Welcome to the ezine produced by SGI Buddhists that prompts the positive, kindles the constructive, highlights the hopeful and leaves you feeling - well, up!
Published on Tuesday, 17 February 2009 19:00 | | 
| 
|
Every year, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda publishes a proposal which explores the interrelation between core Buddhist concepts and the diverse challenges global society faces in the effort to realise peace and human security. Unsurprisingly, his just-published proposal for 2009 begins with a discussion of the world financial crisis.
"The impact of the financial crisis that started with defaults in the subprime mortgage market in the United States, leading to the bankruptcy of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, has now spread to encompass the whole world.
The present crisis inevitably provokes associations with the nightmare of the 1930s, when a severe economic depression created the conditions for the global conflagration of World War II. The situation remains fluid and unpredictable, and there are growing signs that the financial crisis is undermining the real economy, bringing about a global recession and driving up unemployment.
Published on Sunday, 15 February 2009 19:00 | | |
|
And here's another office video...
Published on Friday, 13 February 2009 19:00 | |
|
It’s time, argues Peter Marshall, that therapists shifted
their focus from the individual to the global, and addressed human suffering
and social injustice in the wider world
Published on Thursday, 12 February 2009 19:00 | |
|
Thomas Quasthoff, standing just four feet three inches tall, was one of thousands of Thalidomide babies born severely deformed when their mothers took the anti-sickness drug during pregnancy in the 1950s and 60s, writes Vida Adamoli.
He spent his toddler years encased in a sort of plastic shell and his arms are three-fingered flippers. But there is so much more to him than this. Quasthoff’s is a German bass-baritone, a truly inspirational artist with an extraordinary ‘burnished, burgundy-coloured voice’. It is his ability, not his disability, that distinguishes him.
Published on Wednesday, 11 February 2009 08:07 | | |
|
The Fourth Summit of the Global Alliance for Ministries and Departments of Peace is being hosted by the Government of Costa Rica in September this year
Founded in 2004, the Global Alliance is a worldwide community of civil society organizations, committed citizens and government officials from 35 countries, working to establish governmental structures that support a culture of peace. We invite you to join us in creating this momentous event as a turning point in the history of global peace efforts.
Published on Saturday, 14 February 2009 19:00 | | |
|
The chattering classes recently went into collective meltdown when Jonathon Porritt, the government’s Green adviser, suggested that couples who have more than two children are being 'irresponsible' by creating an unbearable burden on the planet, writes Julia Stephenson
Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.'
Published on Monday, 09 February 2009 19:00 | | |
|
Quanzhi Ye's boyhood dream comes true as he spots a new comet!
Comet Lulin, named after the observatory in Taiwan where the discovery-photo was taken, is now approaching Earth. "It is a green beauty that could become visible to the naked eye any day now," says Ye.