Category: Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It


NYC Grand Parade Reveals History of Falun Dafa


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NEW YORK—Falun Dafa practitioner Yi Fan did not want to move to America when she left China two-and-a-half years ago because she wished to let more Chinese people know that Falun Dafa is good. Falun Dafa is a self-cultivation practice involving gentle exercise, meditation, and a teaching of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.

Fan was living under constant threat of arbitrary arrest and torture. She was imprisoned for many years and tortured for telling the truth about Falun Gong, but she said she would have never renounced her belief in the practice or disavowed its principles.

“A lot of people in China are fooled by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], by their lies,” she said through a translator. Fan, nearly 60 years old, finally surrendered to her daughter’s pleas to leave the mainland and move to the United States, and she immediately discovered the joy of freely practicing Falun Dafa again.

On Saturday, May 18, Fan was part of an annual Falun Dafa parade, surrounded by hundreds of brightly colored banners, and standing in line with nearly 8,000 other practitioners from all over the world.

After seeing the parade Ms. Zeng, a spectator, said the Chinese government cannot suppress Falun Gong. More and more people are participating and Falun Gong is well respected, she said.

 

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Chinese Quit Communist Party, Heralding a New China

Rally in New York City Supports Peaceful Movement

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I have received extensive testimonies underscoring that the situation in China has gotten worse. The crack- down is pervasive and severe.

US Congressman Chris Smith, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China

NEW YORK—Members of the Chinese Communist Party are leaving the party by the tens of thousands, like the grains of sand slipping through the CCP’s hourglass.

An event to support the 138 million Chinese who have quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations was held in front of the United Nations building in New York City on May 17. Hundreds of people, most of them Chinese, filled Dag Hammarskjold Plaza quietly holding banners, while speakers took turns at the podium, engaging the audience on what the Quitting the CCP movement really means for China today.

The “Tui Dang,” or “Quit the Party” movement is an embodiment of nonviolence and an awakening of conscience that is changing China. Introduced in November 2004 after an editorial series published by the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times revealed an uncensored history of the CCP, people began quitting by the tens of thousands, recording their decisions on a website maintained by supporters of the movement.

“In this way, the communist organization is quietly collapsing,” said Yi Rong, chair of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP.

Speakers ranged from the heads of several human rights organizations to people who have first-hand experience with the CCP’s system of forced labor camps and prisons, where Falun Gong practitioners are frequently tortured.

Many attendees were practitioners of the Chinese self-cultivation practice Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), which has been brutally persecuted by the CCP since 1999, according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, the official press office for Falun Gong. The CCP’s crimes—including over a 100 forms of torture—against the group were talked about by the speakers.

 

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ChinaForbiddenNews ChinaForbiddenNews

Published on May 18, 2013

China is a country with extremely serious drought problem.

It is also one of the 13 poorest countries for
water resources per head.
The mistakes in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
recent strategies and its reckless economic development,
have further exacerbated the water shortage problem.

An article published by British media on this issue wrote that,
water poverty may negatively impact China’s economic growth;
The “China Dream” will become difficult to achieve
if this problem is not solved as quickly as possible.

UK newspaper The Financial Times published
an article which said
in the rapid economic development China seems to be ignoring
the fact it is a huge nation with poor water resources.
It has only one-fourth of the global average amount
of water per person.
The continued decimation of natural resources and polluted
environment has quickly exacerbated the water shortage issue.
Now China’s economic growth is threatened by this issue.

The Financial Times article quoted a report of the World Bank.

This estimated the economic loss due to water poverty
has reached 2.3% of China’s GDP.

Sun Qingwei, head of Climate and Energy Project, Greenpeace:
“A good mode of economic development should
produce short-term GDP growth, and also protect sustainable
development for future generations in the long run.
In my opinion, the (CCP’s) mode of destroying water resources
and environment only for short-term interests is reckless.
Such economic development cannot be viewed as real.”

Dai Qing, observer of China’s political and social affairs:
“The CCP’s GDP is meaningless.
They are simply playing the number game, trying to prove
economic growth and better civil lives with a higher GDP.
However, they don’t care about the environmental cost of
such development, or depriving Chinese people of civil rights “

According to expert analysis, excluding the changes of natural
environment, the main reason for China’s water shortage is
still the massive emission of industrial and agricultural
water and water pollution.
The policy mistakes made by the CCP one after another
have made the situation even worse.
These mistakes include reclaiming lakes into fields, the
Three Gorges Dam project, south-to-north water diversion,
river diversions and other projects that were highly
controversial and opposed by experts.

Dai Qing: “We have investigated the water
shortage problem of Beijing.
There are two big rivers flowing into Beijing
from the countryside.
One is the Yongding River from the west, and the
other one is the Chaobai River from the east.
A number of dams have been constructed on both
rivers upstream, which block the majority of water flow.
For example, over 200 dams are built on
the upstream of Yongding River.
Therefore the river is completely dry in Beijing.
The situation is the same for Chaobai River.
On the other hand, the rivers originating in Beijing
cannot be used due to pollution.
This is one aspect of the water poverty problem.”

Sun Qingwei: “Now we see that the blockage of rivers with
dams and massively extracting groundwater has led to the
destruction of water resources in local regions.”

Statistics show that, since 2012 no less than 10 reports
have been released on China’s water poverty problem,
by HSBC Bank, KMPG, Greenpeace, Chinese Academy of
Sciences and other famous agencies.
Experts warn that, “No available water resource
will be left in China after 20 years.”

As so many research reports on water poverty were released,
the CCP officials seem to realize how serious the problem is.
Some remedial measures have been presented,
but have yet to be implemented.

Sun Qingwei: “Currently there have been some efforts
aiming at improvement of water resource management.
However, we are still far away from solving the problem, as
we haven’t seen any real implementation of those measures;
Especially in adjusting the mode of economic development.

If the style of over-consumption of natural resources and
destroying environment for economic growth does not
change, we cannot have any optimism about the situation.
Till now there has been no real action to make such a change.”

The Financial Times article further commented on the water
shortage problem has shown impact on China’s social, political, and economic affairs;
Without solving this issue, the CCP would never
achieve the “China Dream” they depicted.

 

by
May 19th, 2013
Updated 05/19/2013 at 12:14 am

 

monsanto protection act repeal 263x168 Monsanto Protection Act May Soon Be Repealed Thanks to ActivismThe so-called Monsanto Protection Act signed into law earlier this year caused such an outrage that people around the world are planning to protest the biotech company later this month. Now a United States Senator is expected to try and repeal that law after mounting pressure.

The notorious ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ rider stuffed into the non-related Senate spending bill may soon be repealed thanks to the massive amounts of activism and outrage that have now amounted into a legislative charge towards action. Action that has turned into legislation progress through Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who has announced an amendment that would remove Section 735 (the Monsanto Protection Act as its known) from the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 Senate spending bill.

The rider, which almost managed to slip incognito and pass by the alarm system of the alternative media, grants GMO juggernaut Monsanto full immunity from federal courts in the event that one of its genetically modified creations is found to be causing damage to health or the environment. Essentially, it grants Monsanto power over the United States federal government. Thankfully, I was able to get on the subject through news tips and covered the Monsanto Protection Act all the way up until the bill containing it was signed into law by Obama.

Ultimately, as the Monsanto Protection Act became more a hot issue, we had an increasing amount of publicity — but the Senate vote came just too quickly for the attention to put a halt on the rider. But even after its passing, sources like Russia Today, NaturalNews, Infowars, and myself here at NaturalSociety were sounding the alarm big time. Enough so that it even led to an apology from the top Senator who actually ended up approving the bill containing the rider.

 

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Andre Heath

Published on May 18, 2013

The CELESTIAL Convergence | http://thecelestialconvergence.blogsp…

May 18, 2013 – CHILE – Chilean Navy discovers more than 600 dead animals in Punta de Choros, a small fishing town north of La Serena.

The bodies of sea lions, cormorants and penguins littered a seven mile stretch of beach in Punta de Choros, northern Chile on Sunday. The crime scene is in close proximity to the Humboldt Penguin Nature Reserve.

Two days prior the Movement in Defense of the Environment (MODEMA) reported a band of ten fishing boats off the coastline of Punta de Choros. MODEMA and other environmental groups accused the boats of blast fishing — using explosives to catch mass quantities of fish.

Sernapesca, Chile’s National Fishing Service, investigated the scene and determined that all the animals were killed by the same incident. Autopsies report animales with fractured skulls, missing rib cages and multiple abrasions.

Local authorities promptly called in the Investigative Police’s (PDI) Environmental Crime Brigade for further investigation. Microbiological and chemical analysis tests are currently being run to determine if blast fishing is the cause of death.

In Chile, blast fishing is illegal. Companies caught fishing in this manner face prison time and fines. The monetary amount depends on the damage to the ecosystem. However, causing the death of penguins during commercial activities is a jailable offense. Officials from Sernapesca told The Santiago Times that the combined offenses amount to a “serious crime.”

“This situation is quite complicated because of the crime scene’s location near the penguin reserve,” Cristián Felmer, an environmental expert, stated to the press. “This is one of the most important environmental incidents we’ve had in recent memory.”

This isn’t the first environmental calamity at Punta de Choros. In April of last year, 350 Guayano cormorants washed up on the beach. The next month, Sernapesca reported the deaths of more than 80 sea lions.

In light of the most recent crime, the international marine conservation group Oceana is pushing to have Punta de Choros made a Marine and Coastal Protected Area (AMCP). The proposal would limit human activity along the more than 175-mile coastline to eco-friendly tourism.

“While there are two marine reserves in the area, this ecosystem is much larger and has little protection from threats such as those that apparently killed all these birds,” Alex Muñoz, executive director of Oceana, told press.

Oceana filed a joint proposal with scientists from Universidad Católica and the Center for Advanced Studies in Dry Areas (CEAZA) to make Punta de Choros a AMCP in 2010. The proposal came amid plans to build a thermoelectric power plant in the area. The highly controversial plan was scrapped after generating a wave of protests.

Punta de Choros is a small fishing village of 320 people. It is home to the largest population of Humboldt penguins in the world. The site attracts thousands of tourists annually.

The CELESTIAL Convergence | http://thecelestialconvergence.blogsp…

Chrispin Barnes

Uploaded on Feb 4, 2012

The father of astral travel.

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Richard Hoagland 1/6 Parsons Crowley NASA & the Occult

DSamSebe1

Uploaded on Mar 12, 2009

ENTIRE VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list…
A look into the occult influence of Aleister Crowley on Jack Parsons, founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL) and subsequently on NASA. Ceremony, Ritual and Symbolism of occult significance may be the governing force behind the space program. Uphold the Constitution. Defend the Bill of Rights. Preserve the Republic

Image Source

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More Americans Committing Suicide than During the Great Depression

Suicide rates are tied to the economy.

The Boston Globe reported in 2011:

A new report issued today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that the overall suicide rate rises and falls with the state of the economy — dating all the way back to the Great Depression.

The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that suicide rates increased in times of economic crisis: the Great Depression (1929-1933), the end of the New Deal (1937-1938), the Oil Crisis (1973-1975), and the Double-Dip Recession (1980-1982). Those rates tended to fall during strong economic times — with fast growth and low unemployment — like right after World War II and during the 1990s.

During the depths of the Great Depression, suicide rates in America significantly increased. As the Globe notes:

The largest increase in the US suicide rate occurred during the Great Depression surging from 18 in 100,000 up to 22 in 100,000

We’ve previously pointed out that suicide rates have skyrocketed recently:

The number of deaths by suicide has also surpassed car crashes, and many connect the increase in suicides to the downturn in the economy. Around 35,000 Americans kill themselves each year (and more American soldiers die by suicide than combat; the number of veterans committing suicide is astronomical and under-reported). So you’re 2,059 times more likely to kill yourself than die at the hand of a terrorist.

NBC News reported in March:

Suicide rates are up alarmingly among middle-aged Americans, according to the latest federal government statistics.

They show a 28 percent rise in suicide rates for people aged 35 to 64 between 1999 and 2010.

RT reports:

In a letter to The Lancet medical journal, scientists from Britain, Hong Kong and United States said an analysis of data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that while suicide rates increased slowly between 1999 and 2007, the rate of increase more than quadrupled from 2008 to 2010, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, NY Daily News wrote:

The Great Recession may have been at the root of a great depression that caused suicides to soar among middle-aged Americans, a government report speculates.

The annual suicide rate for adults ages 35 to 64 spiked in the past decade, according to a study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And a shaky economy that nose-dived into the worst financial crisis since the Depression may be the biggest reason why.

***

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said the annual suicide rate jumped 28.4% from 1999-2010.

It was the biggest increase of any age group, said the CDC, citing “the recent economic downturn” as one of the “possible contributing factors” for the increase.

“Historically, suicide rates tend to correlate with business cycles, with higher rates observed during times of economic hardship,” the report said.

David Stuckler (a senior research leader in sociology at Oxford), and Sanjay Basu (an assistant professor of medicine and an epidemiologist in the Prevention Research Center at Stanford), write in the New York Times:

The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century.

(And see these articles by the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.   This is obviously true world-wide.  For example, last year the New York Times reported:

The economic downturn that has shaken Europe for the last three years has also swept away the foundations of once-sturdy lives, leading to an alarming spike in suicide rates. Especially in the most fragile nations like Greece, Ireland and Italy, small-business owners and entrepreneurs are increasingly taking their own lives in a phenomenon some European newspapers have started calling “suicide by economic crisis.”

***

In Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24 percent from 2007 to 2009, government statistics show. In Ireland during the same period, suicides among men rose more than 16 percent. In Italy, suicides motivated by economic difficulties have increased 52 percent, to 187 in 2010 — the most recent year for which statistics were available — from 123 in 2005.)

Indeed, more Americans are killing themselves today than during the Great Depression. Specifically, there were were 123 million Americans in 1930.  The maximum suicide rate during the depths of the Great Depression was 22 out of 100,000  Americans.  That means that up to  27,060 Americans killed themselves each year.

 

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Piers Morgan: Now I see U.S. Government Tyranny (Video)

(Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Piers Morgan (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

by Chelsea Schilling
WND
May 17, 2013

Is British CNN host Piers Morgan finally admitting gun advocates have a point when they say the Second Amendment is to protect citizens from tyrannical government?

Morgan has made headlines for many months as he loudly trumpeted the cause of gun control, even to the detriment of his shows ratings.

Since the Sandy Hook massacre last year – in which Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 students and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. – Morgan has made advocating for gun-control legislation a frequent topic of his program, clashing with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich or rocker and National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent, for example, and calling Gun Owners of America’s Larry Pratt “an unbelievably stupid man” for disagreeing with him.

Following reports of his vitriolic attacks, a petition was started on the White House “We the People” website demanding Morgan be deported back to England – and it now has more than 109,000 signatures.

As WND reported, despite his avid criticism of guns, Morgan protects his own personal property with signs warning that it is guarded by “Armed Response Security Systems,” according to a recent investigation by self-described “guerrilla journalist” James O’Keefe.

And on March 11, Morgan insisted that, “people need the nanny state occasionally.”

Now – after learning of the Obama administration’s involvement in the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups and its secret seizure of Associated Press phone records – the CNN host admitted to guest Penn Jillette that perhaps gun advocates were right about creeping tyranny after all:

 

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Photo credit: AP | Emergency workers arrive the scene of a train collision, Friday, may 17, 2013 in Fairfield, Conn. A New York-area commuter railroad says two trains have collided in Connecticut. The railroad says the accident involved a New York-bound train leaving New Haven. It derailed and hit a westbound train near Fairfield, Conn. Some cars on the second train also derailed. (AP Photo/The Connecticut Post, Denis O’Malley) MANDATORY CREDIT     News 12 Brooklyn

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(FAIRFIELD, Conn.) — Two commuter trains serving New York City collided in Connecticut during Friday’s evening rush hour, sending 60 people to the hospital, including five with critical injuries, Gov. Dannel Malloy said.

About 700 people were on board the Metro-North trains when one heading east from New York City’s Grand Central Station to New Haven derailed about 6:10 p.m. just outside Bridgeport, MTA and Bridgeport officials said.

The train was hit by a train heading west from New Haven to Grand Central on an adjacent track, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. Some cars on the second train also derailed as a result of the collision.

Amtrak, which uses the same rails, suspended service indefinitely between New York and Boston.

Lola Oliver, 49, of Bridgeport, was riding one of the trains when the crash threw her from her seat.

“All I know was I was in the air, hitting seats, bouncing around, flying down the aisle and finally I came to a stop on one seat. And I just gripped it because I felt the train sliding,” Oliver told The Associated Press. “It happened so fast I had no idea what was going on. All I know is we crashed.”

Oliver, a cardiology technician at Stamford Hospital, was treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises and released.

Investigators Friday night did not know what caused the first train to derail. Malloy said there was no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident. The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team to investigate.

“We’re most concerned about the injured and ultimately reopening the system,” Malloy said from the scene about three hours after the crash.

The governor said that most people were not seriously hurt. Among those critically injured, he said, one’s injuries were “very critical.”

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Reblogged from  :   Earth First News Wire

17 May

Cross Posted from JapanTimesOpponents of nuclear power started a hunger strike Thursday to press the government to drop a lawsuit demanding they remove their tents from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

They sat down in chairs in front of the tents, wearing headbands and happi coats.

“We are not removing the tents,” they announced in a statement. “We are against the restart of nuclear power reactors.”

“People who are fighting for the end of nuclear power generation meet here and get information here,” said Setsuko Kuroda, 62, of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, who frequently visits the tents.

 

Read More Here

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