Working
for the common cause is never easy. To begin, you are constantly challenged
by those who have no comprehension and who remain hostile to anything
beyond their own confines.
The common
cause is what most people reach out for and towards when all else is
snatched from them. In such circumstances and beyond the bottle and
other similar perspective wrecking distractions, thoughtful contemplation
and meditation will lead to the awareness of the common cause. Meditation
is the art of relaxation.
Sanctification
and protection of the common cause is what enables people to go about
their daily lives without having to immerse themselves in fighting
for that common cause. How many of us give deliberate thought to the
solidity of the foundations of the homes in which we live until something
occurs to make us focus on those foundations?
The questions
then become numerous. Who designed those foundations, who worked upon
and put them in place? What, if any, is our own role in the presence
of those foundations?
By default, those
who work for radio, television and the newspaper industries are in the front
line of promoting and standing up for the common cause. How they acknowledge
and comply with their respective positions depends much more upon professional
training than on personal volition. The danger preceding failure is in wearing
an outward cloak of respectability whilst failing to meet the demands. Feeding
the populace pap might fatten personal bank accounts but that is in reality
all it will achieve.
Those who
watch the news reports currently emanating from western journalists
in the Middle East should listen carefully to and analyse the perspective
of those reports.
We might not
all be in a position to work for the common cause as actively as others might.
Yet pause a moment to ponder that but not for the common cause, none of us
would have the education nor the time nor the freedom to even ponder in such
fashion.
It might
also be valid to ponder the worth of the individual within the common
cause and whether any common cause could ever exist where the intrinsic
worth of any individual is devalued.
A
Quiet Corner We live in a dangerous
world—dangerous because men and women
alike shirk from the responsibility of being humble.
This sonnet epitomises the gift of humility.
God
Grant me the Serenity to accept
the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can and
Wisdom to know the difference,
Living one day at a time — enjoying one~
moment at a time
Accepting hardships as the pathway of Peace
Taking as He did this sinful world as it is —
and not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right —
if I surrender to His Will
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy in the next world
“It’s not hard to bring out the worst in large numbers
of citizens by constantly pressing their buttons; fear, hate, greed,
false pride and blind loyalty are the main emotions used to manipulate
people so much these last years. Reversing this process and empowering
people through courage, love, generosity, humility and critical thinking
is harder but it can and must be done.” -- Coleen Rowley for
RootsAction; FBI whistle blower
What is what and
who is who and who cares what if who is not, said the reflection
to the shadow.
Total Cost of War on Terror
Every hour taxpayers in the United States are paying $93,264,841 for Total Cost of War on Terror.
A Signatory — or not? Nations
that enlist as signatories to uphold and abide by the International
Court of Justice but then decline to support and follow judgements
and arrest warrants issued by the Court should be expelled as signatories
without exception.
A Word
of Advice to those who need to hear. If
you have not studied the world history of humanity
with an unbiased view then you will not know that past civilisations
that collapsed did so because they
were:
invaded
by an aggressive force
or
they
lacked empathy and compassion
Civilisation as we know it today now stands on the brink.
In the early 1980s, after witnessing opportunities in Asia, Barry Pearton saw a clear gap in Australia's media market. Without nothing but optimism, courage and a kitchen table as his office, he founded Asia Today International.
With his wife, Florence as the editor, Barry brought news on the economic development of Asia to Corporate Australia, at a time when news on Asia was mainly event-driven and negative. Th
Beloved Australian actor, Magda Szubanski, has revealed she's been diagnosed with a "very rare, very aggressive, very serious" blood cancer called mantle cell lymphoma.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Szubanski said she would be starting treatment in a few weeks for the stage 4 cancer, which she called "one of the nasty ones, unfortu
Beberapa perusahaan di sejumlah daerah Indonesia masih melakukan praktik penahanan ijazah bagi karyawan barunya.
Belum ada aturan nasional yang mengatur penahanan ijazah, tapi beberapa peraturan daerah sudah melarang praktik ini, meskipun implementasinya belum cukup efektif.
Aturan ketenagakerjaan yang progresif di tingkat daerah perlu didorong menjadi kebijakan dengan skala nasional.
What goes up must come down, and earlier this week yet another of SpaceX's Starships, the biggest and most powerful type of rocket ever built, came back down to Earth in spectacular fashion. In the sky above the Indian Ocean, it exploded.
This was the ninth test flight for the rocket, and the third catastrophic failure in a row, just this year.
Is this what we should expect from the very ship some are cou
A major Australian study tracking more than 80,000 Queenslanders from birth to adulthood reveals stark differences between men and women in patterns of criminal behaviour.
These patterns offer insights into effective crime prevention strategies.
Our findings point to a clear takeaway: most people will never seriously come into contact
Imagine replanting various native species only to have them die because the area is too hot or too dry. Or reconnecting woodland habitat only to lose large tracts to bushfire.
Well, our new research suggests those scenarios are entirely possible.
We analysed the two most common ways to prevent overall biodiversity loss on private land in Australia
TIANJIN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Yang Lin and Letizia Vallini, scholars with Tianjin-based Nankai University, feel profoundly inspired every time they read the China-related words by renowned Italian politician and jurist Piero Calamandrei.
In 1955, although diplomatic ties had not yet been established between China and Italy, Calamandrei led an Italian cultural delegation composed of experts from various fields, incl
The idea is generative artificial intelligence tools (such as ChatGPT) could adapt to any teaching style set by a teacher. The AI could guide students step-by-step through problems and offer hints without giving away answers. It could then deliver prec
I grew up with Dorothea Mackellar and The Man from Snowy River, where ragged mountain ranges met the colt from Old Regret. I grew up with the idea that the Australian bush meant endless possibility to breed livestock and nd gold in every rock overturned. But these practices of clearing and marking ownership through decree of unproductive agricultural land pushed mob further from their traditional lands. It discredited
People with disability are missing out on screening programs that could help detect cancer early, and after diagnosis, are less likely to survive, our study shows.
Overall, this means people with disability are more likely to die from cancer than people without disability.
"Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
“Who
overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.”
John
Milton
Origins
of Poverty
When man came on earth he did not live in a society or hierarchy
nor was he endowed with poverty. Good health, longevity, natural
cheerfulness were his own even as he found himself amidst plenty.
Like other species he lived or perished as the external resources
permitted but he lived or perished as a group. Only when the
society organised itself into a hierarchy, it was possible
for one layer to exist while another persisted during times
of scarcity. Organised ways of living, knowledge of all descriptions,
systems created for comfort etc. interfered with the natural
living of MAN in hundreds of ways. With the passing of time
these stratifications of society come to stay and even create
a psychology by which even the victim takes his victimization
for granted. No question arises in his mind. ...
Had
not the society organised itself in such a way that segments
of it are protected and other segments were defenseless, MAN
would have remained as MAN and would not have been bifurcated
into poor and rich.
“Man
was always destroying things, and beautiful things.
At the time they wouldn’t seem beautiful.
It was only afterwards that men felt pity for the things their hands
had destroyed.”
Walter
Macken — The Scorching Wind
A
Quiet Corner 
COMMENT
Seed
Newsvine