Merry Christmas and a happy Newyear !

2011 is almost already history. What has brought us this year? What insights have we gained with regards to 2012?

I think everyone starts to realize that the climate really is changing. and if you still have doubts, the multinationals do in any case. They see that more and more frequent extremes in weather are damaging their their business results and investments. Because of that they have decided to start to express the environment (climate, nature, etc.) in monetary terms. They will then identify the risks and develop countermeasures to bring the situation under control. One of these countermeasures is buying up more and more natural heritage to combat climate change. Sounds good, but of course this is nothing but a conservative measure, which seeks to preserve what you have. Another measure, which will have perhaps even more impact, is pressuring governments to ensure that the investments of the multinationals are being protected. In other words, the multinationals have declared themselves to endangered species and therefore needs protection! This is of course forcing politics and government more into line of business interest, than ever before. The financial crisis or debt crisis (the latter term is only introduced to turn away the attention of the financial sector, the main cause of what started the crisis after all), simply aroused the multinationals that more tougher measures need to be taken to protect their interests.

I think we have turned to the next phase in the life of the capitalist society: the capitalistic dictatorship. And what do we see? That East and West can shake hands. The Eastern bloc had fallen apart. The Eastern European countries have joined the EU, while Russia continued its communist dictatorship. The Communist Party, however, embraced capitalism and what you see now is that the Communist Party has become a multinational corporation that focuses on business interests and not on those of the people. The average Russian is leading a sad life, there’s no doubt about it. In China actually the same happened. First the Communist regime of China left no doubt about it that the most pure and powerful belief in the East, focusing on independence and autonomy of every individual: Buddhism, had to be destroyed. Tibet was brutally occupied and the Chinese government permanently naturalised the country through flooding it with Chinese immigrants. Then the Communist regime saw that, in order to secure their own interests, a mighty army was needed. That takes a lot of money, which was not available, as the Chinese communist society had an agricultural base, which was typical for any communist country. Hence, also China has embraced capitalism, which simultaneously made them put aside the interests of the majority of the Chinese people, the peasants. Simultaneously with the construction of the mightiest army in the world they have invested in many Western countries, particularly the U.S. and Russia, which has interwoven these countries closely together. The EU was already closely interwoven with the U.S. and Russia. And so the picture is clear. The weak democratic blocs, the U.S. and the EU, where the common people still have some influence, need to scale up to Russia and China. To rapidly scale up and decide, as is usually being done in large companies, you need a stable hierarchical structure. The multinational forces in the U.S. and EU are therfore forcing these governments more and more towards a capitalist dictatorship. Which is going to be there anyway. A development that I also outlined in my book, but I recognized it only recently as reality in progress as someone pointed it out to me. Given the developmental level of the average citizen, this step is going to happen, how sad it may be, though.

We are still a long way from the spiritual society. Hence my book hasn’t become not a bestseller in 2011. I am still not famous and I certainly will not be during this life. That is not influencing my own development. I have already detached myself from everything that could hold me here. Only the love for my family keeps me here. Furthermore, I enjoy the relationship I have with the universe and the warmth I feel from there. It gives me insight on what happens here on earth and especially within myself. So recently I understood why I felt a huge rage within me for decades since I was born. I was just angry because I had to return back to earth to experience something new and sharing my knowledge with future generations. I didn’t want to go back, back to all this misery. Returning to the lack of understanding, back to all the greed, back to all that selfishness. The world is so beautiful, the power of love so strong, why do not all these people see this? I ended up well, there’s nothing wrong with that. But it took a while before I woke up and had found myself again. It’s good the way it is. I continue my journey. I know I am not alone. I have my guides, people who love me, I am part of this universe. Eventually, everything will turn out right, with me, with everyone, with everything, but not today, not in 2012, perhaps after that, later, Whenever …

Message from Humanitysteam

I am publishing this e-mail from Humanitysteam because I share the thought of Oneness of this organization and its founder Neale Donald Walsh:

Dear friends,

Thanks again to all who participated in Global Oneness Day this year.  Together we talked about Oneness and brought the expression of Oneness to tens of thousands of people around the world.  We are touching many people’s lives and we are grateful for your participation. Please click here to watch a video of events which took place around the world.

During our Global Council meeting in Greece earlier this year, with Kathy Mason’s assistance, a new member of our Global Council,  we created new Oneness, vision and mission statements.  We’d like to share our Oneness Statement with you now:

“Oneness is the energy of love that lies within and connects all of life, enabling us to recognize ourselves in everything.  The universe is one being and we are its cells, all essential and responsible for the well-being of the whole.”

I hope you are as excited about this as we are.  We also created structures and programs that our Global Council and leadership are working very closely on so we can scale to meet the increasing demand we are seeing for our outreach services.  There is much going on in the world and we believe now is our time to create community supporting personal and collective transformation.

As we look out on the world, briefly, here is what we see:

With the increasing scale and impact of humanity on the Earth in the 21st century, the illusion of separation is becoming a dangerous impediment to health and well-being of Life at all levels.  The mentality of “us vs. them”, “me vs. other” as perpetuated by entire cultures and other influences are creating increasing polarity and dysfunction.

In response to this, the mission of Humanity’s Team is to create a cooperative, caring global community that awakens the world to Oneness through educational programs and charitable good works at global and local levels.  By helping humanity to awaken to Oneness – to who we really are – we deepen the felt experience of connection to all of Life, inspiring compassionate service to each other, and the world around us.  By partnering with like-minded organizations throughout the world, we pledge to positively transform humanity within one generation.

As a result of our combined action with other organizations and individuals around the world, we envision a transformed world where the vast majority of human beings live in connection with all of Life.    As the mentality and experience of Oneness continues to permeate human culture and organizations, we believe that compassion, sustainability and quality of life for more of us will grow exponentially and in time enfold the whole of the Earth.

Thank you for all your support over the years and recently in co-creating a world that works for everyone.  We’ve made great progress recently and we’d like to thank you for your volunteer, financial, meditation and prayer contributions.  We appreciate you.

All my love,

Steve Farrell
Worldwide Coordinating Director
Humanity’s Team

What about democracy and freedom ?

More and more I read about freedom and democracy and more and more I get the feeling that they are taking it away from us. The first question that arises is who are ‘they’?

Current at this time, the debt crisis and the role of Greece in it. Greece is currently on a leash in the EU and as the Greek people accept this they will remain in this situation for decades. Leaving aside the question of who is responsible for the many debts of Greece, it is interesting to look at the role of the financial world and politics. Both are supportive of the ordinary people and everyday life, but now it is increasingly the reverse situation. Politicians have to dance to the tune of the financial world and they dictate subsequently the nation. The move by the Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou, was terrific. He puts the choice back to the people: is this what you want? Isn’t this the ultimate democracy? Freedom and time for the people to express their views?

Very well known in the Netherlands is the way in which the EU Constitution was accepted by the Balkenende government without debating with the Dutch people, who were actually against: no referendum. Just now, the debate about the Angolan boy, Mauro, was completed. The entire parliament was involved. But if something important about the future of the whole nation must be decided, then Prime Minister Rutte does it on his own during a dinner with his European colleagues. Very strange. And the same can be said of his colleagues. What do we have to say about our own future? What freedom do we have to make choices?

Democracy is a wonderful principle linked to the concept of freedom. Freedom for people to unite in order to express themselves and also to choose occasionally together a different path if the current path does not produce the desired results. Democracy has to do with equality and equity. Every vote counts and is equal and as much worth as the other. Power and interests play no role. More than one hundred years ago, that was in fact the situation and it seems that it’s coming back. Multinationals unite and are asking governments for guarantees about their investments. Thus they indicate that they would have something to say about that country. To stop things from changing in a direction unfavourable to their companies. That this goes against the democratic principle they do not care. Freedom is not subject to interest or power, just the opposite. Responsibilities indeed play a role even if it comes to freedom, because it is still about people’s lives. That is to important to be hindered by (abstract) support systems. An interesting question. These are times when we have much to learn and really can make big progress …..

DEFCON 2 in Europe

Time for an emergency warning. Hence DEFCON 2, an above average alertness status as European ministers are about to throw away everything we have built since the past and also for the future. If they decide to raise the emergency fund with a multiple of what he is now, then the debt per person in the EU will become so high that it will take decades to pay it back. The tax burden becomes so high that home prices will come down even more and living costs will become so high that only by using saved resources it will be possible for families to keep their heads above sealevel. Youngsters who stille need to build a future will be faced with such high costs that there will be no question of saving money and if they are lucky they can manage of ever repaying study debts. Retirees will soon fall into a hole anyway, because the retirement benefit companies are continuing to gamble their money in falling markets, a declining business. In short, young, old, everyone is going to lose if the politicians continue the way they are going.

And a last emergency measure they will use is sale to the Chinese and eternal slavery will be our part, at least if you can not accept a life like an average Chinese factory worker of 12 hours per day and 1 day off per month at a fraction of European wages. For the politicians will eventually want to achieve success and the multinationals doesn’t matter what happens. They have been doing business with the Chinese, as if dictatorship doesn’t exist there, indifferent as they are. Business as usual.

What separates us still from DEFCON 1? At the moment the politicians continue with raising the debt ceiling it is time for action. Since I am in favour of peaceful and positive solutions, I think to oppose the measures is useless. The authorities will use massive police and military force to maintain order with many thousands of injuries and deaths. A confirmation of the fact that democracy in Europe has now become a dictatorship, but the point is that every life is worth living, and therefore another solution must be chosen: mass emigration. Sell ​​what you have here and move to distant places where you can lead a good life with little means. Where values ​​are of all times and where people are respected, where the elderly have a place and where children can play and people help each other when needed. I admit, it is a dramatic step, which isn’t easy for myself either, but think carefully about what I have outlined above. This is really happening! How much pain do you want yourself and your family to lead, before you choose a different path? This is a choice that each of us must make.

Consider the U.S., where tens of millions hardly have a dignified existence, while others live in great wealth. The first group has to live from charity of the second group and a real solution is not available. Indeed, the first group is growing, because in the U.S. basically the same is happening.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/anti-wall-street-protests-spread-to-other-cities.html

A loose-knit populist campaign that started on Wall Street three weeks ago has spread to dozens of cities across the country, with protesters camped out in Los Angeles near City Hall, assembled before the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago and marching through downtown Boston to rally against corporate greed, unemployment and the role of financial institutions in the economic crisis.

With little organization and a reliance on Facebook, Twitter and Google groups to share methods, the Occupy Wall Street campaign, as the prototype in New York is called, has clearly tapped into a deep vein of anger, experts in social movements said, bringing longtime crusaders against globalization and professional anarchists together with younger people frustrated by poor job prospects.

“Rants based on discontents are the first stage of any movement,” said Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University. But he said it was unclear if the current protests would lead to a lasting movement, which would require the newly unleashed passions to be channeled into institutions and shaped into political goals.

Publicity surrounding the recent arrests of hundreds in New York, near Wall Street and on the Brooklyn Bridge, has only energized the campaign. This week, new rallies and in some cases urban encampments are planned for cities as disparate as Memphis, Tenn.; Hilo, Hawaii; Minneapolis; Baltimore; and McAllen, Tex., according to Occupy Together, an unofficial hub for the protests that lists dozens of coming demonstrations, including some in Europe and Japan.

In the nation’s capital, an Occupy D.C. movement began on Saturday, with plans to join forces on Thursday with a similar anticorporate and antiwar group, October 2011, for an encampment in a park near the White House.

About 100 mostly younger people, down from 400 over the weekend, were camped outside Los Angeles City Hall on Monday morning. Several dozen tents occupied the lawn along with a free-food station and a media center. People sat on blankets playing the guitar or bongo drums or meditating. Next to a “Food Not Bombs” sign, was another that read “Food Not Banks.”

At the donations table, Elise Whitaker, 21, a freelance script editor and film director, said the protesters were united in their desire for “a more equal economy.”

“I believe that I am not represented by the big interest groups and the big money corporations, which have increasing control of our money and our politics,” she said, adding that she was not against capitalism per se.

Javier Rodriguez, 24, a former student at Pasadena City College, held a sign that read “Down with the World Bank” in Spanish, and said he was anti-capitalist.

“The monetary system is not working,” he said. “The banks are here to steal from us. Everybody is in debt whether it’s medical bills or school or loans. People are getting fed up with it.”

In Chicago on Monday morning, about a dozen people outside the Federal Reserve Bank sat on the ground or lay in sleeping bags, surrounded by protest signs and hampers filled with donated food and blankets. The demonstrators, who have been in Chicago since Sept. 24, said they had collected so much food that they started giving the surplus to homeless people.

Each evening, the number of protesters swells as people come from school or work, and the group marches to Michigan Avenue.

“We all have different ideas about what this means, stopping corporate greed,” said Paul Bucklaw, 45. “For me, it’s about the banks.”

Sean Richards, 21, a junior studying environmental health at Illinois State University in Normal, said he dropped out of college on Friday and took a train to Chicago to demonstrate against oil companies.

He said he would continue sleeping on the street for “as long as it takes.”

Strategists on the left said they were buoyed by the outpouring of energy and hoped it would contribute to a newly powerful progressive movement. Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, in Washington, noted that the Wall Street demonstrations followed protests in Wisconsin this year over efforts to suppress public employee unions and numerous rallies on economic and employment issues.

The new protesters have shown a remarkable commitment and have stayed nonviolent in the face of aggressive actions by the New York police, he said. “I think that as a result they really touched a chord among activists across the country.”

But if the movement is to have lasting impact, it will have to develop leaders and clear demands, said Nina Eliasoph, a professor of sociology at the University of Southern California.

With the country in such deep economic distress, almost everyone is forced to think about economics and politics, giving the new protests a “major emotional resonance,” she said.

“So there is a tension between this emotionally powerful movement,” she said, “and the emptiness of the message itself so far.”

Ashley Southall contributed reporting from Washington, Ian Lovett from Los Angeles and Steven Yaccino from Chicago.

I met an man who had a dream …

Once I met a man in his seventies. He had had a wonderful career. He had been working for more than forty years for the same company. He had received a golden pen from the director of the company. In addition, he held various management positions at several volunteer organizations. In short, he is man who has done a lot of work in his life of which he can be very proud of. Much of his life he lived with his parents. His parent were already old when he was born. He has taken care of them during the last years of their lives. After that he stayed in the parental home living alone all by himself. He was really a very sweet and social man.

But when I uttered my admiration for him, he admitted to miss some experiences in his life. He would have liked to have a sweet woman and several small children, as I had. A family that he had formed himself. But he had never engaged in what he wanted. He had always been busy working hard and doing things for others without thinking of his own needs. What do I want, who am I, where am I going with my life? These were questions he had never thought about. And now it was too late. His life was almost over.

He gave me this advice: do not get too distracted by what others want from you, tell you to do or think is best for you. Allow yourself to regularly stop and feel who you really are and think about your life: who you are and what you want. If you make a choice, it means something else in your life is not going to happen, but it’s all your choice. That’s what suits you. You can never regret it. And even if the choice turns out wrong, it’s your learning experience that will bring you further. Everything will work out!

We parted. A beautiful meeting ended. Perhaps we will talk together again, then it is meant to be.

Listen to the silence

Sometimes I hear everything: cars, sirens, heavy motorcycles, music, radios and so on. I catch all these sounds and try to interpret them. Same as if I watch TV or surf the Internet.

But if it is quiet, I hear a lot more actually. I hear the nature, I hear myself and the universe that I hear talking to me. I hear the most amazing things and start long conversations. There are questions being asked to me and my questions are being answered with love. They are the best conversations you could ever imagine. But only when it is quiet I can hear them.

Silence gives warmth, warmth in your heart if you let yourself being embraced by nature and by the universe. You’re never alone. There is so many around us, so much warmth, so much love, if we just allow it, if we are really making contact. And if we start sharing this love and warmth with each other, life on earth could be so much nicer. That universal love is everywhere, in everyone. It can greatly change life here on earth.

It’s not about whether it is there or not at all. It’s what you want. Do you want a beautiful world or do you want a world that is not? Make a choice and start working to it. Do you love your fellow man or distrust them? That is a choice. Remember that what you want to see is actually there. The world is as you see it, but someone else can see things completely different. What do you want it to be? Get the best out of yourself and others. If we do not start working this way, it will never going to get better. I believe it is possible! Believe in yourself and your fellow man is probably the most important believe there is. And believe in love …

Poor, poor people …

I’ll want to build on my previous article in which I discussed the many children who grow up in poverty in England. Their leader, James Cameron, believes that the massive riots in his country have nothing to do with poverty. Poor, poor people …. . “A culture that glorifies violence, disrespects authority and knows all about rights, but nothing about responsibilities,” he said. A sentence full of inaccuracies: violence is not glorified but is triggered by the authoritarian system. Erich Fromm has also wrote about it in his time. And no respect for authority: respect must be enforced by your behavior but perhaps the current authorities do just the opposite with their behavior? When you take into consideration that the English upper class is greatly enriching themselves at the expense of the rest, it does not amazes me at al. And taking responsibility is something that I hear often about. But aren’t the people at the top who behave irresponsibly? Aren’t they the people who caused the current crisis ? Look at how they handle money, how they handle their very expensive possessions, how they interact with others. It sometimes seems as if these people have no conscience. If they could at least be the right example. Poor, poor people ….

British society has a lot to learn. Many hard lessons will follow and many people will suffer from it. A class society has no right to exist, has no future and no conscience. This can only lead to much more misery. A good thing we are here on earth to learn, so let’s assume that in the long term things will turn out right.

But things like with James Cameron can be seen in the Netherlands also: ”I think everyone who can work must work,” said the Secretary of State Paul de Krom. It sounded like if these people do not want to work, if these people are lazy. Yes, that is what he says in fact: people who do not work, are lazy. And then he continues: “It undermines the solidarity within the increasingly smaller group of people who are working and paying benefits.” Suppose now that I’m 40-plus and no longer can get a job, which is very common in the Netherlands, as we only want young workers in this country. I would feel double miserable, because others would look at me with a thought like: ‘there’s that lazy man again’! As if I did not have enough trouble, because I have no work and suddenly I have to survive on welfare. That he also wants to cut when one of my children has a small job for him or herself, so that he or she cannot buy something nice anymore. I would be very sad. Actually I should not be bothering about this, but I am feeling a little bit sad. The way we treat people. How we portray certain layers of the population and then also like to exploit them for our own gain. For what purpose? The plan is to oblige welfare recipients to do simple work. Work for which we pay too little in our society to get regular worker for. Scandalous! Think carefully about the big picture. Then you might see through it.

All these leaders are ruthless people. People who are signposts of a party, movement, religion, you name it. People who enjoy their charisma. People who enjoy using power instead of listening to their own conscience and choosing to do good. They no longer think about what they accomplish and look surprised if criminals identify with them. That is something they do not understand. Therefore, always listen to your conscience, because deep in your heart you know best what is right and wrong. And if you hear nothing, take some time and be your own friend. You can learn it, anyone can. That’s the force of the universe. It’s in all of us !

Holidays: a sense of being yourself.

Back from a long vacation. It has been a since I have been writing in my blog. What shall I write about now ? The fact that our Prime Minister is working to shrinking the parliament with the remark: “We want the public to show that politics is not there for the happiness of everyone.” What he meant to say is that they are there only in the interest of a certain small group of rich and wealthy people ! But if they don’t help the ordinary person in the street anymore, whom does this person have to turn to then ? Or shall I talk about the continued EU financial support to various countries which has caused our debt level to relatively reach that of the U.S. ! Or shall I talk about the fact that more and more children grow up in poverty in Europe ? In Great Britain, even one third of all children ! Or shall I talk about the wonderful book by Erich Fromm about “the independent human being” that I read during my vacation. In this book the difference between joy and happiness is very well explained and also what it takes to achieve a truly independent, creative and happy life ? Hats off for humanism.

No, let me talk about ‘having a vacation’ ! This is a wonderful thing. I have been free from work now for four weeks and haven’t done much special during that time, but it gives you an enormous sense of freedom, free to do whatever you want without ever having to take responsibility. Just getting up late, having a nice stroll, getting a bread from the bakery. In short, enjoying the simple things in life. People who are wealthy and/or rich, find this quite normal. They see it as something they have earned. But in fact it is something else: it’s a Gods gift ! Time for yourself and your loved ones, time to think, time to find out who you really are. Isn’t that wonderful? And I wished everyone had such a time for himself ! Not only a small privileged group in society. And this was also what I read in the book by Erich Fromm. You can only unfold yourself just and be creative, if you do not have to be concerned all the time about survival. And that’s exactly what I’m seeing more and more people doing. In the Netherlands I hear of more and more people having two or even three jobs. For one a necessity to stay alive and for the other necessary to maintain a considerable level of wealth. But both are not getting better by it. For either of them there remains no time to even think about themselves. No quality time to spend with their loved ones. No time to just do something funny whatever comes to their minds.

I hope that, like Erich Fromm, one day we realize that things can and must change. That we must live more from the thought of what people, not only materially but also spiritually need. A little like they do in Bhutan: the Gross Happiness Product …. Then everyone can finally enjoy a holiday!

What’s the truth ?

The day I no longer really believed what they told me. Back into the traffic jam and again no report about it on the radio. How many times have they given me the false reports ? Shit ! How many times more am I going to let this happen ? But is this much different from everything else they tell me ? The money the government lent to the banks would come back ? The money from my old age arrangement would be paid to me from my 60th, the insurance company promised in my contract in 1991. Not so ! My pension would start at 62 and would be 70% of my average wage amounts. Contractually committed. Both are not true ! And what about the mega-businessfraud-cases with large companies and institutions we have seen in recent years ? Everything they tell you and promise is simply not true! They tell you what they think is in their own interest: “You will be informed on a need-to-know basis !”, Fuck you ! Who the hell do you think you are, I think. Of course I know who they are: a bunch of primitives that is guided by the prevailing greed in this world: capitalism, which is glorified by many at the top of society.

But lets get serious. Life goes on. You do not have to participate. The more you participate and spent time in this system, the less energy you have to grow into what you can be: a beautiful human being, a loving human being, a free and happy human being, a significant human being, a human being who is part of the universe. Live your life and show who you are, show what you can make out of yourself. Show that your life is worth living. Shine radiant as a star, like a man with a life that does matter. Every life is worth living. Look how beautiful the development of a human being is put together. How many different steps there are to be completed. There are much more steps than you initially might think. Be surprised. Be open to new facts, new experiences. They will enrich your life. Do not stop to grow, to change, because nothing stays the same. Change is good, only sometimes it does hurt, but eventually it will bring you to the next level, a higher level of living and / or happiness. Immerse yourself in the roller coaster of life and seize the day. Every day of your live is a beautiful day, a day to live, a day to do what you want to do … Live!

And what is the truth ? You’ll know one day. A beautiful day in your life. And all the secrets will become clear to you. And believe me, the truth is closer than you think. Maybe it is already in your head and you just have to look, because you have looked over it all the time. Close your eyes and take a good look in your head. The truth is always close ….