Pro-democracy general could help shape Xi's vision for China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-03-31

Liu Yazhou presents before the Indonesian Ministry of Defense in Jakarta
last year. (Photo/Xinhua)

One of president Xi Jinping's closest military advisors is general Liu Yazhou, the political commissar at the PLA's National Defense University and son-in law of former Chinese president Li Xiannian. The 60-year-old is said to part of Xi's inner circle and political commentators believe that Liu, widely known for his pro-democracy stance, has and will continue to play a vital role in shaping the president's strategies and world view.

Liu was born in eastern China's Anhui province in 1962 and joined the PLA during the Cultural Revolution. He was selected by the army at the age of 20 to study English at Wuhan University in central Hubei province, and was later a visiting scholar in Asian language studies at Stanford University in the US. During his time in America, Liu was once said to have confidently claimed that China would be ruled democratically within 10 years.

The general is known for his pro-democracy stance, with his support for a democratic China beginning in the early 1980s when he was a military reporter for the PLA. When he was not reporting on the army, Liu penned several novels, some of which stirred controversy in China as they were judged to bear a pro-democracy slant and belittle the country's military power.

In 1996, Liu joined the political department of the Beijing military region air force and later became the political commissar of the air force in Chengdu, the provincial capital of southwestern Sichuan. In December 2009, he switched to the PLA's National Defense University to lecture elite military officers and was promoted to general in April last year.

In an internal speech to mid-level officers in 2009, Liu supported the decision of former PLA general Xu Qinxian to refuse to suppress student demonstrators during the violent Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

A year later, in an interview with the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly magazine, Liu boldly claimed that China must either embrace US-style democracy or accept a Soviet-style collapse.

"If a system fails to let its citizens breathe freely and release their creativity to the maximum extent, and fails to put those who best represent the system and its people into leadership positions, it is certain to perish," the magazine quoted Liu as saying.

"The secret of the United States' success is neither due to Wall Street nor Silicon Valley, but its long surviving rule of law and the system behind it. A bad system makes a good person behave badly, while a good system makes a bad person behave well. Democracy is the most urgent thing; without it there can be no sustainable growth," he said.

When penning the foreword to China Dream: The Great Power Thinking and Strategic Positioning of China in the Post-American Age by Liu Mingfu, a professor at Beijing's National Defense University, Liu said that the 21st century is a race between China and the US, and the winner will be the country that can develop better and best lead the world.

Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the Moscow 

State Institute of International Relations on

March 23. (Photo/Xinhua)

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Iraq, Afghan wars to cost US up to $6 trillion: study

Google – AFP, 29 March 2013

US soldiers on patrol near Baraki Barak base in Afghanistan's Logar Province, 

on October 13, 2012 (AFP/File, Munir Uz Zaman)

WASHINGTON — The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost the United States between $4-6 trillion in the long term, constraining the government's budget for decades to come, a study said.

Harvard University scholar Linda Bilmes concluded that the United States will face increasing costs to care for an estimated 2.5 million veterans, and to pay down debt incurred by borrowing to pay for the wars.

"As a consequence of these wartime spending choices, the United States will face constraints in funding investments in personnel and diplomacy, research and development and new military initiatives," said the report released Thursday.

"In short, there will be no peace dividend, and the legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be costs that persist for decades," it said.

Bilmes, who served in government under former president Bill Clinton, calculated that the United States has already spent nearly $2 trillion directly for the two wars launched by former president George W. Bush.

But Bilmes' study said the biggest cost would be medical care and disability benefits, saying that more than half of the 1.56 million troops discharged from service have already been granted benefits for life.

Bilmes, who called the numbers unprecedented, said that costs will climb over decades. She wrote that the peak year for disability payments over World War I, which ended in 1918, was 1969 as veterans became elderly.

"The magnitude of future expenditures will be even higher for the current conflicts, which have been characterized by much higher survival rates, more generous benefits and new, expensive medical treatments," she said.

Bilmes also factored in debt, finding no precedent for a time when the United States went to war while lowering taxes, with the possible exception of the Revolutionary War when US colonies borrowed from France.

The study also looked at social costs, with families burdened with the effects of the deaths or injuries of service members.

The United States is expected to maintain a limited military presence in Afghanistan after 2014, when President Barack Obama plans to withdraw combat troops first sent after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Opinion polls show that most of the US public has grown weary of the longest US war, in Afghanistan, and is critical of Bush's decision to invade Iraq a decade ago.

Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary under Bush, said before the invasion that the Iraq war would cost around $50 billion and called higher estimates "baloney."

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(Matthew channelled by Suzanne Ward, June 3, 2012)

“….   22. Beyond those myriad personal situations, beyond the civilian casualties in war zones, and beyond the financial burdens to the peoples whose nations are at war is the global emotional impact. It can be said that the condition coined post traumatic stress disorder is endemic to Earth. No one is immune to this battle energy that permeates your world, no one can escape the ravages that centuries of bloodshed have inured generation after generation to accept as humankind’s nature and lot in life. Yet, the fear of dying is just as pervasive, and that sets up a paradox that minds have to come to terms with. …" 

SaluSa channelled by Mike Quinsey – March 29, 2013 - New

“.. The darkness will eventually play itself out and is already losing its power to create more fear. In this respect, in spite of the apparent threat of war, know that it will no longer be allowed. The Galactic Federation of Light is aware of the intentions of all Superpowers and we will prevent any attempts to start a global war. ..”

 "Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version) 

“…  8 - The End of War

The last one is the best. For thousands of years on this planet, Human Beings have warred with each other. If you take a look at the reasons they warred with each other, you will quickly see there aren't any good ones - land, resources, greed. Those are not reasons. That is a description of old energy. Those are not reasons. Reasons would be perhaps defense against an aggressor. But what if there is no longer the consciousness of the aggressor?

When I appeared in my partner's life more than 20 years ago, I said to him privately that the first messages we're going to give will be unbelievable. There would be laughter. We told him that Human nature and consciousness itself would change, and that the seeds of peace would be planted and there would come a time where there is no more war. Indeed, the laughter was great because humans look at history and they see patterns based on an absolute energy called Human Nature. "Impossible! There always has to be war. There always has been. Therefore, there always will be." This is you, in a box, in a black and white potential, where you can only see the black and white of what is and the black and white of what has been. You have no idea the shades of color that are there in your consciousness and the beauty of the love of God

North Korea is on the edge of change, as we told you it might be. What did this require? The death of the old energy, and I want you to watch this take place. The advisors of the young leader are going to do their best to pull him back into an old energy. This free choice of his will be far different than his father, for he sees some color. Watch for these things. They'll take longer than you want, but it is the beginning of the beginning.….”

An Hour with an Angel with Archangel Michael, December 17, 2012

”.. Lay Down Your Arms

SB: Thank you, Lord. I am going to be asking you about the who, why, what, where, when, how of Ascension, about December 21st. But before I do that there is one question that I have to ask you because I know our listeners and readers want me to. I think they would like to know something about the Newtown tragedy. Was it mind control? Was it the cabal trying to take attention away from Ascension? Was it simply a deranged individual?

Why was it permitted to happen, Lord? It shocked a lot of people.

AAM: It was a tragedy in Newtown, and it was a sacrifice of innocents, both children and adults. And yes, there is divine purpose that comes out of this. Was it a planned action on our part? Absolutely not, that is not the way we operate. It was the action, yes, of a very deranged, ill, dis-eased individual. It was not the act of the cabal. They are in far too deep containment to ever effect such a strike.

Let us talk about the meaning. And the Mother has talked about this also. It is time for all of humanity, east, west, north, south, to come together as one community. And this atrocity, this killing of children needlessly, brings to the forefront what is taking place on your planet.

The beings of Newtown, Connecticut, and this emotional energy, have acted and do act as a surrogate and a catalyst for the human race to come together and say, “No more,” that the slaughter of innocents is not acceptable in any realm.

And what that means, dear ones, is it is not acceptable through missile or drone strikes, in neighborhoods, in marketplaces and schools, or anywhere else. It is not acceptable for children to be hit by stray bullets, by gang wars or by drug lords, in any country, in any nation, in any civilization. It is not acceptable for children to die of disease, poverty, hunger, and starvation.

So these bright angels, this soul group has sacrificed and acted as a surrogate. Now, I wish to tell you that all of these angels were well out of their body and already in the arms of the Mother prior to their death. She had already gathered them up.

So it is not just for them that you weep. It is for each other. Because what you are seeing, what you are witnessing, is the pain and suffering that violence does to humanity, to families, to friends, to siblings, to parents, to communities, to neighbors, to nations. And it is all of you saying, “No more!”

SB: If I may intervene, what do you say to people who advocate the right to bear arms in America? What does one say to organizations that think that they’ll fall under somebody else’s rule if they give up their rifles?

AAM: Let me say this, and I do not simply say it to Americans, I say it to all nations that carry weapons to destroy families and friends. I say it to all beings that carry guns or weapons. And I am talking about missiles or chemical weapons.

When you live in fear, then what you create is fear. When you live in harmony and community and unity, that is what you create. Understand, the opening of 11/11 and 12/12 was not simply some esoteric exercise. You have been unified.

And as I have asked you, and as most of you are doing, that grid is to grow and inflame and ignite more and more every single hour, every single minute of every day. It was not just an hour-long exercise or a day-long exercise.

How can you live in unity and love and carry weapons, guns, ready to kill someone you don’t like or you don’t care about? And it is particularly dangerous when you have those weapons available to those who are unbalanced.

And we suggest to you that there is no way to safeguard against someone who is in the throes of a psychotic episode. There is no way to prevent them from getting a weapon if in fact they are available. That is a fool’s belief.

So if you expect harm to come to you, then harm will come to you. It is a time of change, and you cannot build Nova Earth with guns, missiles, and chemical weapons. You cannot do it. It is not possible. Not in any universe, not in any realm.

I had thought, this day, that I would come before you with my blue flame of truth. And I would say to you, “I am laying down my sword and shield,” because that is my desire and creation, and that it would be symbolic for you to understand that these are no longer necessary.

I did not begin today by saying that because I am still using my sword to cut some cords of illusion with some of you, and some of you are feeling exceptionally vulnerable right now. And so I want you to know that I’m also shielding you.

But my sword is also the scepter of truth. It is the staff of wisdom. It is the staff that you can lean upon when you are exhausted. Your guns do not serve that purpose.

Lay down your arms. This I ask of you. And more importantly, lay down your fear.

SB: Thank you, Lord. I don’t mean to single out Americans. I’m more referring to the Constitution and the provision that the right to bear arms shall not be interfered with. But thank you. You anticipated my questions on Newtown, so I’ve had all my questions answered. 

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

Should Indonesia be the I in Brics?

BBC News, Karishma Vaswani, Jakarta, 27 March 2013

Both India and Indonesia are growing fast, but lately the smaller of the two
has seen its economy expand the fastest

Related Stories

• Brics nations meet to cement relations
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Entry into the Brics club is a seen as a sign of success - a statement that you have made it as an emerging economy.

When the phrase was first coined back in 2001 by Jim O'Neill from Goldman Sachs he intended it to encompass just four fast growing emerging-market countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

South Africa was added in 2011 - despite protestations from Mr O'Neill.

Being a part of Brics means you are instantly branded a sure bet - or at least that is the perception among investors.

Economists say the Brics make up approximately 20% of global gross domestic product (GDP), and by 2030 could possibly rival the combined economies of the G7 countries (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan).

But already there are concerns that the fast growing economies of the grouping are seeing some trouble ahead.

'Policy paralysis'

Take India, which once saw its economy growing at a rate of 9%, but is now suffering from "policy paralysis", caused by a combination of stalling economic reforms and political haggling, according to Ajit Ranade, chief economist with the Aditya Birla Group.

Corruption and political inefficiency are
often  cited as reasons why India's
growth rate is slower than it was

"The government has had a lot of political dramas, with corruption scandals unfolding over the last few years, and opposition parties stalling economic reform at every juncture," he says.

"But fundamentally, India's economy is still stable, its medium-term growth drivers are intact. Some policy momentum is visible these days."

The Indian government says it expects the country to grow between 6.1% and 6.7% this year, faster than in 2012, when GDP grew by 5.3%.

Middle class

The slowdown in economic growth in India lies behind the suggestion that perhaps Indonesia should be the "I" in Brics instead.

On the face of it, India and Indonesia's economies have a lot in common - certainly more than just their first initials.

Both have large and young populations in fast growing economies driven mainly by domestic consumption.

But India's economy is six or seven times the size of Indonesia's, and it has many more mouths to feed, with a population of more than 1.2 billion compared with Indonesia's 240 million.

While India has seen its economy stumble recently after many years of strong growth, Indonesia's strengths have made it the darling of international investors - although it too has also seen economic growth decline moderately.

The two nations also face many of the same problems, with their messy political systems, shoddy infrastructure in desperate need of upgrading, corruption and crippling poverty.

Open economy

One of the comments you always hear about Indonesia's potential is the rapid emergence of its affluent middle class, which is set to almost double by 2020 to 141 million people, the Boston Consulting Group forecasts, which means more than half the population would be classified as middle-income class or richer. Domestic consumption helps power the economy and attracts plenty of foreign companies into this relatively open economy.

India has a large domestic market too, but restrictions on foreign ownership make it difficult for foreign firms to get involved.

Leaders of the Brics group of emerging
market  economies are meeting in
Durban

So last year, the global cosmetics giant L'Oreal chose Indonesia when it invested some $130m (£86m) in a state-of-the-art factory just outside Jakarta to produce 700,000 products per day, ranging from whitening creams to shampoos for both the domestic market as well as for exports to neighbouring countries.

The company has also opened a research and development facility in India and now sees both markets as equally important, according to Vismay Sharma, L'Oreal's president in Indonesia, who has also worked in India.

Bricsi?

Indonesia's growing importance relative to India has done little to remove some of the real challenges for retailers and distributors doing business here, however, such as the fact that it is made up of islands.

"You can't use road or rail everywhere, so you end up using ships," says Mr Sharma.

"You end up depending on ports, and that starts to put a lot of strain on the infrastructure."

Neither India nor Indonesia have good infrastructure, and both governments have pledged to spend billions of dollars to improve it.

But such lofty ambitions do not always deliver results. Last year, a much-lauded land acquisition bill was passed in Indonesia, but it has failed in its ambition to make it easier for the government to push ahead with infrastructure projects.

Obstacles such as these have resulted in analysts dismissing the idea that India should be replaced by Indonesia in the Brics grouping.

"You can add it as a sixth Brics, perhaps, making it Bricsi," says PK Basu, regional head of Maybank in Singapore.

"But replacing India doesn't make sense from any perspective. It's the first year in the last 15 years that Indonesia's real GDP grew faster than India. There's a dynamism in the Indian economy - in manufacturing, agriculture, services - that just isn't there in Indonesia."

HS Dillon, Indonesia's special adviser on poverty alleviation, agrees.

Each nation has moved into fast-growing economy status, each taking its own path to get there, but neither country has "made it", he says, insisting that "the rate of growth means nothing without the quality of growth".

Widespread poverty is there for all to see just a few kilometres outside of Jakarta's fancy financial district, where urban slums have cropped up in many parts of the city, as migrants from other parts of the archipelago have come here to find work. India's big cities too have seen mass migration into fast-growing cities that are becoming increasingly densely packed.

The poor in both countries are prone to avoidable diseases, resulting from poor sanitation, regular flooding and a lack of affordable healthcare.

"People say all the time we are one of the largest economies in the world, we are in the G20, we are this, we are that," says Mr Dillon.

"But what," he asks, "does that mean for the poor?"

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Myanmar's Suu Kyi attends military parade amid sectarian violence

Deutsche Welle, 27 march 2013

Myanmar has held its annual military parade with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in attendance for the first time. Meanwhile, sectarian bloodshed between Buddhists and Muslims remains the country’s biggest challenge.

At the annual Armed Forces Day parade on Wednesday, attended for the first time by democracy icon and opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's army chief reaffirmed the military's involvement in politics.

The military performs a "role in the national politics in accordance with the people's desire when the nation faces ethnic conflicts or political struggles," Vice Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said to about 6,000 troops.

The military show comes as the country grapples with deadly Buddhist-Muslim violence that has left 40 people dead in the past week, prompting martial law in four central Myanmar townships.

Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country, but around 5 percent of its 60 million people are Muslims.

The spreading unrest poses the biggest challenge yet to a reformist government that took office in 2011 after almost half a century of military rule.

Controversial ties

Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was locked up for 15 years by the former junta, has been criticized by activists for remaining largely silent about several instances of sectarian violence since last year.

In 2012, two outbreaks of bloodshed between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine left at least 110 people dead and more than 110,000 displaced.

She is the daughter of independence hero General Aung San, who founded the modern Myanmar army and led the struggle against British colonial rule. In January, she upset some of her supporters by expressing her "fondness" for the military, which still refuses to acknowledge its well-documented human rights abuses.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party Wednesday called on the armed forces "to take part in working for the rule of law, the emergence of peace and amending the constitution," a statement said.

A spokesman for the NLD said about her attendance: "She attended as she was invited."

Last week, in the latest incident of violence, a mob set fire to a mosque and homes in central Myanmar, police said. At least 10 people were killed with neighborhoods reduced to ashes.

hc/dr (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Domestic workers to get equal rights in Brazil

BBC News, 27 March 2013

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Generation of domestic maids had
few rights

The Brazilian Senate has brought in a new law giving domestic servants the same rights as other workers for the first time.

An estimated 7m house maids and cooks – nearly all of them women – will be entitled to overtime after working for a maximum of eight hours a day and 44 hours a week, among other rights.

The constitutional amendment is set to be enacted next week.

The reform could increase the cost of having a domestic worker by nearly 20%.

Many middle-class Brazilian families have been used to having a maid to cook, clean and wash for them.

In recent years, their rights have been gradually revised to include paid holidays, sick leave and maternity leave.

'End of slaveship'

The new rights have been called historic and widely welcomed in Brazil.

"It's the second abolition of slavery. We have house maids who work 18 hours a day," the head of the Sao Paulo's Domestic Workers and House Maid's union, Eliana Menezes, told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

"They are subjected to their employers' rules in their homes."

The equal rights trend has led to rising costs that are making employing a servant an unaffordable luxury for some.

The new law is set to make them even more expensive.

On social media, many Brazilians reacted to the news saying that the country's middle classes would have to learn how to live without house maids, as has already happened in many developed countries.

Others speculated that the enhanced legal rights would lead to a rise in unemployment.

The new bill ensures that, like other employees, domestic workers will build up a fund of money paid by their employers, equivalent to 8% of monthly pay, to be made available upon compulsory redundancy, death and other contingencies.

Estimates say the cost of having a domestic worker could rise by between 18% and 40%, depending on their working arrangements.

The amendment was passed unanimously in two votes of the Senate, after being approved by the lower house as well.

The law comes into force on 2 April.

BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

Jakarta Globe - AFP, March 26, 2013

Image provided by the South African government shows President Jacob
Zuma speaking in Pretoria on March 24, 2013. (AFP Photo) 

    

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Durban, South Africa. BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa are racing to flesh out proposals for an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Just hours before leaders kick off the summit at 17:30 GMT, finance ministers were still working to agree key elements of the plan.

Disputes remain over what the bank will do, with each side trying to mold the institution to their foreign or domestic policy goals and with each looking for assurances of an equitable return on their initial investment of around $10 billion.

Failure to secure a deal would be a major embarrassment for many of the participants and would play into the hands of those who argue the BRICS have little to bind them together.

Xi Jinping, who has underscored the growing importance of the group by making Durban his first summit as China's president, earlier expressed hopes for "positive headway" in establishing the bank.

In a keynote speech in Tanzania on Monday Xi vowed Beijing's "sincere friendship" with the continent, and a relationship that respects Africa's "dignity and independence."

Meanwhile host President Jacob Zuma has lauded the summit as a means of addressing his country's chronic economic problems including high unemployment.

"BRICS provides an opportunity for South Africa to promote its competitiveness," Zuma said in a speech on the eve of the summit.

"It is an opportunity to move further in our drive to promote economic growth and confront the challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment that afflicts our country."

A failure to take concrete steps would raise questions about whether the BRICS grouping can survive.

"Ironically it may be the cleavages within the BRICS grouping that more accurately hint at the future of the global order: tensions between China and Brazil on trade, India on security, and Russia on status highlight the difficulty Beijing will have in staking its claim to global leadership," said Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund.

But if the leaders succeed it would be the first time since the inaugural BRICS summit four years ago that the group matches rhetorical demands for a more equitable global order with concrete steps.

That would send a loud message to the United States and European nations that the current global balance of power is unworkable.

Together the BRICS account for 25 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population.

But members say institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are not changing fast enough reflect their new-found clout.

Diplomats say it could start with $10 billion seed money from each country, but the exact role of the bank is up for debate.

Indian officials have pressed for a BRICS-led South-South development bank, recycling budget surpluses into investment in developing countries.

Many developing nations inside and outside BRICS will hope that is a way of tapping China's vast financial resources.

Meanwhile China would no doubt like the bank to invest in trade-multiplying projects.

Aside from the development bank, the group will also try to establish a foreign exchange reserve pool worth as much as $240 billion to be drawn on in financial crises.

China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012, and establishing currency swap lines could help other BRICS tap that massive resource.

Later on Tuesday Brazil is to sign a bilateral accord with China to promote trade in their national currencies.

BRICS leaders will also establish business and think tank councils.

With Syria's two-year long civil war escalating through the suspected use of chemical weapons, BRICS leaders will also have to weigh a call from President Bashar al-Assad to intervene.

In a message to the summit leaders Assad asked "for intervention by the BRICS to stop the violence in his country and encourage the opening of a dialogue, which he wishes to start," said his senior adviser Bouthaina Shaaban after he delivered the message to Zuma.

Agence France-Presse

This handout photo on March 26, 2013 shows South African Finance Minister

 Pravin Gordhan (C) poses with his counterparts (L-R) Minister Chidambaram 

Palaniappan of India, Minister Xiaochuan Zhou of China, Minister Guido Mantega

 of Brazil and Minister Anto Siluanov of Russia on the margins of the 5th BRICS

 summit held at the Inkosi Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban,

on March 26, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GOVERNMENT HO/ ELMOND JIYANE

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"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Thailand seizes 104 smuggled endangered pangolins

France24 – AFP, 26 March 2013

A seized pangolin rests in a cage as another hangs outside during a press
briefing held at the customs department in Bangkok on September 26, 2011. 

AFP - The Thai navy on Tuesday said it had intercepted wildlife traffickers attempting to smuggle 104 endangered pangolins to China on the Mekong river.

The creatures, prized for their skin, scales and meat and hunted extensively in Southeast Asia, are believed to have originated in Malaysia or southern Thailand.

"The pangolins were on their way to Laos and then finally China," said Lieutenant Commander Garan Minwong of the Thai navy's Mekong river task force in the country's northern border area.

He said two suspects were arrested during the raid late Monday before they were able to load the live pangolins onto a boat.

Thailand, seen as a hub for traffickers of all endangered species, came under pressure over the rampant smuggling of ivory through its territory during Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) talks in Bangkok this month.

Kerry demands return of missing Laotian activist

Google – AFP, Olivia Hampton (AFP), 25 March 2013

US Secretary of State John Kerry walks across the tarmac of Baghdad

International Airport on March 24, 2013 (Pool/AFP, Jason Reed)

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Laotian authorities to step up their investigation "without further delay" into the disappearance of a prominent US-educated Laotian community development worker 100 days ago.

Sombath Somphone, the 62-year-old founder of a non-governmental organization campaigning for sustainable development, disappeared in Vientiane while driving home on December 15.

CCTV images showed him being taken away from a police post by two unidentified individuals.

"The United States shares the international community's serious concerns about Mr Sombath's safety and well-being," Kerry said in a statement.

"We call on the Lao government to do everything in its power to account for his disappearance without further delay."

This handout picture provided by the
Somphone  family and taken in 2005 shows
Sombath  Somphone (SOMPHONE
FAMILY/AFP/File, Somphone Family)

The United States has sought more information from Laos on its investigation into Sombath's disappearance, which has sent jitters through the activist network in the secretive one-party communist state.

Laotian authorities have suggested he might have been abducted over a personal dispute but have denied having any information about his whereabouts.

"We are concerned at the lack of significant information we have received from the Lao government about Mr Sombath's case, despite our offers to assist with the investigation and numerous expressions of concern about Mr Sombath's welfare," said Kerry.

The top US diplomat noted that despite Laos's growing integration into the community of nations, "Mr Sombath's disappearance resurrects memories of an earlier era when unexplained disappearances were common."

"Regrettably, the continuing, unexplained disappearance of Mr Sombath, a widely respected and inspiring Lao citizen who has worked for the greater benefit of all of his countrymen, raises questions about the Lao government's commitment to the rule of law and to engage responsibly with the world," he added.

"We join with countless organizations, governments, journalists and concerned citizens around the world in demanding answers to Mr Sombath's disappearance and urging his immediate return home."

The campaigner, who had earned degrees in education and agriculture from the University of Hawaii, won the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership for his work in poverty reduction and sustainable development in a country that remains one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations.

Daniel Baer, deputy assistant secretary for the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, told AFP that Sombath's disappearance has had "a chilling effect" on his activist network.

"For as long as the case remains unresolved and Sombath doesn't come home to his wife, the international community as well as many people here who know and love him will continue to ask questions," Baer noted.

The secretive one-party communist state -- which exerts total control over the media and does not tolerate criticism -- has in recent years gradually given local civil society groups more room to operate.

Sombath's disappearance has sparked an international campaign of solidarity with the activist and his family.

The European Union, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, members of parliament from Asia and Europe, and numerous international organizations have urged the Laotian government to take all actions necessary to ensure the safe return home of this respected figure.

Chinese president calls for "win-win" int'l relations

Want China Times, Xinhua 2013-03-24

Xi Jinping delivers a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International
Relations on March 23. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's president Xi Jinping on Saturday called for building a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation at the core.

Delivering a speech at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Xi expounded on China's view on the current international situation and its position on international relations.

The Chinese leader stressed that China will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and steadfastly develop its comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Russia.

Xi, accompanied by Russian Deputy prime minister Olga Golodets and the institute's president Anatoly Torkunov, spoke to a packed auditorium.

"We are now living in a rapidly changing world...Peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit have become the trend of our times," Xi said.

"To keep up with the times, we cannot have ourselves physically living in the 21st century, but with a mindset belonging to the past, stalled in the old days of colonialism, and constrained by zero-sum Cold War mentality," Xi said.

"People of all nations should combine their efforts to safeguard world peace and promote common development," Xi said.

Xi said China believes that it is up to the people of a country to choose their own path of development and that people worldwide can share the fruits of development and security.

In the face of complex security threats, one country cannot act alone and it is even worse if it is obsessed with military options," he said. "The only right choice is to achieve collective and common security through cooperation."

Xi said the international community should stand by the democratic principles governing world affairs, under which the fate of the world lies in the hands of all people in the world, the internal affairs of a sovereign nation is decided by its government and people, and world affairs are managed by governments and their people through consultations.

Xi said China has mapped out its development blueprint at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in November.

The Chinese people fully understand that only through continuous and arduous efforts can the goals set in the blueprint be reached, he added.

Xi reaffirmed that China will stick to peaceful development, saying that the Chinese people love peace, deeply appreciate the value of peace and also need a peaceful environment to build their nation.

He also called on other countries to adopt peaceful development.

Xi said that China's development, as outlined in the notion of the Chinese dream, will not only benefit the Chinese people, but also the people of all countries.

On China-Russia ties, Xi stressed that the two countries, as each other's biggest neighbors, have much in common on national development, and that the Chinese people hopes Russia will realize its goals swiftly.

The China-Russia relationship is the most important one in the world and also the best between major powers, Xi said, noting that a high-level and strong China-Russia relationship is not only in the interests of both countries, but also serves as an important guarantee of international strategic balance and world peace and stability.

Xi raised a three-point proposal on developing bilateral ties under the new circumstances.

Firstly, the two countries should be firmly committed to developing a future-oriented relationship, always be each other's good neighbor, friend and partner, and support each other in protecting their core interests and dealing with its internal affairs.

Secondly, they should be firmly committed to developing a relationship centered on win-win cooperation by creating more converging interests and opening up more areas for cooperation to constantly push their practical cooperation to a higher level.

Thirdly, they should be firmly committed to developing friendship between the two peoples. For China and Russia, both having a long history and splendid culture, cultural and people-to-people exchanges are irreplaceable in enhancing friendship.

Speaking to the two countries' youth, Xi said the young people are the future of their countries and the world, and they are also the future of the cause of building friendship between China and Russia.

"I am looking forward to seeing more and more Chinese and Russian young people take over the task and devote themselves to the cause of developing friendship between the two peoples," he said.

In conclusion, the Chinese leader expressed the belief that China-Russia ties would enjoy sound development, better benefiting the two peoples and better promoting world peace and security.

The Moscow State Institute of International Relations, set up in 1944, was a prestigious institution that specializes in training Russian diplomats.

Li Keqiang, who recently replaced Wen Jiabao as premier.

(Photo/Xinhua)

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"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… The Bridge of Swords, Revealed

I want to give you what I'm going to call, "The Bridge of Swords revealed." Here is a phrase we have given you many times in the past. We told you that in the end - that is to say, the end of the old paradigm of the planet [now] - you would have The Bridge of Swords.

Let me tell you some potentials about the future, immediate future. This is not what is going to happen in generations from now, but rather right now. The Bridge of Swords is here. Some of you have extrapolated this information into a form that you then compare to the ancient prophecies in the Holy Scriptures, trying your best to have a confluence of dates and events so that you can figure it out. Some of you have even said, "Ah, The Bridge of Swords: That must be the time where there's going to be battles on the planet. It's the Armageddon, and it's here." I'll tell you, dear one, that the Armageddon is happening on some other earth, in some other time! You can write that prophecy off as something that is not going to happen to you.

I'll say this again, dear Human Being: Do not look at past prophecy and apply it to anything that is going on here. Past prophecy had you dead at the millennium, did you remember that? Yet you're here in 2012! You've moved on to the current prophecy of the ancients, of the indigenous of the planet who saw a melding together of north and south - the prophecy of the feathered serpent and the prophecy of the condor and the eagle. This is a movement of energy on the planet in a way no "modern day" prophet ever predicted. Instead, it came from the indigenous, for they saw the potentials of some time fractals that spoke of humanity passing the fifth decision point and moving into the next part of what we call the Great Shift of Human Consciousness.

What's going to happen next? The Bridge of Swords. So let us analyze it. Let us tell you what we had in mind when we gave you the phrase and we ask you not to build upon this anything that is not said here. Do not then project more than what is given. Do not try to figure out hidden meanings within what is given, for I'm going to give them all to you now. …”

"... The Final Attribute

The final thing about swords is celebration. What happens when Human Beings walk under crossed swords? What is the general idea of that? It's marriage, is it not? So let us give you, finally, the symbol of the marriage on the bridge. It has so many meanings! It's the marriage of what used to be with what can be, it's the marriage of compassion and the Human spirit, it's the marriage of your soul entity on the planet with your creative seeds (the Pleiadians), it's the marriage of you and you! It's the coming together of the north and south. It's beautiful. It's The Bridge of Swords.

Perhaps you're here this day or listening or reading and this is all new to you and you'll say, "I don't know if I'm an old soul or not. Am I part of this crossing? Am I going across the bridge?" Let me say this to you: Don't analyze this! I'll give you a fact. If you're listening right now (or reading), then you're part of it! It's the only thing that has brought you to the page, to the chair, to listen or read or know. If you're interested, then you're part of it. It may take some of you to suspend belief on how it works, but you're part of it! I'll say this again: Don't over-analyze it. Many will awaken and follow. The bridge will be there as long as you live.

What are you suppose to do? Just be, old soul. Go to work and show the light there. Show that you have compassion for those around you. Go home to your family that perhaps doesn't believe this, and don't judge them. Instead, show your compassion to them because you have a piece of God inside you. Think of what the masters would do right now. They're not standing here in judgment, they're celebrating your life! No matter who is in front of you, celebrate their lives! Be the example of a compassionate God and of the divine seeds that are in you, and that will shape your future. Do not be afraid.

What the media gives you next, what happens next in the Middle East, what happens in these next years, will all be part of the old energy reaction. Darkness can't cross the bridge and they are going to die because of it. And I don't mean Humans. I mean the energy itself of hate will be dead and eventually gone. This is the promise and I speak to those now who have complete and free choice to change it, but I tell you, you won't because the push is too great. The ball has already started to roll.

For 20 years, you've seen it coming. You have a right for peace on the earth. It is a time that you have planned on. There is precedent at hand, for the Pleiadians did it, those from Orion did it, the Octurians did it. The parents of the parents of the parents of the planetary systems that you're in did it. Now you're doing it. A long process is ahead of you until the last vestige of old energy is gone. I will say it again: There will come a time when you look back on today and you'll say, "How barbaric humanity was!" And that's what we see, old soul, this day. .. "