Sunday, May 02, 2010

OBAMA ADVISOR DEPORTED


By NALINEE SEELAL Saturday, April 24 2010

AMERICAN citizen Henry Bernard Campbell, who was part of the political strategy team which propelled Barack Obama to the White House, was deported from this country early yesterday morning, hours after arriving at Piarco International Airport from the US.

And at an immediate reaction, the US Embassy at Marli Street, Port-of-Spain contacted Government officials requesting an explanation for the treatment meted out to Campbell.

Embassy public affairs officer Matthew Cassetta told Newsday: “We have already contacted the (TT) Government on the matter for further information and for, quite frankly, an explanation.”

“We feel it was not very clearly articulated why Mr Campbell was deported. This is a very uncomfortable incident for the person involved and we are still trying to piece together what happened.”

Cassetta revealed that the US Embassy was at no point contacted during the deportation process for Campbell - an exercise lasting approximately eight hours.

Cassetta said the Embassy recognised TT’s sovereign rights but was monitoring the situation. “I do hope we are able to clarify it a bit more,” he said.

Campbell was a week ago announced by UNC leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar as the head of the party’s campaign strategy team for the May 24 snap general election.

Contacted yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said the incident will not have a negative impact on TT’s longstanding diplomatic relations with the United States. While specifics of the matter are being addressed by the National Security Ministry, Gopee-Scoon said, this country’s relations with the US are “state to state” and not between state and an individual.

Gopee-Scoon said as far as she knew, Campbell was a US citizen in the country in a private capacity. She said she was certain there were good reasons why Campbell was deported and did not think it was related to the general election.

In a strongly worded release yesterday, Persad-Bissessar condemned what she termed “an abuse of power” and “an act of political victimisation” of the opposition party and the harassment of a US citizen whose firm conducts similar political work around the world.

“While Calder Hart, a citizen of Canada and the former chairman of Udecott, who is the subject of a criminal probe by police, is allowed to go freely and taken through the VIP channels upon his last entry to this island, the political strategist employed by the UNC, Bernie Campbell, a citizen of the US, was denied entry into TT by the Immigration authorities and escorted by security guards back on a flight leaving this morning,” Persad-Bissessar said in the release.

Giving an account of the incident, Persad-Bissessar said Campbell arrived on American Airlines Flight 1819 and upon presentation of his travel documents, was told he was denied entry on advisement of the National Security Minister, Martin Joseph who incidentally, is the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) chairman. Campbell was given a document which pertained to his denial of entry, which he declined to sign, and was left standing in what had become an empty terminal, for over one hour.

Persad-Bissessar continued in her statement: “Eventually he was informed that he would be taken by security to a hotel nearby and then brought to the airport in the morning (today) to be placed on the American Airlines flight scheduled for departure at that time.”

After Campbell left the airport in a security vehicle, Persad-Bissessar claimed, that vehicle was intercepted en route to the hotel by an unmarked car containing persons unknown and the security official with Campbell was questioned by two men. The security official informed Campbell that he was unaware as to who the men who intercepted the vehicle were and advised he (Campbell) would be safer at the airport. Campbell was taken back to the airport by the security official where he (Campbell) stayed until his departure. Campbell was escorted by airport security on board American Airlines flight 1818 at 7 am yesterday.

“The team said they have never been subjected to any rejection from any of the countries visited before and were surprised by the experience encountered here. My party and I condemn the high handed authoritarian display perpetrated by the Manning administration upon the legitimate democratic exercise of the party in conducting its election campaign,” Persad-Bissessar said. (SEE PAGE 5)

She added that as a result of this incident: “Members of the Obama team employed by the UNC, left the island this morning and due to the harassment of their colleague, will not be returning. They have, however, confirmed that the work will be conducted on the UNC campaign from the United States.”

“This will however only serve to strengthen the resolve of all concerned and the electorate will be the ultimate judge of the dictatorial behaviour that typifies the Patrick Manning administration. The UNC sees the denial of entry of Mr Campbell as an international outrage and scandal which will be reported negatively across all diplomatic channels and via international media networks worldwide,” Persad-Bissessar declared.

This statement was confirmed by a story on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) Caribbean News website last night, which ran a story in its “Caribbean Briefs” section, headlined: “US strategist refused entry.” Also, major American news agency CNN (Cable Network News) reported the story in its “CNN iReport” section.

Persad-Bissessar said the UNC extends its sincerest regrets to Campbell and his firm AKPD over this incident and pledged to issue, “a formal, official apology to him and the people of the United States on May 25, when the party forms the government, on behalf of all our citizens who value the cordial and close relationship.”

Campbell arrived in Trinidad shortly before 11 pm on Thursday night on an American Airlines flight and was told by Immigration officials that they had information he had no work permit and informed him that he was being deported to the United States. UNC sources confirmed yesterday that Campbell did not have a work permit.

Sources revealed that an Immigration officer who saw Campbell being detained contacted a UNC official who alerted Persad-Bissessar. She then in turn, sought the guidance of attorney Anand Ramlogan, who was at the time attending a prayer session, for Persad-Bissessar, at her Siparia constituency office.

Yesterday, National Security Minister Martin Joseph issued a press release which stated that contrary to media reports no deportation order was issued or signed by him or an Immigration Officer.

“Rather, Mr Henry Bernard Campbell, a citizen of the United States of America, was denied entry into Trinidad and Tobago in accordance with Section 8 (1) (q) of the Immigration Act, Chapter 18:01.”

This part of the Act states, “Any person who from information or advice which in the opinion of the Minister is reliable information or advice is likely to be an undesirable inhabitant of, or visitor to Trinidad and Tobago.”

However, despite this denial from Minister Joseph that he had anything to do with the deportation of Campbell, attorney Anand Ramlogan disputed this.

“Mrs Persad-Bissessar sought my intervention and I immediately contacted the Immigration Department and spoke with the officer in charge, Mr Piper, who informed me that the Immigration Department had little or no role or say or choice in the matter, as they were acting pursuant to a directive and instruction from the Minister of National Security.

“I enquired on what basis Mr Campbell was being denied entry and was told that Mr Joseph had invoked Section 8 (1) (q) of the Immigration Act, which allows him to deny entry to any person who is deemed to be an undesirable inhabitant. This is an archaic decision that is often utilised when there is a threat to national security.

“It obviously flies in the face of what we were told by the Immigration officer/supervisor who was on duty at the time. It is clear that this is an act of political victimisation and discrimination, because the PNM is utilising state funds to bombard us with their propaganda through advertisements from ministries and state enterprises blowing their own trumpet.

“I have advised the (UNC) leader to challenge this decision in court, but she has decided against it because she feels it is a trap set by the PNM to distract us from the (election) campaign,” Ramlogan said.

Ramlogan who has filed nomination papers to contest the Tabaquite constituency on a UNC coalition ticket, pointed out that in any event, now that the partnership and coalition of opposition forces has been realised, it will act as a political catalyst and generate a momentum of its own so that little or no external help is now required.

“The finish line is fast approaching and this act shows how desperate the PNM is. We have decided to retain a new political consultant, who will guarantee election victory for us, and that is Prime Minister Patrick Manning,” Ramlogan said.

Campbell, described as a veteran consultant was in Trinidad earlier this month and revealed that election strategies are being pushed forward and moved up to make Persad-Bissessar the next Prime Minister.

Campbell who was a key strategist in the election campaign for then US Senator Barack Obama in his push for the US Presidency, worked for the UNC via Ross Advertising.
/
.

President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast

It must be very confusing for a person that relies on getting their news from broadcast radio. Since Friday afternoon (April 30, 2010), the radio news briefs transmitted on the hour and the half-hour, have repeated the same sentence: President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast. After hearing the same monologue for the umpteenth time it may begin to heard at a sub-conscious level; It has been repeated so many times by the "news' purveyors that it now seems like a continuous garble of repetitious words.


Here's an example of how it sounds:

President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf Coast President Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf CoastPresident Obama is going to the Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Gulf Coast going going going President President Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama Obama.
m


President Barack Obama headed to the Gulf Coast on Sunday for a firsthand update on a massive and…· ABC News 3 hours ago



See you at the gas pumps!

Arsenio.
.

Just Coincidence or Sabotage?


On the occasion of the arrival of the latest oil spill to the shores of the Gulf Coast; It is baffling to consider the number of energy related accidents (incidents).

Recently, there were nuclear disarmament (containment) talks with the late great Soviet Union. Hurray for diplomacy! Now an oil disaster that has been the "only" news-headline for a week, threatens the ecology from Louisiana to Florida's Gulf Coast. What is at work here? Is this a haphazard succession of "energy" (nuclear, fossil fuels, natural resources, mining) related issues? Or, maybe a coordinated attempt to cause chaos, so as to transform the process of acquiring and providing fuel for power production? Might this be the begining of rationing energy on a "global" scale by Greenpeace idealists with a tyrannical agenda?

Let's see, there are only a few sources of energy: Manpower; horsepower; Hydro-electric; Steam; Carbon based - Petroleum, Natural Gas, and Coal; Solar; and Nuclear power. Now let's add the restrictive concepts of Carbon footprints, and Sustainable Development to the problem. Where do these figure into this equation? Add to those the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015?

If all these sources of energy are severely stipulated how will we produce electricity for 7 billion people? If all these are all arbitrarily controlled what will we do sit on our hands?

The string of accidents are not accidental in my opinion; But, rather a systematically orchestrated operation to bring the worldwide energy industry to a grinding halt. Yet, another paradigm shift... Then, the powers that be can dictate how and when energy can be acquired, then who reaps its benefits. Then, Presto. Voila! The age of Aquarius will have finally arrived.


Arsenio.


p.s. Super-Pres to the rescue!


----------------------------------------

Just Coincidence or Sabotage?

You, be the judge.



Eliot Brockner Bio 16 Apr 2010

It has been a devastating few weeks for the global mining community. In late March, a flood in a coal mine in northern Shanxi province in China resulted in the deaths of more than 30 workers. Then last week, in West Virginia, an explosion at a coal mine killed nearly 30 miners. Both accidents revealed some of the safety hazards associated with mining.

Meanwhile, as the United States was coping with its worst mining disaster in years, two nations in Latin America were dealing with mining tragedies of their own. Those tragedies, however, had little to do with the dangerous work involved in mining itself. Instead, they shed light on the region's informal mining sector, where politics and crime can be as life-threatening as the actual job. ...
.


Peru mining protests turn deadly

Police and mining workers clashed near Chala in protests against stricter government regulations on gold mining.

Posted 06.04.2010 07:38:33 UTC.................... (April 6, 2010)

,
  1. Video: Gulf Oil Spill Swiftly Balloons, Could Move East

  2. Kentucky mine had violations before fatalities

  3. Upper Big Branch, W. Virginia Mining Accident

Protests against Arizona immigration law go nationwide

(CNN) -- Thousands of protesters in cities across the United States waved American flags as they rallied Saturday against Arizona's tough new immigration law and pushed for national immigration reform.

"Si se puede," "Yes we can" and "Boycott Arizona" were common refrains for groups protesting from Los Angeles, California, to New York City.

May 1 is traditionally a rallying day for supporters of immigration reform. But protesters across the country said they were galvanized by Arizona's recent passage of a law cracking down on illegal immigration.

The new Arizona law requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect they are in the United States illegally. Critics say it will lead to discrimination and racial profiling.

But Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has said the law is necessary because the federal government has failed to enforce border security with Mexico, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to move into the state. She said changes to the law she approved Friday, which clarify that police could only stop suspected illegal immigrants while enforcing some other law or ordinance, should eliminate concerns about racial profiling.


RELATED TOPICS
Illegal Immigration and Deportation

Arizona

Protests and Demonstrations


But criticism of the law was clear among tens of thousands of protesters flooding the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday, where organizers said they hoped to send a strong message with the number of people turning out.

"Does my face look illegal?" one sign read.

Karen Rayner, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said 50,000 people marched at the demonstration's peak. Rayner said the rally was "very peaceful" and no one was arrested.

Police arrested about 20 protesters -- including a U.S. congressman -- at Saturday's rally in Washington.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, was among a group of protesters who were arrested for blocking the sidewalk outside the White House in what they said was a planned act of civil disobedience. The protesters wore T-shirts that read "ARREST ME NOT MY FAMILY" and "ARREST ME NOT MY FRIENDS."

A smaller group of about 200 people rallied outside the State Capitol in Phoenix, protesting the new law and asking the federal government to step in to stop it.

About 1,000 people gathered in New York City's Union Square on Saturday afternoon.

Cesar Mack, an international studies student at City College of New York, told CNN he was an undocumented immigrant from Peru.

"I've been living in this country six years and I'm still fighting for immigration reform," he said.

CNN iReporter Julio Ortiz-Teissonniere said he saw signs in Arabic, French, Spanish and English at the New York rally. One sign in the crowd particularly caught his eye: "Todos somos Arizona" -- "We are all Arizona."

"They were trying to convey that message that it's a city and nation based on immigration. Everybody came from somewhere else," he said.

CNN's Susan Candiotti, Ted Rowlands, Ione Molinares and Casey Wian contributed to this report.
.
.http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/01/immigration.rallies/
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/01/immigration.rallies/
.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

New York Police Report Finding Car Bomb in Times Square

May 02, 2010, 1:50 AM EDT

By Henry Goldman

May 2 (Bloomberg) -- A device that appeared to police to be a car bomb in a sport utility vehicle parked on 45th Street and between 7th and 8th avenues near the heart of New York City’s Times Square was dismantled without detonating, Deputy New York Police Commissioner Paul Browne said.

A mounted police officer first observed smoke coming from the vehicle, a Nissan Pathfinder SUV, and called for back-up. Bomb squad technicians, using a robotic remote bomb dismantler, took apart a crude propane explosive device that included an unidentified powder, gasoline accelerant and a possible timing device, said Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, in a telephone interview.

Police evacuated part of the heavily trafficked area, which includes the Manhattan theater district, at about 6:35 p.m. after police and the fire department responded to the report. There were no injuries and the bomb appeared to be unable to explode, Browne said.

“Police are still working at the scene,” Browne said. “We have no suspect and no motive associated with it. There are video cameras in the area and we believe there are witnesses who observed a man leaving the car.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who first assumed office in January 2002, weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, was in Washington D.C. attending the White House Correspondents Association dinner.

He returned to the city upon hearing about the incident and arrived at the scene early this morning along with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

--Editors: Mark Tannenbaum, Mike Millard.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York City Hall at hgoldman@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannenbaum@bloomberg.net

.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-02/new-york-police-report-finding-car-bomb-in-times-square.html



.

Easy Preaching for Itchy Ears


December 21, 2009 by unworthy1


This was originally posted by Mike Ratliff at Possessing the Treasure; it is worth sharing with others….

Easy Preaching for Itchy Ears


December 20, 2009 — Mike Ratliff
In light of last night’s post, Stand Firm as the Day of the Lord Approacheth, I would like to post an article by our brother John P. Sartelle. A major contributing factor in the growing apostasy of the visible church is explored in this article. For us to stand firm as the visible church is deceived and drawn down the way of inevitable destruction, we must take what brother John teaches us in this article and apply it. Enjoy and be blessed my brethren, but I pray mostly for God to open eyes and hearts, drawing His people close in obedience to Him for His glory and their edification. – Mike Ratliff

Easy Preaching for Itchy Ears

by John P. Sartelle

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Paul had just commanded Timothy to be careful to preach the Word in all situations. Why did the apostle find it necessary to say this to an experienced minister who had faithfully served with him for so many years? Paul understood the great pressure brought to bear on every prophet by the culture in which he preaches. We tend to think that Paul never felt intimidated by the ethos of pagan society. Yet the intrepid missionary admitted that he entered the gates of hedonistic Corinth in weakness, fear, and trembling (1 Cor. 2:3). In Athens he experienced the impact of derisive laughter of intellectually elite philosophers at Mars Hill when he told them that Jesus walked out of His grave. Paul personally knew the reality of the temptation to adapt the doctrines of the gospel to oblige the lifestyles of the world.

We live in an age when being politically correct is more important than being truthful. The college student engaged in casual sex wants to hear that promiscuity is a practice an understanding God condones. The materialist wants to hear a preacher tell him that his money is primarily for his pleasure. The homosexual wants a deity that will baptize and sanctify his sin. The student in her first year of college who has discovered she is eight weeks pregnant wants a Jesus who will recommend a doctor to deal with the inconvenience. We have the nature to create gods that will protect our pet sins. The alcoholic’s classic characteristic is to deny his addiction. This I symbolic of the characteristic we all have in our resistance to genuine confession of personal sin.

The sinner is faced with two options. He can submit to the authority of God’s Word, confess his sin, repent, and throw himself upon God’s grace. Or, he can change the message to commend his lifestyle so that the “sin” actually becomes a virtue. If one chooses the latter, he must then find a church that will alter the message from God to fit the culture. Paul was warning Timothy that he would encounter people wanting him to be a preacher who would accommodate their passions. The phrase “itching ears” (v.3) graphically describes them. Their ears “itch” to hear something pleasant – words that will soothe them in their cocoons of transgression rather than convict of wrong and warn of danger. So these verses speak both to the person sitting in the pew and the preacher behind the pulpit.

The minister who changes the message from God to fit the desires of the world around him aids in the destruction of lives, families, and civilizations. The prophets who were preaching in Judah during Jeremiah’s ministry abetted that nation in her sins and contributed it to her destruction. God had warned that when Israel forsook Him and His word, He would bring a nation to war against them and would banish His people from the land. Isaiah and Jeremiah were sent by God to tell Judah that God’s judgment was upon them. They preached for three generations that Babylon would be used to destroy Jerusalem and carry the people into exile. However, the majority of the Judean prophets preached that their nation was not under God’s judgment. Their sermons ignored the gross sins of that society and spoke of peace and prosperity (see Jer. 6:13-14). They were seduced into preaching messages that would be popular with their hearers. Individuals, families, cities, and nations are not healed by such preaching. Rather, those preachers rock sinners into a comfortable sleep on the precipice of physical and spiritual destruction.

If you had lived in Jerusalem during the sixth century BC, would you have wanted your family to sit under Jeremiah’s preaching that disturbed and alarmed or the preaching of one of the prophets who made your family comfortable? Every Christian plays a role in the drama of preaching. We either encourage or discourage our ministers to preach the whole counsel of God. There is no neutral territory here. We either pray for our ministers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and preach with His fire or we don’t. Some congregations are like spiritual sponges soaking up God’s truth even when it involves the confrontation of their own sins. Such a people actually “cheer” the true prophet as he preaches. Some congregations will resist and disregard the preaching of the gospel to the point that they pressure the minister to modify the message.

I have a friend who is an oncologist. He delivers bad news almost every day. Each patient wants to hear him say, “The tumor is benign.” If he altered his diagnosis when cancer was present to please the patient, he would place that person in greater danger. Maybe we should tell our hospitals to become very positive and never diagnose anyone as being sick. That is exactly what our culture has told our ministers and churches to do.
.
.
.

Jesuit who taught Fidel Castro in Cuba dies in Miami at 91



By Ana Rodriguez-Soto
Source: Catholic News Service
Published: Saturday, May 01, 2010

MIAMI (CNS)—He taught Fidel Castro. And then his former student forced him to leave Cuba.

But Jesuit Father Armando Llorente—who at one point conceived of creating a religious order of sheepherders—gathered his sheep once more in exile, re-establishing the Agrupacion Catolica Universitaria in Miami.

He spent the rest of his priestly ministry "forming Catholics for the church," as he put it, in a paraphrase of Cuban patriot Jose Marti's line that "whoever would build a homeland must build up men."

Father Llorente, 91, died in his sleep April 28 in his home overlooking Biscayne Bay —the John Paul II Retreat House where Agrupacion members meet, a place where people are welcomed by a statue of St. Peter the fisherman casting his nets.

His funeral Mass was scheduled for May 3 at Miami's Gesu Church.

The Agrupacion, or ACU as it is known, is a Christian life community for men who are university graduates and professionals. Its spirituality is based on Jesuit formational principles and Marian consecration. Its goal is to help members attain a Christian balance of professional work, prayer, family life, social life and apostolic service.

Founded in Cuba in 1931, the Agrupacion had been Father Llorente's lifework since he took over as spiritual director in 1952, when its founder died. The group now has chapters in Orlando, Washington, Atlanta and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its membership is not limited to Hispanics.

Through the Agrupacion, Father Llorente touched not just the men who were members but their families as well.

"We knew that Father Llorente was not eternal, but how sad was the news!" said Clarita Baloyra of Miami. "And what joy for him, to return to the Father the way St. Ignatius did, just as he wanted."

"For our family, Padre Llorente played so many roles: father, grandfather, priest, spiritual director, friend," said Mariano Perez. "Yesterday, our 8-year-old daughter said she had lost one of her best friends and that is the truth. He truly was Christ, in all these different roles, among us and brought our family so much closer to him."

Father Llorente was born in Mansilla Mayor in the Leon region of Spain, on Aug. 24, 1918. He attended the Jesuit high school in Carrion de los Condes de Palencia and, following the example of his older brother, Segundo, who was a Jesuit missionary in Alaska, entered the Jesuit order after graduation.

After completing his philosophy studies in Burgos, Spain, he was sent to Cuba to teach at the famed Colegio de Belen, from 1942 to 1945. That is where he met a high school student named Fidel Castro.

Some believe the two maintained a correspondence even after exile, but Father Llorente remained mum on the subject. He preferred, he said, "to make history and let others write about it."

He left Cuba to continue his theology studies at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid and Heythrop College in London, where he was ordained a priest on Sept. 8, 1948, the feast of Our Lady of Charity.

Assigned again to Cuba in 1950, he was slated to be named principal of Belen when the plans changed and he was assigned instead as director of the Calvary Retreat House in Havana.

He referred to this as his "only trial" in a 1998 interview with La Voz Catolica, the Spanish-language archdiocesan newspaper in Miami, on the occasion of his 80th birthday and his 50th anniversary as a priest.

"God was asking me, like Abraham, 'Sacrifice your son' ... what you most love," Father Llorente told La Voz.

Forced to leave Cuba in 1961, he continued serving as director of the Agrupacion and of the John Paul II Retreat House until his death.
.

British Methodists prepare to die

By STEVE ADDISON
movements.net
April 8, 2010

We are prepared to go out of existence not because we are declining or failing in mission, but for the sake of mission.

Rev David Gamble, Methodist Conference President said this in an address to the Church of England's General Synod, February 11, 2010.

Once a world changing movement under John Wesley, the Methodist church has seen its membership shrink to just 265,000.

Winston Churchill said after the successful evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 that, Wars are not won by evacuations. In other words, defensive measures may be necessary, but, as every chess player knows, attack is the best form of defence. A merger of the Methodist Church with the Anglicans may be necessary, but it is a defensive measure. At face value, it doesn't sound as if it is going to win the war.

Despite assurances to the contrary, this proposed merger is not driven by a commitment to mission or unity. Overwhelmingly mergers are driven by a) institutional decline, and b) lack of clarity and commitment to the movement's founding cause and core beliefs. They do nothing to arrest mainline decline.

The Methodists of Britain have gone down the same path as every other mainline Protestant denomination of the last fifty years. The sad reality is that attempts at union will actually speed up their decline. There is no other historical pattern.

END
.
.
Source: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=12461
.
P.S.
Yet, the "state" church of Britain remains (Anglican); Now displaying a clearer manifestation of its true identity, just a variation of the Catholic theme.

Could a divorce [Henry the VIII] denied, really establish a "Christian" church?

SINGAPORE: Ecumenical Council is the Future of the Anglican Communion. A Global South Perspective

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
April 22, 2010


Ruwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini has called for an Anglican Ecumenical Council of the worldwide Anglican Communion which he believes will bring to an end a dozen years of primatial communiqués, reports and endless talk of "process" and "listening" that has achieved nothing to resolve the crisis of faith and leadership within the Anglican Communion.

Norms adapted from the ancient apostolic canons (35 & 38) on how a council should function offers a legacy rooted in Sacred Scripture and Tradition that results in a significant expression of apostolic authority. The urgency of this matter could result with Archbishop Kolini addressing this with his fellow primates in various ecclesiastical gatherings over the next few months.

As the Global South's Senior Primate, Archbishop Kolini, through his consistent modeling of pastoral leadership, possesses international respect from his fellow African leaders, which equips him with authority to call for an Ecumenical Council framed on the experience of Acts 15 and the Early Church Councils such as Nicea and Chalcedon and would address and seek to resolve some of the Culture Wars that have raged inside the Anglican Communion for nearly two decades.

Historically, Councils would be ecclesiastically binding based on the ancient models, said Kolini. Where Lambeth conferences, Indaba groups, regional Synods and Conventions, have been found lacking, the conciliar norms would seek to resolve the ecclesial deficit that has furthered the Anglican crisis and has crippled the Anglican Communion's four Instruments of Unity. In this ecumenical conclave, what is bound on earth will be bound in heaven, says Kolini.

This historic ecclesiastical solution will finally address with clarity years of debate over homosexual practice and the ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood and episcopacy as well as rites for same sex marriage and much more. The question of conciliarity and Women's ordination remains unclear as a matter that may be considered, but this writer could not get an exact reading on that issue at this time.

Here in Singapore this week, 130 representatives from 20 Anglican provinces met to endorse a Covenant and vent their frustration over years of unresolved Anglican disputes. Numerous speakers called for planning new mission and ministry strategies, do evangelism, and uplift economic conditions in poor areas of the world. Self-reliance was a key theme of the Encounter.


In an earlier groundbreaking speech to some 130 delegates to the Fourth Global South to South Encounter, the Archbishop of the Middle East said that the Anglican Communion is dysfunctional, at war with itself and that a new structure is needed for a new communion. In remarks to the global Anglican leaders The Most Rev. Mouneer Anis proposed a new global Anglican structure to sustain and enhance Christ's mission. He blasted the North American Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada saying that a new structure is necessary to compensate for the ongoing 'ecclesial deficit' in the communion, homosexual unions, litigation, depositions of bishops and threats from TEC bishops and the undermining of the authority of bishops and primates who made vows to guard the faith. The result, he said, has been the breaking off of ecumenical partners, and cessation of dialogue, especially with the Roman Catholic Church the Oriental churches and the Greek Orthodox Church.

In later remarks, Mouneer clarified his views saying that he was proposing a new structure for the global South only and not the Anglican Communion.

Kolini's argument, reiterated on several occasions, is that the renewing of the Anglican Communion through such an ecumenical council would be binding on the church with Scripture as the church's supreme authority. Those provinces and dioceses that would not accept the Council's authority would place themselves outside the communion. For years orthodox Episcopalians and Anglicans have argued that they have not left the church, the liberal and revisionist wing of the church has left them propagating "strange and erroneous doctrines."

Many of the Global South bishops here are new to leadership roles in the Anglican Communion and are not completely familiar with some of the personalities and the nuances of the Anglican Communion. This was borne out in a discussion the 130 leaders had with representatives from North America. A third did not appreciate the differences between a Communion Partner bishop and ACNA bishop, with two thirds of the bishops asking why an orthodox bishop would stay in TEC if the church was ordaining homosexuals to the episcopacy.

For some African bishops, the advent of a lesbian becoming a bishop was a shock to the system, as most African Anglican provinces do not even ordain women. Some bishops called it "horrific."

As one Western bishop who has a foot in both North America and Africa observed, "We have a situation here where there are different levels of understanding among the bishops. When you don't have a complete understanding of what is going on, you will have division, but it is not of the same magnitude or order as the moral divisions within the Episcopal Church."

In an interview, Kolini likened the emerging situation to the image of a tree trunk. "The tree represents both the 'known and unknown' orthodox in the Anglican Communion and sees the Kingdom of God at work. The tree has several new shoots one of which includes GAFCON/FCA. Our role is to find each other."

Seven Primates and their Provinces, along with a number of church and parachurch ministries and their leaders, were represented at the Jerusalem GAFCON meeting. The Global South Encounter here in Singapore has representatives from 20 provinces.

"This is the 4th trumpet. This is a larger and more representative group of people," said Kolini. We have a larger number of provinces here, he said.

THE COVENANT

The Anglican Communion Covenant, now in its final draft and which it is understood delegates to the Fourth Global South Encounter are expected to endorse, has not gone unchallenged.




In a heavily nuanced, thoughtful address, South East Asian Archbishop John Chew said this, "How then to recover the vocation life of being "covenant for the people, and light for the nations"? In the first instance it has to begin with a life lived to God in covenantal love and obedience. How then would or should our path be taken, road be journeyed?"

Clearly this is not happening in North America and Chew was clearly conscious of that in his long examination of the theological foundations of the Covenant.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola likewise red flagged the Covenant by saying that it requires absolute loyal commitment and faithful adherence to its terms and conditions. "A Covenant is not to be taken lightly, wantonly, or entered into unadvisedly. In our Anglican Communion, we have worked very hard in the last three years trying to agree and sign up to a new Anglican Covenant. Covenant is a very serious and weighty matter. Be it between God and his people or between business partners and even in the context of marriage, the terms and conditions of any covenant must never be taken lightly." That too has not happened in North America.





"Initially, it was felt that a comprehensive Anglican covenant would help heal the wounds and restore confidence in our relationships within the Anglican family, as it would provide for accountability. But as things stand today in the Communion, this Encounter gathered here in Singapore needs to assure itself if the proposed covenant offers any such hope."

The name of the game is accountability. With no disciplinary procedures in place that is impossible.

ANGLICAN COMMUNION

"I am in communion with the Anglican Communion and not with an individual or province," Kolini told VOL. When we call for a gathering of the Anglican Ecumenical Council, those who are in broken communion may desire to come to be part of the restoration process or not. It is their call.

"If they come and resolutions are passed excluding certain behaviors and they do not abide by "it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit" then they will be excluding themselves. What they do in their own provinces will be of no consequence to us. They will go their own way, apart from a biblical orthodox Anglican witness to the faith. "

CONCERNS

Some archbishops and bishops privately expressed concern to VOL that Rowan Williams will try to exploit, conquer and divide the Global South bishops because many are new and inexperienced and will roll over to his authority. "The old guard stood firm against the innovations of North America and told Rowan so. They know the communion is "impaired" in some quarters, and "broken" in others, but the younger ones are still on a learning curve. He could exploit that," said one archbishop.





Williams is trying to wait them out. The next generation needs a learning curve. Williams knows that and he will exploit it and hopefully prevail. He can drag his heels with endless talk of "process" and "listening".

The older generation of archbishops of Nigeria, Kenya, Central Africa and Rwanda are retiring and it will be important to get the new archbishops and bishops up to speed so they won't be blindsided by the power of the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Instruments of "unity". This will be attempted to some degree in Kampala in August when the All Africa Bishops Conference (AABC) meets. (VOL has been invited to cover this event.)

Many of the archbishops and bishops have not read the deadlines given TEC by archbishops meeting at Dromantine, London (the Windsor Report) and Dar es Salaam with discipline in place for provinces that flagrantly disobeyed and stepped over the line with innovations unacceptable to them. Many do not know that TEC and Canada were told they should withdraw from the Communion and repent of their actions. Bureaucrats in London and Lambeth can exploit that lack of knowledge.

It is not without its significance that Rowan Williams has not called a meeting of the Primates this year. The primates have asked for it, but he has declined so far. And he has the authority. One suspects that he has nothing to say and because he would have to hear for the umpteenth time that he has failed in his leadership obligation to exercise the necessary discipline against TEC and Canada, he is not going to have one.

How many more times does Dr. Williams have to be told to do something? We are tired of the one issue being on the agenda all the time - the issue of homosexuality, said another bishop. Archbishop Livingstone Nkoyoyo, the former Anglican Archbishop of the Province of the Church of Uganda, once stormed out of a meeting of the primates in London crying out, "How many more meetings do we have to have to decide what to do." TEC will no longer be on our agenda, said Kolini.

One bishop likened the situation to the wheel of a ship. When VOL asked if Williams is trying to divide the Communion one bishop answered that in an age of confusion and absence of leadership a power vacuum is created. "Lambeth is a failed leadership and the instruments of unity have failed. If they had done what they intended to do, this thing would not have gone on for 15 years. In the absence of leadership there is a power vacuum.

"So many want to grab the steering wheel. The Communion Partner bishops, the ACI, the FCA, the Covenant crowd, the Lambeth bureaucracy loyalists. Everyone is fighting over the steering wheel. Turning Lambeth into Indaba groups was yet another grab for the wheel. There has been no action or discipline going back to George Carey leaving various voices to step up to the plate and making a play for the wheel. All who went to GAFCON knew what was going on. But here at the 4th Encounter we are making it clear to the Anglican world where it all stops."

Said an archbishop to VOL; "Kolini has had it. The Ecumenical Council is the way forward. This is an unstoppable movement not another communion. We will prevail."

"With the ecumenical council we come full circle. It was in North Africa that the first ecumenical council was held and it is now out of Africa that we will have another one. It is historically irresponsible not to take action. The trumpet blast is the call for a new Council. The hope is that we can get it done this year."

END
.
.

Cremation -- Is It Christian Or Pagan?


Cremation
Is It Christian Or Pagan?


In recent months, a number of people have asked me if cremation is Scriptural and acceptable to God. It is a subject that most people would rather avoid, but in recent years it has become quite an issue. More and more people are electing to have themselves or their loved ones cremated due to the reduced cost compared to customary burial. The purpose of this tract is to take a brief and concise, but in-depth, look at this subject. We will see what the Bible has to say about it, and then, as a Christian, you can decide what to do regarding this sensitive matter.

The first point I would like to make is that cremation does not affect salvation as many people are cremated without the knowledge of it happening to their remains. I do emphatically state, however, that no properly informed Christian would choose cremation. We do know that some people are accidentally burned to death in fires of various types and causes. We also know that the Church of Rome burned many Christian martyrs at the stake. Certainly, being a victim of an earthly fire does not necessarily determine where you will spend eternity.

We must ask the question, why would a Christian choose to have his or her body burned to ashes after death? In I Corinthians 6:19-20, we read as follows: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Why would a Christian want to burn to ashes the temple that God lived in?

We also understand that God refers to the body at the time of death as a seed to be planted. In I Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-44, we read, “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body…So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Thus, the body is to be sown, or planted, in the ground and not burned to ashes.

We also know that our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, was buried, and He is our great example in all things. When Jesus blessed the woman who had anointed Him shortly before He was crucified, He said the following words, which are found in Mark 14:8-9: “She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” Thus, the burial of Jesus was a part of the Gospel itself. The Gospel, or good news, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospel cannot be represented by choosing to have your body burned!

We also know that when Moses died, God himself buried him. In Deuteronomy 34:5-6 we read the following words: “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” In this case, God himself did the burying, and He did not cremate Moses! We also know that Satan, to whom is reserved everlasting fire, wanted the body of Moses but could not have it. Verse 9 of Jude tells us, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”

Yet another example tells us of Joseph, the son of Jacob, in Hebrews 11:22. “By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.” Please note that it was a commandment and not a suggestion concerning his bones!

Fire has always been a sign of the judgment of Almighty God! We know that God rained fire on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of the pervasive homosexuality in those cities. We read of this in Genesis, chapters 18 and 19. These cities and their inhabitants were incinerated, or cremated, by the wrath of Almighty God.

We also read of God’s anger and consternation against Moab because of their cremation activity. In Amos 2:1 we read, “Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime.”

After reading all of the above, we can certainly conclude that voluntary cremation is wrong in the eyes of God. We also know that it is pagan! Idolatry often included human sacrifice in the fires of pagan gods like Chemosh and Molech. That is why God commanded the following in Deuteronomy 18:10: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.” Here we see the connection of the burning of bodies with witchcraft itself. We know that both witches, who do not believe in Satan, and Satanists, who do believe in Satan, use the power of fire in their forbidden crafts. We also know that Hinduism and Buddhism use cremation in their false religions. This brings out another point which should tie this whole subject together.

In these last days before the return of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, we know that many false religions would arise and deceive many. We read of this in Matthew, chapter 24; Luke, chapter 21; and Mark, chapter 13. We also see from Luke, chapter 17, that the spirits of homosexuality would fill the world before Jesus Christ’s return and turn the entire earth into a latter day Sodom. We now see this coming to pass. The United States, for example, is filled with Eastern religions, Buddhism, Hinduism and others of that ilk. Homosexuality, lesbianism, and bisexuality are also everywhere in America. Do you see the connection of all of this with fire? It is no wonder that the spirit of cremation and burning is becoming so popular. It is compatible with the other spirits who have used it for centuries. Cremation and burning is also the spirit of Sodom, and it was fiery wrath that turned Sodom to ashes.

The spirit of cremation is in defiance to the plan of the Almighty God, the Creator. After Adam and Eve sinned and death became a part of existence, God told them in Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Ecclesiastes 12:7 states likewise, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

Christians should know better than to purposely select to have their bodies burned! If you didn’t know it before, now you do! If we walk in obedience, we will have the joy of the Lord; and death is nothing more than a step into the glorious presence of God forever. We must dedicate our bodies, souls, and minds unto our Saviour. Glory to his Name!

Pastor David J. Meyer


Distributed by:
Last Trumpet Ministries
PO Box 806
Beaver Dam, WI 53916
USA

http://lasttrumpetministries.org/

Source: http://www.lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/tracts/tr20.html

P.S.

Pastor Meyer is now home from the hospital but is still very weak and tired. Please continue to lift him up in prayer. We will publish the May edition of the Last Trumpet Newsletter as soon as we possibly can. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
.
Updated: 04.25.2010

P.S. II
Pastor David J. Meyer passed away on June 8, 2010.
.
Last Updated: 10.10.2010
.

Abide With Me


Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

.


Words: Hen­ry F. Lyte, 1847.

.
Music: Eventide,
Wil­liam H. Monk, 1861

.
(MI­DI, NWC, PDF).

.



.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Practicing for the Real Thing: Exercise Khichadi and ICTs on a Mountain Ridge

Note: a shorter version of this article, published in the December 2007 edition of PeaceIT, may be downloaded here as a pdf file.

Readers are also invited to read more on our exercise page and post questions and comments at the team blog.




The author (at laptop) demonstrates a GIS application to ADRA and Caritas team members. Broadband connectivity is wireless over a Hughes BGAN terminal, which is on top of the truck and powered by the solar blanket in the foreground. Service was donated by Inmarsat for Exercise Khichadi.





The not-very-new SUV truck, loaded to maximum capacity with people and equipment, bounced slowly along a precipitous mountain road. The wheels were a half meter from the edge, which dropped off abruptly down a very steep slope. Looking from the right side window, one had a view from the ridge top into a canyon, the terraced slopes scarred by landslides old and new. The team members riding with me were quiet, fully aware that this was not a classroom or tabletop exercise.

Welcome to Nepal and Exercise Khichadi, planned and hosted by the Asia regional office of Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Asia) in partnership with Caritas Australia, a member of Caritas Internationalis.* For the next four days, the ADRA and Caritas teams would work, live, and solve problems together in an austere, challenging, and realistic environment in the rugged mountains east of Kathmandu.


A no-warning evacuation drill gets under way. Teams were required to bring all ICT equipment and maintain communications during the rapid evacuation on a mountain road. Villagers of Ravi Opi and community leaders also participated.




Participating in the pioneering joint training and emergency field simulation exercise were experienced staff members from Australia , Bangladesh , India , Nepal , Pakistan , and Sri Lanka . Representatives of UN OCHA, the World Food Programme, the Nepalese police and army, and local government also participated in supporting roles. In the true spirit of Nepali generosity and hospitality, local leaders and citizens of the community of Ravi Opi cheerfully cooperated to provide a real-life village setting.

The four-day exercise simulated a scenario of several continuous days of heavy rain, which resulted in a major landslide in the village of Ravi Opi in the Kavre district of Nepal, resulting in casualties and evacuation. Importantly, the exercise gave many participants their first chance to fully understand and appreciate the specific challenges relating to disaster response programs, thus further strengthening the skills base of valuable staff across the south Asia region.

Exercise Khichadi built upon the lessons learned during Exercise JavaLava, the first such field exercise of its type, conducted by ADRA in 2006 in Indonesia . Using a groundbreaking training scenario on an actual volcano, the design team realized that classroom training in communications, GPS, and Web tools does not "stick" unless teams have extensive "hands on" field use of equipment, software, and information management tools.






Heidi Straw of ADRA Sri Lanka uses Skype for voice over wireless and a BGAN satellite connection.




More disasters, greater human impact. All participants recognized that the increasing number of large impact disasters in Asia will continue to challenge the capacity of aid organizations like ADRA and Caritas. Predicted trends indicate that increasing numbers of people are being adversely affected by natural disasters due to population growth, urbanization, climate change, poor governance and other factors. This means that there are more and more people with little or no coping capacity to sustain them when a disaster hits and an increasing dependency on external assistance.

ADRA and Caritas managers have drawn four significant conclusions from these trends:

Training of field teams, especially for rapid response to emergencies, must be more realistic and more frequent.
.
For teams to be responsive to local contexts (culture, government, economy, and more), training should provide exposure to local realities.
.
Smooth inter-agency collaboration is vital. Teams must learn how to work together in joint field operations.
.
To improve preparedness and inter-agency collaboration, teams must have hands-on training in ICTs, in a realistic field environment.



Members of the ADRA and Caritas teams practice using the BGAN satellite terminal (in foreground) for Internet and email access. The BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) provided excellent Internet access, including the use of sophisticated mapping applications.

The overall goals of Exercise Khichadi were emergency response capacity building and the strengthening of local response networks. To improve ICT preparedness, two of the key training objectives were to:

Increase the ability of disaster response personnel to use emergency communication equipment and global positioning systems.

Research and identify options for mapping resources relevant to disaster response.
(A complete list of exercise objectives, as well as links to photos, the team blog, and other reports can be found at http://www.humaninet.org/nepalexercise.html)

A team-oriented approach. The planning team** accomplished these objectives by rigorously integrating team and inter-agency collaboration and by challenging the participants to work together. This cooperative team approach was emphasized during two days of pre-exercise classroom training in Kathmandu and then practiced during initial "hands on" assignments with radios, satphones, and GPS units outdoors.

The team spirit, trust, and mutual understanding generated during the joint training carried over to the field simulation, which began on November 4. During the exercise, all debriefings were held jointly with all agencies participating. A team of monitors*** observed all exercise events and held in-depth debriefings in the evening.




Robert Patton of ADRA Asia, who directed Exercise Khichadi planning and field activity, makes a point to ADRA and Caritas members following an exercise event.






The ICTs incorporated in the exercise scenario included:

Satellite phones, including the new ISAT satellite phone provided by Inmarsat.

A BGAN (broadband global area network) satellite terminal, with services donated by Inmarsat and supported by Vizada.

VHF handheld radios for intra-team short range communications.

GPS units to record latitude and longitude data for specific points, such as locations of landslides, road blockages, etc.

GIS (geospatial information services) situational awareness tools developed by ESRI and IDV Solutions to post and display operational information on dynamic digital maps.

Although the ADRA and Caritas teams worked from different organizational plans and operated as separate teams, they shared the ICT tools (including the BGAN terminal and donated bandwidth) coordinated their tasks, and compared learnings throughout the day.

Findings. Five general findings on ICTs emerged during Exercise Khichadi and at the subsequent debriefing:

1. Reliable voice and data communications, regularly tested and exercised, are absolutely essential to successful field operations. While voice communications are indispensable from the beginning of the response, email and Internet capabilities (optimally from "Day One") are tremendously valuable as relief teams begin work.

2. It was clear early in the exercise that the processes and operator capability for planning and implementation, including the use of ICTs, were vital for effective operations. Checklists, plans, and templates will be of little use if the staff have not utilized them in a reasonably realistic situation.

3. Classroom and "parking lot" training is not sufficient for relief teams and individuals to gain full proficiency. A field simulation presents compound problems to solve in a realistic and demanding environment that effectively applies and reinforces classroom training.

4. Managers need to be familiar, and in some cases proficient, with ICTs, to include current technology developments. It is no longer advisable, if it ever was, to delegate full responsibility for ICTs in the field to a technical specialist.

5. The potential of GIS for situational awareness and operational planning, employed in combination with good GPS field practices, is enormous. However, there is a long learning curve and considerable process development required before a GIS solution is operational. The umbrella issue is information management; GIS is one way to organize and deliver information in trusted networks to managers, partners, and donors. The teams learned a great deal about GIS through two excellent Web-based demo applications prepared for the exercise by ESRI and IDV Solutions.







BGAN on a haystack in Ravi Opi.





The bigger picture. In closing, I would like to emphasize that ICT training in simulations should not focus strictly on the technology, which can obscure organizational and process factors. ICT is not an end in itself but must be seen as a means to support strong and capable organizations which provide the best possible assistance to people in need.

The foundation of effective ICT employment in the field is built upon process building blocks, to include:

Integrated and recurring team training with multiple partners, in realistic scenario with multiple variables at work. The "people factors" are critical.

An understanding of, and sound processes for, interagency and external coordination.
Reliable, continuous situational awareness – for which GIS is only one part of the tool kit.
Processes for capturing field knowledge and lessons learned.

Strategies for dealing with a fluid operational environment, including personnel turnover and frequently changing roles.

I believe that the field simulation concept, designed and tested by ADRA, Caritas, and the other partners in Exercise Khichadi, is an important first step toward a more ambitious framework, in which international and government agencies, private sector partners, and NGO participants collaborate in larger scale exercises over a week or more. This could include virtual exercises using Webcasting and Web- and GIS-based information management.

It is a credit to the design team and all participants that so much was gained over a short, intense, but exciting ten days, especially since the ADRA-Caritas partnership was a new one. The team spirit and collaborative approach will certainly carry over to future exercises and – doubtlessly soon – in actual responses throughout Asia .

Gregg Swanson
Founder and Executive Director, HumaniNet

I would like to thank Jenny Wells, Group Leader for Humanitarian Response at Caritas Australia; Robert Patton , Regional Coordinator for Emergency Management at ADRA Asia; and Mike Wenger of HumaniNet for their valuable contributions, thoughtful comments, and generous cooperation in drafting this article.

* Caritas is the aid and development agency of the Catholic church.

** Robert Patton , Chris Olafson, and Ashok Shrestha of ADRA; Melville Fernandez and Jenny Wells of Caritas Australia; Arpana Karki of Caritas Nepal; Steve Glassey of the Emergency Management Academy of New Zealand; and Gregg Swanson of HumaniNet.

*** Robert Patton , Chris Olafson, Jenny Wells, Steve Glassey, and Gregg Swanson .
.
.
.
.
Note: Bolds and Highlights added for emphasis.
.
Practicing for the Real Thing?
.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Armani hotel opens in Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building

April 27, 2010


The world's tallest building is a little less empty.


With Tuesday's opening of a hotel designed by Giorgio Armani, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai added its first major full-time tenant, joining an observatory that recently reopened after an elevator malfunction caused it to shut down for nearly two months.

The Burj Khalifa, which rises to a record-shattering height of 2,717 feet, was designed by Chicago architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and former Skidmore design partner Adrian Smith, who now heads his own firm.

Still to be occupied are the skyscraper's condominiums, along with boutique offices in its upper reaches. George Efstathiou, Skidmore's managing partner on the Burj, just emailed me from Dubai that the orientation for the condo residents will occur during the first week of May with move-in towards the end of the month.

Here is more information about the hotel opening from The Economic Times.
.

.
.

Why Arizona Drew a Line


By KRIS W. KOBACH
Published: April 28, 2010
Kansas City, Kan.


ON Friday, Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona signed a law — SB 1070 — that prohibits the harboring of illegal aliens and makes it a state crime for an alien to commit certain federal immigration crimes. It also requires police officers who, in the course of a traffic stop or other law-enforcement action, come to a “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal alien verify the person’s immigration status with the federal government.

Predictably, groups that favor relaxed enforcement of immigration laws, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, insist the law is unconstitutional. Less predictably, President Obama declared it “misguided” and said the Justice Department would take a look.

Presumably, the government lawyers who do so will actually read the law, something its critics don’t seem to have done. The arguments we’ve heard against it either misrepresent its text or are otherwise inaccurate. As someone who helped draft the statute, I will rebut the major criticisms individually:

It is unfair to demand that aliens carry their documents with them. It is true that the Arizona law makes it a misdemeanor for an alien to fail to carry certain documents. “Now, suddenly, if you don’t have your papers ... you’re going to be harassed,” the president said. “That’s not the right way to go.” But since 1940, it has been a federal crime for aliens to fail to keep such registration documents with them. The Arizona law simply adds a state penalty to what was already a federal crime. Moreover, as anyone who has traveled abroad knows, other nations have similar documentation requirements.

“Reasonable suspicion” is a meaningless term that will permit police misconduct. Over the past four decades, federal courts have issued hundreds of opinions defining those two words. The Arizona law didn’t invent the concept: Precedents list the factors that can contribute to reasonable suspicion; when several are combined, the “totality of circumstances” that results may create reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed.

For example, the Arizona law is most likely to come into play after a traffic stop. A police officer pulls a minivan over for speeding. A dozen passengers are crammed in. None has identification. The highway is a known alien-smuggling corridor. The driver is acting evasively. Those factors combine to create reasonable suspicion that the occupants are not in the country legally.

The law will allow police to engage in racial profiling. Actually, Section 2 provides that a law enforcement official “may not solely consider race, color or national origin” in making any stops or determining immigration status. In addition, all normal Fourth Amendment protections against profiling will continue to apply. In fact, the Arizona law actually reduces the likelihood of race-based harassment by compelling police officers to contact the federal government as soon as is practicable when they suspect a person is an illegal alien, as opposed to letting them make arrests on their own assessment.

It is unfair to demand that people carry a driver’s license. Arizona’s law does not require anyone, alien or otherwise, to carry a driver’s license. Rather, it gives any alien with a license a free pass if his immigration status is in doubt. Because Arizona allows only lawful residents to obtain licenses, an officer must presume that someone who produces one is legally in the country.

State governments aren’t allowed to get involved in immigration, which is a federal matter. While it is true that Washington holds primary authority in immigration, the Supreme Court since 1976 has recognized that states may enact laws to discourage illegal immigration without being pre-empted by federal law. As long as Congress hasn’t expressly forbidden the state law in question, the statute doesn’t conflict with federal law and Congress has not displaced all state laws from the field, it is permitted. That’s why Arizona’s 2007 law making it illegal to knowingly employ unauthorized aliens was sustained by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

In sum, the Arizona law hardly creates a police state. It takes a measured, reasonable step to give Arizona police officers another tool when they come into contact with illegal aliens during their normal law enforcement duties.

And it’s very necessary: Arizona is the ground zero of illegal immigration. Phoenix is the hub of human smuggling and the kidnapping capital of America, with more than 240 incidents reported in 2008. It’s no surprise that Arizona’s police associations favored the bill, along with 70 percent of Arizonans.

President Obama and the Beltway crowd feel these problems can be taken care of with “comprehensive immigration reform” — meaning amnesty and a few other new laws. But we already have plenty of federal immigration laws on the books, and the typical illegal alien is guilty of breaking many of them. What we need is for the executive branch to enforce the laws that we already have.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has scaled back work-site enforcement and otherwise shown it does not consider immigration laws to be a high priority. Is it any wonder the Arizona Legislature, at the front line of the immigration issue, sees things differently?

Kris W. Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, was Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief adviser on immigration law and border security from 2001 to 2003.

.
.
.

Was that Carl Levin or George Carlin?


Carl Levin's salacious language or George Carlin with his 7 bleeps?


We've come a long way, baby. Levin gets away with language that can otherwise get a Kindergartner tazed (Tazered) for having a potty mouth.
.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Return of Christian Terrorism

By Mark Juergensmeyer April 8, 2010
Jesus at war. Image courtesy flickr user smohundro


Threats of right-wing violence have doubled in the past year. What is behind the latest upsurge in the movement to create a Christian theocratic state?





Last week when Scott Roeder, the murderer of Wichita Kansas abortion clinic provider Dr. George Tiller, had his day in court, he spent much of his rambling self-defense quoting the words of another abortion clinic assassin, Reverend Paul Hill. In the 1990s my own research had brought me into conversation with others in the inner circle in which Hill and Roeder were at that time involved. So it was a chilling experience for me to realize that this awful mood of American Christian terrorism—culminating in the catastrophic attack on the Oklahoma City Federal Builiding—has now returned.

Christian terrorism has returned to America with a vengeance. And it is not just Roeder. Last week, when members of the Hutaree militia in Michigan and Ohio recently were arrested with plans to kill a random policeman and then plant Improvised Explosive Devices in the area where the funeral would be held to kill hundreds more, this was a terrorist plot of the sort that would impress Shi’ite militia and al Qaeda activists in Iraq. The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded by Morris Dees, which has closely watched the rise of right-wing extremism in this country for many decades, declares that threats and incidents of right-wing violence have risen 200% in this past year—unfortunately coinciding with the tenure of the first African-American president in US history. When Chip Berlet, one of this country’s best monitors of right-wing extremism, warned in a perceptive essay last week on RD that the hostile right-wing political climate in this country has created the groundwork for a demonic new form of violence and terrorism, I fear that he is correct.

Christian Warrior, Sacred Battle

Though these new forms of violence are undoubtedly political and probably racist, they also have a religious dimension. And this brings me back to what I know about Rev. Paul Hill, the assassin who the similarly misguided assassin, Scott Roeder, quoted at length in that Wichita court room last week. In 1994, Hill, a Presbyterian pastor at the extreme fringe of the anti-abortion activist movement, came armed to a clinic in Pensacola, Florida. He aimed at Dr. John Britton, who was entering the clinic along with his bodyguard, James Barrett. The shots killed both men and wounded Barrett’s wife, Joan. Hill immediately put down his weapon and was arrested; presenting an image of someone who knew that he would be arrested, convicted, and executed by the State of Florida for his actions, which he was in 2003. This would make Hill something of a Christian suicide attacker.

What is interesting about Hill and his supporters is not just his political views, but also his religious ones. As I reported in my book, Terror in the Mind of God, and in an essay for RD several months ago, Hill framed his actions as those of a Christian warrior engaged in sacred battle. “My eyes were opened to the enormous impact” such an event would have, he wrote, adding that “the effect would be incalculable.” Hill said that he opened his Bible and found sustenance in Psalms 91: “You will not be afraid of the terror by night, or of the arrow that flies by day.” Hill interpreted this as an affirmation that his act was biblically approved.

One of the supporters that Paul Hill had written these words to was Rev. Michael Bray, a Lutheran pastor in Bowie, Maryland, who had served prison time for his conviction of fire-bombing abortion-related clinics on the Eastern seaboard. Bray published a newsletter and then a Web site for his Christian anti-abortion movement, and published a book theologically justifying violence against abortion service providers, A Time to Kill. He is also alleged to be the author of the Army of God manual that provides details on how to conduct terrorist acts against abortion-related clinics.

Recently Bray has publicly defended Paul Roeder, the Wichita assassin, saying that he acted with “righteousness and mercy.” Several years earlier, another member of Bray’s network of associates, Rachelle (“Shelly”) Shannon, a housewife from rural Oregon, had also attacked Dr. George Tiller as he drove away from his clinic in Wichita. She was arrested for attempted murder.

When I interviewed Bray on several occasions in the 1990s, he provided a theological defense of this kind of violence from two different Christian perspectives. In the remainder of this essay, I’ll summarize from Terror in the Mind of God some of my observations about these theological strands behind their terrorism in the 1990s—and which, amazingly, are surfacing again today.

Theological Illogic

The more traditional Christian justification that Bray used for his violence was just-war theory. He was fond of quoting two of my own heroes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr, in what I regard as perverse ways. Bray thought that their justification of military action against the Nazis (and an attempted assassination plot on Hitler’s life Bonhoeffer was involved in) was an appropriate parallel to his terrorism against the US government’s sanctioning of legal abortions. It seemed highly unlikely to me that Bray’s positions would have been accepted by these or any other theologian within mainstream Protestant thought. Bonhoeffer and Niebuhr, like most modern theologians, supported the principle of the separation of church and state, and were wary of what Niebuhr called “moralism”—the intrusion of religious or other ideological values into the political calculations of statecraft. Moreover, Bray did not rely on mainstream theologians for his most earnest theological justification.

The more significant Christian position that Bray and Hill advanced is related to the End-Time theology of the Rapture as thought to be envisaged by the New Testament book of Revelation. These are ideas related, in turn, to Dominion Theology, the position that Christianity must reassert the dominion of God over all things, including secular politics and society. This point of view, articulated by such right-wing Protestant spokespersons as Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, have been part of the ideology of the Christian Right since at least the 1980s and 1990s.

At its hardest edge, the movement requires the creation of a kind of Christian politics to set the stage for America’s acceptance of the second coming of Christ. In this context, it is significant today that in some parts of the United States, over one-third of the opponents of the policies of President Barack Obama believe he is the Antichrist as characterized in the End-Times Rapture scenario.

The Christian anti-abortion movement is permeated with ideas from Dominion Theology. Randall Terry (founder of the militant anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue and a writer for the Dominion magazine Crosswinds) signed the magazine’s “Manifesto for the Christian Church,” which asserted that America should “function as a Christian nation.” The Manifesto said that America should therefore oppose “social moral evils” of secular society such as “abortion on demand, fornication, homosexuality, sexual entertainment, state usurpation of parental rights and God-given liberties, statist-collectivist theft from citizens through devaluation of their money and redistribution of their wealth, and evolutionism taught as a monopoly viewpoint in the public schools.”

At the extreme right wing of Dominion Theology is a relatively obscure theological movement that Mike Bray found particularly appealing: Reconstruction Theology, whose exponents long to create a Christian theocratic state. Bray had studied their writings extensively and possessed a shelf of books written by Reconstruction authors. The convicted anti-abortion killer Paul Hill cited Reconstruction theologians in his own writings and once studied with a founder of the movement, Greg Bahnsen, at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.

Leaders of the Reconstruction movement trace their ideas, which they sometimes called “theonomy,” to Cornelius Van Til, a twentieth-century Presbyterian professor of theology at Princeton Seminary who took seriously the sixteenth-century ideas of the Reformation theologian John Calvin regarding the necessity for presupposing the authority of God in all worldly matters. Followers of Van Til (including his former students Bahnsen and Rousas John Rushdoony, and Rushdoony’s son-in-law, Gary North) adopted this “presuppositionalism” as a doctrine, with all its implications for the role of religion in political life.

Recapturing Institutions for Jesus

Reconstruction writers regard the history of Protestant politics since the early years of the Reformation as having taken a bad turn, and they are especially unhappy with the Enlightenment formulation of church-state separation. They feel it necessary to “reconstruct” Christian society by turning to the Bible as the basis for a nation’s law and social order. To propagate these views, the Reconstructionists established the Institute for Christian Economics in Tyler, Texas, and the Chalcedon Foundation in Vallecito, California. They have published a journal and a steady stream of books and booklets on the theological justification for interjecting Christian ideas into economic, legal, and political life.

According to the most prolific Reconstruction writer, Gary North, it is “the moral obligation of Christians to recapture every institution for Jesus Christ." He feels this to be especially so in the United States, where secular law as construed by the Supreme Court and defended by liberal politicians is moving in what Rushdoony and others regard as a decidedly un-Christian direction; particularly in matters regarding abortion and homosexuality. What the Reconstructionists ultimately want, however, is more than the rejection of secularism. Like other theologians who utilize the biblical concept of “dominion,” they reason that Christians, as the new chosen people of God, are destined to dominate the world.

The Reconstructionists possess a “postmillennial” view of history. That is, they believe that Christ will return to earth only after the thousand years of religious rule that characterizes the Christian idea of the millennium, and therefore Christians have an obligation to provide the political and social conditions that will make Christ’s return possible. “Premillennialists,” on the other hand, hold the view that the thousand years of Christendom will come only after Christ returns, an event that will occur in a cataclysmic moment of world history. Therefore they tend to be much less active politically.

Rev. Paul Hill, Rev. Michael Bray, and other Reconstructionists—along with Dominion theologians such as the American politician and television host Pat Robertson and many other right-wing Christian activists today—are postmillenialists. Hence they believe that a Christian kingdom must be established on Earth before Christ’s return. They take seriously the idea of a Christian society and a form of religious politics that will make biblical code the law of the United States.

These activists are quite serious about bringing Christian politics into power. Bray said that it is possible, under the right conditions, for a Christian revolution to sweep across the United States and bring in its wake Constitutional changes that would allow for biblical law to be the basis of social legislation. Failing that, Bray envisaged a new federalism that would allow individual states to experiment with religious politics on their own. When I asked Bray what state might be ready for such an experiment, he hesitated and then suggested Louisiana and Mississippi, or, he added, “maybe one of the Dakotas.”

Not all Reconstruction thinkers have endorsed the use of violence, especially the kind that Bray and Hill have justified. As Reconstruction author Gary North admitted, “there is a division in the theonomic camp” over violence, especially with regard to anti-abortion activities. Some months before Paul Hill killed Dr. Britton and his escort, Hill (apparently hoping for Gary North’s approval in advance) sent a letter to North along with a draft of an essay he had written justifying the possibility of such killings in part on theonomic grounds. North ultimately responded, but only after the murders had been committed.

North regretted that he was too late to deter Hill from his “terrible direction” and chastised Hill in an open letter, published as a booklet, denouncing Hill’s views as “vigilante theology.” According to North, biblical law provides exceptions to the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex 20:13), but in terms similar to just-war doctrine: when one is authorized to do so by “a covenantal agent” in wartime, to defend one’s household, to execute a convicted criminal, to avenge the death of one’s kin, to save an entire nation, or to stop moral transgressors from bringing bloodguilt on an entire community.

Hill, joined by Bray, responded to North’s letter. They argued that many of those conditions applied to the abortion situation in the United States. Writing from his prison cell in Starke, Florida, Paul Hill said that the biblical commandment against murder also “requires using the means necessary to defend against murder—including lethal force.” He went on to say that he regarded “the cutting edge of Satan’s current attack” to be “the abortionist’s knife,” and therefore his actions had ultimate theological significance.

Bray, in his book, A Time to Kill, spoke to North’s concern about the authorization of violence by a legitimate authority or “a covenental agent,” as North put it. Bray raised the possibility of a “righteous rebellion.” Just as liberation theologians justify the use of unauthorized force for the sake of their vision of a moral order, Bray saw the legitimacy of using violence not only to resist what he regarded as murder—abortion—but also to help bring about the Christian political order envisioned by the radical dominion theology thinkers. In Bray’s mind, a little violence was a small price to pay for the possibility of fulfilling God’s law and establishing His kingdom on earth.

For most of the rest of us, even a little violence is a price too high to pay for these fantastic visions of Christian politics and for America’s recent return to Christian terrorism.

.
Source: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/2432/the_return_of_christian_terrorism________/?page=entire
.

Contributor: J. Trainor, thanks.
.