Saturday, February 28, 2009

the Bosnian War



What Happened in the Bosnian War?

On 29 February 1992, the multiethnic republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, constituting Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Slavs, passed a referendum for independence from Yugoslavia. However, not all Bosnian Serbs agreed with the move, although the rest of the population did, as they were trying to cede from Serbia, alarmed by the Serb leader, Slobodan Milosevic's attempts to seize control of federal government and his repressive measures in Kosovo. Under the pretence of protecting the Serb minority in Bosnia, Serbian leaders channelled arms and military support to Serbian nationalist minorities in Bosnia. Initially many Bosnians believed that the Yugoslav National Army would protect them, but before long is was clearly evident that the National Army was under the control of Milosevic. On 6 April 1992, the Bosnian Serbs began their siege of Sarajevo, cutting off Muslim, Croat and Serb residents from food, utilities and communications. For three years, the world watched normal people attempting to go about their daily routines while avoiding sniper fire. Throughout Bosnia, Bosnian Serb nationalist militias and the Yugoslav National Army began a policy of ethnic cleansing against the non-Serb civilian population. They captured towns, ransacked houses and apartments, separated men and women, detaining them in camps, killing many men and raping many women. Millions of Bosnians and Croats were forced to flee their homes, resulting in the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War Two. However, the response of the international community continued to be very limited, the UN responded by imposing economic sanctions on Serbia and deployed troops to protect the distribution of food and medicine, but they strictly prohibited its troops from intervening militarily.
Similarly the US remained aloof until 1994, when a new American administration under President Clinton issued an ultimatum through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) demanding the immediate withdrawal of Serb artillery from Sarajevo, the Serbs quickly complied and a NATO imposed cease-fire in Sarajevo was declared. The US then began a diplomatic effort to unite Bosnian Muslims and Croats, but this new alliance failed to prevent continued Serb attacks against Muslim towns. Bosnian Serb forces also attacked UN peacekeepers, NATO forces retaliated by launching limited air-strikes against Serb ground forces. The Serbs fought back by capturing hundreds of UN personnel and using them as human shields, chaining them to their installations. On August 30, 1995, effective military intervention was launched as the US led a massive NATO bombing campaign in response to the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim civilians by Serb forces at Srebrenica. Following these strikes and successful incursions by Bosnian Muslims and Croats, the Serbs began to lose ground, eventually been forced to sue for peace. On 1 November 1995, all leaders of the warring factions convened in Dayton, Ohio to thrash out a settlement. Terms were reached that included the partition of Bosnia into two parts namely the Bosnian-Serb Republic and the Muslim-Croat Federation. The agreement also called for democratic elections and stipulated that war criminals would be handed over to face trial. Over sixty thousand NATO troops were deployed to preserve the ceasefire. The war had left Bosnia devastated, over 200,000 Muslim civilians had being systematically murdered, more than 20,000 were missing and feared dead and over two million had become refugees

Would You Love to Evolve?



Would You Love to Evolve?

I see so much suffering in America and around the world. I see unhappiness, alienation, broken families, isolation, sickness, war, poverty, injustice and a planet out of balance. And it makes me both sad and angry. Sad, because it's me and my fellow human beings who are suffering and we deserve better. Angry, because most of this suffering is preventable and unnecessary.
It is caused not by Nature but by ourselves. Human ignorance, cruelty, laziness, selfishness, hatred, greed, anger, apathy, arrogance all combine to create this toxic suffering. Although there are some shining lights of hope amidst the darkness, overall the social, biological and ecological conditions on this planet are deteriorating. Each day's news can be condensed into one brief sentence: "Things are getting worse."
I believe human beings are capable of living at a far more evolved level than our current behavior would indicate.Humanity needs to look in the mirror and say, "I'm the cause of my problems. I'm sabotaging myself. I'm messing up my planet. I'm fighting with myself. I'm wrecking the future for my own species, for my own children. I'm doomed unless I transform the way I think and live."
Our fundamental problem is our way of thinking, our level of consciousness. We evolved to become human by breaking through to a new level of consciousness that led to tool-making, language, and culture. This level of consciousness that has helped humankind survive the Ice Age and grow to dominate the planet has taken us as far as it can. Our relentless drive for domination now threatens our species with self-destruction.
We need to evolve to the next level of consciousness so we can use the vast powers we have gained with wisdom. Now that we're all connected on this small planet we need to evolve so we can co-create with each other instead of trying to dominate each other.
Our previous evolutionary advance involved a dramatic increase in brain growth, increased brain cell capacity in the cerebrum. But scientists believe we have reached our physical limit in terms of cranial capacity. We can't fit anymore brain cells into our cranium. And a bigger head won't make it through the birth canal. We've got to find another way to evolve. So how do we evolve without adding more brain cells?
The answer is simple: By using the ones we have more effectively. Specifically, we need to evolve more connections within the brain itself. Surprisingly this possibility has both a sound scientific and spiritual basis. We need greater communication between the right brain and left brain to enable more holistic, "big picture" thinking.
As usual women lead the way in evolution. Neuroscientists recently discovered that women have already developed greater neural pathways in the corpus callosum that connects the two brain hemispheres, suggesting that it is possible to evolve the brain by changing the way we use it. Scientists don't know what caused this evolution. My guess is that women have evolved a more connected brain because they think in a more connected, holistic way -- about relationships, other people, about the whole family.
In addition to strengthening the left-right connection, we also need greater higher-lower coordination within the brain. We need much better intercommunication between our thinking "human" brain (neocortex), our emotional "mammalian" brain (limbic system) and our instinct-driven, flight-or-fight "reptilian" brain (brainstem and cerebellum).
The good news is that we have all the hardware we need, but our software is overdue for a major system upgrade. When we use our mind differently we not only reroute the electrical impulses in the brain cells (changing the software), we eventually grow new neural pathways (upgrading the hardware too!).
With a more evolved, interconnected brain we can think more clearly and solve problems at a higher level by seeing the big picture. We can have far greater self-control (fewer unhealthy habits and addictions, fewer emotional overreactions, far less selfishness and violence). With the higher brain better able to direct the lower brain we can finally live according to our highest values and spiritual principles.
So how do we evolve our brain? Some humans evolve before others -- the evolutionary pioneers. The most evolved humans of the past few millennia of human history have been trying to point the rest of us in the right direction. Spiritually evolved leaders such as Jesus, Buddha, Moses (and many other wise men and women throughout the ages on every continent) all have given us the same advice: "Love God, love Creation, love yourselves and love one another."
The practice of love is what actually evolves our brain. Consistently acting from love instead of selfishness and fear is the only way we humans will evolve our brains to the next level. Scientists will never come up with a pill or a genetic fix to evolve us. No savior will swoop down from the sky and transform us. We have evolved to the point where we ourselves direct our evolution with our own thinking.
When people asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus kept reminding them, "It's not going to come by looking here or looking there. It's within you--look inside." (see Luke 17:20-21).
Buddha also taught that "heaven" or "nirvana" was a state of consciousness and that only through using our minds in a new way based on love, unconditional acceptance and non-violence could we experience inner peace and create an outer world of peace.
Humanity needs to evolve in order to avoid self-destruction and to fulfill our destiny as inhabitants of an intelligent, loving universe. We are either part of the problem or part of the evolution.
Three simple (and challenging) ways to evolve:
(1) Link up the higher and lower parts of your brain by developing your mind-body connection. Use techniques and therapies from the realms of holistic health, personal growth and authentic spirituality to develop greater awareness and create health and harmony within your body, heart, mind and soul.
(2) Integrate all the dimensions of your brain, your body and your spiritual being by practicing love. Think from love at every moment. Act from love in daily life. Love heals and makes whole the fragmented parts of our being. Love rewires our brain so we can create a heaven on earth.
(3) Love dissolves the barriers between people so we can live happily under one roof with our friends and family, and so we can live happily on this planet as one great human family. Then collectively we can begin to create a "politics of love" -- new leaders and new social structures motivated by love instead of fear and guided by spiritual wisdom instead of ego power. Love is the next stage in our species' evolution.
Think it's impossible? Do you think evolution is over and done with -- that we are just stuck with who we are? That's a tempting thought because then we don't have to try. The truth is that it's challenging work, but far from impossible. It's simply up to us whether we do the work or not. Our love-ability develops through practice and exercise.
Love is a verb. It's not just a feeling. It's something we do. Think evolutionary change sounds good, but it can't help us with today's crises because evolution takes thousands, even millions of years? Transformation of consciousness can occur in the twinkling of an eye. Resistance is the limiting factor, and resistance has its roots in the ego and in fear. If we resist the death-rebirth of transformation, our energy goes into holding onto the past instead of creating the future.
Like the trapeze artist we need to let go of one bar in order to catch the bar that will carry us forward. Each new instant of time bursts forth into being, freeing itself from the confines of the past moment. Need motivation? Our life, our children's lives and the future of humanity depend on what we do in this generation. Imagine humanity finding the courage and faith to embrace the transformation that is struggling to take form. Imagine us fulfilling our divine destiny to become fully consciousness loving beings.
Imagine that we change direction and narrowly succeed in avoiding the many disasters that could end the human experiment during the twenty-first century. (It's going to be a cliffhanger!) Next imagine that we begin to think clearly, cooperate and actually solve some of the problems we face regarding such vital issues as food, fuel, health and human relationships.
Finally, imagine the paradise this planet could evolve into if enough of us wonderful, amazing, creative human beings practiced love consistently for the next few hundred years. Would you love to evolve?

Unconditional Love


Unconditional Love, Do You Have It?
The word love is used in many ways which have no real intent or meaning which causes the word to be diminished it's affect on us as a humans. Rather than saying hello, closing a conversation or departing people will use hi love or I love you. It has become almost a slang or common saying. It has been misused in music and movies for over 80 years.
What is this quality of life that we all want, but very few have in their life? Why is this so? Unconditional Love must given to us by our parents but most parents do not know what it is as it was not given to them. There are seven qualities to unconditional love; acceptance, recognition, validation, acknowledgment, approval, respect and trust. To operate from these qualities we have to act with kindness, caring and acceptance without judgment, control, acceptance without manipulation and authority.
If you talk to most people they think they have it. Yet, very few people know what true unconditional love is nor can they provide it to themselves or anyone else. The greatest power known to man is that of unconditional love. As humans, we have searched endlessly for the experience of love through the outer senses. Great nations have come and gone under the guise of love for their people. Religions have flourished and perished while claiming the true path to love. We, the people of this planet, may have missed the simplicity of unconditional love. . . So what is it we are missing?
Simply stated, unconditional love is an unlimited way of being. We are without any limit to our thoughts and feelings in life and can create any reality we choose to focus our attention upon that excites the very core of our being and lights our path with delight. Unconditional Love is a dynamic and powerful energy that lifts us through the most difficult times. It is available at any moment by turning our attention to it and using its wonderful potential to free us from our limitations. Why can't we use it? Why have we dropped to the depths of war and conflict? Why are there so many dysfunctional families and children? Why do people fail in their careers? People get sick to get the seven qualities of love, yet they do not know this. They blame it on outside sources yet we cause it all. If we had the seven qualities of love we would never have any illness or disease. It was proven out my family as we have not been sick for over forty years.
We have to go back to the root cause of why we lost our feeling and knowledge of what unconditional love is comprised of. The conflict for us is we knew what unconditional love was when we were born, but our mother did not know what it was. She had lost it when she was a child just as we did too. Most people will claim they had a good loving childhood. Is that a true statement? Highly unlikely since we tend to block and bury our negative experiences in the denial files in our mind. All we can remember is the positive experiences. Many people can not even remember anything from childhood. How honest are we going to be when we evaluate our childhood experiences? Many people are so traumatized by their childhood experiences they do not want to go back and look at them. They have blocked them out so well they do not exist. Some people will contrive up an illusion which they want to be as their childhood and that becomes their story. There are some people who are willing to be honest about what happened in childhood and are seeking help to remove the stigma of their childhood experiences.
We have to reclaim our personal power and take responsibility over our life before we can recover our lost self. The quickest way is to reparent ourselves and grow up again. We lost the qualities of unconditional love by the time we were four years old. We expected our mother to provide an effective parenting model for us to learn from, yet she was not able to do this. One would question this and assume it is an inherited quality. Yes, it was inherited alright, but a distorted dysfunctional parenting program was handed down. Unfortunately it does not work or we would not have so many dysfunctional children growing up without the qualities of unconditional love. How can we stop this vicious circle from continuing from generation to generation? It begins with ourselves, for without self-love, we cannot know what true love can be. In loving ourselves, we allow the feeling to generate within us and then we can share it to everyone and everything around us! That which we send out, returns to us in greater measure. If you have not thought about how you feel towards yourself, physically, mentally, and emotionally, or spiritually, begin the journey that changes everything. Begin the journey of unconditional love. How do we begin this journey when we were brought up in a dysfunctional family? 99 of the children were rejected after birth due to a dysfunctional parenting program. The conflict starts when the baby begins to ask for recognition and acceptance from mother. She does not know how to show this quality so the baby begins to act out to get the love, affection, recognition and acceptance. Here is where the breakdown comes in. If you do not have the qualities to give you can not provide them no matter how intent you are in trying to do so. Children are very intuitive so they can sense how you feel about yourself. If the parent does not have a functional love program then the child will act as if you are withholding love from them. Unfortunately most parents operate from a control and authority position rather than from unconditional love program so they demand compliance with their behavior. The child assumes since they know what unconditional love is they assume mother know also. So the child questions why they can not get love, recognition and acceptance from mother. Their only feeling is that mother is not willing to give them love so they feel she is denying love, recognition and acceptance. This is what causes the terrible twos as the child is getting angry and upset so they act out trying to get love, acceptance and recognition. Many parents will say they have been trying to provide affection and love. Take note of this: It is not what you do; it is how the child's perception of what you do that causes the conflict. You can do all the right actions, if the child does not feel they are receiving it you are getting through to them. One of the most demonstrative afflictions which are caused by lack of love in childhood is Fibromyalgia yet most people who suffer from this dysfunction will not face the cause nor are they willing to even look at the cause. All you have to do is look at the social networking sites where these people write about their pain and suffering.. Lack of love is the root cause and core issue, yet do these people know it or even want to know it? From my experience posting on these networks the answer is no. Some their responses have been “who is this Snake oil doctor on our site or do you really believe your garbage” It is amazing to me people want to suffer.
Many people have suggested, taught and demonstrated what they think will change this basic dysfunctional pattern in our society. Has it worked? All you have to do is look at the situations we are facing in our culture today. In my estimation they are not working on the scale we need to change the direction of society today. What we need is a massive ReParenting Movement so people can grow up again and reclaim their personal power. Love is missing from most people lives so they operate from autopilot not knowing they are passing down from generation to generation this dysfunctional parenting program.
Forgiveness is a wonderful way to release the past but we have been able to do this without limitations. Unconditional love means unconditional freedom. Love and freedom are two of those words that are interchangeable. Freedom of choice is unconditional love, unconditional freedom. Choice is another of those words that are interchangeable with Love and freedom. For the most part humanity understands little of what the word unconditional means. Unconditional means… "NO CONDITIONS." This lack of understanding is what has divided man from man and religion from religion throughout his sojourn in the physical reality.
Dr. Martin believes you can have peace, happiness, harmony, joy, unconditional love and financial abundance; it is available to you at all times. You have the ability to change your life and create a new future simply by reprogramming your mind