Patricia March 20th, 2008

Columbia University Event
Sponsored by The Global Cooperation Project.

I attended our first US educational event for the GCP in NY at Columbia’s prestigious SIPA buidling. My colleagues were presenting and the event had been arranged by Columbia student Glenn Sontagg.

The event took place on February 26, 2008. Focusing on a bold new paradigm for achieving enduring global peace at this critical moment for humanity, it was based on the book Not-Two Is Peace by Adi Da Samraj. (Adi Da is a graduate of Columbia University.)

The title of the presentation: Beyond Egoism.

Two guest speakers Rolf Carriere and Dr.Hugh O’Doherty shared their wealth of personal experience in international leadership and peace work. In this context, they presented an inspiring new vision of global leadership in peace restoration founded on radical transcendental insight into the fundamental nature of humanity.

About 80 people attended, including graduate students, faculty, guests from out of town and New York, and visitors from the U.N. The presentations were well received and discussions continued well into the evening.

A Columbia master’s degree graduate and retired former executive at a New York City health institution said that he felt the truth of the concept of the real changes being in the actual change of humanity’s consciousness – and that has to happen.

Joining in the discussion, a guest from Wall Street said the questions raised showed that people really wanted to understand a way to address their sense of overwhelm. At the very least people were in agreement about the fact that survival is not a given, and that the need is for right action such that right results will follow.

Comment from a Columbia graduate student: “This concept is unique; all the others seem to be dealing with the branches or extended aspects of the problems. But Adi Da cuts it all at the root in dealing with egoity.”

A New York publishing professional was encouraged by the sizable number in the room and by the positive energy exhibited by people responding to the message of “cooperation, tolerance and peace”.

Reaction from a San Francisco based student included the observation that the concept is “simple”, not like anything else that is out there, so much of which is all complicated, difficult and divisive. He felt there is a depth about what Not-Two Is Peace offers to the world.

The presentation was repeated for an invited audience in Chicago on February 29th.

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Patricia March 20th, 2008

I was considering biofuels for my next car and then read this sobering article from Avaaz.org. We have to be informed on the intricate balance of change and not create one larger problem for mankind while trying to solve another.

From Avaaz Alert-Each Day:

Most people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico to Morocco. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world’s worst-off.

How are the wealthiest countries responding? They’re burning food.

Specifically, they’re using more and more biofuels–alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people.

EU and US demand for biofuels is pushing up world food prices and increasing climate emissions. We should feed people, not cars–so join the call for global standards to clean up the biofuels industry:

Not all biofuels are bad–but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming. Click here to use our simple tool to send a message to your head of state before this weekend’s global summit on climate change in Chiba, Japan, and help build a global call for biofuels regulation:

Sometimes the trade-off is stark: filling the tank of an SUV with ethanol requires enough corn to feed a person for a year. But not all biofuels are bad; making ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is vastly more efficient than US-grown corn, for example, and green technology for making fuel from waste is improving rapidly.

The problem is that the EU and the US have set targets for increasing the use of biofuels without sorting the good from the bad. As a result, rainforests are being cleared in Indonesia to grow palm oil for European biodiesel refineries, and global grain reserves are running dangerously low. Meanwhile, rich-country politicians can look “green” without asking their citizens to conserve energy, and agribusiness giants are cashing in. And if nothing changes, the situation will only get worse.

What’s needed are strong global standards that encourage better biofuels and shut down the trade in bad ones. Such standards are under development by a number of coalitions8, but they will only become mandatory if there’s a big enough public outcry. It’s time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world’s carbon emissions9, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8’s climate change discussions. Before the summit, let’s raise a global cry for change on biofuels. Click here to take action.

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Patricia March 7th, 2008

This educational presentation is so excellently done. We have all become so incredibly programmed to consume. Here is the beautifully- executed graphic story of our post-World War II human culture. Simple, easy to comprehend, inspiration to change our ways and what is at stake if we don’t. Watch this video NOW!

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

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