Thursday, May 9, 2013
Saffron revolution: The Power of Nonviolence
By Shaazka Beyerle and Cynthia Boaz
Published: Thursday, October 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/opinion/18iht-edbeyerle.1.7944048.html?_r=0
It was not a surprise that the Burmese junta violently cracked down on the "saffron revolution." The generals had lost all credibility in the eyes of their people, and were left with only one tool of control - repression.But no matter how many guns and tanks they have, the generals still depend on ordinary soldiers to do their dirty work. History teaches that once enough people stop carrying out their orders, or switch sides, the junta's power will disintegrate.
Through this lens, the saffron revolution isn't over, it has just begun.
Reports of defiance continue to leak out of Burma. Dissident sources report that opposition posters are appearing in public spaces, on prison walls, taped to helium balloons, and even on river rafts.
Protests are not the equivalent of a nonviolent movement, but they are one type of nonviolent tactic. Moreover, "people power" is not an inexplicable force whereby thousands of citizens suddenly materialize on the streets and trigger a conversion in the hearts of oppressors.
People power is the sustained, strategic application of a variety of nonviolent tactics, including civil disobedience, boycotts, strikes and noncooperation. Gene Sharp, a student of nonviolence, has documented over 198 kinds of nonviolent actions, and each successful struggle invents new ones.
The strategic objectives of nonviolent actions are four-fold. They can disrupt normal functioning in a city, region or country, thereby making business as usual impossible. Under Augusto Pinochet's brutal regime in Chile, the opposition called for a slow-down, and the designated day the majority of Santiago's residents walked at half speed and drove at half speed, and thus told the generals that they'd had enough - without putting a single person at risk.
A Burmese exile with sources inside Myanmar reported that activists there are "calling for noncooperation with the regime and for non-attendance of factories and offices."
Nonviolent actions, as Thomas Schelling, a Nobel laureate in economics, pointed out 30 years ago, can also deny an oppressor what it needs, such as money, food, supplies or manpower.
During the popular revolt against Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, the public withdrew its money from banks associated with the regime and stopped paying utility bills. This put real pressure on a cash-starved, mismanaged economy. Marcos needed money because repression does not come free. It costs huge sums to feed, transport and arm soldiers, as well as to buy the loyalty of the top brass and the inner circle.
Nonviolent strategies and action can also undermine the oppressor's pillars of support - the institutions and groups it needs to retain control - including the police and military. A Burmese exile reports hearing that Burmese soldiers are not fully obeying orders and that some are going AWOL, and that a rift has apparently developed between the two top generals in the ruling "State Peace and Development Council."
A lesson from past nonviolent struggles is the importance of communicating a vision of society based on justice, not revenge, which includes a place for those who defect from the oppressor's side.
Finally, nonviolent actions can themselves attract people to the opposition. A growing number of Myanmar's residents have been turning off their televisions, and even lights, when the regime's nightly newscast begins, thereby signaling support for the opposition and disgust for the government.
So if the generals wanted quiet, they got it - a quiet mobilization with a potential to grow. Such was the case in Turkey in 1997, when a protest against corruption that began with people turning off lights ended up with demonstrations by 30 million.
While in prison, the Reverend. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: "We know through painful experience that freedom is never given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." In Burma, thousands have been doing and continue to do just that.
Shaazka Beyerle is senior advisor at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Cynthia Boaz is assistant professor of political science and international studies at the State University of New York at Brockport.
Flowering Energies Emerge from Chaotic Events…
Those viewing thus communication with Higher Vision will understand their roles.
As participation in these energies is individually accepted, global acceptance and participation follows.
http://gaiaportal.wordpress.com/
Our Awesome Universe
A fascinating view and perspective of the Cosmos
BEYOND OUR SUN ... IT'S A BIG UNIVERSE.
ANTARES IS THE 15TH BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY.
IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOW TRY TO WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THIS.........
Each galaxy in the universe contains hundreds of billions of stars.
THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE.
THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS "ENTIRE" GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY. YES, EACH OBJECT AND EACH POINT OF LIGHT IS AN ENTIRE GALAXY WITH HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF STARS IN IT.
BELOW IS A CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE DARKEST REGIONS ABOVE.
HUMBLING, ISN'T IT?
SO,
HOW BIG ARE THE THINGS THAT UPSET YOU TODAY?
KEEP LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE.
AND DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!
BEYOND OUR SUN ... IT'S A BIG UNIVERSE.
IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOW TRY TO WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THIS.........
Each galaxy in the universe contains hundreds of billions of stars.
THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE.
THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS "ENTIRE" GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY. YES, EACH OBJECT AND EACH POINT OF LIGHT IS AN ENTIRE GALAXY WITH HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF STARS IN IT.
BELOW IS A CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE DARKEST REGIONS ABOVE.
HUMBLING, ISN'T IT?
SO,
HOW BIG ARE THE THINGS THAT UPSET YOU TODAY?
KEEP LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE.
AND DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!
Energetics of Gaia Set for Impressive Changes…
Each Hue-man has prepared for these moments, and will embody the changes, and rise above the chaos of the moment, when it arises.
Out of chaotic moments, comes Higher Order.
http://gaiaportal.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Check Out Who's Hiding $32 Trillion in Offshore Accounts
http://moneymorning.com/2013/05/01/check-out-whos-hiding-32-trillion-in-offshore-accounts/
More than two million emails that shed light on the biggest tax dodge in history - trillions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts - have been uncovered by the British newspaper The Guardian and the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.
This money is to the financial world what the Higgs boson and dark matter are to particle physics: It's tough to prove it's there, but the universe doesn't make much sense without it. It's just a matter of connecting the money to the people hiding it.
That's been a tall order... until now.
An Unprecedented Tax Dodge
Next to this bombshell, Wikileaks looks like a first-grader's game of Telephone.
In fact, the leak contains more than 200 gigabytes of data, compared with Wikileaks' two gigabytes.
The information is still being sifted through, even as it's being released to the public, but here's some of what's been found so far:
It bears repeating: $32 trillion has been stashed away, off the books, by corporations and wealthy individuals.
Let that sink in for a moment. The implications are stupefying. The real effects of this are far more subtle, and pernicious, but this makes for a fun thought exercise - even setting aside the fact that only some percentage of this huge sum would be fair game for the tax man.
In the extremely unlikely event that all $32 trillion was added to government coffers, that would be enough to give every man, woman and child alive on Earth today a roughly $4,600 "stimulus" check.
Maybe we could all enjoy a two-week vacation in the British Virgin Islands. After all, it seems to be the destination of choice for monied types...
The British Virgin Islands appear to be at the epicenter of this huge offshore stash.
The small Caribbean islands specialize in tourism and financial services. Along with far-flung places like Liechtenstein, Sark in the English Channel, the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, the Caymans and others, the British Virgin Islands are home to thousands of shadowy front companies, trusts and funds that host the bulk of this $32 trillion stash.
As of 2000, the last year verifiable data was available, roughly 400,000 companies were listed in the BVI offshore registry. The number certainly has increased. Some of these countries remain underdeveloped, their citizens impoverished, even though they have high per-capita GDPs, and trillions flow to and from their shores.
Tax havens like these tend to have in common secretive banking laws and loose residency requirements, which make them appealing to those with money to hide. In once extreme case, The Guardianlocated an erstwhile British subject, Sarah Petre-Mears, who was the "nominal director" of nearly 1,200 companies across the world.
Less a captain of industry and more a shill for dodgy investors, Petre-Mears ran companies fronting everything from porn sites to time-share vacation properties. She used dozens of different addresses across the globe, with most turning out to be post office boxes and mail drops.
The consequences of this enormous tax dodge are hard to calculate. How does one reckon who's entitled to what? Which country's tax rate do you use - Canada? Azerbaijan? Slovenia?
There's almost certainly an impact to national budgets, from highway construction to military spending to social programs.
It's safe to say that whenever anyone anywhere feels the sting of budget cutbacks, whether a brigadier-general in South Africa or a primary school teacher in England, they'll have a world-class selection of tax cheats in part to blame.
Journalists are still sifting through the data contained in this massive leak, but as they go along, there're no telling who will appear in the data - and those people are running out of time and places to hide.
More than two million emails that shed light on the biggest tax dodge in history - trillions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts - have been uncovered by the British newspaper The Guardian and the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.
This money is to the financial world what the Higgs boson and dark matter are to particle physics: It's tough to prove it's there, but the universe doesn't make much sense without it. It's just a matter of connecting the money to the people hiding it.
That's been a tall order... until now.
An Unprecedented Tax Dodge
In fact, the leak contains more than 200 gigabytes of data, compared with Wikileaks' two gigabytes.
The information is still being sifted through, even as it's being released to the public, but here's some of what's been found so far:
- American Denise Rich, ex-wife of pardoned tax cheat Marc Rich, has been uncovered as the settlor and beneficiary of two large trusts based in the tiny Cook Islands. The ICIJ found that Denise Rich gave up her American citizenship in 2012. Her citizenship was convenient enough when President Clinton had the authority to pardon her ex-husband.
- French President Francois Hollande, ardent socialist and tireless champion of the 75% marginal tax rate, appears in these documents, mostly by association. His campaign co-treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, has been forced to reveal the name of his Chinese business partner in a Caymans-based distribution company. Augier says he used his offshore company to make a large investment in China.
- Australian actor Paul Hogan, of "Crocodile Dundee" fame, has lost about $35.3 million from an account that he used to offshore his "bonza" film royalties. His once-trusted tax adviser Philip Egglishaw ran off with Hogan's sizeable hidden offshore stash.
- French banking scion Elie de Rothschild, of the famous banking family, has been named in the leaks. He was instrumental in setting up some 20 trusts and 10 holding companies in the Cook Islands, all extremely opaque in nature. His heirs have, not surprisingly, refused comment.
- Brigitte Bardot's third ex-husband, Gunter Sachs, a millionaire industrialist, has been revealed as the owner of a huge, obscure wealth-masking machine: trust upon shell company upon holding company, almost ad infinitum, mostly based in the Cook Islands. The ICIJ has constructed an interactive map of Sachs' extensive offshore holdings and business networks. The network is fairly representative of the steps that many on this list have taken to hide their wealth away. You can marvel at its imponderable complexity here.
How Much is $32 Trillion?
Let that sink in for a moment. The implications are stupefying. The real effects of this are far more subtle, and pernicious, but this makes for a fun thought exercise - even setting aside the fact that only some percentage of this huge sum would be fair game for the tax man.
In the extremely unlikely event that all $32 trillion was added to government coffers, that would be enough to give every man, woman and child alive on Earth today a roughly $4,600 "stimulus" check.
Maybe we could all enjoy a two-week vacation in the British Virgin Islands. After all, it seems to be the destination of choice for monied types...
A Bright, Sunny Hub for Dark Business
The small Caribbean islands specialize in tourism and financial services. Along with far-flung places like Liechtenstein, Sark in the English Channel, the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, the Caymans and others, the British Virgin Islands are home to thousands of shadowy front companies, trusts and funds that host the bulk of this $32 trillion stash.
As of 2000, the last year verifiable data was available, roughly 400,000 companies were listed in the BVI offshore registry. The number certainly has increased. Some of these countries remain underdeveloped, their citizens impoverished, even though they have high per-capita GDPs, and trillions flow to and from their shores.
Tax havens like these tend to have in common secretive banking laws and loose residency requirements, which make them appealing to those with money to hide. In once extreme case, The Guardianlocated an erstwhile British subject, Sarah Petre-Mears, who was the "nominal director" of nearly 1,200 companies across the world.
Less a captain of industry and more a shill for dodgy investors, Petre-Mears ran companies fronting everything from porn sites to time-share vacation properties. She used dozens of different addresses across the globe, with most turning out to be post office boxes and mail drops.
The consequences of this enormous tax dodge are hard to calculate. How does one reckon who's entitled to what? Which country's tax rate do you use - Canada? Azerbaijan? Slovenia?
There's almost certainly an impact to national budgets, from highway construction to military spending to social programs.
It's safe to say that whenever anyone anywhere feels the sting of budget cutbacks, whether a brigadier-general in South Africa or a primary school teacher in England, they'll have a world-class selection of tax cheats in part to blame.
Journalists are still sifting through the data contained in this massive leak, but as they go along, there're no telling who will appear in the data - and those people are running out of time and places to hide.
James Gilliland: We Are In Those Times All The Prophets, Saints and Sages Have Warned Us About
Contact Is Now, 5D Is Here – by James Gilliland, May 6, 2013
Many were waiting for the grand shift December 21st 2012. There was a shift yet it was the beginning not the ending. The dramatic things people were expecting on the day did not happen, nor were they meant to. There was a setting of the energy for the days to come and the sensitives and adepts were the only ones who really felt and understood what happened. This gave way to the naysayers, yet as we all know the big events happen soon after the skeptics have their say. We are now in those changes.
One gamma ray burst after another along with other rays within the electromagnetic spectrum are bombarding us. The magnetic poles are shifting, weakening, opening up the Earth to more consciousness, light, and energy. There is a great transformation happening, the wheat is being separated from the chaff and how that translates to today’s society is those who align with the wounded egos are being separated from those who align with the soul and spirit. Those operating outside of universal law are receiving the hard lessons, their deeds are surfacing, being exposed, and the reactions to their actions are being accelerated. The alignment with the Galactic plane, the end of the 25,000 year cycle is the main player in this unfoldment.
The ego, wounded and manipulated by social consciousness and the archon network can no longer operate within the new incoming frequencies. We are being given a choice yet each path leads in a different direction. The path to ascension, aligning with our soul and spirit, fulfilling our contracts we made before we incarnated, moving with Earth in her evolutionary process. Moving to the next level, living in peace and harmony with each other and nature is the wise choice. The path to descension, the downward spiral driven by a wounded ego and the programming of the matrix leads to social, economic, and environmental collapse. This is where the hard lessons reside. You cannot resurrect the past due to choices made by a wounded ego, the programming of the matrix influenced by the archon network. This will cause you the greatest pain and insecurity. That world is the chaff, and it is coming to a close. Lines are being drawn, polarities are being amplified, and those who refuse to align with soul and spirit are of no use to soul and spirit. Their world will be one of disarray, hardship, and their bodies will fail.
There are symptoms of this process. Your bodies will begin to talk with you; some will scream at you. As they try to adjust to the new energies, pains and diseases will come and go rapidly. There will be times of dizziness, spacing out, jumping between worlds – then asking where am I and why have I been feeling out of sorts. This is often from slipping in and out of dimensions. The veils between worlds are very thin, and those on the path to ascension are moving back and forth. You will see lights, wavy energies, and flashes in your peripheral vision. Many will feel they just don’t belong anymore in jobs, relationships, even geographical areas. Some will gravitate toward higher expressions; some will fall back into the old ways. You can’t drag your loved ones with you in this process; all you can do is hold the light, the consciousness, allow others their path even if you know the outcome. They may need the hard lessons, and that is the way their soul set it up. Many actually believe they can choose the wounded and programmed ego drive and get away with it. They believe in ignorance they can choose against the path of soul and spirit – even act against universal law. News flash: your soul and spirit have a different program for you, and it will be as hard as you make it.
We are in those times all the prophets, saints and sages have warned us about. It is undeniable, yet beyond even my own imagination; there are still those who are denying it. Their soul and spirit along with the source itself have a different plan and the old world of gaining love, acceptance and approval outside of self or from social consciousness is also coming to an end. Exacting self worth though outer appearances and material acquisition is no longer applicable. Why? Because this society is so dysfunctional and wounded it has nothing more to offer. The ugliest and most painful trick you can play on yourself is aligning with it. Where is the security in aligning with a sick, corrupt, unconscious world imploding in on itself?
The only real security is aligning with soul and spirit, stepping out of the old world, and creating a new world driven by soul and spirit from within. Leave the dysfunction of the past behind you, let go of the old ways that no longer serve you, humanity, or the Earth. Let go of the false security created by the insecurities within and make your own personal God/Spirit/Creator connection. Let that decide your future. Anything else will take you to the same fate as the chaff.
You are not alone in this process. The beautiful many saints, sages, and masters as well as benevolent off worlders, the Gods of old, are all part of this process. Not the jealous wrathful images and regenerate ETs – the greater family of man. This is a grand, unstoppable event. We can flow with it without resistance, or we can brace against it with resistance. The second path goes into the resistance-is-futile category. Try stopping a tsunami or warring on consciousness, light, and energy far beyond your imagination. They will both end with the same result. Time to release the past, be kind to yourself and others, and get with the program. Align with soul and spirit; become the wheat because harvest day is fast approaching; for some it is just around the corner. Be well and choose wisely.
James Gilliland
www.eceti.org
www.bbsradio.com
www.worldpuja.net
Many were waiting for the grand shift December 21st 2012. There was a shift yet it was the beginning not the ending. The dramatic things people were expecting on the day did not happen, nor were they meant to. There was a setting of the energy for the days to come and the sensitives and adepts were the only ones who really felt and understood what happened. This gave way to the naysayers, yet as we all know the big events happen soon after the skeptics have their say. We are now in those changes.
One gamma ray burst after another along with other rays within the electromagnetic spectrum are bombarding us. The magnetic poles are shifting, weakening, opening up the Earth to more consciousness, light, and energy. There is a great transformation happening, the wheat is being separated from the chaff and how that translates to today’s society is those who align with the wounded egos are being separated from those who align with the soul and spirit. Those operating outside of universal law are receiving the hard lessons, their deeds are surfacing, being exposed, and the reactions to their actions are being accelerated. The alignment with the Galactic plane, the end of the 25,000 year cycle is the main player in this unfoldment.
The ego, wounded and manipulated by social consciousness and the archon network can no longer operate within the new incoming frequencies. We are being given a choice yet each path leads in a different direction. The path to ascension, aligning with our soul and spirit, fulfilling our contracts we made before we incarnated, moving with Earth in her evolutionary process. Moving to the next level, living in peace and harmony with each other and nature is the wise choice. The path to descension, the downward spiral driven by a wounded ego and the programming of the matrix leads to social, economic, and environmental collapse. This is where the hard lessons reside. You cannot resurrect the past due to choices made by a wounded ego, the programming of the matrix influenced by the archon network. This will cause you the greatest pain and insecurity. That world is the chaff, and it is coming to a close. Lines are being drawn, polarities are being amplified, and those who refuse to align with soul and spirit are of no use to soul and spirit. Their world will be one of disarray, hardship, and their bodies will fail.
There are symptoms of this process. Your bodies will begin to talk with you; some will scream at you. As they try to adjust to the new energies, pains and diseases will come and go rapidly. There will be times of dizziness, spacing out, jumping between worlds – then asking where am I and why have I been feeling out of sorts. This is often from slipping in and out of dimensions. The veils between worlds are very thin, and those on the path to ascension are moving back and forth. You will see lights, wavy energies, and flashes in your peripheral vision. Many will feel they just don’t belong anymore in jobs, relationships, even geographical areas. Some will gravitate toward higher expressions; some will fall back into the old ways. You can’t drag your loved ones with you in this process; all you can do is hold the light, the consciousness, allow others their path even if you know the outcome. They may need the hard lessons, and that is the way their soul set it up. Many actually believe they can choose the wounded and programmed ego drive and get away with it. They believe in ignorance they can choose against the path of soul and spirit – even act against universal law. News flash: your soul and spirit have a different program for you, and it will be as hard as you make it.
We are in those times all the prophets, saints and sages have warned us about. It is undeniable, yet beyond even my own imagination; there are still those who are denying it. Their soul and spirit along with the source itself have a different plan and the old world of gaining love, acceptance and approval outside of self or from social consciousness is also coming to an end. Exacting self worth though outer appearances and material acquisition is no longer applicable. Why? Because this society is so dysfunctional and wounded it has nothing more to offer. The ugliest and most painful trick you can play on yourself is aligning with it. Where is the security in aligning with a sick, corrupt, unconscious world imploding in on itself?
The only real security is aligning with soul and spirit, stepping out of the old world, and creating a new world driven by soul and spirit from within. Leave the dysfunction of the past behind you, let go of the old ways that no longer serve you, humanity, or the Earth. Let go of the false security created by the insecurities within and make your own personal God/Spirit/Creator connection. Let that decide your future. Anything else will take you to the same fate as the chaff.
You are not alone in this process. The beautiful many saints, sages, and masters as well as benevolent off worlders, the Gods of old, are all part of this process. Not the jealous wrathful images and regenerate ETs – the greater family of man. This is a grand, unstoppable event. We can flow with it without resistance, or we can brace against it with resistance. The second path goes into the resistance-is-futile category. Try stopping a tsunami or warring on consciousness, light, and energy far beyond your imagination. They will both end with the same result. Time to release the past, be kind to yourself and others, and get with the program. Align with soul and spirit; become the wheat because harvest day is fast approaching; for some it is just around the corner. Be well and choose wisely.
James Gilliland
www.eceti.org
www.bbsradio.com
www.worldpuja.net
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