us – GLOBAL</h1>
<div class="fl-post-meta fl-post-meta-top"><span class="fl-post-author">By<span> </span><a href="https://www.worldpeace.org/author/mppoeintl/"><span>May Peace Prevail On Earth</span></a></span><span class="fl-sep"><span> </span>|<span> </span></span><span class="fl-post-date">April 21, 2023…</span></div>
<h1 class="fl-post-title">Happy Earth Day! Giving thanks for all that Mother Earth provides us – GLOBAL</h1>
<div class="fl-post-meta fl-post-meta-top"><span class="fl-post-author">By<span> </span><a href="https://www.worldpeace.org/author/mppoeintl/"><span>May Peace Prevail On Earth</span></a></span><span class="fl-sep"><span> </span>|<span> </span></span><span class="fl-post-date">April 21, 2023</span></div>
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<div class="fl-post-content clearfix"><p>For Earth Day – 22 April, 2023</p>
<p>Eating real, nutrient-dense food is so important— So is moving our bodies. </p>
<p>And yet, food and fitness are only part of staying healthy and feeling awesome. </p>
<p>Know what else is essential? </p>
<p>Getting a dose of sunshine!</p>
<p><strong>Get outdoors once a day. Leave your phone at home. Spend even 15 minutes engaged in device-free playfulness, curiosity, and wonder. See how you feel. Ask whether <em>that</em> 15 minutes did more good than 30 spent scrolling.</strong></p>
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<img width="450" height="591" src="https://www.worldpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/5-Shamanic-Plant-Medicine-Journey-Aug-2018.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-13473"/><br />
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<p>All said and done, these “small things” are big ones. </p>
<p>Be well. Stay awesome. Choose Love over Fear. Serve one-another. </p>
<p>We are One – in the spirit of the Universal Message of Peace –<span> </span><em><strong>May Peace Prevail On Earth</strong></em>.</p>
<p><strong>We also invite you to join us in celebrating earth day with our friends around the world.</strong></p>
<div class="wp-block-image"><img width="600" height="478" src="https://www.worldpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Happy-Earth-Day-2023.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-13470"/>
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<tbody><tr><td><p>Please click below to see events happening on Earth Day 2023 and beyond.<a href="https://conta.cc/41vgAez" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><br/>https://conta.cc/41vgAez</a></p>
<p>LINK: <a href="https://www.worldpeace.org/2023/04/happy-earth-day-giving-thanks-for-all-that-mother-earth-provides-us-global/">https://www.worldpeace.org/2023/04/happy-earth-day-giving-thanks-for-all-that-mother-earth-provides-us-global/</a></p>
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</div> SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE IS LIFE’S ROADMAP TO BETTER DAYStag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2019-01-21:6363372:Topic:34540832019-01-21T02:33:43.892ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<h1 class="single-title"><span><img alt="Image result for starseeds" class="align-center" src="https://www.guardian-angel-reading.com/uploads/2017/11/PA_SEO_054_Starseeds-624x245.jpg"></img></span></h1>
<h1 class="single-title" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE IS LIFE’S ROADMAP TO BETTER DAYS</span></h1>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>By Jose Bulao</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Spiritual guidance is no longer a luxury for ordinary people like you and me. It is no longer just for monks and religious people who intend to live a more intense spiritual life. Spiritual…</em></p>
<h1 class="single-title"><span><img class="align-center" alt="Image result for starseeds" src="https://www.guardian-angel-reading.com/uploads/2017/11/PA_SEO_054_Starseeds-624x245.jpg"/></span></h1>
<h1 class="single-title" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE IS LIFE’S ROADMAP TO BETTER DAYS</span></h1>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>By Jose Bulao</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Spiritual guidance is no longer a luxury for ordinary people like you and me. It is no longer just for monks and religious people who intend to live a more intense spiritual life. Spiritual guidance has become a necessity for people whose basic concern is just to live and earn a living. For spiritual hunger activates even those who just want to live simple lives. Perhaps this is because they are living at a time of spiritual awakening that has come upon us, even if they are not fully aware of this.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>We realize now that this guidance of the Spirit, for that is basically what spiritual guidance is, is a necessity in our day to day ordinary normal life. We need this guidance to get our food, clothing, shelter, education, health, and more, even the better things in life.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img width="300" height="203" class=" size-medium wp-image-108178 aligncenter" alt="simi24" src="http://robertjrgraham.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/simi24-300x203.jpg"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Before our era almost all human beings thought that the basic things in life like food, clothing and shelter, can be ours by our own effort, by working for them, and by acquiring them in one way or another. But now more and more people are becoming aware that these things, material as they are, have their source in the Spirit who brought everything into existence. This is the reason why those who teach people how to get rich always emphasize constant gratitude to the Spirit as the starting point of every acquisition of real and lasting wealth.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>We see so many people, countless in fact, who work from dawn to dusk, break their backs in never-ending toil, but have less in life than others who seem to just relax and play with their hobbies. Most of them do not even have the basic necessities in life, like enough and nutritious food.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>On the other hand, we see a few who have more than enough of this world’s goods and yet do not exert as much as one fourth of the effort of those who break their health in working but have not enough. The difference then is not in the amount of work. Working much does not necessarily produce much.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The difference is in the pattern of their lives. Those who have sufficiency and more are guided by a Spirit higher than themselves who can enable them to produce more with less effort. Those who have not-even the basic sufficiency-rely on their own guidance and effort.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Look at the successful people, even in showbiz. When they are asked to comment about their wealth, they always refer to a higher power who gave them their luck. On the other hand, those who live in misery are also contented that such is what fate gave them. In other words, both of them acknowledge the source of their fortune or misery is from outside of themselves.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>If such is the case, why don’t people get guidance from the Spirit on how to conduct their lives for the better? It is because they are not fully convinced that there is this guidance and that they can avail of this.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Hence people have to be reminded that there is such a spiritual guidance available, a guidance from the Spirit who can guide them into better days, into times of sufficiency, even of abundance, of less stress and of greater enjoyment of the fruits of their labor.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Indeed spiritual guidance is life’s roadmap to better days. </em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em><img alt="Image result for starseeds" src="https://www.starseedhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cropped-starseeds-longing-for-their-home-in-the-stars.jpg"/></em></p> 1 Million Children Meditating For World Peace In Thailandtag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-06-17:6363372:Topic:32000382016-06-17T02:16:53.357ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<h1 align="center">1 Million Children Meditating For World Peace In Thailand</h1>
<p align="center"><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5dqS9klId9c/Vy0haWGpOjI/AAAAAAAAudo/GRQvgsbzhkwpKEtPkmGMzD3fmES7NyaVwCLcB/s640/praying-for-world-peace.jpg"></img></p>
<h1 class="post-title entry-title" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff6600;">1 Million Children Meditating For World Peace In Thailand</span></h1>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><b>5000 schools together. 1 million children meditating for world peace at the Phra Shammakaya Temple of…</b></em></span></div>
<h1 align="center">1 Million Children Meditating For World Peace In Thailand</h1>
<p align="center"><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5dqS9klId9c/Vy0haWGpOjI/AAAAAAAAudo/GRQvgsbzhkwpKEtPkmGMzD3fmES7NyaVwCLcB/s640/praying-for-world-peace.jpg"/></p>
<h1 class="post-title entry-title" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #ff6600;">1 Million Children Meditating For World Peace In Thailand</span></h1>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><b>5000 schools together. 1 million children meditating for world peace at the Phra Shammakaya Temple of Thailand.</b></em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>Meditation only works for the individual with inner peace, not for greedy and corrupt people; they have no heart and no soul, nothing is going to happen but war from them.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>Having peaceful and noble thoughts are great as it creates positive vibration, but equally Dharma must teach you to be so strong that evil forces do not attack and over power oneself. You must be able to protect your Dharma.</em></span></div>
<div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em><b><span style="color: #ff6600;">Fast fact</span>:</b> Ancient Afghanistan was once a Buddhist country, today no sign of Buddhism – even the Bamyan Budha statutes were destroyed.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>The more positive going out… The more positive the world creates</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>Of course the dark side doesn’t not want light in the world, so darkness will focus on the “money, corruption, illegal actions, ect..”. Be the light & spreads the positive….</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>We can change the world by doing the inner work, meditation is the key to unlocking full potential, dissolving the ego and awakening the vital life force that flows through everyone of us all at all times.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>We are beings made up of love and light the more light we accrete through the inner work, the more we raise the frequency of humanity and mother earth. We are a global collective totally inter connected to each other in ways only a few truly understand, what we put out is what we get back its that simple.</em></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S8BC4mG0EWo/Vy0hro0JttI/AAAAAAAAuds/B640GyIAyEYO2s5FMGVt-AnD7uomO7EMQCLcB/s1600/DGSDDgG.jpg"><span style="color: #ff9900;"><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S8BC4mG0EWo/Vy0hro0JttI/AAAAAAAAuds/B640GyIAyEYO2s5FMGVt-AnD7uomO7EMQCLcB/s640/DGSDDgG.jpg" border="0"/></span></a></em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>The universal law of one</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>Let’s co-create our own reality today together as a race of humans. Not divided by race, religion, color, sex, borders. We are all humans remember that together we are one. If we choose to work together we can turn this planet around in a very short time. The time is now for you to stand up and take back our god given right to a world of peace and love.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>It all starts with you remember that. You are limitless and carry a spirit a soul and a god spark inside you.</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff6600;"><em><b>“Focus on the light, you are the light.”</b></em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #ff9900;"><em>Source: <a href="http://in5d.com/1-million-children-meditating-for-world-peace-in-thailand/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #ff9900;">in5d</span></a></em></span></div>
</div> The Dalai Lama’s practical path to peacetag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-05-06:6363372:Topic:31650742016-05-06T20:41:58.328ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p style="text-align: center;">An earlier version of this op-ed included a quotation containing an incorrect word. The Dalai Lama told a group of activists that "external disarmament begins with internal disarmament," not "eternal disarmament begins with internal disarmament." This version has been corrected.…</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="courtesy-of-the-resizer zoom-in" src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/05/05/Editorial-Opinion/Images/2016-05-03-USIP-G12-_Dalai_Lama.jpg?uuid=NZoQMBLmEeaTrlCSFyEWXQ"></img></p>
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<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p style="text-align: center;">An earlier version of this op-ed included a quotation containing an incorrect word. The Dalai Lama told a group of activists that "external disarmament begins with internal disarmament," not "eternal disarmament begins with internal disarmament." This version has been corrected.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="courtesy-of-the-resizer zoom-in" src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/05/05/Editorial-Opinion/Images/2016-05-03-USIP-G12-_Dalai_Lama.jpg?uuid=NZoQMBLmEeaTrlCSFyEWXQ"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="pb-caption">The Dalai Lama, center, can be informal and mischievous, as when he rubbed his head into the beard of a very dignified Muslim cleric. (Tenzin Choejor/Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="pb-caption"><span class="pb-byline">By <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/michael-gerson"><span>Michael Gerson</span></a></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://wp-eng-static.washingtonpost.com/author_images/gersonm.jpg?ts=1440533350591&w=80&h=80" class="pb-headshot pos-1"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="dateline">DHARAMSALA, India</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;" id="U1060483196220x0D">When posed a policy question, the Dalai Lama is surprisingly (for a religious leader) un-prone to moralism. What, I asked him, does he think of the European backlash against migration? “In the name of sympathy, for the few who are desperate, [resettlement] is worthwhile.” But Europeans, he continued, “have a right to be concerned for their own prosperity.” Better, he said, “to help people in their own land.” He added: “It is really complex.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In conversation, the Dalai Lama’s cast of mind is thoroughly empirical. You can see him considering a matter from various angles and revising his views based on new input. He is a Buddhist who recommends “analytic meditation” instead of employing spiritual exercises as a “tranquilizer.” Self-reflection, he believes, should be the basis for action in the world. Vague talk of peace, he said, “will only disturb some pigeons.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">For decades, the Dalai Lama has embodied the Tibetan cause, which was once at the center of America’s Cold War interests. With that cause now something of an international orphan, the Dalai Lama has cultivated a different type of influence — global celebrity based on spiritual charisma.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">I saw that charisma up close as the fortunate witness to a singular event. Under the auspices of the United States Institute of Peace, the Dalai Lama spent two days mentoring 28 exceptional youth leaders — men and women doing peace building in conflict zones across Asia and Africa, often at great personal risk.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The Dalai Lama is, despite recent health issues, energetic and apparently (at 80) tireless. He is informal and mischievous (at one point rubbing his bald head into the beard of a very dignified Muslim cleric). He is disarmingly self-effacing: “I am not god,” quoth the 14th reincarnation of the Lord of Compassion. “I don’t know” is a consistent refrain.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">But his view of the world is also highly consistent and occasionally controversial. He argues that ethics are primary and unifying, while religion belongs to “a secondary level of difference.” What he calls “secular ethics” can be derived from “common experience and common sense,” which teaches the “sameness of humanity” and the universal capacity for, and need for, love and compassion. For evidence, he turns to neuro science and social scientific research on child development rather than to scripture. (He has mandated a(He has mandated a science curriculum for Tibetan monasteries.) Human beings, in his view, are essentially good and responsible for doing good. “We promote a more compassionate world,” he said, “through education, not through prayer.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">If this sounds familiar, it is not far from the social ethics — not the theology — of some strains of liberal Protestantism. And the Dalai Lama shares something with Pope Francis: an impatience with institutional religion, which he says is prone to be “narrow and rigid.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The Dalai Lama is keen to argue that “all religions carry the message of love and compassion.” In more careful moments, he says, “all religions have the same potential.” This is true — from a certain perspective. Each of the world’s major religions has resources of respect for the other that can (and should) be emphasized at the expense of less attractive elements.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Some of the faithful will resist the Dalai Lama’s frank insistence that religion be modernized. “Some traditions must change. I tell my Hindu friends, they must change their treatment of outcasts.” In Islam, “the meaning of jihad is not hurting other people.” His own tradition he described as “too close to the feudal system.” “This is not a change in religion. It is changing habits due to social tradition.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">This religious essentialism — defining a core of humane teaching that stands in judgment of a tradition’s cultural expressions — is what helps ensure that religion is a positive cultural force. Conservative Protestants in the United States who dispute this idea still demonstrate it. The treatment of women in most evangelical churches is closer to common American practice than to the Apostle Paul’s first-century attitudes, and it should be.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">The uniqueness of the Dalai Lama’s voice in global debates is his emphasis on the inner life. He roots the pursuit of peace in a “calm mind” — and displays it. “External disarmament,” he told the gathered young activists, “begins with internal disarmament. If you show anger, things get worse. A genuine smile and warmheartedness and a joke are the only way to cool things down.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It is good advice for anyone facing conflict — as well as the only basis for a peace that involves trust, forgiveness and healing.</p>
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</div> Putin Speech at Valdai Forum 2015 - World between War and Peacetag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2015-11-06:6363372:Topic:30543052015-11-06T20:16:57.878ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><h1 style="text-align: center;">Putin Speech at Valdai Forum 2015 - World between War and Peace</h1>
<p><img class="align-center" height="342" id="irc_mi" name="irc_mi" src="http://i.forbesimg.com/media/lists/people/vladimir-putin_416x416.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="342"></img></p>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="http://healfukushima.org/2015/10/23/transcript-of-vladimir-putins-speech-at-the-valdai-club-october-22/" rel="nofollow">October 23, 2015</a></span> …</div>
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<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><h1 style="text-align: center;">Putin Speech at Valdai Forum 2015 - World between War and Peace</h1>
<p><img class="align-center" src="http://i.forbesimg.com/media/lists/people/vladimir-putin_416x416.jpg" style="margin-top: 0px;" id="irc_mi" name="irc_mi" height="342" width="342"/></p>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/2015/10/23/transcript-of-vladimir-putins-speech-at-the-valdai-club-october-22/">October 23, 2015</a></span> <span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><a rel="nofollow" class="url fn n" href="http://healfukushima.org/author/smartmeterharm/">admin</a></span></span> <span class="entry-tags"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/missile-defense/">missile defense</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/nuclear/">nuclear</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/syria/">Syria</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/terrorism/">terrorism</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/valdai-club/">Valdai Club</a>, <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/vassals/">vassals</a>,<a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/tag/vladimir-putin/">Vladimir Putin</a></span></div>
<div class="entry-content"><p>President Putin’s speech was approximately 30 minutes long; the transcript is below is partial, only providing about 2/3 of it. The Kremlin website says “to be continued”, so hopefully the full transcript of his speech and answers to questions, as well as the remarks of the other speakers will be available soon. It would be helpful if names of the speakers are also listed, since the Valdai Club website does not have any information about the final panel or its moderator.</p>
<p>This was a panel of speakers. In addition to President Putin, the other speakers were the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, the former President of the Czech Republic, and former American ambassador Jack Matlock. The initial speaker is not identified, and the moderator is not identified other than being American.</p>
<p>The moderator, unfortunately, is a surprising and detracting choice from the overall discussion. A better choice would have been someone with an actual background in US foreign policy, from an independent point of view and with a respectful attitude. Anglo-American ignorance and bombast are so frequent in public, but there are other Americans who would have provided an intelligent and enlivening addition to the discussion and a humble attitude. A knowledge disconnect does not further the discussion. And it is a Russian forum, after all. Valdai cannot sabotage its own aims by attempting to dialogue with those whose heads are in the sand if it wants to maintain legitimacy, advance the cause of peace, and advance the discussion past what is already well known. When a transcript of the moderator’s remarks becomes available, it will be posted on this website, along with some easily available resources to provide background on why Russia and other countries are correct in their assessment of American threat.</p>
<p>After speakers’ remarks, questions from the moderator and from the audience start about 1:24.</p>
<p>From en.Kremlin.ru</p>
<p><em>Vladimir Putin took part in the final plenary session of the 12<span>th</span> annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.</em></p>
<p>This topic of this year’s Valdai conference is <i>Societies Between War and Peace: Overcoming the Logic of Conflict in Tomorrow’s World. </i>In the period between October 19 and 22, experts from 30 countries have been considering various aspects of the perception of war and peace both in the public consciousness and in international relations, religion and economic interaction between states.</p>
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<p><span>President of Russia Vladimir Putin</span>: Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,</p>
<p>Allow me to greet you here at this regular meeting of the Valdai International Club.</p>
<p>It is true that for over 10 years now this has been a platform to discuss the most pressing issues and consider the directions and prospects for the development of Russia and the whole world. The participants change, of course, but overall, this discussion platform retains its core, so to speak – we have turned into a kind of mutually understanding environment.</p>
<p>We have an open discussion here; this is an open intellectual platform for an exchange of views, assessments and forecasts that are very important for us here in Russia. I would like to thank all the Russian and foreign politicians, experts, public figures and journalists taking part in the work of this club.</p>
<p>This year the discussion focuses on issues of war and peace. This topic has clearly been the concern of humanity throughout its history. Back in ancient times, in antiquity people argued about the nature, the causes of conflicts, about the fair and unfair use of force, of whether wars would always accompany the development of civilization, broken only by ceasefires, or would the time come when arguments and conflicts are resolved without war.</p>
<p>I’m sure you recalled our great writer Leo Tolstoy here. In his great novel <i>War and Peace,</i> he wrote that war contradicted human reason and human nature, while peace in his opinion was good for people.</p>
<p>True, peace, a peaceful life have always been humanity’s ideal. State figures, philosophers and lawyers have often come up with models for a peaceful interaction between nations. Various coalitions and alliances declared that their goal was to ensure strong, ‘lasting’ peace as they used to say. However, the problem was that they often turned to war as a way to resolve the accumulated contradictions, while war itself served as a means for establishing new post-war hierarchies in the world.</p>
<p>Meanwhile peace, as a state of world politics, has never been stable and did not come of itself. Periods of peace in both European and world history were always been based on securing and maintaining the existing balance of forces. This happened in the 17<span>th</span> century in the times of the se-called Peace of Westphalia, which put an end to the Thirty Years’ War. Then in the 19<span>th</span> century, in the time of the Vienna Congress; and again 70 years ago in Yalta, when the victors over Nazism made the decision to set up the United Nations Organization and lay down the principles of relations between states.</p>
<p>With the appearance of nuclear weapons, it became clear that there could be no winner in a global conflict. There can be only one end – guaranteed mutual destruction. It so happened that in its attempt to create ever more destructive weapons humanity has made any big war pointless.</p>
<p>Incidentally, the world leaders of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and even 1980s did treat the use of armed force as an exceptional measure. In this sense, they behaved responsibly, weighing all the circumstances and possible consequences.</p>
<p>The end of the Cold War put an end to ideological opposition, but the basis for arguments and geopolitical conflicts remained. All states have always had and will continue to have their own diverse interests, while the course of world history has always been accompanied by competition between nations and their alliances. In my view, this is absolutely natural.</p>
<p>The main thing is to ensure that this competition develops within the framework of fixed political, legal and moral norms and rules. Otherwise, competition and conflicts of interest may lead to acute crises and dramatic outbursts.</p>
<p>We have seen this happen many times in the past. Today, unfortunately, we have again come across similar situations. Attempts to promote a model of unilateral domination, as I have said on numerous occasions, have led to an imbalance in the system of international law and global regulation, which means there is a threat, and political, economic or military competition may get out of control.</p>
<p>What, for instance, could such uncontrolled competition mean for international security? A growing number of regional conflicts, especially in ‘border’ areas, where the interests of major nations or blocs meet. This can also lead to the probable downfall of the system of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (which I also consider to be very dangerous), which, in turn, would result in a new spiral of the arms race.</p>
<p>We have already seen the appearance of the concept of the so-called disarming first strike, including one with the use of high-precision long-range non-nuclear weapons comparable in their effect to nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>The use of the threat of a nuclear missile attack from Iran as an excuse, as we know, has destroyed the fundamental basis of modern international security – the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The United States has unilaterally seceded from the treaty. Incidentally, today we have resolved the Iranian issue and there is no threat from Iran and never has been, just as we said.</p>
<p><span>The thing that seemed to have led our American partners to build an anti-missile defense system is gone. It would be reasonable to expect work to develop the US anti-missile defense system to come to an end as well. What is actually happening? Nothing of the kind, or actually the opposite – everything continues.</span></p>
<p><span>Recently the United States conducted the first test of the anti-missile defense system in Europe. What does this mean? It means we were right when we argued with our American partners. They were simply trying yet again to mislead us and the whole world. To put it plainly, they were lying.</span> It was not about the hypothetical Iranian threat, which never existed. It was about an attempt to destroy the strategic balance, to change the balance of forces in their favor not only to dominate, but to have the opportunity to dictate their will to all: to their geopolitical competition and, I believe, to their allies as well. This is a very dangerous scenario, harmful to all, including, in my opinion, to the United States.</p>
<p>The nuclear deterrent lost its value. Some probably even had the illusion that victory of one party in a world conflict was again possible – without irreversible, unacceptable, as experts say, consequences for the winner, if there ever is one.</p>
<p>In the past 25 years, the threshold for the use of force has gone down noticeably. The anti-war immunity we have acquired after two world wars, which we had on a subconscious, psychological level, has become weaker. The very perception of war has changed: for TV viewers it was becoming and has now become an entertaining media picture, as if nobody dies in combat, as if people do not suffer and cities and entire states are not destroyed.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, military terminology is becoming part of everyday life. Thus, trade and sanctions wars have become today’s global economic reality – this has become a set phrase used by the media. The sanctions, meanwhile, are often used also as an instrument of unfair competition to put pressure on or completely ‘throw’ competition out of the market. As an example, I could take the outright epidemic of fines imposed on companies, including European ones, by the United States. Flimsy pretexts are being used, and all those who dare violate the unilateral American sanctions are severely punished.</p>
<p>You know, this may not be Russia’s business, but this is a discussion club, therefore I will ask: <span>Is that the way one treats allies? No, this is how one treats vassals who dare act as they wish – they are punished for misbehaving</span>.</p>
<p>Last year a fine was imposed on a French bank to a total of almost $9 billion – $8.9 billion, I believe. Toyota paid $1.2 billion, while the German Commerzbank signed an agreement to pay $1.7 billion into the American budget, and so forth.</p>
<p>We also see the development of the process to create non-transparent economic blocs, which is done following practically all the rules of conspiracy. The goal is obvious – to reformat the world economy in a way that would make it possible to extract a greater profit from domination and the spread of economic, trade and technological regulation standards.</p>
<p>The creation of economic blocs by imposing their terms on the strongest players would clearly not make the world safer, but would only create time bombs, conditions for future conflicts.</p>
<p>The World Trade Organization was once set up. True, the discussion there is not proceeding smoothly, and the Doha round of talks ended in a deadlock, possibly, but we should continue looking for ways out and for compromise, because only compromise can lead to the creation of a long-term system of relations in any sphere, including the economy. Meanwhile, if we dismiss that the concerns of certain countries – participants in economic communication, if we pretend that they can be bypassed, the contradictions will not go away, they will not be resolved, they will remain, which means that one day they will make themselves known.</p>
<p>As you know, our approach is different. While creating the Eurasian Economic Union we tried to develop relations with our partners, including relations within the Chinese Silk Road Economic Belt initiative. We are actively working on the basis of equality in BRICS, APEC and the G20.</p>
<p>The global information space is also shaken by wars today, in a manner of speaking. The ‘only correct’ viewpoint and interpretation of events is aggressively imposed on people, certain facts are either concealed or manipulated. We are all used to labeling and the creation of an enemy image.</p>
<p>The authorities in countries that seemed to have always appealed to such values as freedom of speech and the free dissemination of information – something we have heard about so often in the past – <span>are now trying to prevent the spreading of objective information and any opinion that differs from their own; they declare it hostile propaganda that needs to be combated, clearly using undemocratic means</span>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we hear the words war and conflict ever more frequently when talking about relations between people of different cultures, religions and ethnicity. Today hundreds of thousands of migrants are trying to integrate into a different society without a profession and without any knowledge of the language, traditions and culture of the countries they are moving to. Meanwhile, the residents of those countries – and we should openly speak about this, without trying to polish things up – the residents are irritated by the dominance of strangers, rising crime rate, money spent on refugees from the budgets of their countries.</p>
<p>Many people sympathize with the refugees, of course, and would like to help them. The question is how to do it without infringing on the interests of the residents of the countries where the refugees are moving. Meanwhile, a massive uncontrolled shocking clash of different lifestyles can lead, and already is leading to growing nationalism and intolerance, to the emergence of a permanent conflict in society.</p>
<p>Colleagues, we must be realistic: military power is, of course, and will remain for a long time still an instrument of international politics. Good or bad, this is a fact of life. The question is, will it be used only when all other means have been exhausted? When we have to resist common threats, like, for instance, terrorism, and will it be used in compliance with the known rules laid down in international law. Or will we use force on any pretext, even just to remind the world who is boss here, without giving a thought about the legitimacy of the use of force and its consequences, without solving problems, but only multiplying them.</p>
<p>We see what is happening in the Middle East. For decades, maybe even centuries, inter-ethnic, religious and political conflicts and acute social issues have been accumulating here. In a word, a storm was brewing there, while attempts to forcefully rearrange the region became the match that lead to a real blast, to the destruction of statehood, an outbreak of terrorism and, finally, to growing global risks.</p>
<p>A terrorist organist, the so-called Islamic State, took huge territories under control. Just think about it: if they occupied Damascus or Baghdad, the terrorist gangs could achieve the status of a practically official power, they would create a stronghold for global expansion. Is anyone considering this? It is time the entire international community realized what we are dealing with – it is, in fact, an enemy of civilization and world culture that is bringing with it an ideology of hatred and barbarity, trampling upon morals and world religious values, including those of Islam, thereby compromising it.</p>
<p>We do not need wordplay here; we should not break down the terrorists into moderate and immoderate ones. It would be good to know the difference. Probably, in the opinion of certain experts, it is that the so-called moderate militants behead people in limited numbers or in some delicate fashion.</p>
<p>In actual fact, we now see a real mix of terrorist groups. True, at times militants from the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other Al-Qaeda heirs and splinters fight each other, but they fight for money, for feeding grounds, this is what they are fighting for. They are not fighting for ideological reasons, while their essence and methods remain the same: terror, murder, turning people into a timid, frightened, obedient mass.</p>
<p>In the past years the situation has been deteriorating, the terrorists’ infrastructure has been growing, along with their numbers, while the weapons provided to the so-called moderate opposition eventually ended up in the hands of terrorist organizations. Moreover, sometimes entire bands would go over to their side, marching in with flying colors, as they say.</p>
<p>Why is it that the efforts of, say, our American partners and their allies in their struggle against the Islamic State has not produced any tangible results? Obviously, this is not about any lack of military equipment or potential. Clearly, the United States has a huge potential, the biggest military potential in the world, only double crossing <em>[translation on video: <span>a double game</span></em>] <span>is never easy.</span> <span>You declare war on terrorists and simultaneously try to use some of them to arrange the figures on the Middle East board in your own interests</span>, as you may think.</p>
<p>It is impossible to combat terrorism in general if some terrorists are used as a battering ram to overthrow the regimes that are not to one’s liking. You cannot get rid of those terrorists, it is only an illusion to think you can get rid of them later, take power away from them or reach some agreement with them. The situation in Libya is the best example here.</p>
<p>Let us hope that the new government will manage to stabilize the situation, though this is not a fact yet. However, we need to assist in this stabilization.</p>
<p><i>To be continued.</i></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50548">http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/50548</a></p>
<p>Translation from: <a rel="nofollow" href="http://healfukushima.org/2015/10/23/transcript-of-vladimir-putins-speech-at-the-valdai-club-october-22/" target="_blank">http://healfukushima.org/2015/10/23/transcript-of-vladimir-putins-s...</a></p>
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<p></p> Ringing In World Peacetag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2015-01-25:6363372:Topic:29111252015-01-25T17:43:46.574ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<p>Peace is here.</p>
<p>Peace is everywhere.</p>
<p>Wherever you go there is peace, so long as you always carry peace in your own heart.</p>
<p>The peace in every heart is seductive but your peace must still be wooed because we each rise up genetically through bloodshed and violence that is biochemically programmed in our DNA.</p>
<p>We must make peace with our own urges to be violent and confrontational before we can discover new friends whom we might once have regarded as foes.</p>
<p>We do…</p>
<p>Peace is here.</p>
<p>Peace is everywhere.</p>
<p>Wherever you go there is peace, so long as you always carry peace in your own heart.</p>
<p>The peace in every heart is seductive but your peace must still be wooed because we each rise up genetically through bloodshed and violence that is biochemically programmed in our DNA.</p>
<p>We must make peace with our own urges to be violent and confrontational before we can discover new friends whom we might once have regarded as foes.</p>
<p>We do not need to set aside our beliefs, we do not need to conform, but we need peace to survive and to thrive.</p>
<p>Peace calls to us, with every embrace we make we find peace.</p>
<p>The peace in your heart is part of a world-family-of-peace that every heart belongs with.</p>
<p>The peace in your heart unites you with all people, with all of nature, and most of all, the peace in your heart unites you with yourself, with your family, and with your friends.</p>
<p>Your world-family-of-peace has always existed despite all war and bloodshed, despite all domestic abuse or violence. Your world-family-of-peace always accepts you, you are accepted even when you cannot accept yourself or your family.</p>
<p>Let the peace in your heart ring with resonance in response to the peace to be found in all other hearts.</p>
<p>This is the ringing that brings peace.</p>
<p>Embrace your peace and your peace embraces you.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Enjoy!</p>
<p>Love, Grigori Rho Gharveyn, etc, et al…</p> Ancestral Peace Processtag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2014-07-22:6363372:Topic:27805092014-07-22T15:16:58.435ZMARGARIDA MARIA MADRUGAhttps://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/MARGARIDAMARIAMADRUGA
<p><iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="www.youtube.com/embed/xQ_Q9aJ5vOE?wmode=opaque" width="560"></iframe>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113290099?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113290099?profile=original" width="500"></img></a></p>
<ul>
<li>Sound of Present,</li>
<li>Sound of Future,</li>
<li>Sound of Past;</li>
<li>Sound of Time in between time, the sound of Dream time ((reality))</li>
<li>Sound of Peace…</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xQ_Q9aJ5vOE?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113290099?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113290099?profile=original" width="500" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<ul>
<li>Sound of Present,</li>
<li>Sound of Future,</li>
<li>Sound of Past;</li>
<li>Sound of Time in between time, the sound of Dream time ((reality))</li>
<li>Sound of Peace</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113289957?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113289957?profile=original" width="441" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">But, before Peace, there must be Justice</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And before Justice, there must be Truth</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And before Truth, there must be Love</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">And before Love, there must be Trust</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">~ Goomblar</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://aboriginaldream.com/components/com_virtuemart/shop_image/product/Colleen_WALLACE__4fb8d1f4e08a0.jpg"/></p>