I’m going to be away from this spot, “It Is What It Is“, for a few days. I won’t have full access to a PC or laptop.
I still have the capacity to keep an eye on what happens in the blogosphere while I’m away.
I’m not able to just disconnect, particularly with what is going on in our world at this time.
There are so many problems, issues, conflicts, injustices, bigotry, destruction, killing, wars ….. We need to stay informed and educated about “happenings“.
I will leave you today with a message.
As noted above, we won’t find peace until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, as Mr. Sweitzer noted.
‘Tis the season …
We are all in this together. Be kind to on another.
By Arianna Huffington
Earlier today, (December 7, 2015), the candidate currently leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” That was, of course, Donald Trump. As Jeffrey Goldberg just tweeted, “Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He’s providing jihadists ammunition for their campaign to demonize the US.”
“IOTD” is image of the day, a concept I came up with. I teach visual meditative therapy – or in easy terms – a mini mental holiday. For some people it is very difficult for them to get their image right. I post an image a day for people to use in their mini mental vacay. Some are serious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful!”
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP11 is being held in Le Bourget, Paris, from November 30 to December 11.
It is the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.
2498 academics from 75 countries signed this Open Letter calling for world leaders meeting in Paris to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change.
Prominent signatories include Noam Chomsky, Naomi Oreskes, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Michael E. Mann, Ursula Oswald Spring, Bill McKibben, David Suzuki, and Peter Singer.
Open Letter from Academics to World Leaders ahead of the Paris Climate Conference 2015
Some issues are of such ethical magnitude that being on the correct side of history becomes a signifier of moral character for generations to come. Global warming is such an issue.
Indigenous peoples and the developing world are least responsible for climate change, least able to adapt to it, and most vulnerable to its impacts. As the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris approaches, the leaders of the industrialized world shoulder a grave responsibility for the consequences of our current and past carbon emissions.
Yet it looks unlikely that the international community will mandate even the greenhouse gas reductions necessary to give us a two thirds chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. At the moment, even if countries meet their current non-binding pledges to reduce carbon emissions, we will still be on course to reach 3 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.
This is profoundly shocking, given that any sacrifice involved in making those reductions is far overshadowed by the catastrophes we are likely to face if we do not: more extinctions of species and loss of ecosystems; increasing vulnerability to storm surges; more heatwaves; more intense precipitation; more climate related deaths and disease; more climate refugees; slower poverty reduction; less food security; and more conflicts worsened by these factors.
Given such high stakes, our leaders ought to be mustering planet-wide mobilization, at all societal levels, to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
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We undersigned concerned academics, researchers and scientists from around the world recognize the seriousness of our environmental situation and the special responsibility we owe our communities, future generations, and our fellow species.
We will strive to meet that responsibility in our educational and communicative endeavors.
We call upon our leaders to do what is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. With just as much urgency, we call upon our fellow citizens to hold their leaders responsible for vigorously addressing global warming.
For the full list of signatories please see below.
Around the world, people from all walks of life are standing together to demand a strong climate agreement in Paris and a healthy future for the planet. When the world speaks with one voice, our leaders have to listen.
So we’ve put together this Open Letter with one very clear message: DEAR WORLD LEADERS: TAKE CLIMATE ACTION NOW.
People from around the world are affected by climate change today – right now. And they’re calling out to world leaders to demand real action this year at the UN climate talks in Paris.
I am a citizen of the world
and my home is my abode:
Rivers, lakes and valleys
are my sources of life;
Trees, birds and mountains
are my pride!
I am a citizen of the world
and my home is my abode:
Seas, fishes and oceans
are my sources of hope;
Shorelines, rocks and beaches
are my cliches!
I am a citizen of the world
and my peace is your company:
My children, relatives and friends
are my sources of strength;
Their love, care and tender touch
are my tabernacles.
I am a citizen of mankind
and the whole world is my abode.
Pink reveals her new role as a UNICEF ambassador on Good Morning America
Pink has been appointed a UNICEF ambassador.
And the proud pop star appeared on Good Morning America on Monday to share her big news.
The 36-year-old singer – who shares three-year-old daughter, Willow with husband Carey Hart – will focus on children’s health initiatives, including fighting global malnutrition, which impacts 159 million children.
In his latest video, “Man vs. Earth” spoken word artist Prince Ea opens by saying,
“Fun fact:
In “Man vs. Earth,” spoken word artist Prince Ea opens by saying, “Fun fact: Planet Earth is 4.5 billion years old, mankind, about 140,000 years old. Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth’s lifespan into 24 hours—that’s one full day—then we have been here for, drum roll please, three seconds.” Only by coming together, he says, can we make it to the proverbial fourth second.
Prince Ea objects to us calling ourselves homo sapiens, or “wise man” because, though we may be intelligent, we lack wisdom. “While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens,” he says. “And we willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature’s screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs.
Let me put that in perspective. If you condense the Earth’s lifespan into 24 hours – that’s one full day – then we have been here for, drum roll please, three seconds.” Only by coming together, he says, can we make it to the proverbial fourth second.”
Prince Ea objects to us calling ourselves homo sapiens, or “wise man” because, though we may be intelligent, we lack wisdom.
“While intelligence speaks, wisdom listens,” he says. “And we willingly covered our ears to Mother Nature’s screams and closed our eyes to all of her help wanted signs.
New Prince Ea video: Man vs Earth
Natalie Prolman on Nov. 24, 2015
Last Earth Day, activist and spoken word artist Prince Ea brought us the powerful and thought-provoking video Dear Future Generations:Sorry. With over 96 million views on Facebook to date, Prince Ea achieved something pretty incredible for the environmental community.
He clearly communicated the urgency of protecting our planet and inspired millions to understand the importance of mitigating climate change and taking action to stop deforestation.
He was able to reach the hearts of the generation to whom this issue matters to most: young people. And reminded us all that the power of change is in OUR hands!
I had the honor of sitting down with Prince Ea in London last week to discuss his newest video in support of the Stand For Trees campaign.
Natalie
“What was your inspiration for doing a second Stand For Trees video?”
Prince Ea
“I felt like there was more to say. The story was unfinished, I had more to get out there and in a different way. When I was brainstorming the original concept of writing a letter to future generations I came up with other dynamic ideas which I thought could be just as compelling. One of which was the 3 seconds theme, which I use in this one. This particular video is coming from an anthropological perspective (what I studied in school), looking at us as a species and the ramifications of our existence.”
Natalie
“What is the message you’re sending to the world?”
Prince Ea
“The message is: An inner revolution needs to take place. Global warming, climate change, animal agriculture, pollution, pesticides … all of these things are symptoms. They are byproducts of our inner reflection and how we see the world, how we see each other and how we see the environment. We’re very separated and divided, but that is not the truth about reality.
That is the truth about our socially constructed reality. The main message is to find the truth and see that we are connected to all beings both great and small. I always end with a message of hope, I believe that we can and will turn it all around. However, I don’t think the goal is to save the world, but to reshape it.
“Why do you think young people are such a critical audience for this message?”
Prince Ea
“I think because it’s really our future that’s at stake. We are the first generation to really see the impact of climate change and the last one who will be able to do something about it. So it’s definitely crucial that young people will become more aware. We have an opportunity to really evolve the human species into a new direction. A totally new direction from our past. One with mindfulness and love and care and understanding. No longer a business as usual approach.”
AMONG THE MANY ASININE, INACCURATE STATEMENTS, PLAIN LIES
THIS IS JUST ONE AMONG THE MANY
Allegra Kirkland
Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been characteristically unapologeticabout his claim that “thousands and thousands” of New Jersey residents cheered as the World Trade Center fell on Sept. 11, 2001, even though contemporaneous news reports don’t support it.
And his insistence on that recollection, which has no basis in fact, shows just how expert he is at roping together conspiracy theories, urban legends, and rumors that lurk on the fringes of the Internet and bringing them into the mainstream.
Rumors of groups of people celebrating the attacks in “tailgate-style parties” popped up in national publications like The Washington Post and Associated Press, but were never confirmed as true. A highly publicized video of Muslims cheering and flashing victory signs on the day of the attack was shot in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of Palestine, not in the Garden State. A video of American Muslims celebrating the terrorist attack doesn’t appear to exist and none of the unconfirmed reports of such an incident comes anywhere near the scale that Trump describes.
I’ve been reading about these comments since this weekend. I just finished watching Rachel Maddow’s TV show for today, November 23. I would recommend that you look for the video on this particular topic.
I cannot believe that this is happening in this country. I cannot believe that no one is standing up to this man. There are those who cheer and egg him on. There are those who even believe him.
Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks
Glenn Kessler
“Hey, I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
This is a bit like writing about the hole in the doughnut — how can you write about nothing?
Trump says that he saw this with his own eyes on television and that it was well covered. But an extensive examination of news clips from that period turns up nothing. There were some reports of celebrations overseas, in Muslim countries, but nothing that we can find involving the Arab populations of New Jersey except for unconfirmed reports. This claim has never been authenticated.
As the Newark Star-Ledger put it in an article on Sept. 18, 2001, “rumors of rooftop celebrations of the attack by Muslims here proved unfounded.”
Guru Nanak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the Sikh Gurus.
His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Poornima, the full-moon day which falls on different dates each year in the month of Katak, October–November.
Guru Nanak traveled far and wide teaching people the message of one God who dwells in every one of His creations and constitutes the eternal Truth. He set up a unique spiritual, social, and political platform based on equality, fraternal love, goodness, and virtue.
We’ve been around the political block long enough to know that almost all presidential candidates exaggerate, dissemble, take statements out of context and, yes, lie.
But from the start of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign (remember Mexican rapists?), he has taken this to a level we haven’t seen before in American politics.
Consider just these two examples from the weekend.
First, Trump said on Saturday in Alabama:
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down. And I watched in Jersey City New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering.”
In fact, as the New York Times writes, “No news reports exist of people cheering in the streets, and both police officials and the mayor of Jersey City have said that it did not happen. An Internet rumor about people cheering in the streets, which said it was in Paterson, not Jersey City, has been denied numerous times by city and police officials.” But when ABC pressed Trump on his statement, he stood his ground.
“It did happen. I saw it … It was on television. I saw it.”
Second, Trump retweeted a graphic claiming — falsely — that African Americans are responsible for the killing of most blacks and whites in America. “That is not true, the Washington Post notes. “According to data from the FBI, most whites are killed by whites, as most blacks are killed by blacks.
There’s an obvious reason for that: Most people are killed by someone they know.”
I do not get it. I simply don’t. It’s not even a matter of which political party anyone is affiliated with or which beliefs anyone holds. I grew up in Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States but never the less “US land”. I was brought up thinking how great the US was …. as a country, as a leader, as an example to the world.
I cannot believe what I’m seeing and hearing now.
Any human with decreased number of brain cells can get what this “person” is doing and saying. There are no limits to his “statements”, nothing is off limits. He’s raised the “idiocy bar” so high that the other presidential hopefuls have no other option but to go along or even come back with more asinine statements. If they don’t, they will be left in his dust.
It’s true … this man isn’t an embarassment of this country. He’s an indictment of it.
It Is What It Is 