The United Nations, a manifestation of the deepest thinking of our
brightest and most loving brothers and sisters, represents
Humanity’s best and perhaps only bridge to a planet of peace and
plenty for all beings.
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 Eternal
Amazon
by
Ramón Piaguaje
ECUADOR
Grand Prize winner of
Worldwide Millennium Painting Competition
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The
paintings in this months issue are some of the winners of a
Worldwide
Painting Competition and were part of a United
Nations World Art Exhibit. "The competition was
to be inclusive rather than exclusive, open to as many people in the
world as possible, irrespective of age, sex, cultural background,
and artistic training." 22,000 paintings were entered in the
competition.
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Service is an inherent
soul urge, a soul attitude. And the soul is, by its very nature,
group conscious.
Service, then, is the
spontaneous effect of soul contact and works out as right group
relations (whether in the family, city, nation, or world
community).
Tom Carney
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The
Significance and Value of The United Nations In The Age of Gold
by Tom
Carney
A printable version
There are many things
about The United Nations that are not so obvious but that upon
closer inspection are extremely important and revelatory. Perhaps
the most important of all of these is the realization that The UN is
one of the most recent and advanced manifestations of humanity’s
evolving consciousness that we have. The starting point for such a
realization is to understand that civilizations and cultures
including all values, institutions and art forms are nothing more
than the out picturing of the dominant consciousness of the time.
Thus, by looking at the world wide evolution of the institution we
call government, we get a very clear idea of the direction and
progress of the evolution of humanity’s consciousness.
In general, the
direction of evolution, as far as we can track it with relative
data, has been from a separative self-conscious vision and notion of
reality to a realization of the fact of the wholeness or unity, or
oneness of reality. In terms of government the evolution of
consciousness has patterned out over the centuries as a kind of
pendulum movement between the notion of the divine right of kings to
rule the world, to the realization of the collective right of the
larger whole to determine its own destiny and progress. There have
been periods of startling movement from the rule of Kings and Nobles
toward a more collective kind of rule, and then lots of back sliding
and then another jump forward.
The “divine right” of
the King to rule was probably derived from the belief that in very,
very ancient times a “King” was actually a highly evolved being who
was acting as a messenger of God. This Being incarnated into the
human race and was assigned the task of leading, by example and
wisdom, an infant humanity into its maturity. When we look at
humanity as a whole we can see that it has indeed evolved into a
place where it can take on the rule and guidance of itself. It
becomes apparent not only that humanity can, but that it must rule
itself, for self direction and regulation is the sign of maturity
and adulthood.
Thus, this
evolutionary development can be clearly seen in the gradual
development of power sharing with larger and larger groups of
individuals and the shifting of “rights” from an exclusive
individual or group of individuals to the collective whole. One of
the amazing things to realize about this expansion of power and
rights sharing is that as the size of the collective grew, the power
to achieve and create also grew. The principle of evolution that is
noted here is that as consciousness expands through the inclusion of
larger and larger segments of the field, power is shared. As power
is shared it does not, as has been assumed from the separative
self-conscious perspective, become weaker. As power expands it too
becomes more powerful. This is an example of how synthesis or as it
is known in physics, fusion, works.
Continue...
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The crystallization of
the government of the Catholic Church--which, to this day, still
depends upon the ancient notion of the Divine Right of a Pope to
rule--with its “Princes” of the Church, the College of Cardinals and
Bishops and other lesser “nobles” is a major problem of relevance
for that particular religious format. This crystallization, which is
in an advanced stage, accounts for the fractures in the Church’s
membership and in many cases the outright abandonment of the
Church’s proclamations by the planetary intelligentsia and
consequently its diminishing importance on the world political and
economic stage. |
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The product of a group
conscious mindset and point of view, the United Nations is
humanity’s first ever international/global cultural and governmental
structure or institution.
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Dag Hammarskjöld was
Secretary-General of the United Nations from 10 April 1953 until 18
September 1961 when he died in a plane crash while on a peace
mission in the Congo.
 "His
life and his death, his words and his actions, have done more to
shape public expectations of the office, and indeed of the
Organization, than those of any other man or woman in its history.
His wisdom and his modesty, his unimpeachable integrity and
single-minded devotion to duty, have set a standard for all servants
of the international community...
Kofi Annan, "Dag Hammarskjöld and the 21st Century"
The following are
excerpts from a speech given to the UN by John F. Kennedy
following the death of Hammarskjöld in Sept. 1961:
"The problem is not
the death of one man--the problem is the life of this organization.
It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be
gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without
respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its vigor, to cripple
its powers, we would condemn our future.
For in the development
of this organization rests the only true alternative to war--and war
appeals no longer as a rational alternative.
…So let us here
resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us
call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And as
we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in
dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
…I come here today to
look across this world of threats to a world of peace. In that
search we cannot expect any final triumph--for new problems will
always arise. We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like
systems--for conformity is the jailor of freedom, and the enemy of
growth. Nor can we expect to reach our goal by contrivance, by fiat,
or even by the wishes of all.
But however close we
sometimes seem to that dark and final abyss, let no man of peace and
freedom despair. For he does not stand alone. If we all can
persevere, if we can in every land and office, look beyond our own
shores and ambitions, then surely the age will dawn in which the
strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved."
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SECOND PRIZE WINNER
SWEDEN
Stanislaw
Zoladz
In the Drizzle 1998 (a painting)
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‘I wanted to show a
little piece of untouched Swedish nature, which to me symbolises a
positive and successful development of society. It is a great
mission Sweden has accomplished that it can hand over a country with
a high standard of living and a fantastic untouched nature to coming
generations’.
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The
Shifting Worldview
of Science
Worldviews are our
beliefs about how things are; vistas are worldviews plus the values
that order our beliefs. They are the source of our reality, both
individually and collectively as a culture. The changing story or
worldview of science is extremely important because science is the
modern "priesthood" that tells us how things are. As we bring
science and spirituality back together, as they were originally, we
will have a much better story.
Let's start with a
simple fact that Western science has ignored: There is no experience
outside consciousness. (If you've ever had an experience outside
consciousness, I'd love to be the first to know.) This simple truth
tends to elude many scientists. Now couple this with another
inescapable fact: None of us has ever had an experience outside of
right now. Actually, everything outside the present moment is just
stories—and the stories that make up science and technology seem to
be changing faster than anything else in our culture.
For example, back in
1918, Nobel physicist Max Planck had recognized there was something
deeply peculiar about the way energy gets distributed: It doesn't
flow continuously, as had been expected, but radiates in tiny
indivisible bundles or packets he called "quanta." Not long after he
discovered the quantum, a whole new branch of physics came into
being, a new physics that strained the limits of imagination, and,
according to some of the early pioneers in the discipline, a physics
that required science to take account of consciousness for the first
time. Planck himself assumed a conscious and intelligent mind as the
matrix of all matter. It is not an overstatement to say that the
discovery of the quantum has not only changed physics and science,
it has also changed our world, and has contributed to a very
different understanding of the way things are related and interact,
including the relationship between consciousness and matter.
Years later, another
Nobel laureate, Harvard biologist George Wald assumed there had to
be some kind of creative mind making this whole universe happen.
Although science hasn't been totally blind to this idea, it still
hasn't become mainstream--though I believe it's rapidly on the way.
Many of you could
imagine for a moment that we're playing on a wonderful keyboard in
which matter is represented by the low keys, and electromagnetic
energy is in the midrange; beyond that, we've got mind, spirit, and
consciousness up in the high keys. Not everyone, I know, would
accept the keyboard metaphor because it implies a continuous
spectrum from gross matter at one end, all the way up to
consciousness at the other, which can raise some tricky
philosophical problems. But if we think of reality--both matter and
mind--as essentially made up of vibrations, then the metaphor seems
to work. We can see, then, that spiritually-oriented people have
been playing in the high keys, not recognizing they were on the same
keyboard with the more scientifically-oriented. And most scientists
have certainly not recognized what's up at the high end, because
they can't yet apprehend what's there. They don't know how to
measure it. Nevertheless, Einstein showed us how to transpose the
music between the mid-range and the low-range with his E=mc2, and
now we're looking for a comparable transform between energy and the
high end of the keyboard.
—Elisabet Sahtouris
LEBANON
Rached Bohsali
Eco . . . Logic 1999
Globalization: An Evolutionary Leap?
by Elisabet Sahtouris
This
article is adapted from Elisabet Sahtouris's plenary talk, "Understanding
Globalization as an Evolutionary Leap" at IONS' Conference, "Spirit Rising:
Taking the Next Step," in Palm Springs, California.
A printable version
I'm going to take you
on a whirlwind tour of how a spiritual universe embodies itself—not
only in you and me, but in planet Earth and all its inhabitants.
I will talk about
three important matters: One, we are part of a living planet, in a
living universe; two, the patterns of Earth's evolution actually
help us understand the current human process of globalization; and
three, we're in a process of species maturation. We are moving now
from competition to cooperation, from fear-based economies to
love-based economies.
Another Side of Life
Advances in physics,
biology, and complexity theory, in recent decades, have shifted
science toward a worldview where nature is understood to be composed
of self-organizing energy or information.
Biologists call this
autopoiesis which is a Greek word meaning literally "self-creation,"
which is now becoming a new definition of life: Anything that
continually creates itself is a living entity. Notice that machinery
doesn't do that. It's now obvious from many perspectives in science
that the universe is not a giant clockwork. Also notice that that
term autopoiesis doesn't say anything about reproduction or size—so
if you never have any children, it's okay, you're still alive. I
know they told us in seventh-grade biology that all living systems
must reproduce, but with this new definition of life, we can now
look at the whole universe and say: "It's alive!"
We now know that life
is not a thing, it's a process—and a living entity that continually
creates and maintains itself is engaged in a process known in
physiology as metabolism. It's a two-phase cycle that involves
anabolism, building things up, and catabolism, breaking things down.
A similar process is occurring at the cosmic level—though hardly yet
recognized by science. Whereas the biological sciences acknowledge
the two-way process of building up and breaking down, in the
physical sciences the universe at large is assumed to be dominated
by a one-way process of breaking down into ever-increasing disorder.
It's called "entropy"—often referred to as the "heat death of the
universe"—where everything that exists will eventually decay into
thermodynamical mush.
But perhaps entropy is
only the catabolism side of a universal cycle. The other side of
entropy is syntropy: the build-up of order and life, a kind of
cosmic anabolism. Newer cosmology theories show that besides black
holes that consume matter, there are also white holes in space that
spew out newly created matter and energy. With the full cycle of
entropy and syntropy we can now meaningfully talk about a living
universe. The Hubble telescope is giving us wonderful images of
star-births and star-deaths—bearing witness to the grand cosmic
recycling of energy and information, of universal anabolism and
catabolism.
That's how our solar
system came into being: A great supernova explosion, somewhere
around five billion years ago, gave birth to a new star-system, one
that included our Earth, formed out of the heavier elements that
came from that ancient star's great forge. Remember, neither size
nor reproduction contribute any longer to the definition of life, so
we can now begin to see the Earth as an autopoietic entity, itself
organizing stardust with metabolic cycles.
On an intermediate
scale, we can see that our planet also is involved in metabolic
recycling. One of Earth's great cycles is what I call
"geo-metabolism"—where the planet continually turns itself
inside-out. Hot magma, for example, rises to the surface from deep
within the Earth through rifts in the seafloor, and through
volcanoes, forming new crusts. There's almost no original rock
remaining on the surface of our planet.
Another kind of
geo-metabolism is climate and weather. In great hemispheric systems
around the equator—in Indonesia, Africa, South America—rainforests
are taking moist air and pumping it high into the atmosphere,
sending it to the poles where it comes down as snow, driving the
ocean currents, the wind currents, and keeping our climate healthy
and in balance.
Yet another kind of
very rapid geo-metabolism, noted by Russian geologist Vladimir
Vernadsky, occurs in locust plagues. Sometimes, cubic miles of
animal matter are suddenly created out of plant matter, itself
created out of soil and seeds. Then, just as quickly, the locust
plague collapses as the swarm runs out of food, and what was once
living animal matter turns back into living earth. It's a wonderful
and dramatic symbol of life itself: Always, over time, all life
recycles itself through geology. Since we know that life comes from
and returns to "dust," perhaps we should not be surprised to realize
that the line between biology and geology is very fine. Life on
Earth comes from the earth, and then recycles itself back into the
living tissue of the mother planet.
The First World Wide
Web
Now I want to turn to
the characteristics of a cycle of evolution that occurs all over,
across time and space, at the tiniest levels of biology, and in the
largest cosmic processes. It always begins with unity that then
individuates—as in the ancient Vedic creation story in which a
little wavelet forms in a smooth sea, and forever after is torn
between loving its own individuality and wanting to merge back into
the One. This universal tension between part and whole, and among
parts, drives evolution. Individuation always leads to a kind of
tension and conflict. And if the parts don't kill each other, they
start negotiating. Negotiations can lead to resolutions of some of
the tensions, moving from conflict to cooperation, and then to some
new level of unity.
Continue...
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"Says Francis Childe:
"Like the different spokes of a wheel emanating from some central
hub of shared truth, cultures are most different from one another in
their outward manifestations, yet appear to grow more and more alike
as we penetrate into their inner significance and meaning. So let us
put our cards on the table: When we speak of 'cultural' development
we are perforce also implying spiritual development."
It would be a
remarkable thing if such a perception were to become the cornerstone
of all our development projects--educational, social and
economic--in the future."
Jane Clark
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Dialogue 1998
THIRD PRIZE WINNER
IRAN
Rezvan
Sadeghzadeh
"...The picture is a comment on the condition of Iranian women"
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From the
Pathways to
Peace website
Visions Of The
New Millennium:
Global Peace through Meditation
by Sant Rajinder Singh
Ji Maharaj
A printable version
"Today we have
gathered from all over the globe at a cross-roads in time. We meet
together to reflect on and to celebrate the past fifty years of the
United Nations and to look ahead to a vision of the 21st century. I
offer my congratulations to the United Nations on their golden
anniversary. Fifty years of organized dialogue among nations of the
world is a monumental achievement. We celebrate this golden
anniversary of the United Nations at the end of a millennium in
which our technological progress has made global communications
simple."
"The continued
existence of the United Nations is a reflection of the growing
desire of humanity to achieve lasting peace on our planet. Each
member of our global society; therefore, has a shared responsibility
toward the attainment of peace. Let us join together, rising above
labels and divisions, and set a course for the United Nations and
for all people that calls forth the highest aspirations of humanity.
If we can do so, posterity will look back on this moment and say
that we were leaders who inspired and moved humanity forward in its
evolution to a higher consciousness and brought peace to a weary
planet."
"This transformation
can take place through four steps. First, we need an inspiring
vision of the new millennium. Second, moved by that inspiration, we
need to live the vision. Third, each of us needs to share and
promote the vision to our respective countries, religious groups,
organizations, and circles. Fourth, we need to teach people how they
can live the vision. In a few words, we need inspiration,
meditation, communication, and education to bring about the
transformation we so earnestly seek."
Have a Vision
"Let us begin with a
vision of a second renaissance on earth - a time for renewal and
enlightenment where noble human values illumine every heart. It is
time to hear the laughter of every child on this planet instead of
their cries of hunger and screams of terror. It is time to see
families live out their destiny in peace and joy instead of being
torn apart by war and violence. It is time to smell the fragrance of
flowers in our air instead of the stifling smell of pollution. It is
time to see people of all nations, colors, and religions embrace one
another, conscious of their unity while celebrating their
differences. The time for rededication and renewal is now. Let us
seize the moment for the sake of our children, our planet, and our
souls."
"Let us join together
to offer an action plan to lay the foundation of the United Nations'
future. In the past, people have focused on bringing about peace in
the strife-torn parts of the world. Despite the best of efforts,
there is still war and violence. I would like to share with you
another point of view, a shift in thinking, and offer a solution
that is so simple, it is startling. It is not my solution, but one
that already lies in each one of our hearts. It is one that has been
taught by the saints, mystics, philosophers, and prophets that have
walked the face of this earth. That message is that our efforts in
making other countries, communities, and people peaceful are only a
part of the solution. The missing key is that we begin finding peace
within ourselves. In truth, peace begins within us."
"At this critical
juncture in the United Nations' growth, it is time for new
solutions. So many attempts have been made to bring about outer
peace and so much good has been accomplished over the past fifty
years. But peace still eludes us. What has been missing has been
spoken of since the dawn of time. If we scan the pages of history we
will find that the great saints and founders of every religion
brought to the world a simple message: peace lies within. The
process of achieving inner peace is called meditation. If we want
lasting outer peace, then let each of us explore inner peace. "
Live the Vision
"For this
transformation we need to live the vision ourselves. We are busy
trying to make other countries peaceful, but do we have peace in our
own countries? We are busy trying to make every other community
peaceful, but do we have peace in our own communities? We are busy
worrying about whether the family next door is peaceful, but do we
have peace in our own household? We are busy worrying about making
everyone around us peaceful, but do we have peace within our own
selves? Let us turn this formula around. If we want to bring about
world peace, let us first find peace within ourselves. If we want to
have global peace for our generation, let us begin with personal
peace through meditation."
Continue...
Reprinted from the
January/February 2000 issue of "Sat Sandesh" a monthly publication
of the Science of Spirituality. More information is available at the
Science of Spirituality website
http://www.sos.org. |
UNITED NATIONS
STAMP
LEBANON
Rita Adaïmy
The Embrace 1999
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personal Courage
Marla Ruzicka
Remembering Marla
Politicians and government officials learned the hard way how relentless
this sweet-faced girl, barely out of her teens, could be.
By Tai Moses
I only knew Marla
Ruzicka a few short years, but that was all it took for her to leave an
indelible impression on me.
Marla’s self-assigned
mission in life was to help innocent people who are caught in the crossfire of
armed conflict. So, perhaps it was fitting, in the brutally impersonal way of
the universe, that Marla herself became an innocent victim of war. On Saturday,
April 16, Marla was killed in a car bomb attack as her vehicle traveled along
the road to the Baghdad airport. She was 28 years old.
Marla Ruzicka was a
paradox. In some respects, she was the quintessential California girl — so
pretty, blond and lively she could be mistaken for a cheerleader. But behind
that luminous smile was a person of remarkable strength who possessed a purple
heart of courage.
I first met Marla in
2001, shortly after she had returned from a trip to Afghanistan. Since she would
be in the Bay Area only a short time, Marla had arranged a party with a
two-pronged purpose: to see as many of her friends and colleagues as possible
and to raise money for the aid work she was doing. People gathered at a
restaurant in the Mission to share a meal and purchase textiles Marla had
brought back from Afghanistan.
Eventually it was
time for the money pitch. Someone always has to give the money pitch, to
encourage people to open up their wallets. But I had never heard a pitch like
Marla’s. She told us about the Afghan people she had met, not as an anonymous
mass of victims, but as individuals with names and stories. She laughed at some
memories; her eyes filled with tears at others. She talked about them as if they
were members of her family, and in a sense they were. I still have the
diaphanous black shawl I got that day.
Marla’s close friend,
Tony Newman, tells the story of how they met — at the Global Exchange office in
San Francisco, where he worked at the time. He noticed a girl of about 15 or 16
grabbing up all the newsletters and brochures she could carry. When the teenager
had collected an armload, he couldn’t ignore her any longer. “I went and asked,
‘Are you being helped?’ and she said, ‘I’m from Lakeport, and I want to educate
everyone in my school about what’s going on in the world.’”
They spoke for a
while. By the time Marla left, Tony had agreed to come to Lakeport to give a
talk about his work. “I was totally impressed with her enthusiasm,” he said. “I
thought Lakeport was in Marin. I didn’t know it was like four hours away.”
Tony drove up to
Lakeport and searched the unfamiliar town for the hall where he was to speak.
“The first person I asked for directions on the street said, ‘Are you here to
give the Global Exchange talk?’” Marla, Tony says, had informed the entire town
about his talk. Her dentist, her mailman, her basketball coach — everyone she
knew was there.
“I was so impressed
and blown away that this young girl was able to turn out 70 people in this small
town,” Tony said. “That’s more people than you get in San Francisco!”
People who knew Marla
say she gave off a sort of glow, as if she were lit from within. That was just
her nature, but a true fire was ignited during her first visit to Afghanistan,
as she told an interviewer:
On the road from
Peshawar, Pakistan, to Jalalabad, crossing the border, I fell in love in 10
seconds. I fell in love with the light, the way the mountains blend with the
earth, the colors; the whole place just put a spell on me. It was the sunlight;
there was a magic driving down that road. Not too far inside the country, the
reality of the past became apparent — tanks were everywhere and I could see 23
years of devastation. My heart broke and I made a commitment to ensure that no
more innocent Afghans had to suffer.
In the years to come,
Marla would never waver from that commitment. Working with Global Exchange, she
returned to Afghanistan several more times, and then in 2003, she founded her
own organization, the Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict, or CIVIC.
What she wanted was
very simple: civilian victims of U.S. military actions should be counted, she
said, and compensated for their losses. Since the military did not keep count of
civilian casualties, Marla commenced her own count. In Iraq she engaged
volunteer survey teams to go door to door and gather data about the numbers of
dead or wounded in each family. Finally, armed with information, Marla went to
Washington DC. There she convinced Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy to sponsor
legislation that would provide aid to civilians harmed in military operations.
A funny thing about
Marla was that the steely purpose that drove her was not always immediately
apparent. This worked to her advantage. Politicians and government officials
learned the hard way how relentless this sweet-faced girl, barely out of her
teens, could be. Marla possessed a quality once known as “pluck.” To many of the
bureaucrats she lobbied tirelessly on behalf of Afghan and Iraqi civilians, it
translated to “pain in the ass.”
While Marla was
persistent about getting what she needed, she didn’t believe in making enemies.
Her guiding principle was love. She really was one of those rare, genuinely nice
people. Even those who did not support her cause often ended up succumbing to
her charm. In December 2003, Marla told the San Francisco Chronicle that
the Marines had affectionately nicknamed her “Cluster Bomb Girl” because she was
always nagging them to clear mined areas she had learned about.
I saw Marla again in
2003, at a fundraiser in Santa Monica at the home of film producer Robert
Greenwald. She was wearing short shorts and the wrong shade of lipstick. She
looked angelic and sort of goofy at the same time. She greeted me warmly and
said she was tired, achingly tired, and I could see that underneath the bright
lipstick and makeup, her face was pale. She had returned from Baghdad and was on
her way to Washington; Marla was always on her way someplace. Still, she seemed
happy. She was doing exactly what she wanted to do. As Tony Newman put it,
“Marla always seemed to have this joyful energy, even though there was so much
sadness and death around her.”
It is difficult to
believe that Marla is gone. So many people counted on her for so much, and she
counted for so many people. For the Iraqis and Afghans she advocated for, to her
family, friends and colleagues, to complete strangers who were inspired by her
heroism — yes, heroism is the right word — Marla Ruzicka’s death is among the
unrecoverable losses of this war.
When Marla returned
from that first pivotal visit to Afghanistan, a reporter asked her if she wanted
to go back. She answered without hesitation, with her characteristic passion, “I
want to go back every second. Yes, I will go back, or my heart will stop
beating.”
Marla Ruzicka’s
family asks that those who want to make a donation, make it out to CIVIC so they
can keep Marla’s work going in Iraq. Send checks to Clifford and Nancy Ruzicka,
3324 Lakeshore Blvd., Lakeport, CA 95453. You may also make a contribution
online, on the
CIVIC website.
Tai Moses is a
contributing editor of
AlterNet.
"Marla is an
exceptionally determined, energetic and brave young woman who has traveled to
the front lines to focus attention on an issue that too often gets ignored," he
said. "Civilians bear the brunt of the suffering in wars today, but there is no
policy to help them. Marla and her organization have helped put a human face on
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by identifying the victims and their needs, and
by lobbying for assistance."
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THAILAND
Sudjai Chaiyapan
The Way of Life from Imagination in the
Year 2000
‘Continually developing technology affects humanity and nature.
Man
has used it extravagantly and there has been no awareness
of the
resulting effect.
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