"We must demand that we pay higher prices..."

"And I have to say, you know, if we want to live in a safe world, we need to be -- we must be willing, and, in fact, we must demand that we pay higher prices for things like laptop computers and cell phones and that a good share of that money go back to the people who are mining the coltan. And that’s true of oil. It’s true of so many resources that we are not paying the true cost, and there’s millions of people around the world suffering from that. Roughly 50,000 people die every single day from hunger or hunger-related diseases and curable diseases that they don’t get the medicines for, simply because they’re part of a system that demands that they put in long hours, and they get very, very low pay, so we can have things cheaper in this country. And the Congo is an incredibly potent example of that. "

From John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption"

"And then, one day I was on vacation, sailing in the Virgin Islands, and I anchored my little boat off the St. John Island, and I took the dinghy in, and I climbed this mountain on St. John Island in the Virgin Islands up to this old sugar cane plantation in ruins. And it was beautiful. Bougainville. The sun was setting. I sat there and felt very peaceful. And then suddenly, I realized that this plantation had been built on the bones of thousands of slaves. And then I realized that the whole hemisphere had been built on the bones of millions of the slaves. And I got very angry and sad. And then, it suddenly struck me that I was continuing that same process and that I was a slaver, that I was making the same thing happen in a slightly -- in a different way, more subtle way, but just as bad in terms of its outcome. And at that point, I made the decision I would never do it again. And I went back to Boston a couple of days later and quit."

" I came up to New York to Ground Zero, and as I stood there looking down into that terrible pit, that smoldering -- and it still smelled of burning flesh -- I realized that I had to write the book, I could no longer defer, that the American people had no understanding of why so many people around the world are angry and frustrated and terrified, and that I had to take responsibility for what happened at 9/11. In fact, we all have to take a certain responsibility, which is not in any way to condone mass murder by anybody ever -- I’m not condoning that in any way -- but I did realize that the American people needed to understand why there’s so much anger around the world. I had to write the book. "

"this empire that we’ve created really has an emperor, and it’s not the president of this country. The President serves, you know, for a short period of time. But it doesn't really matter whether we have a Democrat or a Republican in the White House or running Congress; the empire goes on, because it’s really run by what I call the corporatocracy, which is a group of men who run our biggest corporations. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. They don’t need to conspire. They all know what serves their best interest. But they really are the equivalent of the emperor, because they do not serve at the wish of the people, they’re not democratically elected, they don’t serve any limited term. They essentially answer to no one, except their own boards, and most corporate CEOs actually run their boards, rather than the other way around. And they are the power behind this.

And so, if we want to turn this around, we have to impact them very strongly, which means that we have to change the corporations, which is their power base. And what I feel very strongly is that today corporations exists for the primary purpose of making large profits, making a few very rich people a lot richer on a quarterly basis, on a daily basis, on a very short-term basis. That shouldn't be. There is no reason for that to be.

Corporations have been defined as individuals. Individuals have to be good citizens. Corporations need to be good citizens. They need to take -- their primary goal must be to take care of their employees, their customers and all the people around the world who provide the resources that go into making this world run, and to take care of the environments and the communities where those people live.

We must get the corporations to redefine themselves, and I think it’s very realistic that we can do so. Every corporate executive out there is smart enough to realize that he’s running a very failed system. As an economist, as a rational person, nobody can conclude anything otherwise. If you look at the fact that less than 5% of the world's population live in the United States and we consume more than 25% of the world's resources and create over 30% of its major pollution, you can only conclude that we’ve created a very flawed and failed system. This is not a model that can be sold to the Chinese or the Indians or the Africans or the Middle Easterners or the Latin Americans. We can’t even continue with it ourselves. It has to change. And corporate executives know that. They’re smart individuals. I believe that they want to see change.

And when we have really pushed them to change, we’ve been extremely successful. For example, we’ve got them to clean up rivers that were terribly polluted in the 1970s in this country. We got them to get rid of the aerosol cans that were destroying the ozone layer. We got them to change their policies toward hiring and promoting minorities and women. We’ve gotten them to put seatbelts in cars and airbags, against their initial resistance. We’ve got them to change tremendously in any specific area where we’ve set out to do that.

Now, it behooves us, we must convince them that their corporations need to be institutions to make this a better world, rather than institutions that serve a few very rich people and their goal is to make those people even richer. We need to turn this around. We must. "

HERO: AMY GOODMAN

Published on Monday, March 10, 2003 by the Washington Post
Peace Correspondent
'Democracy Now!' Host Amy Goodman Is Making Her Voice Heard on Iraq
by Michael Powell

NEW YORK -- And now for the news:

"President Bush last night claimed a war in Iraq would set the stage for peace in the Middle East, but he did not set any deadline or detail any specific steps." . . .

[While everyone else was passing lies, Amy was trying desperately to help us see the Truth. She continues.]

WARNING: "As you do unto the least of these..."

I've written of this before, BROTHERS AND SISTERS I HAVE NONE, but due to its insideousness this issue will not leave me and a Revelation has just hit me!


The opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference or appathy. Rollo May

Jesus was pissed off, and giving us JESUS GREATEST WARNING, when He said, "As you do unto the least of these my family you do unto me."

Jesus was encountering what I am encountering. Everyone refuses to get it. Many people see my "witness," see my "sacrifice" and feel warmly toward it. BUT THEY WILL NOT LET THEMSELVES GO BEYOND THIS AND LOVE MY CHILDREN!!!

Matthew Chapter 25 41 17 Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' 44 Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?' 45 He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Matthew Chapter 7 21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, 10 but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?' 23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. 11 Depart from me, you evildoers.'

Teresa of Calcutta: "To help us be worthy of heaven, Christ put as a condition that at our hour of death, you and I, regardless of whom we were (Christians or non-Christians, each human being has been created by the loving hand of God in his own likeness), will stand before God and be judged according to how we have acted toward the poor (Matthew 25:40)."

"Jesus announced which will be the criteria of the final judgment of our lives: we will be judged according to love. Judged according to the love we have shown the poor, with whom God identifies: "You did it to me"(Matthew 25:40)." Teresa of Calcutta

SITE DEDICATION: GREED FOR JOY, MILITANT GLOBAL BROTHERLINESS

This site is dedicated to:

• GREED for Joy (instead of Pleasure)
• Militant Global Brotherliness
• Heaven on Earth
• Service of the Almighty - Love, Truth, Joy
• Salvation of the Individual - from Joyless Selfishness and Divorce from Humanity
• Salvation of all Humanity

"I LIVE BY FAITH ALONE," START LOVING

"I LIVE BY FAITH ALONE," START LOVING. This is an amazing realization for me this week. "I don't know who discovered water, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a fish." -- Marshall McLuhan. For all of my life the word "Faith" was meaningless and uninteresting to me due to its profound perversion (even if unintended) by the "church."

But as I have freed myself, "Saved" myself by surrendering to Jesus and the Almighty I find that Faith is the result, that I have for many months now Lived by Faith Alone! And for my entire adult life I've navigated ALMOST totally by Faith alone, thank God.

Better than I could ever hope to Dietrich Bonhoeffer captured what this Journey of total Faith, what this wonderful, exciting, amazing, Joyful voyage I am on feels like, and what Faith IS:

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”

All these are used to the fullest - Reason, Principles, Conscience, Freedom, Head / Mind, Knowledge.... But in Faith they are subordinated to the Almighty - Love / Life / Truth - HEART... for Joy.

"Follow Jesus' word."

Teresa of Calcutta

Teresa of Calcutta Quotes

IN MY OWN WORDS

Online!!!! Free!!!

From the introduction:

All she did, in her own words, was

"follow Jesus' word."

-

This is the first I've read her book in several years. The way she describes her journey is just like mine feels.

.

The Almighty, the Kingdom

is in your Heart.

Stop looking outside, in buildings, in preachers.

The Kingdom of God is within you.

Be like a child and find it.

Start Loving

.

LOVE

• "I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love."

HOLINESS

• Saint Thomas Aquinas assures us that holiness "is nothing else but a resolution made, the heroic act of a soul that surrenders to God." And he adds: "Spontaneously we love God, we run towards him, we run towards him, we get close to him, we possess him."
• Our willingness is important because it changes us into the image of God and likens us to him! The decision to be holy is a very dear one.
• Renunciation, temptations, struggles, persecutions, and all kind of sacrifices are what surround the soul that has opted for holiness.
• If we do the work for God and for his glory, we may be sanctified.
• We should go out to meet people. Meet the people who live afar and those who live very close by. Meet the materially poor or the spiritually poor.
• The fact of death should not sadden us. The only thing that should sadden us is to know that we are not saints.
• To sometimes experience disgust is something quite natural. The virtue, which at times is of heroic proportions, consists in being able to overcome disgust, for love of Jesus.
• This is the secret we discover in the lives of some saints: the ability to go beyond what is merely natural.
• This is what happened to Saint Francis of Assisi. Once, when he ran into a leper who was completely disfigured, he instinctively backed up. Right away he overcame the disgust he felt and kissed the face that was completely disfigured. What was the outcome of this? Francis felt himself filled with tremendous joy. He felt totally in control of himself. And the leper went on his way praising God.
• The saints are all the people who live according to the law God has given us.

PRAYER

• "Prayer makes your heart bigger, until it is capable of containing the gift of God himself."
• I believe that politicians spent too little time on their knees. I am convinced that they would be better politicians if they were to do so.
• There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying.
  This cannot be.
• Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.
• It is not necessary to always be meditating, nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, No matter how nice this would be. What matters is being with him, living with him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a twenty-four-hours prayer.
• Prayer begets faith, faith begets love, and love begets service on behalf of the poor.
• The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.
• My secret is a very simple one: I pray. To pray to Christ is to love him.
• The apostles did not know how to pray, and they asked Jesus to teach them. He, then, taught them the Our Father.
• I think that every time we say the Our Father, God looks at his hands, where we are etched. "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands..."(Isaiah 49:16).
• What a beautiful description and also expressive of the personal love God feels for each one of us!
• Make us, Lord, worthy to serve our brothers and sisters who are scattered all over the world, who live and die alone and poor. Give them today, using our hands, their daily bread. And using our love, give them peace and happiness. Amen.
• Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depth of our hearts
• There is a player that the Missionaries of Charity pray every day.
  Cardinal Newman wrote it:
  Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance wherever I am.
  Fill my heart with your spirit and your life.
  Penetrate my being and take such hold of me that my life becomes a radiation of your own life.
  Give your light through me and remain in me such a way that every soul I come in contact with can feel your presence in me.
  Remain in me, so that I shine with your light, and may others be illuminated by my light.
  All light will come from you, Oh Jesus.
  Not even smallest ray of light will be mine. You will illuminate others through me. Place on my lips your greatest praise, illuminating others around me.
  May I preach you with actions more than with words, with example of my actions, with the visible light of the love that comes from you to my heart. Amen.
• I am asked what is one to do be sure that one is following the way of salvation. I answer: "Love God. And, above all, pray."
• Every day at communion time, I communicate two of my feelings to Jesus. One is gratefulness, because he has helped me to persevere until today. The other is a request: teach me to pray.
• Praying the Our Father and living it will lead us toward saintliness. The Our Father contains everything: God, ourselves, our neighbors...
  Silence will teach us a lot. It will teach us to speak with Christ and speak joyfully to our brothers and sisters.

Click here for:
4. GENEROSITY
6. LOVE
7. HOME AND FAMILY
8. VIRTUES
9. MARY
10. LIFE AND DEATH
11. SMILES
12. MONEY
13. SUFFERING
14. LONELINESS
15. GOD AND CHRISTIANTY
16. OUR MISSION

Ultimate Success

• Everyone is healed by you
• Heaven comes to Earth and stays, largely due to how you are used as an instrument
• No one knows who you are, or the Salvation you brought.

AMMA: HER RELIGION IS "LOVE"

Mata Amritanandamayi's followers call her Amma or Ammachi. The diminutive 'saint' says she does not belong to any particular religion; 'the universal mother,' as her devotees have christened her, says her religion is love. She expresses that love through her hugs. Her followers say that, in the past 30 years, Amma has physically embraced more than 21 million people.

Quotations:

• The first step in spiritual life is to have compassion. A person who is kind and loving never needs to go searching for God. God rushes toward any heart that beats with compassion-it is God's favorite place.
• The Divine is present in everyone, in all beings, in everything. Like space it is everywhere, all pervading, all powerful, all knowing. The Divine is the principle of Life, the inner light of consciousness, and pure bliss-----. It is our very own Self.
• Serving the world with love and cooperation, you will find your own true Self. As you help those in need, selfishness will fall away, and without even noticing you will find your own fulfillment.
• In this universe it is love that binds everything together. Love is the very foundation, beauty and fulfillment of life.
• A revolution is required now. Not a worldly revolution, today the need is of a spiritual revolution.
• Only if each individual imbibes spirituality and adheres to his dharma (duties), will this spiritual revolution come about.
• When love overflows and is expressed through every word and deed, we call it compassion. That is the goal of religion.
• To know the Self, one should starve the ego.
• Abundance of wealth, abundance of machinery, changes in the mode of governance - none of these will solve our problems.
• There is no point in blaming God for evil and the problems in the world. God has shown us the right path to follow and is not responsible for the miseries we create by not following it.
• "Knowledge devoid of devotion is like chewing stones."
• Mother does not say you should believe in Mother or in a God in heaven. It is enough to believe in yourself. Everything is there in you.
• Because our minds are full of preconceived notions and expectations, we are unable to enjoy life.
• Meditation is one of the ways to remove the preconceived notions from our minds and to bring about proper awareness.