Indian Black Money through Mauritius

Unaccounted wealth stashed overseas comes back through Mauritius

A lot of Fury and Fasts have bben pouring out in the Indian soil agaisnt the piles of Black currency notes of unaccounted wealth of Indian big wigs.
Corruption has slowed down the progress of my country and everyone in politics seems to have dirtied his hands in it to stock up this pile of cash.

It is truly unfortunate that the nation which once was spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi is knee deep in the dark waters of Black money, corruption and poverty.


Will the govt do something against the Tax Heavens usage for dumping the excess unaccounted wealth?
read the article from BUSINESS TODAY.

God is in every tomorrow, Therefore I live for today

"God is in every tomorrow,

Therefore I live for today,

Certain of finding at sunrise,

Guidance and strength for the way;

Power for each moment of weakness,

Hope for each moment of pain,

Comfort for every sorrow,

Sunshine and joy after rain."

 

  1st of July 2011

Todays begining was wrought with thoughts , which seemed to clip my aspirations.

Sometimes circumstances close the rainbow behind the cloud.Then i was busy with my work, fatigued but suddenly amidst hopelessness came a fleeting thought of going back to God, with whom i had a clash of arguments and had come out waving my hand in despair.

 

Somedays , every corner looks with no way out, it looks as though your plans may not take wings, you waited and waited, and dreamed , but will it ever happen.

Heart turns soar and cheer disappears, but at moments of despair, something prompts you to look at the Face of the Saviour who holds your way and then my heart slowly tries to understand,

 

This is my motivation for today.

The desires of heart may see no way out, 

odds may not favour my way

but my sailor is smart and wise

and knows to set my sails

in the way the wind flows

He knows to change the winds as well

how did i lose my hope 

and thought to shut those yearnings in

nay, i will look upto Him

He is my Light when darkness sets in 

and He will chart my course.

---self

There is no storm hath power to blast The tree God knows

The wind that blows can never kill

The tree God plants;

It bloweth east, it bloweth west,

The tender leaves have little rest,

But any wind that blows is best.

The tree that God plants

Strikes deeper root, grows higher still,

Spreads greater boughs, for God's good will

Meets all its wants.

 

There is no storm hath power to blast

The tree God knows;

No thunderbolt, nor beating rain,

Nor lightning flash, nor hurricane;

When they are spent, it doth remain,

The tree God knows,

Through every tempest standeth fast,

And from its first day to its last

Still fairer grows.

--Selected

Source - Charles Cowman,s Streams in the Desert

 

Wait patiently wait, God never is late;

Wait patiently wait,

God never is late;

Thy budding plans are in Thy Father's holding,

And only wait His grand divine unfolding.

Then wait, wait,

Patiently wait.

Trust, hopefully trust,

That God will adjust

Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,

 

Will bring His will, in all its bright

revealings.

Then trust, trust,

Hopefully trust.

Rest, peacefully rest

On thy Saviour's breast;

Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition,

And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.

Then rest, rest,

Peacefully rest! --Mercy A. Gladwin

 

source- Charles Cowman's Streams in the Desert

The Blood Pressure reducing Plant of Indian medicine

This magical plant used in ancient Indian medicine for thousands of years has wonderful property of lowering high BP.

Rauwolfia serpentina

The Fukushima Failure-Improper Corporate Governance

March 11 2011, a 15m high tsunami wave struck Japan, it destroyed thousands of people and millions worth property.
A far more important event , with its far reaching consequence, which threatened the world was this wave hitting the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of TEPCO company.

The cosequences resulting in failure of the plant and leakage of Radiation could have been avoided , had the Corporate Governance laws of Japan been properly working.
The lack of voted Directors and Special Steering Committees for special risk assessment and mitigation , led to TEPCO covering up many of its past failures.
Nobody was allowed to question.
Those who questioned and were the whistle blowers were not offered protection, matters were covered up but the basic framework was never strengthened.

Building a 7m high wall around the plant with a diesel powered Backup kept at the basement of the Plant was the result of ignoring the possibility that a 15m wave could also strike the island .

A 2001 whistleblower event led to the uncovering of 27 falsified inspection reports and much uproar by the public , but the company and the govt failed to take up concrete action instead only hushed it under by ignoring proper action.
The Fukushima Warning - WSJ.com

Saint Augustine quotes on Prayer, Faith and Humility

Prayer has, besides the effect of spiritual consolation which it brings with it, a twofold power regarding the future: the power, namely, of meriting, and that of winning favours. But prayer, as indeed every other virtuous act, derives its power of meriting from that root which is charity, and the true and proper object of charity is that Eternal Good, the enjoyment of Which we merit. Now prayer proceeds from charity by means of the virtue of religion whose proper act is prayer; there accompany it, however, certain other virtues which are requisite for a good prayer—namely, faith and humility. For it belongs to the virtue of religion to offer our prayers to God; while to charity belongs the desire of that the attainment of which we seek in prayer. And faith is necessary as regards God to Whom we pray; for we must, of course, believe that from Him we can obtain what we ask. Humility, too, is called for on the part of the petitioner, for he must acknowledge his own needs. And devotion also is necessary; though this comes under religion of which it is the first act, it conditions all subsequent effects.

And its power of obtaining favours prayer owes to the grace of God to Whom we pray, and Who, indeed, induces us to pray. Hence Saint. Augustine says: "He would not urge us to ask unless He were ready to give"; and S. Chrysostom says: "He never refuses His mercies to them who pray,[Pg 139] since it is He Who in His loving-kindness stirs them up so that they weary not in prayer."

Thomas Aquinas quote on the purpose of prayer

The whole object of prayer is to be heard, and the Psalmist says that it is our desires which are heard: The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor. Prayer, then, is desire; but desire is an act of the appetitive powers.
[Pg 70]
But the Lord is said to hear the desires of the poor either because their desire is the reason why they ask—since our petitions are in a certain sense the outward expression of our desires; or this may be said in order to show the swiftness with which He hears them—even while things are only existing in the poor man's desire; God hears them even before they are expressed in prayer. And this accords with the words of Isaias: And it shall come to pass that before they shall call I will hear, as they are yet speaking I will hear

http://www.gutenberg.org

Saint Ambrose Quote

Saint Ambrose says: "God calls those whom He deigns to call; and whom He wills to make religious He makes religious; and had He willed it He would have made the Samaritans devout instead of indevout."

San Agustín cita a: Tenemos que permanecer en Cristo!

San Agustín cita a: Tenemos que permanecer en Cristo! Entonces, ¿cómo no ser que ahora poseemos Dónde estamos entonces a cumplir y dónde vamos a sacar la vida? Deje que la Sagrada Escritura habla por nosotros para que no nos parece de una mera conjetura estar diciendo cosas contrarias a la enseñanza de la Palabra de Dios. Escucha las palabras de alguien que sabía: Si Dios es por nosotros ¿quién contra nosotros [44] El Señor, dice, es la porción de mi herencia [45] El les dijo: no:. Señor, ¿qué me has de dar la mía herencia? Todo lo que tú puedes darme no sirve para nada! Ser tú mi herencia! Te amo! Te hago el amor por completo! Con todo mi corazón, con toda mi alma, con toda mi mente yo te amo! Entonces, ¿cuál será mi destino? ¿Qué quieres darme sálvate a ti mismo? Esto es amar a Dios libremente. Esta es la esperanza de Dios de Dios. Este es apresurarse a estar lleno de Dios, para ser saciado con él. Para él es suficiente para ti, sin él nada puede te basta!

 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22295/22295-h/22295-h.htm

S. Agustín: clamé al Señor con mi voz

S. Agustín: clamé al Señor con mi voz [46] Muchos lloran al Señor para que puedan ganar riquezas, para que puedan evitar pérdidas, sino que grito que su [Pg. 33] de la familia puede ser establecida, que piden temporal. la felicidad, de dignidades mundanas, y, por último, claman por la salud del cuerpo, que es el patrimonio de los pobres. Para estas cosas, y cosas por el estilo llorar a muchos al Señor, apenas un clamor por el Señor mismo! ¿Qué tan fácil es para un hombre al deseo toda clase de cosas del Señor y, sin embargo, no deseo que el Señor mismo! Como si el regalo podría ser más dulce que el Dador!

• Marriage and Parent–Child Relationships

Marriage and Parent–Child Relationships

A strong and secure family produces strong and secure children.
A secure family forges strong bonds between its members and resolves its conflicts in a congenial and consensual manner.
A child learns from its parents as to how to handle stress, conflicts and view relationships in its own world full of interactions.

A strife torn marriage and stress filled home atmosphere, parental conflicts, parental discipline, effect of other factors like the presence of in-laws, work pressure, financial status all make their impact on the emotinal and cognitive and behavioural development of a child.

Here is a link to an interesting article studying Marriage and Parent-child Relationships.

"how marital relationships affect other family relationships and the social and emotional development of young children. Marital relationships can support or undermine the parenting of young children and are themselves affected by parenting"

Marital relationship quality and sleep

Marital quality and the marital bed: Examining the covariation between relationship quality and sleep Review Article
Sleep Medicine Reviews, October 2007
This is an interesting research article trying to understand any association between the quality of marital relationship and sleep.For those who are married , understand those grey days when a heated argument, or doubt or incompatibility gave them sleepless nights, tossing and turning on the bed, that you share with your partner.

At least to me , it seems that there should be some association between the two variables.
for further insight read the article yourself.
I have provided the link.

"The majority of adults sleep with a partner, and for a significant proportion of couples, sleep problems and relationship problems co-occur, yet there has been little systematic study of the association between close relationships and sleep. The association between sleep and relationships is likely to be bi-directional and reciprocal—the quality of close relationships influences sleep and sleep disturbances or sleep disorders influence close relationship quality. Therefore, the purpose of the present review is to summarize the extant research on (1) the impact of co-sleeping on bed partner's sleep, (2) the impact of sleep disturbance or sleep disorders on relationship functioning, and (3) the impact of close relationship quality on sleep"

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079207000706

Russia Elects First African

Russia Elects First African
"

Jean Gregoire Sagbo

Jean Gregoire Sagbo -48-year-old, Russia's newly elected councilman of Novozavidovo ,where he has lived for 21 years.

True lover- a poem by Ramsey Nasr

True lover

the rose the lily the dove the sun monkey saturn the hydrogen bomb love’s bliss encompasses a lot of things big and tangible they fit easy in the mitts of all-crumbling lovers for them it’s all:
      a. cuppa cha cuppa java
      b. ootchy-kootchy
      c. cuddly-snuggly honeybunny
      d. hi sweetie hi sugarplum

lovers trivialise the elements
a tad
stepping like armoured children
into their means of transport

sitting in their topsy-turvy choo-choo train
that’s come to a standstill
for the second time this week
because of the silly chappie underneath

full of love he too
wanted to crush language
with his hands like them
but in his own way

he took steps
exploding himself from element
to vast delaying chaos
sudden thaw and frost in one

human bliss clings to stars and pollen
no miracle too big or small

for the determined blind
monkey is rose dove sun

the true lover admits no difference
between lily and hydrogen bomb

Ramsey Nasr-Poem on Gaza

 POEM ON GAZA
ye who enter here
and this was once my house, do come in
make sure to wear stout boots for the blueprints
would you like some coffee never mind the grit let’s start
he solemnly hands you half of a cup
as if it were for real, and says go ahead
while he scales the mount himself, keeping his pinkie lifted
cardamom, he thinks as he sniffs at the shard
and takes in the view, coolly peering down
stands quietly sipping the rubble
thus a connoisseur greets the custom-made day
the pinkie curls up as a water sprinkler
the hand is a bowl for the desolation
two floors hath the house of the man who is drinking
and between them there is a wondrous staircase
upon which you can walk to above from below
in the wall he has had open windows installed, he says
that even as a child he thought those were the best
as he roamed the streets as a night-blueprint
he lives there now with his pregnant bride
their door led straight into the living room
with nothing to hide but a window
in this town every house is the house of your dreams
every crater has become the best of all craters
in Gaza, walking shoes are best worn at night
-----Ramsey Nasr
(translation Guido Courtois)

Unfortunately It Was Paradise poems- an excerpt-Mahmoud Darwish

Like a desert, space recedes from time
the distance needed for a poem to explode.
...O lute, give me back what has been lost,
and sacrifice me over it.
...O stranger, I am a stranger and you are like me.
O stranger, far from home, go back.
O lute, bring back what is lost, and sacrifice over you
from jugular to jugular.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Everything will begin again.

Five of the Nastiest Examples of Wal-Mart Evil |

Five of the Nastiest Examples of Wal-Mart Evil |

Denied wages, denied paid rest and lunch breaks, sex- discrimination, lower wages, worker exploitation and many more against the major retail giant WALMART.
Walmart is fighting against law suits.
Its workers are forming non-formal unions to demand their rights.

Dukes vs. Wal-Mart is the largest civil class-action suits in history, filed back in 2001 by brave employee Betty Dukes and joined by between 500,000 and 1.5 million women. Drawing attention to commonplace instances of a workplace glass ceiling, the denial of advancement, a persistent pay gap between men and women, and retaliation for worker grievances

To Uphold the World: What Two Statesmen from Ancient India Can Tell Us about Our Current Crisis

To Uphold the World: What Two Statesmen from Ancient India Can Tell Us about Our Current Crisis

Unraveling of Economic crisis, in many nations of the world , the existing chasm and wide gap between the rich and poor, the exploitative nature of the colonial powers of the past , which depleted many developing nations of their power to grow, at whose cost today they boast of their development, all shows that the world is fast getting depleted of all kinds of ethics.
The nations need to recognise their interdepence and sustained unified growth every where, not growing at the others cost.Even today the world's superpower have hidden agenda and their activities still control the world's economy.
This article talks about Global Economic Ethics which the world needs today.This wisdom has been sourced from the ancient Economist Kautilya and the gentle, compassionate king Ashoka, the great belonging to the ancient India.

“a global market economy requires a global ethic.”

Noam Chomsky on the Environment and US policy

The famous Linguist has always criticized the US for its imperialistic policies. He is known for candid views  .He has spoken and continues to address issues concerning globalization, environment, and foreign policy.

Noam Chomsky on the Environment

The emerging economies, China, India, and others, argued that it’s unfair for them to bear the burden of a couple hundred years of environmental destruction by the currently rich and developed societies. That’s a credible argument. But it’s one of these cases where you can win the battle and lose the war. The argument isn’t going to be very helpful to them if, in fact, the environmental crisis advances and a viable society goes with it. And, of course, the poor countries, for whom they’re speaking, will be the worst hit. In fact, they already are the worst hit. That will continue. The rich and developed societies, they split a little bit. Europe is actually doing something about it; it’s done some things to level off emissions. The United States has not…

In Nicaragua, Washington stumbled on an arm’s-length policy: wreck the economy and prosecute a long and deadly proxy war until the exhausted natives overthrow the unwanted government themselves. The past ten years have savaged the country’s civilians, not its comandantes. The impoverishment of the people of Nicaragua was a harrowing way to give the National Opposition Union (U.N.O.) a winning issue.

Dreams- that i don't remember, vivid dreams but poor recall

I get lot of dreams.
good and Bad
During anxious times , the bad one's outnumber the good.

There are dreams which have made a practical impact on me, which  have influenced my thought life, there are others, which howsoever , hard i try, i don't seem to remember, just a vague memory of them.
I was able to get the reasons for them.

It seems a hormone called epinephrine and two  regions of brain play important role in this.
The regions are
-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain region that facilitates memory
and the cerebral cortex- 
 plays a key role in memory, thought, language and consciousness.

Presence of Epinephrine in cerebral cortex has been found to be memory enhancing
and thinking and rethinking thoughts activates DLPFC.

Thats a good reminder of the fact that how good reminding stimulates brain activity , thus shaping long term memories.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault -for the post apocalyptic future

600 miles away from Norway, is an archipelago called Svalbard , and there lies the World's first , $6.7 million worth seed vault in an unique location , lying at a depth of 426 feet under the mountain's surface, storing up 4.5 million frozen seed samples coming from 100 countries.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/how_food_explains_the_world?page=full

Healthful Morning Rituals-Early rising habit

Super Healthful Morning Rituals
Meditation
Jogging
Running
Flossing
Yoga

I have never been able to do the other four, except for meditating on Scriptures.
Waking up early in the morning , with mind full of hope and love , is i think a big asset.
It helps to stay ahead, finish off chores before others wake up,
get closer to god,
present our petitions to Him.
I would love to do running, in the morning , though i do 20 minutes cycling , in evenings ,3/4 times a week, sometimes all 7 days.
I feel thankful to my parents for instilling the habit of exercise and i would like to punctualize early morning rising habit, which i have lost, ever since i became researcher , workig late into nights and often greeting early morning , before i doze off.Of course that very rare.

LEO TOLSTOY'S BEAUTIFUL QUOTES ON LOVE

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love...

The hero of my tale, whom I love with all the power of my soul, whom I have tried to portray in all his beauty, who has been, is, and will be beautiful, is Truth.

Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly.

To love life is to love God. Harder and more blessed than all else is to love this life in one's sufferings, in undeserved sufferings.

Then I remembered the first lesson God had set me: "Learn what dwells in man." And I understood that in man dwells Love! I was glad that God had already begun to show me what He had promised, and I smiled for the first time.

I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live by care for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live. He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love

Albert_Schweitzer 's critism of european colonisers, the white and the coloured races

CRITICISM OF EUROPEAN COLONISERS

"Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that in the course of centuries they [the coloured peoples] have suffered at the hands of Europeans? ... If a record could be compiled of all that has happened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over unread because their contents would be too horrible."

"Our culture divides people into two classes: civilized men, a title bestowed on the persons who do the classifying; and others, who have only the human form, who may perish or go to the dogs for all the 'civilized men' care.

"Oh, this 'noble' culture of ours! It speaks so piously of human dignity and human rights and then disregards this dignity and these rights of countless millions and treads them underfoot, only because they live overseas or because their skins are of different color or because they cannot help themselves. This culture does not know how hollow and miserable and full of glib talk it is, how common it looks to those who follow it across the seas and see what it has done there, and this culture has no right to speak of personal dignity and human rights...

Green Facts

Every bamboo cut takes 59 days to be replaced and every tree cut takes up to 60 years

The shade and wind buffering provided by trees reduces annual heating and cooling costs by 2.1 billion dollars.

Each average-sized tree provides an estimated $7 savings in annual environmental benefits, including energy conservation and reduced pollution.

A single tree produces approximately 260 pounds of oxygen per year. That means two mature trees can supply enough oxygen annually to support a family of four!

One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.Over the course its life, a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide.

An average American uses about 750 pounds of paper every year, and 95% of homes are built using wood. That means each person uses the equivalent of one 100 foot tall, 16 inch diameter, tree every year for their paper and wood product needs.

http://www.savatree.com/tree-facts.htm

Green Tip of the Day

Install dual flush tanks or simply put a brick in your flush tank to reduce the amount of water expelled with every flush

His word , His verses are my assurances,

God invites me to Him.
I need to take the first step.
He assures me that He is hearing me
even before i utter a word.
He understands the cloudiness of my heart
and the inability to communicate my pain,
"my pain seems hard Lord, How long,?, i ask"


But the heart questions for His hearing and reply,
I search for His presence, a tangible, physical evidence,
Then , comfort flows,
sometimes i just linger on in pain,
but the very act of sharing to Him,
makes me put a tick on my checklist in mind,
"i have informed Him of my need"
"He needs to address it"
" is His time going to be long, will i have to wait"
But His word , His verses are my assurances, 
peace flows in ,
for my heart has felt a tangible evidence from Him,
as the spark shared between the eyes of two lovers.
I LOVE YOU LORD.

Solar power lights up thousands of homes

Tata Power 's ambitious plan to make its Reneweble energy portfolio robust has resulted in setting up at Mulshi in Pune district , 3-MW solar power plant, at a cost of Rs 42 crore and under the renewable energy power obligations (RPO) and it produces around 13,000 units of electricity every day to meet the energy needs of people of Pune.
The company projects that this plant will generate 4.6 million units of power in a year


Tata Power set up its first power plant of 100 KW in 1996 at Walwahan in Lonavla and 60.48-KW power plant at its corporate office building .

Black money: 18 Indians on list- total tax penalty Rs 24.27 crore

Eighteen wealthy business men from Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Chennai have put Rs 39.66 crore collectively during 2002-04 with the LGT bank in the European tax haven country of Liechtenstein . Their total tax penalty is worth Rs 24.27 crore.




India as i have seen and heard and as is projected outside is truly a country of contrasts.
With the advent of IPL , revealing the extent to which money gets involved in Entertainment sector, it is not surprising to know that there are these wealthy business giants whose tax penalties run into crore's and who have evaded it.


Ask the question "what have they done significantly for the country, the answer would be nothing"
"but what they have done for themselves, syored up enough money at the cost of others to take care of tens of their forthcoming generations"
Irony prevails and rules this country.
This is but a short list, i guess many more , much wealthier ones are to be revealed.


When the world bank has predicted that rising oil and food prices are severely going to hurt the poor , it is indeed a very ironical picture of huge lumps of money -" black money"- stored up behind lockers.

Curbing the E-Waste Problem -40 million tons of trash annually

Old computers, television, mobile phones all get piled as they get discarded for new better ones. where does this electronic scrap go. It is around 40 million tons of trash annually.It is reported that these scraps contain precious metals like Gold, silver, platinum etc and as per UN study more Gold is present in these scraps than in a Gold mine.


" To mine one gram of gold, most companies will move a tone of ore. But it would be far simpler to get the gold through recycling -- you can find the same amount of gold in 41 mobile phones"


Mobile phones worldwide require annually around , 15 percent of cobalt production, 13 percent of palladium and 3 percent of the gold and silver .


e-waste -- which includes any discarded or end-of-life appliances that used electricity or has electrically-powered parts -- contain both valuable and hazardous materials such as lead or mercury. And like other toxin-containing goods, e-waste requires special recycling methods in order to properly dispose of its materials.

India takes unique path to lower carbon emissions

India stands at third position in the list of global polluters.With increasing population, increasing energy demands, as new indusries open up in different parts of India and an economy growing at 8-9 percent rate, it doesn't look shocking .But the govt has come up with unique plans like Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT), by setting up benchmark levels for cement, steel and power plants and also by REC - renewable energy certificate trading scheme for wind, solar and biomass power plants.

"The policy roadmap India is adopting to curb emissions is innovative -- something that will make industries look at making efficiency the centre-piece rather than some step that follows an ineffective carrot and stick policy," said Srinivas Krishnaswamy, CEO of green policy consultants Vasudha India

Mining barons -Bellary's Reddy brothers - a fairy tale rise

Bellary's Reddy brother who changed the political landscape of BJP , had their beginings as sons of police constable. Their company - the  first big venture, a financial firm, Ennoble India Private Limited in 1989 made them  wealthy,further in 1999 they won the confidence of BJP's  Sushma swaraj  by managing the entire elections   at Bellary and eventually  they got their foothold into political circles. 

"Thus began the dream journey, both in politics and business. In 2000, the family bought Obalapuram mines. In 2001, for the first time, the Reddy family member - Somashekar - contested elections for Bellary City Municipality and got elected. The mining boom during 2002-2003 changed their life.  "

Unpublished Monroe pictures found in garage sale

At a weekend garage sale in Parsippany, New Jersey, in 1980, Anton fury pays USD 2 for a folder, not knowing what photo's are inside , but for sure it looked like some old negatives .When he opens it, he finds two envelopes of black-and-white old negatives, a little illumination and he discovers that he is in possession of unbelievable unreleased snaps of Monroe, a priceless possesion indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He contacted art dealer David W Streets, a Beverly Hills art dealer and got the photogeaphs confirmed.These snaps are released just before Monroe's 80th birthday.


"I took it home, put them on the lightboard with a loupe and, needless to say, these are Marilyn. That was probably my greatest garage sale discovery ever," added Fury.

Antarctic under threat

Marine reserves | Greenpeace International
The marine reserves of the Ross sea, Antarctica is under threat.
This is the story of how our fishermen, having taken so many fish from the seas closer to home, are now venturing to the ends of the Earth in order to maintain our insatiable appetite for seafood. This is also the story of how a group of Antarctic scientists, environmentalists, retailers, and chefs are working together to support the protection of the Antarctic’s unique and beautiful Ross Sea – the healthiest marine ecosystem remaining on Earth.


Its all due to the hunt for antarctic tooth Fish.
The oceans have been a source of meeting our various needs ever since earth came into existence, but man's greed , has pushed him beyond his limits of fishing, mining, explorations, which when crossed pose a dangerous threat to his very own existence in the long run.

Rabindranath Tagore and melancholy

Rabindranath Tagore: The interpreter of melancholy | Society | Times Crest
There is a touch of melancholy in most writings of Tagore , as he exposes the peasants struggles or the plight of being a woman in India.
His writings strive to reveal the state of the voiceless , not often heard.


From the pangs of hunger to the ache of a body lashed with a stick, from the loneliness of a child to the anguish of lovers parted, Tagore captures every shade of pain in his writing, music and paintings

Amazon activist and wife shot dead in Brazil

Amazon activist and wife shot dead in Brazil

Rubber tapper and pro amazon environmentalist Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, and his wife Maria do Espirito Santo were ambushed and killed in the Amazon state of Para.He had recieved numerous death threats by cattle ranchers and loggers as he was working in defense of local people who had their livelihood based on extracting renewable products from the forests.
His death renews concern over the often violent conflicts surrounding natural resources in Latin America's largest country

Conserving Forests and Reducing Emissions in Indonesia

Major Global Palm Oil Supplier GAR Agrees to New Standards for Conserving Forests and Reducing Emissions in Indonesia
TFT is a non profit trust, based in Geneva doing a very noble work of helping businesses produce products in a responsible and environmentally sustainable way.


Based on an agreement with TFT, the worlds largest palm oil producer, US$2.3 billion,GAR,Golden Agri-Resources Limited, has agreed to work on the conservation of vulnerable carbon-rich forests and peatlands in Indonesia by establishing a Forest Conservation Policy and other measures which will ensure that GAR's plantations are not developed at the expense of carbon rich forests, or on peatlands or other forests important for local livelihood or biodiversity but to grow palm in an environment friendly manner and continue providing jobs as a large section of Indonesian population iare employed in the palm oil production .


Scott Poynton, TFT’s executive director. “It’s about going to the root causes of deforestation; we have shown that the destruction of forests is anchored deeply in the supply chains of the products we consume in industrialized nations and we are showing we can do something about that.”


Palm oil is an important ingredient in many choclates, sweets ,cosmetic products, biofuels etc.About 40 million tons of palm oil worth $20 billion is produced each year.

last habitats of orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger under threat.

tens of millions of hectares still face Axe


Vast rain forests of Indonesia, continues to disappear at an alarming rate, in the name of development and progress.
Last year, with much pressure from people and the campaign organised by greenpeace, food giant Nestle was stopped from accepting raw materials in its supply chain process, which leads to heavy deforestation.Earlier huge swamps, with peat, were being cleared, which would release a large amount of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.These areas designated High Carbon Storage (HCS), peatlands and areas of High Conservation Value - including areas vital to local livelihoods and animal habitat.
But the new moratorium , does not do much to protect the natural habitats of the Oran-gutan and the sumatran tiger, as it allows many paper pulp companies to continue pulping millions of tonnes , of Indonesian rainforest , areas of high carbon storage and peatlands, which store enormous quantities of climate changing carbon.


According to Greenpeace, about 40 million hectares of forest could still be destroyed under the moratorium.It doesnot act far enough , and millions of hectares can still be cleared.


Only new concessions to clear forest will be suspended; the millions of hectares of forest already slated for destruction continue to be under threat;

Hay Festival 2011: King James Bible reading

To mark the 400th anniversary of King James Bible , the 96 hour long bible reading , began at the Hay festival.
With many"begats", and details of births and deaths, and detailed instruction by God as to how to build the ark, the begining was much received by the audience.


The opening was done by Rev Nicholas Lowton, at the festival site with the famous words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”


the reading was done in a tent whipped by wind and stirred by storms reminiscent of Noah’s tempest

Metsamor , Armenia ,among the most dangerous nuclear plants

Metsamor , Armenia , among the most dangerous nuclear plants still in operation as it is present in highly earthquake prone region of Ararat valley in close proximity to the populous capital of Armenia.


Its a old fashioned WER440 type, a Soviet-era nuclear power plant , sitting on an earthquake fault line in the
Ararat valley outside the Armenian capital Yeravan.


"There are five earthquake tectonic breaks [near the plant] -- one is 34 kilometers [away], another is 16 kilometers away, and one is at a distance of only 500 meters," explains Hakob Sanasarian, chairman of Yerevan's Greens' Union environmental group."


This plant with its old fashioned safety measures is highly unlikely to withstand an earthquake of the magnitude of Japan. The plant's light-water reactor is classified as one of the "oldest and least reliable" by the EU, also the plant is not protected against radioactive leaks.

Following the 1988 earthquake of 6.9 magnitude with epicenter, 75 kilometers from Metsamor, the plant was shut down.The increasing demand for power has led to its re-functioning , at present Metsamor, supplies 40 percent of Armenia's nuclear power.




The European Union, living in close proximity to the old Soviet plants, shut down Four VVER 440 units in Bulgaria and two in Slovakia were closed as a condition of those countries joining the EU, but it failed to do so in case of Armenia.


Nevertheless it has provided aid for improving its safety and other renewable energy projects.

Aurora's-The unbelievable pillars of mystic colours

The pillars of mystic colours of aurora transmit a kind of mystery, and seem to exuberate a metaphysical effect on the onlooker.Its ethereal colours, the haze, its all too unimaginable , like a giant mix of soft and vibrant colours on the canvass of the polar skies.They arrive suddenly and dissappear suddenly.For someone like me who gets excited enough to spot a rainbow in the sky , the auroras are for sure to transmit me to another world, as if signalling to me the existence of something which cannot be comprehended by human eyes.Indeed many auroras need special cameras to be seen and are not visible to human eye.


For me to conclude- wondrous are the handiwork of the creator God , who displays such unfathomable beauty stunning the human eye and transporting us to the other world.

In the otherwise all white landscape of the polar regions , its a feast to see the blazing of bright colors of aurora's which lit up the skies, transforming the entire polar landscape.

image location -

http://www.appletvsoftware.net/img/1-5-1/3d-aurora.jpg

Polar Bears Listed as Threatened , will likely be endangered in future

Polar ice sheets are vanishing , as the planet warms, causing, loss of habitat for the polar bears.
Human activity has not spared anything, the polar bear is facing the crunch.The polar bear is entirely dependent on the ice for its survival and flourishing


It has been listed as the threatened species as its numbers have declined, but if the trend of arctic melting and oil explorations and other harmful human activities continue , this species will soon be endangered and two-thirds likely to be extinct by 2050 as studies reveal."U.S. Geological Survey studies released in 2007 that found two-thirds of the world's polar bears could go extinct by 2050"


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Volcano Erupts in Iceland , yet another volcanic ash cloud in 2011

After the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in April 2010, it is now the turn of another of Icelands dangerous volcano Grímsvötn, located under he ice caps.
The previous one caused halting of air traffic for nearly a period of two weeks when the air space was totally clouded with the volcanic ash, this one has vented out 9-kilometer-high cloud of ash and volcanic lightening.


The apparently dormant surface of Icelands has many more mysteries to unfold in years to come , keeping in mind the dormant ones buried underneath.
Who knows which one will be aroused from its long slumber, causing catastrophe.
Hope by then our technologies advance fast enough to suck up the spewing ash clouds and lava.Highly doubtful''''.
Who can resist Nature's Fury, science fails and sometimes misuse of science itself is the cause of many catastrophes.

Indian Billionaires’ Private Expensive Jets

Mukesh Ambani owns a $73 million Boeing Business Jet 2, a 1,004 sq. ft. plane with a private bedroom suite , also owns a Falcon 900EX jet ,a custom-fitted Airbus 319, Anil Ambani owns Global Express jets , a Falcon 7X and a Falcon 2000 while Vijay Mallya owns An Airbus A319 ACJ, a Boeing 727, a Hawker , a Gulfstream and the richest of all Lakshmi Mittal owns a Gulfstream G550.

Source-

http://luxedb.com/indian-billionaires-private-jets/

Billionaires who were born poor

This article from business week talks about the poor kids, raised in poor or not so good upbringings, who made it to the top creamy class of richness and wealth, these billionaires were not propelled with money as the aim , their beginnings were humble and unique but their destinations sparkled.

The thrill of building a business appears to define many self-made billionaires. Gerry wakes up to quite a nice bank account. Still, as he puts it, there's nothing like the excitement that comes with starting up and growing.

sub saharan search for water

Sunday Standard - Online Edition: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
The sub saharan region along with south asia is home to about more than half of worlds hungry people, yet the cultivable land available here is mere 4%.Added to that is the shortage of ground water.Most crops in this region are rain fed crops.Most people here are dependent on agriculture for livelihood .

"Nourishing the Planet recommends three models for effective water management that can be replicated and scaled-up around the world. These recommendations are for the use of human-powered pump as the foot-operated treadle pump enables 2.3 million farmers in the developing world—some 250,000 in sub-Saharan Africa—to boost crop productivity, improve harvest reliability, and raise incomes. ."

Pakistan and India: A rivalry that threatens the world ,Six and a half decades of bloodshed

Six and a half decades of bloodshed, army half the size of India, still pakistan's fury against India hasnot subsided.A country with a stronger army and weaker govt, a country whose military boosted LeT and Taliban,
a country where more is spent on arms and less on education is fighting against itself a costly war.But a country with its lovely ordinary folks, a vibrant culture, which shares its history with India and whose citizens , would want peace with India, but whose Army is obsessed with fighting India, is becoming a disappointment to the world

A Moments Indulgence - poem by Rabindranath Tagore

A Moments Indulgence

I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side. The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards. Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil. Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove. Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

With no place to sleep, no toilets and no running water

With no place to sleep, no toilets and running water it’s a tough situation for the border communities of Liberia-Côte d'Ivoire .But the  Red Cross is doing a commendable task of providing clean water and sanitation facilities to these people.ICRC  has installed water purification and distribution  which in a day produces up to 75,000 litres of clean drinking water used by  more than 10,000 people.

Curtis is hosting twenty Ivorians. He knows how it is to be a refugee: he had to flee to Côte d'Ivoire during the 14-year civil war in Liberia. "When the refugees arrived, I remembered when I was a refugee on the other side of the border. I remember how homesick I used to feel. I know they feel the same way, so I give everything I have in order to make them feel better."

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/feature/2011/liberia-feature-2011-03-23.htm

The Red Cross and the crisis at Liberia-Côte d'Ivoire border

The pouring in of the refugees from neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire, has worsened the food crisis already prevalent in Liberia. The Liberian civil war lasting for fourteen years which ended in 2004 , resulted in killing of nearly 250 thousands and much more people were displaced. Today the country is picking up the broken pieces, when one sees the infiltration of refugees is  worsening its food crisis. But people in many villages have hosted these refugees. Even without the refugees it was  a serious situation of food crisis and seed stock depletion. But thanks to the efforts of International Red cross , there seems some hope, here and there. They are helping in  increasing accessibility to villages, building bridges  apart from aiding the farmers, by replenishing the seed stock.

The ICRC, together with the Liberian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, has launched an agricultural programme to help 3,000 families who are hosting refugees along the Liberia-Côte d'Ivoire border

Chile will become the first developed country in Latin America

The Santiago Times
Chile is a prosperous and stable nation of the South american region with its high volumes of foreign trade and sound economic policy.

Chile says the worlds richest man,will Be Latin America’s First Developed Country. Carlos Slim, the Mexican tycoon has pointed to industrial and economic reasons , behind the emergence of Chile .Chiles economy has been ranked the upper Middle class economy by the World Bank .It has pursued sound economic policies for nearly 3 decades.As per Bloomberg, Chile's economy is growing “very strongly” and probably will expand by more than 6 percent this year.Chile's economy is based on minerals exports , accounting for half of the total value of exports, Copper being the important one, being the the world's No.1 copper producer.The change began in 1974 when the country adopted free-market economic policies.Chile has been considered as model for policy making by many countries in and outside the Latin America.The Ease of doing business index created by the World Bank lists Chile as 43rd in the world that encompasses better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights.

http://www.santiagotimes.cl

Doubled yields in DR Congo, deliverence from food insecurity, PARSAR

Improved seeds, new agricultural tools,techniques and better roads, what more can the farmers of D R Congo ask for, and this is yielding wonderful results , in the form of doubling of their harvests, four or five tonnes per hectare of the Nsansa variety of cassavaas as evidenced in the southwestern Bandundu Province.

The Agriculture Sector Support and Rehabilitation Programme, known by its French acronym PARSAR, has set up smaller associations which provides the farmers with improved quality seeds of maize, rice, groundnuts and niébé - black-eyed peas, cassava etc

The country despite possessing 34% of Land suitable for farming , a mere 10% has been used for cultivation, because of which it has long faced food insecurity.

The setting up of PARSAR by the congolese goverment has changed things.Now the yields have doubled.
The seeds have shorter life cycle, increased productivity and are also disease resistant.

'This project revolves around four components: institutional support, capacity building, support for agricultural production, and the rehabilitation of basic socioeconomic infrastructure. All this is being done thanks to the financial support of the African Development Bank amounting to nearly 30 million dollars,' explains Lambert Diango, president of PARSAR's Bandundu branch.

Goldman Sachs and the food crisis,How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis

 Goldman Sachs   created Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI), which  is food commodity derivative , weighing the value of some vital food commodities, this was created with the goal  to convert an investment in commodities,  like an investment in a stock, disturbing the earlier system , centuries old buy and sell system which allowed farmers to have flexibility and  invest in their farms.
Today, bankers and traders sit at the top of the food chain -- the carnivores of the system, devouring everyone and everything below. Near the bottom toils the farmer. For him, the rising price of grain should have been a windfall, but speculation has also created spikes in everything the farmer must buy to grow his grain -- from seed to fertilizer to diesel fuel. At the very bottom lies the consumer. The average American, who spends roughly 8 to 12 percent of her weekly paycheck on food, did not immediately feel the crunch of rising costs. But for the roughly 2-billion people across the world who spend more than 50 percent of their income on food, the effects have been staggering: 250 million people joined the ranks of the hungry in 2008, bringing the total of the world's "food insecure" to a peak of 1 billion .

Feeding the world

With all the novel agricultural practises at our disposal and their usage has yielded enough yield to feed the entire population of the world.On one side we hear abour many latest developments in the agriculture albeit it not getting comparable attention as healthcare sector gets, yet due to many reasons around the world , crop yield of many vital, staple crops have gone down.

Be it increasing population of India and China, use of maize as fuel crop, climatic changes, shortage of water for irrigation etc, the prices of foodgrains have been on rise and their yields falling.

The G20, G8, World Economic Forum, Many charity foundations including Gates Foundation have all given their Top priority to food or Feeding the world.

People below Poverty line of $1.25 have increased in recent years  and the prospect of reaching a goal where everybody will have food seems grim as the population of  the world is expected to touch 9 billion in 2050 from the current population of 7 billion people.

On the contrary the wastage of food in both rich and poor countries accounts for 30-50% of what is produced. The food gets either rotten or eaten by rats and mice  or gets spoilt in transit.