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Will the Dalai Lama Speak Out against the Alberta Tar Sands in Calgary?

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance | 23.09.2009 07:48 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Social Struggles | World

Protesting Vancouver Peace Summit and Spiritual Dream Team

Will the Dalai Lama Speak Out against the Alberta Tar Sands in Calgary?




Protesting Vancouver Peace Summit and Spiritual Dream Team

Will the Dalai Lama Speak Out against the Alberta Tar Sands in Calgary?

9.22.2009


On Sept 26-29, the so-called “spiritual dream team” of Nobel Peace Laureates, new age gurus and maybe even Oprah Winfrey will be in Vancouver according to organizers to “be a catalyst for change in the world.” It is headlined by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Eckhart Tolle with special guest entertainers the Blue Man group.


 http://dalailamacenter.org/conference/vancouver-peace-summit-2009


It is in our opinion an elitist non-inclusive, patrician affair of old failed ways of doing and acting. Tickets are between $200 - $1000 for the major events at UBC's Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and the Orpheum Theatre where the Vancouver Symphony orchestra normally plays.


An invitation-only dialogue with the Dalai Lama with people from corporate finance, philanthropy and spirituality will affect real change in the world, is the hope. Did we mention that the host hotel for the “spiritual dream team” is Vancouver's most elite hotel the Pan Pacific with basic rooms starting at over $300 a night.


If the spiritual dream team wanted to affect real change, shouldn't they have put the spotlight on Vancouver's east side, south side or Little Mountain, First Nations not the Pan Pacific, Orpheum or the Chan Centre?


We ask where would Jesus or Buddha have gone, the DTES(downtown eastside), or UBC's Chan Centre for Performing Arts?


We ask why were Nobel Peace Laureates Al Gore and the Dalai Lama completely silent on the Gaza and Sri Lankan slaughters?

 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/a-war-targeting-civilians-children-operation-cast-lead-a-cruel-play-on-words-of-a-hanukkah-childrens-so


Think about this - the Blue Man group is a known anti-union multi-media corporation, which ran afoul of Toronto unions in 2005 and also in Las Vegas. “The spiritual dream team” endorses this by not speaking out.


Blowing in the wind
Local politicians and labor leaders urge Blue Man Group to unionize its show

 http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2006/04/06/local_news/news02.txt


 http://www.bluemanboycott.com/
SCREEN ACTORS GUILD SUPPORTS AFL-CIO BOYCOTT OF BLUE MAN GROUP

 http://www.sag.org/content/screen-actors-guild-supports-afl-cio-boycott-blue-man-group


We have a message for Archbishop Tutu. Did you know that your church, the Anglican cathedral (seen with our own eyes) in Victoria, BC is part of the campaign against the homeless in Victoria with many businesses and churches hanging signs on their front lawns or windows stating “No Camping, No Loitering, No Trespassing and No Soliciting.” Why? Last Spring, a BC court ruled the homeless in Victoria have a right to camp on public property including parks. Will you speak out against your church and support the homeless in Victoria?


Judge throws out Victoria city rules for campers on public property

 http://victoriabcmagazine.com/1/headlines/judge-throws-out-victoria-city-rules-for-campers-on-public-property/


The Dalai Lama goes directly to Calgary afterwards for similar events. Will the Dalai Lama speak out against the Alberta oil sands – China has recently invested big time in the tar sands.


China's Move into (Alberta)Oil sands Irks Washington

 http://www.cippe.net/en_news/8242.htm Global Petroleum Net


PetroChina Co. Ltd.'s (PTR-N119.82-0.78-0.65%) $1.9-billion investment in the oil sands is raising alarms in Washington, with the head of a congressionally-appointed China watchdog saying the company is clearly a vehicle of Beijing's Communist government.

Carolyn Bartholomew, chairwoman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said Tuesday that Ottawa should subject the proposed investment to a thorough review that would include sensitive national security issues.

And she rejected the contention by PetroChina and its supporters that the state-owned enterprise acts like any other commercial oil company in its international operations, professing concern about a growing Chinese presence in America's “backyard.”

“I think that an acquisition like this should raise national security questions both for the government of Canada and for the government of the United States,” Ms. Bartholomew said in an interview from Washington..
www.library.ubc.ca/archives/hdcites/hdcites13.html
Note Just below Newell's name on the ubc website were the names of the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu also getting theirs.-note student and faculty mobility and civil rights will be greatly restricted at UBC from Jan-March 2010 because of the Beijing-Vancouver 2010 Olympics-UBC got 50million to build a sports facility for the Games

THE TITLE AND DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LAWS, UBC(honoris causa) CONFERRED AT CONGREGATION, MAY 27, 2003 ERIC PATRICK NEWELLMR. CHANCELLOR, when UBC alumni take their place in the world of business, they carry with them not only a degree but also a commitment to education and research. UBC alumnus Eric Newell is Chairman and CEO of Syncrude Canada Limited. ... England.Under his leadership, Syncrude has become a key player in the Western Canadian economy. It is an increasingly significant source of energy supply for the country, and is a model of a reliably operated, environmentally efficient, socially responsible corporation....He has also become a leading spokesperson for the Canadian oil sands industry. He served as president of the Alberta Chamber of Resources, where he spearheaded the creation of the National Oil Sands Task Force, which developed a comprehensive new energy vision for Canada in 1995. That vision is being realized today..
Syncrude pleads not guilty over 2008 duck deaths

By Jeffrey Jones
 http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN14509127
CALGARY, Alberta, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Syncrude Canada Ltd pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges in the deaths of more than 1,600 ducks in a toxic waste pond in 2008, a case that heightened international concern about the environmental impact of developing Canada's vast oil sands.

After a brief court appearance in St. Albert, Alberta, just outside Edmonton, Syncrude officials declined to divulge details of the company's defense in the high-profile case, in which the waterfowl got coated in oil and sank.

Syncrude, the largest oil sands miner and processor, faces charges under Canada's Migratory Birds Convention Act and Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. The trial is slated to begin March 1 in Alberta Provincial Court...
Syncrude's partners include Canadian Oil Sands Trust (COS_u.TO), Imperial Oil Ltd (IMO.TO), Suncor Energy Inc (SU.TO), Nexen Inc (NXY.TO), ConocoPhillips (COP.N) Murphy Oil Ltd (MUR.N) and Nippon Oil Corp (5001.T) unit Mocal Energy. (Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Peter Galloway)
NOW: His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Visit to Calgary


His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama will address Calgarians for the first time in almost 30 years on September 30, 2009. His Holiness, spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, is the honoured guest of the University of Calgary and keynote speaker for NOW – a three day event and conference from September 30 – October 2, 2009.


Please select one of the following packages.


One-day package – $675 - September 30th
the one-day conference features speeches by Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of
South Africa F.W. de Klerk, connect NOW with His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and listen
NOW, a concert featuring Bryan Adams, k.d. Lang and friends.

Conference package for Non-profit delegates – $475 - September 30th and October 1st Includes connect NOW the public address featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the
engage NOW conference. You must currently be employed by or attending on behalf of a
non-profit organization to register for this option. Proof of affiliation may be required.

Conference package for Academic delegates – $475 - September 30th & October 1st Includes connect NOW the public address featuring His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the
engage NOW conference and educate NOW workshops. You must currently be employed
by or attending on behalf of an academic institution to register for this option. Proof of
affiliation may be required.


 https://www.eplyevents.com/Event.aspx?l=1&evt=f8468240-316f-41eb-b058-6f7c3153aee5


The Time to Act is Now
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change



The Time to Act is Now
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change



Time to Act is Now
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change



The Time to Act is Now
A Buddhist Declarat

In the run-up to the crucial U.N. Climate Treaty Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, the Declaration that follows will present to the world's media a unique spiritual view of climate change and our urgent responsibility to address the solutions. It emerged from the contributions of over 20 Buddhist teachers of all traditions to the book A Buddhist Respose to the Climate Emergency. The Time to Act is Now was composed as a pan-Buddhist statement by Zen teacher Dr David Tetsuun Loy and senior Theravadin teacher Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi with scientific input from Dr John Stanley.

The Dalai Lama was the first to sign this Declaration. We invite all concerned members of the international Buddhist community to study the document and add their voice by co-signing it at the end of this page.

Today we live in a time of great crisis, confronted by the gravest challenge that humanity has ever faced: the ecological consequences of our own collective karma. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is triggering environmental breakdown on a planetary scale. Global warming, in particular, is happening much faster than previously predicted...

...Many scientists have concluded that the survival of human civilization is at stake. We have reached a critical juncture in our biological and social evolution. There has never been a more important time in history to bring the resources of Buddhism to bear on behalf of all living beings...

... Both as individuals and as a species, we suffer from a sense of self that feels disconnected not only from other people but from the Earth itself. As Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.” We need to wake up and realize that the Earth is our mother as well as our home—and in this case the umbilical cord binding us to her cannot be severed. When the Earth becomes sick, we become sick, because we are part of her...


...Individually, we must adopt behaviors that increase everyday ecological awareness and reduce our “carbon footprint”. ...and reduce meat consumption in favor of a healthy, environmentally-friendly plant-based diet.

These personal activities will not by themselves be sufficient to avert future calamity. We must also make institutional changes, both technological and economic. We must “de-carbonize” our energy systems as quickly as feasible by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources that are limitless, benign and harmonious with nature. We especially need to halt the construction of new coal plants, since coal is by far the most polluting and most dangerous source of atmospheric carbon. Wisely utilized, wind power, solar power, tidal power, and geothermal power can provide all the electricity that we require without damaging the biosphere. Since up to a quarter of world carbon emissions result from deforestation, we must reverse the destruction of forests, especially the vital rainforest belt where most species of plants and animals live.

It has recently become quite obvious that significant changes are also needed in the way our economic system is structured. Global warming is intimately related to the gargantuan quantities of energy that our industries devour to provide the levels of consumption that many of us have learned to expect. From a Buddhist perspective, a sane and sustainable economy would be governed by the principle of sufficiency: the key to happiness is contentment rather than an ever-increasing abundance of goods. The compulsion to consume more and more is an expression of craving, the very thing the Buddha pinpointed as the root cause of suffering.

Instead of an economy that emphasizes profit and requires perpetual growth to avoid collapse, we need to move together towards an economy that provides a satisfactory standard of living for everyone while allowing us to develop our full (including spiritual) potential in harmony with the biosphere that sustains and nurtures all beings, including future generations. If political leaders are unable to recognize the urgency of our global crisis, or unwilling to put the long-term good of humankind above the short-term benefit of fossil-fuel corporations, we may need to challenge them with sustained campaigns of citizen action.

Dr James Hansen of NASA and other climatologists have recently defined the precise targets needed to prevent global warming from reaching catastrophic “tipping points.” For human civilization to be sustainable, the safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is no more than 350 parts per million (ppm). This target has been endorsed by the Dalai Lama, along with other Nobel laureates and distinguished scientists. Our current situation is particularly worrisome in that the present level is already 387 ppm, and has been rising at 2 ppm per year. We are challenged not only to reduce carbon emissions, but also to remove large quantities of carbon gas already present in the atmosphere.

As signatories to this statement of Buddhist principles, we acknowledge the urgent challenge of climate change. We join with the Dalai Lama in endorsing the 350 ppm target. In accordance with Buddhist teachings, we accept our individual and collective responsibility to do whatever we can to meet this target, including (but not limited to) the personal and social responses outlined above.


We have a brief window of opportunity to take action, to preserve humanity from imminent disaster and to assist the survival of the many diverse and beautiful forms of life on Earth. Future generations, and the other species that share the biosphere with us, have no voice to ask for our compassion, wisdom, and leadership. We must listen to their silence. We must be their voice, too, and act on their behalf.


 http://www.ecobuddhism.org/350_target/350_target/buddhist_declaration_on_climate_change___read_an/


We say let the new foundational number be Zero (0) as in Zero Carbon Footprint, Zero Emissions,

Zero Growth Economy, Zero Wars, Zero Homelessness and Poverty, Zero Violence and Zero Suffering...
The Dalai Lama supported the Beijing Olympics

 http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Dalai+Lama+Tickets+sale+spiritual+dream+team+Vancouver/1698385/story.html Note the Dalai lama is Guest Editor Sept 26

The Dalai Lama is an honorary Canadian citizen, bestowed upon him by PM Stephen Harper and Canada's Parliament. Dalai Lama can not claim Alberta Tar Sands is an internal matter-this would be classic Chinese Authority statement.

China's Authorities need to Stop Ecocide and Cultural Genocide of Tibetan People-if you do not bend, you will snap. This is a Wind that you can not endure.
Tar Sands 101

 http://oilsandstruth.org/tar-sands-101
Animals

Animal habitats and health are affected by tar sands production, whether from loss of habitat to any of the infrastructure developments across the continent, or through changes in the atmosphere such as melting polar ice caps in the Arctic brought on by out of control C02 emissions. Poisoning waterways, the food supply and the air in the immediate and not-so immediate surroundings has led to drops and even disappearances of species near pipelines, platforms and other infrastructure of the tarsands.

Two mouthed fish discovered near Alberta Tar Sands (2 Articles)
Duck Deaths Confirm First Nations Fears
Walruses die, global warming blamed
Climate Change/Emissions

Climate Change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions, in particular carbon. 40% of Canada’s emissions already come from Alberta alone, not counting the entire tar sands infrastructure across North America nor counting the projected increase in tar sands production or the infrastructure built across the continent to accommodate such increases in production. Factor it all in and you get the picture. You haven’t even burned the petrol yet.

"Big Greens Holding Back Anti-Warming Movement"
Updating the Book on Global Warming
Top 10 Global Warming Stories of 2007
2010 Olympics

The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver (& Whislter) are threatening human well-being and self-determination as well as ecological devastation in many of the same ways as the tar sands gigaproject. The corporate sponsors include many of the same, from Royal Bank of Canada through to TransCanada Pipelines, Petro-Canada and Bell Canada.

"Will Oil Sands Tar The Olympic Games?"
Seattle Times: Olympics and Tar Sands equals special opportunity
Apples not Applause for AFN's Fontaine
2010 Organizing and The Tar Sands: Inspiring the SPP and Helping the Olympics
Corruption

Conscious efforts to subvert or otherwise corrupt organizations and individuals who are concerned about social issues is a sadly long tradition. The environmental movement is no exception. Through many front groups, financial wranglings through contributions and outright blackmail, industries have tamed or corrupted many of the organizations who were once among their greatest critics and opponents. The corrupting influence on the politics of the environment has left us with, at times, a movement that has yet to address the needs of fighting climate change immediately-- instead, calling for the slow changing of emissions from various parts of industrial life-- and protecting the biggest contributions to their myriad organizations. When budgets and mainstream appearances with politicians become the order of the day, effective protest is muted and rendered toothless...
Energy

Energy and how it is captured and consumed is barely viable in tar sands production. While the amount of oil in places such as the tar sands in Alberta or the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela may have deposits of similar size to the reserves of countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq, the return of new energy after expending energy in production is not even close. In Iraq, the process of using one barrel of oil generates 100 new barrels. In the tar sands, estimates of 3 to 1 and even as low as 1.5 to 1 have been made.

Canadian Energy Policy: Made in the USA
Native People Warn the UN of Biofuels Disaster
The Rise of the New Energy World Order
Forests

Forests lose more trees and habitat to pipeline “right of way” cuts and tar pit building than to clearcuts. With minor variation, pipelines go the direct route. Through the strip mining of the land that contains tarsand petroleum and through pipeline construction to accomodate, only the Amazon Basin in Brazil would see larger rates of deforestation than the Boreal forest cover surrendered to the tarsands. Roads often accompany pipelines, as do various other developments.

Tar Sands Boom Swamps Canadian Wilderness
Nature Given Constitutional Rights in Ecuador
Study Highlights the Need for Conservation
Canada's Forests Aren't Bailing us Out, Study Says
Gender

Gender impacts are often completely ignored within the hollow social impact assessments often conducted in the modern era. Oil patches and natural gas operations are overwhelmingly operated by young men who naturally go into small towns nearby after weeks in the bush. Alcohol and/or drug fuelled violence and rape often increase in communities dealing with such an influx, as do drug use, alcoholism and sexual exploitation.

Sex Workers Cashing in on Alberta's Oil Boom
For Many Women, Alberta's Boom a Bust
Working Full Time: The Work Camps of Fort McMurray
Fort McMurray Teens Swapping Sexual Favours For Shelter
Health

The Health implications in terms of these projects are vast, and not just the deadly explosions and industrial accidents that happen in production-—from reported increases in rare forms of cancer downstream from tar sands production to the pollution of fresh water leading to poisoned diets (fish, moose and plant toxicity)—-direct links are hard to establish but impossible to either rule out or ignore, especially where tarsand operations constitute overwhelmingly the greatest change to the environment in most corners of the continent effected directly by tarsand infrastructure...
Indigenous

Indigenous nations have protected the earth on their territories for thousands of years. With the government of Canada ignoring their sovereignty, nations not only see massive theft of resources that could help alleviate social problems, but their exacerbation through their further alienation from their own lands, often accompanying being overrun by development and southern workers, while having no self-determination during this process. In the south of Canada industrial farming displaced many nations with often genocidal results.

Law Suit a Possible Tar Sands Stopper
First Nations Town Plans Road Blockade
Intervention at the United Nations by Athabasca Dene/Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations
NY Times on Poison Water, Fish and Animals for Fort Chipewyan
Labour & Migration

It is falsely assumed that big projects equal lots of jobs and, by extension, labour peace if not outright satisfaction. The size and scope of the tarsands means for incredibly dangerous work conditions-- some fatalities at the plants have already occurred. The products seldom get their "value added" in union-run locations, instead the heavy bitumen can be shipped to many different locations across North America for refining, denying benefits to the union. However, the Union does not represent the "guest worker", now being imported in increasing numbers as legislation is changed to make access easier, the term of exploitation last longer, without any new efforts or pathways to deciding to stay after helping tear up the earth.

Increase of Migrant Workers in Canada Opens Door to Abuses
N.B. inmates training to be oil rig workers
Hard Times Sold in Vending Machines
Racism in the Tar Sands: Exploiting Foreign Workers and Poisoning Indigenous People
Land

Land, regardless of whether covered by forests, tundra or grasslands, is threatened by mining operations such as Alberta’s vast open tar pit operations, or through incredible networks of “right of way” cuts for pipelines that extend in the hundreds of thousands of miles, all told, and across the continent in four directions and to three oceans—either through feeding the tarsand operations with fossil fuel energy or through feeding energy markets from tarsand operations after production. In the case of pipeline right of ways, they can blast directly through mountains or be buried in permafrost if needed, to get the energy to move.

Dehcho Land Use Plan revisions increase development
Dehcho Process at the Crossroads
They Can't Just Walk All Over Us: Farmers Resist Pipeline
US: Rush to Develop Oil Shale and Tar Sands Endangers...
Nuclear

A category all its own, despite being a form of energy. The until-now primarily dormant energy form of nuclear power is getting a new lease on construction life in the wake of the astronomical energy needs of the tarsands. The tarsands need a vast and growing energy supply, almost requiring half of what it will produce at the point of consumption. As a means of both feeding that "need" and using the thin-wedge of "thirsting for energy" that is "not greenhouse gas emitting" for the tarsands, this highly dangerous and discredited form of energy is making a slow and speeding up comeback.

Jail Time: A Clear Message to those who would oppose uranium mining
Sask. to Go Nuclear?
The Real Need For Nukes in Peace River
Real Nuclear Co2 warming Costs: Helen Caldicott
Peak Oil

Peak Oil is starting to be understood across a broad spectrum, but the direct connection between peak oil, climate change and the American market-led attempt to squeeze all energy out of Alberta cannot be overstated. The smaller the global supply of oil gets, the more CO2 has been emitted and the more climate change will have advanced. This leads to more interest in the tar sands—because the profit margin goes ever higher the fewer alternatives there are for petroleum.

Understanding Energy Return on Energy Investment-EROEI
International Energy Agency Admits 12.5 Million Barrel a day Oil Supply Shortage
Post Peak Politics
Capitalism and Peak Oil: The Perfect Storm?
Social Impacts

Social Impacts. Overnight injections of migrant workers will not build healthy communities and can have severely adverse impacts on existing communities, especially those of indigenous nations on their traditional lands. Such development brings vices and long term displacement too often. Drugs, alcohol and associated violence spreads. Hunting becomes difficult when the land is threatened, leading to a further loss of culture and tradition. In towns like Fort McMurray there is no planning for the future, but merely consumption in the present.

Calgary: Rental crisis fund hits $43.5M
North American unions denounce privatization of Mexico's oil sector
Fort McMurray Group wants to start needle exchange
"Guest Workers" bolting for freedom upon arrival
War and Security

The tarsands are only economical at a certain price per barrel. The attacks on Iraq and Somalia, along with threats against Venezuela, Iran and elsewhere all combine to drive that price up. This significantly leaves the US economic structures able to tighten their control on oil distribution around the world as they de-diversify their oil imports to heavy reliance on tarsand (mock) oil, growing in percentage at a incredible pace. Canada is ever more integrating this (mock) oil into the North American grid, at the behest of both Canadian and American corporations.

Iraq Signs Oil Deal With China Worth Up to $3 Billion/a>
The SPP and Merging Military Command Structures
Native chief seeks help of Venezuela's Chavez
Time for Us to Say "No More Oil for War" to the US

Oilsandstruth.org is not associated with any other web site or organization. Please contact us regarding the use of any materials on this site.


Message by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the Beijing Olympics

 http://www.dalailama.com/news.286.htm

I would like to offer my greetings to the People's Republic of China, the organizers and the athletes participating in the forthcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.

Right from the time of China's application to hold the Olympic Games, I have supported China's right to host the Games. This is a moment of great pride to the 1.3 billion Chinese people. These Games should contribute to promoting the Olympic spirit of friendship, openness and peace.

I send my prayers and good wishes for the success of the event.

THE DALAI LAMA

6 August 2008



The Time o Act is Now
A Buddhist Declaration on Climate Change


Beijing’s Bad Faith Olympics

New York Times Editorial August, 22, 2008

 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/opinion/23sat1.html

The Beijing Olympics still have one more day to run. But the final gold medal — for authoritarian image management — can already be safely awarded to China’s Communist Party leadership.

Beijing got what it wanted out of this globally televised spectacular. It reaped a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely use to promote its international influence and, we fear, further tighten its grip at home.

It pocketed these gains without offering any concessions in return. When it increased repression — rather than loosening up — a supine International Olympic Committee barely offered a protest. Most world leaders, including President Bush, were nearly as complicit.

In Beijing for the opening ceremony, Mr. Bush seemed eager to play the role of the apolitical sports fan, instead of publicly pressing China’s leaders on the ongoing Olympics crackdown. That nicely fit into the Chinese script of talking up sports while shutting down politics.

To win the right to host these Games, China promised to honor the Olympic ideals of nonviolence, openness to the world and individual expression. Those promises were systematically broken, starting with this spring’s brutal repression in Tibet and continuing on to the ugly farce of inviting its citizens to apply for legal protest permits and then arresting them if they actually tried to do so.

Along the way, government critics were pre-emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic news outlets tightly controlled, foreign journalists denied full access to the Internet and thousands of Beijing’s least telegenic residents were evicted from their homes and out of camera range. On Friday, the Chinese police confirmed that six Americans protesting China’s rule in Tibet had been sentenced to 10 days of detention.

Surely one of the signature events of these Games was the sentencing of two women in their late 70s to “re-education through labor.” Their crime? Applying for permission to protest the inadequate compensation they felt they had received when the government seized their homes years ago for urban redevelopment.

A year ago, the I.O.C. predicted that these Games would be “a force for good” and a spur to human-rights progress. Instead, as Human Rights Watch has reported, they became a catalyst for intensified human-rights abuse.

Mr. Bush has taken some note of China’s appalling human-rights record this summer — privately meeting with Chinese dissidents in Washington just before his visit to the Games and gently nudging his hosts on religious freedom while in Beijing. With these repression-scarred Olympics now drawing to a close, Mr. Bush and other world leaders must tell Beijing that its failure to live up to its Olympic commitments will neither be ignored nor forgotten.

The medal count and DVD sales cannot be the last word on the Beijing Game


t

Millions of Poor, Oppressed Han Chinese were abused, lost their homes-shown no

Compassion- and all the while babies in Heartland China were given toxic milk by the

China's Authorities.

 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/vigilinfo-picket-justice-for-burma-sudan-darfur-tibet-and-hundreds-of-millions-of-peasant-slaves-in-china-abolition-king-coal-fossil-fuels-nuclear-power-and-weapons/


June 9th, 2009 by orn Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

Olympic Police Harassing Activists: Joint Intelligence Group visit 14 activists

More than a dozen anti-Olympic activists and critics were contacted by intelligence officers from the Vancouver Integrated Security Unit (VISU) for the 2010 Olympic Games, from June 3 – 5, 2009. The Olympic Resistance Network and other groups are again asking VISU to stop harassing individual members and are preparing a legal letter to VISU to cease such intimidating visitations. The visits and phone calls were carried out by at least 8 members of the Joint Intelligence Group of VISU who asked activists about specifics around anti-Olympics activities. The plain clothes intelligence officers conducted surprise visits at people’s homes and workplaces, or in public places. “This is a clear effort to intimidate and monitor people who have concerns about the negative impacts of the Games on our communities,” explains Cara Fisher.

 http://olympicresistance.net/


 http://www.2010watch.com/


 http://www.no2010.com/


 http://vodpod.com/watch/1424093-native-youth-movement-no-2010-winter-olympics-on-stolen-land



International Campaign

Carnegie Community Action Project

International Media Release

 http://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com/international-media-campaign/

February 9, 2009

Poverty Olympics bulletin #1
2009 Poverty Olympics provides hilarious and serious preview for Vancouver Olympics 2010

(Vancouver, BC, Canada) – 2009 Poverty Olympics provides hilarious and serious preview of what international media will see when they come to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics.

About 400 people from Vancouver, Canada’s poorest neighbourhood took advantage of the one year countdown to the 2010 Olympic Games with a message about poverty in Canada.People in Canada live in shocking poverty, Wendy Pedersen told the crowd gathered for the Poverty Olympics. Her neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, has an HIV rate the same as Botswana’s.Street homelessness increased 373% between 2002 and 2008, and British Columbia has had the highest rate of child poverty in Canada for 5 years in a row (21%).

Pedersen said the government could have ended poverty and homelessness with the $6 billion they are wasting on the Olympics.

The rest of the Poverty Olympics was a humorous and blunt satire of the real Olympics, with a Torch relay, opening and closing ceremonies and “games.” One game was Sweeping Poverty Aside (curling) which featured Team Vanoc against Team Poverty. Team Vanoc (Vancouver Olympic Committee) swept away objects on the ice with “bailout” brooms, while blocking Team Poverty with sand on the ice and an actual rope labeled rent increases and evictions.

The Poverty Olympic Mascots, Itchy the Bedbug, Creepy the Cockroach, and Chewy the Rat, danced through the opening ceremonies singing Money makes the World Go Round and flinging fake money labeled “Olympics 2010, blank cheque” throughout the audience.

The Poverty Olympics was endorsed by Raise the Rates, Carnegie Community Action Project, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, BC Persons with Aids Society, Power to Women, and Streams of Justice.

–30—

Who are we?

Poverty Olympics Bulletins are brought to you by the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), a project of the 5000 member Carnegie Community Centre Association in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. To read previous bulletins please go to CCAP’s blog. For information about the Poverty Olympics, check out www.povertyolympics.ca.


These are some of the reasons for protesting at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on September 26 2009 at 8:30 AM. Come on out, it's free and you may even catch a glimpse of the spiritual dream team. (This is not about numbers but it is about Speaking, Doing Truth to Power & Initiating and Sustaining Change)


Note: We fully expect the Authorities to respect Freedom of Protest, Assembly, and

Free Speech. Especially being that the site of Protest-Vigil-Info Picket is at the University of British Columbia-where these freedoms are to be held in highest regard



A shorter version of the above PSEA document can be viewed in the current Carnegie Newsletter of Vancouver's Downtown East Side Sept 15 2009

 http://carnegie.vcn.bc.ca/newsletter


The Conservative Party of Canada need to redirect away from Environmental Areas

such as British Columbia's NE and NW -in general away from natural gas, coal, fossil fuels and nuclear. Our future prosperity depends on it.


The Alberta Tar Sands need to be shuttered in a responsible way-it is a war zone much like Afghanistan or Iraq-it must be done sooner rather than later. Canada has two major economic engines presently Ontario-essentially the Automotive sector -and we know how that is doing. The other is The Alberta Tar Sands...


Failing to understand this reality-quicker than you can say Wildwood Alliance and Brian Mulroney-the Conservative Party will be a shadow of what it was.


In BC Premier Campbell needs to stand down against the Homeless. Do not underestimate a snowball on a Mountain Peak, Mr Olympic Taxman-Rhetoric is not our game.


In the United States, Republicans and Democrats need to be United in their support for President Obama's Universal HealthCare for All. President Obama is assisting Middle--Class and Corporate America- very little is offered-the same is with Climate Change-If the Republican Party will deny even these grave inadequacies-and be led by Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Joe Wilson-the Republican Party will go the way of the federalist party-exposing a one party system.


Listen to the Office of the President-the Recovery is Far from certain..


You do not want to face what is behind the Office of the President. Some call it Democracy.


A Life in Africa-Russia-India-China etc is worth the same if it were America-Canada-Germany-Japan etc


Big Oil needs to turn off the taps off King Coal, Natural gas and Nuclear.It's dog eat dog time-if not we turn your Big Tap off


Let Earth have Peace and Life or it shall have War and Pestilence to End all Wars and Life


Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance(a homeless network of transborder activists, students, academics, Aboriginal etc.) psea does not do media interviews since july 2007,we thank all media for their enquires. Please feel free to use anything on this site.
www.floodiceorfire.wordpress.com



Abolition King Coal, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power and Weapons Everywhere!

The Great Struggle Continues….


Woody Guthrie - Tom Joad

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKWGAGPy_kw


Pete Seeger - American War Songs Medley

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhxjqM4y5f4


BATTLE HYMN OF THE US REPUBLIC 2009 AD

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cMxJBenigY


CONFEDERATE SONG ~ TO ARMS IN DIXIE—lyrics Albert Pike

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd1oA47Ti0I&feature=related


GIANT (1956) Yellow Rose of Texas-Fight-Rock Hudson,Elizabeth Taylor,

James Dean

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ptm6F2KHQ


Giant Trailer (1956) Written by John Steinbeck(Grapes of Wrath)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot1PmYwdXq8&feature=related


John Brown's Body

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuucLP3KrM4&feature=related


Lord Of The Rings - Opening scene

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr_i2w0W-ZM&feature=related



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlghYpDx0f4


Please see:


 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/abolition-of-king-coal-fossil-fuels-nuclear-power-and-weaponsupdate-friday-feb-13-2009/


 http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/original-psea-document-abolition-of-king-coal-everywhere/


What war teaches us is that there is no Jew, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Secularist, Atheist, Sikh etc. What matters is how we relate to each other and our beloved Earth. This is prayer in action. This is love and compassion in action. We are all healers and physicians, we should never do harm.

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance
- e-mail: psea4earth@gmail.com
- Homepage: http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/

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