In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “Russian Gloom Overtakes Rhetoric” “The situation in 2009 will be rather harsh,” said Igor Shuvalov, first deputy prime minister… “You can’t turn this situation around by force,” Mr. Shuvalov told legislators Friday. “No one can.”

My Comment: People are no longer making predictions that the crisis will be over in “a few months” or “a few years,” but are starting to understand that the world is becoming different forever! They are gaining a qualitatively new understanding of what’s happening!

Now we have to wait for more people to start thinking this way. They will then look for a way to exist and interact in the new world. And if they’ll be able to hear Kabbalah’s solution, they will reduce the period of searching and suffering.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Governments Have No Plan for Coping With the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: The Solution to the Global Crisis Cannot Be Found Without Kabbalah

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In the News (translated from Expert.ru): The global financial crisis has forced the Germans to reconsider their role as the European Union’s milk-cow. The new German egoism can become a serious threat to European integration. “We are not planning on helping everyone,” said the German Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrück, “Everyone has to take care of himself.”

My Comment: If the EU starts uniting precisely in this situation, if it becomes similar to the global design of the world, it will come out of the crisis faster than the rest of the world. Kabbalah calls this technique, “faith above reason,” which means that you act in spite of your illusory egoistic judgment, making actions toward union and bestowal.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The European Union Must Make a Fateful Decision
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 1.10 – “Faith Above Reason”
Exodus – From physical to spiritual

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The Crisis of the UN:
In the News (from Yale Global Online): Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges nations to select priorities that reshape and improve the world for the common good: “The only lasting and effective solutions to the challenges we face will be those which have the security, opportunity and welfare of all at their heart,” Annan notes. Current political structures have failed to address today’s challenges, let alone tomorrow’s, and immediate acceptance of a new paradigm, as well as global cooperation, is the only way to leave a better world for future generations.

My Comment: The UN has long turned into a harmful chat-room that perpetuates the opposition between nations and the pursuit of local interests. And most important, the UN is there for its employees to line their pockets with the “aid for those in need.”

The Crisis of Davos
In the News (from Sina): The World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab said, “What I hope is that we can provide in Davos for the world economy a sanatorium. Once the patient is out of the intensive care unit, he has to recreate his strength…”

My Comment: Although no one likes to remember it, Davos used to be a resort for patients with tuberculosis. Now this analogy is more timely than ever. The world is suffocating, and there is no medicine. Well, actually, there is a medicine, but people don’t want to take it yet. This means that the world will still have to go through more suffering until it agrees to it.

The Crisis of Obama’s Education Plan
In the News (from The New York Times): The economic stimulus plan [proposed by Obama] would shower the nation’s school districts, child care centers and university campuses with $150 billion in new federal spending, a vast two-year investment that would more than double the Department of Education’s current budget.

My Comment: This won’t produce the desired results, because the classes and programs will remain the same – egoistic, which means they will become even more removed from the “new world.” The curriculum is not adjusted to the new world because it doesn’t form a new kind of human being – one who will understand the global world.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The UN Perpetuates the Israeli Palestinian Conflict
Laitman.com Post: There Is No Unified Opinion On How to Overcome the Crisis
Laitman.com Post: What the Global Education System Should Teach People
Kabbalah Today Article: The American Education System: “F” is for Failing

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In the News (translated from Infox): In times of crisis, the large social networks are having a harder time attracting investors. They haven’t had time to develop an efficient business model, yet it’s very costly to support support networks. Projects that still haven’t brought profit to the investors are having a tough time during the financial crisis. Even Facebook is on a verge of losing financing.

My Comment: People today need something different than what the “social networks” have been doing until now. If these networks don’t shift to integration and globalization and become a means of uniting humanity based on mutuality, equality, bestowal, and love – in other words, if they remain opposite to Nature and what It requires of us today – they will “go extinct,” just like the dinosaurs.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: It’s Time to Implement Baal HaSulam’s Dream – In Virtual Space!
Laitman.com Post: Loneliness – Inside and Out
Kabbalah Today Article: Facebook-What’s All the Fuss?

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In the News (translated from BBCRussian): Paul Wolfowitz, the former head of the World Bank said, “It’s one matter to understand how to battle the crisis, and it’s an entirely different matter to find a unified approach. Much was done in Davos to coordinate activities between different countries, but they still don’t know how to battle the crisis. The next meeting will be held in April and I hope they will be able to develop a coordinated policy. However, it’s necessary to admit that there is no unified opinion on how to overcome the crisis. Some leader will stand up and say, “I will take care of my citizens, I will impose custom tariffs and protect my market, and I will subsidize our economy so it will survive” – and if everyone will do this, no one will survive!”

My Comment: The crisis is only a symptom of our imbalance with Nature, which is global and integral. There are two paths we can take from here:

• Move toward harmony with Nature by uniting with each other, which will bring us goodness as a result, or
• Move toward even greater imbalance with Nature by disconnecting with each other, and going through even more suffering as a result.

The choice is ours.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: No One at the World Economic Forum Wants to Admit That They Have No Solution to the Financial Crisis
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Is Helping Us to Understand Our Reality
Kabbalah Today article: Navigating Through the Financial Storm

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In the News (from The New York Times):“Data Show College Endowments Loss Is Worst Drop Since ’70s” Battered by the markets… the drop found by the reports is the biggest in the value of college and university endowments since the mid-1970s.

In the News (from The New York Times): “Brandeis Says It Plans to Sell Art Collection to Raise Cash” The trustees of Brandeis University voted unanimously on Monday to close the Rose Art Museum and sell its collection to help shore up the university’s finances.

My Comment: The crisis will free the universities of excessive expenses and programs, and of unneeded specializations and specialists, leaving only what is necessary. And the same will happen in the day-to-day lives of all people.

In the News (from France24): “Number of Internet users tops one billion” The global number of Internet users has surpassed one billion. The digital research firm comScore Inc. reported that China had nearly 180 million people going online in December, followed by the United States with 163 million, Japan with 60 million, Germany and Britain with nearly 37 million each and France with 34 million. India was next with 32 million Internet users followed by Russia (29 million), Brazil (28 million), South Korea (27 million), Canada (22 million) and Italy (21 million).

My Comment: Based on this, we have to create a system of global education. This is what the web was created for!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Are Standing at the Threshold of an Extraordinary Discovery
Laitman.com Post: The Need for One Global Educational Program

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In the News (from Mail Online): “One family kicked out of their home every 10 minutes as repossessions rocket 92%” One family is being kicked out of their home every ten minutes [in England]. The economic crisis has got dramatically worse since September, which means even more families will now be losing their battle to keep their home. With 85 firms going bust every day, unemployment is rising, which is one of the most common triggers for losing your home.

My Comment: When will people start looking for those responsible, and find that they are the ones to blame – and then correct themselves!?

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Financial Crisis Is Helping Us to Understand Our Reality
Laitman.com Post: Gordon Brown, “Seize This Moment of Change to Create a Truly Global Society”

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In the News (from The New York Times): Despite the pledges to encourage international trade and economic cooperation that accompanied the closing sessions of the gathering, the World Economic Forum on Sunday, there were clear signs that deep divisions between the United States and the rest of the world remained. …foreign officials warned that any move toward protectionism would have serious consequences for Washington and the rest of the world.

For all the global affection for Mr. Obama, Washington sent a relatively low-profile contingent to Davos, with Valerie Jarrett, a White House advisor, serving as the administration’s headliner here… “The irony of the situation,” said Mr. Haass, of the Council on Foreign Relations, “is that everyone is still looking to the U.S. for leadership to fix things or at least make things better.”

My Comment: America will not save the world, because it doesn’t know how. It’s just that others will run out of money before the US will.

Diagnosis: an aggravation of egoism, which has evolved into a global form of egoistic connection between people.

Course of the illness: it’s getting worse.

Treatment: since egoism is the basis of life and is the nature of our world, it’s impossible to get rid of it. We must only find the method of using it correctly, so that instead of harming others it will benefit them. Then we will restore the proper connections between all people and the crisis will disappear, since it is a consequence of the wrong connections between us.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Will Obama’s New Stimulus Plan Work?
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah’s Solution to the Financial Crisis Differs from the Common Sense Solution
Kabbalah Today Article: “What Is Happening to Our Economy?”
Discussion of Lecture in Arosa

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In the News: (from Vladivostok Times): “There Are No Vacancies for Humanists, Fursenko Says” There are no vacancies for humanists now, the Minister for Education and Science Andrey Fursenko said…The Minister explained that it is a question of 1.8 million economists and about 900,000 humanists, including 750,000 lawyers… Fursenko said that it is necessary to redirect students for getting called-for professions… According to HeadHunter monitoring, at the end of 2008 the number of applicants for the lawyer was six times as much as vacancies, the number of applicants for  the economist was seven times as much.

My Comment: In order to make plans, we must have knowledge of the general system of interactions in the world (in a closed system), and our plans must account for the need for new relationships. Specialists should acquire knowledge of the global laws of nature and act according to these laws, rather than according to some made-up, artificial “regulator.” Then there will be jobs for everyone.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: As a Result of the Crisis, Only the Necessities Will Remain
Laitman.com Post: The Media Must Help Turn Our World Into a Giant Classroom
Laitman.com Post: Does It Matter What a Kabbalist Does for a Living?

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In the News (translated from Rian.ru): Gold-diggers are in a bind. The financial crisis hampers those who wish to enter into a calculated marriage. As businessmen watch the stock market plunge with sinking hearts, young women look on with disappointment as their potential spouses lose value. Statistics throughout Russia show a 30% decrease in the number of marriages.

My Comment: All marriages are calculated – from both sides. After all, the people getting married are egoists, not angels. A woman assesses a man for his reliability in raising her offspring, and a man assesses a woman based on love – not for her, but for his hormones. This is how both are programmed by nature.

The crisis did not add anything new to this process. It’s only that men now have other problems besides their hormones, and women don’t know how to assess a suitable husband in a world where the future is uncertain.

But, as the Theory of Evolutionary Adaptation explains this unique interaction between the sexes, men and women are genetically predisposed to mutually exploit one another in order to ensure the optimal conditions for producing offspring. But we have now reached such a breach of nature’s laws that it’s become impossible to select a partner and cooperate with him or her. This is a true CRISIS!

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Crisis Will Erase the War of the Sexes
Laitman.com Post: Young Adults Reject Marriage Because of the Global Egoism That Is Being Revealed
Laitman.com Post: New Research Puts the Darwinian Theory In Question

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