World

Most computer games promote and encourage violence.

Here are a couple of online games that promote peace of mind and ... psychic abilities...

(requires flash)
http://www.ions.org/research/psi.cfm .

I am playing the game "The Garden of Dreams" and I enjoy it.

Have fun!

In its simplest form the philosophical basis for Karl Marx and of communism is that the prime mover of society is economic imperatives. In other words a population tied to the land is an agrarian society because farming demands a certain type of society. It is a fairly reasonable hypothesis.

Economic imperatives change over time and for example the economic imperative that made the social convention of marriage a necessity - a man working the fields and a woman caring for the home, has ended. Marriage is no longer a financial necessity. Men and women have moved to an equal income, child rearing is no longer a necessity and so on. Marriage, as it has existed for the last few hundred years, is not appropriate and a new sort of relationship that is sustainable in a communal society must emerge.

From a History of God by Karen Armstrong, page 133:
They now had almost enough …and were making Mecca an international center of trade and high finance … some even believed that their wealth had given them a certain immortality. But Muhammad believed that this new cult of self-sufficiency would mean the disintegration of the tribe. In the old nomadic days the tribe had had to come first and the individual second: each one of its members knew that they all depended on one another for survival. Consequently that had a duty to take care of the poor and vulnerable people of their ethnic group. Now individualism had replaced the communal idea and competition had become the norm … unless … (they) learned to put another transcendent value at the center of their lives and overcome their egotism and greed, his tribe would tear itself apart morally and politically …

Consider a gift of hope . . .

PLAN B 2.0: RESCUING A PLANET UNDER STRESS AND A CIVILIZATION IN TROUBLE
a new book by Lester R. Brown

There is a mounting tide of public concern about where the world is
heading and a growing sense that we need to change course. The high prices
of gasoline and home heating oil and growing competition for the world's
dwindling oil resources are feeding this concern.

So, too, are the various manifestations of climate change, such as ice
melting, rising sea level, and more destructive storms. When Hurricane

Remember those claims that the only obstacle between Irak and Peace and Democracy was Saddham Hussein?
Do you still believe this?

Here's another myth: Yasser Arafat as troublemaker.

Clinton underwrote then Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak's portrayal of Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace in order that Barak could be re-elected. The myth instead gave rise to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as the Israeli public felt only a Sharon could deal with that mythical monster Arafat. (...)

Using the recent riots in France as an example, Gary Younge writes in the Guardian that Riots are a class act and sometimes the only alternative. In fact, it seems that the ends justifies the means and that some form of violence is ok as long as the end result is what was wanted all along:

By the end of last week it looked as though the fortnight of struggle between minority French youth and the police might actually have yielded some progress. Condemning the rioters is easy. They shot at the police, killed an innocent man, trashed businesses, rammed a car into a retirement home and torched countless cars (...).

Here is one little peace of good news: the 2005 World Children's Rights Summit was held in Taipei, Taiwan, with 89 children attending:

"Last year the topic was environmental protection, but this year the summit focuses on poverty, war and child abuse," Verall said. "To me, the most important children's right is a sense of security -- that children can feel and be safe wherever they go."

So much must be done before we can offer our children a true sense of security...

Sadly, this could be the continuation on a theme started yesterday (Ignoring suffering for a few gold coins).

The article linked below is about factory chicken farming and its effects on the chickens themselves, the environment and of course on the human who eat their eggs and their meat:

It isn't called "factory farming" merely because those sheds look like factories. Everything about the production method is geared towards turning live animals into machines for converting grain into meat or eggs at the lowest possible cost.

Lenin once said that capitalists were so cynical that they would sell the Soviets the rope with which they would hang them. Lenin and communism have passed away, but that cynical indifference to suffering when profits are involved remains.

So does the article start, that carries on blaming Europe business and political leaders for their hypocrisy in treating Belarus despot Lukashenka as a favored business partner while the EU Parliament denounces him as being Europe's last dictator.

Martin Halstead is a 19 years old British boy.
Michael Sessions is 18 and hails from Michigan, USA.

Both appeared in two very different stories in today's newspaper. Their achievements are different, but they both could claim the ability to inspire us.

Martin is just starting his own airline company, using money he's made selling his computer software business he'd started a few years earlier (at age 15!).

Michael just got elected mayor of his home town of Hillsdale, Michigan. He promissed to revive the local economy.