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Is a World Government on the Horizon?
By Melissa Charbonneau
CBN News White House Correspondent
December 6, 2007

CBNNews.com - President Bush is urging the Senate to ratify a treaty, supporters say, which will protect America’s access to strategic international waters and the natural resources they contain.
   
The Law of the Sea Treaty

But opponents warn the United Nation's "Law of the Sea Treaty" could be the next step to world government.

Click play to listen to Pat Robertson's comments at the end of CBN News Reporter Melissa Charbonneau's report.

The U.N. treaty governs the law of the seas - not just ocean access by military and commercial vessels - but control of natural resources from fishing rights and oil exploration to deep sea mining.
 
The 25-year-old treaty rejected by President Reagan and signed by President Clinton is being pushed by Bush. He's urging the Senate to ratify the treaty that already has 154 nations on board.

U.S. Navy Captain Pat Neher says The Law of the Sea Treaty is critical to national security and is needed to secure legal rights for U.S. armed forces to pass through key international straits.

“We're not a party. We're on the outside with a very small number of countries like Iran, Syria, North Korea, Libya,” he said.

Why are these so important?  All the worlds’ commerce goes through choke points. And if the U.S. is going to get Iraq to re-supply American troops, it needs to go through the Straight of Hormuz.

The U.S. doesn't want Iran, for example, to follow Australia's lead and use environmental regulatory control to try to assert authority over vessels carrying sustenance to American troops in Iraq.

But Senate Republicans and some conservative groups warn that the treaty surrenders American sovereignty to a U.N.-like organization, called The International Seaboard Authority, or ISA.

“It is comprehensive approach to addressing seven tenths of the world's surface and essentially turning it over to a U.N. on steroids,” former Reagan defense official Frank Gaffney said.

Gaffney says the ISA is run by bureaucrats from countries such as Cuba, China, and Venezuela, who have a record of hostility toward American interests.

“They’re people who are appointed, unaccountable, who operate in non-transparent ways. We don't elect them. They have no responsibility to us, and yet under this treaty they will have considerable ability to interfere with our lives,” Gaffney said.

Americans Could Pay a Price

The Navy says the treaty would not interfere with U.S. military activities. But critics worry Americans would still pay a price.

The treaty would require U.S. companies who want to mine the sea or drill for oil to first seek ISA permission. They must share technology, and pay fees, critics say, that would amount to a redistribution of wealth.

“The danger is once we get into this organization and submit to its dictates; once we start infusing tens of millions of dollars in terms of our annual tithing to pay for its operations, it's going to become a considerably more formidable,” Gaffney said.

And Gaffney says even if the U.S. joins the treaty, there's no guarantee other member nations will play by the rules.

“History is replete with examples in which we honor our treaty obligations and people who have nothing but contempt for treaties and international law will violate them,” he said.

Gaffney says China is already guilty of treaty violations with its aggressive actions in the South China Sea.

“We do have problems with China and reasserting rights contrary to the convention. Now, because we're not a party, we only have use of force - or ‘threat’ of use of force - in our tool kit.  What’s better for us is to have all tools available to us – including dispute resolution,” Neher said.

The Navy says ISA courts would settle disputes between nations. But without joining the treaty, America is denied a seat at the table with no vote or voice in the maritime debates.

“In the old days, Ghadafi would claim water as ‘all mine,’ and we'd have to go out there and through use of force, tell him that he's wrong. Today it's a more complex and subtle world,” Neher said.

Gaffney said, “The problem is, once we have a seat at the table, we're not going to be able to prevent bad things from happening. We will be obliged to live with whatever they come up with and we will be routinely outvoted.”

So then, is the Law of the Sea Treaty a threat to American sovereignty – or the key to U.S. security?

It's a decision that lies in the hands of the Senate as it moves to consider the decades-long debate.

Is a World Government on the Horizon? (http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/281353.aspx?option=print)

We've been watching and seeing how the world is becoming a One World Union/Unity/Universal entity for some time now. It's all starting to take shape, this is just making the dots connect even more.

-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------.-------. 

For those of you who know morse code...........

.--- . ... ..- ...,  ... .- ...- . ...

Brussels plays home to conference on religious coexistence
8 December 2007 - Issue : 759

Bringing representatives from different faiths together on one platform, an “International Conference on Interfaith Dialogue towards Global Peace” unanimously passed a resolution last week “Brussels Peace Declaration on Religious Coexistence” at Peace Embassy Brussels, Belgium. Announcing the formation of a Permanent Committee for Inter-faith cooperation, comprising religious scholar’s representatives of different Faiths and Communities, NGOs and media, the conference discussed inter-faith harmony, conflict resolution combating extremism, intolerance, hatred and violence in the name of religion. Reiterating their desire to promote and protect peace, justice, human rights, equality, genuine brotherhood, tolerance and friendly interaction among cultures and religions need to cultivated, promoted and nurtured to help create an environment conducive to building peace and harmony within communities and peoples, two organisations Universal Peace Federation (UPF) Belgium and European think tank Institute of Peace and Development (INSPAD) Belgium jointly affirmed that they will work together to these goals.

Muhammad Tahir Director Welfare Education Fauji Foundation based in Pakistan told audience in his keynote address that all religions “gave us one message of peace, harmony, love and compassion.” He explained Islamic history and tolerance in other religions, and said that there are a number of basic principles and moral values that govern our dealings with other nations.

Philippe Jacques Chairman UPF said in his welcoming remarks, “We are one family under God, we have to promote understanding and tolerance between all faith and religions.” UPF will continue these efforts in future with INSPAD, he added. Amin ul Haq President INSPAD appreciated the valuable efforts and role of United Nations, UNESCO and UPF for the promotion of Inter-faith, Inter-cultural Dialogue and religious coexistence. He said, “We reaffirmed our commitment to oppose, prevent and combat terrorism and extremism in all its forms and manifestations and we also condemned the instrumental use symbols and religious, cultural or ethnical values to generate conflicts, feed wars or to justify terrorism.” Willy Fautre Director HRWF appreciated the efforts aiming at promoting tolerance and respect between various faiths around the world while Bashy Quraishy Chairman ENAR Denmark said that this is a right time for reflection for Jewish and Muslim communities. He said that EU already established a Jewish- Muslim Dialogue Forum in Europe.

Farhat Jabeen, a Muslim scholar said, “Globalisation brings us the beauty of dialogue and interaction between various religions and cultures but because of misunderstanding and misinterpretation,  ???  it will also become the source of conflicts, tensions, struggles and polarisation.”

Nasir Zaidi Professor Bonn University Germany said, “Dialogue is need of the time, misunderstanding between religions and cultures are developing rapidly. We must accept and respect all religions and cultures.” Ingmar Jurgen Metthezing (Buddhist Monk) Holland said, “We saw war culture many places, mediation techniques can change into positive and peaceful thoughts.”

Joginder Singh, Sikh Gurdwara Vilvord, Brussels said, “Sikhism stands for human liberty, gender equality, fraternity, universalism, freedom of conscience, social justice and dynamic power.” Tahir Tabassum, Executive Director INSPAD said that prophets and messengers of all faiths and religions give us the teachings of peace, stability and integrity.

Brussels plays home to conference on religious coexistence (http://www.neurope.eu/articles/80667.php)

If I "misunderstand" correctly....there is ONE God...The Great "I AM". (please note the period at the end of sentence)  ;D

Don't hide it behind some dots and dashes brother.  ;) Yell it out!


JESUS SAVES

I guess most people don't know morse code anymore..... :-\

Nope, even ham operators are getting away from it.

 European Parliament president calls for bigger parliamentary role in EU-Africa strategy
2007-12-08 21:27:44

Major topics set for 2nd EU-Africa summit   

    LISBON, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering on Saturday called for a bigger role of parliaments from Africa and Europe in the partnership between the two continents.

    "I must express our disappointment at the fact that the drafting committees of the European Commission and the Commission of the African Union did not incorporate our demands into the texts which are currently before you for adoption," Poettering said at the EU-Africa summit.

    The summit, which opened here on Saturday, is being attended by leaders from 53 African countries and 27 European nations. A joint strategy mapping out the future of the EU-African relations is expected to be adopted at the summit.

    "This strategy should have a strong parliamentary dimension," Poettering said, "If we want to strengthen democratic institutions we must first of all enable parliaments to play their proper role."

    According to the joint strategy draft, African and European leaders will institutionalize their partnership.

    Poettering complained that involvement of the parliaments is "still missing" from the draft.

    All the parliaments of European and African nations must "be fully integrated into the institutional framework," he stressed.

    Poettering also called for "the right financial preconditions" to be created for the Pan-African Parliament. "It is essential to overcome the shortage of staff and funding from which the African parliament suffers."

    "Any support for the building of democratic institutions, if it is to be taken seriously, must not disregard the parliaments," he added.

European Parliament president calls for bigger parliamentary role in EU-Africa strategy (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/08/content_7219208.htm)

World powers gather in Paris to bankroll Palestinian state

Posted Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:00pm AEDT

Major powers and key donors meet in Paris on Monday (local time) for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly-relaunched peace process with Israel.

Ninety international delegations are expected at the one-day Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State, the biggest of its kind since 1996, which aims to shore up the process jump-started in the US city of Annapolis last month.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is seeking $A6.42 billion spread over 2008 to 2010 for an ambitious development plan to underwrite a promised state and tackle economic hardship in the Palestinian territories.

High-profile delegates gathering for the occasion include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will represent Israel, which is under pressure to lift restrictions on freedom of movement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to allow the Palestinian Authority's plan to take shape.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair, peace envoy for the Middle East quartet - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - is co-chair of the event along with host country France, peace-broker Norway and the European Commission.

Close to 70 countries will be represented, most at ministerial level, from the EU's 27 members to the major players of the Middle East, the Group of Eight industrialised nations, and emerging powers Brazil, China and India.

International organisations present will include the Arab League, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and European and Arab financial funds.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will open the proceedings, at Abbas' side, with a speech at 9:30 am (7:30pm AEDT) on Monday, before handing over to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner for the rest of the day.

At the US-sponsored meeting in Annapolis, Maryland last month, Israel and the Palestinians pledged to seek a peace deal by the end of next year, relaunching negotiations frozen for seven years.

Mr Abbas has said he is confident Paris will clinch the necessary aid - 70 per cent in budget support and 30 per cent for development projects - sending a powerful signal of backing for the peace process.

World powers gather in Paris to bankroll Palestinian state (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/16/2120061.htm)

All these countries continue to show that they have money to thrown into the bottomless pit called the PA. Hamas will probably actually get most of it.

This is moving quicker than I anticipated. The world is coming together for Palestine, thus against Israel. Just as the Bible tells us.

So now Iran, and Venezuela have stopped accepting U.S. currency for oil.
Can this be the beginning of a single world currency, which will eventually lead to micro-chip currency?
If we believe God, then yes.
Here's an article on the Iranian move...
http://en.rian.ru/world/20071208/91488137.html (http://en.rian.ru/world/20071208/91488137.html)

John

World bodies to talks on globalisation

By Hugh Williamson in Berlin
December 19 2007 02:00

Germany will today urge the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation to work better together in managing the social and environmental impacts of globalisation.

Angela Merkel, current chair of the G8 group of rich economies, has invited the heads of the three multilateral institutions, and those of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Labour Organisation, for talks in Berlin on creating "fair conditions for a social and open world economy".

The rare meeting aims to promote better co-ordination of initiatives to fight climate change, upgrade international social and environmental standards, and protect intellectual property rights, according to people familiar with the agenda.

They added that Ms Merkel had called the meeting because Germany had found during its G8 presidency that co-ordination was sometimes lacking, especially in areas of overlapping responsibility. The aim was not to dictate to the institutions but to promote information exchange, they noted.

As part of the initiative, the German chancellor is likely to ask the institutions to participate in a steering committee set up this year, bringing together the G8 countries with five emerging economies - China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

The committee was launched at the Heiligendamm G8 summit in June, as part of efforts to integrate the emerging nations into the G8 discussions on managing the global economy.

Robert Zoellick, who took over as World Bank president in July, has identified the promotion of "inclusive and sustainable globalisation" as one of his priorities, while both the OECD and the ILO have welcomed the German drive for greater co-ordination, officials said.

The role of the multilateral institutions in managing globalisation is also set to be a theme of a summit next month called by Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, involving Ms Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German officials said.

Mr Brown said last week that "Europe must play a leading role in reshaping the international institutions" in order to create a "more inclusive globalisation".

Improving protection of intellectual property rights has been a focus of Ms Merkel's G8 presidency, amid fears that Germany will lose out economically unless China and other emerging economies crack down harder on such abuses.

World bodies to talks on globalisation (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/883faf5c-add2-11dc-9386-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1)

Mexico to use biochip to control illegal immigration
Posted : Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:50:05 GMT
Author : IANS

Mexico City, Dec 28 - Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) has said it will introduce electronic registration for foreigners entering the country through the southern border to curb illegal immigration.

In a communique, the INM Thursday said Biochip implants would be used to control the entry of workers and visitors from Belize and Guatemala from March 2008, Spanish news agency EFE reported Friday.

The implant will replace the currently used local pass, which can be easily modified.

The biochip ID will allow total electronic registration of entries and departures, officials said.

The INM said a migration form for local visitors will be issued to residents of regions near the border with Guatemala, while the migration form for border workers will benefit workers in the area bordering Belize and Guatemala.

In 2006, Mexico nabbed 200,000 people trying to enter illegally through the southern border, according to INM figures.

Mexico to use biochip to control illegal immigration (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/165487.html)
~~~~~~~~~~~

Yet if the United States tried to do this, the world would scream foul!!!!!!!

Muslim religious leaders accept Pope Benedict's talks offer

Dec 28, 2007, 13:44 GMT

Rome - A group of 138 prominent Islamic religious leaders who are championing improved relations between Muslims and Christians have accepted an invitation by Pope Benedict XIV for a meeting and have suggested dates to prepare for such talks.

'In a letter to (Vatican Secretary of State) Cardinal Tarciso Bertone, we suggested a meeting could be held in February or March, to organize an audience with the Pope,' Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini an Italian imam and who co-signed the letter, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Friday.

The letter by the group of Muslim leaders which is headed by Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal was handed over to the Vatican's Nuncio or ambassador in Jordan's capital Amman on December 12, Pallavicini said.

Vatican Radio announced Thursday the letter had been received, but did not mention any dates for the proposed meeting between representatives of the Muslim leaders and Holy See officials.

In their letter the Muslim leaders also noted they were 'encouraged' to make their proposal following the historic meeting in November between the pontiff and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

The meeting at the Vatican marked the first between a pontiff and a Saudi monarch who traditionally also holds the Islamic title of Custodian of the Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina.

The group of 138 Muslims, under the auspices of an Amman-based non-governmental organization headed by Prince Ghazi, the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, first reached out to Christian leaders with a letter in October.

The letter addressed to Benedict but also to the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches, the Orthodox Church's patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I and other Orthodox patriarchs, was widely viewed as a breakthrough in Muslim-Christian relations.

Stressing that Muslims and Christians made up more than half the world's population, it identified their relations as 'the most important factor in contributing to meaningful peace around the world.'

In a November 19 letter signed by Bertone, Benedict thanked the Muslim leaders for their initiative and invited the group to engage in further dialogue with the church.

The pontiff who leads the worlds 1.1 billion Roman Catholics also said he wished to invite Prince Ghazi and 'a restricted group of the signatories of the open letter' to the Vatican to meet him for talks.

Benedict hurt the feelings of many Muslims when in a September 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany, he appeared to associate Islam with violence. But the pontiff has since worked to heal relations.

Benedict said his Regensburg remarks had been misinterpreted and apologized for the response they provoked, including violence in several countries.

The pontiff's subsequent visit to Turkey where he prayed in Istanbul's Blue Mosque and his meeting with King Abdullah have since improved his standing with Muslims.

Muslim religious leaders accept Pope Benedict's talks offer (http://news.monstersandcritics.com/europe/news/article_1383587.php/Muslim_religious_leaders_accept_Pope_Benedicts_talks_offer)

A number of articles are beginning to appear on the Internet suggesting that the current Islamic-Pope Benedict controversy may soon be resolved by a coming peace plan that will be initiated by the Roman Catholic Mary, the Queen of Peace. This plan would be mutually agreeable to Rome and Islam.

Vatican, Muslims Plan 'Historic' Meeting
Wednesday January 2, 2008 1:31 PM

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A meeting between Catholics and Muslims is planned in Rome this spring to start a dialogue between the faiths after relations were soured by Pope Benedict XVI's 2006 comments about Islam and holy war, Vatican officials said.

Benedict proposed the encounter as his official response to an open letter addressed to him and other Christian leaders in October by 138 Muslim scholars from around the world. The letter urged Christians and Muslims to develop their common ground of belief in one God.

The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano over the weekend that three representatives of the scholars would come to Rome in February or March to prepare for the meeting. He did not give a date for the meeting, other than say it would take place in the spring.

The agenda, he said, would cover three main topics: respect for the dignity of each person, interreligious dialogue based on reciprocal understanding, and instruction of tolerance among the young.

``The meeting with a delegation of some of the 138 Muslims, planned for Rome next spring, is in a certain sense historic,'' Tauran was quoted by L'Osservatore as saying.

Benedict angered Muslims with a speech in September 2006 in Germany in which he cited a Medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as ``evil and inhuman,'' particularly ``his command to spread by the sword the faith.''

The pope later said he was ``deeply sorry'' over the reactions to his remarks and that they did not reflect his own opinions. The Vatican has been working ever since to improve relations with moderate Muslims.

Vatican, Muslims Plan 'Historic' Meeting (http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7191877,00.html)

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Tony Blair joins investment bank
Tony Blair has taken a part-time post with US investment bank JP Morgan.

Mr Blair, who stood down as UK prime minister in June last year, has been employed "in a senior advisory capacity", the bank said.

He said he looked forward to advising the bank on the "political and economic changes that globalisation brings".

It is not known how much JP Morgan will pay him, but some estimates say more than $1m (£500,000) a year. The bank said he had a "unique perspective".

It said Mr Blair would advise the firm's chief executive and senior management team, "drawing on his immense international experience to provide the firm with strategic advice and insight on global political issues and emerging trends".

 "Our firm will benefit greatly from his knowledge and experience," it said.

Since leaving Number 10, Mr Blair has been an unpaid envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators.

Europe presidency

Mr Blair earlier told the Financial Times he planned to take up "a small handful" of similar roles with other companies in different sectors.

"I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of globalisation.

"Nowadays, the intersection between politics and the economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging markets, is very strong."

As an envoy for the Middle East quartet, Mr Blair works on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU.

In October, Mr Blair was publicly backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the job of president of the European Council - dubbed "president of Europe" - a role which will be created under the terms of the new EU reform treaty.

However, the former prime minister has played down speculation he is to be offered the job, with his spokesman at the time saying Mr Blair is "focusing on his current role in the Middle East".

JP Morgan, one of Wall Street's leading banks, is part of JP Morgan Chase & Co, a global financial services firm with assets of $1.5 trillion (£760bn) and operations in more than 50 countries.

Tony Blair joins investment bank (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7180306.stm)

Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'

Hi-tech 'satellite' tagging planned in order to create more space in jails. Civil rights groups and probation officers furious at 'degrading' scheme
By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor
Published: 13 January 2008

Ministers are planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.

Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.

But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle, the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice, are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals, including their identities, address and offending record.

The tags, labelled "spychips" by privacy campaigners, are already used around the world to keep track of dogs, cats, cattle and airport luggage, but there is no record of the technology being used to monitor offenders in the community. The chips are also being considered as a method of helping to keep order within prisons.

A senior Ministry of Justice official last night confirmed that the department hoped to go even further, by extending the geographical range of the internal chips through a link-up with satellite-tracking similar to the system used to trace stolen vehicles. "All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue," the source added.

The move is in line with a proposal from Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), that electronic chips should be surgically implanted into convicted paedophiles and sex offenders in order to track them more easily. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is seen as the favoured method of monitoring such offenders to prevent them going near "forbidden" zones such as primary schools.

"We have wanted to take advantage of this technology for several years, because it seems a sensible solution to the problems we are facing in this area," a senior minister said last night. "We have looked at it and gone back to it and worried about the practicalities and the ethics, but when you look at the challenges facing the criminal justice system, it's time has come."

The Government has been forced to review sentencing policy amid serious overcrowding in the nation's jails, after the prison population soared from 60,000 in 1997 to 80,000 today. The crisis meant the number of prisoners held in police cells rose 13-fold last year, with police stations housing offenders more than 60,000 times in 2007, up from 4,617 the previous year. The UK has the highest prison population per capita in western Europe, and the Government is planning for an extra 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8bn – including three gigantic new "superjails" – in the next six years.

More than 17,000 individuals, including criminals and suspects released on bail, are subject to electronic monitoring at any one time, under curfews requiring them to stay at home up to 12 hours a day. But official figures reveal that almost 2,000 offenders a year escape monitoring by tampering with ankle tags or tearing them off. Curfew breaches rose from 11,435 in 2005 to 43,843 in 2006 – up 283 per cent. The monitoring system, which relies on mobile-phone technology, can fail if the network crashes.

A multimillion-pound pilot of satellite monitoring of offenders was shelved last year after a report revealed many criminals simply ditched the ankle tag and separate portable tracking unit issued to them. The "prison without bars" project also failed to track offenders when they were in the shadow of tall buildings.

The Independent on Sunday has now established that ministers have been assessing the merits of cutting-edge technology that would make it virtually impossible for individuals to remove their electronic tags.

The tags, injected into the back of the arm with a hypodermic needle, consist of a toughened glass capsule holding a computer chip, a copper antenna and a "capacitor" that transmits data stored on the chip when prompted by an electromagnetic reader.

cont'd next post

But details of the dramatic option for tightening controls over Britain's criminals provoked an angry response from probation officers and civil-rights groups. Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: "If the Home Office doesn't understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don't need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass.

"Degrading offenders in this way will do nothing for their rehabilitation and nothing for our safety, as some will inevitably find a way round this new technology."

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the proposal would not make his members' lives easier and would degrade their clients. He added: "I have heard about this suggestion, but we feel the system works well enough as it is. Knowing where offenders like paedophiles are does not mean you know what they are doing.

"This is the sort of daft idea that comes up from the department every now and then, but tagging people in the same way we tag our pets cannot be the way ahead. Treating people like pieces of meat does not seem to represent an improvement in the system to me."

The US market leader VeriChip Corp, whose parent company has been selling radio tags for animals for more than a decade, has sold 7,000 RFID microchips worldwide, of which about 2,000 have been implanted in humans. The company claims its VeriChips are used in more than 5,000 installations, crossing healthcare, security, government and industrial markets, but they have also been used to verify VIP membership in nightclubs, automatically gaining the carrier entry – and deducting the price of their drinks from a pre-paid account.

The possible value of the technology to the UK's justice system was first highlighted 18 months ago, when Acpo's Mr Jones suggested the chips could be implanted into sex offenders. The implants would be tracked by satellite, enabling authorities to set up "zones", including schools, playgrounds and former victims' homes, from which individuals would be barred.

"If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" Mr Jones said. "You could put surgical chips into those of the most dangerous sex offenders who are willing to be controlled."

The case for: 'We track cars, so why not people?'

The Government is struggling to keep track of thousands of offenders in the community and is troubled by an overcrowded prison system close to bursting. Internal tagging offers a solution that could impose curfews more effectively than at present, and extend the system by keeping sex offenders out of "forbidden areas". "If we are prepared to track cars, why don't we track people?" said Ken Jones, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo).

Officials argue that the internal tags enable the authorities to enforce thousands of court orders by ensuring offenders remain within their own walls during curfew hours – and allow the immediate verification of ID details when challenged.

The internal tags also have a use in maintaining order within prisons. In the United States, they are used to track the movement of gang members within jails.

Offenders themselves would prefer a tag they can forget about, instead of the bulky kit carried around on the ankle.

The case against: 'The rest of us could be next'

Professionals in the criminal justice system maintain that the present system is 95 per cent effective. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is unproven. The technology is actually more invasive, and carries more information about the host. The devices have been dubbed "spychips" by critics who warn that they would transmit data about the movements of other people without their knowledge.

Consumer privacy expert Liz McIntyre said a colleague had already proved he could "clone" a chip. "He can bump into a chipped person and siphon the chip's unique signal in a matter of seconds," she said.

One company plans deeper implants that could vibrate, electroshock the implantee, broadcast a message, or serve as a microphone to transmit conversations. "Some folks might foolishly discount all of these downsides and futuristic nightmares since the tagging is proposed for criminals like rapists and murderers," Ms McIntyre said. "The rest of us could be next."

Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs' (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3333852.ece)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the surface this is a great idea! Monitor where and when the offenders violate the terms of their probation. However when (there is no IF) this gets into the wrong hands, there will be devastating consequences. This could be the precursor to The Mark Of The Beast. But be of gracious cheer, God is orchestrating all these events for His purposes, not mans.

More next post, lots more.....[/center]

[/i]

The Gaia Hypothesis – A Goddess Reborn

Anyone who has studied the global green movement has no doubt heard of "Gaia". Believers in Gaia, or ‘Gaians’ as they often refer to themselves, claim that the earth is a sentient super-being, an ancient goddess spirit, deserving of worship and reverence. Sir James Lovelock, in his book Gaia: ‘A new look at Life’, states that “all of the lifeforms on this planet are a part of Gaia - part of one spirit goddess that sustains life on earth. Since this transformation into a living system the interventions of Gaia have brought about the evolving diversity of living creatures on planet Earth.” Gaians teach that the "Earth Goddess", or Mother Earth, must be protected from destructive human activity. It is this belief that fuels the environmental movement, sustainable development, and a global push for the return of industrialized nations to a more primitive way of life.

Gaians claim that “we are part of Nature and Nature is part of us, therefore God is part of us, and God is everywhere, and everything is God”. In reality Gaia is actually a revival of the “Earth-goddess” found in many ancient pagan religions. The current Gaia Cult is a cunning mixture of science, paganism, eastern mysticism, wicca and feminism. While researching this subject I have been astounded by how many prominent environmental leaders, politicians, scientists, and religious leaders profess a literal belief in Gaia. Gaians appear to have infiltrated every level of power at the United Nations and risen to prominent positions in many Governments. I strongly believe that they are the most dangerous and devious cult on the face of the planet.

“Still more important is the implication that the evolution of humans, with his technological inventiveness and his increasingly subtle communications network, has vastly increased Gaia's range of perception. She is now through us awake and aware of herself. She has seen the reflection of her fair face through the eyes of astronauts and the television cameras of orbiting spacecraft. Our sensations of wonder and pleasure, our capacity for conscious thought and speculation, our restless curiosity and drive are hers to share.

This new interrelationship of Gaia with man is by no means fully established; we are not yet a truly collective species, corralled and tamed as an integral part of the biosphere, as we are as individual creatures. It may be that the destiny of mankind is to become tamed, so that the fierce, destructive, and greedy forces of tribalism and nationalism are fused into a compulsive urge to belong to the commonwealth of all creatures which constitutes Gaia.” – James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life (1972)

The modern Gaia hypothesis was originally formulated by James Lovelock. Dr Lovelock is one of the worlds most famous and influential scientists. He has degrees in numerous areas, including medicine, chemistry and physics. Lovelock worked for NASA during the 1960's as a consultant to the Viking spacecraft project. His task was to develop methods for detecting life on Mars. He claims that while searching for suitable methods he realised that conditions that allowed life to exist on Earth could not occur ‘naturally’. The system is so well balanced and yet so dynamic that life itself is acting like a self-regulating sentient super-organism. He famously told NASA that there was no possibility of life existing on Mars and they should cancel their mission.

Lovelock called his sentient, super-organism “Gaia”, after the ancient Greek Goddess of the Earth. In Greek Mythology it was Gaia that “brought Order out of Chaos”, a theme commonly quoted in Gaian texts. Lovelock believed that humans were a key part of this organism. He claimed that humans had evolved to a point where they had become Gaia’s “global brain” and “she is now through us awake and aware of herself. She has seen the reflection of her fair face through the eyes of astronauts and the television cameras of orbiting spacecraft.”

However, he also believed that humans were abusing the planet environmentally, jeopardizing the organism as a whole, "as though the human race is a cancer." In his latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock claims that Gaia is now fully awakened, and she is angry. Lovelock writes “Just as the human body uses a fever to fight off an infection, Gaia is raising Her temperature to expel a harmful parasite – humans. Unless humans renounce their destructive ways and rejoin the diverse community of living beings in Gaia’s loving embrace then Gaia will be forced to act in order to secure Her supreme reign”. In the book Lovelock also claims, that on the current trajectory, “the human population will be reduced to a few breeding pairs by the end of this century.”

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Lovelock rose to further global prominence when, in the late 1970s, he suddenly discovered that CFC’s were “destroying the Earths protective ozone layer”. He led a campaign which resulted in an international ban on these chemicals. Lovelock was also one of the first and most vocal proponents of the Global Warming theory. To a suspicious mind it may appear that controlling and eliminating CFC’s was a test case for the big prize, controlling and eliminating fossil fuels, thus removing the cause of Gaia’s pain – the modern industrial society. However, throughout his long career Lovelock has zealously promoted his Gaia theory. Two of his most recent publications are titled “Homage to Gaia” and “A Book of Hymns to Gaia.”

The Gaia hypothesis was eagerly accepted by the emerging new age movement in the 1970s as it combines neatly with eastern mysticism and neopagan theology, but “science” was needed to convince biologists. For these people, Gaia was made palatable by Lovelock's Daisyworld model, a mathematical and scientific theory designed to refute the criticisms of Darwinism. Just as evolution eliminates the need for a divine creator, the Daisyworld model provided a theory of evolving life on earth that incorporates natural selection with a sentient lifeforce. It eliminates a personal yet separate God, and makes humans a part of the divine spirit that is Gaia.

Interestingly climatology was the first branch of science to actively endorse the Gaian theory that Earth was a single, self-regulating system. Steven Schneider, Professor of Climatology at Stanford, organised the first international scientific conference to discuss “the implications of Gaia.” It was Schneider who later became the most vocal climatologist supporting Global Warming and once famously stated “we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public's imagination... So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts... Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.” The Gaia hypothesis, absent the spiritual connotations, has now been accepted into mainstream science and renamed the Gaia Theory. It can be found in most environmental science textbooks.

As mentioned previously the Gaia theory found its greatest resonance with the New Age movement who were entranced by the mystical side of Gaia. They found it easy to conceive that humans can have a spiritual relationship with Gaia. A connectedness to nature and the belief that humans are a part of this collective consciousness called Gaia appeals strongly to their worldview. A simple google search for gaia pagan, will reveal thousands of organisations proudly proclaiming themselves to literally be pagan priests and disciples of the great Goddess Gaia. There are dozens of Gaia Groups in most major cities. Wicca, which is said to be the fastest growing religion in the United States, is intimately connected with Gaia worship. In fact many Gaians call themselves witches and warlocks.

The feminist movement has also warmly embraced the concept of a Gaia Goddess. For many of these proponents, an integral part of Goddess worship is its prevalent theme of anti-masculine, anti-male statements. In this philosophical world-view, since Goddess worship is good, then by necessity, any use of masculine terminology in reference to God or any prominence of men in culture or society is generally discouraged. The prominent self-proclaimed ‘feminist witch’, Miriam Starhawk stated, "The symbolism of the Goddess has taken on an electrifying power for modern women. It has exposed the falsehoods of patriarchal history, and given us models for female strength and authority."

Gaians teach that the Divine Earth must be protected from all threats no matter what the cost. The United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment, explicitly refers to Christianity as a faith that has set humans apart from nature and stripped nature of its sacred qualities. “Conversion to Christianity has therefore meant an abandonment of an affinity with the natural world for many forest dwellers, peasants, fishers all over the world ...The northeastern hilly states of India bordering China and Myanmar supported small scale, largely autonomous shifting cultivator societies until the 1950's. These people followed their own religious traditions that included setting apart between 10% and 30% of the landscape as sacred groves and ponds.” While condemning Christianity and Islam as the root of all environmental evil, the document goes on to praise Buddhism and Hinduism as they "did not depart as drastically from the perspective of humans as members of a community of beings including other living and non-living elements."

Al Gore, in his book Earth in the Balance, echoes this view "Prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things. Much of the evidence for the existence of this primitive religion comes from the many thousands of artifacts uncovered in ceremonial sites. These sites are so widespread that they seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion was ubiquitous through much of the world until the antecedents of today's religions, most of which still have a distinctly masculine orientation...swept out of India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the goddess. The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity as late as the fifteenth century in Lithuania."

Gore then quotes deChardin, "'The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.’ Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the earth..." Gore is also fond of quoting an old Native Indian saying “Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our Mother. What befalls the earth, befalls all the sons of the earth. This we know - the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.”

Gaia worship is at the very heart of the Global Green Agenda. Sustainable Development, Agenda 21, the Earth Charter, and the Global Warming theory are all part of the Gaians mission to save "Mother Earth" from her human infestation. Gaians have succeeded in uniting the environmental movement, the new age movement, Eastern religions, the United Nations and even the leaders of many Christian denominations behind this vile new form of paganism.

Green Religion The Gaia Hypothesis (http://green-agenda.com/gaia.html)

Deep Ecology – The Hidden Agenda

The almost simultaneous emergence of the Environmental and New Age movements in the 1970s has spawned a plethora of hybrid ecospiritual philosophies. These include the Gaia hypothesis, Deep Ecology, Sacred Ecology, Ecosophy, and Creation Spirituality. These philosophies all overlap with each other to some extent but tend to focus on different aspects of ‘protecting the earth from humanity’. Perhaps the most dangerous and radical is the philosophy known as Deep Ecology.

Deep Ecology is a semi-religious movement that believes modern civilisation’s anthropocentric (human-centered) worldview is the root cause of an imminent complete ecological collapse. Deep ecologists blame humans for this fast-approaching apocalypse and believe that humanity’s destructive activities must be halted immediately, by any means necessary, and at whatever cost.

Deep ecologists argue for a radical reduction in human population, in human "interference" in nature, and in the human standard of living. They argue that primitive peoples lived in spiritual harmony with the natural world, but European industrial culture has severed this harmony and we have become a feral untamed plague on the earth. According to them industrial society is like a cancer spreading through a global host.

In some ways, Deep Ecology has similar roots to Gaia hypothesis, in that humans are part of a sentient super-organism known as Earth. However, Deep ecologists go further than the Gaians in arguing that humanity is genuinely of no more importance than an amoeba or the smallpox virus. Deep Ecology argues that humanity has no hierarchical dominance or any sense of uniqueness. We are just another animal, and a crazed, destructive one at that. While Gaians tend to focus on spiritual aspects of communing with Mother Earth, Deep ecologists focus on the negative aspects of human activity on the earth.

Deep Ecology has greatly influenced grassroots environmentalism, especially in Europe, North America, and Australia. It has spread through “road shows” and ritual processes led by touring movement advocates, through the writings of its architects (often reaching college students in environmental studies courses) and perhaps especially by the dramatic activism of its radical environmental vanguards e.g. Earth First!, Greenpeace, the Earth Liberation Front, and PETA.

The Deep Ecology philosophy was no doubt strongly influenced by The Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome in 1972. This book claimed that human society was far outstripping the earth’s regenerative capacity and the world was on the brink of an environmental catastrophe. The term ‘Deep Ecology’ was first used by the famous Norwegian philosopher, and ‘mystical Buddhist’, Arne Naess in 1973. He claimed that the science of ecology was shallow and meaningless as it looked at the world from a human perspective, while Naess argued that the human species has the same ‘intrinsic value’ as a bacterium or an earthworm. He stated the eight core principles of Deep Ecology were:

1. The well-being and flourishing of human and nonhuman life on Earth have value in themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the nonhuman world for human purposes.

2. Richness and diversity of life-forms contribute to the realisation of these values and are also values in themselves.

3. Humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity except to satisfy vital needs.

4. Present human interference with the nonhuman world is excessive, and the situation is rapidly worsening.

5. The flourishing of human life and cultures is compatible with a substantial decrease of the human population. The flourishing of nonhuman life requires such a decrease.

6. Policies must therefore be changed. The changes in policies affect basic economic, technological, and ideological structures. The resulting state of affairs will be deeply different from the present.

7. The ideological change is mainly that of appreciating life quality rather than adhering to an increasingly higher standard of living. There will be a profound awareness of the difference between big and great.

8. Those who subscribe to the foregoing points have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes.

Naess soon gained a large following in the emerging green movement, especially among the youngest and most radical factions. Deep ecology’s uncompromising rhetoric provided a welcome, radical alternative to the New Age earth-loving, tree-hugging Gaia hypothesis. They saw this new anti-human philosophy as a call to arms against western capitalism. Radical environmental activism flourished during the late 1970s, fuelled by recruits from the anti-Vietnam war and Civil Rights movements. News reports were replete with stories about ‘’hippies” chained to trees and activists burning down animal research facilities.

Radical environmental activism seems to have died a slow death since the 1990s as the wider green movement considered their actions to be counter-productive and harmful to the cause. However, the philosophy behind Deep Ecology has continued to spread and infiltrate the movement. Few people realize that ‘respectable’ environmental organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy were originally formed by radical activists who recognised that their ultimate goals could only be realized through political and social tools

 Many of these organisations now act as consultants to the United Nations. Anti-human sentiment and subtle calls for ‘human reproductive control’ are sprinkled throughout Agenda 21 and the Earth Charter. Many prominent environmentalists are now touting population control as the only answer to the world’s problems. Even the original Gaian, Sir James Lovelock, has taken to calling humans “an out of control cancer that Gaia will soon eradicate.”

It appears that the Global Green Agenda includes controlling every aspect of human activity, especially our reproduction. Humans, as a destructive pest species, must have their population tightly controlled, and even significantly reduced according to some:


Global Green Agenda Deep Ecology (http://green-agenda.com/deepecology.html)

A United Global Green Religion

Blending the world’s religions together and bringing them under the umbrella of the United Nations has been high on the Global Green Agenda for many years. Dr Robert Muller, until recently the Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, and its #2 ranked official, appears to be the driving force behind the plan to create a new United Religion. His passion for this spiritual agenda is readily apparent, "My great personal dream is to forge a tremendous alliance between all religions and spiritual groups, and the UN. We desperately need a United Religions Organisation to bring reconciliation, unity and peace to all the peoples of our world."

Here is how Dr Muller describes himself (remember this is not some fruitcake standing on a streetcorner, this guy was responsible for formulating many UN policies):


another description:


Now this 'magic being' was the founder of UNESCO and a key architect behind many of the UN's most important environmental policies and plans. If you read Agenda 21 and the Earth Charter you will be shocked. Dr Muller founded the UN's University of Peace on a mountain in Costa Rica. Why did he choose this location? Because of this ancient prophecy:

"The Prophecy of Rasur - One day, a long time ago, in the village of Quisar, all the children suddenly disappeared underground. The parents could not understand what was happening and became extremely worried. Faintly rising up from the earth below, they heard laughter and singing and knew that their children were safe. The children began to move and the parents followed their voices until they were stopped by a strong magnetic force at the base of Mt. Rasur. The Earth abruptly opened up and the children as well as a being of light, Rasur (the god of the indigenous children), appeared to the surprised parents. Rasur then spoke to the children, never once looking at the parents, and said,

The first attempt at global interfaith dialogue occurred at the first ‘Parliament of World Religions’ held in Chicago in 1893. This conference involved representatives from most established and emerging religious groups and also marked the introduction of the Baha’i faith into the United States. In the early 1990s a group of interfaith dialogue proponents decided to organise a centenary conference to be held in 1993, also in Chicago.
Dr Muller was one of the primary organisers, along with Hans Kug and Dr. Gerald Barney, and was a keynote speaker. Kug is a Catholic priest who previously held the powerful position of ‘Expositor of Theology’ at the Vatican. The conference included more than 8,000 representatives from 150 different religious and spiritual groups. Dr Muller’s speech was entitled 'A Proposal to establish a United Nations of Religion'. It received a prolonged standing ovation and his proposal was endorsed in the conferences joint communique.

“Our earth cannot be changed unless in the not too distant future an alteration in the consciousness of individuals is achieved. This has already been seen in areas such as war and peace or economy and ecology. And it is precisely for this alteration in inner orientation, in the entire mentality, in the "heart," that religion bear responsibility in a special way. Religion must be a unifier and peacemaker, not a cause for violence and separation.” – excerpt, Parliament of World Religions Joint Communique.

The centenary parliament led to the formation of interfaith dialogue initiatives by many religious groups, most notably the Vatican, and secular organisations such as the United Nations, the Gorbachev Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and many UN associated NGOs. However, it was the United Religions Initiative (URI), proposed by Robert Muller during the conference that has made the most dramatic progress.

The URI’s stated aims are “unity among religions” and "manifesting love for the Earth". Working closely with Muller on this daring initiative is the Anglican Bishop William Swing of Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. Although Muller is the visionary behind United Religions and the catalyst between the major parties involved, Swing has become the initiative’s figurehead and spokesperson.

However, the direct involvement of the United Nations in this project has been evident from the beginning. Swing relates how Muller first contacted him in 1993 about heading up a worship celebration on its behalf: "Three and a half years ago, a telephone call arrived in San Francisco from the United Nations asking if we, at Grace Cathedral, would host a great interfaith worship service honoring the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter in our city." This request, and subsequent conversation with Muller, is allegedly what prompted Swing to become involved in the United Religions Initiative. He continues, "I got out of bed the next day determined to commit the rest of my life to an initiative that would create a United Religions which would, in appropriately spiritual ways, parallel the United Nations."

The URI has attracted a diverse group of followers, and seems to be remarkably skilful in appealing to there different worldviews. Reverend James Davis, an Anglican minister from New York stated "We've never seen any organization build coalitions as quickly or as successfully as the United Religions Initiative." Huston Smith, a scholar of comparative religions and author of The World's Religions, a standard reference in religious studies, describes the URI as "by far the most significant global interfaith effort.”

The URI claims that more than 1,000 religious groups, representing 600 million people, have endorsed the URI charter. These include the Dalai Lama, state churches in China, various Jewish Rabbis, Sufi’s (a Muslin sect), the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, radical feminists, deep ecologists, creation spiritualists, kaballahists and various neopagan groups. It has also received favourable comments from the United Nations and the Vatican.

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The preamble to the URI Charter is as follows:

Preamble

We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

We respect the uniqueness of each tradition, and differences of practice or belief.

We value voices that respect others, and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all.

We believe that our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us, guide us to build community and respect for one another.

Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions, we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community.

We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.

We unite to heal and protect the Earth.

We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing and reconciliation.

We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law.

We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.

We unite to provide a global opportunity for participation by all people, especially by those whose voices are not often heard.

We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.

We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action, to awaken to our deepest truths, and to manifest love and justice among all life in our Earth community.

As suggested by Swing, the United Religions Initiative is intended to be to religion what the United Nations has become to global politics, unifying the world’s religions as the UN is unifying the world’s nations. Bishop Swing confirmed these plans, "The URI will be a spiritual United Nations. And what better place to give it birth than the Bay Area, which gave birth to the present UN."

Bishop Swing also states, "The URI will offer the world a powerful new vision of hope - the vision that the deepest stories we know can now cease to be causes of separation between people, and become instead the foundation for a reunited humanity. Religions need the URI. Bombs are exploding in the name of God in cities throughout the world, religious persecution is more prevalent now than ever before, religious extremists are demanding and obtaining nuclear weapons, and still there is no neutral arena where all of the religions can engage each other. The URI, in time, aspires to have the visibility and stature of the United Nations. It will have global visibility and will be a vital presence in local communities all over the world."

The United Nations has granted the URI official ‘liaison status’, which means that in return for UN financial support the URI will “co-operate closely with the U.N. and its organisations to complement the U.N.’s political, diplomatic and social mandates, influence U.N. policy and support its programs.” At a recent UN-sponsored Interfaith Conference, Bishop Swing issued a challenge for a new global civilisation, “We stand on the threshold of a new world order that may be defined either by an increasing polarisation that fuels a spiral of escalating conflict and violence, or by growing global cooperation that calls the human race to work across national, ethnic and religious boundaries to serve a larger global good.”

Bishop Swing recently apologised for two millennia of Christian evangelism. His apology not limited to ‘religious violence’ committed by Christians, it also includes regret for "proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of all" and for seeking "to make the whole world Christian". The URI strongly condemns all forms of religious fundamentalism; in fact the need for a new spirituality is often based on the intolerant attitude of evangelical Christians and radical Muslims’. Swing states “Because some day, the ascendancy of militant fundamentalist voices of politically aspiring religions might be so pervasive that a United Religions will need to be created in order to save religions from these fundamentalists.”

The URI arose out of, and is the culmination of, the interfaith movement that began with the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. It is inextricably tied to the quest for a new spirituality that would unify the planet in a ‘transformed global society’. The URI is the fullest expression of this movement now. The current model of unity in diversity will characterise the United Religions Initiative for a while. However, the final phase of the Global Green Spiritual Agenda will be the full "end to the great heresy of separateness."

The final green religion will be the blending of all religions into one unified expression of spirituality based on reverence for our shared planet and human interconnectedness with all living beings. No doubt anyone one who refuses to accept this new spirituality will be labelled an intolerant radical fundamentalist. In the wake of an earth-shattering crisis, such as the one described in A United World, ‘fundamentalists’ are likely to be blamed for all the world’s problems. A new world religion, in addition to a new world order, will be gratefully received by most given a crisis of sufficient magnitude.

Global Green Agenda A United Faith (http://green-agenda.com/unitedfaith.html)

The First Global Revolution

The environmental movement has been described as the largest and most influential social phenomenon in modern history. From relative obscurity just a few decades ago it has spawned thousands of organisations and claims millions of committed activists. Reading the newspaper today it is hard to imagine a time when global warming, resource depletion, environmental catastrophes and 'saving the planet' were barely mentioned. They now rank among the top priorities on the social, political and economic global agenda.

Environmental awareness is considered to be the mark of any good, honest, decent citizen. Multi-national companies compete fiercely to promote their environmental credentials and 'out-green' each other. The threat of impending ecological disasters is uniting the world through a plethora of international treaties and conventions. But where did this phenomenon come from, how did it rise to such prominence, and more importantly, where is it going?

While researching for these articles, and during my academic studies, I have come across many references to the The Club of Rome (CoR), and reports produced by them. Initially I assumed that they were just another high-level environmental think-tank and dismissed the conspiracy theories found on many websites claiming that the CoR is a group of global elitists attempting to impose some kind of one world government.

However, as I have struggled to untangle the convoluted web that is the Global Green Agenda, I have been amazed that the same names keep appearing as the authors of binding international agreements, as the organisers of key summits and conferences, and as the most vocal proponents of new systems of governance. A core group of very influential leaders appear to be working in unison to implement a far-reaching global agenda.

When I searched for links between these men, who keep appearing in nearly every area of global environmental politics, I discovered that they were all members of the Club of Rome. Now extraordinary claims, like a global conspiracy, demand extraordinary proof. But this conspiracy is hidden in plain sight. They make very little attempt to hide their real agenda. On this website I try to use quotes and excerpts as much as possible and let the reader reach their own conclusions.

So, what exactly is the Club of Rome and who are its members? Founded in 1968, the CoR describes itself as "a group of world citizens, sharing a common concern for the future of humanity." It consists of current and former Heads of State, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists, and business leaders from around the globe.

Some of the more high-profile members are not listed on the membership pages of the CoR website because they are members of CoR ‘National Associations’. For example, Javier Solana is a member of the Spanish CoR Association, and Al Gore and Bill Clinton are both members of the USA CoR Association. However, they publicly admit to chairing CoR meetings, and are often referred to as CoR members by major news agencies.

Some Current Members of the Club of Rome:

Al Gore – former VP of the USA, leading climate change campaigner, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Academy Award winner, Emmy winner, lead the US delegations to the Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Climate Change conference, environmental activist, largest shareholder in the Chicago Climate Exchange

Javier Solana – Secretary General of the Council of the European Union, High representative for EU Foreign Policy

Maurice Strong – former Head of the UN Environment Programme, Chief Policy Advisor to Koffi Annan, Secretary General of the Rio Earth Summit, co-author (with Gorbachev) of the Earth Charter, co-author of the Kyoto Protocol, member of the UN Commission on Global Governance and author of its report, Chair of the UN Reform Committee, board member of the World Economic Forum, founder of the Earth Council, board member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, devout Baha’i

Mikhail Gorbachev – former President of the Soviet Union, Founder of Green Cross International and the Gorbachev Foundation, co-author (with Strong) of the Earth Charter

HRH Hassan bin Talal – President of the Club of Rome, President of the Arab Thought Forum, founder of the World Future Council, recently named as the United Nations 'Champion of the Earth'

Sir Crispin Tickell – former British Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the Security Council, Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development, Chairman of Earthwatch Europe, Chairman of the ‘Gaia Society’, Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute, leading British climate change campaigner

David Rockefeller – former Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, founder of the Trilateral Commission, executive member of the World Economic Forum, donated land on which the United Nations stands

Steven Schneider – Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming and a lead author of many IPCC reports.

Other current influential members:
(these can be found on the CoR membership pages and/or the CoR Association pages)

Jimmy Carter – former President of the United States
Ted Turner – American media mogul, philanthropist, founder of CNN
Bill Gates – founder of Microsoft, philanthropist
George Soros – multibillionare
Bill Clinton – former President of the United States
Tony Blair – former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Robert Muller – founder of UNECSO, founder of UN University of Peace
James A. Baker – former US Secretary of State
Timothy E. Wirth – former US Assistant Secretary of State, current President of the United Nations Foundation
Henry Kissinger – former US Secretary of State
Juan Carlos I – King of Spain
Prince Philippe of Belgium
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
Dona Sophia – Queen of Spain
Daisaku Ikeda – founder of the Soka Gakkai cult
Eduard Shevardnadze – former Soviet foreign minister and President of Georgia
Richard von Weizsacker – former President of Germany
Martin Lees – CoR Secretary General, Rector of the UN University of Peace
Ernesto Zedillo – Director of The Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
Frithjof Finkbeiner – Coordinator of the Global Marshall Plan
Frederik W. de Klerk – former President of South Africa
Vaclav Havel – former President of the Czech Republic
Arpad Göncz – President of The Republic of Hungary
Ruud Lubbers – former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, UN High Representative
Jerome Binde – Director of Foresight, UNESCO
Heitor Gurgulino de Souza – President of the International Association of University Chancellors
Peter Johnston – Director General of European Commission
Tapio Kanninen – Director of Policy and Planning, United Nations
Konrad Osterwalder – Under-Secretary-General, United Nations
Thomas Homer-Dixon – Director of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Toronto
Emeka Anyaoku – former Commonwealth Secretary General, current President of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)
Wangari Maathai – Nobel Peace Prize winner, Co-ordinator of the Green Belt Movement
and many more….

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The concept of 'environmental sustainability' was first brought to widespread public attention in 1972 by the Club of Rome in their book entitled The Limits to Growth. The official summary can be read here. The report basically concluded that the growth of the human population, and an increase in prosperity, would cause an ecological collapse within the fifty years:

“If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.”

“It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.”

“The overwhelming growth in world population caused by the positive birth-rate loop is a recent phenomenon, a result of mankind's very successful reduction of worldwide mortality. The controlling negative feedback loop has been weakened, allowing the positive loop to operate virtually without constraint. There are only two ways to restore the resulting imbalance. Either the birth rate must be brought down to equal the new, lower death rate, or the death rate must rise again.”

“The result of stopping population growth in 1975 and industrial capital growth in 1985 with no other changes is that population and capital reach constant values at a relatively high level of food, industrial output and services per person. Eventually, however, resource shortages reduce industrial output and the temporarily stable state degenerates.”

“Man possesses, for a small moment in his history, the most powerful combination of knowledge, tools, and resources the world has ever known. He has all that is physically necessary to create a totally new form of human society-- one that would be built to last for generations. The two missing ingredients are a realistic, long-term goal that can guide mankind to the equilibrium society and the Human Will to achieve that goal.”

“Without such a goal and a commitment to it, short-term concerns will generate the exponential growth that drives the world system toward the limits of the earth and ultimate collapse. With that goal and that commitment, mankind would be ready now to begin a controlled, orderly transition from growth to global equilibrium.”

So as you can see the even back in 1972 the Club considered modern industrial society to be completely unsustainable. They state that even if population was frozen at 1975 levels, and industrial activity at 1985 levels, then the earth’s ecosystems would still ultimately collapse. The CoR has not changed these views in the slightest, in fact, in the last three decades their warnings have become increasingly more urgent and alarmist. They call this imminent collapse the ‘World Problematique’ and their proposed solution the ‘World Resolutique’.

The Limits to Growth is considered to be the most successful environmental publication ever produced and propelled the Club of Rome to its current position of an environmental thought-leader and a major consultant to the United Nations. It has been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Throughout the 1970s and 80s the concept that humanity was irreparably damaging the earth gained credence and facilitated the formation of mainstream and activist environmental groups.

All meetings of the CoR are held ‘behind closed doors’ and no public records are kept. However the Club does produce many ‘discussion reports’ that can be found on its website. The United Nations contracts the Club of Rome to prepare ‘Policy Guidance Documents’ which it uses in formulating its policies and programmes. As many high ranking UN officials are actually CoR members, this is like a man asking himself for advice, and then agreeing with that advice. Not very objective!

Twenty years after the Limits to Growth the CoR published another major report that became an instant best-seller. In The First Global Revolution the Club of Rome claimed that the time to act had run out. It was now or never. Delay in beginning corrective measures will increase the damage to the world ecological system and ultimately reduce the human population that will eventually be supportable. They also stated that that democratic governments were far too short-sighted to deal with the ‘problematique’ and new forms of governance are urgently required.

In order not too violate any copyright protection I will not reproduce the text of the book on this site. However, it is permissible for me to quote a brief excerpt in the context of this wider discussion. The complete text can be found elsewhere on the web. As you read the following quotes please remember the names of the leaders listed above. This is not some quirky little cult. This is the stated agenda of the leaders of the environmental movement:

“This is the way we are setting the scene for mankind’s encounter with the planet. The opposition between the two ideologies that have dominated the 20th century has collapsed, forming their own vacuum and leaving nothing but crass materialism.

cont'd next post

It is a law of Nature that any vacuum will be filled and therefore eliminated unless this is physically prevented. “Nature,” as the saying goes, “abhors a vacuum.” And people, as children of Nature, can only feel uncomfortable, even though they may not recognize that they are living in a vacuum. How then is the vacuum to be eliminated?

It would seem that humans need a common motivation, namely a common adversary, to organize and act together in the vacuum; such a motivation must be found to bring the divided nations together to face an outside enemy, either a real one or else one invented for the purpose.

New enemies therefore have to be identified.
New strategies imagined, new weapons devised.

The common enemy of humanity is man.

In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.

The old democracies have functioned reasonably well over the last 200 years, but they appear now to be in a phase of complacent stagnation with little evidence of real leadership and innovation

Democracy is not a panacea. It cannot organize everything and it is unaware of its own limits. These facts must be faced squarely. Sacrilegious though this may sound, democracy is no longer well suited for the tasks ahead. The complexity and the technical nature of many of today’s problems do not always allow elected representatives to make competent decisions at the right time. ”

So, long before Global Warming became a well known issue Al Gore and his Club of Rome colleagues stated that they would use the threat of global warming to unite humanity and "set the scene for mankind's encounter with the planet ". In the same way that shamans and sooth-sayers in medieval times used their advance knowledge of when eclipses would occur to control and terrify their followers, they would use a natural phenomenon as their 'enemy' to achieve their objectives. But they then state that although Global Warming would be presented as the initial enemy, the real enemy of humanity would be portrayed as man himself. I am already noticing how frequently the terms climate change and overpopulation are being uttered in the same breath.

Having discovered that all these influential environmental leaders were associated with the Club of Rome I set about reading all the reports, lectures and speeches on their website as well as the reports commissioned by the UN. I was amazed to find that they lay out their entire agenda for anyone who has eyes to see. Exactly the same themes, concepts and phrases are repeated continuously throughout their publications. They are full of references to 'imminent collapse', 'dying planet', 'our mother Gaia', 'wrenching transformation', 'united global society', 'new forms of governance' etc. They truly intend to bring about the world's First Global Revolution. The basic premise of their worldview is:

"Modern industrial civilisation is fast outstripping the Earth's natural regenerative and life-supporting capacity..."

"At current rates of resource depletion and environmental degradation a near complete collapse of ecological integrity will occur within the next 100 years..."

"Gaia, our Mother, who nutured humanity for countless millenia within her womb of evolution, is dying..."

A small window of opportunity now exists to transform humanity into a sustainable global united earth community based on repect and reverence for Earth..."

"A radical change from the current trajectory is required, a complete reordering of global society..."

"Humans only truly unite when faced with a powerful external enemy..."

"At this time a new enemy must be found, one either real or invented for the purpose..."

"Democracy has failed us, a new system of global governance, based on environmental imperatives, must be implemented quickly..."

Gaia, Global Warming, and Global Governance are intricately entwined, if one truly believes in Gaia, and that she is being fatally harmed by the current system, then a new system of global governance and control would appear to be the only answer. Global Warming provides the ideal 'enemy' to bring about this objective. It is easy for these global elitists to talk about sacrifice, wrenching transformation, population control and halving the use of fossil fuels but the implications are truely horrendous. Even if you think this is all nonsense I would ask you to at least read these quotes and excerpts, and think about the implications of their agenda. Everyday I am amazed at how quickly things are changing. It is coming hard and fast. As Al Gore said in the closing sentence of his statement after he won the Nobel Peace Prize ... "This is just the beginning."

Global Revolution (http://green-agenda.com/globalrevolution.html)

Now this 'magic being' was a key architect behind many of the UN's most important environmental policies and plans. If you read Agenda 21 and the Earth Charter you will be shocked. Dr Muller founded the UN's University of Peace on a mountain in Costa Rica. Why did he choose this location? Because of this ancient prophecy:

"The Prophecy of Rasur - One day, a long time ago, in the village of Quisar, all the children suddenly disappeared underground. The parents could not understand what was happening and became extremely worried. Faintly rising up from the earth below, they heard laughter and singing and knew that their children were safe. The children began to move and the parents followed their voices until they were stopped by a strong magnetic force at the base of Mt. Rasur. The Earth abruptly opened up and the children as well as a being of light, Rasur (the god of the indigenous children), appeared to the surprised parents. Rasur then spoke to the children, never once looking at the parents, and said,


"What an incredible planet in the universe this will be when we will be one human family living in justice, peace, love and harmony with our divine Earth, with each other and with the heavens." - Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General

So, Dr Muller, who was the right-hand man to three consecutive UN Secretary Generals, and was responsible for formulating many UN policies and programmes clearly believes that the Earth is Divine. On one of his websites he describes conversations between himself and God, and between himself and the Earth (halfway down the page). He has a number of websites that make very interesting reading and clearly demonstrate the link between Gaia, Global Warming and Global Governance.

www.robertmuller.org
www.goodmorningworld.org
www.earthpax.net
www.centerforlivingethics.org
www.paradiseearth.us

Those websites provide enough information for a year of study, and I strongly urge the reader to have a look at them. But it's time to move on to our next CoR Gaian:

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Maurice Strong, founder and Secretary General of the United Nations Environment Programme and Senior Advisor to Koffi Annan. Founder of the Earth Council and the Earth Charter Initiative, and former President of the United Nations University if Peace. You will find many references to Maurice Strong on this site. He, more than anyone else, has been the architect of the Global Green Agenda. Strong is a devout Baha'i and from his lofty positions within the UN has permeated the organisation with Gaian theology.

He is the author of most of the key UN environmental policies and plans including Agenda 21, the Earth Charter, the Kyoto Protocol and the UN report on Global Governance. While he chaired the Rio Earth Summit, outside his wife Hanne and 300 followers called the Wisdom-Keepers, continuously beat drums, chanted prayers to Gaia, and trended scared flames in order to " establish and hold the energy field" for the duration of the summit. He founded the Manitou Institue where various Hindu, Bhuddist, and New Age groups perform rituals to heal Gaia. The Institutes Mission is " to perpetuate the ancient tradition of peoples of many tribes journeying here for a sacred connection to the Earth ". Very Gaian!!

The Strongs have located their spiritual centre in the Colorado mountains because "The Strongs learned that since antiquity indigenous peoples had revered this pristine wilderness as a place for conducting their vision quests and receiving shamanic trainings. It is prophesied that the world's religious traditions would gather here and help move the world toward globally conscious co-existence and co-creation ."

"It is the responsibility of each human being today to choose between the force of darkness and the force of light. We must therefore transform our attitudes, and adopt a renewed respect for the superior laws of DIVINE NATURE." - Maurice Strong

In 1991, Strong wrote the introduction to a book published by the Trilateral Commission, called Beyond Interdependence: The Meshing of the World's Economy and the Earth's Ecology, by Jim MacNeil. (David Rockefeller wrote the foreword). Strong said this: "This interlocking is the new reality of the century, with profound implications for the shape of our institutions of governance, national and international. By the year 2012, these changes must be fully integrated into our economic and political life."

He also recently authored a book called 'Where on Earth are We Going? in which he outlines a doomsday scenario of what will soom happen to Gaia unless there is "an immediate and total global transformation". His predictions make Al Gore seem like an optimist. He claims that humanity will not survive the next 30 years on its current course.

Strong has served, or is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN); the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); and the World Resources Institute (WRI); the three international NGOs that have developed and advanced the global agenda since the early 1970s. Maurice Strong, alongside Al Gore, is perhaps the most well known, and certainly the most influential, CoR Gaian. He is still deeply involved in the modern green movement and has founded a number of organisations including the Earth Council Alliance.

recommended reading:
At the United Nations, the Curious Career of Maurice Strong - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250789,00.html
Maurice Strong Biography - http://www.nationalcenter.org/DossierStrong.html
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James Lovelock, guru of the Gaia Hypothesis and father of the modern green movement. There is no need to establish Dr Lovelock's Gaian credentials; he conceived the whole thing after all. He has been one of the most vocal and extreme prophets of the coming climate apocalypse. According to him " By the end of this century the human population will be reduced to a few breeding pairs subsisting near the North Pole." Interestingly the good doctor has saved the world once before. In 1975 Sir James dramatically discovered that CFC's were destroying the ozone layer which would shortly lead to our imminent demise. No doubt controlling and eliminating CFC's was a test case for the big prize, controlling and eliminating fossil fuels. His two most recent publications are entitled A Book of Prayers to Gaia, and Homage to Gaia.

"This new interrelationship of Gaia with man is by no means fully established; we are not yet a truly collective species, corralled and tamed as an integral part of the biosphere, as we are as individual creatures. It may be that the destiny of mankind is to become tamed, so that the fierce, destructive, and greedy forces of tribalism and nationalism are fused into a compulsive urge to belong to the commonwealth of all creatures which constitutes Gaia." – James Lovelock, Gaia: A New Look at Life

"What if Mary is another name for Gaia? Then her capacity for virgin birth is no miracle . . . it is a role of Gaia since life began . . . She is of this Universe and, conceivably, a part of God. On Earth, she is the source of life everlasting and is alive now; she gave birth to humankind and we are part of her." – Sir James Lovelock, Ages of Gaia
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Al Gore, 'inventor of the internet and Global Warming' has become the public face of the crusade to unite the world in the fight against global warming. His devout Gaian views are scattered liberally through the various books he has written the environment and human spirituality. Al has formed an Alliance against Climate Change, using the funds from Live Earth, to push forward his 'call to action'.

In his book Earth in Balance, Gore devotes no less than three chapters to the 'Earth Goddess'. He states that "in prehistoric Europe and much of the world was based on the worship of a single earth goddess, who was assumed to be the fount of all life and who radiated harmony among all living things. Much of the evidence for the existence of this primitive religion comes from the many thousands of artifacts uncovered in ceremonial sites. These sites are so widespread that they seem to confirm the notion that a goddess religion was ubiquitous through much of the world until the antecedents of today's religions, most of which still have a distinctly masculine orientation...swept out of India and the Near East, almost obliterating belief in the goddess. The last vestige of organized goddess worship was eliminated by Christianity as late as the fifteenth century." - Earth in the Balance, page 260

"The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.' Armed with such a faith, we might find it possible to resanctify the Earth." - Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

"This we know: the Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all." Al Gore's Earth in Balance, page 259.

On the back cover of Earth in Balance the well-known New Ager M. Scott Peck states: “Earth in Balance is a brilliantly written, prophetic, even holy book, clearly pointing the way we need to change to assure the survival of our children. I pray it will have the dramatic impact it deserves – and must have for our collective salvation.”

In the United States the only operating carbon emissions trading market is the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Coincidentally, or not, Al Gore’s hedge fund, Generation Investment Management, is the largest shareholder in CCX. Now that’s what I call a conflict of interest! The most vocal Global Warming alarmist is the largest shareholder in the USA’s only operating ‘carbon market’. On the board of CCX we find our old friend Maurice Strong.
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Mikhail Gorbachev, formerly the President of the Soviet Union and now the founder and chairman of Green Cross International, and the Gorbachev Foundation. Attendees at his 1996 State of the World Forum included New Age gurus Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, John Denver, John Naisbitt, Carl Sagan, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Maurice Strong, Robert Muller, Dr. Deepak Chopra, and Matthew Fox.

Gorbachev presided over the sudden collapse of the Soviet empire. Perhaps he was removing one of the major obstacles facing the Global Green Agenda. Since then he has been intimately involved in politics of the environmental movement and is considered to be one of its greatest champions. Gorbachev, in association with Maurice Strong, was responsible for the production of the Earth Charter.

"Nature is my god. To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals." - Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990

“We need a new paradigm of development in which the environment will be a priority... World civilization as we know it will soon end... We have very little time and we must act... If we can address the environment problem, we have hope... but it will have to be done within a new system, a new paradigm... We have to change our mindset - the way humankind views the world." - Mikhail Gorbachev, State of the World Forum, 1996

cont'd next post

Sir Crispin Tickell, is considered to one of Britain's most influential diplomats. He was the British Ambassador to Mexico (1981-1983), Permanent Secretary of the Official Development Assistance (1984-1987), British Ambassador to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the UN Security Council (1987-1990). He chaired the British Government's 1994 Panel on Sustainable Development. Tickell has been one of the most outspoken Global Warming alarmists even though, like Al Gore, he has no scientific training. His devout Gaian views are extremely obvious with just a cursory glance at his website http://www.crispintickell.com/

Sir Crispin has been or still is the chairman of: the Advisory Committee of the Darwin Initiative for Survival of the Species, the UK Marine Biologists Association, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Earth Watch Europe, The Climate Institute of Washington, DC; and he was or is the president of: the Royal Geographical Society, the National Society for Clean Air, the Gaia Foundation, and the Gaia Society for Research and Education in Earth System Science. This Gaia Society is Sir Crispin's personal contribution to the Earth Goddess, as it is dedicated to creating a cult around the ideas and personages of eco-spiritualists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis.

"Gaia has no particular tenderness for humans. We are no more than a small, albeit immodest, part of her." – Sir Crispin Tickell
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Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, co-founder, former President and current Patron of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). The Prince has been deeply involved in the green movement since its inception. In 1971 he founded an organisation called 'The 1001 Club: A Nature Trust' to fund the activities of the WWF. This secretive Club contains quite a few Club of Rome members. The Prince appears to adhere strongly to the Deep Ecology philosophy that considers humans to be nothing more than a feral pest species that must be strictly controlled.

“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.“ - Prince Philip, in his foreword to 'If I Were an Animal'

“It is now apparent that the ecological pragmatism of the so-called pagan religions, such as that of the American Indians, the Polynesians, and the Australian Aborigines, was a great deal more realistic in terms of conservation ethics than the more intellectual monotheistic philosophies of the revealed religions.“ - Caring for Creation, conference of the North American Conference on Religion and Ecology

“I don't claim to have any special interest in natural history, but as a boy I was made aware of the annual fluctuations in the number of game animals and the need to adjust the cull to the size of the surplus population.“ - Preface to Down to Earth by HRH Prince Philip

“We talk about over- and underdeveloped countries; I think a more exact division might be between underdeveloped and overpopulated. The more people there are, the more industry and more waste and the more sewage there is, and therefore the more pollution.“ - address to Edinburgh University Union

“If the world pollution situation is not critical at the moment, it is as certain as anything can be that the situation will become increasingly intolerable within a very short time. The situation can be controlled, and even reversed; but it demands cooperation on a scale and intensity beyond anything achieved so far.“ - The Fairfield Osborne Lecture by HRH Prince Philip

“Human population growth is probably the single most serious long-term threat to survival. We're in for a major disaster if it isn't curbed--not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they'll consume, the more pollution they'll create.“ - interview with HRH Prince Philip

“The object of the WWF is to `conserve' the system as a whole; not to prevent the killing of individual animals. Those who are concerned about their conservation of nature accept that all species are prey to some other species. They accept that most species produce a surplus that is capable of being culled without in any way threatening the survival of the species as a whole.” - The Chancellor's Lecture, Salford University

There is even a tribe in Vanuatu who consider Prince Philip to be a living god. When told about this the Prince remarked that it was a splendid idea and sent the tribe several portraits they could worship, and has since visited them. Very strange!!
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Steven Schneider, Stanford Professor of Biology and Global Change. Professor Schneider was among the earliest and most vocal proponents of man-made global warming. He is most famous for stating that climatologists should only present the most dramatic and frightening scenarios and find their own balance between truth and lies. He has been a lead author of many IPCC reports, and was the editor of " Scientists on Gaia" in which he states "the Gaia Hypothesis has now become established in mainstream science." In 1988 also organised the first international conference to discuss "Gaia and Science".
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Sir Richard Branson, multibillionaire and founder of the Virgin group of companies. Sir Richard has certainly jumped on board the Global Warming bandwagon in a big way. According to Branson during a brief discussion over breakfast with Al Gore, "my views on global warming were changed 180 degrees." That Al guy sure must be persuasive! Branson has since pledged to donate three billion dollars (!!) to "fund the fight against climate change." Branson has also launched his 'Climate Challenge' which offers a prize of $25 million to anyone who can remove carbon dioxide fro the atmosphere. The panel of judges for this challenge are Al Gore, James Lovelock, Sir Crispin Tickell, Tim Flannery and James Hansen.

"It will have to be a mix of the best solutions from all these areas that will win the battle to keep CO2 levels below those at which Gaia will strike back at some stage, and kill the problem - in this case us ." – Richard Branson interview (http://www.foe.co.uk/living/poundsavers/richard_branson_transcript.html)
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Dr Tim Flannery, Evolutionary Biologist and very well known environmental activist. He is the Australian version of Jane Goodall. Although Dr Flannery has no training in anything remotely related to climate science he is one of the worlds most vocal alarmists. He travels continuously around world giving lectures on 'the Climate Catastrophe' and often refers to Gaia as a sentient super-organism. His website is http://www.groveatlantic.com/timflannery.html
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Ted Turner, multibillionaire and founder of CNN. Turner is deeply involved in the Global Green Agenda. He donated more than a billion dollars to the UN which was specifically tagged to fund the IPCC. Turner personally conceived and produced 'Captain Planet' an edu-tainment cartoon designed to brainwash our children.

"Gaia, the spirit of Earth, awakens from a century long sleep to find the Earth in peril. She summons five teenagers, the Planeteers, from around the globe, and gives each of them a ring which controls an element of nature - Earth, Fire, Wind, Water - and a special power, Heart, which allows them to use their new powers wisely and compassionately." - http://www.turner.com/planet/mythology/index.html
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I could go on forever, listing literally dozens of other Club of Rome members who refer to the Earth as a sentient divine being called Gaia and are also very actively involved in the Climate Campaign. The Cult of Gaia and Global Warming are intimately entwined. In my next article, the Green Web, I will describe the vast network of organisations these men have set up to push through their nefarious agenda.

Global Revolution - Gaia's Gurus (http://green-agenda.com/gaians.html)

The Green Web

In my previous article, Gaia's Gurus, I described how many of the leaders of the modern green movement frequently refer to the earth as a sentient super-organism called Gaia. While researching the biographies of these environmental leaders I was very surprised to discover that many of them are members of an organization called the Club of Rome (CoR). I was even more surprised to discover that the entire manifesto of the Global Green Agenda is laid out in the reports and books published by this Club. They believe that modern industrial society is “crucifying Gaia” and “our only hope is to transform humanity into an interdependent global sustainable Earth Community, based on reverence and respect for Gaia.” They refer to this transformation as the First Global Revolution.

In order to achieve this global transformation the members of the CoR have established a network of interlinked organizations focused on various aspects of their agenda. If you examine the biographies of prominent CoR members and then look at the organizations they have founded you will find they are stacked full of other CoR members. Dozens of foundations, councils, societies, and think-tanks state that their 'mission' is to consider new forms of governance, sustainability and global consciousness, but when you check their list of members they all contain the same core group of people!

I attempted to construct a chart of all these organizations and the members they have in common, but there were so many lines linking each organization it became unreadable. Hence I have called this network The Green Web. In this article I will list various organizations founded by CoR members and highlight their common membership. I suspect that some of these entities have actually superceded the CoR in importance and influence.

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Perhaps the most interesting of these organizations is the World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality. The purpose of this 'Commission' appears to be to perpetuate the spiritual aspects of the Global Green Agenda. It is basically just old-fashioned paganism dressed up as a new eco-theology. I challenge the reader to make sense of this page! The commission is composed mostly of CoR members including Gore and Gorbachev.

::All the text below is taken from their website::

VISION
The Commission seeks to inspire consciousness of the wholeness of the human family and the sacred tapestry of all life. This spirituality is the foundation of a global consciousness that honors the wisdom found in the world's traditions, cultures and disciplines.

AWAKENING GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Perhaps the single most powerful event facing humanity today is a great awakening on a planetary scale that has been millennia in the making. We humans are in the midst of a profound advance as a species to a higher form of global consciousness that has been emerging across cultures, religions and worldviews through the centuries. This awakening of global consciousness is nothing less than a shift, a maturation, from more egocentric patterns of life to a higher form of integral and dialogic patterns of life. In this drama it is seen that egocentric patterns of minding and living directly lead to fragmentation, alienation and human pathologies at the individual and collective level.

The awakening of global consciousness is a new and monumental event in human evolution, even though it has been emerging throughout our diverse spiritual traditions through the ages. But this great event in the human drama is not readily apparent because people tend to process reality from their personalized perspectives, worldviews, narratives or cultural lens. Whereas access to global consciousness comes only if and when we are able to stand back and gain critical distance from our particular localized perspectives and enter the more expansive space of a global perspective in the awakening of the global mind.
http://globalspirit.org/pages/mission.php


MEMBERS (known CoR members highlighted in red)
The Dalai Lama
Former President Abdurrahman Wahid (Indonesia)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Seyyed H. Nasr (Distinguished Professor of Islamic thought and culture)
Tu Weiming (Harvard Professor and eminent voice for Chinese culture)
Hazel Henderson (Eminent Author, Futurist, Ecology of Global Economics)
Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace Prize Laureat)
Robert Thurman (Buddhist Tibetan Scholar, Columbia University, Advisor to The Dalai Lama)
Sir Sigmund Sternberg (Winner of the Templeton Prize, Inter-religious relations)
Rodrigo Carazo (Elder Statesman, Leader, The University for Peace)
His Royal Highness El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan (President, Club of Rome)
Barbara Marx Hubbard (Futurist, President-Foundation for Conscious Evolution)
The Very Rev. James Morton Parks (President, Interfaith Centre of New York)
Professor Cornel West (Princeton U. Professor, Leading African-American voice)
Elizabet Sahtouris (Evolution Biologist, Ecology, Voice for Indigenous People)
Dr. Riane Eisler (Distinguished author, visionary leader for Partnership Education)
Mary Evelyn Tucker (Distinguished Scholar, leading voice for Religion & Ecology)
Jane Goodall (Distinguished Primatologist, Voice for Wildlife Conservation)
Jim Kenney (Exec. Director of Common Ground)
Jonathan Granoff (President, Global Security Institute)
Angaangaq Lybert (Eskimo Inuk Elder & Healer, Greenland)
Betty Williams (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate)

Global Councils
The Commission is now actively developing the following Global Councils as a powerful way to carry forth our mission on a planetary scale. These Councils may be seen as "Sub-Commissions" - as direct extensions and outreach of the Commission into diverse primary aspects of planetary cultural life. As such each Council will have direct participation of Commissioners who will report directly to the World Commission and keep the Commission as a whole fully informed about developments.

Global Council on Personal & Planetary Security: Jonathan Granoff, Mikhail Gorbachev, Douglas Roche, James George

Global Council on Spiritual Politics & Global Citizenship: Al Gore, Dennis Kuccinich, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Cornel West, Robert Thurman, Tu Weiming, Barbara Bernstein

Global Council on Planetary Ethics and Values: Steven Rockefeller, Ervin Laszlo, Vaclav Havel, Mary Robinson, Bette Williams, Oscar Arias Sanchez, Hafsat Abiola, Hans Kung, Diane Williams

Global Council on Peace & Conflict Resolution: Desmond Tutu, Arun Gandhi, John & Susan Marks, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Elie Wiesel, Rama Vernon

Global Council on Awakening Arts & Entertainment: Bono, Peter Gabriel, Steven Speilberg, Kit Thomas, Michael Douglas, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Simon, Robert Redford

Global Council on Islam & The West : Dr. Seyyed Nasr, Dr. Riffat Hassan, Dr. Akbar S. Ahmed, Dr. Michael Sells, Prince Hassan of Jordan, Queen Noor of Jordan, Dr. Omid Safi, Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
http://globalspirit.org/pages/wc_councils.php

cont'd next post

The Club of Budapest is an offshoot of the CoR designed to promote the Global Green Agenda though 'Art and Culture' - “The idea of the Club of Budapest stems from discussions between its founder and president Ervin Laszlo, and The Club of Rome founder Aurelia Peccei in the late seventies. Peccei suggested that Laszlo, a fellow founding member of the Club of Rome, should bring together writers, artists and people of high spiritual qualifications to complement abstract theoretical information about current and coming global problems with the insight and creativity inherent in art, literature, and various domains of the human spirit.”

However the Cub of Budapest seems to have little to do with the Arts and much more to do with the usual themes. The Mission of its WorldShift Network is to address:
- The Governance of Nations
- Education for Wisdom
- Public Health Policy
- The Ethics of Planetary Freedom
- Reverence for Nature
- Approaching a modern Subsistence Economy

Members include: (known CoR members highlighted in red)
Sir Arthur C. CLARKE, The DALAI LAMA, Waris DIRIE, Riane EISLER, Peter GABRIEL, Hans-Dietrich GENSCHER, Jane GOODALL, Krishna GOPALA, Mikhail GORBACHEV, Otto Herbert HAJEK, Václav HAVEL, Hazel HENDERSON, Hans KUNG, Federico MAYOR, Zubin MEHTA, Lord Yehudi MENUHIN, Edgar MITCHELL, Robert MULLER, Mary ROBINSON, Peter RUSSELL, Karan SINGH, Sir Sigmund STERNBERG, Desmond TUTU, Sir Peter USTINOV, Richard von WEIZSÄCKER, Eli WIESEL, Betty WILLIAMS, Muhammad YUNUS

The Club of Budapest has also established the World Wisdom Council. It is jointly chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev and Robert Muller and consists of almost exactly the same people as the World Commission on Global Consciousness decribed above. In 1996 the Club of Budapest released THE MANIFESTO ON THE SPIRIT OF PLANETARY CONSCIOUSNESS which was signed by 16 global environmental leaders, 12 of which are CoR members!
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The Club of Madrid is another child of the Club of Rome. The CoR handpicked 70 former Heads of State to consider “appropriate forms of governance” and methods of “democratic transition to a new global order.” A quick perusal of their membership list reveals that more than half are also members of CoR National Associations and contain the usual suspects such as Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, Mary Robinson, Vaclav Havel, Romano Prodi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Javier Perez de Cuellar, and Carl Bildt. The Club is jointly funded by the CoR and the Gorbachev Foundation. They state that their top priority is “facilitating a global post-Kyoto climate treaty”. The Club of Madrid, in a similar fashion to the CoR, is an official consultant body to the UN and is contracted by them to produce reports and technical advice.

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The United Nations Foundation was created by prominent CoR member Ted Turner. He donated one billion dollars to support the environmental activites of the UN. A significant proportion of this money was designated for “programmes specifically addressing climate change” and funding the IPCC. The Foundation has also recently created the Global Security Initiative to “propose far-reaching reforms of the international system.” As would be expected the Foundation's Board is full of the same old names including: Ted Turner, Timothy Wirth, Kofi Annan, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Emma Rothschild, and Muhammad Yunus.
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Global Leadership for Climate Action is a joint initiative of the United Nations Foundation and the Club of Madrid which “aims to design a framework for a new enforceable international agreement on climate change.” The GLCA has editorial input into reports and assessments produced by the IPCC and provides “technical expertise on the implications and communication of climate change science.” By my count more than two-thirds of the GLCA members are also members of the CoR including: George Soros, Ted Turner, Timothy Wirth, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Mary Robinson, Sir Crispin Tickell, Kim Campbell, Wangari Maathai, Petre Roman and Richard Lagos. Now I have to wonder what qualifies George Soros and Ted Turner to provide technical advice on climate change science!!
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The Gorbachev Foundation was created by Mikhail Gorbachev immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He described the Foundation “as a think-tank whose purpose is to explore the path that global governance should take as mankind progresses into an interdependent global society.” The overall motto of the Gorbachev Foundation is “Toward a New Civilization”. The Foundation is deeply involved in many aspects of the modern green movement. They provide advice and funding to many non-government environmental orgaizations. The Board of the Foundation includes CoR members: Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert Muller, Ted Turner, Ruud Lubbers, Wangari Maathai, Sri Chinmoy, Robert Redford, Vaclav Havel and Javier Peres de Cuellar. Who would have thought Robert Redford was involved in all of this! In a similar fashion to the CoR, the Gorbachev Foundation now has several 'Gorbachev Foundation National Associations' each with their own management structure.

The Foundation works very closely with the CoR and the Club of Madrid and regularly holds joint conferences. These conferences must be fairly easy to organise since they have so many members in common. In order to carry out their 'mission' the Foundation has created a number of susidiary organizations. Chief among these is Green Cross International.

From the Green Cross Charter:
“Life is sacred. All forms of life have their own intrinsic value and share our planetary home in an interdependent community. All parts of this community are essential to the functioning of the whole. The beauty of the Earth and its life is food for the human spirit, inspiring human consciousness with wonder, joy and creativity. Human beings are not outside or above the community of life. We have not woven the web of life, we are but a strand in it. We depend on the whole for our very existence. For the first time in history, human beings have the capacity to damage, knowingly or unknowingly, the ecological balances on which all life depends. The crisis is urgent.“

The GCI Board contains the same familiar names: Mikhail Gorbachev, Ted Turner, Basma Bin Talal, Jean Michel Cousteau, Ruud Lubbers, Wangari Maathai, Javier Perez de Cuellar, Robert Redford, Karan Singh, David Suzuki

Another Gorbachev Foundation creation is Global Green USA which promotes sustainability and 'climate action'. Its motto is “fostering a global shift towards a sustainable future.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another organization that is closely linked to the CoR is the United Nations University of Peace. The Chancellor (Robert Muller), Rector (Konrad Osterwalder) and CEO (Martin Lees) are all prominent CoR members. In fact Martin Lees has just been appointed as the CoR Secretary-General. Dr Muller founded the UN's University of Peace on a mountain in Costa Rica. Why did he choose this location? Because of this ancient prophecy:

"Dear children, the Great Spirit is in every animal, in every bird, butterfly, flower, insect, leaf and grass you see. The Great Spirit is also in you, the Creator's children. Please take care of the wonderful nature created by God and some day, from this mountain, you will see the birth of a civilization of peace spread to the entire world."

The 'Board of Honor' of the University includes: Betty Williams, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama Nelson Mandela, F. W. de Klerk and David Trimble. The University is also home to Mikhail Gorbachev and Maurice Strong's infamous Earth Charter Initiative.
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These are just a few of the influential 'environmental' organizations that were either founded by, or are dominated by, CoR members. There are many more that I have come across but it would take forever to describe them all here. The leaders of the Global Green Agenda are deadly serious about their intention to “transform humanity into an interdependent global sustainable Earth Community, based on reverence and respect for Gaia” and they have been spreading their tentacles into every area of global politics. Some other CoR initiated organizations you may wish to research are:

The Earth Council Alliance
The World Future Council
The Alliance of Civilizations
The Global Marshall Plan
The Clinton Global Initiative
The Alliance for Climate Protection


Re: Global Revolution - The Green Web (http://green-agenda.com/greenweb.html)

Agenda 21 – The UN Blueprint for the 21st Century

Agenda 21 outlines, in detail, the United Nation's vision for a centrally managed global society. This contract binds governments around the world to the United Nation's plan for changing the ways we live, eat, learn, move and communicate - all under the noble banner of saving the earth. If fully implemented, Agenda 21 would have the government involved in every aspect of life of every human on earth.

As described in my previous article on Sustainable Development, Agenda 21 was the main outcome of the UN’s Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. At the summit 179 nations officially signed Agenda 21 and many more have followed since. Nearly 7000 local and federal authorities have legally committed themselves to the Agenda. In practice this means that all their plans and policies must begin with an assessment of how the plan or policy meets the requirements of Agenda 21, and no plans or policies are allowed to contradict any part of the Agenda. Local authorities are audited by UN inspectors and the results of the audits are placed on the UN website. You can see how many local authorities in your country are bound by Agenda 21 here.

Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 specifically calls for each community to formulate its own Local Agenda 21:


So as you can see Agenda 21 spreads it tentacles from Governments, to federal and local authorities, and right down to community groups. Among other things, the agenda called for a Global Biodiversity Assessment of the State of the Earth. Prepared by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), this 1200 page document armed UN leaders with the "ecological basis, and moral authority" they needed to validate their global management system. The GBA concludes on page 763 that "the root causes of the loss of biodiversity are embedded in the way societies use resources."


In other words Christians and Moslems are to blame for the sorry state of the world because their religions do not involve worshipping “sacred nature”. Maurice Strong, Club of Rome member, devout Bahai, and Secretary General of UNEP, has been the driving force behind the birth and imposition of Agenda 21. While he chaired the Earth Summit, outside his wife Hanne and 300 followers called the Wisdom-Keepers, continuously beat drums, chanted prayers to Gaia, and trended scared flames in order to “establish and hold the energy field” for the duration of the summit. Al Gore lead the US delegation where he was joined by 110 Heads of State, and representative of more than 800 NGO’s.

Following the Earth Summit Strong was named Undersecretary General of the United Nations, and was appointed to the position of Chief Policy Advisor by Kofi Annan. He was also a member of the UN's Commission on Global Governance, and the author of the Kyoto Protocol. Strong and his wife have also established the Manitou Foundation, providing land in the Colorado to an eclectic mix of religious groups, including the Crestone Mountain Zen Center, the Spiritual Life Institute (a Catholic Carmelite monastery), the Haidakhandi Universal Ashram, the Sri Aurobindo Learning Center, Mangala Shri Bhuti (Tibetan Buddhists), and Karma Thegsum Tashi Gomang (Indian mystics). The Strongs have located their spiritual centre in the Colorado mountains because:


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So what exactly does Agenda 21 contain? It consists of 115 different and very specific programs designed to facilitate, or to force, the transition to Sustainable Development. The objective, clearly enunciated by the leaders of the Earth Summit, is to bring about a change in the present system of independent nations. The agenda is broken up into 8 ‘programme areas for action’:

Agriculture
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management
Education
Energy and Housing
Population
Public Health
Resources and recycling
Transportation, Sustainable Economy Development

As you can see Agenda 21 addresses nearly every aspect of modern life. If you have a spare few days the entire document can be read here. I encourage the reader to at least read the Table of Contents in order to understand the true scope of this ‘blueprint for the 21st century.’ I won’t torture the reader by going into the document in too much depth but I will provide the first six paragraphs so that you can understand the true intent of Agenda 21:

1.1. Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being. However, integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfilment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems and a safer, more prosperous future. No nation can achieve this on its own; but together we can - in a global partnership for sustainable development.

1.2. This global partnership must build on the premises of General Assembly resolution 44/228 of 22 December 1989, which was adopted when the nations of the world called for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, and on the acceptance of the need to take a balanced and integrated approach to environment and development questions.

1.3. Agenda 21 addresses the pressing problems of today and also aims at preparing the world for the challenges of the next century. It reflects a global consensus and political commitment at the highest level on development and environment cooperation. Its successful implementation is first and foremost the responsibility of Governments. National strategies, plans, policies and processes are crucial in achieving this. International cooperation should support and supplement such national efforts. In this context, the United Nations system has a key role to play. Other international, regional and subregional organizations are also called upon to contribute to this effort. The broadest public participation and the active involvement of the non-governmental organizations and other groups should also be encouraged.

1.4. The developmental and environmental objectives of Agenda 21 will require a substantial flow of new and additional financial resources to developing countries, in order to cover the incremental costs for the actions they have to undertake to deal with global environmental problems and to accelerate sustainable development. Financial resources are also required for strengthening the capacity of international institutions for the implementation of Agenda 21.

1.5. In the implementation of the relevant programme areas identified in Agenda 21, special attention should be given to the particular circumstances facing the economies in transition. It must also be recognized that these countries are facing unprecedented challenges in transforming their economies, in some cases in the midst of considerable social and political tension.

1.6. The programme areas that constitute Agenda 21 are described in terms of the basis for action, objectives, activities and means of implementation. Agenda 21 is a dynamic programme. It will be carried out by the various actors according to the different situations, capacities and priorities of countries and regions in full respect of all the principles contained in the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. It could evolve over time in the light of changing needs and circumstances. This process marks the beginning of a new global partnership for sustainable development.

Like most ‘green movement initiatives’ Agenda 21 is a ‘wolf in sheep's clothing’. It is not an environmental management policy, but an attempt to impose a global centrally planned quasi-government administered by the United Nations. Under Agenda 21 all central government and local authority signatories are required to conform strictly to a common prescribed standard and hence this is just communism resurrected in a new guise. Now that Agenda 21 has gained a stranglehold on global regulatory and planning processes Maurice Strong has moved on to the next phase of the Global Green Agenda.

In association with Mikhail Gorbachev, Strong co-chaired the committee responsible for drafting the Earth Charter. Compared to the 2500 pages that make up Agenda 21 and the BGA it is a tiny document – only 4 pages long. But it is of far more significance to the Global Green Agenda. The Earth Charter is a “declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century”. It is the constitution for a New Green Order.

Global Green Agenda - Green Governance (http://green-agenda.com/agenda21.html)

The Earth Charter – Humanity’s Covenant with the Earth

In 1992 Maurice Strong was the Secretary General of the historic United Nations Earth Summit in Rio. In order to ensure the success of the Summit, Strong’s wife, Hanne, held a vigil with the Wisdom-keepers, a group of "global transformationalists." Through round-the-clock sacred fire, drumbeat, and meditation, the group “held the energy pattern" for the duration of the gathering. As described in my previous article Agenda 21 was the primary output of the Summit. It was stated at the time that this ‘blueprint for the 21st century’ would lay the necessary foundation for a subsequent “new global covenant between humanity and the Earth”.

Shortly after the Earth Summit concluded Strong formed the Earth Council, a group of “environmental visionaries and philosophers”, and set about drafting this “new global covenant”. Various draft versions were formulated but the radical and transformative nature of the document met with resistance from more conservative members of the UN bureaucracy. In 1997, the Earth Council and Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, joined forces to form an Earth Charter Commission. The Commission, co-chaired by Strong and Gorbachev, claims to have consulted more than 100,000 “concerned world citizens” around the globe. The twenty-three members of the Commission, which includes Steven Rockefeller, claim to have “mediated prayerfully over every word and comma”. I wonder who they were praying too?

The Earth Charter Commission approved the final text of the Earth Charter in 2000, and it has since been embraced by the United Nations, many religious leaders around the world, the majority of world governments and countless Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and activist groups. Following the release of the Charter a series of international forums, called The Earth Dialogues were held at the United Nations to discuss how the general public could be convinced to adopt the “covenant with the Earth” in a real and personal way.

Perhaps most revealing was the forum for Inter-Religious Groups and Spiritual Leaders. As stated in the forums official meeting minutes, the intent was to deal with "the ethics of intolerant righteousness and the greed of short term gain, as these cannot lead us to sustainable development. It is clear that our religious institutions have barely begun to articulate the core values for a sustainable development. In their fundamentalist - fanatical forms, religions throughout history have justified terrorism, jihads and crusades against people who hold different beliefs and against the Earth itself." So we can clearly see who they consider their enemy to be.

While supporters of the Earth Charter consider traditional mono-theistic religions to be the main obstacle to peaceful coexistence and sustainable life on Earth, they do not propose doing away with spirituality. The Earth Charter goes into detail about the need for faith and spirituality in human life. The preamble of the charter states "the spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature."

So what exactly does this Earth Charter contain? Compared to most UN publications it is very short, only four pages long, direct, and to the point. It clearly lays out the Constitution for a New Green Order. "The choice is ours," it states, "form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living."

The Charter can be read at the official Earth Charter website. The site describes the Charter as “a declaration of fundamental values and principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by the largest global consultation process ever associated with an international declaration, endorsed by thousands of organizations representing millions of individuals, the Earth Charter seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family and the larger living world. It is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history.”

The document begins with a preamble which summarises the problems with the “global situation”, why an Earth Charter is needed to address these problems and the solutions the Charter will provide. It then lists 16 overarching principles that it claims should govern life on this planet. The Charter concludes with a series of closing statement entitled The Way Forward. Rather than going through the whole document line by line I will just provide the reader with the preamble and closing statement which, in effect, summarise the other parts of the Charter. Keep in mind as you read the following text, this is not the ramblings of some idealistic environmental group. It is a covenant that has been officially endorsed by the UNCED, many governments, and thousands of smaller organisations.


PREAMBLE
We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.

Earth, Our Home
Humanity is part of a vast evolving universe. Earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life. The forces of nature make existence a demanding and uncertain adventure, but Earth has provided the conditions essential to life's evolution. The resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air. The global environment with its finite resources is a common concern of all peoples. The protection of Earth's vitality, diversity, and beauty is a sacred trust.

The Global Situation
The dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. Communities are being undermined. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Injustice, poverty, ignorance, and violent conflict are widespread and the cause of great suffering. An unprecedented rise in human population has overburdened ecological and social systems. The foundations of global security are threatened. These trends are perilous—but not inevitable.

The Challenges Ahead
The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. We must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. We have the knowledge and technology to provide for all and to reduce our impacts on the environment. The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world. Our environmental, economic, political, social, and spiritual challenges are interconnected, and together we can forge inclusive solutions.

Universal Responsibility
To realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole Earth community as well as our local communities. We are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. The spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature. We urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community. Therefore, together in hope we affirm the following interdependent principles for a sustainable way of life as a common standard by which the conduct of all individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, and transnational institutions is to be guided and assessed.

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THE WAY FORWARD
As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Earth Charter principles. To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter. This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Earth Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.

Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.

In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development. Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.

Now you may be thinking this all sounds very nice and reasonable. Why not join together in a joyful celebration of life. But the real intent behind the Earth Charter, and the Global Green Agenda in general, is to eliminate national sovereignty and place all humanity under the control of a single 'Earth Government". They clearly and explicitly state that this is their goal:

"In my view, after fifty years of service in the United Nations system, I perceive the utmost urgency and absolute necessity for proper Earth government ... There is no shadow of a doubt that the present political and economic systems - if systems they are - are no longer appropriate and will lead to the end of life evolution on this planet. We must therefore absolutely and urgently look for new ways. The less we loose time, the less species' and nature will be destroyed.

Since the United Nations is the only world-wide, universal organization that is presently available, since it had fifty years of valuable experience and many successes, since it paved the way to proper Earth government, instead of putting it on the defensive, unjustified attacks and criticism, reduction of resources and non-payment of obligatory contributions, governments should honestly ask themselves if a better way would not be to consider a second generation United Nations upgraded by a true quantum jump into a proper Earth preserving and human well-being and justice ensuring organization of our planet.

The continental approach to a world union remains an important avenue. One could conceive five continental unions: the European Union, an American, an African, an Asian, and an Australian Union. A World Union could be constructed as a super-structure and common political, economic and environmental instrument to achieve these objectives. "
from - The Earth Charter in Action

Unlike Agenda 21, which is a hard law document, the Earth Charter lays out the principles to which laws and regulations will have to promote and enforce. The Charter "was drafted in coordination with a hard law treaty that is designed to provide an integrated legal framework for all environment development law and policy." This hard law treaty is called the International Covenant on Environment and Development and is being prepared by the Commission on Environmental Law at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a behemoth agency which oversees 700+ governmental agencies worldwide.

Again, unlike Agenda 21, the Earth Charter is not being forced on local communities from above. The United Nations is quietly fostering a grass-roots mainstream movement where people personally commit themselves to the Charter. They believe that this personal commitment will be necessary to bring about the societal transformation that the Charter requires. The primary tool being used to permeate society with awareness and acceptance of the Charter is the Earth Charter Initiative. This is another brain-child of Strong and Gorbachev.

According to their own description “The Earth Charter Initiative is the collective name for an extraordinarily diverse, global network of people, organizations, and institutions who participate in promoting the Earth Charter, and in implementing its principles in practice. The Initiative is a broad-based, voluntary, civil society effort, but participants include leading international institutions, national governments, university associations, NGOs, cities, faith groups, and many well-known leaders in sustainable development.”

The Earth Charter Initiative is located in, and managed by, the United Nations University of Peace. The governing council of this University contains some very interesting names. Many of its top academics are members of the Club of Rome. In fact the Rector of the University, Martin Lees, is also the Secretary General of the CoR! The founder and current Chancellor of the University is Robert Muller, former Undersecretary of the United Nations, and its #2 ranked official. I strongly urge the reader to research Mr Muller’s vision for the world as outlined on his websites http://earthpax.net, http://www.robertmuller.org/ and http://www.goodmorningworld.org/.

Here are some snippets to whet your appetite:


As a final insult, and perhaps to make clear the true intent of their agenda, the original copy of the Earth Charter has been placed in a specially constructed Ark of Hope. Placed within the Ark, along with the Earth Charter, were various items called "Temenos Books" and "Temenos Earth Masks." Temenos is a concept adopted by Carl Jung to denote a magic circle, a sacred space where special rules and energies apply. Some of the Temenos Books were created within this magic circle by children, who filled them with visual affirmations for Mother Earth. Fashioned with the "earth elements", the Temenos Earth Masks were also worn and created by children. The outside of the Ark is covered with images depicting native spirits of fire, earth, air and water. If you wish you can read more at http://arkofhope.org. This Ark forms a major part of ‘the Earth Charter outreach programme’ and visits hundreds of schools and universities around the world each year.

The Earth Charter stresses that man is his own saviour. By saving "mother earth" we will once again return to an idyllic Garden of Eden and redeem our tarnished souls. But instead of worshipping the true Creator, the Global Green Agenda seeks to plunge us headlong into an earth-worship new world religion. They are only waiting for “the right crisis” after which they surmise that humanity will gladly sell their souls for the kind of world that the Earth Charter Promises.

“Do not do unto the environment of others what
you do not want done to your own environment..
My hope is that this Charter will be a kind of
Ten Commandments, a 'Sermon on the Mount',
that provides a guide for human behavior toward the
environment in the next century.”
- Mikhail Gorbachev

Green Governance - The Earth Charter (http://green-agenda.com/earthcharter.html)

The Final Phase – Global governance

Over the last decade, the United Nations has brazenly been reinventing itself into a global government, striving to obtain the legal framework, financial resources and grassroots support to implement its policies. As outlined in my preceding articles it has effectively seized legal and regulatory control in many countries, through Agenda 21, and developed a Constitution, the Earth Charter, for its vision on a transformed global interdependent society.

In 1992 the UN formed a Commission on Global Governance charged with devising a system of future global management. Second in charge of the Commission, and lead author of its report, was Maurice Strong, with whom readers will be quite familiar by now. After several years of “extension consultation” with “world leaders, philosophers, and futurologists” the Commission produced a report entitled “Our Global Neighbourhood.”

The report contained many highly controversial recommendations. It was warmly welcomed by activists within the UN but harshly criticised by libertarians around the world who claimed that its recommendations entailed abolishing national sovereignty and suppressing the freedom of individuals. The report specifically denied it was supporting "global government" preferring the term "global governance" but its contents reveal all elements required for a genuine government. Besides, a little reflection yields the following question: How can one have global "governance" without global "government"?

The following are excerpts from ‘Our Global Neighbourhood’:

"...countries are having to accept that in certain fields, sovereignty has to be exercised collectively, particularly in respect of the global commons."

"...the principle of sovereignty...must be further adapted to recognize changing realities."

"...there is a need to weigh a state's right to autonomy against its people's right to security."

"It is time to begin thinking about self-determination in a new context - the emerging context of a global neighbourhood rather than the traditional context of a world of separate states."

"The concept of global security must be broadened from the traditional focus of security of states to include the security of people and the security of the planet."

“Regionalism must precede globalism. We foresee a seamless system of governance from local communities, individual states, regional unions and up through to the United Nations itself.”

"The concept of national sovereignty has been immutable, indeed a sacred principle of international relations. It is a principle which will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the new imperatives of global environmental cooperation. What is needed is recognition of the reality that...it is simply not feasible for sovereignty to be exercised unilaterally by individual nation-states, however powerful."

One of the primary thrusts of “Our Global Neighbourhood” was the formation of “regional blocs or unions to enhance political, economic and environmental security”. The report proposed that “Regional Neighbourhoods” be established modelled closely on the successful example of the European Union. Recent years has seen a large number of such regional unions emerging, or being strengthened, including the African Union, The Mediterranean Neighbourhood Partnership, the Gulf States Coalition, and the proposed North American Union. The report also recommended a gradual reduction in the sovereignty of independent states, arguing strongly in favour of international “courts of accountability”, binding global agreements and significantly enhancing the legal authority of the UN. Dr Robert Muller, Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, and founder of UNESCO, clearly describes this UN plan for a new 'World Union':

"In my view, after fifty years of service in the United Nations system, I perceive the utmost urgency and absolute necessity for proper Earth government ... There is no shadow of a doubt that the present political and economic systems - if systems they are - are no longer appropriate and will lead to the end of life evolution on this planet. We must therefore absolutely and urgently look for new ways. The less we loose time, the less species' and nature will be destroyed.

Since the United Nations is the only world-wide, universal organization that is presently available, since it had fifty years of valuable experience and many successes, since it paved the way to proper Earth government, instead of putting it on the defensive, unjustified attacks and criticism, reduction of resources and non-payment of obligatory contributions, governments should honestly ask themselves if a better way would not be to consider a second generation United Nations upgraded by a true quantum jump into a proper Earth preserving and human well-being and justice ensuring organization of our planet.

The continental approach to a world union remains an important avenue. One could conceive five continental unions: the European Union, an American, an African, an Asian, and an Australian Union. A World Union could be constructed as a super-structure and common political, economic and environmental instrument to achieve these objectives. "
from - The Earth Charter in Action

The report concluded with 12 key recommendations which I have listed below, and it was these that caused such a furore that the rest of the report barely received a comment. The UN claimed that the report was merely a “visioning exercise” intended to generate discussion and did not represent official UN policy goals. The report was effectively shelved and the Commission was disbanded

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1.  Consolidation of all international agencies under the direct oversight of the United Nations.
2.  Regulation by the United Nations of all transnational organizations and financial institutions.
3.  Independent source of revenue for the United Nations and taxes on aircraft and shipping fuels, and licensing the use of the global commons.
4.  Eliminate the veto power and the permanent member status on the Security Council.
5.  Authorize a United Nations ready reaction force.
6.  Require United Nations registration of all arms and the reduction of national armies as a part of a multilateral global security system under the authority of the United Nations.
7.  Require individual and national compliance with all United Nations Human Rights treaties.
8.  Activate the International Criminal Court, make the International Court of Justice compulsory for all nations, and give individuals the right to petition the courts to remedy social injustice.
9.  Create a new institution to establish economic and environmental security by ensuring sustainable development.
10.  Create a new international environmental court.
11.  Adopt a declaration that climate change is an essential global security interest that requires the creation of a high-level action team to allocate carbon emission based on equal per-capita rights.
12.  Cancellation of all debt owed by the poorest nations, global poverty reductions, and for equitable sharing of global resources as allocated by the United Nations.

One of Kofi Annan’s first actions when he became Secretary-General of the United Nations was to appoint Maurice Strong as his Senior Policy Advisor. He then tasked Strong with preparing a plan to “reform the institution of the United Nations”. In 2002 Strong produced a 95-page document, entitled Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform, which was basically a step-by-step program to implement many of the recommendations of “Our Global Neighbourhood”. Many of these reforms have been slowly working their way through UN system. However, after Maurice Strong was indicted for his involvement in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal he was forced by pressure from the United States to resign from his UN roles.

The reforms he designed are being implemented by the UN but they have not been the transformation that he desired. It is the opinion of this author that the current bureaucratic and unwieldy structure of the United Nations is unlikely to ever deliver the “global interdependent society” that the Earth Charter, and the Green Movement, is fervently calling for. Most members of the general population are not motivated to change by mere words in a charter, and the majority are likely to resent further intrusion into their lives.

True fundamental change is most often born out of crisis. A common creed among the Green Agenda activists has long been “order out of chaos”. They believe that people from all nations will literally beg for their New World Order if it can promise safety and security at a time when people feel under personal imminent threat. To once again quote the famous words of David Rockefeller “A New World Order is coming … all we need is the right major crisis.” And remember, it was the Rockefeller family that donated the land on which the United Nations now stands.

Thus it seems far more likely that the UN itself will be transformed, most likely after some major international crisis which the UN is unable to prevent or respond to adequately. After all the League of Nations was born after the first truly global crisis, World War 1, and then it was “reformed” into the United Nations following World War 2. However there are some serious impediments to the implementation of the final phase of the Global Green Agenda:

1.  Evangelical Christianity – True Bible-believing Christians are very likely to resist the imposition of any system of global governance, especially if it based around an earth-centred religion. Christian realise that this earth is temporary and will soon pass away. The Bible specifically warns them that humans will eventually end up “worshipping the creature instead of the Creator.” However the leaders of certain denominations seem to have no problem with the Agenda. Pope Benedict proclaimed, during Live Earth that “environmental degradation is a sin, and Global Warming is a defilement of the Divine Will.”

2.  Islam – Moslems are also likely to fiercely resist any New World Order that mandates a form of earth-worship. There are more than one billion followers of Islam and they show remarkably little enthusiasm for accommodating New Age eco-theology into their doctrines. Hence it is likely that the power of Islam will have to be shattered before the Global Green Agenda can be fulfilled.

3.  The United States of America – The USA has long been a bastion of individual liberty and freedom. Thank God George Bush defeated Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election. If Gore had won, I have no doubt we would now be deep in the midst of the Green Reich. President Bush has bravely defended American sovereignty from the clutches of the global elitists. However this could soon change. If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is elected President it could well be the end of the American dream.

4.  Communist China – The totalitarian Communist Party of China is very unlikely to relinquish much of its power to a new transformed United Nations. However China is currently treading a precarious path. It’s economic miracle is in fact a house of cards built on slave labour and artificially managed conditions. China is very vulnerable to an economic collapse which could lead to a popular revolution or bankrupt the country.

5.  Authoritarian Russia – Putin has established a tight authoritarian grip on Russia and is unlikely to bow willingly to a resurrected UN. However Putin could soon be gone and a new Gorbachev could arise. Another possibility is that Russia could also once again lose its position as a global power broker through economic problems or war.

So, to quickly summarise, the activists behind the Global Green Agenda have established regulatory control in many societies through Agenda 21, they have written a Constitution for their transformed global society with the Earth Charter, and they have even described, in detail, how their new global system will be operate in “Our Global Neighbourhood”. However several obstacles must be removed before the final phase of the Agenda, global governance based on a system of earth-worship, can be fulfilled.

Firstly, a situation must arise where otherwise apathetic, or even hostile, members of society will beg for a new global system. They must feel so personally threatened that they will eagerly give up their personal liberty for the promise of safety and security. Our Global Neighbourhood said the surrender of liberty is "a principle that will yield only slowly and reluctantly to the imperatives of global environmental cooperation." In my opinion Global Warming is currently being used as a conditioning tool with its fervent call for global unity to save a wounded planet.

Secondly, certain nations and religious groups are unlikely to accept a new global system that involves the loss of national sovereignty, the loss of individual liberty, and reverence for the earth as a divine being. So what events could possibly bring about the conditions that would allow the emergence of a one world government? I will briefly describe what I consider to be the most likely scenario.

Ezekiel 38 and 39 describe an attack on Israel by a coalition of Islamic nations and Russia. It seems that this conflict also involves other parts of the globe. The invading forces are completely destroyed by God’s divine intervention. The military power of Russia is annihilated, and Islam, which promised its believers a final ultimate victory, is shattered. The world economy lies in total ruin. Significant areas of the planet are devastated. People everywhere are distraught and in despair. Emergency meetings are held at the United Nations where the blueprints for a new global system are presented and quickly adopted.

“We need a new beginning” they say, “We all must change and renounce our old destructive ways.” Everything is already in place, the Earth Charter is endorsed as a Planetary Constitution. The Security Council is replaced with the United Earth Council. The world is divided into ten administrative regions and each one is represented by an Earth Councillor. The blame for the recent conflict, and many of the worlds other problems, are placed firmly on traditional religions. They are swiftly outlawed and replaced by reverence for the earth itself. “We nearly destroyed Gaia!” they say, “We nearly destroyed our own Mother!”

As David Rockefeller stated, “all we need is the right crisis”. Everything is now in place. They are just building momentum and waiting for the storm they know is coming. You don’t need to look in the shadows for the coming world government. It is standing right before your eyes. When they bring “order out of chaos” the United Nations will be transformed and the final global empire will be born.

Green Governance - A United World (http://green-agenda.com/globalgovernance.html)

The Carbon Currency

During my research into this subject it has become crystal clear that the 'Climate Crisis' has been conceived by the Gaia Cult as a way to control and reduce human activity in order to protect their goddess. To achieve this they have devised a 'carbon rationing' system that will include a mandatory carbon card that you must have if you want to buy anything, even food. And it will be global - everyone will be signed up to the same system.

Their plan is that everyone on earth will be given the same number of 'carbon credits' so a person living in a village in India, who doesn't even own a car, will suddenly has a 1000 carbon credits. If a family in America wants to have two cars and heat their home in winter they will have to buy credits from poorer countries. This is just a socialist scheme for global wealth redistribution.

Even scarier, at any time they can just say the climate change is progressing faster than they predicted so they have to cut everyone's carbon allowance by 30%. They will have control over almost every aspect of our lives. They have already developed a thing called the Kyoto Chip, and the UK has setup a Carbon Currency Unit in their Treasury. We live in interesting times!!

Carbon – the Currency of a New World Order

One of Kevin Rudd's contacts with whom he keeps in regular dialogue is Britain's Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, David Miliband, a climate change crusader and a leader of the political revolution sweeping Britain and Europe. Last week Miliband announced that Britain will become the world's first nation to legislate a climate change bill setting legally binding timetables for a low-carbon economy. It will put into law the target of 60 per cent emission cuts by 2050, the same target pledged by Rudd's Labor Party. This decision will affect every British industry, business and household. Miliband is not just environment minister. He met Rudd when he worked in Tony Blair's office at Downing Street as a New Labour strategic thinker. Now he is recasting social democratic philosophy and practice for the coming century.

Miliband's discussion paper sees the greenhouse challenge as "similar in scope to the first industrial revolution". It is tied to the EU heads of government decision over March 8-9 on an independent binding target to cut Europe's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 (compared with 1990 levels) and to lift this target to 30 per cent as part of a global agreement. The purpose is to impose this system on the world. Britain and Europe are setting benchmarks for a new global order. Miliband's paper makes this explicit: "By forming a single negotiating block, the EU will be influential in forging a post-2012 framework." Britain's next prime minister, Gordon Brown, said last week: "My ambition is to build a global carbon market founded on the EU emissions trading scheme and centred in London."

Miliband plans carbon trading 'credit cards' for everyone

Every citizen would be issued with a carbon "credit card" - to be swiped every time they bought petrol, paid an energy utility bill or booked an airline ticket - under a nationwide carbon rationing scheme that could come into operation within five years, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the environment secretary, David Miliband, and published today.

The idea was floated in a speech in the summer, but the detailed proposals show Mr Miliband is serious about trying to press ahead with the radical idea as a central part of his climate change strategy. Under the scheme, everybody would be given an annual allowance of the carbon they could expend on a range of products, probably food, energy and travel. If they wanted to use more carbon, they would be able to buy it from somebody else. The report admits huge questions would have to be resolved, including the risk of fraud, the relationship to ID cards, and costs. However Mr Miliband said "bold thinking is required because the world is in a dangerous place".
link

Pay as you pollute

In a few years from now you will have another plastic card in your wallet - your carbon card. You will start the year with 1,000 points on it and each time you fill up your car, you put the card in a slot on the pump and it will deduct a few points. Each time you buy an airline ticket, it will cost you a minimum of 100 points. If you fly regularly, you may have to buy more points through the carbon market - but since it is all in the cause of reducing greenhouse gas emissions you do not mind so much.
link

Personal carbon rationing

Summary
Personal carbon rationing would be a UK-wide allowance system covering the carbon emissions generated from the fossil fuel energy used by individuals within the home and for personal transport, including carbon equivalent emissions from air travel. It would account for around half of current UK carbon emissions from energy. The primary aim of the scheme would be to deliver guaranteed levels of carbon savings in successive years in an equitable way. The government’s current target of a 60% reduction by 2050, or more stringent targets, would assuredly be met in this way.

Key features
The main features of personal carbon rations are:
An equal annual ration is allocated for each adult, with a smaller one for children.
Rations are tradable.
The ration covers the direct energy used in the household and for personal travel.
A phased year-on-year reducing ration is signalled well in advance.
The arrangement is mandatory.

Carbon rations will have to decrease over time in response to the need to reduce global emissions in a smooth transition and to allow for the expected rise in national population. To allow for the expected growth in the UK population, personal rations would have to fall by a little more than 60% below today’s average by 2050 (designed to stabilise atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations at 550ppm). If a more risk-averse target for concentrations of 450ppm were chosen, then the reductions needed by 2050 would be around 80%. In order to be effective, carbon rationing would have to be mandatory.

Modern industrial society, especially the United States, has always represented the 'Great Satan' to the modern green movement. They despise and fear capitalism and economic growth. Ever since its inception in the 1960s the green agenda has always been to find some way to destroy the free market system. The 'Climate Crisis is the weapon they have crafted to deliver a fatal death blow. A scheme that they are currently pushing hard is called 'Contraction and Convergence'.

Under this system entire countries would have carbon rationing imposed on them. The United States (currently 25% of global emissions) would be allowed to emit no more than 5% of the world's annual carbon emissions. If, as required by th UN's IPCC, emissions must decrease by at least 50% from current levels then the USA would have to decrease its carbon emissions by 98% from 1990 levels!! Goodbye USA! Many well-know politicians such as Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown and Arnold Sharwzenegger have publicly praised the C&C system. If these systems for personal and national carbon rationing are implemented then the Global Green Agenda activists will have well and truly achieved their aim of Global Governance.


The Carbon Currency (http://green-agenda.com/carboncurrency.html)

The Green Economy – A Global Economic Suicide Pact

The global green movement places very little value on the modern industrial society that has produced huge improvements in economic prosperity, health care, human rights, education and standards of living. In fact, the green movement hates and fears western-style capitalism. To them, the loss of industrial civilisation is of no great consequence. In fact, it is one of the top priorities on the Global Green Agenda.

The green movement has been obsessed with capitalism, especially evil multi-national corporations, since its birth in the 1960s. Long before the advent of ‘global warming’, the primary objective of the movement was, and always has been, simply the destruction of energy production. They know that the life blood of the industrial society is energy, especially fossil fuels, and a significant reduction in energy availability will deal a fatal blow to Gaia’s greatest threat – capitalism.

Primitive societies are admired for being sustainable and living in harmony with Gaia. Western capitalist nations are reviled as “destroyers of the earth” which must be subdued. They make no attempt to conceal this agenda. To once again quote the Club of Rome, "Isn't the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn't it our responsibility to bring that about?", and from the Earth Charter, “The current course of development is thus clearly unsustainable. Current problems cannot be solved by piecemeal measures. More of the same is not enough. Radical change from the current trajectory is not an option, but an absolute necessity.”

One of the first targets of green movement was the nuclear power industry. Even though nuclear energy offers enormous energy potential with no CO2 emissions they still revile it. They also fiercely oppose any proposals to build new hydro-electric dams based on perceived negative environmental effects. The same argument is used to oppose any proposals to develop new oil fields. They intend to starve the beast not feed it. The only sources of power that the environmental movement is willing to allow are wind and sunlight. Humans will just have to adapt to living with very low volumes of unreliable energy.

Of course the big prize has always been to find some way to control, or even eliminate, the use of fossil fuels. After all, it is fossil fuels that have allowed the human population to blossom from a mere one billion in 1850 to more than six billion today. A single barrel of oil contains 18,000 man-hours of energy. Hence the 20 million barrels that the USA consumes each day is equivalent to 15 billion additional human workers. Oil has empowered each American worker the equivalent of 45 ‘virtual slaves’. Globally it provides us with the equivalent daily energy of more than 70 billion human workers. Try pushing your car for a few miles to see just how much work oil does for us.

In 1850 more than 85% of people led lives of hard drudgery growing food, today less than 2% of people in western societies are employed in the agricultural sector. In 1850 most people never traveled beyond the next village, whereas we are free to roam the world and learn from other cultures. The average life expectancy in England in 1850 was 34, and infant mortality was nearly 30%. Now the average life expectancy is in excess of 70, and infant mortality is miniscule.

But the green movement looks back with great fondness to a simpler and gentler time. According to them without fossil fuels the world will be transformed into an Ecotopia. We would all live in small sustainable villages, surrounded by lush fields where happy peasants sang love-songs to Gaia as they gently tilled her soil. Without the unbridled power provided by fossil fuels we could no longer dominate the earth, shaping it according to our own will. Humans would learn to once again live humbly alongside all other living beings, and be reconciled with Mother Nature.

The fact that modern ‘industrial’ agriculture would collapse without fossil fuels, and as a result hundreds of millions would starve, seems to be of minor consequence. It’s just a bit of short-term pain for long-term gain. Ted Turner, who donated over a billion dollars to the United Nations specifically to fund the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thinks that "A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal."

Hence for the green movement Global Warming presents an opportunity to finally and completely destroy the voracious beast of capitalism. They are demanding the imposition of a massive reduction in global emissions of carbon dioxide accompanied by a freeze on such emissions at the sharply reduced level. This would immediately result in the elimination or radical reduction in the supply of all goods and services that depend on fossil fuel consumption. As Al Gore says it would be a “wrenching transformation of society.” Every aspect of daily life would be dramatically altered.

The much vaunted Stern Report called for a 25% reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Given the fact that the world population is expected to increase by third which means the 9 billion people would have to generate 25% less then 6 billion, or a per capita reduction of 50%. This would devastate the global economy and make the Great Depression look like a picnic.

The two leading Democratic Presidential Candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have both called for a 40% reduction by 2040. Factoring in population growth, this would require a reduction of more than 75%. You really have to wonder if they have thought deeply about the implications of this goal. It even makes the climate doom stories seem pleasant.

And then we have dear old Al Gore. The Goracle has called for a reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions of 90% within 10 years! There is little chance that modern society could function with 25% less oil, just imagine the consequences of a 90% reduction.. Cities would be deserted and slowly rot. Infrastructure could no longer be maintained. It would surely result in a massive die-off in the human population.

I’m quite certain Al isn’t serious about his demands for a 90% reduction. That would be uncontrollable, and the whole purpose behind the Global Green Agenda is to gain control over, transform, and reduce human activity. A more likely outcome will be less severe reductions, combined with the imposition of a global system of carbon permits governed by the United Nations. This would give the UN unprecedented power to regulate individuals, businesses and governments, all in the name of ‘saving the Earth’. Carbon markets have already been established in many countries in anticipation of a mandatory system.

In the United States the only operating carbon emissions trading market is the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Coincidentally, or not, Al Gore’s hedge fund, Generation Investment Management, is the largest shareholder in CCX. Now that’s what I call a conflict of interest! The most vocal Global Warming alarmist is the largest shareholder in the USA’s only operating ‘carbon market’. On the board of CCX we find our old friend Maurice Strong.

In late 2007 the UN will host a conference in Bali with the intention of formulating an internationally binding Climate Change Treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is widely expected that this treaty will mandate a global carbon trading system, and possibly a global carbon tax. Many green activists know that Global Warming is a vague and hollow threat. However, it is proving to be a very effective tool in implementing their Global Green Agenda which began more than a decade ago with Sustainable Development and Agenda 21.

No I'm not going to post all the table of contents, it just to big. You can read them by following the links. This is on the UN Economic and Social Development page

Agenda 21 - Table of Contents

1.  Preamble     1.1 - 1.6 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter1.htm)

SECTION I. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DIMENSIONS (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm#sec1)

2.  International cooperation to accelerate sustainable development in developing countries and related domestic policies     2.1 - 2.43 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter2.htm)

3.  Combating poverty     3.1 - 3.12 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter3.htm)

4.  Changing consumption patterns     4.1 - 4.27 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter4.htm)

5.  Demographic dynamics and sustainability     5.1 - 5.66 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter5.htm)

6.  Protecting and promoting human health conditions     6.1 - 6.46 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter6.htm)

7.  Promoting sustainable human settlement development     7.1 - 7.80 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter7.htm)

8.  Integrating environment and development in decision-making     8.1 - 8.54 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter8.htm)

SECTION II. CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES FOR DEVELOPMENT (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm#sec2)

9.  Protection of the atmosphere     9.1 - 9.35 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter9.htm)

10.  Integrated approach to the planning and management of land resources     10.1 - 10.18 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter10.htm)

11.  Combating deforestation     11.1 - 11.40 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter11.htm)

12.  Managing fragile ecosystems: combating desertification and drought     12.1 - 12.63 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter12.htm)

13.  Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable mountain development     13.1 - 13.24 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter13.htm)

14.  Promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development     14.1 - 14.104 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter14.htm)

15.  Conservation of biological diversity     15.1 - 15.11 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter15.htm)

16.  Environmentally sound management of biotechnology     16.1 - 16.46 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter16.htm)

17.  Protection of the oceans, all kinds of seas, including enclosed and semi-enclosed seas, and coastal areas and the protection, rational use and development of their living resources     17.1 - 17.136 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter17.htm)

18.  Protection of the quality and supply of freshwater resources: application of integrated approaches to the development, management and use of water resources     18.1 - 18.90 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter18.htm)

19.  Environmentally sound management of toxic chemicals, including prevention of illegal international traffic in toxic and dangerous products     19.1 - 19.76 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter19.htm)

20.  Environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes, in hazardous wastes     20.1 - 20.46 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter20.htm)

21.  Environmentally sound management of solid wastes and sewage-related issues     21.1 - 21.49 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter21.htm)

22.  Safe and environmentally sound management of radioactive wastes     22.1 - 22.9 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter22.htm)

SECTION III. STRENGTHENING THE ROLE OF MAJOR GROUPS (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm#sec3)

23.  Preamble     23.1 - 23.4 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter23.htm)

24.  Global action for women towards sustainable and equitable development     24.1 - 24.12 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter24.htm)

25.  Children and youth in sustainable development     25.1 - 25.17 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter25.htm)

26.  Recognizing and strengthening the role of indigenous people and their communities     26.1 - 26.9 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter26.htm)

27.  Strengthening the role of non-governmental organizations: partners for sustainable development     27.1 - 27.13 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter27.htm)

28.  Local authorities' initiatives in support of Agenda 21     28.1 - 28.7 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter28.htm)

29.  Strengthening the role of workers and their trade unions     29.1 - 29.14 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter29.htm)

30.  Strengthening the role of business and industry     30.1 - 30.30 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter30.htm)

31.  Scientific and technological community     31.1 - 31.12 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter31.htm)

32.  Strengthening the role of farmers     32.1 - 32.14 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter32.htm)

SECTION IV. MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm#sec4)

33.  Financial resources and mechanisms     33.1 - 33.21 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter33.htm)

34.  Transfer of environmentally sound technology, cooperation and capacity-building     34.1 - 34.29 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter34.htm)

35.  Science for sustainable development     35.1 - 35.25 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter35.htm)

36.  Promoting education, public awareness and training     36.1 - 36.27 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter36.htm)

37.  National mechanisms and international cooperation for capacity-building in developing countries     37.1 - 37.13 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter37.htm)

38.  International institutional arrangements     38.1 - 38.45 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter38.htm)

39.  International legal instruments and mechanisms     39.1 - 39.10 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter39.htm)

40.  Information for decision-making     40.1 - 40.30 (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21chapter40.htm)

Agenda 21 - Table of Contents (http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are a few extra's.....

The Rio Declaration (http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm)

Forest Principles (http://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-3annex3.htm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It will take a while to read all this, least it took me 12 hours to read everything.

I'm not one that is for conspiracy theories but I find this information on Gaia quite interesting. The Greek word means land or earth. Gaia is a primordial deity in the Ancient Greek pantheon and considered a mother goddess or great goddess. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra Mater. I also find it interesting that there is an ecological organization by the name of Gaia. In addition to the many individuals that Brother Bob posted on here there are many businesses that belong to this organization. The businesses that do belong to it are the same ones that are pushing the global warming nonsense.

There is also a "charitable" organization (trust fund) by this name that provides much of the funding to the scientists that support global warming and evolution. This fund also provides large sums for education in schools.

All the more reason for Christians to separate themselves from this global warming/climate change movement.

Alliance of Civilizations told to act - Summary
Posted on : 2008-01-15
Author : DPA

Madrid - The United Nations' Alliance of Civilizations project was Tuesday advised to engage in concrete programmes instead of just discussing inter-cultural dialogue at meetings and in documents. The countries involved should "tenaciously" seek to apply "concrete programmes," European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said at the alliance's first annual forum, which began in Madrid.

The Alliance of Civilizations, which was launched by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero after Islamist train bombings killed 191 people in Madrid in 2004, seeks to break down cultural prejudice and to increase understanding especially between the West and the Muslim world.

The two-day forum brought nearly 400 people from more than 60 countries to the Spanish capital, including representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society as well as religious leaders, entrepreneurs and artists.

The guest list included the presidents of Senegal, Finland and Slovenia and the prime ministers of Algeria and Malaysia.

"We do not need new documents, but they need to be applied," Solana said, pointing out that many of the alliance's ideas were already contained in EU legislation.

The countries involved should not "just hold meetings, but the meetings need to serve to solve problems," Solana insisted.

The Alliance of Civilizations will only succeed if given a "concrete content," Zapatero said, calling on all countries to adopt it as a "policy of state."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stressed the urgent need for inter-cultural dialogue to thwart the threat of extremist movements.

"Never in our lifetime has there been a more desperate need for constructive and committed dialogue," Ban said, describing the Alliance of Civilizations as a "unique" platform for that purpose.

It was easy to call for cultural bridges, Ban admitted, but it was much more difficult to turn the words into deeds influencing how people thought and acted.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos urged the participants to engage to back US peace efforts in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, complaining of a "lack of political will" to create a Palestinian state.

Former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio, the UN high representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, said it was filling a "vacuum" existing on the international level.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has joined Zapatero in sponsoring the initiative, said Turkey's entry into the EU would "prove that the Alliance of Civilizations is possible."

The forum included workshops aimed at sparking initiatives and partnerships to promote inter-cultural understanding.

Jordan's Queen Noor announced the creation of a 100-million-dollar fund to subsidize audiovisual productions promoting cultural integration, while the Spanish government said it would support movies and television series of that kind.

Recommendations issued by 20 eminent personalities in 2006 set education, the media, youth and migration as the main areas to be targeted.

Zapatero's and Erdogan's initiative for an alliance of civilizations was adopted by the UN in 2005.

The United States has backed the initiative, though it has shown a limited interest, and only sent its ambassador to Spain to the Madrid forum, according to Spanish sources.

The general action plan issued in 2006 is now to be followed by national plans. Zapatero outlined Spain's 60-point national plan and pledged to appoint a coordinator to implement it.

Alliance of Civilizations told to act - Summary (http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/173898,%C2%A0alliance-of-civilizations-told-to-act--summary.html#)

7-year plan: U.S.
'to join Europe' 
Rules, regs to be integrated
without congressional review

Six U.S. senators and 49 House members are advisers for a group working toward a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.

The Transatlantic Policy Network – a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels – is advised by the bi-partisan congressional TPN policy group, chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

The plan – currently being implemented by the Bush administration with the formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council in April 2007 – appears to be following a plan written in 1939 by a world-government advocate who sought to create a Transatlantic Union as an international governing body.

An economist from the World Bank has argued in print that the formation of the Transatlantic Common Market is designed to follow the blueprint of Jean Monnet, a key intellectual architect of the European Union, recognizing that economic integration must inevitably lead to political integration.

As WND previously reported, a key step in advancing this goal was the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council by the U.S. and the EU through an agreement signed by President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the current president of the European Council – and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a White House summit meeting last April.

Writing in the Fall 2007 issue of the Streit Council journal "Freedom and Union," Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., a member of the TPN advisory group, affirmed the target date of 2015 for the creation of a Transatlantic Common Market.

Costa said the Transatlantic Economic Council is tasked with creating the Transatlantic Common Market regulatory infrastructure. The infrastructure would not require congressional approval, like a new free-trade agreement would.

Writing in the same issue of the Streit Council publication, Bennett also confirmed that what has become known as the "Merkel initiative" would allow the Transatlantic Economic Council to integrate and harmonize administrative rules and regulations between the U.S. and the EU "in a very quiet way," without introducing a new free trade agreement to Congress.

No document on the TEC website suggests that any of the regulatory changes resulting from the process of integrating with the EU will be posted in the Federal Register or submitted to Congress as new free-trade agreements or as modifications to existing trade agreements.

In addition to Bennett, the advisers to the Transatlantic Policy Network includes the following senators: Thad Cochran, R-Miss.; Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

Among the 49 U.S. congressmen on the TPN's Congressional Group are John Boehner, R-Ohio; John Dingell, D-Mich.; Kenny Marchant, R-Texas; and F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc.

WND contacted Bennett's office for comment but received no return call by the publication deadline.

A progress report on the TEC website indicates the following U.S. government agencies are already at work integrating and harmonizing administrative rules and regulations with their EU counterparts: The Office of Management and Budget, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A step toward world government

The Streit Council is named after Clarence K. Streit, whose 1939 book "Union Now" called for the creation of a Transatlantic Union as a step toward world government. The new federation, with an international constitution, was to include the 15 democracies of U.S., UK, France, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa.

Ira Straus, the founder and U.S. coordinator of the Committee on Eastern Europe and Russia in NATO, a group dedicated to including Russia within NATO, credits Bennett as TPN chairperson with reviving Streit's work "seven decades later."

A globalist with leftist political leanings, Straus was a Fulbright professor of political science at Moscow State University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations from 2001 to 2002.

The congruity of ideas between Bennett and Streit is clear when Bennett writes passages that echo precisely goals Streit stated in 1939.

One example is Bennett's claim in his Streit Council article that creating a Transatlantic Common Market would combine markets that comprise 60 percent of world Gross Domestic Product under a common regulatory standard that would become "the de facto world standard, regardless of what any other parties say."

Similarly, Streit wrote in "Union Now" that the economic power of the 15 democracies he sought to combine in a Transatlantic Union would be overwhelming in their economic power and a clear challenge to the authoritarian states then represented by Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union.

Also writing in the Fall 2007 issue of the Streit Council journal "Freedom and Union," World Bank economist Domenec Ruiz Devesa openly acknowledged that "transatlantic economic integration, though important in itself, is not the end."

"As understood by Jean Monnet," he continued, "economic integration must and will lead to political integration, since an integrated market requires common institutions producing common rules to govern it."

Transatlantic Common Market by 2015

Last February, the Transatlantic Policy Network formed a Transatlantic Market Implementation Group to put in place "a roadmap and framework" to direct the activity of the Transatlantic Economic Council to achieve the creation of the Transatlantic Common Market by 2015.

the Transatlantic Economic Council is an official international governmental body established by executive fiat in the U.S. and the EU without congressional approval or oversight. No new law or treaty was sought by the Bush administration to approve or implement the plan to create a Transatlantic Common Market.

The U.S. congressmen and senators are involved only indirectly, as advisers to the influential non-governmental organization.

In a February 2007 document entitled "Completing the Transatlantic Market," the TPN's Transatlantic Market Implementation Group writes, "The aim of this roadmap and framework would be to remove barriers to trade and investment across the Atlantic and to reduce regulatory compliance costs."

The document further acknowledged the impact the Transatlantic Common Market agenda would have on U.S. and European legislators: "The roadmap and framework will necessarily oblige legislative and regulatory authorities in both Europe and the United States to take into consideration from the outset the impact their acts may have on transatlantic economic relations and to ensure that their respective governmental bodies involved have the necessary budgetary and organizational resources to work closely with each other."

Clinton administration roots

The work to create a Transatlantic Common Market can be traced back to the Clinton administration's decision to join in the 1995 New Transatlantic Agenda with the European Commission.

Today, the website of the Transatlantic Economic Council openly proclaims the TEC is "a political body to oversee and accelerate government-to-government integration between the European Union and the United States of America."

The first meeting of the TEC was held Nov. 9 in Washington, D.C., and the next meeting is scheduled for June.

A joint statement issued at the Nov. 9 meeting specified progress was being made "in removing barriers to trade and investment and in easing regulatory burdens" in a wide range of policy areas, including drugs and disease control, the importation into the EU of U.S. poultry treated with pathogen reduction treatments, federal communication commissions allowing suppliers to create declarations of conformity for products, uniform standards for electrical products and agreements on standards for pure biofuels.

7-year plan aligns U.S. with Europe's economy
Rules, regs to be integrated without congressional review
Posted: January 16, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Six U.S. senators and 49 House members are advisers for a group working toward a Transatlantic Common Market between the U.S. and the European Union by 2015.

The Transatlantic Policy Network – a non-governmental organization headquartered in Washington and Brussels – is advised by the bi-partisan congressional TPN policy group, chaired by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

The plan – currently being implemented by the Bush administration with the formation of the Transatlantic Economic Council in April 2007 – appears to be following a plan written in 1939 by a world-government advocate who sought to create a Transatlantic Union as an international governing body.

An economist from the World Bank has argued in print that the formation of the Transatlantic Common Market is designed to follow the blueprint of Jean Monnet, a key intellectual architect of the European Union, recognizing that economic integration must inevitably lead to political integration.

As WND previously reported, a key step in advancing this goal was the creation of the Transatlantic Economic Council by the U.S. and the EU through an agreement signed by President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel – the current president of the European Council – and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at a White House summit meeting last April.

Writing in the Fall 2007 issue of the Streit Council journal "Freedom and Union," Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., a member of the TPN advisory group, affirmed the target date of 2015 for the creation of a Transatlantic Common Market.

Costa said the Transatlantic Economic Council is tasked with creating the Transatlantic Common Market regulatory infrastructure. The infrastructure would not require congressional approval, like a new free-trade agreement would.

Writing in the same issue of the Streit Council publication, Bennett also confirmed that what has become known as the "Merkel initiative" would allow the Transatlantic Economic Council to integrate and harmonize administrative rules and regulations between the U.S. and the EU "in a very quiet way," without introducing a new free trade agreement to Congress.

No document on the TEC website suggests that any of the regulatory changes resulting from the process of integrating with the EU will be posted in the Federal Register or submitted to Congress as new free-trade agreements or as modifications to existing trade agreements.

In addition to Bennett, the advisers to the Transatlantic Policy Network includes the following senators: Thad Cochran, R-Miss.; Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.; Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

Among the 49 U.S. congressmen on the TPN's Congressional Group are John Boehner, R-Ohio; John Dingell, D-Mich.; Kenny Marchant, R-Texas; and F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc.

WND contacted Bennett's office for comment but received no return call by the publication deadline.

A progress report on the TEC website indicates the following U.S. government agencies are already at work integrating and harmonizing administrative rules and regulations with their EU counterparts: The Office of Management and Budget, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A step toward world government

The Streit Council is named after Clarence K. Streit, whose 1939 book "Union Now" called for the creation of a Transatlantic Union as a step toward world government. The new federation, with an international constitution, was to include the 15 democracies of U.S., UK, France, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and South Africa.

Ira Straus, the founder and U.S. coordinator of the Committee on Eastern Europe and Russia in NATO, a group dedicated to including Russia within NATO, credits Bennett as TPN chairperson with reviving Streit's work "seven decades later."

A globalist with leftist political leanings, Straus was a Fulbright professor of political science at Moscow State University and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations from 2001 to 2002.

The congruity of ideas between Bennett and Streit is clear when Bennett writes passages that echo precisely goals Streit stated in 1939.

One example is Bennett's claim in his Streit Council article that creating a Transatlantic Common Market would combine markets that comprise 60 percent of world Gross Domestic Product under a common regulatory standard that would become "the de facto world standard, regardless of what any other parties say."

Similarly, Streit wrote in "Union Now" that the economic power of the 15 democracies he sought to combine in a Transatlantic Union would be overwhelming in their economic power and a clear challenge to the authoritarian states then represented by Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union.

Also writing in the Fall 2007 issue of the Streit Council journal "Freedom and Union," World Bank economist Domenec Ruiz Devesa openly acknowledged that "transatlantic economic integration, though important in itself, is not the end."

"As understood by Jean Monnet," he continued, "economic integration must and will lead to political integration, since an integrated market requires common institutions producing common rules to govern it."

Transatlantic Common Market by 2015

Last February, the Transatlantic Policy Network formed a Transatlantic Market Implementation Group to put in place "a roadmap and framework" to direct the activity of the Transatlantic Economic Council to achieve the creation of the Transatlantic Common Market by 2015.

The Transatlantic Economic Council is an official international governmental body established by executive fiat in the U.S. and the EU without congressional approval or oversight. No new law or treaty was sought by the Bush administration to approve or implement the plan to create a Transatlantic Common Market.

The U.S. congressmen and senators are involved only indirectly, as advisers to the influential non-governmental organization.

In a February 2007 document entitled "Completing the Transatlantic Market," the TPN's Transatlantic Market Implementation Group writes, "The aim of this roadmap and framework would be to remove barriers to trade and investment across the Atlantic and to reduce regulatory compliance costs."

The document further acknowledged the impact the Transatlantic Common Market agenda would have on U.S. and European legislators: "The roadmap and framework will necessarily oblige legislative and regulatory authorities in both Europe and the United States to take into consideration from the outset the impact their acts may have on transatlantic economic relations and to ensure that their respective governmental bodies involved have the necessary budgetary and organizational resources to work closely with each other."

Clinton administration roots

The work to create a Transatlantic Common Market can be traced back to the Clinton administration's decision to join in the 1995 New Transatlantic Agenda with the European Commission.

Today, the website of the Transatlantic Economic Council openly proclaims the TEC is "a political body to oversee and accelerate government-to-government integration between the European Union and the United States of America."

The first meeting of the TEC was held Nov. 9 in Washington, D.C., and the next meeting is scheduled for June.

A joint statement issued at the Nov. 9 meeting specified progress was being made "in removing barriers to trade and investment and in easing regulatory burdens" in a wide range of policy areas, including drugs and disease control, the importation into the EU of U.S. poultry treated with pathogen reduction treatments, federal communication commissions allowing suppliers to create declarations of conformity for products, uniform standards for electrical products and agreements on standards for pure biofuels.

'Enough Money to Buy Google': Arab States on a Buying Spree
Dubai-NASDAQ Tie-up Is Part of a Trend in the Global Oil Game

With oil in the mid-$80 a barrel range, there is a river of cash flowing into the Middle East.

And now the sultans, princes and emirs of the super-rich Gulf states are diverting that flow of cash into high-profile businesses and companies around the globe, hoping to leverage the high prices into power that extends beyond the petroleum economy that has made them rich.

"The oil producers are drowning in dollars," said Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute. "So it's natural that they would want to invest them."

Just today, the American-based stock exchange NASDAQ announced a deal in which it will sell 20 percent of its shares to Borse Dubai, a one-month-old stock exchange that is owned by the government.

It's just the latest deal in a high-profile buying spree that has put the Gulf states at the forefront of global dealmakers. And with more than a $1 billion a day in oil revenues flowing into their coffers, they have plenty of money to spread around.

"Many countries that are not democratic are suddenly popping up with huge amounts of money, and they're beginning to invest it and you can imagine, for example, that there are some countries that have enough money to buy Google," said Prestowitz. "You might not be too concerned if the Brits bought Google, but the Brits aren't going to buy Google. But I could imagine other countries that you might be more concerned about owning Google."

While a deal for Google isn't in the works, the Gulf states have been gobbling up big-name companies all over the globe.

Qatar started a process for buying J. Sainsbury, a major British supermarket chain, this week. They've purchased a 20 percent stake in the London Stock Exchange, too.

The government of Dubai has entered into a bidding war for American luxury retailer Barneys, purchased a stake in the MGM Mirage and has become one of the biggest owners of container ports through major acquisitions.

Their neighbors in Abu Dhabi just snatched up a huge stake in the American private equity firm Carlyle Group, which owns, in part, Dunkin' Donuts, Hertz Rent-a-Car and AMC Theaters.

The deal flow is, by any measure, massive. According to figures from Bloomberg, the Gulf states have put more than $68 billion in to foreign acquisitions so far this year, more than twice what they spent in all of 2006.

"The apostles of globalization never thought this kind of thing was going to happen," said Prestowitz. "And it has implications that are very significant both economically and politically, and I think we ought to think about it."

Critics of the buying spree are concerned that having nondemocratic, Middle Eastern governments in ownership positions of American firms could put the country at risk. These concerns have pushed some in Congress to publicly oppose almost any big-dollar deal from the Gulf states.

Just last year, the Dubai Ports World purchase of several major U.S. shipping facilities was scuttled when Congress raised concerns. ("Congress" raised these concerns only because enough people and grass roots organizations complained about it.

It's not clear where congressional scrutiny of the NASDAQ deal will lead, but President Bush commented on the tie-up, saying the administration would "take a good look at it, as to whether or not it has any national security implications."

Bush said he is "concerned about protectionism. I'm concerned about it because if the United States loses its confidence when it comes to trading, it'll make it less likely our economy will grow."

Supporters of the deals point out that this is all part of the larger trend of globalization. These countries, they say, are providing what the market wants, and should be able to use the proceeds any way they want, even if it's buying up American firms.

"We want them to come back in to the U.S. economy," said Sarah Emerson, an analyst at Energy Security Analysis. "We don't want them to go elsewhere. We need the investment here in our own assets and our own securities."

Conference promotes global citizenship

By Shenandoah Sowash
For the Wausau Daily Herald

STEVENS POINT -- As America continues to struggle with overseas outsourcing and increasing global competition, professors at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point are working to arm graduates with the skills needed to become global citizens.

Robert McGough, a senior education specialist, researcher and program manager with the World Bank, encourages professors to take seriously the need to give students a global education.

"Some see globalization as a destructive influence, as a bad thing ... at this time in history, globalization is here to stay, and we must learn to live with it," McGough told instructors Thursday during the 12th annual UWSP Teaching Conference, "Teaching with a Global Perspective: Preparing Students to be Global Citizens."

Globalization affects everyone, even the World Bank, which now outsources a majority of its accounting work to New Delhi, McGough said.

"Countries such as India and China are destined to be superpowers, or at least major players," McGough said.

Drawing on the need for sustainability, economic development and self-sufficiency, McGough offered a strong case for educating college students in the ways of the world.

"Over time, you'll find more college graduates going overseas for work. ... These other countries are going to be major sources of employment," McGough said.

Organized by the Office of Academic Affairs, the one-day conference featured workshops on cross-cultural teaching and learning, internationalizing the curriculum, developing interdisciplinary approaches to global education, incorporating non-Western themes in the classroom and developing global citizenship through local service-learning activities.

"Faculty have left this conference in the past and rewritten their entire syllabi," said David Ozsvath, a geology professor.

Maureen Giblin of the Tutoring Learning Center asked McGough what skills recent graduates are missing.

"Language is one aspect most graduates don't have," he said. "American graduates are often naive and immature; they have an inability to understand how to communicate."

Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to teach students to be globally aware, McGough said.

"The United States has had a good run, using 50 percent of the world's resources. But the world won't let us do that anymore," McGough said.

Conference promotes global citizenship (http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080121/WDH0101/801210466/1981)

Global government, mankind's gravest need - Ahmadinejad
Tehran, Jan 22, IRNA

Ahmadinejad-Globalization
IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Monday evening at the inauguration ceremony of new head of National Center for Globalization Studies, "mankind's gravest need today is a global government."

Appreciating the services rendered by the former head of that center (formerly called the International Center for Dialogue among Civilizations), Dr. Mohammad Nahavandian, the President said that choosing Esfandiar Rahim-Masha'ie was "based on precise calculations, and in accordance with a plan for the center."

The president added, "The Center for Globalization Studies must be a very dynamic center, able to take long studies forward, thanks to the presence of thinkers and intellectuals from various academic fields, able to pursue globalization discussions throughout the world."

Pointing out that God has definitely been pursuing objectives in creation of man, he stressed, "Almighty Allah has drawn the horizons of man's blessed life in this world and how to achieve that objective, based on man's innate desires and in the framework of his social relations with the others."

The President emphasized, "Man is created to be a global creature, as all divine religions are global, and if he would be deprived of this aspect of his personality, neither anything would remain of his humanity, nor any of his potentials and talents would find a proper ground for manifestation."

Proposing that the rule of single law in the entire world is a bare necessity for the mankind, he said, "The existence of a thousand laws in the world, and then expecting that the global society would reach a status of equilibrium, justice, and tranquility is wishing for the impossible."

He added, "It is not possible to observe global justice under such conditions that each country is ruled based on a different set of laws."

Ahmadinejad said, "The entire monotheist Arch-Prophets (PBUT) were leaders for the whole mankind, and accordingly, so long as a single law would not be put to effect globally, and a single perfect, and noble human being would not take the charge of a global government, the God given talents of the people would not be materialized, and there would be no sign of divine justice in the world."

He considered mankind's progress throughout history "a constant move towards perfection", reiterating, "Today, globalization has become an issue for daily talk of even ordinary folks, under such conditions that signs for accelerating move of the mankind towards the peaks of perfection are countless, and ever increasing."

The IRI President stressed that pure Mohamedan Islam has answers to modern man's entire questions, adding, "World nations would accept Islam in large groups if pure Islam would one day be presented to them free from all non-Islamic attachments."

Ahmadinejad said, "The entire developments in the world are pieces of a puzzle, being fit in their place in order to complete God's general scheme for a perfect world for the mankind, but in the process of this completion some people achieve perfection, while others fall in the abbeys of annihilation, and nowhere is ever devoid of God's will and Divine Rule, nor of his Caliph on earth." He said that the era for drawing border lines between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism is now over, reiterating, "Unadulterated Christianity and Judaism are the same as they are entirely manifestations of the same Divine Truth."

The President stressed, "The single and solid plan and order that we should present for the lives of the world people should be in a way to be acceptable by the pure innate nature of the entire mankind, and such laws need to be based on divine teachings."

Global government, mankind's gravest need - Ahmadinejad (http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0801225293002918.htm)

Mr. Nutjob, be careful what you wish for you will get your wish........ Though you may not survive to see it.

Five Military Leaders Propose a New Global Partnership With EU/NATO

The CSIS Europe and International Security Programs, in partnership with the Noaber Foundation, hosted the launch of "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing the Transatlantic Partnership," a new report authored by Gen. Dr. Klaus Naumann (Germany), Gen. John Shalikashvili (United States), Field Marshal The Lord Inge (United Kingdom), Adm. Jacques Lanxade (France), and Gen. Henk van den Breemen (the Netherlands), with Benjamin Bilski and Douglas Murray.  The event also featured commentary by Robert E. Hunter, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO.

In the report, these five distinguished military leaders consider the complexity of emerging global security challenges and the capabilities of existing institutions to address them. They conclude that dealing with these challenges requires a new transatlantic grand strategy that ensures a better integration of military and non-military capabilities. They argue that a transformed NATO, working closely with the European Union, should serve as the core element of a future security architecture. The group advances a number of near- and longer-term proposals to enhance NATO and transatlantic unity of effort. They advocate replacing the two-pillar concept of U.S.-European relations with an alliance of democracies ranging from Finland to Alaska.

Five Military Leaders Propose a New Global Partnership With EU/NATO (http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_events/task,view/id,1468/)

'Magic is over' for U.S., says French foreign minister
By Alison Smale
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

PARIS: Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France and a longtime humanitarian, diplomatic and political activist on the international scene, says that whoever succeeds President George W. Bush may restore something of the United States' battered image and standing overseas, but that "the magic is over."

In a wide-ranging conversation with Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune at the launch of a Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris, Kouchner on Tuesday also held out the hope of talking with Hamas, the Palestinian faction that rules the Gaza Strip but has been ostracized by the West and by its Palestinian rival, Fatah, because it opposes peace talks with Israel and denies that Israel has a right to exist.

Asked whether the United States could repair the damage it has suffered to its reputation during the Bush presidency and especially since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Kouchner replied, "It will never be as it was before."

"I think the magic is over," he continued, in what amounted to a sober assessment from one of the strongest supporters in France of the United States.

U.S. military supremacy endures, Kouchner noted, and the new president "will decide what to do - there are many means to re-establish the image." But even that, he predicted, "will take time."

Kouchner began the 90-minute event with a speech that emphasized that "there is not just a new diplomacy; there is a new world."

To those intimidated by or fearful of what seem to be the rising challenges of globalization, climate change, spreading disease or new technology, Kouchner had a simple message: "The great difficulty is to accept this new world."

"There are not more problems - please, have a little memory - than 35 years ago," he said, recalling how, in 1971, he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières in response to the horrors of the conflict in Nigeria over Biafra.

The challenges may be daunting, he said, noting for instance that the world had decided to act to curb the AIDS epidemic, but asking, "Can we take charge of all the other diseases? I'm not sure."

Some of the most persistent diplomatic challenges emanate from the Middle East, and Kouchner was asked about approaches to Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for the destruction of Israel, or to Hamas, which has the same stated goal.

Kouchner and other European diplomats have tried to talk Iran out of its controversial nuclear program, but officially rejected all contacts with Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union. Asked whether there is a way to engage Hamas, which is supported by a significant minority of Palestinians, Kouchner appeared to hold out hope of contact, saying: "I'm looking for a diplomatic way to say yes."

He then carefully couched this statement by noting that, in general, "we have to talk with our enemies," and that Fatah, which controls the West Bank, "always said they were in favor" of unity talks with Hamas. But after Hamas routed Fatah forces from Gaza in June, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, has refused to deal with Hamas, which he accused of committing a coup. Kouchner, of the Socialist left in France, stirred controversy when he accepted the offer from President Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of the Gaullist center-right, to join his government last May.

At the end of the conversation, held in a glittering hall at the Académie Diplomatique Internationale, the IHT's partner in the new diplomatic forum, Kouchner denied that his activism had been curbed by the need to run the resplendent Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay and France's large diplomatic machinery around the world.

But he conceded that practicing the new diplomacy - which he defined as being action that is more practical, multifaceted and realistic than mere protocol calls and visits - "is very difficult, and very time-consuming."

'Magic is over' for U.S., says French foreign minister (http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=11008549)

I could care less if the French or anyone likes us!! America is still, basicall a Christian country!!

It's interesting in the fact that the Europeans are playing taps for us and looking forward to the new world, they can have it!!

British prime minister calls for global `interdependence'

By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer Fri Apr 18, 4:40 PM ET

BOSTON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in his first foreign policy address in the United States, called Friday on the U.S. and Europe to lead a new era of global "interdependence" aimed at solving international problems such as terrorism, poverty and climate change.

"We urgently need to step out of the mindset of competing interests and instead find our common interests, and we must summon up the best instincts and efforts of humanity in a cooperative effort to build new international rules and institutions for the new global era," Brown said to about 350 invited guests at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Brown cited Kennedy's Independence Day speech in 1962, when the president proposed a "new and global declaration of interdependence." Brown said Kennedy's call for public service "still reverberates around the world and always will."

Noting Kennedy's creation of the Peace Corps, Brown called for the creation of "a new kind of global peace and reconstruction corps," which he described as an organization of trained civilian experts available any time to rebuild states.

Brown also talked about U.S. leadership following World War II, including the Marshall Plan, which funneled millions in economic aid and technical assistance to help rebuild Europe.

"We must summon inspiration from the vision, humanity and leadership shown by those reformers to guide our actions today," he said.

Brown called on the World Bank to focus on reducing poverty and said the institution should become a bank for both development and the environment by transferring billions in loans and grants to encourage the poorest countries to adopt alternative sources of energy.

The British leader, who has set a mandatory target in the U.K. to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent by 2050, insisted that a new global pact on reducing carbon emission must be agreed on by the end of 2009.

He said the deal, which would replace the Kyoto Protocol, should be led by the United Nations and needs to set binding targets for all developed countries.

Brown praised President Bush for leading the world in an attempt to root out terrorism and "our common commitment that there be no safe haven for terrorists."

Brown said the United States and Europe should act as "hardheaded internationalists," and use "diplomatic, economic, and yes, when necessary military action — to prevent crimes against humanity when states can no longer do so."

British prime minister calls for global `interdependence' (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080418/ap_on_re_us/us_britain;_ylt=AtROZeYxWqOu0Lr578_o_1RvzwcF)

Just got some disturbing info from Cutting Edge. Recently, we lost the Sky Angel satellite network after 8 years of some really great Christian programming. Now this, from Cutting Edge:

Christian Radio Threatened?

from WORLD NET DAILY

"WASHINGTON - Today is the last day for public comments on a proposed Federal Communications Commission rule change some say would threaten the licences of Christian radio stations from coast to coast. At issue is a proposal that would require every radio station to take programming advice from community advisory boards representative of the area's population."

...This type of regulatory change could prove deadly to Christian Radio, as it could conceivably require radio stations to accept advice from non-Christian groups like atheists and/or homosexuals. Remember, the power to regulate is the power to destroy.

"Some radio stations fear organized groups of atheists, for instance, could demand representation of the new FCC-mandated advisory boards that would factor into licensing decisions...explains the Christian Air 1 Radio Network. 'If any of these changes were to be adopted, there would be signicant impact on our ability to minister to you and your community. These rules would not only affect our stations but also thousands of stations around the country.' In addition to the requirement for the advisory boards, the new regulations would also mandate that radio stations produce every 3 months reports on how much programming of various types has been broadcast, who produced it and how it reflects the interests of the community, including segments that do not approve of or share Christian values."

The rest of this article:

The National Association of Broadcasters, which opposes the rule change, offers an online form for making comments on the FCC rule change – but the deadline is today. All comments must be filed under the assigned docket number No. 04-233, meaning that number must be included in all communications about the proposed rule change to be considered by the FCC.

The NAB is advising its member stations to tell the FCC why the rule change is counter-productive – that it would pressure broadcasters to air programming that is not necessarily commercially viable. The group also suggests the FCC rule change would mandate programming quotas.

Broadcasters don't like another element of the rule change – one that would require stations to have at least one employee on duty during all hours of operation. Breakthroughs in automated programming have made that unnecessary in recent years, so the rule change would mean more expense for some smaller-market stations.

Last week, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell questioned the need to turn back the clock with such a rule change. In a speech before the Quello Communications Law and Policy Symposium, McDowell cited the proliferation of competing communications opportunities on the Internet, through cable television channels and other venues.

Given the media choices available, he questioned why "policymakers like us at the FCC" are dusting off decades-old regulations to impose on broadcasters.

"Why are we considering placing these proverbial albatrosses around the necks of traditional media precisely at this 'tipping point' in history when they can least afford a regulatory disadvantage vis-à-vis unregulated platforms like the Internet?" he asked.

The potential Orwellian implications of such policies are chilling, the commissioner argued.

_______________

This is a continuation of the attempt to pass the Fairness Doctrine that the democrats have been trying to impose in order to meet their agenda of silencing all opposition to them.

Thanks, Pastor Roger,

I hadn't seen the rest of this article. I only got an 'alert' from the other ministry.

The timing is quite interesting, to say the least! I'm really interested to see what the FCC ruling turns out to be...it seems putting an end to anything Christian is a full time job for democrats and other 'special interest' groups.

I hadn't heard this one yet, but it just figures doesn't it?

World Court to U.S.: Halt Mexican executions
Order could stop lethal injection of alien who gang raped, murdered 2 teen girls
Posted: July 16, 2008
8:05 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

The United States must stay executions of five Mexicans on Texas' death row until their cases can be reviewed, the U.N.'s highest court says.

Mexico requested that the court stop Texas from executing its citizens – at least one convicted of gang rape and murder of two teenage girls – claiming the U.S. is ignoring an International Court of Justice directive to evaluate the cases of 51 Mexicans on state death rows.

The court found that the inmates had been deprived of assistance from their consulate after their arrest, the Associated Press reported.

The U.N. court order issued today arrives only weeks before Texas' scheduled lethal injection of Jose Medellin, a Mexican convicted of gang raping and murdering two girls in Houston.

According to the news report, Mexico chief advocate Juan Manuel Gomez-Robledo complained to the court at last months hearings, saying the U.S. was "in breach of its international obligations."

U.S. legal adviser John Bellinger III disputed Gomez Robledo's assessment, saying the government has gone to "extraordinary lengths" to cooperate with state courts and the World Court order.

President Bush told states to adhere to the court directive and asked Texas to review Medellin's conviction before his Aug. 5 lethal injection.

Bellinger called the federal government actions "highly unusual."

"It almost never happens that the federal government enters an appearance in state court proceedings," he said.

Texas rejected the request, and the Supreme Court ruled President Bush does not have the power to force state courts to obey orders from the World Court in a 6-3 vote. According to the AP report, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has received letters from both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking him to review Medellin's case.

The World Court, the U.N.'s judicial arm for resolving disagreements between nations, holds no enforcement powers.

“We are moving to a global village and yet we don’t have our global elders. The Elders can be a group who have the trust of the world, who can speak freely, be fiercely independent and respond fast and flexibly in conflict situations.”

The Elders have arrived on the world scene. Thus far, there are 12 self-appointed “apostles” of globalism to manage the “global village.” This group represents the cream of the globalist crop.

Nelson Mandela – Former president of South Africa
Desmond Tutu – Former general secre-tary of the South African Council of Churches
Ela Bhatt – Founder of SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) in India
Gro Brundtland – Former chair of the World Commission of Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission), and driving force behind Sustain-able Development
Jimmy Carter – Former president of the United States
Muhammad Yunus – founder of Grameen Bank
Graca Machel – President of Foundation for Community Development in Mozambique
Kofi Annan – Former Secretary-General of the United Nations
Lakhdar Brahimi – Former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations
Fernando H. Cardoso – Former President of Brazil
Mary Robinson – Former President of Ireland; former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Aung San Suu Kyi – Freedom fighter and figurehead leader in Burma since 1988

Initial funding was secured from global players such as Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel, Humanity United, Tick Tarlow, the United Nations Foundations, and others.

The original idea behind The Elders came from British musical icon, Peter Gabriel.

The current Executive Director of The Elders is Dr. Robert A. Pastor (surprised?), who is also known as the “father of the North American Union” because of his tireless work to unite Mexico, Canada and the United States into a common block similar to the European Union.

Pastor has a very long association with Jimmy Carter dating back to the 1970’s, and with other members of the Trilateral Commission. For instance, he was the executive director of the infamous Linowitz Commission that produced the policy blueprint for Carter to give away the U.S.-owned Panama Canal during Carter’s presidency.

The Linowitz Commission consisted of eight members, seven of which were members of the Trilateral Commission. The temporary ambassador/negotiator to Panama was Commissioner Sol Linowitz.

Despite humanity's dark history of corruption and war, Elder Desmond Tutu not only disagrees but also believes that he is held in such high regard so as to qualify himself for global eldership...

“Despite all the ghastliness that is around, human beings are made for goodness. The ones who ought to be held in high regard are not the ones who are militarily powerful, nor even economically prosperous. They are the ones who have a commitment to try and make the world a better place. We - The Elders – will endeavor to support those people and do our best for humanity.”

Nelson Mandela

One of the world’s most revered statesmen, Nelson Mandela led the struggle to replace South Africa’s apartheid regime with a non-racial democracy. His anti-apartheid activities led to his sentencing in 1962 to five years in prison, and in 1964 he was jailed for life because of his involvement in underground armed resistance activities. He served 27 years in prison.

Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994. Since stepping down in 1999, he has become South Africa’s highest profile ambassador, and has campaigned tirelessly in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He was also active in peace negotiations in African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

Fondly known in South Africa by his clan name ‘Madiba’, Nelson Mandela has received scores of awards and honours throughout the world.

cont'd next post

Desmond Tutu

Anglican priest Desmond Mpilo Tutu became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1979. He spoke strongly and internationally, pushing for non-violent change and economic sanctions against South Africa. In reaction, the South African government revoked his passport.

A month after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Tutu was elected the first black Anglican bishop of Johannesburg. In 1986 he was elected Archbishop of Cape Town, the highest position in the Anglican Church in South Africa. In 1989 he led a march to a whites-only beach, where he and supporters were chased off with whips.

In 1994, after the end of Apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela, Tutu was appointed as Chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to investigate apartheid-era crimes. His policy of forgiveness and reconciliation has become an international example of conflict resolution, and a trusted method of post-conflict reconstruction. He continues to pursue an active international ministry for peace.

Ela Bhatt

Ela R. Bhatt is widely recognised as one of the world’s most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the “gentle revolutionary” she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed women workers, with Gandhian thinking as her source of guidance.

In 1972, Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) – a trade union which now has more than 1,000,000 members. Founder Chair of the Cooperative Bank of SEWA, she is also founder and chair of Sa-Dhan (the All India Association of Micro Finance Institutions in India) and founder-chair of the Indian School of Micro-finance for Women.

Gro Brundtland

Few people have had an impact on society as global as Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, a medical doctor and Master of Public Health (MPH). She spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system and served 20 years in public office, including 10 years as Prime Minister of Norway.

In the 1980s she gained international recognition, championing the principle of sustainable development as the Chair of the World Commission of Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).

Dr. Brundtland was aged just seven when she enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in its children's section. She has been a member ever since, and has led the Labour Party to electoral victory three times.

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States of America, was born in Plains, Georgia, in October 1924. He attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and received a B.S. degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1946. In the Navy he became a submariner, serving in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rising to the rank of lieutenant, senior grade.

In July 1946, Jimmy Carter married Rosalynn Smith of Plains. When his father died in 1953, he resigned his naval commission and returned with his family to Georgia. Jimmy operated Carter's Warehouse, a general-purpose seed and farm supply company in Plains, until being elected to the Georgia Senate in 1962. In 1971 he became Georgia's 76th Governor.

Jimmy Carter announced his candidacy for President of the United States on December 12 1974. As the Democratic Party nominee, he was elected President on November 2 1976, serving from 1977 to 1981.

cont'd next post

Muhammad Yunus

After receiving his PhD in Economics from Vanderbilt University in the United States, Muhammad Yunus returned to his home country of Bangladesh in 1972. There he founded the Grameen Bank Project in 1976, and transformed it into a formal bank in 1983.

Through the Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus has given practical expression to his belief that the world’s poorest people can transform the conditions of their own lives if given appropriate financial support. From this belief came the idea of ‘micro-credit’ – bank loans offered to the poor without asking them for guarantees or security in return.

As Muhammad Yunus himself describes it: ‘The repayments are designed in such a way that they are tiny instalments. You can pay back your loan over a long period. So all of this together is micro-credit. Small loans for income-generating activity, addressed to the poorest, without collateral.’

Graca Machel

Graça Machel is a renowned international advocate for women’s and children’s rights, and has been a social and political activist for decades. She is President of the Foundation for Community Development (FDC), a not-for-profit Mozambican organisation she founded in 1994. The FDC makes grants to civil society organisations to strengthen communities, facilitate social and economic justice, and assist in the reconstruction and development of post-war Mozambique.

In 1994, the Secretary General of the United Nations appointed Graça Machel as an independent expert to carry out an assessment of the impact of armed conflict on children. Her groundbreaking report was presented in 1996 and established a new and innovative agenda for the comprehensive protection of children caught up in war, changing the policy and practice of governments, UN agencies, and international and national civil society.

Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan of Ghana emerged from the ranks of United Nations’ staff to become its seventh Secretary-General, and served from 1997 to 2006.

One of Kofi Annan's main priorities as Secretary-General was a comprehensive programme of reform aimed at revitalising the United Nations and making the international system more effective. He was a constant advocate for human rights, the rule of law, and the Millennium Development Goals in Africa, and sought to bring the organisation closer to the global public by forging ties with civil society, the private sector, and other partners. At his initiative, peacekeeping was strengthened in ways that enabled the United Nations to cope with a rapid rise in the number of operations and personnel.

Lakhdar Brahimi

Lakhdar Brahimi has spent 40 years helping to keep the peace across the world. Now at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he lectures regularly in the US, Europe, Africa and the Arab world on international relations, conflict and conflict resolution.

Born in Algeria in 1934, he began his peace-keeping career as a student when he joined his country’s liberation struggle, and for five years he represented the National Liberation Front in Indonesia. Following independence, he served his country as an ambassador, first to Egypt and then to the United Kingdom.

cont'd next post

Fernando H. Cardoso

Fernando Henrique Cardoso was Senator, Minister of Foreign Relations, Minister of Finance and President of Brazil for two successive terms from 1995 to 2002, winning both elections in the first round by an absolute majority.

Ph.D. in Sociology and professor at University of São Paulo, Cardoso was president of the International Sociological Association (1982-1986) and visiting professor at the universities of California, Berkeley, Collège de France, Paris, Stanford, Cambridge, Paris-Nanterre, FLACSO, ILPES and CEPAL at Santiago, Chile.

Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997) and more recently United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), has been a human rights advocate for most of her life. She is currently founder and president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Born Mary Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo (1944), the daughter of two physicians, she was educated at the University of Dublin (Trinity College), King’s Inns Dublin and Harvard Law School, to which she won a fellowship in 1967.

As an academic (Trinity College Law Faculty 1968-1990), legislator (Senator 1969-1989) and barrister (1967-1990; Senior Counsel 1980, English Bar 1973), Mary Robinson has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg. A committed European, she has also served on expert European Community and Irish parliamentary committees.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced Daw Aung Sawn Sue Chee) served as the figurehead for Burma's struggle for democracy since 1988, and is one of the world's most renowned freedom fighters and advocates of non-violence. Born on June 19 1945 to Burma's independence hero, Aung San, Suu Kyi was educated in Burma, India, and the United Kingdom. Her father was assassinated when she was only two years old.

In 1988, she returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother, and was plunged into the nationwide uprising that had just begun. Joining the newly-forming National League for Democracy political party, Suu Kyi gave numerous speeches calling for freedom and democracy. The military regime responded to the uprising with brute force, shooting and killing up to 10,000 demonstrators – including students, women, and children – in a matter of months. Unable to maintain its grip on power, the regime was forced to call for a general election in 1990.

Meet the elders (http://theelders.org/elders/)

The Global Elders (http://www.augustreview.com/news_commentary/general/the_global_elders_2008080196/)

The Elders apparently assume that most, if not all, of the world they serve will be under Marxist control because their entire membership is decidedly pro-Marxist.

When a Marxist tells you that they are going to do what’s good for humanity, that’s reason enough for you to fortify your home and build a perimeter. After all, well over 100 million people died in the last century because they didn’t go along with what their Marxist leaders conjured up for them.

Indeed, Jimmy Carter and Robert Pastor both show their true colors by their association with The Elders. Globalist ego seems to know no bounds.

Brown reveals global moral vision

Gordon Brown has been setting out his vision for a global society governed by a shared "moral sense".

The prime minister was addressing the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh.

It is 20 years since Margaret Thatcher gave her "Sermon on the Mound" at the Assembly, arguing a theological basis for her free market thinking.

Mr Brown, whose father was a Kirk minister, said he shared the church's "enduring vision of the good society".

The prime minister said he had never forgotten the lessons he learned in the Kirkcaldy parish manse where he grew up.

He added: "He also brought us up to believe that the size of your wealth mattered less than the strength of your character; that a life of joy and fulfilment could be lived in the service of others."

He told the General Assembly there was a "a consistent ethical core" in all the world's great religions, from which billions of people derived inspiration, "showing that we are not moral strangers but there is a shared moral sense common to us all".

Mr Brown argued that the joining together of the information revolution and the human urge to co-operate for justice made it possible for the first time in history for the dream of a truly global society to be realised.

He called for people everywhere to discover their shared values, communicate with each other and join together with people in other countries in a "single moral universe to bring about change".

'Mighty stream'

"This is the irrepressible revolution of our time - a billion voices for change. And I'd like to think that acting together we can become the generation to address climate change," he said.

"Acting together, the first generation in the history of mankind to abolish illiteracy and give every child the right to education; acting together, the first generation to eradicate tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, malaria, on the way to eradicating HIV/Aids.

"And to honour the dream of the scriptures: that justice will roll like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Mrs Thatcher won few converts in Scotland when, at a time when industry was being hard hit, she quoted St Paul saying: "If a man will not work he shall not eat."

When she had finished, the then moderator presented her with Kirk reports on housing and poverty, interpreted by many as a polite rebuke.

Mr Brown's spokesman said that nothing should be read into the fact that the prime minister's speech came 20 years after Lady Thatcher's famous address.

The General Assembly runs until 21 May.

Brown reveals global moral vision  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7405547.stm)

Company develops Ink-based RFID Tags - first step to a RFID enabled Tattoo?

rfidnews.org

California-based Kovio Inc. has unveiled a silicon ink-based RFID tag and an accompanying RFID platform. The first products based on the patented technology are printed silicon HF integrated circuits (PICs) with 128 bits of printed read-only memory, which will serve as the foundation for a low-cost HF RFID tag family.

Kovio’s new product was announced during a presentation by the company’s CEO, Amir Mashkoori, at an EPC Connection 2008 event. “The platform will enable new opportunities for advertisers, retailers, consumer packaged good manufacturers, and system integrators to provide instantaneous and contextual experiences to everyone who interacts, uses and purchases everyday consumer goods,” said Mashkoori. The company believes the silicon ink-based products, which are the first of their kind, will enable the development of affordable item-level RFID intelligence solutions for various developing RFID markets.

Kovio’s technology platform is based on combining silicon inks and graphics printing technology. This enables the fabrication of silicon devices over large areas and on flexible substrates at a lower cost than conventional silicon technology. Kovio also claims its additive printed silicon technology is significantly cleaner and more resource-efficient than conventional silicon technology. The printed silicon platform facilitates item-level intelligence beyond identification through the integration of printed sensors and displays.

How global governance emerged

October 24 was U.N. day, celebrated by many as the birthday of the United Nations.  In its 63 years of operation, it has spent untold billions of dollars in its quest to create global governance.  Its goal is almost in its grasp.  European leaders are pushing for a summit meeting with President Bush to create a new global “central bank,” with the authority to control global monetary policy in much the same way U.S. monetary policy is controlled by the Federal Reserve.

The U.N. has failed miserably at most of its major projects.  Its first task, to create a two-state solution in Palestine in 1948, was a disaster.  Other projects have been even worse.  The genocide in Rwanda; the Oil-for-food scam with Saddam Hussein; and the on-going sex abuse by U.N. Peacekeepers are but a few examples.

In recent years, however, the U.N. has been extremely effective in influencing U.S. domestic policy, more than people realize.  Few people know that current U.S. land use policy is deeply rooted in, and reflective of the policies set forth in a 1976 document adopted by the U.N.Conference on Human Settlements.  U.S. wetland policy is the result of the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.  U.S. law relating to endangered species is the direct result of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Human Rights Commissions of the 1960s were created to comply with a variety of Human Rights treaties adopted by the U.N.

Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights gave rise to the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act which was expanded in 1995, to essentially require banks to make housing loans to unqualified people.  This is the root cause of the current chaos in financial markets.

The concept of “Sustainable Development” came from a 1987 U.N. Conference on the Environment, headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, former vice president of the International Socialist Party.  The concept was codified in another U.N. policy document, Agenda 21, adopted in 1992 at another U.N. Conference on Environment and Development. This conference also produced the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.  These are only a few of the U.N. policy documents and international treaties that so heavily influence the laws, rules, regulations, and policies that govern every U.S. citizen.

Those who champion individual freedom, private property, and free markets find little to celebrate about the United Nations, and even less about global governance.

Too few people realize that many of the people and organizations that created the League of Nations in 1921 are the same people and organizations that created the United Nations in 1945.  The League of Nations was created by Edward Mandel House’s “Inquiry” and Woodrow Wilson’s Democrat administration, with help from Alfred Milner’s “Chatham House Group” in Europe.  Republicans killed the League of Nations in the U.S. Senate.  House’s “Inquiry,” met with Milner’s “Chatham House Group” at the Majestic Hotel in Versailles in 1919, and decided to formalize their organizations.  The Milner group became the Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs in Europe, and House’s group became the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States.

Plans for a new United Nations were well under way even before the Second World War.  Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt appointed a committee to plan for a post-war world.  Ten of the 14 members were members of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Since Roosevelt, virtually every administration, both Democrat and Republican, has been filled with members of the Council on Foreign Relations.  The vast majority of cabinet secretaries have been members of the CFR.  These are the people who appoint the delegates to represent the United States at the various U.N. meetings.

It is little wonder that the U.N. has had such influence over domestic policy when the very people who make the policy at the U.N. are members of, or are appointed by members of the Council on Foreign Relations, who work for the government, and are empowered to implement the U.N. policies they create.

When Barack Obama spoke to his audience in Berlin, he declared that he was a citizen of the world, and that he, as president, would comply with the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol.  He has sponsored a bill to increase international aid to the tune of more than $800 billion, to comply with the recommendations set forth in the U.N. Millennium Declaration.  There is every reason to believe that U.N. influence will continue, and even expand in the years ahead.  U.N. policies are socialist policies.  As U.N. influence expands, freedom diminishes.

Perhaps October 24 should become a day of national protest – not celebration.  Global governance pursued by the United Nations must first erase the principles of freedom enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.  Every U.N. policy adopted by the United States erases a little more freedom.  Thanks to U.N. influence, there is not much freedom left to erase.

The World Hopes for Its First President
By Stryker McGuire | NEWSWEEK
Published Nov 1, 2008

The world has never watched any vote, in any nation, so closely. In country after country, polls show record-high fascination with the outcome of the U.S. elections this Tuesday. In Japan, according to one poll, there's more interest in the election than there is in the United States. The Voice of America, which broadcasts in 45 languages to a worldwide audience of 134 million, is seeing "unprecedented interest." In Pakistan there was so much interest in the first presidential debate, the VOA changed its initial plans and broadcast the next two as well. Indonesians and Kenyans, are of course fascinated and somewhat astonished by the fact that Barack Obama, a man with ties to both places, should be the front runner, and in Vietnam, there is much discussion over John McCain, a man who returned home from Hanoi in 1973 a wounded man and spent the rest of his life in dedicated service to the United States.

Europe is thrilled by the prospect that whatever happens this week it will mean the end of George W. Bush, and enraptured by the sheer spectacle of it all. James Dickmeyer, the director of the Foreign Press Centers, which helps international press cover U.S. political campaigns, says foreign journalists swarmed not only the Iowa caucuses but even the Iowa State Fair's Straw Poll, which they had never covered before. Bob Worcester, the American-born founder of the London-based polling and research firm Mori, has worked in more than 40 countries, and says he has "never ever seen any election in which so many people in so many places have been so interested."

It's very clear who they are interested in: Barack Obama. John McCain and Sarah Palin are by all accounts still in the race, but McCain has become a political cipher in a world that has of late tuned into Obama 24/7. (Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, is an afterthought to the international audience). Obama went into Election Day with a steady lead in U.S. polls, averaging about 50 percent to 44 percent for McCain, but he was headed for a landslide around the world, topping polls in virtually every nation often by strong margins: 70 percent in Germany, 75 percent in China and so on. Somewhere along the road to the White House, Obama became the world's candidate—a reminder that for all the talk of America's decline, for all the visceral hatred of Bush, the rest of the world still looks upon the United States as a land of hope and opportunity. "The Obama adventure is what makes America magical," French State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Rama Yade, a Senegalese immigrant who is the only black member of Nicolas Sarkozy's government, recently told Le Parisien.

By the final days, it was as if the world and America were talking about two different elections. In the United States, the pundits framed campaign '08 much as they framed the last election, and the one before. It was a small, almost local obsession with the horse race, with battleground states—not just Ohio but southern Ohio—voter-registration drives, fundraising, ad buys and, of course, that hardy American provincial staple, negative campaigning. Even the discussion of the "race card" echoed, despite the fact that Obama's race changes everything. Republican attempts to play the card against Obama drew comparisons with the Republicans' 1988 attempt to link Michael Dukakis to a black convict. To a large degree, Obama had become just another Democratic candidate, in the chain linking Dukakis to Clinton to Gore to Kerry.

Outside of the United States, the election played large and transformational: a 21st-century man with whom the whole world can identify versus an old cold-warrior out of synch with the complex political and economic crises of our age. The election, it seemed, had morphed into a meta-election. If at home, especially as the election neared its end, Obama seemed to be playing down his blackness, his intellect, his eliteness and his progressive ideas, these were the qualities that more and more drew the rest of the world to him. The world loved the idea that a man named Barack Hussein Obama could become America's 44th president after a 200-year string of white guys named Washington and Jefferson, Clinton and Bush. Asia was trying to claim Obama for his Indonesian childhood, Africa for his Kenyan father, and the Middle East for his middle name, says Ahmed Benchemsi, who edits both of Morocco's leading newsweeklies, one in French, one in Arabic.

Once upon a time, McCain, too, was seen as part of the post-Bush American reformation. He was the worldly wise maverick ex-POW with a reputation abroad for hurling bricks at the Republican Party establishment. He was a fixture at European foreign-policy talking shops, and all the more appealing for asserting in 2000, when he ran for president for the first time, that he wouldn't "pander" to the "agents of intolerance" of the religious right, whose grip on U.S. politics has long perplexed and worried outsiders. When in late August McCain chose Palin to be his running mate in a bid for support from conservative evangelicals, his global luster quickly faded.

Now, to the rest of the world America's election is about change but not just at home. Jonathan Freedland, a columnist for The Guardian in London, says the past seven years have been a long, painful public education for the world in the importance of decisions made by the United States. "Two wars and a global financial crisis—those events, at least to some extent, had their origins in decisions taken in Washington." What's more, the connection between the world and the occupant of the Oval Office has become deeply personal, says Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund. "In a globalized world," she says, "America's president can shape lives worldwide. He is our president, too."

cont'd next post

That would be true, up to a point, of any occupant of the highest office in the United States at a time of American pre-eminence in the world. But with Obama, supported as he is by overwhelming majorities abroad, the connection is stronger than it would be with any other incoming president, the affection more deeply personal and the significance of his election much more intense. "The American president always claims to be the 'leader of the world,' and we always hate that arrogance," says Benchemsi. "Obama can say that, and we have no problem with it."

Around the globe, in a way that no one else has for half a century, says Oxford University professor of government Vernon Bogdanor, Obama has raised "hopes of a progressive leader who can restore America's moral leadership." U.K. Minister of State for Higher Education David Lammy, who has known Obama since 2005 when they met at a Harvard event for black alumni, says "Obama's movement for change is one that has the potential to go beyond America's borders, giving him a reach that could be unprecedented for a world leader."

Obama, whose life story allows him readily to be seen as the personification of change, racks up landslide-scale support in global surveys. Recent polling by the London-based firm YouGov had Obama garnering more than 70 percent support in Nordic countries and well more than 50 percent in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. They show him rising in the polls since May, ever so slightly in Germany, and by 13 points in Britain, to 62 percent in October. In France, friends-of-Obama committees have proliferated; the French Support Committee for Barack Obama sells "France for Obama" T shirts online. The Portuguese-language version of the social networking Web site Orkut, dominated by Brazilians, has 293 "communities" dedicated to Obamania, including Eu Amo Obama. In Brazil, flattery knows no bounds: at least eight candidates in recent elections simply borrowed Barack Obama's name and put it on the ballot instead of their own.

More than celebrity worship, the Obama phenomenon has already had a very real impact abroad, raising questions, for example, about the lack of progress by racial minorities in Europe. Europe's parliamentary democracies have done quite well by women in recent decades, but blacks and Asians have been left behind. "Searching for the French Barack Obama" was a headline in Le Monde last week. As part of that report, the Togolese-born former state secretary for social affairs and integration Kofi Yamgnane told the paper, "We have to admit that the American model works better than the French model." "We love Obama," wrote the columnist Claude Weill in Nouvel Observateur, because "we hate slavery, racial segregation, discrimination in all its forms—America's original sins." He concludes on a pessimistic note: "We are the country of human rights, no? But are we really listening to Obama?"

As the election neared, Obama looked very likely to win. If he does, judging from the tenor of the campaign's final days, America will have elected a new leader of the world for entirely local reasons. In no small part it will be because of McCain's apparent lack of focus on the economy in an era of financial distress. It will also be a reaction to Palin, a political newcomer and a seeming lightweight a heartbeat away from the presidency, as they say.

If Obama loses, the reaction in America will likely play out along the same old divides. Democrats will interpret the loss in the framework of recent election defeats: we could not elect Al Gore or John Kerry, and now Obama, even in the midst of crisis. Their talk will turn to a new third way. Republicans will look at their implausible victory as a reason to suspend or at least dial down the soul-searching they are undergoing now, over whether they drifted too far right—or not far enough. Conservatives will crow. Liberals will weep. African-Americans will gnash their teeth. (And the media, it must be said, will be shamed for its poll-driven reporting that showed virtually no path to a McCain victory.)

The rest of the world, for its part, will see something different. America, already said to be on the decline, will look all the smaller for having failed to redeem itself with the election of a young black man with African and South Asian roots and a Middle Eastern middle name. And it will look smaller still for having had the opportunity to do so, yet failing to see the opportunity, let alone capitalize on it and breaking a line that goes back more than 200 years in the United States. To the rest of the world, in electing another Republican America will have appeared not only to extend the agonies of the Bush years, but to have missed a historical chance for which it's hard to find a precedent or parallel in any country: the ultimate triumph of a long-oppressed minority.

The world has already cast its vote, in poll after poll, and what it wants, and may not get even if Obama is elected, is an American Gandhi, a Gandhi who not only speaks for the oppressed minority but was one of them. The world caught a glimpse of their man on a sunny afternoon last July in Berlin. He stood at the base of Berlin's Siegessäule, or Victory Column, in the Tiergarten. Some 200,000 people fanned out before him, a crowd much larger than any he had drawn at home during 18 months on the stump. He took the opportunity to address a much larger audience. "People of the world," Barack Obama said, "look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one." That may be too much for any president to deliver. Indeed the world may be setting itself up for a rather rude awakening when an elected Obama proves far more pragmatic, less progressive, than expected. But taking their cue from the title of his second book, the people of the world he addressed that day have invested in him the audacity of their hope.

The World Hopes for Its First President (http://www.newsweek.com/id/166910/output/print)

When was the last time a candidate, anywhere in the world garnered this much "messianic" attention??

Believe it or not, that was Hitler............

There are plenty of websites making the comparison between the two. From the state of the economy at the time, and how the people of Germany got caught up in "the euphoria of the moment", and other logical comparisons. All dictators seek to be worshiped, and they all kill people who do not submit to their demands.

World hopes for a 'less arrogant America'
By WILLIAM J. KOLE and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers William J. Kole And Matt Moore, Associated Press Writers
Nov 4, 7:21 am ET

BERLIN – A world weary of eight years of George W. Bush was riveted Tuesday by the drama unfolding in the United States. Many were inspired by Barack Obama's focus on hope, or simply relieved that — whoever wins — the current administration is coming to an end.

From Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to the small town of Obama, Japan, the world gears up to celebrate a fresh start for America.

In Germany, where more than 200,000 flocked to see Obama this summer as he moved to burnish his foreign policy credentials during a trip to the Middle East and Europe, the election dominated television ticker crawls, newspaper headlines and Web sites.

Hundreds of thousands prepared to party through the night to watch the outcome of an election having an impact far beyond America's shores. Among the more irreverent festivities planned in Paris: a "Goodbye George" party to bid farewell to Bush.

"Like many French people, I would like Obama to win because it would really be a sign of change," said Vanessa Doubine, shopping Tuesday on the Champs-Elysees. "I deeply hope for America's image that it will be Obama."

Obama-mania was evident not only across Europe, where millions geared up for all-night vigils, but even in much of the Islamic world, where Muslims expressed hope that the Democrat would seek compromise rather than confrontation.

The Bush administration alienated Muslims by mistreating prisoners at its detention center for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and inmates at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison — human rights violations also condemned worldwide.

"I hope Obama wins (because) of the need of the world to see the U.S. represent a more cosmopolitan or universal political attitude," said Rais Yatim, the foreign minister of mostly Muslim Malaysia.

"The new president will have an impact on the economic and political situation in my country," said Muhammad al-Thaheri, 48, a civil servant in Saudi Arabia. Like so many around the world, he was rooting for Obama "because he will change the path the U.S. is on under Bush."

Nizar al-Kortas, a columnist for Kuwait's Al-Anbaa newspaper, saw an Obama victory as "a historic step to change the image of the arrogant American administration to one that is more acceptable in the world."

Yet John McCain was backed by some in countries such as Israel, where he is perceived as tougher on Iran.

Israeli leaders, who consider the U.S. their closest and most important ally, have not openly declared a preference. But privately, they have expressed concern about Obama, who has alarmed some by saying he would be ready to hold a dialogue with Tehran.

Taking a cigarette break on a Jerusalem street corner, bank employee Leah Nizri, 53, said Obama represented potentially frightening change and voiced concern about his Muslim ancestry.

"I think he'll be pleasant to Israel, but he will make changes," she said. "He's too young. I think that especially in a situation of a world recession, where things are so unclear in the world, McCain would be better than Obama."

Even in Europe, McCain got some grudging respect: Germany's mass-circulation daily Bild lionized the Republican as "the War Hero" and running mate Sarah Palin as "the Beautiful Unknown."

In Berlin, Republicans Abroad organized a "November Surprise Election Party" to watch live "how the Republican ticket McCain/Palin comes from behind and leaves the 'liberal elite media' in Europe and the United States puzzled."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown clung to convention by refusing to say which candidate he wants to see win. Regardless of the outcome, he told Al-Arabiya television while on a tour of the Gulf, "history has been made in this campaign."

In Baghdad, a jaded Mohammed al-Tamimi said he didn't think U.S. policy on Iraq would change. Even so, "we hope that the new American president will open a new page with our country."

Kenyans made their allegiance clear: Scores packed churches on Tuesday to pray for Obama, whose late father was born in the East African nation, and hailed the candidate — himself born in Hawaii — as a "son of the soil."

"Tonight we are not going to sleep," said Valentine Wambi, 23, a student at the University of Nairobi. "It will be celebrations throughout."

Kenyans believe an Obama victory would not change their lives much but that hasn't stopped them from splashing his picture on minibuses and selling T-shirts with his name and likeness. Kenyans were planning to gather around radios and TV sets starting Tuesday night as the results come in.

"We will feast if Obama wins," said Robert Rutaro, a university president in neighboring Uganda. "We will celebrate by marching on the streets of Kampala and hold a big party later on."

In the sleepy Japanese coastal town of Obama — which translates as "little beach" — images of him adorned banners along a main shopping street, and preparations for an election day victory party were in full swing.

Election fever also ran high in Vietnam, where McCain was held as a prisoner of war for more than five years after being shot down in Hanoi during a 1967 bombing run.

"He's patriotic," said Le Lan Anh, a Vietnamese novelist and real estate tycoon. "As a soldier, he came here to destroy my country, but I admire his dignity."

World hopes for a 'less arrogant America' (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081104/ap_on_re_eu/eu_us_elections_world_view/print)

Brown to Call for New Global Financial System

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will push for a new international financial system that updates the Bretton Woods agreement in a speech to be delivered Monday evening.

Brown will call for the reforms at the G20 summit to be held in Washington next weekend.

"The British Government ... will begin to begin a new Bretton Woods with a new IMF that offers, by its surveillance of every economy, an early warning system and a crisis prevention mechanism for the whole world," Brown will say at his speech at the annual Lord Mayor's banquet in London.

Brown will also say the U.S and Europe must provide the leadership for the creation for a new international order.

"The trans-Atlantic relationship has been the engine of effective multi-lateralism for the past 50 years. I believe the whole of Europe can work closely with America to meet the great challenges which will test our resolution and illuminate our convictions," he will say.

Brown's calls for a reformed IMF will echo calls by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University. Stiglitz told a U.N. General Assembly panel on the global financial crisis last month that the system created at the 1944 conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which established the international monetary protocols governing trade, banking and other financial relations among nations, needs to be updated.

Brown has already discussed IMF reforms with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and has called on countries such as China and the oil-rich Persian Gulf states to fund the bulk of an increase in the International Monetary Fund's bailout pot.

Brown will also say the world faces five major challenges — to promote democracy, fight terrorism, strengthen the global economy, tackle climate change and resolve conflict.

World leaders pledge action plan to fight crisis
Sat Nov 15, 2008
By Gernot Heller and Matt Falloon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the world's biggest economies sought on Saturday to settle their remaining differences over an emergency plan to blunt the bite of the worst financial crisis in decades.

Presidents and prime ministers from the powers of the 20th Century joined the heads of new economic heavyweights such as export colossus China and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

They sat down with their finance ministers for a five-hour meeting in a Washington museum, gathered around a large map of the world symbolizing the global nature of their attempted economic rescue plan.

Signs are mounting of a painful economic slump in many regions, with the euro zone slipping into recession according to data last week, unemployment climbing in the United States and elsewhere and emerging economies slowing.

As the meeting got under way, the International Monetary Fund agreed to a loan worth at least $7.6 billion as part of a bigger plan for Pakistan where foreign currency reserves have dwindled and the risk of a default on its debts has grown.

With U.S. President George W. Bush only two months away from leaving the White House and his successor Barack Obama choosing to stay away from the Washington summit, talk of a top-to-bottom overhaul of global finance has been tempered.

But leaders said they were close to agreeing on the need for changes including more regulation for the financial sector, where huge risk-taking on house prices, especially in the United States, backfired last year and triggered the downturn.

Bush, who opposes calls from some countries for sweeping new regulations in the financial industry, said summit leaders were looking for "a way forward to make sure that such a crisis is unlikely to occur again."

"I am pleased that the leaders reaffirmed the principles behind open markets and free trade," he told reporters before the talks. "One of the dangers during a crisis such as this is that people will start implementing protectionist policies."

"This crisis has not ended. There's some progress being made but there's still a lot more work to be done."

Saturday's meeting is expected to pave the way for more work in coming months and another summit in the early months of 2009 when a newly installed President Obama could consider potentially far-reaching changes to the financial system.

As well as new regulation, leaders are considering ways to open up global institutions such as the IMF to emerging economies whose export-funded reserve cashpiles have made them important economic players.

The leaders are also likely to spell out what kind of measures their countries intend to take to counter the economic downturn, such as more public spending.

"DIFFICULT" TALKS

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said expectations of low inflation created room for lower interest rates and fiscal stimulus measures.

"These are tough talks because countries are coming from very different positions and we have to bring them together," Brown told reporters before heading to the talks.

"It's obviously important to move people to decisions today about what can be done."

He has been urging the G20 group of leading developed and developing economies to act together to stimulate economic activity via fiscal and monetary policy means.

After leaders met first for dinner Friday, their finance officials worked late into the night on a summit communique to be put to the leaders Saturday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the document would say no financial market, institution or region should escape regulation or supervision, and the action plan will have around 50 measures to be implemented by the end of March.

"This is a new start," Merkel said.

A German official said the plan would ask hedge funds to be more transparent about their operations.

Emerging countries have warned that time is running out to stem the economic damage from the credit market turmoil.

"If we don't take quick action we run the risk of falling into a depression," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Friday, adding both regulatory reform and concerted government spending were needed.

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a top Indian economic policy-maker, piled on the pressure for developed countries to inject large amounts of government money into their economies.

"If we are facing the most serious crisis in the world economy since the Great Depression then we need to take a lot of possibly unorthodox and special steps," he said.

World leaders pledge action plan to fight crisis (http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Economy/idUSTRE4AD7AK20081115)

World asked to help craft online charter for religious harmony     
Nov 14 2008

A website launched Friday with the backing of technology industry and Hollywood elite urges people worldwide to help craft a framework for harmony between all religions.

The Charter for Compassion project on the Internet at www.********.org springs from a "wish" granted this year to religious scholar Karen Armstrong at a premier Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference in California.

"Tedizens" include Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with other Internet icons as well as celebrities such as Forest Whittaker and Cameron Diaz.

Wishes granted at TED envision ways to better the world and come with a promise that Tedizens will lend their clout and capabilities to making them come true.

Armstrong's wish is to combine universal principles of respect and compassion into a charter based on a "golden rule" she believes is at the core of every major religion.

The Golden Rule essentially calls on people to do unto others as they would have done unto them.

"The chief task of our time is to build a global society where people of all persuasions can live together in peace and harmony," Armstrong said.

"If we do not achieve this, it seems unlikely that we will have a viable world to hand on to the next generation."

Charter for Compassion invites people from "all faiths, nationalities, languages and backgrounds" to help draft statements of principles and actions that should be taken.

World asked to help craft online charter for religious harmony (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081114211405.6b9pjnso&show_article=1)

Barack Obama should lead Middle East peace efforts, says Tony Blair
Tony Blair has called on Barack Obama to lead the world in finding a solution to conflict in the Middle East.

By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 10:25PM GMT 14 Nov 2008

The former Prime Minister said the new President would have the chance to heal divisions in an 'era of real possibility'.

Speaking during a visit to Rwanda, Mr Blair said world leaders had been too tied up with their own domestic agendas to focus properly on the decades-old Middle East conflict.

He admitted that though he tried to influence the Middle East peace process while serving as Prime Minister, his efforts were doomed because he could not acquire the necessary detailed understanding of the issues.

And he said Mr Obama could heal rifts between America and Europe by being prepared to champion causes regarded as priorities in Europe such as the Middle East, poverty and the environment.

"I think he can say to Europe, look I'm going to champion a global deal on climate change, I'm going to take the Middle East peace process seriously, I'm going to make sure that poverty in Africa is right at the top of the agenda, I'm going to listen to your concerns and get a shared agenda with you."

He said progress would come if America, Europe and the international community delegated genuine authority to envoys tasked with focusing fully on issues such as peace in the Middle East.

Since standing down as prime minister, Mr Blair accepted a number of jobs including the position of Palestinian development envoy for the Quartet – the grouping of America, Russia, the United Nations and European Union.

"I do think what's very interesting about these international situations – and I found this quite shocking in a way – is how much more comprehensive my understanding of the Israel-Palestine situation is now than when I was in office," he said.

"The interesting thing is how the international community delegates authority to make up for the limited knowledge that these leaders can have nowadays when they're dealing with a multiplicity of problems in their own domestic situation.

"I think, for example, there's no way the Middle East is going to be resolved unless there are empowered senior people from the international community able to do it.

"Because, as I say, I now have a far better understanding of what needs to happen than I did when I was British prime minister.

"And yet in one sense when I was British prime minister I obviously had greater power over the situation."

Speaking to the Guardian about the election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States, Mr Blair said it was important to see the connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the battle with extremists such as al-Qaeda.

"I personally think that one of the essential things both for the next American president and for the world is to regard this region, and broader than this region, as one problem because you face the same issue everywhere, which is a battle between those who want a modern and progressive future and those who are reactionary extreme," he said.

"Whether it's in Iraq or in Palestine or what's happening in all the different parts of Afghanistan or Pakistan, it's the same issue."

Barack Obama should lead Middle East peace efforts, says Tony Blair  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3457861/Barack-Obama-should-lead-Middle-East-peace-efforts-says-Tony-Blair.html)

Why should B.O. ;D find a solution to conflict in the Middle East?? When you have a better understanding of whats going on Mr. Blair.

Sarkozy Pushes for Abandonment of Dollar as World Reserve Currency 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The US dollar can no longer claim to be the sole world currency, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday before a weekend summit on the global financial crisis that has its roots in the United States.

'I leave for Washington tomorrow to explain that the dollar, which at the end of World War II was the only world currency, can no longer claim to be the sold world currency,' Mr Sarkozy said.

'The world changes. We are in the 21st century and the French view is that we cannot continue into the 21st century with a system established in the 20th century,' he said.

'What was true in 1945 cannot still be true today. It is not a question of courage, it is a matter of good sense to look at things as they really are.'

Leaders from the Group of 20 developed and developing countries meet in Washington on Saturday to discuss the financial crisis that has now begun to cut growth sharply worldwide.

Created in 1999, the G20 countries account for 85 per cent of the world economy and about two-thirds of its population, with its leaders hoping to hammer on Saturday out a common approach and understanding of the crisis.

Mr Sarkozy, who also holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, has said several times that the Washington meeting should tackle currency issues, alongside efforts to improve the transparency and regulation of the financial markets.

Since the end of World War II, the US dollar has effectively been the world's reserve currency, used across the board and thereby giving the United States immense influence in the global economic system.

"A New World Order is Gaining Ground" - Vatican Cardinal

By John-Henry Westen
 
ROME, November 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Speaking at the opening of the 23rd plenary assembly for the Pontifical Council for the Laity, the president of the Council, Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, warned, "The idea of creating a 'new man' completely detached from the Judeo-Christian tradition, a new 'world order,' a new 'global ethic,' is gaining ground."
 
According to the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the cardinal denounced the "dictatorship of relativism," rampant in Western societies, in which there is a growing "anti-Christian attitude" that makes "attacks on Christians, and particular on Catholics, pass off as politically correct."
 
Speaking of Christians today he said, "Our true problem is not being a minority, but rather having voluntarily become marginal, irrelevant, because of our lack of courage, so that we will be left alone, because of our mediocrity."  "For Christians," Cardinal Rylko added, "the moment has arrived to free themselves from a false inferiority complex … to be valiant witnesses of Christ."
 
This is, he said, the "hour of the laity," to take on their "responsibility in the diverse fields of public life, from politics to the promotion of life and family, from work to the economy, from education to the formation of youth."
 
He warned, however, that such faithfulness would come at a personal cost.  "Whoever wants to live and act according to the Gospel of Christ has to pay a price, even in the highly liberal societies of the West," he said.

"A New World Order is Gaining Ground" - Vatican Cardinal (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08112011.html)

Babylon's future written in its ruins

By Khalid al-AnsaryPosted 2009/02/10 at 8:47 pm EST

BABYLON, Iraq, Feb. 10, 2009 (Reuters) — For a site whose historical importance ranks with Egypt's Pyramids, the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon has suffered some rough treatment.

In recent times, U.S. troops and allied armies have parked tanks and weapons on the site in southern Iraq and used earth containing ancient fragments to fill their sandbags.

Looters ransacked its treasures, and before that Saddam Hussein "restored" parts of it using new bricks bearing his name and built a kitsch palace overlooking it.

Now officials hope Babylon can be revived and made ready for a rich future of tourism, with help from experts at the World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the U.S. embassy.

"The Future of Babylon" project launched last month seeks to "map the current conditions of Babylon and develop a master plan for its conservation, study and tourism," the WMF says.

"We don't know how long it will take to reopen to tourists," said Mariam Omran Musa, head of a government inspection team based at the site. "It depends on funds. I hope that Babylon can be reborn in a better image."

Fabled home of the Hanging Gardens, one of the wonders of the ancient world, and lying in a region ancient historians call the cradle of civilization, Babylon was badly damaged during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to overthrow Saddam.

Looters had been plundering the ancient site, about 85 miles south of Baghdad for centuries, but the pillage accelerated rapidly after the invasion, when thousands of other archaeological sites in Iraq were also targeted.

ONCE MIGHTY

The ruins of the once mighty city are a far cry from the Babylon of popular imagination, with its magnificent golden gate and lush gardens cultivated by King Nebuchadnezzar for his wife.

Its clay-brick walls are crumbling, a statue of the Lion of Babylon has all but lost its facial features and European imperial powers long ago looted the best of Babylon. The Ishtar Gate has been in Berlin since German archaeologists seized it before World War One, despite calls for its return.

Officials say preserving Babylon, a relic of a time and place that gave birth to such milestones of civilization as agriculture, writing, codified law and the wheel, is crucial.

"It's extremely important. When people say this (region) is the cradle of civilization, that's certainly true of Babylon," Lisa Ackerman, WMF vice-president, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It's a culture that had a profound impact on what we think of as modern civilization."

It may also help war-racked Iraq generate revenue in the future through tourism, as it seeks to rebuild after years of sectarian slaughter and attacks by insurgents.

Religious tourism to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim holy sites has boomed since the fall of Saddam, but the country still has a long way to go, and security will have to be vastly improved before it can start to dream of luring Western tourists.

Babylon, and places such as the southern marshes believed to be the biblical Garden of Eden, could eventually be major attractions.

The U.S. military occupied Babylon as a base for five months before handing over to a Polish-led division which left in 2005.

WALLS CRUSHED

The British Museum said in a report that U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements and their forces had used archaeological fragments to fill sandbags.

"They dug trenches for storing gas by the Babylon theater," said Maitham Hamza, who keeps the site's two museums. "They also crushed walls by landing helicopters on them."

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is contributing $700,000 toward the site's restoration.

Saddam Hussein's insensitive reconstructions also pose a dilemma for efforts to restore Babylon. Apart from his palace, he also rebuilt Processional Way, a street of ancient stones.

And he painted on it. A mural of King Nebuchadnezzar in blue and gold, with a suspiciously Saddam-like face, adorns one wall; a tacky cartoon lion, another. He built an artificial lake in what critics called the "Disneyfication" of Babylon.

Ackerman said one of the first things the WMF would do was establish whether underground water was present and erect barriers to prevent it from seeping into the ruins and damaging the clay bricks.

But Saddam's alterations might be best left alone.

"One approach is: people have been doing things to Babylon for centuries, if not millennia, so we can accept Saddam Hussein's changes as part of the life of Babylon."

Eventually, if security in Iraq continues to improve, officials hope tourists will return.

"We are optimistic about 'ruins tourism' in Iraq," Qais Hussein Rasheed, acting head of Iraq's Committee of Antiquities and Heritage, told Reuters.

"God willing, we could surpass Jordan and Egypt's tourism."

Babylon's future written in its ruins (http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre51a0mm-us-iraq-babylon/)

IMF Says New Reserve Currency to Replace Dollar Is Possible

bloomberg.com

The International Monetary Fund said it’s possible to take the “revolutionary” step of creating a new global reserve currency to replace the dollar over time.

The IMF’s so-called special drawing rights could be used as the basis for a new currency, First Deputy Managing Director John Lipsky told a panel discussing reserve currencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today.

“There are many, many attractions in the long run to such an outcome,” Lipsky told a panel discussing reserve currencies at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum today. “But this is not a quick, short or easy decision,” he said, adding that it would be “quite revolutionary.”

The SDRs would have to be delinked from other currencies and issued by an international organization with equivalent authority to a central bank in order to become liquid enough to be used as a reserve, he said.

As much as 70 percent of the world’s currency reserves are held in dollars, according to the IMF, leading to calls for nations to diversify their cashpiles to avoid excessive exposure to the U.S. economy as it quadruples its budget deficit in a bid to counter the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The dollar fell on June 3 to its lowest level in 2009 against the euro on concern that the ballooning deficit would sap demand for Treasuries among foreign investors and central banks.

“The largest debtor is very unlikely to dominate any currency arrangement today,” said Ousmene Mandeng, head of Ashmore Investment Management Ltd.’s public sector investment advisory.

Medvedev Proposal

President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday questioned the U.S. dollar’s future as a global reserve currency and said using a mix of regional currencies would make the world economy more stable. Russia has proposed regional reserve currencies, including the ruble, as part of a response to the global financial crisis.

“Its an oddity that on the one hand we have an increasingly multipolar international economy, an increasing commercial diversification, and on the other hand we have a unique concentration in terms of monetary transactions,” Mandeng said. “That in itself creates a lot of instability.”

Brazil calls for "New World Order", expanded UN Security Council   

google.com

The global financial crisis has reduced the differences between nations and created the opportunity to form a new world order, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting with Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Kazakh capital Astana, Lula called on the global community to seize on the crisis to create a fairer world for developing nations.

"I want to say that before the crisis, there were many countries which had greater significance than others, and some countries which had no significance at all," he said through a translator.

"After the crisis, everyone has become similar. We have the possibility to create a new world order and together we should improve our relations."

Lula arrived in Kazakhstan Wednesday following the first-ever summit between fellow developing economic powerhouses Russia, India and China -- together with Brazil dubbed the BRIC nations -- in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

Nazarbayev, head of Central Asia's largest economy, is keen to secure a larger role for his government in world affairs.

Following up on Lula's call, the pair said in a statement following their meeting that the United Nations should open up the UN Security Council to developing nations in an effort to bolster global security.

They said that opening the organisation, which only has five permanent members, to wider membership was the only way to make the often-criticised body "more legitimate and effective."

Arabs Back On Board For Mediterranean Union     

nasdaq.com

Arab states will rejoin the Mediterranean Union, which has been frozen since the Gaza war in December-January, an Arab League official said Wednesday, despite reservations about sitting down with Israel.

"The whole Arab group will participate in the next meetings. We will not be the ones to block the process," Mohammed al-Nasseri, who heads the Euro-Arab cooperation department at the Arab League, told AFP.

He said Arab members, which include the Palestinians, would attend the July 7 meeting in Brussels to formally announce the 43-member union's relaunch.

The Arab members will first attend a Euro-Mediterranean ministerial meeting in Paris Thursday on sustainable development, Nasseri said.

Launched at a Paris summit in July, the Union groups E.U. member states with countries in North Africa, the Balkans, Arab world as well as Israel in a bid to foster cooperation.

Pope calls for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy     

news.yahoo.com/


Pope Benedict called on Tuesday for a "world political authority" to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.

The pope made his call for a re-think of the way the world economy was run in a new encyclical which touched on a number of social issues but whose main connecting thread was how the current crisis has affected both rich and poor nations.

Parts of the encyclical, titled "Charity in Truth," seemed bound to upset free marketers because of its underlying rejection of unbridled capitalism and unregulated market forces, which he said had led to "thoroughly destructive" abuse of the system and "grave deviations and failures."

An encyclical is the highest form of papal writing and gives the clearest indication to the world's 1.1 billion Catholics -- and to non-Catholics -- of what the pope and the Vatican think about specific social and moral issues.

The pope said every economic decision had a moral consequence and called for "forms of redistribution" of wealth overseen by governments to help those most affected by crises.

Benedict said "there is an urgent need of a true world political authority" whose task would be "to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result."

Such an authority would have to be "regulated by law" and "would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights."

"Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums," he said.

The United Nations, economic institutions and international finance all had to be reformed "even in the midst of a global recession," he said in the encyclical, a booklet of 141 pages.

The pope's call for a supranational body to tackle global economic woes disturbed some Catholic capitalists.

"There is a difference between coordination and mandate ... a reckless loan in the United States can and did impoverish people in Latvia. So obviously coordination is important as long as it is not mandates," said Frank Keating, CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers and former Governor of Oklahoma.

LOFTY MESSAGE

The encyclical was addressed to all Catholics and "all people of good will" and was released on the eve of the start of the G8 summit in Italy and three days before the pope is due to discuss the global downturn with U.S. President Barack Obama.

In several sections of the encyclical, Benedict made it clear he had great reservations about a totally free market.

"The conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from 'influences' of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way," he said.

"In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise," he added.

Profit was useful only if it served as a means to a brighter future for all humanity.

"Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty," he said.

He said the current economic crisis was "clear proof" of "pernicious effects of sin" in the economy.

"Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity ...," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had rebuked the pope earlier this year at the height of the row over a Holocaust-denying bishop, welcomed the encyclical as important encouragement for world leaders ahead of a G8 meeting in Italy.

"Pope Benedict has encouraged the state leaders to create rules so that this sort of worldwide economic crisis isn't repeated," Merkel told reporters. "I also saw this as an order to work toward a social market economy in the world."

The pope appeared to back government intervention "in correcting errors and malfunctions" in the economy, saying "one could foresee an increase in the new forms of political participation, nationally and internationally."

Medvedev Unveils “World Currency” Coin At G8      

prisonplanet.com

In a highly symbolic moment at the G8 summit in Italy today, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev unveiled to reporters a coin representing a “united future world currency”.

“We are discussing both the use of other national currencies, including the ruble, as a reserve currency, as well as supranational currencies,” the Russian leader said at a news conference.

However, those who have downplayed the formulation of a world currency by dismissing it as merely a progression of SDR’s (Special Drawing Rights) and not something that would physically be used by citizens in a system of world government, were contradicted when Medvedev clearly outlined that the new currency would be “used for payment” by citizens as a “united future world currency”.

“This is a symbol of our unity and our desire to settle such issues jointly,” Medvedev said.

“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it,” reports Bloomberg.

The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”

Press images released to the Yahoo photo wire did not show any close up shots of the coin and little was known about it, except that it had been minted in Belgium and bears the words “unity in diversity”. An RIA Novosti report noted that the coin represented an example of a “possible global currency”.

China and Russia have repeatedly called for a new global currency to replace the dollar.

When confronted about plans to supplant the dollar with a new global currency, both Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner denied that such an agenda existed.

However, just days after he told a Congressional hearing that there were no plans to move towards a global currency, Geithner sought to please the elitist CFR by assuring them that he was “open” to the notion of a new global currency system.

The scandal-ridden and highly secretive Bank For International Settlements, considered to be the world’s top central banking power hub, released a policy paper in 2006 that called for the end of national currencies in favor of a global model of currency formats.

The global currency would be a key central plank of a future system of world government. Earlier this week, Pope Benedict called for a “world political authority” to manage the global economy.

Developing world calls for 'new world order'   

timesonline.co.uk


More than 50 heads of state from the developing world met Wednesday in Egypt to tackle the fallout from the global economic meltdown, with calls for a "new world order" to prevent a repeat of the crisis.

Cuban President Raul Castro said in a speech at the opening session of the Non-Aligned Movement summit that the financial crisis had hit developing nations the hardest.

"Every country in the world must seek just solutions to the global economic crisis," Castro told the 118-member body at the gathering in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"We call for a new monetary and economic world order... we must restructure the world financial system to take into consideration the needs of developing countries."

Global power dynamics also need to be addressed, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said, demanding a restructuring of the UN Security Council which he branded a form of terrorism "monopolized by a few countries that are permanent members."

"This represents a danger toward international peace. We have suffered all sorts of harm from the Security Council, it has become a sword over our necks," he said. "The Security Council is terrorism."

Kadhafi said he wanted to correct the imbalance at the Security Council, demanding a permanent seat for the 53-member African Union, which he chairs.

But the developing world's military ambitions looked set to steal the summit limelight, with nuclear-armed South Asian foes India and Pakistan to hold talks on Thursday aimed at relaunching stalled peace talks.

New Delhi and Islamabad's fraught relations deteriorated after terror attacks in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai in November last year which killed 166 people.

The attacks were blamed by India on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Pakistan has acknowledged they were partially planned on its soil.

Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon met his Pakistani counterpart Salim Bashir on Tuesday ahead of the meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Singh has voiced hope that Pakistan will promise action against those behind the attacks when he meets Gilani for only the second high-level contact between the two sides since the Mumbai bombings.

Pakistan said on Saturday that it would "probably" put the five accused of involvement in the attacks on trial next week.

The attacks left in tatters a fragile peace process launched in 2004 to resolve all outstanding issues of conflict, including a territorial dispute over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

India, along with host Egypt, is one of the founding members of the NAM, the largest grouping of countries outside of the United Nations, aimed at giving a voice to the developing world.

The summit will "provide a chance for discussions over the international economic crisis, which first started in the industrialized countries, and greatly impacted the developing countries, especially Africa," Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said on Tuesday.

He said industrialized states "should not be given free rein to manage such a crisis."

Founded in 1955, NAM's 118 member states represent around 56 percent of the global population. NAM states consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

Set up during the Cold War, the movement sought to distance itself from both the Western and Soviet blocs, but today its raison d'etre is questioned after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing shift in power politics.

New Push For Global Currency

news.yahoo.com


The embattled US dollar is expected to come under scrutiny at a summit of developing and industrialized nations following China-led calls to review its role as a reserve currency.

The dollar issue is bound to surface at the two-day meeting in Pittsburgh as US President Barack Obama and other leaders of the Group of 20 economies debate a new framework for tackling the so called global "economic imbalances" blamed for fuelling the latest financial crisis.

"Though not clear how the plan would be enforced, it would involve measures such as the US cutting its deficits and saving more, China reducing its reliance on exports and Europe making structural changes to boost business investment," analysts at French bank Societe Generale said in a report.

Some argue that the financial crisis resulted from imbalances between savings and investment in major economies, which have led to large current deficits, as evident in the United States, and surpluses, as enjoyed by China.

Beijing was the first to call for a new global currency as an alternative to the US dollar as the US deficit rocketed -- the White House estimates it could reach nine trillion dollars over a decade.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern as early as March over the safety of his country's huge US bond holdings now worth more than 800 billion dollars, making it the largest creditor to the United States.

Then, Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who supervises more than two trillion dollars worth of dollar reserves, the world's largest, raised the stakes by calling for a new reserve currency in place of the dollar.

He wanted the new reserve unit to be based on the SDR, a "special drawing right" created by the International Monetary Fund, drawing immediate support from Russia, Brazil and several other nations.

"These countries realize that they would suffer losses if inflation eroded the value of the dollar securities they own," said Richard Cooper, a professor of international economics at Harvard University.

But he said there were no feasible alternatives to the US dollar as a widely used international currency, discounting even IMF's synthetic SDR currency, comprising a basket of the dollar, euro, yen and the pound.

"The dollar will remain the dominant world currency, thanks to the stability of our political system and the rule of law that isn't a feature of many other economies," said Irwin Stelzer, director of economic-policy studies at the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

Some groups, he said, were buying euros and other currencies from time to time, "but not in amounts that threaten the dollar's primacy."

Even the Chinese are stuck with nearly a trillion dollars worth of US bonds and are not likely to drive down the value of that hoard by selling large amounts of dollar-denominated assets, Stelzer said.

But what is baffling analysts is that a key UN agency -- the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD -- has joined the chorus of calls for a new reserve currency.

An UNCTAD report this month endorsed a proposal that IMF-issued SDRs "could be used to settle international payments."

Until the current global economic crisis, SDRs issued by the IMF have been used by IMF member nation states "primarily as a reserve account to support international trade transactions, not as an alternative international currency available to settle international debt transactions in danger of default," said political scientist Jerome Corsi in "Red Alert," a global financial newsletter.

China, meanwhile, continues to flex its muscle.

It has proposed that the G20 economies consider setting up an international wealth fund that would invest a portion of its members' current-account surpluses in developing economies.

"These comments reinforce their desire to diversify out of dollars and to encourage other nations to do so as well," said Kathy Lien, chief strategist for Global Forex Trading.

A few Chinese deals were recently seen accepting payment in the currency of the buyer rather than in dollars, especially with Brazil, which the Asian giant is wooing as a future oil supplier.

In addition, China -- the first nation to sign an agreement to buy IMF bonds -- took the unsual step of paying for the papers equivalent of 50 billion dollars with its yuan currency rather than dollars, which Beijing uses for much of its trade and other foreign transactions.

Carl Weinberg, chief economist of High Frequency Economics, said he was surprised by the move but did not see it having any major impact on the dollar.

"The transaction can now be clearly seen as a political move by Beijing to get more traction in the governance of the IMF, not as an effort by the PBOC (Chinese central bank) to reduce the share of dollars in its reserve asset," he said.

Is the Bubble Abour to Burst?
by Gary Kah - Hope for the World

Yes, it's true! The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the organization that "insures" your bank deposits, is officially broke. It ran out of money in early October due to the large number of banks that are continuing to fail. This news came in spite of the fact that the FDIC had raised its rates to member banks earlier in the year in an attempt to shore up its dwindling reserves.
When the financial crisis began in Sept. of last year, the FDIC reported that 117 banks were in trouble. Since then approximately 80 percent of the banking companies on that list have gone under. To make matters worse, according to the FDIC the curent number of troubled banks has risen to over 400. Let's think positive and say that only 50 percent of these institutions will fail during the next year; that could mean the closing of another 200 banks - twice as many as in the last 12 months. (7 banks failed in just one day on October 23rd).
The FDIC has a special arrangement to borrow up to $20 billion of additional funds from the US Treasury in an emergency, but that will only get the agency through a few more months. What happens when that fund dries up?
   At some point the American people will realize how dire the circumstances are and, having lost confidence in the system, will seek to withdraw their money before their banks go under as well. If you believe such a scenario is unlikely, consider the fact that the FDIC recently announced it expected to be "in the red" through 2012.   Cont'd...

Cont'd...
This situation is compounded by the scores of jobless Americans who are depleting their bank accounts in order to survive. Although the government reports the unemployment rate to be at 9.8 percent, the real unemployment rate is closer to 17 percent. Millions of Americans have stopped looking for jobs or have taken on part-time positions and therefore no longer appear in the gov'ts statistics. Thiss drain on wealth is putting an increasing number of banks at risk.
The US Gov't is also being affected. As a result of the dramatic rise in unemployment, Uncle Sam is taking in less and less tax revenue. The government's tax base is faltering not only because of fewer jobs and a slumping GDP, but also due to the colossal amount of this year's tax write-offs resulting from last year's business and investment losses. Economist John Williams, who publishes the website Shadow Gov't Statistics, recently reported that the federal budget deficit for 2008 was $5.1 trillion based on a GAAP accounting basis. And, calculations from the 2008 Financial Report of the US Gov't showed that the negative net worth of the federal gov'g had increased to $59.2 trillion, with total federal obligations now tataling $65.5 trillion (based on GAAP). This figure is expected to climb to more than $70  trillion by the end of this year.
                              Cont'd.....

Cont'd...
Where is this Leading?
It's really quite simple: We are broke as a nation! Were it not for the escalating amount of money the US Treasury is printing and the funds that we are continuing to borrow from foreign sources, our economy would have already come to a grinding halt. Many people who can see the handwriting on the wall are wondering how much longer we have, what will happen next, and what they should do to prepare. 
   Although I have my opinions, I have been hesitant to share them - especially when it comes to a timetable for future events. This is because of my belief that nothing happens unless God allows it. Global planners may do everything possible to create financial chaos in order to move the US into a new world monetary system, but if God chooses to intervene, it will not happen. Having prefaced my opions with this statement, I will share with you the following thoughts. 
  I believe there is a growing possibility that a more serious financial collapse could occur between now and the end of 2010. I also believe that Obama is "the anointed one" of the international elite and has been designated to take the US into the new world order. As long as he is making unhindered progress toward their goals, they probably will continue to pump a measure of money into the US economy to create a "softer-landing". However, if resistance to Obama increases to the point where he is no longer able to effectively push forward their (and his) agenda for world gov't, they could pull the financial plug and throw America into a crisis that makes our current situation seem benign.                       Cont'd...

Cont'd...
Globalization efforts by the international elite could soon be accelerated through a designed crisis if they fear Obama might lose his majority in the House and Senate in next year's election.
   Most of the pieces are in place and our economic sovereignty has, for all practical purposes, already been handed over to international interests. This took place, unbeknownst to the American public, through agreements made at the G-20 summit in London (last April) and was finalized at the summit in Pittsburg (this September). As a result, a group known as the Financial Stability Board - composed of the top central bankers of the world - is now running the show.
   From now on the FSB will be making the most important financial decisions impacting the US and the rest of the world. Six of the twelve national members on this board are from European countries. The US, with a GDP 3 times that of the next largest G-20 member (Japan), will have only one vote.
   Europe's top financiers are making a strong case against the US dollar. Joining them are the Arabs, Brazilians, Russians, Japanese, and Chinese. On Sept 6, Cheng Siwei, a top member of China's Communist hierarchy and the former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee stated,
"If they (the US Treasury) keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify  incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies."
                            Cont'd...
             

Cont'd...
   Mr. Cheng went on to say, "Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets."
   China bears close watching, as it is the world's largest holder of US and other foreign bond reserves - valued at more than $2 trillion. If it ceases to buy US bonds, or if it were to transfer a substantial amount of its reserves held in US bonds into gold and other more stable currencies, it would push the price of gold and these other currencies significantly higher while driving the dollar down.
   On a related front, Gulf Arabs are planning - along with China, Russia, Japan, and France - to stop using the US dollar for oil trading. On October 6, The Independent reported that leaders of these countries are,
"...moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Coulcil, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar."
According to The Independent
Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced ind dollars...     Cont'd...

Cont'd...
   The plans confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices...The transitional currency in the move away from dollars, according to Chinese banking sources, may well be gold. An indication of the huge amounts involved can be gained from the wealth of Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar who together hold an estimated $2.1 trillion in dollar reserves.
   The report continued:
The Chinese believe...that the Americans persuaded Britain to stay out of the euro in order to prevent an earlier move away from the dollar. But Chinese banking sources say their discussions have gone too far to be blocked now. "The Russians will eventually bring in the ruble to the basket of currencies," a prominent Hong Kong broker told The Independent. "The Brits are stuck in the middle and will come into the euro. They have no choice because they won't be able to use the US dollar."
   "...These plans will change the face of international financial transactions," one Chinese banker said. "America and Britain must be very worried. You will know how worried by the thunder of denials this news will generate."
                                Cont'd... 

Cont'd...
Transition Underway
   Even though the stated deadline for the completion of this currency transition isn't until 2018, the dominos have already begun to fall. Iran, for example, announced in late Sept. that it would henceforth be selling its oil in euros rather than dollars. The nations of the world have begun moving away fron the dollar, and the Obama administration is doing little, if anything, to stand in the way of these developments.
   Meanwhile, the 2009 Trade and Development Report issued by the UN Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva, presents a blueprint for getting nations on a new SDR (Special Drawing Rights) world system in the near future. If they succeed it would facilitate a rapid move away from the US dollar as the world's main reserve currency.
   There are many complex developments and plans to sort out; the aforementioned represent just the tip of the iceberg, making it difficult to project exactly how events will unfold. But here is what we know for sure. The financial movers and shakers of the world want to replace the dollar with a new international currency. They will do whatever it takes to make this happen and are eager to do it sooner rather than later, while Obama is at their beck and call.

                                         Cont'd.....
   

Cont'd...
  What we do not know is exactly how long this transition will take, and whether the US will first be moved into a regional currency or if this step will be by-passed in favor of an immediate global currency. There are other questions, including: How much resistance will there be from the people of the US and Britain, and their legislative bodies? Will there be a partial or complete collapse of our economy? Will other types of crises be precipitated (via terror, war, disease, etc.) to accommodate this change? And, will God in His mercy intervene to give us more time? These variables make it impossible to set dates with any degree of accuracy. However, it is important to get prepared now in case things fall into place quickly, which they could.
   Every indication suggests that when the new currency is issued, it will involve a major revaluation. Rumor has it that if the new currency were to be released soon (within the next year or so) we could expect a 6:1 devaluation. In other words, if you have $6,000 in a bank account, you would have only 1,000 units of the new currency when your bank reopens. If such an event were to occur, banks would shut down for a period of time, meaning you would not have access to your accounts and probably not your safety deposit box for several days to several weeks. In some cases involving currency revaluations in other countries, bank authorities have seized the contents of citizens deposit boxes. For this reason I would consider moving valuables out of my box to another location - possibly a fireproof safe in my home.                                    Cont'd...........

Cont'd....
   Although my professional background is in economics and international business, I have been reluctant to tell people what to do...but beause so many ..call or write us on this matter, I will give an example of what I would personally do...I would invest in gold and silver...that could be used to barter for goods and services...I would invest in survival related items....if I could I'd purchase land with available firewood and a fresh spring that could be used for growing food. The fact is people can't eat silver and gold. Food and water are necessary for survival. In planning ahead it would be a good idea to keep some extra food and basics on hand for difficult times.
   As Christians, anything we do to prepare should be done unselfishly, keeping others in mind, If we are in a position to help others when things come crashing down, it will be a strong testimony to those who are unprepared. Difficult times could present unique opportunities to share the gospel of Christ with those who've been unwilling to listen before.
   Our number focus must be on our relationship with Him. We should use this time to grow in our walk, learning to depend on His direction in every facet of our lives. Just getting our houses in financial order won't be enough in the days ahead. We will need supernatural discernment and perseverance that only the Holy Spirit can bring. Draw close to Jesus and He will provide strength you need to stand firm while facing the challenges ahead!"

Great Articles! Thanks for sharing Sister Barbara!

I honestly believe that everything we are seeing has been planned and orchestrated. It's too insane to be anything other than INTENTIONAL. The "puppet-masters" are people like George Soros, and the puppets are people like Obama. I'm convinced that the overall plan from the start was massive failure. Why? - To end a free country and take control over it. The players in Washington, D.C. are so corrupt that it wasn't difficult to buy them. Give them enough money and they will do anything with complete disregard for the well-being of their country. In all reality, Washington, D.C. is a giant sewer, and the politicians are like bought and paid for RATS. Our worst enemies are from within, and their headquarters is in Washington, D.C. To say that they are traitors is an understatement.

As for Christians, you've already said it:

I agree with every word you've said, Brother Tom!

I also heard a teaching recently that everything we're seeing has one purpose - to nullify God's covenant with Abraham! In order for the devil to 'discredit' God, he needs to wipe out Israel and the Jews. The US has, until now, been Israel's staunchest supporter. Ultimately, those 'puppet-masters' needed to get us out of the way.
But it won't be the US that saves Israel - It won't be the IDF that saves Israel - It will be God Himself that they (the puppetmasters) will fight! But their battle will be quick and their end will be horrible. They'll tremble as they stand before His judgment!!

And we know that EVERY knee shall bow, and EVERY tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!!!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

Amen!

I know that the 7 Year Tribulation Period will be horrible, and 75% of the earth's population will die. The devil and evil men will be given their chance to do their worst, and only Jesus Christ will be able to restore peace and order. I'm sad that there are so many evil men. At this point, we've only seen a preview of much greater evil to come. We should also know that God is going to remove the "Great Restrainer" at His Appointed Time. I think that time is soon.

I, for one, do not spiritualize, make allegories of, or otherwise dismiss portions of Scripture in Isaiah, Psalms, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Revelation, and other portions of the Bible that contain Bible Prophecy yet to be fulfilled. All will come to pass most perfectly at God's Appointed Time. I also firmly believe that God will keep every Promise to Israel and His Church.

I give thanks for God's Great Patience toward evil men. He provided a means of rescue from the curse of sin and death. He even gave the world 2,000 years to consider and accept or reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. God will not withhold His Righteous and Holy Wrath much longer. Mankind is much like the times of Noah. Evil is ripening and is like a stench over the earth. Most of mankind has rejected God's Mercy and Love - worse - much of mankind mocks God and profanes His Holy Name. God even told mankind what would happen in the days ahead. Most of mankind has hardened hearts and has gotten worse instead of better. Unbelievable evil and chaos will result when the Great Restrainer is removed. Again, I think that time is near.

As for Christians:

1 Corinthians 15:50-58  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.  51  Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,  52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  55  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.  57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.


1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  13  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  18  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

SCANDINAVIAN BISHOPS: PROMOTE NEW EVANGELISATION

VATICAN CITY, 25 MAR 2010 (VIS)

This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received prelates of the Scandinavian Episcopal Conference who have just completed their "ad limina" visit. Addressing them in English, the Holy Father recalled the fact that their flock "is small in number, and scattered over a wide area. Many have to travel great distances in order to find a Catholic community in which to worship. It is most important for them to realise that every time they gather around the altar for the Eucharistic sacrifice, they are participating in an act of the universal Church, in communion with all their fellow Catholics throughout the world".

Referring then to the Congress on the Family, due to be held at Jonkoping, Sweden, in May, he told the prelates that "one of the most important messages that the people of the Nordic lands need to hear from you is a reminder of the centrality of the family for the life of a healthy society. Sadly, recent years have seen a weakening of the commitment to the institution of marriage and the Christian understanding of human sexuality that for so long served as the foundation of personal and social relations in European society.

"Children have the right to be conceived, ... brought into the world and brought up within marriage", the Pope added. "In societies with a noble tradition of defending the rights of all their members, one would expect this fundamental right of children to be given priority over any supposed right of adults to impose on them alternative models of family life and certainly over any supposed right to abortion. Since the family is 'the first and indispensable teacher of peace', the most reliable promoter of social cohesion and the best school of the virtues of good citizenship, it is in the interests of all, and especially of governments, to defend and promote stable family life".

"In the Nordic lands, religion has an important role in shaping public opinion and influencing decisions on matters concerning the common good. I urge you, therefore, to continue to convey to the people of your respective countries the Church's teaching on social and ethical questions", said Benedict XVI. He also urged the bishops to show particular pastoral concern for "the many who have experienced difficulties in the wake of the recent financial crisis" and for "married couples in which only one partner is Catholic".

The Pope went on: "The immigrant component among the Catholic population ... has needs of its own, and it is important that your pastoral outreach to families should include them, with a view to assisting their integration into society". With specific reference to Middle Eastern refugees, many of whom are members of the Eastern Churches, he called on the prelates to encourage them "not to distance themselves from the most precious elements of their own culture, particularly their faith".

The Holy Father paid tribute to "the new ecclesial movements, which bring fresh dynamism to the Church's mission" in Nordic countries and concluded by asking the bishops to commit their energies "to promoting a new evangelisation among the people. Part and parcel of this task is continued attention to ecumenical activity, and I am pleased to note the numerous tasks in which Christians from the Nordic lands come together to present a united witness before the world".

SCANDINAVIAN BISHOPS: PROMOTE NEW EVANGELISATION  (http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/dinamiche/d0_en.htm)