FIREWORKS & FLAMES: WORLD GREETS 2011

WORLD CELEBRATES NEW YEAR
FIREWORKS TO MARK START OF 2011
www.voanews.com - Revelers around the world are marking the start of the New Year with celebrations and fireworks displays. South-Pacific countries are the first to mark New Year’s Day as the rest of the world counts down to the event. The New Year first reached the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati. New Zealanders welcomed 2011 with a spectacular firework show in Auckland and celebrations elsewhere, while in Sydney, Australia, at least 1.5 million people gathered for the annual fireworks show on the Harbour Bridge. At midnight in Dubai, fireworks exploded from all sides of the world’s tallest building. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor to watch fireworks explode from the roofs of 10 of the city’s most famous buildings. About a quarter-million people watched the colours of the Union Jack light up the sky over the River Thames in London.

In Madrid, about 50,000 people gathered in the central Puerta del Sol square for Las Uvas, or “the grapes,” a tradition in which people eat a grape for each of the 12 chimes of midnight. North America’s first 2011 celebrations will be in Newfoundland and Labrador, while south of the border in New York City, about one million blizzard-hardened revelers are expected to cram into midtown Manhattan for the traditional midnight ball drop at Times Square. The city has been reeling from a heavy snowfall earlier in the week that brought air and ground traffic in and around the city to a near-standstill for several days. With 32,256 LED lights and 2,688 Waterford crystals, the four-meter-wide Times Square ball had a picture-perfect test run on Thursday.


Nearly 45 % of Americans will make one or more New Year’s resolutions. The top resolutions we make have to do with eating healthy, weight loss, exercise or quitting smoking. Typically, 75 % of people who make a resolution stick to it within the first week. After six months the number drops to 46 % of people who are still following their resolution. Today is a Day for Reflection. New Year’s Day marks the beginning of a new opportunity to be better human beings. It is a time to reflect upon the past, be grateful to our spiritual masters, think over the lessons they have taught us and look forward to strengthen our humble efforts to revive and refresh God consciousness everywhere in the world.



WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?
The real problems of the world, and the solutions to the problems, are revealed by the grace of God to the simple heart. ... So harmonizing the temporary phenomena of this world, of what comes into our lives, with the higher principle of bhakti - watering the root of the tree - is the only solution. In this year of 2010 the world is really a mess. Economically it is a mess. There are wars and potential wars in so many places. There are persecutions and harassments and genocides. There are ecological disasters growing worse and worse. So many problems. ... We are coming into this new decade, 2010. Let us try to re-habituate ourselves to have simple hearts and resolve the complications of the world with the simple solutions and never leave that. ... It means to be the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant and feel oneself “anu”, very grateful. If you feel yourself qualified for something, you are not grateful. If you feel yourself unqualified, you are really grateful. So when you are humble you can be grateful, and when you become grateful you become full of greatness, because you become full of Krishna, who is great.




Śrīla Radhanath Swami Mahārāja :
“Thoughts For The New Year”
A talk on January 2, 2010 at Bhaktivedanta Manor, England
www.radhanathswami.com
www.radhanathswamiweekly.com
http://jivacow.blogspot.com/2010/01/thoughts-for-new-year-by-radhanath.html

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FLOODS COVER VAST AREA OF AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIAN PM VISITS FLOODED
AREAS AS THOUSANDS EVACUATED

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Floodwater rose across a vast area in Australia’s northeast on Friday, inundating 22 towns, forcing 200,000 residents out of their homes, and closing a major sugar export port. Flooding has already shut coal mines in Queensland state and its biggest coal export port, forcing miners such as Anglo American and Rio Tinto to slow or halt operations. The worst flooding in about 50 years has been caused by a “La Nina” weather pattern, which cools waters in the eastern Pacific and has produced torrential rain over the past two weeks across northeast Australia. In the southern states of Victoria and South Australia, meanwhile, soaring temperatures and tinder dry conditions have sparked bushfires. Authorities warned of possible “catastrophic” fires if conditions worsened and holiday travelers were asked to prepare evacuation plans.

Firefighters, helped by cooler temperatures, contained small fires late on Friday, but meteorologists said readings could soar again above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next few days. In Queensland, authorities warned of rising health risks from floodwaters, along with the danger of crocodiles and snakes in flooded homes. Prime Minister Julia Gillard toured the sugar city of Bundaberg, which closed its port on Friday after flood debris was washed downstream into shipping channels and damaged navigation beacons. Emergency authorities in Queensland said the flooding was not expected to reach a peak in some areas until Sunday and would not recede for at least a week.


According to authorities, Australia has endured its wettest spring on record, causing six river systems to flood. The inland sea stretched across Queensland is dotted with the roofs of flooded homes, islands of dry ground crowded with stranded livestock and small boats ferrying people and emergency supplies. This bleak and desolate view is constantly repeated in different parts of the world. Climate change caused by human unscrupulousness, their insatiable industries and global meat consumption, affects the whole planet without distinction. One effective strategy for reducing global warming is to advocate a vegetarian diet.



WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?
The environmental community rightly recognizes global warming as one of the gravest threats to the planet. The expected consequences include coastal flooding, increases in extreme weather, spreading disease, and mass extinctions. Yet by focusing entirely on carbon dioxide emissions, major environmental organizations have failed to account for published data showing that other gases are the main culprits behind the global warming we see today. ... Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year. And this source is on the rise. About 85% of this methane is produced in the digestive processes of livestock, and while a single cow releases a relatively small amount of methane, the collective effect on the environment of the hundreds of millions of livestock animals worldwide is enormous. ... Simply by going vegetarian we can eliminate one of the major sources of emissions of methane, the greenhouse gas responsible for almost half of the global warming impacting the planet today.




Dr. Noam Mohr :
“What They Didn’t Tell You In Copenhagen”
VINA - Vaishnava Internet News Agency
http://wadcconference.com/bio_mohr.aspx
http://kirbymtn.blogspot.com/2007/01/noam-mohr-on-meat-eating-and.html
http://www.vina.cc/news/index.php/General/What-They-Didn-t-Tell-You-In-Copenhagen.html

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