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On December 10, 1948

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On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.


Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

December 10th, 2008 at 10:56 am

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Global Trends 2025

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Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World” is the fourth unclassified report prepared by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in recent years that takes a long-term view of the future. It offers a fresh look at how key global trends might develop over the next 15 years to influence world events. Our report is not meant to be an exercise in prediction or crystal ball-gazing. Mindful that there are many possible “futures,” we offer a range of possibilities and potential discontinuities, as a way of opening our minds to developments we might otherwise miss.

Some of our preliminary assessments are highlighted below:

* The whole international system—as constructed following WWII—will be revolutionized. Not only will new players—Brazil, Russia, India and China— have a seat at the international high table, they will bring new stakes and rules of the game.
* The unprecedented transfer of wealth roughly from West to East now under way will continue for the foreseeable future.
* Unprecedented economic growth, coupled with 1.5 billion more people, will put pressure on resources—particularly energy, food, and water—raising the specter of scarcities emerging as demand outstrips supply.
* The potential for conflict will increase owing partly to political turbulence in parts of the greater Middle East.

From the Chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Written by Luca

November 24th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

Posted in RELATIONS

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Spirituality, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ roll (about Mahrishi Yogi and the Beatles trip to India in 1968)

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Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was widely regarded as the foremost scientist in the field of consciousness, and considered to be the greatest teacher in the world today.

My Vedic Science is the science of Veda.

Veda means knowledge. Therefore, my Vedic Science, the science of Veda, is the science of complete knowledge.

Knowledge results from the coming together of the knower, the process of knowing, and the object of knowing–knowledge blossoms in the togetherness of knower, process of knowing, and known. Therefore, knowledge is the Unified Field of knower, process of knowing, and known; therefore,

My Vedic Science, the science of knowledge, is the science of the Unified Field of knower, process of knowing, and known.

Those who practise the Transcendental Meditation technique have the experience that Transcendental Consciousness is unbounded awareness–it is pure wakefulness; it is fully awake within itself; it knows only itself and nothing else.

My Vedic Science is the Science of Consciousness

Trip to India – 1967:

The Beatles and their entourage, which included Mia Farrow — were doing drugs, taking LSD, at Maharishi’s ashram, and once he lost his temper with them. He asked them to leave, and they did.
But when they went back to the US, John Lennon gave a hard interview on the Johnny Carson show, accusing Maharishi also wrote a satirical song about Maharishi, which went: Sexy Sadie, what have you done/you made a fool of everyone.

Nineteen sixty-nine was for John Lennon a year of intense crises and search for social and personal liberation. He had already entered in a major transitional period; he had married Yoko Ono in March, and the Beatles were about to break up.

[black and white film of the Himalayas and Rishikesh]
[voice-over]
JOHN: I was influenced by acid and got psychedelic, you know, like the whole generation. But really, I like rock and roll, you know.

[voice-over]
RINGO: Just one of those things that happened, you know, as life went on.
PAUL: We’d been into drugs, and we were — there’s the next step, then, is — then you’ve got to try and find a meaning, then.
GEORGE: That’s where I really went for the meditation.

[On-the-street interview with Maharishi, who holds an armful of flowers]
REPORTER: The Beatles seem to be among your supporters now. How do you feel about that?
MAHARISHI: I feel a great promise for the younger generation, because if the Beatles take up this Transcendental Meditation, they are the ideal of energy and intelligence in the younger generation, and that will really bring up the youth on a very good level of understanding and intelligence. I’m very happy about it, that they heard my lecture last evening, and they talked to me for about an hour after the lecture. They seem to me very intelligent and alert.

[on camera]
GEORGE: And after the lecture, we went– because, you know, that was one of the privileges of the Beatles, we could get in anywhere. So we got backstage, met Maharishi, and, you know, I said to him, “Got any mantras? Give us a mantra.” And he said, “Well, we’re going to Bangor tomorrow. You should come and get initiated.”

[black and white newsfilm of Maharishi and the Beatles at Bangor, August 25, 1967]
[voice-over]
PAUL: Yes, we got up there. There was a big crowd up there at the train station, there was a crowd to meet us. And we all sort of wandered through in our psychedelic gear and spent, like, a sort of– it was like a summer camp. And you spend all your first few days just trying to stop your mind dealing with your social calendar, you know, whatever’s coming up. But it was good. I eventually got the hang of it, we all got the hang of it.

[newsfilm of interview]
JOHN: You know, you just sort of sit there, and you let your mind go, wherever it’s going. Doesn’t matter what you’re thinking about, just let your mind go. And then you just introduce the mantra, or the vibration, just to take over from the thought. You don’t will it or use your willpower.
GEORGE: If you find yourself thinking, then the moment you realize you’ve been thinking about things again, then you replace that thought with the mantra again.

[newsfilm of Beatles and Maharishi at Bangor]
[voice-over]
RINGO: I was really impressed with the Maharishi, and was impressed because he was laughing all the time. He was just having a ball. You know, it was another point of view. It was the first time we’re getting into sort of Eastern philosophies now.

(Transcript from the “The Beatles Anthology,” about their time with Maharishi)

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

February 6th, 2008 at 10:44 am

Posted in Culture

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Bernie Boston ‘Flower Power’

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Bernie Boston, a newspaper photographer best known for his iconic 1960s picture of a Vietnam War protester placing flowers in soldiers’ gun barrels at a rally, has died last tuesday. Boston’s photograph, “Flower Power,” took the picture at an anti-war protest in Washington on Oct. 22, 1967. He was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a 1987 photograph of Coretta Scott King unveiling a bust of her late husband, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in the U.S. Capitol.

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

January 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm

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Free Italy Free Tibet

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The Dalai Lama opened a 10-day visit to Italy on Thursday with few official meetings on his schedule. “No audience is planned”. Nobody received an official, written statement of a meeting. So Pope Benedict did not meet Dalai Lama. Neither Italian President or the Italian Foreign Minister.

Beijing’s communist government responded early in November by saying such a meeting would “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” and urged the Pontiff to take action showing he “is sincere in improving relations” .

The Dalai Lama’s recent meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President George W. Bush drew strong rebukes from Beijing, which claims he wants to split Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama insists he only seeks autonomy for Tibet, which China has occupied since 1951.

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Among his activities in Milan are a ceremony for Nobel Peace Prize winners hosted by the Milan mayor. Meanwhile he met Giuseppe Piero Grillo, better known as Beppe Grillo (born July 21, 1948), an Italian comedian and blogger. His performances as much his posts are characterized by an realistic level of political satire.
On 26 July 2007 Grillo was permitted to speak to the members of the European Parliament in Brussels, where he drew attention to the dangerous, negative state of current Italian politics. He also promoted the so called V-Day (8 September 2007).

The V-Day, which was supported in more than 170 Italian cities as well as abroad, was organised by Grillo to persuade Italians to sign a petition calling for the introduction of a Bill of Popular Initiative to remove members of the Italian Parliament who have criminal convictions of any kind from their office. And gradually expands public awareness over the general situation.

Religious and political leader of the Tibetan people Dalai Lama’s is due in Rome next week. His favorite verse comes from eighth century Buddhist saint Shantideva

For as long as space endures
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world.

Track

This is a video made in 1938 showing the Great yoga teacher demonstrating asana and pranyama. He was the teacher of BKS Iyengar and Sri K. Pattahbi Jois, founder the Astanga style of yoga. The film is so old that any claim to copyright has expired

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

December 7th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

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Putin of Persia

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Vladimir Putin

Putin and an entourage arrived in Teheran for a summit of the leaders of the five states bordering the energy-rich but ecologically threatened Caspian Sea. His visit is the first to Iran by a Russian head of state since 1943, when Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met in Tehran, to map World War II strategy.

Russia plays a crucial role in this moment as the main interlocutor of the Islamic Republic as to the nuclear issue is concerned and as the major obstacle to the adoption of a military resolution against Teheran which Washington and the neo-cons try to impose if diplomacy fails resolve the issue.

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The Tehran Conference (codenamed EUREKA) was the first World War II conference among the Big Three (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom) in which Stalin was present. It succeeded the Cairo Conference and was followed by the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference. The chief discussion was centered on the opening of a second front in Western Europe. At the same time a separate protocol pledged the three countries to recognize Iran’s independence:

“The Three Governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they are agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be possible, having regard to the heavy demands made upon them by their world-wide military operations, and to the world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civilian consumption.” (Declaration of the Three Powers Regarding Iran—December 1, 1943)

Prince of Persia(PC9801)

Prince of Persia is a platform game, originally developed by Jordan Mechner in 1989 for the Apple II, that was widely seen as a great leap forward in the quality of animation seen in computer games. Mechner used a process called rotoscoping, in which he studied many hours of film of his younger brother David running and jumping in white clothes, to ensure that all the movements looked just right.

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

October 16th, 2007 at 5:07 pm

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Stop the Clash of Civilizations

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This video, made with agit-pop.com with music by DJ Spooky, helped launch the campaign against the so-called Clash of Civilizations–starting with a call for real Middle East peace talks now. Take action now at www.avaaz.org, the web platform for the suppport of the protest.

Written by Luca

September 27th, 2007 at 12:09 am

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21 September: Give Peace A Chance

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Message of the ONU Secretary-General Kofi Annan

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Peace is one of humanity’s most precious needs. It is also the United Nations’ highest calling.

It defines our mission. It drives our discourse. And it draws together all of our worldwide work, from peacekeeping and preventive diplomacy to promoting human rights and development.

This work for peace is vital. But it is not easy. Indeed, in countless communities across the world, peace remains an elusive goal. From the displaced person camps of Chad and Darfur to the byways of Baghdad, the quest for peace is strewn with setbacks and suffering.

September 21, the International Day of Peace, is an occasion to take stock of our efforts to promote peace and well-being for all people everywhere.

It is an opportunity to appreciate what we have already accomplished, and to dedicate ourselves to all that remains to be done.

It is also meant to be a day of global ceasefire: a 24-hour respite from the fear and insecurity that plague so many places.

Today, I urge all countries and all combatants to honour this cessation of hostilities. And I ask people everywhere to observe a minute of silence at noon local time.

As the guns fall silent, we should use this opportunity to ponder the price we all pay due to conflict. And we should resolve to vigorously pursue ways to make permanent this day’s pause.

On this International Day, let us promise to make peace not just a priority, but a passion. Let us pledge to do more, wherever we are in whatever way we can, to make every day a day of peace

Written by Ilari Valbonesi

September 21st, 2007 at 7:42 pm

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