Monday, September 29, 2003

The Principles of Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in India and was murded in 1948 by the fanatic Hindu Nathuram Godsey. Gandhi was a Hindu as well and born in the second highest cast. Hindus hold the belief that people get born in a cast in which they stay their whole life. When their behavoir according to the religious rules of Hinduism is good they get in a higher cast in their next life. On the other hand, if they behave badly they get in a lower cast. There are also the Untouchables or people without a cast. People from other casts treat them badly and very often would not even touch them. They live in the biggest poverty and have hardly any chances to live a good life. In the time Gandhi was born India was a colony of the British Empire. The British ruled the country for several hundred years. Many people lived in great poverty because the British took all the wealth. After school Gandhi went to London and studied Law in an university. He became a lawyer. Shortly after he was back in India an Indian firm wanted him to go to South Africa where he worked for them. In South Africa the Indians were not welcome by the white settlers. One day Gandhi got pushed out of the train when he refused to leave his seat for a white person. It was then that decided never to be pushed down again and to fight for the rights of minorities. He started to lead the Indian workers in South Africa and fought for their rights. He made a very important rule for himself which he used his whole life: never to use violence in his fights, even if others would use violence against him. So he started to fight for the rights of Indian workers in South Africa and he had great success. And he never used violence. ... When people came to him and said that it would be their right to kill someone if that person had killed their son or wife Gandhi used to reply: "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". During the Second World War Britain did not have much power to keep India as a colony anymore and they started to talk about independence. After the war, in 1947 India got finally independent and the British left the country. But Gandhi did not feel like celebrating because religious fights broke out again. But with his speeches to the people and finally with his fast he stopped the violence and people lived together again. But India was divided into India and Pakistan. Pakistan was the part where most people were Muslims and India was the part with mainly Hindus. Gandhi did not want to divide the country but he could not help it. Shortly after his last fast with which he stopped the religious violence a fanatic Hindu shot him at his daily prayer. (09/29/03) The Evolution of Natural Agriculture Lisa M. Hamilton writes: The practice of Natural Agriculture follows the teachings of Mokichi Okada (1882-1955), a Japanese jeweler who became at once a spiritual leader and a farming pioneer. His basic philosophy took shape between world wars and was a sign of the terrifying times. The goal was to create a new civilization rooted in the health, safety, and fulfillment of all people—a heaven on earth. Achieving this would result from cultivating three basic priorities: spirit, beauty, and nature. Today Shumei has 300,000 members worldwide, mainly in Japan but also sprinkled throughout Asia and North America. They are organized into local centers, whose members fit into a complex hierarchy that binds the faith as it moves around the world. As it has grown, Shumei has accepted as part of its pursuit the duality of purity and compromise. Shumei means “divine light,” which is synonymous with the goodness that is the truth behind all life. That which obscures this light is a “spiritual cloud.” Put simply, the ultimate goal is to dissipate these clouds and thus purify the relationship between yourself and this supreme goodness. And yet throughout my interactions with Shumei members I was struck by signs of impurity that seemed contradictory. A farming sensai (revered teacher) talked deeply about ecology then smoked cigarettes and drank coffee with creamer from a tube. A grower referred to the soil as a person with a heart while standing next to rows of lettuce mulched with black plastic. It didn’t feel like a scam, but the contrast between elements seemed irreconcilable to my logical, linear Western mind. (09/29/03) Over 70? Forget Retirement Common Dreams -- If Sarah A. Hale could retire with a lot of money, she would buy an RV, throw a dart at a map and travel. "If I had enough money ... I certainly would know how to enjoy it," she said. Instead, Hale might work until she dies. Dressed in a blue Rite Aid smock, blue shorts and white tennis shoes, Hale glides through narrow aisles like a 30-year-old. But Hale is 70, and she puts in 40-hour weeks as a cashier at the pharmacy in the Rotunda shopping center. Three years ago, Hale retired as a licensed practical nurse. With no pension income, Hale was left to live on $676 a month. To supplement that meager sum, she took a part-time job at Rite Aid and some months later started to work full time. "I needed the money," Hale said. "Survival, that is the basic instinct. The good Lord must have known I had to make it in this life. He gave me a good mind and a strong back." She isn't sure how long she will work. "Till I die, I guess," she said. Retirement is part of the American dream, those golden years of rest and relaxation after a long life of work. Pensions, Social Security and savings make it possible. But, truth be told, retirement isn't what it used to be. Pensions, when available, are shrinking beside the swelling costs of making it through old age. Social Security doesn't add that much, and Medicare doesn't pay for drugs - the fastest-growing health care cost. Savings, which could once be counted on to produce supplemental interest income, yield a fraction of the dollars they once provided. Mounting costs of living and educating children are causing significant numbers of Americans not to save for retirement at all. So Hale and a growing army of retirees in Maryland and across the country are, of necessity, going back to work into their 70s and even 80s as security guards, cashiers, receptionists and bus drivers. (09/29/03) Lights Come Back on in Italy BBC World -- Electricity supplies are slowly being restored in Italy, after the worst power failure in its history. Much of the capital, Rome, and the north of the country are now reconnected, and the south of Italy is also returning to normal. Only the island of Sardinia escaped the outage, which struck at about 0330 (0130GMT) on Sunday morning. About 110 trains were reported to have been brought to a standstill across the country - trapping more than 30,000 people. Water supplies were also affected and hospitals reported a spate of accidents involving elderly people. Officials have warned that scheduled cuts may still be necessary. It is the latest in a series of major blackouts to affect national power grids - north-east United States and Canada were hit last month, and Denmark and southern Sweden on Tuesday. A power cut left London's underground transport in chaos last month. A row has broken out over the origin of the fault - the Italian national grid authority says malfunctioning supply lines from France caused the outage, but France says it originated in Switzerland. A Swiss power company said the problem began when a tree touched a transmission line near the town of Brunnen. Neighbouring areas of Switzerland and Austria were also hit. ... Italy suffered partial power cuts in June, when the system was strained by heavy use of air conditioners and other electric items. The national grid operator has repeatedly said power demand is growing faster than supply and that imported electricity would not make up for insufficient production in the long term. Following Sunday's major failure, ministers have authorised the construction of 20 new power stations, Italian news agency Ansa said. (09/29/03) Earth Breaks 2000 Year Heat Record BBC Science -- The Earth appears to have been warmer since 1980 than at any time in the last 18 centuries, scientists say. They reconstructed the global climate from data derived from ice cores, vegetation and other records. They believe their research provides unequivocal confirmation that humans are affecting the climate. But sceptics still insist that any human contribution is likely to be too small to explain what is happening. The scientists are Professor Philip Jones, of the climatic research unit, University of East Anglia, UK, and Professor Michael Mann, of the University of Virginia, US. Their study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, supports recent findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After studying temperature data from up to 1,000 years ago, the panel said the late 20th century had been the warmest period on record. To test the strength of claims that the world had in fact been warmer before 1000 AD, Professors Jones and Mann sought to reconstruct the global climate over the last two millennia. ... The authors were unable to find enough information to work out what the southern hemisphere's climate had been, but are satisfied their conclusion that the northern half of the planet is in the warmest period of the last 2,000 years is robust. ... Professor Jones said: "It just shows how dramatic the warming has been in recent years. You can't explain it in any other way - it's a response to a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." (09/29/03) 6:46:40 AM

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