Post No. 717 – For Sunday evening’s meditation-clearing

For everyone’s convenience, I’ve shifted the reminders / explanations about Sunday’s meditation-clearing to this post. I have a simplified blogiography of posts related to this work here, a list of themes I have identified here, and my changing the personality of oppressors post, which I am contemplating expanding to include some key people to work on, is here.

Now, the themes – short, medium and long term - that come to mind for my work this week, after I review all this news, are (and no apologies if this repeats the themes of any previous weeks – in fact, given the size of this task, that is to be expected):

(a) based on my interpretation of information here and here with Jupiter in Leo contributing to an expansion of opinions, beliefs and perceptions (until 11^th August, 2015), Saturn in Sagittarius contributing to finding an authentic balance (until 20^th December, 2017), Uranus in Aries contributing to fresh and possibly radical starts (until some time in the Year 2018), and Pluto in Capricorn contributing to a transformation of power and business (and careers) (until some time in the Year 2024), conditions are ripe for a change for the better in world politics;

(b) it is important to have the intellect, objectivity and perspective to enable data, information and intelligence to be correctly used;

(c) China’s leaders need to consider whether they wish to be as much of a bully as the old imperial powers;

(d) the international community – particularly Russia – needs to consider the doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect”, with regard to Syria;

(e) all those who could next lead the opposition in Russia needs BPLF protection and inspiration;

(f) the Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, needs BPLF inspiration, patience and persistence;

(g) the leaders of Iraq need to, as notorious others have said, “consider the unthinkable”, and build a genuinely inclusive society;

News and other matters from this week include the following (opportunities/good news are shown in green; comments are shown in purple; WARNING: some of these links may contain triggers around issues such as violence, sexual assault, discrimination, etc). Incidentally, the purpose of reading these news links is not only to inform: it is also to stimulate a connection to nonBPLF units that need to be cleared and BPLF units that need to be strengthened. That only works if you don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by this, so take it in small chunks if you need to, but remember to actively clear and heal! … including yourself.

• permanent issue: may all actual and potential BPLF [1] Leaders be kept BPLF safe, including keeping them undetectable to the nonBPLF and keeping all their Significant Others inviolable against being used for indirect psychic attack, all as is for the Highest Spiritual Good;

• with regard to Da’esh and violent extremism generally (note: I generally won’t necessarily add links to mainstream stories here, if I consider you, Dear Reader, should be aware of them anyway):   Da’esh is re-emerging in southern Syria;   a review of Da’esh’s strategies and tactics, which is critical of interpretations and assumptions made by the US-led coalition, which is meeting in Paris;   another critique of the response to Da’esh, which is critical generally of the West in this region (these two are particularly useful, and I’m still thinking about them);   speaking at the Arab Media Forum on “The Role of Media to Combat Terrorism”, Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said that it is undeniable that extremist groups present a serious threat to international peace and security and that their effective use of social media to spread propaganda and to recruit vulnerable young women and men from all regions of the world to join their ranks is also undeniable. He said that in our efforts to counter terrorism, we also need the support of the world’s media: we have to work closely with traditional and social media partners to get stories of courage out about returnees from violent extremist groups and victims of terrorism, who can turn their tragedy into a positive force to counter and prevent radicalisation; President Pranab Mukherjee has said the ideas of truth, dialogue and non-violence espoused by Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi provide the best way to tackle the challenges of terrorism faced by the world community;   the USA Freedom  Act has ended a system exposed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden (on that, an appalling abuse by an Australian private security firm on Nauru);   a security company has suggested that a growing band of hacktivists is helping Da’esh spread its message by attacking media organisations and websites;   the USA now claims that Assad is helping Da’esh;   an ex-member’s report on how Da’esh fosters hatred;   a relative, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was advised by the hotline Monis ‘wasn’t a threat’ because he had not sought to go overseas;   an attack in Nigeria;   smuggling of relics from Syria by Da’esh is reportedly “unstoppable”;   following an ambush in Manipur which killed 18 soldiers, internal reviews into procedural failures are underway, and India is discussing the attackers with Myanmar, as they have fled there;   a suicide bombing in Nigeria has killed and injured dozens of people;

• with regard to the war in Yemen:   the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that more than one million people are estimated to be internally displaced since mid-March in Yemen as a result of the conflict;   most injuries and deaths in Sanaa are being caused by the Houthis anti-aircraft fire (reminiscent of the under-acknowledge problem of being firing guns into the air, which I once read killed an astonishing number of people - see here, here and here for more on this);   the Houthis have said they will attend the UN-sponsored Geneva peace talks;

• with regard to the conflict in Syria:   the Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has strongly condemned the death of at least 70 civilians in Syria's northern Aleppo province by barrel bombs dropped from Government helicopters (what has happened to “Responsibility to Protect”, or R2P, to use the TLA (three letter acronym)?);   a report of chemical attacks by the Syrian government;

• with regard to the Libyan civil war:   the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has condemned the suicide bombing that took place near Misrata earlier this week;   a report that most Libyan groups are now supporting a political solution;   the UN Support Mission in Libya announced today that the next round of Libyan political dialogue sessions will commence on 8^th June in Morocco;   those fighting Da’esh in central Libya have insufficient weapons and ammunition;

• with regard to the conflict in eastern Ukraine:   the latest report by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says that serious human rights violations and abuses – including shelling, executions, arbitrary detentions, torture and human trafficking – persist in the east of the country;   some clarity on Russian media madness over the Ukrainian government and human rights in areas controlled by Russia;   Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said that while the situation in the east has remained tenuous, the ceasefire continues to largely hold in most parts of the conflict zone, the number and pace of casualties have generally slowed, and the political process aimed at full implementation of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements is finally underway – which is indispensable for leading eastern Ukraine and the country out of this crisis;   an article suggesting that both sides in Ukraine's thawing civil war feel they have lost the attention of their war-weary foreign supporters, and that a return to open combat could be the best way to achieve their goals – and avoid hard political and economic realities both sides would prefer to ignore;

• with regard to Russia:   more military confrontations;   a retaliation by Russia which is probably to be expected. On Russia, if the portrayal of Russian political views in the US TV series “House of Cards” is anywhere near correct, I am appalled that the people living in free and independent nations adjoining Russia could be seen as cheap, expendable cannon fodder – which is what concerns over foreign nations are doing outside Russia’s borders do. Those concerns are understandable, given Russia’s experience later in World War Part Two (noting that Russia fought with Nazi Germany initially), but still morally objectionable;

• with regard to the conflict in Afghanistan:   the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has expressed outrage at the murder of nine aid workers from the People in Need non-profit organization;   a critical review of the Afghan local police;   an article on Afghan children doing hard labour rather than being in school, as a result of poverty and conservatism;

• with regard to China:   a ship giving the trip of a lifetime to elderly, retired people has capsized, with concerns about hundreds of people;   more on the South China Sea dispute here (an alarming action by the Chinese), here (urging caution), here, here,    one of the most widely read analysts of elite politics in China, Willy Wo-Lap Lam, has written that Xi is “Following Mao Zedong’s playbook”;

• with regard to the natural and other catastrophes :   in his remarks at the informal briefing of the General Assembly on Ebola, the Secretary-General stressed that we are in the last mile of the response, but the job is not done, and on 10 July, in New York, he will convene an International Ebola Recovery Conference to help mobilize the resources needed to start early recovery;   the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that some 2.8 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the earthquake in Nepal;   the heat wave is continuing in India;   an explosion in Ghana has killed dozens of people who were sheltering from flooding;   the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare will conduct a joint mission following a recent outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Republic of Korea;   a review of the possibility that natural disasters can enhance peacebuilding efforts;   an earthquake in Malaysia has killed at least two people;

• with regard to refugees:   an article on the danger of conflating migrant smuggling with human trafficking, which is a deliberate tactic on behalf of policy makers to govern migration as though it were a criminal act;   accusations that the Rohingyas are being forced to flee by the Burmese government;   refugees in Serbian camps who have been there for 20 years are now mixing with refugees from Syria, and an article on Syrian refugees who have been caught up in the conflict in Ukraine, and a refugee from Libya making a new start in Tunisia;   another area where a minority attempting to flee discrimination are being blocked;   the UN Refugee Agency is appealing for $13 million to help with the needs of new boat arrivals in Southeast Asia, where thousands of refugees and migrants have been crossing the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea;   the UN Refugee Agency has said that, in Greece, it is stepping up its field presence in the eastern Aegean islands of Greece, where in recent weeks sea arrivals from Turkey have been averaging some 600 people a day, which is straining the limited – and in some cases non-existent – local reception capacities;

• with regard to democracy, freedom and governance:   the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, has noted that the recommendations of the East African Summit provided the Burundi Government with an additional opportunity to create the conditions for peaceful and credible elections, and he encouraged the Government to seize that opportunity to take concrete steps, specifically, to ensure security of the electoral process and of political and civil society actors, the disarmament of armed civilians, strengthening of the national independent electoral commission (CENI), and the vote of refugees, and he encouraged the Government to resume its participation in the consultative political dialogue in good faith;   an article on “pockets of progress” in African democracy;

• with regard to discrimination:   the second ever official report on discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity to the Human Rights Council presents evidence of continuing, pervasive, violent abuse, harassment and discrimination affecting LGBT and intersex persons in all regions, and contains 20 recommendations directed at national governments, including to legally recognize same-sex relationships, to ensure access to legal identity documents that reflect an individual's self-identified gender, and to end abusive therapies and treatments, including so-called "conversion" therapy, forced sterilization of transgender persons and certain medical procedures on intersex children;   a march against “femicide” in Argentina;   US President Obama proclaimed June 2015 as LGBT Pride month, calling upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people;

• with regard to education:   the UN Children’s Fund has started distributing the first batches of teaching and learning kits to thousands of schools across Liberia, where more than one million children have been affected by the closure of schools during the peak of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia;

• with regard to police and policing:   Ukraine has sacked all its traffic police, allegedly for being ‘bribe hungry’;   one day after the shooting of a terror suspect, Boston police met with community leaders and shared footage from the shooting, which at least one person at the meeting suggested such a tactic could become a national model;   police in Australia ensure a truce to avoid violence between bikers;

From the Daily Briefings of the United Nations (UN) (and other sources):

• in his remarks at a ceremony marking the 65^th anniversary of the establishment of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the Secretary-General said that in the absence of a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has become more than an Agency: it is a lifeline and a vital stabilizing factor at a time of turmoil in the region, and he repeated his call to the leaders of Israel, Palestine and all parties with influence to resume meaningful negotiations without further delay, and put an end to unilateral actions that erode trust;

• child abuse and violence is costing countries in East Asia and the Pacific more than $200 billion per year, which is equivalent to 2 per cent of the region’s Gross Domestic Product, according to new research commissioned by the UN Children’s Fund;
• the High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said he has urged several States to intensify their efforts to investigate allegations of very serious human rights violations by soldiers sent to keep the peace in the Central African Republic, and, in light of the recent serious allegations of sexual abuse against children in the Central African Republic by foreign troops not under the authority of the United Nations, the Secretary-General has decided to set up an External Independent Review to examine the UN system’s handling of these allegations; (on that, the Pope’s representative has been critical of George Pell, which I am glad of. See also here);

• the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has said, regarding the Central African Republic, that they are deeply concerned that, more than 15 months after being informed of very disturbing allegations of the enforced disappearance of at least 11 people, including 5 women and one child, by troops from the Republic of Congo, their whereabouts remain unknown - a full and transparent investigation has not been conducted by responsible authorities inside or outside the country;

• the High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged the new administration of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to take measures to bring to justice perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses, whether non-State or State actors, following interviews with individuals rescued from towns previously held by Boko Haram;

• the Secretary-General has spoken at the high-level event of the General Assembly on the Demographic dividend and Youth Employment, and stressed that a lack of jobs feeds insecurity, while a jobs-rich country can have a wealth of stability;

• the Food and Agriculture Organization has stressed that Middle East and North Africa is the only region to have seen its overall prevalence of undernourishment increase compared to a quarter of a century ago;

• the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that it is appalled at the two-year prison sentence handed down in Myanmar to U Htin Lin Oo on charges of insulting religion;

• the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is concerned about the conditions of detention and the deteriorating health of Daniel Ceballos, the former mayor of Tachira State in Venezuela;

• the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights says it is concerned about the harsh treatment of detainees at the Jaw Prison in Bahrain following a riot there in early March;

• Monday 8^th June, is World Oceans Day, and this year’s theme is “Healthy Oceans, Healthy Planet”;

From other sites:

• Human Rights Watch also has:   an article on the other problems at FIFA;   an article on the ethical issues around fully autonomous weapons, or “killer robots”;   an article on a report, released by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security, which found that US Customs and Border Protection’s way of measuring whether or not deported migrants illegally cross the border again is inadequate;   a call for the Chinese government to finally acknowledge and take responsibility for the massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators in June 1989, along with a report on young Chinese already discussing that;   a review of the poor human rights situation in Central Asia, which includes “we also heard variations of, “The region is transforming at its own pace,” and my all-time favourite, the inevitable call for “strategic patience.” This may seem like a cost-free diplomatic approach for the West, but it comes across as a callous insult to people who have been living under authoritarian rule for over two decades”;

• the Middle East Eye also has:
   - in a worrying development, Saudi's Shia have established (unarmed) self-defence committees, after deadly mosque attacks, as rewards are offered for information on the terrorists;   a police officer has been shot by unknown gunmen during a security operation to protect over 94,000 mosques in Saudi Arabia after two consecutive weeks of suicide attacks during Friday prayers;
   - a review of the issue of recognition of Palestine, which concludes that existing recognitions demonstrate there has been a seismic shift in international consensus and that it is time to liberate its fate from American hegemony, and an article reports on the impact boycott movements are having on Israel;   the” nuclear double standard” in the Middle East; (also, the UN Secretary-General has condemned the firing of rockets by militants from Gaza towards Israel);   a stand-up comedy act in Gaza;
   - an explosion at a largely Kurdish political party’s rally in Turkey has killed at least two people;   questions over the fairness of the Turkish election campaigns;   see here for an overview of the elections and the associated politics;
   - a human rights group in Egypt accuses the judiciary of double standards over its handling of police charged with offences and protestors, as President Sisi continues to lose support;   an article on the experiences of human rights activists, many of whom appear to be choosing to stay and fight;
   - Sudan’s new President has vowed to bring “a new age”;
   - a review of Lebanon’s Presidential hopefuls,. and whether they can end the power vacuum;
  

• Haaretz (I’m not a subscriber/registered user, so am relating this based on heading and first paragraph) has:   members of an Israeli NGO that has come under fire from a government minister this week for "working against Israel from within", “Breaking the Silence”, have met with senior White House officials;   a campaign (“Since when is oppressing the stranger a Jewish value?”) to make Israelis care about the plight of African asylum seekers;   a Brazilian university is seeking to list Israelis on campus, allegedly at the behest of pro-Palestinian groups;   growing population is a pressing but touchy subject in Israel;   a study has found that Saudis consider Iran, not Israel, their top enemy … and that they should have nuclear weapons;   Israeli propaganda isn't fooling anyone – except Israelis (“'Hasbara' is the Israeli euphemism for propaganda, and there are some things, said the late ambassador Yohanan Meroz, that are not 'hasbarable.' One of them is Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians);

• the Nonviolent Conflict site has links to:   a review of the Arab Spring which includes “Revolutions are not hatched in smoke-filled rooms or by activists armed with Twitter and Facebook accounts: rather revolutions are made by everyday people who are no longer afraid”;   an article claiming that the “slide to dictatorship” is now complete in the Maldives;   a new book, edited by Véronique Dudouet and titled "Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation" (available here or here – but it is very expensive, at $100), has been released authors writing on eight prominent contemporary cases (Western Sahara, West Papua, Palestine, South Africa, Chiapas, Colombia, Egypt and Nepal) in which movements have switched from armed to nonviolent methods, which includes conclusions that nonviolent action can be a method of choice for resistance struggles, and that transitions from armed to nonviolent struggle are nearly always complex and messy;

• the US-based and -centric “War on the Rocks” blog (which I have found may also have other articles that I have concerns with - and thus do not provide links to, unless I want you to think … :) ) has:   an evidence-based review which concludes there was no high-level conspiracy by Pakistan to protect bin Laden, but that there were “second-or-third degree of separation interactions between low-level Pakistani intelligence operatives with the front-men for international groups like al Qaeda”;   Republican US Presidential hopeful Senator Rand Paul has directly blamed the more hawkish wing of the Republican Party for responsibility for what is happening in Iraq and Syria, and claimed that they have been wrong about most foreign policies for the past 20 years;

• the Justice in Conflict blog has:   an article wondering why the International Criminal Court’s investigation in Mali, perhaps on a backburner because of limited resources and respect for the peace process, has not been written about;   a critical review of the trial of one of the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious human rights abusers, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, commandant of the S-21 prison, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum;

and, from other sources:

• The Hindu also has:   the fight against hunger is too slow and too uneven;   a review of water justice in India;   an assessment of India’s defence needs, based on the “hostile nuclear situation”;   the Karnataka government’s decision to file an appeal against the acquittal of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, is bound to be welcomed by all those who value probity in public life and believe that the courts are the right forums to take forward issues relating to corruption in high places;   India and the Netherlands will collaborate on fighting terror and cyber-crime and have decided to set up a joint working group on counter-terrorism;   Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Bangladesh has been described as “historic”;   tensions arose in Jammu during a curfew on Friday, a day after a Sikh youth was killed in a police shooting;

• the BBC also has:   a review of the tensions between Greece and the European Union;   a report that a rights group has said award-winning Bangladeshi writer and human rights activist Taslima Nasreen has fled from India to the US after she was named as an al-Qaeda murder target;   a report that polio cases in Pakistan have dropped by 70% this year as troops make territorial advances in the north against militants opposed to vaccination programmes;

• Spiegel International has:   a report on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s struggle to free his country from the influence of the oligarchs, which a new generation of reformers is determined to make happen;   an interview with an investigative whistleblower who penetrated one of Russia’s “troll factories” supporting Russian propaganda;

• the (South African) Mail & Guardian also has:   a report that six of the world’s largest energy companies have written a letter to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), asking for help in setting up a scheme that would put a price on carbon;   a South African businessman in Marathon, Germiston is taking the protection of foreign nationals from xenophobic attacks into his own hands;   an assessment that Burundi is on the brink of economic collapse;   a critique of South African President Zuma, and an editorial;   a concerning call to give military missions “more teeth” to “protect civilians while politicians negotiate”;

• Saudi Arabia is trying to get social media-savvy imams to toe the government line;

• on the communist insurgency in the Philippines, which has killed over 40,000 people, Adelberto Silva, the highest ranked leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People's Army, has been arrested;

• an angry, stupid, frustrated and unhelpful response to Indonesia’s recent executions by someone who needs to be gently helped to a broader, more patient perspective. On inappropriate and unhelpful actions, the violent clashes between xenophobes and anti-racists have not been helpful (I still lay responsibility for that squarely with the evil former PM, John Howard): they have continued – and Australia’s soul is at stake, not just over the issue itself, but over how the battle is fought;

• for light relief, an alleged spy pigeon … ;

• concerns over a flaw in the USA’s defence systems (this can lead to more pre-emptive aggression by the nation which feels at risk);

• Iran rejects allowing inspections of any future nuclear facilities (not helpful, Iran, not helpful);

• http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/malcolm-turnbull-draws-line-in-the-sand-on-terrorism-fervour-20150603-ghg4u7.html, and some common sense on measures being considered;

• http://www.monbiot.com/2015/05/27/a-prehistory-of-violence/;

• “Silence, Power and Politics”;

• Australian parliaments have passed “scores of laws” that threaten fundamental rights and freedoms, the Human Rights Commission President, Professor Gillian Triggs has said in a forceful speech;

 

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here, here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

[3] I apologise for the formatting: it seems Blogger is no longer as WYSIWYG as it used to be, and there are a lot of unwanted changes to layout made upon publishing, so I often have to edit it immediately after publishing to get the format as close to what I want as possible.

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr, Wéofodthegn

(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux … aka Morinehtar … would-be drýicgan or maga ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "Pagans for Peace" project (and join me for a few minutes at some time between 8 and 11 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate-clear for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour, and see also here and be flexible.

Tags: activism, discrimination, energy work, magick, meditation, nonviolence, peace,  society, violence, war,

First published: Laugardagr, 6^th June, 2015

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Saturday, 6^th June, D-Day, 2015