NIGERIAN SCHOOLGIRLS MASS RAPED AS PSEUDO-BRIDES - HISTORY REPEATS AND REPEATS

 

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Relatives of kidnapped schoolgirls in Chibok.

Photograph: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters

 

Relatives say they have been told of mass weddings involving insurgents and some of the girls abducted two weeks ago

For two weeks, retired teacher Samson Dawah prayed for news of his niece Saratu, who was among more than 230 schoolgirls snatched by Boko Haram militants in the north-eastern Nigerian village of Chibok. Then on Monday the agonising silence was broken.

When Dawah called together his extended family members to give an update, he asked that the most elderly not attend, fearing they would not be able to cope with what he had to say. "We have heard from members of the forest community where they took the girls. They said there had been mass marriages and the girls are being shared out as wives among the Boko Haram militants," Dawah told his relatives.

Saratu's father fainted; he has since been in hospital. The women of the family have barely eaten. "My wife keeps asking me, why isn't the government deploying every means to find our children," Dawah said. The marriage reports have not been confirmed officially, and rely on eyewitnesses.

The 14 April abduction of the girls – students aged between 16 and 18 who were sitting a physics paper at their school, one of a handful in troubled Borno state that had opened specially for final exams – shocked a nation inured to violence during a five year-insurgency.

Desperate parents launched their own rescue attempts in the 60,000 sq km Sambisa forest where the girls were being held. Security sources told the Guardian that at least three rescue attempts had been scuppered.

This week, former prime minister Gordon Brown, the United Nations' special adviser on girls' education, will visit Nigeria to launch a campaign to raise funds and awareness of the schoolgirls' plight. "We cannot stop terrorism overnight but we can make sure that its perpetrators are aware that murdering and abducting schoolchildren is a heinous crime that the international authorities are determined to punish," he said.

Reports of the mass marriage came from a group that meets at dawn each day not far from the charred remains of the school. The ragtag gathering of fathers, uncles, cousins and nephews pool money for fuel before venturing unarmed into the thick forest, or into border towns that the militants have terrorised for months.

On Sunday, the searchers were told that the students had been divided into at least three groups, according to farmers and villagers who had seen truckloads of girls moving around the area. One farmer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the insurgents had paid leaders dowries and fired celebratory gunshots for several minutes after conducting mass wedding ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday.

"It's unbearable. Our wives have grown bitter and cry all day. The abduction of our children and the news of them being married off is like hearing of the return of the slave trade," said Yakubu Ubalala, whose 17- and 18-year-old daughters Kulu and Maimuna are among the disappeared.

The parents are planning a mass rally on Saturday to lobby the government for official updates rather than having to rely on reports from local people.

Nigeria's armed forces face an uphill battle against the insurgents, who operate in small, mobile units and are drawn from communities that spill across the country's porous desert borders. Near daily aerial bombardments have been halted as ground troops have poured into the forest in search of the girls.

"We are trying, but our efforts are being countered in a way that it is very clear they are being tipped off about our movements. Any time we make a plan to rescue [the girls] we have been ambushed," said an artillery soldier among a rescue team announced by presidential decree over the weekend. In one clash, he said, 15 soldiers were killed by the insurgents.

"We know where these girls are being held in the forest, but every day we go in and come out disappointed. Definitely somebody high up in the chain of command is leaking up information to these people," said the soldier, whom the Guardian was able to reach three times during shift breaks. Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, said in 2012 that Boko Haram had secret backers among government and security officials.

Another soldier deployed to Borno state said: "In my 13 years of service, I have never been in terrain this big and tough. There is desert and there is forest – you cannot imagine how difficult both of them are."

He said there had been intelligence reports of the militants moving groups of girls to Marte – a known training camp – and to the Gwoza hills, a range of caves and valleys spanning the border with Cameroon.

The kidnappings have sparked debate on whether foreign intervention could help stabilise Nigeria. Officials have long ruled out such a move.

Nelson Uwaga, a representative at an official conference set up by presidential decree to discuss national unity as Nigeria celebrates a century of nationhood, said: "If countries can help us by way of arming our people through modern surveillance equipment, for defence and all that, it will be most welcome. [But] what the Boko Haram is doing is not a formal kind of fight but a guerrilla kind of fight, and it is only the local people that will tell you how to fight it."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/kidnapped-nigerian-schoolgirls-marriage-claims

 

LOOTING EGYPT'S ANTIQUITIES - THESE PIGS WOULD SELL THEIR MOTHERS FOR A PRICE

 

Squares sit-ins were broken up on Aug. 14 of last year. There was looting of the Islamic Museum on Jan. 24.

Those incidents have encouraged other thieves to loot antiquities sites by exploiting riots. Targeting museums and archaeological sites has become common during the riots, when security chaos keeps the police busy.

Not a week goes by in Egypt without someone transporting stolen artifacts being arrested or stolen museum pieces being seized.

The crisis has grown from the looting of Egyptian museums with each riot wave to the looting of archaeological excavation sites. The attacks are aggressive, as if some people are taking revenge against the state for their extreme poverty and marginalization by looting ancient monuments. What's making things worse is that the thieves sometimes destroy the sites themselves, unaware of how valuable the rare artifacts are, according to Hiba Saleh, Egypt's chief inspector of artifacts.

Saleh told Al-Monitor, "The artifacts mafia that used to conduct such operations before 2011 were using tools and specialized techniques that don't cause damage or destruction, because they know the value of the artifacts in their hands.

This is not the case now, and it is a disaster by any measure because they are exploiting the riots to carry out these robberies that destroy our history and civilization. There is a difference between stealing from museums, which contain registered artifacts that can be tracked if taken out of the country illegally and can be recovered by means of the UNESCO law, and looting by means of random mountain excavations in areas with known archaeological value.

Looters are using houses adjacent to the Pharaonic tombs to reach artifacts from different periods and remove them from their locations. This destroys their value and the lessons we might have learned had they been left in place, such as identifying the era they belong to. Newfound artifacts with no inscription revealing their era have no value unless we know their original location. The dangerous thing is that for many of the artifacts seized by the police, those who stole them don't say where they got them."

Ahmed Sharaf, the director of the Antiquities Ministry's museums division, told Al-Monitor, "During the previous period, waves of rioting caused a lot of losses, damages and museum thefts. On Jan. 28, 2011, the Egyptian Museum was broken into via the lighting rooms on the upper floor. The thieves then descended to the halls and stole 54 pieces, 28 of which have been recovered. On the day when the Rabia [al-Adawiya] sit-in was broken up, the Malawi Museum was broken into. Of its 1,079 pieces, 1,000 were stolen and 14 were destroyed. The police have recovered 900 pieces so far. And then there's the latest destruction to the Islamic Museum."

Sharaf added, "We are currently working to improve the museum's electronic and human security. We have a plan to install bulletproof glass, as in other world museums such as the Louvre. And we have started testing that in the royal rooms in Alexandria and in part of the Tutankhamun gallery in the Egyptian Museum and the mummies hall. We have about 50 museums in Egypt, including those that are under development or construction. Developing all of them according to this [security] system needs at least 400 million euros [$546 million] to resolve the internal security crisis."

He noted, "UNESCO is currently working to launch the third campaign to save Egypt's monuments and collect the necessary funds to restore the Islamic Museum. The first campaign was to save the monuments of Nubia. The second was to set up the Museum of Civilization in Fustat. And we call upon international organizations to implement the recommendations of the China Conference about allowing the countries whose heritage was robbed, such as Egypt and Iraq — by using the money from song and music performance rights and intellectual property rights — to enable these countries to implement their plans to renovate and restore their stolen effects."

For his part, Mustafa Khalid, the director of the Islamic Museum in Cairo, told Al-Monitor, "We need at least 100 million Egyptian pounds [$14.4 million] to restore the museum to what it was. We have received $100,000 from UNESCO so far, along with a donation of 50,000 pounds [$7,200] from the artist Mohamed Sobhi. We call for showing the effects of the terrorist and riot destructions on Egyptian museums and antiquities to the people of the world who sympathize with the groups that support this terrorism in Egypt [so that they can see] that this terrorism has had a devastating impact on Egyptian heritage, not just the waves of riots or thefts. Terrorism doesn't differentiate between regular, historic or archaeological sites."

Khalid added, "The Islamic Museum was destroyed and we have lost a large collection of special pieces from the Mamluk era and rare [artifacts] from the Islamic Fatimid, Mamluk and Omayyad eras. The pieces from the Abbasid era were the most affected by the destruction. Also destroyed were rare pieces of gold currency from the year 77 Hijri [696 C.E.]. All those were part of our heritage from our ancestors that we were preserving for our grandchildren, but terrorism caused their destruction."

Khalid noted, "The museum was insured against theft and fire, but no one can prevent terrorist bombings. The details of the terrorist operation were recorded by the museum's outside cameras, which operate 24 hours a day. But everything happened in less than a minute."

Walaa Hussein

Contributor, Egypt Pulse

Walaa Hussein is the editor-in-chief of the parliamentary news division at Rose al-Yusuf. An expert in African affairs, Hussein has collaborated with the Nile Channel, writing and preparing newscasts. On Twitter: @walaahuseen

 

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/02/riots-security-chaos-egypt-threaten-museums-antiquities.html

BRITISH PETROLEUM SAYS IT IS BUSINESS AS USUAL WITH RUSSIA

 

 

 

BP's Carl-Henric Svanber has dismissed concerns that the Russian state could seize the compnay's assets. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

 

 

BP's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, says that Russia is 'very keen' to maintain business relationship with oil company

BP has reassured shareholders it will not be pushed out of Russia and will keep its 20% stake in the country's largest oil company despite rising tensions over Ukraine.

However, the oil and gas group faced a rebellion closer to home when more than 30% of its investors failed to back its executive pay report at its annual general meeting.

BP's chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said Russia was "very keen" to maintain business relationships. Speaking at the AGM in London, he also dismissed concerns that the Russian state could seize BP's assets. Denying that BP's 20% stake in the Russian state oil company Rosneft is at risk, he said: "Expropriation would hit them dramatically. I can't see why that would happen." Chief executive Bob Dudley, who has a seat on the Rosneft board, said it was "business as usual".

Louise Rouse of Share Action said BP was making "a brave assumption" about the intentions of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. "They are overconfident regarding Putin and their belief that mutual self interest will work is naively optimistic," she said after the meeting.

BP also faced down a revolt over pay, as shareholders voiced anger over a decision to triple Dudley's pay package at a time when the company still faces huge costs over the Deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico four years ago. Dudley received $8.7m (£5.2m) in 2013, a reward that goes up to $13.2m dollars once pension contributions are included. Amid complaints that BP executives were overpaid while the company stumbled from one crisis to another, some 13% of shareholders voted against the executive pay report, while a further 19% abstained, an unusually large revolt by AGM standards.

Svanberg insisted BP had to pay high wages to keep its executives on board: "I can assure you these gentleman have had continuous offers from elsewhere."

The oil company avoided a bigger revolt after one large shareholder, Standard Life, decided to support the remuneration report for the first time in several years. "But although we recognise … improvements, the journey is not complete," said Mike Everett, governance and stewardship director at Standard Life.

Shareholders also blasted the company for paying out "unjustified" claims over the Deepwater spill. One shareholder claimed BP was a laughing stock in Louisiana for paying out "fallacious claims" . "Everybody who could conceivably write a letter claimed against BP. The fact it was British Petroleum made it fair game."

In a response that could raise eyebrows in US courtrooms, where legal battles are ongoing, Svanberg said: "You are describing the atmosphere there very well. I can tell you we have stopped quite a lot [of false claims]."

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/apr/10/bp-investors-business-russia

IN MONTREAL, QUE. THE POLICE HELP THE THIEVES - CORRUPTION IN MONTREAL CITY HALL

 

 

THIS IS THE THIEF,

HAPPY TREE YOGA GURU,

DAWN MCSWEENEY

 

 

Dawn McSweeney

Robbed me and my family,

With the help of the Montreal Police.

 

 

If you live in Montreal, Canada, and you are being attacked and robbed in your home, do not call 911. I did.

 

The Montreal Police I called to rescue me helped the thief instead.

 

The officer took me by my arm and told me, in front of my assailant, that I must never return home and I could not take any of my belongings with me. This was done without any legal procedure or any justification.

 

The Montreal Police officer turned over my life's possessions and the lives of my aged parents to the thief and her accomplices.

 

The Montreal Police helped Dawn McSweeney to rob me. Then they left me in the street, in front of my home - in October, without as much as a coat - sick with cancer, alone, homeless and destitute - and they just drove away. I was 60 years old.

 

And they did not make a report.

 

The Montreal Police refused repeatedly, month after month, year after year, to investigate or to take any legal action to recover my life's most precious belongings or to charge the thief, Dawn McSweeney and her accomplices. They are still doing nothing to recover my precious belongings or to charge the thief and her accomplices.

 

Consequently, Dawn McSweeney and those she brazenly calls her "partners in crime" on her own blog - went on to rob my aged parents of their home and their life's savings.

 

The Montreal Police refused to investigate

 

Dawn McSweeney and her partners robbed my siblings and their children who were specifically named in my father's will by making a false will in my mother's name when she was in her 90's and handicapped mentally and physically - and isolated and totally under their control. No family member ever saw our mother alive again.

 

The Montreal Police refused to investigate.

 

Authorities at the Montreal Court House told me that my mother did not sign that will, but the thieves were able to get away with all these crimes - because this is Montreal, where corruption is the rule. 

 

Detailed reports at http://dawnmcsweeney.blogspot.com

 

I am offering a $5,000. reward  .... and more.

 

NORTH KOREA - THERE IS NO WAY TO REASON WITH A LUNATIC

 

 

Could the west have reasoned with Hitler or Mengele?

 

 

 

 

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's committee for peaceful reunification with South Korea, an official mouthpiece, has not been espousing peace lately, and its mouth has turned foul.

This week it called the South Korean leader, Park Geun-hye, a "dirty prostitute" and a "running dog." It called President Barack Obama, who had been visiting South Korea, Park's "pimp" and "master."

Offensive language is not unprecedented from North Korea, where the use of extreme insults against perceived enemies is standard practice. But the latest invective, laced with misogynic themes, was contained in an official statement from a North Korean government entity that presumably promotes reconciliation.

It also came amid fears that after several months of a relative lull on the divided Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang might raise tensions again by conducting another nuclear test. In the past several days, South Korean officials and U.S. experts have reported heightened activities in an underground nuclear test site in northeastern North Korea.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which is presumably in charge of relations with South Korea, heaped the insults on Park in a statement issued late Sunday to criticize the summit meeting between Park and Obama in Seoul on Friday.

Park and Obama urged the North to give up its nuclear weapons development, warning that a new nuclear test would only lead to harsher international sanctions. They also pledged to pressure the Pyongyang government over human rights abuses chronicled by a recently published UN investigation.

The summit meeting convinced North Korea that it "must settle its final scores with the U.S. through an all-out nuclear showdown," the North Korean committee said.

It called Park "an immature girl" and her remarks "filthy water," saying that Pyongyang no longer saw any hope of improving ties with Seoul under her leadership.

It also called Park, who is unmarried, America's "comfort woman," a euphemism used to describe Korean and other Asian women enslaved in front-line brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

"It is immorality itself for the North to continue to use such unspeakable foul language," Kim Eui-do, a South Korean government spokesman, said during a news media briefing Monday.

During the Cold War years, the two Koreas traded vile language across their border. The North called the South a "puppet" of the Americans, while the South called the North Korean communists "rabid dogs."

 

The insulting appeared to ease after the 2000 inter-Korean summit, when both sides agreed to cease cross-border slander. But as relations were aggravated in recent years, the North's verbal attacks have become increasingly extreme, often aimed at Park and her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, a fellow conservative.

The North has warned that Park would face the same fate as her father, the former South Korean strongman Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.

After the Obama-Park summit meeting, where the two reconfirmed their positions on North Korea but offered no new incentive for talks, "the chances of a nuclear or ballistic missile test by the North have increased," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at Sejong Institute in South Korea.

Fears that the cycle of provocations by North Korea and punitive sanctions by the UN Security Council was about to repeat itself on the divided Korean Peninsula have recently increased amid signs of preparations for a possible nuclear test in Punggye-ri, the test site in northeastern North Korea.

On Monday, 38 North, a website specializing in North Korea, reported that new commercial satellite imagery from Friday had confirmed a further increase of activity at Punggye-ri, where the North has conducted three nuclear tests, the latest in February last year.

In an analysis published Friday by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, two researchers, David Albright and Serena Kelleher-Vergantini, also reported heightened activity at the test site.

But it remained unclear from the imagery whether any test tunnels had been sealed, a sign that a test may be imminent, 38 North said.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/04/28/north-korea-labels-obama-a-pimp-and-park-geun-hye-a-dirty-prostitute/

OBAMA'S DILEMMA - UKRAINE - THE RUSSIAN COMMUNISTS OR THE UKRAINIAN NAZIS

  

 

 

Memorial Stones at Treblinka Death Camp

Ukrainian Nazi SS murdered thousands here.

Every stone represents a village, a town, a city

Where Ukrainians Nazis took Jews to be slaughtered.

 

 

My friend, the noble gentleman, Michael Steeler, took on the Vatican single-handedly and fought until his last days on earth to expose the Vatican's support of the Ukrainian Nazi Galicia SS.

 

Even through his final illness, Michael used all his time, his last bit of money, probably his last postage stamp, to expose a terrible wrong - the blessing of the Ukrainian Galicia SS Nazis by the Vatican. 

 

Michael appeared on CBC Television's THE FIFTH ESTATE to tell the inside story of his struggle for justice against the Vatican for its support and cover-up of its ties with the Ukrainian Nazis.

 

THE BLESSING OF THE GALICIA SS BY THE VATICAN

 

" Between 1918 and 1939, Uniats in Galicia also gradually began to return to Orthodoxy, despite ferocious Polish repression,. By 1928, there were 40 Orthodox parishes there and eventually some 50,00 returned to Orthodoxy. However, repression continued there until the Second World War. Sadly, under instructions from the Vatican, after 1939 the latinized Uniat episcopate showed enthusiastic loyalty to the new Nazi regime. Indeed, the head of the Uniats in Galicia, 'Metropolitan' Andrei Sheptitsky, actually 'blessed' the 14th SS Division, recruited in Galicia, and their genocidal massacres. Senior Uniat clergy in Galicia also supported nationalist Ukrainian organizations. These were notorious for their murders of Communists, Jews, Poles and Orthodox clergy and they continued their terrorist activities into the early 1950s. As a result, after World War II, Sheptitsky's successor, Joseph Slipy, and four other Uniat bishops were arrested by the new Soviet regime for collaboration with the Nazis, as were quislings throughout liberated Europe.

 

http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/lvov.htm

 

WHY CANADA IS UNITED - by PHYLLIS CARTER - MAY, 2013

 

 

Canada is united by the talent and labour, the blood, sweat and tears of the Canadian people who have, for generations laboured in factories and on farms and in stores and schools and hospitals, and by the great sacrifices of our soldiers in two World Wars.

 

We are united by people who care about their neighbours and help them in times of need, and work hard day and night to raise good families, to provide food and clothing and shelter and education and medical care.

 

We were united by the few honourable politicians who once made us proud to be Canadians and made us popular wherever we travelled in the world. Such political figures were few and far between, but I'll bet you could name two or three if you try.

 

Expo ' 67 was like a wedding, bringing together Canadians from coast to coast who came to meet people from all over the world and share food and music and science and culture. Flowers bloomed everywhere and the aroma of fresh coffee wafted from the Ethiopian Pavilion. It was the perfect party to celebrate being Canadian. Everyone talked with everyone in all kinds of languages. It was a joyous summer in Quebec.

http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2010/09/charles-de-gaulle-et-moi-let-my-people_10.html

 

We are united by the contributions of our devoted teachers and hard-working nurses and caring doctors and brilliant scientists, and we are united and comforted by our artists, painters and talented musicians and opera singers who bring us the pleasure of quality music. Strangers and friends are united at our jazz clubs, where we meet and relax and are uplifted by sharing this very human music. 

 

We are united by banks, corporations, companies, benevolent societies, and all sorts of institutions that cross borders and share common interests. Do the separatists expect national and international bodies would sever connections all over Canada in order to do business with a ghetto state ?

 

Would the Quebec ghetto have its own currency - accepted by whom? - Its own army? Air force? Navy?  Its own postal service?

 

Would the Quebec Ghetto expect to do business with the rest of Canada? Or with China ? Egypt?

 

What if Canada refuses to do business with the Quebec ghetto?

 

What about travel ? Tourism? Business? Will Quebec have its own passports and visas for travel outside of the ghetto?

 

Would the Quebec ghetto cover all the Medicare benefits we get by being Canadians?

 

Would the French Only Quebec ghetto shut out non-French radio, TV, Internet - the way China shuts out the free world ?

 

We are united by the efforts of those who dare to stand up and speak out against tyranny.

 

We are united by the railroad and by our rivers and lakes and forests and mountains.

 

We are united by the CBC, although it has seen prouder days, And we are united by Medicare that allows the frail and the ill to recover and heal and to live to contribute to the happiness of their children and grandchildren and their communities.

 

We are united by our diversity. Our freedom of religion, Our open society. No standard puppets are we. All the languages, all the cultures, all the delicious foods and music, give Canada a richness and freedom unknown elsewhere. You can be yourself in Canada as long as you respect human rights and do not impose your beliefs on others.

 

There are those who would love to tear Canada apart. They believe they would enjoy chomping on a sliver of the pie while hiding behind the wall and the wire fencing. They wouldn't mind leaving all the good stuff to the rest of the people of Canada.

 

No sane person would give up a great, free, multi-faceted homeland for a ghetto. But then again, there are always greedy people who manipulate the ignorant and naive and the sheep will adore them and obey them.

 

We dare not forget Germany in the 1930's We are not immune. In the early 1970's we came close to revolution and innocent people were maimed and murdered in Quebec. It can happen because there are always greedy bigots and fools.

 

Any rational person can see how ridiculous Quebec separatism is. Obviously it can't happen unless Ottawa and the rest of Canada allow it to happen.

 

How crazy can you get?

 

Phyllis Carter

 

First published at PHYLLIS CARTER'S JOURNAL - MAY 27, 2013

http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-canada-is-united-phyllis-carters.html

Now with more than 145,000 readers around the world.

 

PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR LIFE IS

 

Foundations Band Together to

Get Rid of Fossil-Fuel Investments

 

 

Daniel Rosenbaum for The New York TimesEllen Dorsey of the Wallace Global Fund, which is coordinating foundations' efforts to sell off coal, oil and gas production stocks.

 

Seventeen foundations controlling nearly $1.8 billion in investments have united to commit to pulling their money out of companies that do business in fossil fuels, the group announced on Thursday.

The move is a victory for a developing divestiture campaign that has found success largely among small colleges and environmentally conscious cities, but has not yet won over the wealthiest institutions like Harvard, Brown and Swarthmore.

But the participation of the foundations, including the Russell Family Foundation, the Educational Foundation of America and the John Merck Fund, is the largest commitment to the effort, and stems in part from a push among philanthropies to bring their investing in line with their missions.

"At a minimum, our grants should not be undercut by our investments," said Ellen Dorsey, executive director of the Wallace Global Fund, which is practically divested of fossil fuels already and is coordinating the effort among foundations. "If you owned fossil fuels in your investment portfolio, it became increasingly clear to foundations that they own climate change, and they're potentially profiting from those investments," at the same time as they make grants to fight the issue.

She said she expected several larger foundations to commit to the effort, which includes moving investments to renewable energy or other sustainability ventures, in the coming months.

Among the largest in the current group is the Park Foundation, with a portfolio worth roughly $335 million, and the Schmidt Family Foundation, with about $304 million, co-founded by Google's executive chairman, Eric E. Schmidt.

The divestiture campaign is modeled on earlier efforts aimed at ending apartheid in South Africa and ceasing to support tobacco companies. Many groups are involved, but the movement has largely been escalated by a grass-roots organization, 350.org, whose name refers to 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which some scientists say is the maximum safe level, a threshold already exceeded.

In addition to the foundations, 22 cities, two counties, 20 religious organizations, nine colleges and universities and six other institutions had signed up to rid themselves of investments in fossil fuel companies, frequently defined as the top 200 coal-, oil- and gas-producing companies identified in a report from the Carbon Tracker Initiative based in London.

The campaign's expansion comes as institutions like public pension funds are changing their investment strategies to reflect a calculation of the so-called carbon bubble. That idea holds that most of the coal, oil and gas reserves owned by fossil fuel-based companies cannot be burned without dire climate consequences, meaning that the value of those companies will plummet once governments start strictly limiting emissions.

Some pension funds, like those of California and New York, are looking to pressure conventional energy companies to address the risks of climate change. But in some cities, like San Francisco and Boulder, Colo., officials are urging their pension funds to divest themselves of the investments.

Bill McKibben, president and co-founder of 350.org, said he had been encouraged by the spread of the argument "that fossil fuel companies as they're currently incarnated are essentially rogue companies, that they have in their reserves far more carbon than any scientist thinks it's safe to burn."

Divestment advocates have run up against opposition from some of the major academic institutions, which argue that the move would have little practical effect on the activities of fossil fuel companies and that institutions would be better positioned to press for change through their roles as shareholders. Endowment officials have also said that their primary purpose is to maximize returns.

"Universities own a very small fraction of the market capitalization of fossil fuel companies," Drew Faust, Harvard's president wrote in a statement in October of the university's decision not to sell. "If we and others were to sell our shares, those shares would no doubt find other willing buyers. Divestment is likely to have negligible financial impact on the affected companies. And such a strategy would diminish the influence or voice we might have with this industry."

But the foundation executives, whose organizations are at different stages of examining and shifting their investments, said they were convinced that the more compelling action was to take their money away.

Olivia Farr, chairwoman of the John Merck Fund, said there had been concern about financial performance among some board members at first. "But that was pretty quickly alleviated as we got excited about some of the new investments we were making," she said, adding that the fund, which is about 97 percent divested of fossil fuel, was up roughly 20 percent last year.

Executives said they had become convinced that the move made economic sense.

"Freeing up resources through the divestment allows us to concentrate on the renewables future," said Richard Woo, chief executive of the Russell Family Foundation, "and to really see the marketplace as a platform for this kind of change."

By DIANE CARDWELL

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/foundations-band-together-to-get-rid-of-fossil-fuel-investments/

THE MIDDLE EAST - RELIGION, FEAR, GREED, HATRED - THERE CAN BE NO PEACE

 

 

Abbas would be better off without Hamas.

Israel would be better off without Netanyahu.

 

Mahmoud Abbas

Risks being assassinated by fanatics.

Netanyahu

Is ensuring endless strife.

 

People,

On both sides of the historical divide,

Who want peace for their children,

Must make themselves heard.

 

Haters must be shoved aside.

Peacemakers must speak up.

 

Those

Who do not have blood on their hands,

And hate in their hearts,

Can save the beloved Holy Land

For all their children.

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting with the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) central council in the West Bank City of Ramallah April 26, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the Nazi Holocaust "the most heinous crime" against humanity in modern times, in an apparent bid to build bridges with Israel days after troubled peace talks collapsed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the overture on Sunday, saying Abbas's Palestinian power-sharing deal with Hamas, which led Israel to suspend the negotiations on Thursday, put him in partnership with an Islamist group that denies the Holocaust and seeks the Jewish state's destruction.

"What I say to him very simply is this: President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas," Netanyahu said on the CBS news program Face the Nation.

Abbas's message, published in Arabic and English by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, coincided with Israel's annual remembrance day for the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and included an expression of sympathy for the families of the victims.

"What happened to the Jews in the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era," WAFA quoted Abbas as saying at a meeting a week ago with an American rabbi.

By speaking in superlative terms, Abbas could risk a backlash from Palestinians who draw comparisons between their suffering at the hands of Israeli occupiers and that of Jews under Hitler's Third Reich.

Abbas has condemned the mass killings of Jews in World War Two before and challenged allegations, stemming from a 1983 book he authored, that he is a Holocaust denier.

But the timing of the publication of his latest comments gave them extra significance, a day after he signaled he remained committed to the peace talks and said a future Palestinian unity government would recognize Israel.

On CBS, Netanyahu said he and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "were both shocked" to learn last Wednesday of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization.

The peace negotiations, championed by Kerry, were facing an April 29 deadline, with little public sign the two sides were making progress toward a U.S.-mediated deal to extend the talks.

Netanyahu said in the TV interview, however, that he had negotiated in earnest for nine months, working closely with Kerry, and "we made some significant progress".

Palestinian officials have blamed Netanyahu for the peace impasse, noting he failed to carry out a pledged release of Palestinian prisoners and citing Israeli announcements of further construction in settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu has said Abbas's refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state blocked progress in talks aimed at ending decades of conflict and creating a Palestinian state.

The Palestinian unity accord followed seven years of failed reconciliation attempts after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007.

The agreement envisages the formation of a Palestinian government of non-political "technocrats" within five months and new elections six months later.

On CBS, Netanyahu said Abbas "cannot embrace Hamas and say that he wants peace with Israel". In a separate interview with CNN, Netanyahu reiterated he would never negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by Hamas, a group that both Israel and the United States regard as a terrorist organization.

Hamas officials were not immediately available to comment on Netanyahu's Holocaust-denial accusations.

But in an open letter to a senior U.N. official in 2009, Hamas branded the Holocaust "a lie invented by the Zionists". Hamas was protesting U.N. plans at the time to start Holocaust studies for children in Gaza.

Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial, gave a guarded welcome to Abbas's statement on Sunday.

"Holocaust denial and revisionism are sadly prevalent in the Arab world, including among Palestinians," Yad Vashem said. "Thus the statement, that the Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era, coming from Abbas, might signal a change."

By Jeffrey Heller

(Additional reporting by Jim Loney in Washington; editing by Andrew Roche)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/27/us-palestinian-israel-holocaust-idUSBREA3Q08E20140427

SANITY RETURNS TO QUEBEC - BUT DO NOT GO TO SLEEP

 

MONTREAL -- Welcome to the return of sanity in Quebec: April 7th brought in a wave of fresh spring air that we desperately needed.

The 18-month bout of darkness marked by division, tribal nationalism and by the politics of identity is over -- now we officially have a new government. And, this government is not afraid of pronouncing itself as Canadian and doesn't treat English like a contaminant.

As Liberal ministers were sworn in this week, francophone ministers insisted on taking oaths in both official languages. Next, a premier announced he would be the premier for all Quebecers.

For our community -- which has been kicked around and bullied -- there are no sweeter words. But, we must remain vigilant that this government offers more than platitudes.

It will not be an easy road ahead, and there are tough decisions to be made.

Everyone knows Quebec is living beyond its means. The Liberals are promising to get the financial house in order.

There are many sacred cows and entitlements that Quebecers are not willing to part with. It will take nerve and resolve to help Quebecers take this medicine. Premier Philippe Couillard has done a good job in fashioning a cabinet that distances itself quite well from the Charest era. There are fresh new faces, men and women with clean slates. But make no mistake, challenges will be many,

Now, watching the PQ members being sworn in this week, you have to figure they are still in denial, or haven't learned a thing.

The first order of business for them was to remove the Canadian flag from the Salon Rouge of the National Assembly, and many just mumbled their oath of allegiance, A sad sight.

Quebecers told them this was not they wanted, but they still aren't listening. And, if they are thinking Pierre Karl Peladeau will bring them back to the Promised Land, they should think twice.

My gut tells me, the guy who always got his way in business and in life will have a hard time in opposition playing with the other kids, just a hunch.

A year ago, our city hall was a catastrophe and people had lost faith in local government. Today with Denis Coderre, there is a steady hand at the rudder.

A year ago, we were living under the coercive and hostile rule of the Parti Quebecois. Now, we have stability and competence in a government which is inclusive and knows that Canada is more than the sum of its parts.

A year ago, the Habs got bounced in the first round. Today, after a four game sweep, they are flying high and waiting for their next victims.

Yes, what a difference a year can make.

Once again, I am starting to believe that perhaps our best days in Montreal are not behind us, but before us.

http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/postscript-welcome-to-the-return-of-sanity-in-quebec-1.1792312#ixzz30126ddwK

THE STORY BEHIND THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF DOLLARD DES ORMEAUX, QUEBEC

   

 

In 1969, I wrote

The History of

The Town of Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec

1689-1969

 

 

 

 

In 1969 I was already an established pioneer of the new housing development in Dollard des Ormeaux, a suburb of Montreal. I was very active in the community and close to all the town councillors - whose names were immortalized on street signs and parks as the town was being built on ancient Quebec farmlands. 

 

I offered the town council to write a history of the area. I told the councillors I did not want any payment for my work, but it would have to be published as I wrote it and with my byline. My offer was welcomed and I went to work on the project.

 

The Meloche family, Emile and his wife,Angelina, still lived on the western edge of the new Sources Road - formerly St. Remi. Their farm still had a small stone building on it, about a block's distance north from their balconied home, just across from the new Sunnydale avenue. It was the place where, for a hundred years or so, they baked their bread.

 

I did the research. There was nothing to be found in the libraries. I interviewed Angelina Meloche many times. She told me about her frustrating battle to get the developers, Belcourt, to pay her for all the land they had taken from her family to build the Sunnybrook community.

 

I interviewed the Meloche's older relatives who entrusted me with their precious old family photographs and information about all the other long-time residents of the area - the Labrosse family, the early mayors, the teachers at the little red school house that still sat by the side of Sources Road on the Meloche's field. 

 

After I had completed my work, the councillor who had accepted my proposal and authorized me to write the history told me that the town would publish my history in a pamphlet and distribute it to every door in the town - but without my name.

 

I pulled my manuscript out of the councillor's hands and I rushed to The North Shore News offices in nearby Roxboro. I handed the manuscript and the photos to Ross Greer, the editor. Ross agreed to publish my history just once - without changes - and with my byline. He honoured his promise.

 

I maintained my copyright. I never sold it.

 

Later I learned that my history was being used to teach youngsters at the nearby elementary school.

 

Angelina Meloche had a relative who was a nun. She offered to translate my history to French. I was delighted - until I read the sister's version, where she had translated "Indians" to "sauvages." I never published the French version.

 

In the 1970's The Lakeshore News and Chronicle out of Pointe Claire,Quebec, carried my copyrighted column, "With Six Senses".

 

In 1981, Janet Tremblay Burley, the editor of The Lakeshore News and Chronicle employed me as a full-time reporter and photographer. As usual, my work was prolific. Many of my articles appeared in every edition of the paper under my byline. 

 

While I was employed as a reporter at The Chronicle, I offered Janet Burley the opportunity to publish my History of Dollard des Oremaux, under the same terms I had offered it to Ross Greer at the North Shore News. Mrs. Burley agreed to my terms, and she published my history in The Lakeshore News and Chronicle.

 

Then Mrs. Burley started removing my bylines from my reports. She published many of my best articles without my name, presenting them as if they had been written by the staff in general. 

 

When I protested, Burley said she had to do it or "It will look as if you are writing the whole paper."

 

I wrote one major article exposing Lachine's Mayor Decary. At the very end of an open meeting one evening, the mayor and his council voted themselves, their wives and their secretaries a "business" trip to Hawaii.

 

My article was published the day after the council meeting at the top of the front page of The Lakeshore News and Chronicle. The following day, The Montreal Gazette picked up my story, and Decary cancelled the Hawaiian jaunt. But Mrs. Burley had published my story without my byline. Her reason?

 

Mrs Burley said that she was worried about me. She said that if my byline appeared at the top of the article, Mayor Decary would ensure that, anytime I drove through Lachine, I would be stopped by the police and ticketed. I would not be safe. I would be harassed.

 

What nonsense! I was the reporter at the council meeting when they voted themselves the Hawaiian holiday. I was the one who interviewed the councillors after the meeting. Who else could have written the story?

Finally, Mrs. Burley wanted to "promote" me. She wanted me to learn to use a computer and become an editor responsible for the reports of all the other reporters . I refused.

 

Just as it was at Pinkerton * when I was a investigator in the 1970's, I did not want a desk job or an administrative position. I am an investigator. I am a writer, a reporter, not a technician. I do not want to correct, rewrite and enhance the work of others. My writing skills are a gift, but I am not a desk person. I refused to become an editor and give up reporting.

 

Janet Burley fired me at Christmas, 1981 - with tears dripping from her eyes. Then she gave my job to her son who quickly plagiarized my History of Dollard des Ormeaux, word for word - without checking the changes that took place in Dollard between 1969 and 1981.

 

Burley's son copied my text exactly, and his Mom published it under her son's name. The little red school house that stood on the Meloche's property by Sources Road was "boarded up and empty" when I wrote the story in 1969. The one story school house had been torn down years before Burley's son copied my history - with the little red school house still standing, "all boarded up" - in 1982.

 

I am proud of the letter I received from Dollard des Ormeaux Mayor, Gerry Dephoure, in December 1969, after my history was published in The North Shore News.

 

Gerry writes, "I wish to extend my sincere congratulations and appreciation for your fine effort in putting together the history of the Town of Dollard des Ormeaux.

 

I realize that this must have taken a great deal of time and I know that many residents with whom I have had discussions recently have taken a great interest in it. To say the least, your effort constitutes a significant contribution to our community and the Council and I are highly appreciative."

 

 

 

* I WAS AN AGENT FOR PINKERTON

http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-was-agent-for-pinkerton_1374.html

 

PHYLLIS CARTER'S SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE MIDDLE EAST MISERY-GO-ROUND

  

 

Around and Around and Around:

 

My message to my people, Israel:

 

Arrogance is not nice.

People who build sand castles

On coveted land

Will never enjoy peace,

Or friends.

 

My message to the Palestinian people.

 

Violence is a bloody boomerang:

Your children and grandchildren will suffer.

 

Now go and do something different.

 

 

THE INTERNATIONAL ORDER OF ST. LUKE THE PHYSICIAN - CASH BEFORE HEALING

 

 

How deeply I loved being a member of the International Order of St. Luke the Physician, a Christian healing ministry based in the Southern United States. Laying hands on people and praying for them to be healed brought substance to the sense of spirituality I have had since I was a young girl.

 

The loss of my beloved husband tore a gaping hole in my heart. A dear friend brought me to a healing service at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Pierrefonds, a suburb of Montreal where I have lived all my life.

 

I was Jewish, I am still Jewish, I will always be Jewish, but I desperately needed something more - some substantial assurance of God's reality, His presence and His care.

 

It is a long story, but I was finally baptized in 1994, and I started to take the course with the program of the International Order of St. Luke the Physician to become a member of the healing ministry.

 

I took the responsibility very seriously, very deeply. Praying for people who, like me, were suffering, physically or emotionally, was - to me - a very personal commitment.

 

At St. Paul's Anglican Church in Lachine, where I took the OSL course with Fr. Barry Clarke - since 2004, the Anglican Bishop of Montreal - I was inducted into the Order of St. Luke and I received my pin. I participated with Fr. Barry in healing services and I taught the course to others at St. Paul's.

 

The experience helped me heal from the great agony of my loss. It meant so much to me. I don't know if Barry likes me, but I have always held him in high esteem and affection, and working in the ministry beside him was an honour.

 

So why am I writing this piece? Because, as has happened to me so often in my life, something good and lovely was torn away from me and I need to reveal this truth.

 

The annual membership fee for the Order of St. Luke was something like $25.00 as I recall. Back then, in the 1990's, I was living on welfare. One year, I could not afford the full $25.00 for my membership renewal.

 

I offered the Order of St. Luke  a $10.00 cheque. They refused me. And I was no longer a member of OSL. No longer a healer. No longer a "minister". No longer qualified to stand beside Fr. Barry and lay hands on the sick and suffering.

 

In my heart, I never changed. I never stopped wanting to help. I never stopped hoping that I could make a difference, bring comfort and a little light to desperate people. But, officially, I was no longer a member of The International Order of St. Luke.

 

For want of $15.00 - U.S. funds - Lord Jesus Christ - as represented by the International Order of St. Luke the Physician - divorced me and removed me from His ministry.

 

 

Phyllis Carter

 

 

 

The International Order of St. Luke the Physician is an ecumenical organization dedicated to the Christian healing ministry. Members meet in local chapters to study Scripture, specifically the biblical stories of the healing miracles, as well as additional books on Christian healing. Members also engage in healing prayer, often with the laying-on of hands.

The Order was founded in 1932 by the late John Gayner Banks and his wife, Ethel Tulloch Banks, and was incorporated in the State of California in 1953. Our purpose has been to restore the ministry of healing to its proper place in the Christian Church. Initially, the focus of OSL was to promote healing services in every church. We continue that commitment to healing within the church by seeking to create more time in our worship for healing services. While it is still an important part of our ministry, it is not our sole mission. Today our focus also includes extending our healing ministry beyond the church and into the greater community.

It is OSL's mission to take the healing touch of Jesus beyond the walls of the church building into hospitals, nursing homes, and into the greater community—anywhere people are in need. Through our work, we seek to create time that is not rushed, so that we may act as God's presence, intentionally pouring out His love as prayer for the sick. We minister to those who are bound in guilt, so that they might confess their sins before God and be set free through the absolution that God has provided for us. We tend to those who will take the time, through counsel and prayer, to begin healing the painful memories of the past.

As part of our deliverance ministry, we call on the healing power of Jesus to cast out those forces that invade the psyche and compel behavior that is not the will of the person or of God. (We recognize this ministry is to be extended in accord with the disciplines and policies of each denomination.) We recognize the need for ministry that will empower those who are not able in their own strength to cope with the disease in their lives. OSL holds that healing begins with our introduction to God as Abba, so that we might grow as His child. It continues when the love, joy, and peace of God is imparted as the Holy Spirit and brings a risen Lord to dwell within us.

This vocation calls us do more than sponsor healing services. It also calls us to seek God's grace so that we may study and learn, and minister to all whom God sends to us. OSL is founded on the conviction that God intends for us not to be spectators but, rather, to be participants, sharing Jesus' ministry as He comes among us to heal the sick.

http://orderofstluke.org/content/international-order-st-luke-physician

VERMONT DARES TO REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT GMO's - PROFITEERS NOT HAPPY

 

 

 

Edge Fuentes, left, stands with his wife Katie Spring, right, and their 9-month-old son Waylon in their planting room surrounded by seedlings for vegetables and flowers at their Good Heart Farmstead, Thursday, April 24, 2014, in Worcester, Vt. Spring and Fuentes back the GMO labeling bill passed by the Vermont Legislature. They believe people need to be able to know what's in their food. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring)

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont has raised the stakes in the debate over genetically modified foods by becoming the first state to pass a bill requiring that they be labeled as such in the grocery aisle, making the move despite the opposition of the powerful U.S. food industry.

Americans overwhelmingly favor such requirements for foods containing genetically modified organisms, but the industry fears a patchwork of state policies. The Vermont bill says genetically modified foods "potentially pose risks to health, safety, agriculture, and the environment" and includes $1.5 million for implementation and defense against lawsuits expected from the food and biotech industries.

The national Grocery Manufacturers Association, the food industry's main trade group, said it's evaluating how to respond. Options could include a legal challenge, labeling only foods that are sold in Vermont or making a wholesale change nationwide to avoid multiple labeling systems.

On a federal level, the association has urged policymakers to support requirements for labeling only if the Food and Drug Administration finds a health or safety risk.

Katie Spring, a farmer in the Vermont town of Worcester, says knowing what's in her food is a freedom-of-information right. She said she is proud of how she and her husband grow their food and is willing to be transparent with customers.

"As an eater and consumer myself, I want the ability to know what's in my food," she said Thursday, a day after the Vermont House approved Senate changes. Gov. Peter Shumlin said he plans to sign the bill. The requirements would take effect July 1, 2016, giving producers time to comply.

The Vermont Grocers Association is disappointed the state is going at it alone and had hoped for a regional approach. Having different state rules on food packaging "gets very costly, very confusing and very difficult for the entire food industry to comply with," said Jim Harrison, the association's president.

It's unclear how GMO labeling might affect consumers' wallets or food companies' bottom line if shoppers reject labeled foods.

In Europe, some food makers have opted to source more expensive ingredients that are not genetically engineered, said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology project director for the Centers for Science in the Public Interest, which does not support mandatory government labeling of genetically modified foods.

Genetically modified crops have been altered to be resistant to insects, germs or herbicides. They have led to bountiful crops and food production but stirred concerns about the dominance of big agribusiness and the potential for environmental harm. Some scientists and activists worry about effects on soil health and pollination.

The FDA and an industry group known as BIO, for Biotechnology Industry Organization, say there's no material difference between food produced with genetic engineering and food produced without it. But the Vermont bill cites a lack of consensus among scientists on the safety of GMOs and no long-term epidemiological studies in the United States examining their effects.

The labels will say "produced with genetic engineering" for packaged raw foods, or "partially produced with genetic engineering" or "may be produced with genetic engineering" for processed food that contains products of genetic engineering. Meat and dairy would be exempt.

A national New York Times poll in January 2013 found that 93 percent of respondents said foods containing GMOs should be labeled. Twenty-nine other states have proposed bills recently to require GMO labeling, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

More than 60 countries require such labeling, according to the Vermont Right to Know campaign.

Some farmers in Vermont, known for its organic food operations, see the bill's passage as a David-vs.-Goliath victory.This vote is a reflection of years of work from a strong grass-roots base of Vermonters who take their food and food sovereignty seriously and do not take kindly to corporate bullies," Will Allen, manager of Cedar Circle Farm in Thetford, said in a statement Wednesday after the House approved the bill.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2014/04/24/vermont-moves-toward-labeling-of-gmo-foods?page=2