TAMMORRA @ RWMF 2007

Tammorra - a lusty, life-affirming Sicilian group - in action at the Rainforest World Music Festival, Sarawak, July 2007.

BRAVO, BAR COUNCIL!

Pictures from Malaysia Today

Courtesy of Jeff Ooi

26 September 2007 will be remembered as the day the lawyers marched for justice, demanding a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the scandalous V.K. Lingam video clip made public on 19 September by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People's Justice Party).

Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan also handed a second memo to the Prime Minister's private secretary, demanding that a Judicial Appointment Commission be instituted.

The Royal Malaysian Police, in typical fashion, attempted to intimidate the 2,000 strong crowd of protestors with riot squads, a hovering helicopter, and a roadblock preventing the buses ferrying Bar Council members from entering Putrajaya.

And so the lawyers walked 5km along the highway to the Palace of Justice where other colleagues, opposition polticians, and civil society representatives had assembled for the march to the PM's office. Soon after the memoranda were handed over, the sky opened up and "baptized" the marchers in a torrential downpour which we trust will soon come to symbolize for all of us the Cleansing of the Malaysian Judiciary.

Before any real political reforms can occur, we have to purge the Malaysian Judiciary of unscrupulous cronies, lackeys, and scoundrels - and restore the credibility and independence of our courts. I urge all Malaysians - do whatever you can and, above all, focus your collective will on cleaning up the hideous mess and perverted justice Mahathir's 22-year rule has bequeathed us.

For more photos and videos, visit Jeff Ooi's blog, Screenshots - or check out Malaysia Today.

The Awesome Power of the Mystery Meme ~ Owen Waters

In 1963, while growing up in a mystical part of Britain, Owen Waters encountered his first spiritual awakening. The surprise of this mystical experience was such that his life became focused upon a continuous search for spiritual answers. Almost forty years of study and research followed, along with the development of his inner vision. By the year 2002, like many of the spiritual teachers who are coming forward for The Shift, his realizations began to unfold rapidly. Today, as Editor and cofounder of Infinite Being LLC, he helps people find inspiration, love and creativity through heart-powered consciousness.

Owen Waters' first book, The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness was published in November 2005.


These are the memes of social progression which have been identified in the book Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck and Chris Cowan. The characteristics of the first tier of six memes are:

1. Basic, personal survival.
2. Clan survival.
3. Courage, survival of the fittest.
4. Finding order and purpose in life.
5. Achievement, striving to succeed.
6. Community and caring.

Then, a momentous leap into the second, spiritual tier of six memes began with leading-edge thinkers in the 1950s. Since then, enough people have made the shift into the second tier to enable two of its memes to be identified and analyzed:

7. Responsible freedom.
8. Holistic, global village view.

As of the 1990s, the authors of Spiral Dynamics have also identified the existence of the next meme in the progression. This ninth meme has not yet been observed in large quantities of people, so they have been unable to summarize its characteristics at this point.

Using basic metaphysical principles, however, you can predict exactly what it will become. Also, second tier memes are reminiscent of their first tier cousins. Meme number nine, being the third meme within the second tier of six, will become an enlightened version of the original meme number three, which is courage.

The first tier of six memes is materially-oriented while the second tier is spiritually-oriented. The second tier, being of a higher frequency band of consciousness than the first tier, exerts far more influence in the world when it is activated. As popular use of the second tier of memes only began in the early 1950s, we have yet to see much of its power manifest in the world.

The second tier of memes, this higher frequency band of consciousness, is the engine of The Shift, the spiritual revolution in human consciousness.

Meme number seven (responsible freedom) is similar to meme number one (basic, personal survival), only transformed into the second tier of six memes. Meme seven means having a viewpoint from a much wider vista of consciousness than meme one. It deals with flexible flow and adaptation to a world full of change. It is like learning to survive all over again, but this time through a global viewpoint. Meme number seven is the starting point, and the orientation course, for the entire second tier of memes.

Meme number eight (holistic, global village view) is the second tier version of meme number two (clan survival). With a viewpoint that is holistic as well as global, it is reminiscent of meme number two. In meme number eight, the vision is to create a global village, or a unified clan of humanity. Unlike the small-clan focus of meme number two, meme number eight thinkers can see that the key to unity is to embrace the unlimited diversity of humanity as a whole. Integration and peace can then be created through the existence of our common humanity, when people accept everyone else as they are, simply because they exist.

This equates to the fundamental, Creator-given right of each human being for self-determination simply because they exist. People were created to experience self-determination. Humanity was also created to have an infinite variety of personalities for the purpose of gaining an infinite variety of experience.

At this higher level of consciousness, it becomes obvious that any attempt to coerce people into conformity with the standards of another person, or another group of people, is actually a violation of Creation.

Acceptance of diversity, paradoxically, is the key to unity in human experience.

The Nature of the Mystery Meme:

The new meme number nine will be like meme number three (courage, survival of the fittest), only in a higher form of manifestation. Meme number three's courage led to adventure, exploration and mastery of the physical environment. As the second tier memes all have a spiritual orientation, this means that the new meme number nine will bring about adventure, exploration and mastery of the holistic environment of mind, body and spirit. It will do this while encompassing a global scale of awareness.

The new, ninth meme will bring exploration of the spiritually-inspired use of the power of the mind to transform reality for the better. It will create strong demand for spiritual and creative freedom on a global basis.

This far-ranging, inspiring meme has the power, quite simply, to transform the entire world as we know it.

The keywords of the ninth meme will be 'Powerful creativity.'

Powerful Creativity:

How powerful will it become? How much will this meme transform the world as it gains in popularity?

When a spiritually-oriented person uses their creativity, they use the same formula that Infinite Being originally used to create the entire universe. That's how powerful spiritual creativity is. In its fundamental form, it consists of three essential components:

(1) Intent is used to define the goal, or the desired outcome. When defining a goal, it is better to leave the specifics undefined and deal in generalities. This allows the universe to find the easiest pathway through which to manifest the desired goal. Even better than specific objects are general principles. For example, the general principle of natural prosperity can find thousands of ways to materialize, whereas a goal involving one specific objective along the path to prosperity limits the options considerably.

(2) Feeling is added to give the goal the life energy with which to grow from an idea into a pre-physical reality that becomes ready to manifest in the physical world. Ideally, an equal balance between the amount of intent and feeling makes for the most powerful act of creativity. For the sake of clarity, feeling is defined as a separate component from intent. In practice, however, the act of creativity expresses intent and feeling intertwined together as one creative act. This is in keeping with the way nature functions. Light, for example, is a form of electromagnetic radiation - electric and magnetic energies intertwined in perfect balance and set into motion.

(3) Action. As the energy of your environment reorganizes itself around your empowered intent, you need to provide the third and final component, action. However, before the action, there first has to be a pause lasting several days. This is a hands-off period where you allow the growth of the project to occur at its own pace within the pre-physical ethers of space. Then, after several days have passed and the objective is ready to manifest, it will cause synchronistic flow to appear in your life. 'Coincidences' will occur which cause events around you to move towards the fulfillment of your desired goal. When this flow of supportive coincidences begins to occur, your job is to provide the action which each synchronistic event calls for, until the goal has become fully manifested.

If, for example, a desired career opening occurs, then you would follow that opportunity to see if this is the main event, or if it is just something that you will learn from along the journey towards your goal.

If a key contact occurs which can help your project, then you follow through on that contact to see where it will lead. Whatever mini-opportunities arise along the path to the realization of your goal, you provide the physical action to materialize those opportunities out of the realm of possibilities and bring them into the physical realm. Most often, goals materialize through a daisy chain of events and opportunities, each of which builds up to the final realization of the entire, original goal.

People today are finding their way through the spiritual awakenings that come with second-tier memes number seven and eight. As they activate number nine, the meme of
powerful creativity, they discover a power which, unleashed, can transform not only their own lives but the world around them for the better.

The New Reality is yours to explore. It already exists as a frequency of consciousness. In a world where thoughtlessness and heartlessness are common, people of the New Reality bring thoughtfulness and heartfulness. Where there is strife, people of the New Reality bring peace. Where there is pain, people of the New Reality bring love and healing.

This is the New Reality, the spiritual revolution in human consciousness.


[This article was written by Owen Waters, author of The Shift: The Revolution in Human Consciousness]

AN INSPIRED COMMENT FROM MY STARBROTHER MILLENNIUM TWAIN:

the ninth stage is what the taoists have spoken of for thousands of years, that of alignment with heaven. moving from the earthly focus of Chi or energy to the astronomical focus of Gong or consciousness. which transition the later-arriving Buddhists named becoming a buddha or immortal. moving from the realm of mortality, an 80-year lifespan, to 'immortality' or a 600-year lifespan. your community becomes that of the other Kuan Yins and Wu Kongs, and your involvement with earthly society analogous to that of the wind or sun, or the church and textbook messiahs.

the ninth stage is where you recognize the circularity, materiality, solidity, of the first eight stages - and transcend them, recognizing that indeed the circles are only shortsighted views of the helicoidal (spiral) structure of experience, mind, matter, consciousness, reality.

stage ten is where you actually live that, becoming an evolving deity, and recognize the living breathing divinity of Earth and Sun, Milky Way and Virgo Supercluster ... of all celestial planets, stars, galaxies, clusters, superclusters ... indeed electrons, protons, atoms and molecules.

spirit, the song of creation ... an electromagnetic experience which 'struck' or contested takes on the appearance of solidity.

when 'touched' or 'loved' ... the infinite nurturing softness of wind and water, smoke & smudge, light & laughter ...

with all our relations,

Millennium Twain

Graft in Malaysia’s Defense Ministry

Najib Tun Razak, Malaysia’s defense minister, finds a fountain of cash in military purchases

"Mat Salleh"
24 September 2007
Asia Sentinel

Despite the fact that the country’s borders have been largely secure for 40 years, Malaysia’s Defence Ministry has for decades been available to provide a river of money to defense ministers, the ruling United Malays National Organisation and any of the Sandhurst-educated generals who could get their hands into the till.

But if three separate contracts over the past several years are any yardstick, Najib Tun Razak, who became defense minister in 1999 and kept the portfolio when he became deputy prime minister, appears to have mastered the game far beyond the expectations of any previous defense leaders. Opposition figures say the three contracts, one for Russian Sukhoi jet fighters, a second for French submarines and a third for navy patrol boats, appear to have produced at least US$300 million for UMNO cronies, Najib’s friends and others.

Describing “the mundane but important element of patronage,” Foreign Policy in Focus, a think tank supported by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, wrote in a 2005 article that “many foreign arms manufacturers generally used well-connected Malaysians as their lobbyists for contracts. The commission paid to such representatives is estimated to range from 10 to 20 percent.” Even prior to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Southeast Asia, which hasn’t had an external war in decades but is rich enough to spend plenty on guns, was the world’s second-largest arms market after the Middle East, representing about 20 percent of the world’s purchases.

By the end of next year, Malaysia is expected to have 18 Sukhoi-20MKM jets intended to replace 14 US-made F-5Es, which have been in service for two decades. Two Sukhois were delivered this year, and the Malaysian Air Force also has 18 MiG-29N Fulcrums.

All three of the contracts, which were approved under Najib (left) and have been widely cited by the opposition, fit well into Foreign Policy in Focus’s patronage scale. Bringing the three together, and taking a new look at their associations, is instructive. They have been forced back into public attention by the continuing trial of Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib’s closest friends, who is on trial for his life in a suburban high court along with two of Najib’s bodyguards for the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian translator who was shot in the head on October 19, 2006, and then blown up with C4 explosives available only from Malaysia’s military.

According to testimony in the trial, Altantuya accompanied her then-lover Abdul Razak to Paris at a time when Malaysia’s defense ministry was negotiating through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, to buy two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government under a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris. Perimekar at the time was owned by a company called Ombak Laut, which was wholly owned by Abdul Razak.

The contract was not competitive. The Malaysian ministry of defense paid 1 billion euros (RM 4.5 billion) to Amaris for the three submarines, for which Perimekar received a commission of 114 million euros (RM510 million). Deputy Defense Minister Zainal Abdidin Zin told the Dewan Rakyat, Malaysia’s parliament, that the money was paid for “coordination and support services” although the fee amounted to a whopping 11 percent of the sales price for the submarines. Altantuya, by her own admission in the last letter she wrote before her murder, said she had been blackmailing Abdul Razak, pressuring him for US$500,000. She did not say how she was blackmailing him, leaving open lots of questions.

Spending for defense accelerated across the board after Najib, called “the driving force” behind Malaysia’s military modernization program by Foreign Policy in Focus, became defense chief. The shopping list, the think tank reported, “includes battle tanks from Poland, Russian and British surface-to-air missiles and mobile military bridges, Austrian Steyr assault rifles and Pakistani anti-tank missiles. Kuala Lumpur is also negotiating to buy several F/A 18s, three submarines from France and an unspecified number of Russian Suhkoi Su-30 fighter aircraft.

It was the Sukhois that have become the second controversial purchase brokered by Najib. The deal, worth US$900 million (RM3.2 billion), was through a Russian state company, Federal State Unitary Enterprise 'Rosoboronexport' on May 19, 2003. IMT Defence Sdn. Bhd. was appointed the local agent for the Russian company and received 12 percent of the purchase price, US$108 million (RM380 million). The principal figure and chairman of IMT Defence is Mohamad Adib Adam, the former chief minister of Malacca, previous Land and Development Minister and a longtime UMNO stalwart.

The involvement of IMT Defence only became known because in March 2005, a former director of IMT, Mohamad Zainuri Mohamad Idrus, filed suit against several Adib-related companies, alleging that Adib and his sister, Askiah Adam, “wanted to prevent him from exposing the reality of the Sukhoi deal.” In 2006, Mohamad Zainuri lodged a police report alleging that Adib had stolen the US$108 million (RM 380 million) commission that was supposed to be channeled to the company.

According to Mohamad Zainuri’s report, Adib had secretly registered a new company in the federal island of Labuan, Malaysia’s offshore banking center, bearing a name similar to IMT Defence Sdn. Bhd., allegedly in order to channel the commission illegally to the new company. The report was then sent to the Commercial Crime Investigations Department Headquarters. No report, however, has ever been released to the public.

Then, over the last few weeks, a third military scandal surfaced. Malaysia’s Auditor General, in a report tabled in Parliament on September 7, alleged that a contract to build naval vessels given to PSC-Naval Dockyard, a subsidiary of Penang Shipbuilding & Construction Sdn Bhd, which is owned by another UMNO crony, Amin Shah Omar Shah, is near failure.

[Read the entire killer article here...]

Sodomy, Anyone?

[I found this document in my personal folder and can't remember why I wrote it. Must have been a comment I left on some poor bugger's blog months ago and forgot all about - but I think it deserves a fresh airing!]

I define "sin" as "ignorance" (avidya in Sanskrit) or "missing the point" or "being way off the mark." Some may regard ignorance as bliss, but knowledge is a great deal more powerful, and wisdom far more enlightening and liberating.

You are putting all your metaphorical eggs in one basket with your unquestioning belief in the "divine authority" of the Torah, Quran, or Bible. Doesn't require much thinking to realize that ALL scriptures begin with an oracle... prophet ... visionary... medium... or channel... who receives a message from his or her "Higher Self," often presenting itself as "God" or "an Emissary of God."

The received message is at first transmitted orally to the oracle/prophet's closest followers - and only much later is it written down. Illiteracy is widespread even today, what more centuries ago. The privileged few who could read and write enjoyed enormous influence and power over others, and were revered as Ustaz/Priests/Brahmins.

We are told that Power corrupts... and therefore we may assume that any spiritual teaching passed down to us as "God's Word" will certainly have been "flavored" by the Scribe(s) responsible for recording in writing what originally was spoken by a Master or Guru. Please bear this in mind, whenever you are tempted to refer to any Holy Book as your "authority" on any subject.

The only reason I can think of for the Book Religions' frowning upon anal sex and homosexuality is that such practices, if allowed to flourish, would eventually diminish the population/ummah/congregation (therefore drastically reducing the amount collectible as religious taxes or tithes, not to mention lowering the quantum of cannon fodder with which to wage perpetual war against ideological enemies).

Anal sex is occasionally fun, as is oral sex. If you have NEVER tried either and insist you never will, I sympathize with your extraordinary lack of curiosity and imagination.