UN Ebola mission aims for 'zero cases' in 2015

Since the UN Ebola mission was set up in September, the hope that its work would be over within 60 - 90 days has faded. The goal is now zero cases, however long it takes. The new head of the mission will be an African.

Deutsche Welle, 30 Dec 2014

UNMEER was created in September 2014 following criticism from non-governmental
organizations that not enough was being done to fight the Ebola outbreak

The incumbent head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Anthony Banbury told DW their chief task when the mission was created was to "identify everything that was required to bring this multifaceted crisis to an end."

At the mission's headquarters in Accra, Ghana, a staff of 30 coordinate efforts to contain the deadly Ebola epidemic.

Their initial analysis revealed that trained medical workers were the chief priority - and the hardest to obtain.

"It's difficult to get them in the numbers we need," Banbury said.

Anthony Banbury (2nd from the left) arrives at Foya in Lofa County, Liberia,
in October 2014 while on a fact-finding tour of the three worst hit countries

UNMEER has been working with governments and the private sector to bring the disease under control. Spokesperson Fatimata Lejeune describes progress as steady but unremarkable. She said a worrying number of people were infected with the disease and too many people had already died from it. Nonetheless "the rate of transmission has gone down in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. At least in the worst affected areas of each of the countries we are seeing fewer cases," she said.

'Quickest UN deployment'

As well as a staff of 30 in Accra, UNMEER has a further 118 deployed in its offices in those three countries hit hardest by the virus. Lejeune said their clear objective was zero cases of new infection.

"It's the only way Ebola can be fought. Even if there is one case left, it's a danger, it's a risk for people in the community" she said.

Shortly after the Ebola crisis first erupted in March 2014, there was criticism of international organizations for failing to respond to it fast enough. But Anthony Banbury appears to have gone some way towards assuaging the critics. Ghanaian President Johan Mahama commended him with the words: "It has been the quickest UN deployment I have ever seen."

New African UNMEER head

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a Mauritanian national, succeeds Banbury as head of UNMEER in January. He is currently serving as the number two at the UN mission in Libya and has worked for various UN development and humanitarian agencies in Syria, Yemen, Kenya and Georgia.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed's appointment was announced by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in mid-December.

Figures released by the World Health Organization on December 24, 2014 said that the Ebola death toll had risen to 7,588 and the number of confirmed cases of infection stood at 19,497.

The Ebola virus spreads through contact with an infected person or corpse. Family members who care for patients or people who prepare victims for burial are at risk.

Related Articles:

TIME: 2014 Person of the Year: The Ebola Fighters

"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

China officials dismissed over diseased meat scandal

Yahoo – AFP, December 29, 2014

China officials dismissed over diseased meat scandal

Beijing (AFP) - China has dismissed eight officials after pork from pigs infected with a "highly contagious virus" was found to have entered the market, state media said Monday.

The country's latest food scandal was revealed in an investigation by state broadcaster China Central Television which said the annual revenue of the tainted pork was more than 20 million yuan ($3.2 million).

The meat had come from slaughterhouses in the city of Gaoan in central Jiangxi province and had entered at least seven provinces in total, said the report, which was first broadcast Saturday.

"Some of the pigs had a highly contagious virus," added the report, which contained grisly images inside slaughterhouses of scattered pig carcasses, many with their bellies cut.

The state-run China Radio International (CRI) said Monday: "Eight officials... have been dismissed for negligence, over sales of pork from pigs that were sick, or had already died."

Strict health standards are required for dead pigs under Chinese food production laws.

A report by state news agency Xinhua said the dismissed officials work in "animal husbandry and commerce authorities" in Gaoan.

CRI also quoted an official from Gaoan saying 12 suspects had been detained while an "illegal slaughtering site" had been destroyed and another sealed. It did not say whether the eight dismissed officials were included in this figure.

The city is one of China's major pork producers with more than two million pigs slaughtered every year, reports say. The meat is a staple in the Chinese diet.

Poor food safety is a major concern in China, where standards are lax and scandals involving tainted products are common.

China was rocked by one of its biggest-ever food safety scandals in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill.

Congress quietly ends federal government's ban on medical marijuana

LA Times, Evan Halper, Dec 16, 2014

Under a provision in the spending bill passed by Congress over the weekend, states
 where medical marijuana is legal would no longer need to worry about federal drug
agents raiding retail operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so. (Robert F.
Bukaty / Associated Press)

Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government's prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

The bill's passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.

Under the provision, states where medical pot is legal would no longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so.

The Obama administration has largely followed that rule since last year as a matter of policy. But the measure approved as part of the spending bill, which President Obama plans to sign this week, will codify it as a matter of law.

Pot advocates had lobbied Congress to embrace the administration's policy, which they warned was vulnerable to revision under a less tolerant future administration.

More important, from the standpoint of activists, Congress' action marked the emergence of a new alliance in marijuana politics: Republicans are taking a prominent role in backing states' right to allow use of a drug the federal government still officially classifies as more dangerous than cocaine.

"This is a victory for so many," said the measure's coauthor, Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa. The measure's approval, he said, represents "the first time in decades that the federal government has curtailed its oppressive prohibition of marijuana."

By now, 32 states and the District of Columbia have legalized pot or its ingredients to treat ailments, a movement that began in the 1990s. Even back then, some states had been approving broader decriminalization measures for two decades.

The medical marijuana movement has picked up considerable momentum in recent years. The Drug Enforcement Administration, however, continues to place marijuana in the most dangerous category of narcotics, with no accepted medical use.

Congress for years had resisted calls to allow states to chart their own path on pot. The marijuana measure, which forbids the federal government from using any of its resources to impede state medical marijuana laws, was previously rejected half a dozen times. When Washington, D.C., voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, Congress used its authority over the city's affairs to block the law from taking effect for 11 years.

Even as Congress has shifted ground on medical marijuana, lawmakers remain uneasy about full legalization. A separate amendment to the spending package, tacked on at the behest of anti-marijuana crusader Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), will jeopardize the legalization of recreational pot in Washington, D.C., which voters approved last month.

Marijuana proponents nonetheless said they felt more confident than ever that Congress was drifting toward their point of view.

"The war on medical marijuana is over," said Bill Piper, a lobbyist with the Drug Policy Alliance, who called the move historic.

"Now the fight moves on to legalization of all marijuana," he said. "This is the strongest signal we have received from Congress [that] the politics have really shifted. ... Congress has been slow to catch up with the states and American people, but it is catching up."

The measure, which Rohrabacher championed with Rep. Sam Farr, a Democrat from Carmel, had the support of large numbers of Democrats for years. Enough Republicans joined them this year to put it over the top. When the House first passed the measure earlier this year, 49 Republicans voted aye.

Some Republicans are pivoting off their traditional anti-drug platform at a time when most voters live in states where medical marijuana is legal, in many cases as a result of ballot measures. 

Polls show that while Republican voters are far less likely than the broader public to support outright legalization, they favor allowing marijuana for medical use by a commanding majority. Legalization also has great appeal to millennials, a demographic group with which Republicans are aggressively trying to make inroads.

Approval of the pot measure comes after the Obama administration directed federal prosecutors last year to stop enforcing drug laws that contradict state marijuana policies. Since then, federal raids of marijuana merchants and growers who are operating legally in their states have been limited to those accused of other violations, such as money laundering.

"The federal government should never get in between patients and their medicine," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).

Agricultural antibiotics overuse contaminates China's tap water

Want China Times, Chen Chia-lun and Staff Reporter 2014-12-28

Ducklings at a farm in Fujian province, April 14, 2013. (File photo/CNS)

Overuse of antibiotics in duck farming has been attributed to pollution and serious contamination of water in China, after excessive amounts of antibiotics were detected in water in several provinces and cities in the country, according to a report from state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV).

A CCTV reporter in collaboration with researchers found that a high level of antibiotics was detected in surface water in some areas of the country, with some traces of the medications discovered in tap water for household use in Nanjing.

During an unannounced visit to Shandong in eastern China, the reporter discovered that Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Company had discharged large amounts of water contaminated by antibiotics at a level much higher than permitted.

While traveling to places in northeastern, northern and eastern China between late October and early November, the CCTV reporter and researchers collected samples of water from areas of water resources and drainage ditches near pharmaceutical companies and poultry breeding farms in these regions. The samples were sent to labs for testing and found to contain antibiotics.

Water in estuaries of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers as well as in some regions along the Huangpu, Pearl and Liao rivers were found to contain antibiotics. A section of the Pearl River in Guangzhou was found seriously contaminated by very high levels of antibiotics.

Veterinary prescription drugs have been found to be on sale in some regions without permits.

A duck farmer admitted that controls on meat exports were usually stricter than those for domestic consumption and that farmers themselves did not dare to eat locally raised duck meat.

As world honours the dead, Indonesia begins tsunami memorials

Yahoo – AFP, Nurdin Hasan, 26 Dec 2014

Women attend a prayer service at Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, in

 the northern Sumatra island, on December 25, 2014, prior to the 10th anniversary

 of the tsunami that hit the west coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/

Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Thousands of people held a memorial Thursday in Indonesia's Aceh province, the epicentre of the Indian Ocean tsunami, as the world prepared to mark a decade since a disaster that took 220,00 lives and laid waste to coastal areas in 14 countries.

On December 26, 2004 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western coast sparked a series of towering waves that wrought destruction across countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Among the victims were thousands of foreign holidaymakers enjoying Christmas on the region's sun-kissed beaches, striking tragedy into homes around the world.

A tourist rides a bicycle past a poster

 ahead of the tenth anniversary of the 2004

 tsunami at Patong beach in Phuket

 province on December 25, 2014 (AFP\

 Photo/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul)

Muslim clerics, tsunami survivors and rescue workers led around 7,000 mourners gathered at Banda Aceh's black-domed Baiturrahman Grand Mosque for memorial prayers late Thursday.

Malaysian cleric Syeikh Ismail Kassim said he and several hundred compatriots attended to show support for Aceh.

"We hope Aceh people will not waver as a result of the calamity that has befallen them," he told AFP.

Aceh governor Zaini Abdullah thanked Indonesians and the international community in his address at the mosque, one of the few buildings which withstood the wrath of the massive earthquake and ensuing waves which left 170,000 people in the country dead or missing.

"The tsunami had caused deep sorrow to Aceh residents from having lost their loved ones," he said.

"Sympathy from Indonesians and the international community has helped (Aceh) to recover," he added.

He also called on residents not to "dwell in our grief, so that we could rise from adversity and achieve a better Aceh".

Kamaruddin, a fisherman who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said he attended the prayers to remember his wife and three children who died in the tsunami.

"I hope there will be no more disasters in Aceh," the 50-year-old said.

In Meulaboh, a fishing town considered to be the ground zero of the tsunami -- where 35 metre-high waves flattened almost everything -- Indonesian flags were flown at half-mast as small groups of residents held night prayers at mosques.

The main memorials were planned for Friday morning, starting in Aceh which was hit first by the waves, then moving to Thailand where candlelit ceremonies are expected in the resort hubs of Phuket and Khao Lak.

There will also be events in Sri Lanka, including at the site where a train carrying 1,500 people was washed away, as well as in several European capitals to remember foreign nationals who perished.

'Like being in a washing machine'

Many of the tsunami's victims died in dark, churning waters laden with uprooted trees, boats, cars and eviscerated beach bungalows, as the waves surged miles inland and then retreated, sucking many more into the sea.

Thailand saw 5,395 people killed by the disaster -- half of them foreign holidaymakers.

British survivor Andy Chaggar was in a bungalow on Thailand's Khao Lak when the tsunami waves struck, taking his girlfriend's life and sweeping him inland.

This picture taken on December 4, 2014 shows people visiting the Ban Nam

Khem tsunami memorial park wall in Khao Lak (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

"I came to in the water... there was glass, metal, there were pieces of wood, bricks, it was like being in a washing machine full of nails," he told AFP on Thursday, on the same beach where he lost his girlfriend.

As the scale of the tragedy emerged, disaster-stricken nations struggled to mobilise a relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in makeshift morgues.

The world poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than $13.5 billion collected in the months after the disaster.

Almost $7 billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Aceh, thousands of kilometres of roads, and new schools and hospitals.

The vast majority of Indonesia's 170,000 victims perished in the province, among them tens of thousands of children.

But the disaster also ended a decades-long separatist conflict, with a peace deal between rebels and Jakarta struck less than a year later.

It also prompted the establishment of a pan-ocean tsunami warning system, made up of sea gauges and buoys, while individual countries have invested heavily in disaster preparedness.

But experts have cautioned against the perils of "disaster amnesia" creeping into communities vulnerable to natural disasters.

Related Articles:

Tsunami devastation remembered in Asia, 10 years on (+Video)

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… Mass Human Death

The final one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past some challenges of the Human heart.

"Dear Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow, emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"

And I say to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons? They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective]. They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the way!"

Do you understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.

They knew the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding Israel.

And that's what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have helped create."

When you go home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of what you have before you?

Strike the light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here, and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you live in.

Achievable in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You shall see.

And so it is.

Kryon

Irish court allows abortion row pregnant brain-dead woman to die

Yahoo – AFP, Conor Barrins, and Naomi O'Leary in London

Pro-Choice supporters demonstrate outside the Irish Parliament building
in Dublin on July 10, 2013 (AFP Photo/Peter Muhly)

Dublin (AFP) - Ireland's high court ruled doctors can withdraw life support for a clinically dead pregnant woman on Friday, in the latest case to trigger heated debate on the country's stringent abortion laws.

Despite requests from the woman's family for her to be allowed to die, doctors continued life support as the Irish constitution says a woman and her unborn child have an equal right to life.

The woman was 14 weeks pregnant when she was declared clinically dead on December 3 after suffering a brain injury. She has been on life support since but is "deteriorating rapidly", the court heard.

The case touched on a deeply divisive issue in Ireland, which has a controversial constitutional ban on abortion, with even the head of the Catholic Church in the country saying, "A woman isn't simply an incubator."

The high court's judgement accepted medical evidence that the foetus has "no realistic prospect of emerging alive" and that only legal uncertainty had brought the case to this point.

"To maintain and continue the present somatic support for the mother would deprive her of dignity in death and subject her father, her partner and her young children to unimaginable distress," the judgement said.

It described continuing medical treatment as "a futile exercise which commenced only because of fears held by medical specialists of potential legal consequences".

The case reignited fierce social tensions in majority Catholic Ireland over the rights of unborn children, prompting the Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin to speak out on the issue.

"From the point of view of Catholic teaching in general medical ethics, there is no obligation to use extraordinary means to maintain a life," Martin told Newstalk radio. "A woman isn't simply an incubator."

In a statement following the judgement, the Irish health service welcomed the judgement and expressed "deepest sympathy to the family... in the tragic and extremely difficult situation they have found themselves in."

'Too restrictive'

But experts said similar cases could emerge in the future due to the broad language of the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution.

Though intended to outlaw abortion, the wording of the amendment does not refer specifically to termination and affords equal rights to a woman and her unborn child "as far as practicable".

"The (court's) decision was based on the absence of a realistic prospect of a live birth," Conor O'Mahony, a senior lecturer in constitutional law at University College Cork wrote in an analysis of the judgement.

"As long as the eighth amendment remains in the constitution in its present form, the possibility of such a deeply tragic and private case being decided in the very public and distressing surroundings of the courts will be present."

The broad wording of the law has also been blamed for causing confusion in emergency situations in the past.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Leo Varadkar said the constitutional rules around abortion are "too restrictive" and have a "chilling effect" on doctors.

"Difficult decisions that should be made by women and their doctors, a couple or next-of-kin... on the basis of best clinical practice, are now often made on foot of legal advice. That is not how it should be."

A series of protests have demanded the amendment be repealed, but Prime Minister Enda Kenny has ruled out a referendum before the next general election, which is due in 2016.

In 2013, after another divisive debate and a supreme court ruling, Dublin introduced new laws allowing for terminations in limited circumstances if the life of the mother was at risk.

It followed the death of 31-year-old Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar in a Galway hospital in October 2012, in a case that generated global attention.

Halappanavar had sought a termination when told she was miscarrying, but the request was refused as the foetus was alive and her life appeared not to be in danger. She died of blood poisoning days after miscarrying.

Related Article:

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

WHO: 'China faces growing public health crisis from tobacco use'

Some 3,000 people die in China every day from smoking-related diseases. The WHO's country representative Bernhard Schwartlaender tells DW how the tobacco epidemic is likely to have a major impact on Chinese society.

Deutsche Welle, 25 Dec 2014

DW: Is tobacco consumption in China leading to a public health crisis?

Bernhard Schwartlaender: Tobacco use is a major public health problem in China. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco products: there are more than 300 million smokers in the country. Currently, about three out of every 10 adults in China (28 percent) smoke tobacco products, including more than half of all adult men. Approximately one million deaths every year – or 3000 deaths each day – are caused by tobacco smoking. In addition, over 700 million people are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke, which kills approximately 100,000 people every year.

What impact is the increased consumption of tobacco having on Chinese society?

The tobacco epidemic in China will cause devastating costs for the health system, economy, and China's society more broadly. If the prevalence of tobacco use in China is not reduced, the number of tobacco-related deaths every year in China will increase to three million by 2050.

Schwartlaender: 'China has taken some
 important steps forward on tobacco control
in recent years'

Which members of Chinese society tend to consume the most and why? What are the incentives?

Men have very high smoking rate (more than 50 percent of men smoke) in China. While only two percent of women smoke themselves, women have very high rates of exposure to second-hand smoke - especially in homes and workplaces.

Geographically, smoking rates tend to be highest in the economically less developed areas of China, including in rural areas.

In China, like elsewhere, most smokers start smoking when they are young. It is critically important that we prevent children and teenagers from getting hooked to tobacco use – through educating them about the harms of tobacco use, and stopping tobacco companies from marketing. Protecting young people from taking up smoking habits will likely protect them for life.

There is nothing traditionally Chinese about smoking – as is the case in other countries, high smoking rates in China are the result of lack of knowledge and a tobacco industry which aggressively markets its products to the population in order to increase its revenue and profits.

How far away is China from implementing a national tobacco control law?

China has taken some important steps forward on tobacco control in recent years. The Joint Notice issued by the State Council and the Communist Party promoting smoke-free policies late last year is one example, as well as the newly passed Beijing Smoking law. The Beijing law is a 100 percent smoke-free law with no loopholes and no exemptions. With this law coming into full effect by 15 June, 2015, Beijing has now set the standard for a strong set of tobacco control policies at national level and other cities – in China and elsewhere.

The National Health and Planning Commission has recently put to the State Council approval a draft on national regulations on smoking in public places. These regulations include a broad package of tobacco control measures, which are consistent with the requirements of the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) – the global tobacco treaty which China ratified in 2005. If adopted, these regulations will represent unprecedented progress towards China meeting its obligations under the WHO FCTC.

What is the current draft bill set to regulate, and will this be sufficient to curb consumption and prevent the many tobacco-related deaths in the country?

The draft regulations include a broad package of tobacco control measures. The policies included in the draft will reduce smoking rates in China, and if fully enacted, will make an enormous contribution to addressing the growing epidemic of non-communicable disease (NCDs) in China and its massive health, economic and social costs.

Schwartlaender: 'There is nothing
traditionally Chinese about smoking –
as is the case in other countries'

To best curb consumption and prevent the tobacco-related deaths in China, China needs to fully implement its commitment under the WHO FCTC. In addition to the policies covered under the draft regulations, this may include additional measures such as raising tobacco taxes. Currently, cigarettes are very cheap and a pack of cigarettes may only cost as much as a bottle of drinking water in your neighborhood store.

What is your advice to Chinese authorities as to how to effectively tackle this crisis?

WHO's advice to the State Council Legislative Affairs Office regarding the draft regulation is clear: if the draft is adopted in full and without delay, the public health benefits for China will be substantial. Any attempts from groups with vested interests to weaken or dilute the key provisions of the draft regulations should be resisted. This law, if adopted in full, will save many millions of lives and enormous cost for individuals, families and the overall economy.

Dr. Bernhard Schwartlaender is the Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in China.

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Jakarta Archbishop Criticizes Indonesia’s Use of Death Penalty

Jakarta Globe, Jakarta Globe, Dec 25, 2014

Jakarta. The Archbishop of Jakarta criticized President Joko Widodo’s policy on executing drug traffickers on Thursday, saying no-one had the right to take a person’s life.

“Nobody has the right on anyone else’s life,” Archbishop Mgr. Ignatius Suharyo said, as quoted by news portal Tempo.co. “Church teachings don’t allow for the death penalty.”

Indonesian law allows for the death penalty in the event of a conviction for a range of crimes, including murder, sedition, aggravated robbery, terrorism and drug trafficking. The sentence is carried out by firing squad.

Many in human rights circles had hoped that Joko’s image as a reformer would extend to him changing Indonesia’s position on the death penalty. But during a speech at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta earlier this month, Joko ruled out awarding clemency to convicted drug traffickers.

Joko said some 40 to 50 drug users died in Indonesia every day, and that the government needed to send a firm, zero-tolerance message.

Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization gave Joko its seal of approval on Dec. 24.

“We support the death penalty for the drug dealers and producers, but not the consumers,” said Said Aqil Siradj, chairman of the central board of NU.

Archbishop Ignatius emphasized that the policy was morally wrong and its effectiveness as a deterrent was not backed up by evidence.

“The theory saying that the death penalty has a deterrent effect has not been proved at all,” he said. “The death penalty doesn’t reflect justice.”

According to data from the Attorney General’s Office, there are 136 inmates currently facing the death penalty, 64 of whom have been convicted of drug trafficking.

President Joko Widodo previously said he would not offer clemency
to convicted drug traffickers. (Reuters Photo/Damir Sagolj)

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Church of England still homophobic, says bishop

Bishop of Buckingham Alan Wilson praises ‘courage and determination’ shown by gay members of clergy

The Guardian, Nicholas Watt Chief political correspondent, Wednesday 24 December 2014

In his Christmas sermon, Alan Evans complains that churches have a 'funny way' of showing Christian love towards gay people. Photograph: bishopalan.blogspot.com

The Church of England is still guilty of “serious institutional homophobia” and has yet to overcome “inertia and ignorance” towards same-sex couples, an Anglican bishop has claimed.

Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham, praised gay members of the clergy for showing “considerable courage and determination” as they fight deeply ingrained prejudices to marry.

“In very few years people will wonder what the fuss was all about,” the bishop says in a Christmas sermon for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community recorded for Pink News. He adds: “But for now it’s a path that calls for considerable courage and determination. So please spare a thought this Christmas for them.”

Wilson’s intervention comes days after Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said he was seeking to heal divisions between opponents and supporters of gay marriage.

In an appearance on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4, the archbishop declined to say whether he had dropped his own opposition to gay marriage as he said of the two sides in the debate: “If you love them you have to listen to them very, very carefully.”

Richard Chartres, the traditionally minded bishop of London who is close to the Prince of Wales, is an opponent of same sex marriage. But Chartres, who led the funeral service for Lady Thatcher, praised Welby on BBC London 94.9 for authorising “properly disciplined conversations” to allow the church to deal with its differences on the issue.

In his Christmas sermon, the bishop of Buckingham complains that the Church of England and other churches have a “funny way” of showing Christian love towards gay people.

“Christians believe God is love and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them,” he says. ”But, you may say, churches have a funny way of showing that sometimes. We still have a legacy of serious institutional homophobia, inertia and ignorance to overcome. The fact is, however, where people dare to think things could be different, think things through without prejudice, there is hope.”

The bishop said there was hope, but also danger in some parts of the world, for gay people. He said: “There is hope – I notice a new generation of evangelical Christians rethinking the implications of their faith in a far more truthful, just and generous way. At the same time, around the world, there are many places that are anything but safe for gay people.

“A Ugandan member of parliament is promising to bring back the notorious ant-gay bill that fell over this autumn. He calls it his Christmas gift to Ugandans – very much the sort of present you can do without. Wouldn’t peace on earth and goodwill to everybody be far more appropriate? But Christmas is Christmas. Love came down at Christmas, and the nativity story takes us back to the heart of everything. The miracle. The beauty of every human life is a gift of God deserving total respect full of hope. Happy Christmas.”

The bishop earlier this year criticised the Church of England for preaching a 1950s “Janet and John” view of human relationships even though many bishops have been and are gay.

In a blog about his book on same sex marriage in September, he wrote: “In the book I articulated the drearily obvious and well-known fact that a fair number of bishops in the past and present have been, in fact, gay … What matters to me is the fact that bishops have a range of sexual orientations including gay, not which bishops have what. Which particular bishops are Saggitarian, left-handed or red-haired? I know not in detail, neither do I care. I can, however, understand that curiosity about this is greater than it would be for a group of people who did not set themselves up as professionally straight while behaving in discriminatory ways towards gay people.”

Libby Lane's interests include learning to play the saxophone,
supporting Manchester United and doing cryptic crosswords.
Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?

"The Akashic Circle" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, The Humanization of God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)  - (Text version)

“… Gender Switching

Old souls, let me tell you something. If you are old enough, and many of you are, you have been everything. Do you hear me? All of you. You have been both genders. All of you have been what I will call between genders, and that means that all of you have had gender switches. Do you know what happens when it's time for you to switch a gender? We have discussed it before. You'll have dozens of lifetimes as the same gender. You're used to it. It's comfortable. You cannot conceive of being anything else, yet now it's time to change. It takes approximately three lifetimes for you to get used to it, and in those three lifetimes, you will have what I call "gender confusion."

It isn't confusion at all. It's absolutely normal, yet society often will see it as abnormal. I'm sitting here telling you you've all been through it. All of you. That's what old souls do. It's part of the system. …”