Entries in the 'News' Category

“What International Community?”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, USA): “Whenever something bad happens – Iran moving closer to acquiring nuclear weapons, … some official or observer will call upon the international community to act. There is only one problem: there is no ‘international community.’

“The United Nations General Assembly comes closest, but little can be expected from an organization that equates the United States or China with, say, Fiji or Guinea-Bissau. …

“No amount of UN reform could make things fundamentally different. Today’s major powers do not agree on the rules that ought to govern the world, much less on the penalties for breaking them. Even where there is accord in principle, there is little agreement in practice. The result is a world that is messier and more dangerous than it should be.”

My Comment: The whole advancement to perfection comes from the “recognition of evil”‑the revelation of the imperfection of our egoistic nature. Only when the human being, people, and the world are finally convinced of the total corruption of this nature, the self, and the world, will they be happy to give it up. Then, the upper force of nature will be revealed in their sensations. People ask it to change them, and it corrects them. Everything that happens to us is only to bring us to this event.
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Using Billions To Combat Unemployment

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from EUobserver): “Seventeen EU leaders meeting in Berlin on Wednesday (3 July) pledged an extra 2 billion Euro for a youth employment scheme that so far was pegged at 6 billion Euro.

“The Berlin gathering was a ‘three-in-one’ summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the concluding press conference, as it also included labour ministers, heads of employment agencies and the representatives of big EU-based companies – the European Roundtable of Industrialists. …

“Merkel said the purpose of the gathering was to look at concrete examples of what works when governments – who have the sole responsibility for social and labour policies – try to reduce their youth unemployment rates. …

“But for a few hundred young trade unionists from Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Poland and France, yet another high-level meeting is not making much difference for the 5.6 million unemployed youngsters in Europe.

“’Europe’s youngsters need more than Merkel’s hot air,’ one banner read at the protest staged outside the chancellery on Wednesday.

“Another told leaders to invest in young people, not banks, a reference to the bailed-out banks in Spain, that have now put thousands of people out in the streets because they have no jobs and cannot pay their mortgages.”

My Comments: Funds and credits are created according to the possibility to be “appropriated” by their own people. But today, it does not deceive anybody; no one even hopes that there is a solution to unemployment. Most likely, all the comments are like jokes. It depends only on the pressure of people when the elite understands its hopeless situation and will listen to the method of integral education as the means of solving ALL problems.
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Jobless G20

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from OECD): “We, the Heads of the International Labour Organisation and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, call upon the Ministers of Labour and Employment of the G20 countries to reinforce their cooperation with a view to enhancing the design and scale of their employment, labour market and social protection policies in order to achieve higher levels of productive and rewarding employment and to contribute to a strengthening of the world economy.

“Even though six years have elapsed since the start of the global financial crisis, the rate of employment growth remains weak in most G20 countries, preventing a significant decline in high levels of unemployment and under-employment.

“As reported in the background documents prepared jointly by the ILO and the OECD for the G20 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting, there is considerable diversity across countries in labour market conditions. Over the last 12 months, unemployment has dropped marginally in half of the G20 countries while it has risen in the other half. Unemployment is above 25 per cent in South Africa and Spain; 11 per cent or above in France and Italy and for the EU as a whole; above 7 per cent in Canada, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States; and below 6 per cent in Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia.

“Across all G20 countries, the total number of unemployed reached 93 million in early 2013, some 30 per cent of which on average have been unemployed for over one year. …

“The employment situation in G20 countries would improve considerably with a more supportive external environment dependent on what G20 countries do for their own economy. This requires the collective effort of all countries working towards the shared objective of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.”

My Comment: The desire to reduce the number of unemployed and public anger and pressure is clear, but these efforts will lead to nothing because no one needs overproduction and the environment does not put up with it. It is necessary to rebuild the entire attitude towards work, labor, home economics, etc., which is possible only with an overall re-education of the human being.

It is not a difficult task, not too complicated, costly, or burdensome at all. But its effect is noticed immediately and clearly. The only problem is the psychological barrier that must be overcome by those, on whom the decision to introduce universal “Integral Education and Upbringing depends.
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The Secret Of Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Robert Cummins, Professor at Deakin University, Melbourne Australia): “A loving partner, up to $100,000 of household income and a social activity that offers a sense of purpose is the new ‘golden triangle of happiness’ according to Deakin University psychologist Professor Robert Cummins….

“’More important than money is having a good intimate relationship,” he said.

“’You only need one person to share your life and having that person is incredibly important. People who haven’t got someone to share their life in an intimate way – where you can share your troubles – are very vulnerable to the bad things that happen to them. This is extremely consistent across all of our surveys.’

“’The magic number is $100,000 of gross household income. It’s not that more money makes it better, it is that you need a certain amount,’ he said. …

“’Having something interesting to do is the third element. People are happier if they are active; in a footy club, in a sewing circle, whatever,’ he said.

“’If you can combine that activity with social contact and a sense of purpose then that is best.

“’People who do volunteer work combine those very well. There more active they are and more socially connected the better they are. …

“The culmination of 29 Australian happiness surveys over 12 years by Melbourne’s Deakin University has revealed it doesn’t matter where you live, whether your collar is white or blue or whether you’ve got kids or not – if you live within the golden triangle you’re more than likely to have a permanent smile on your face.”

My Comment: The goal of creation is to delight the created beings. In the course of its development, humanity is becoming aware that happiness is in the correct connection with the environment. We are at this stage of development—in the transition from individual to collective. And then, considering we are together, instead of I, having felt the value “in dissolving” in the collective, we break away from we to the fulfillment with which this “we” will be filled, meaning, we will feel the Creator, the Source, we and I.
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“IEA Offers Prize For UK Exit Plan From EU”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from BBC News): “The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has announced that it is holding a competition to find the best plan for a UK exit from the European Union. …
“The nine judges include former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lawson, who wrote a newspaper article in May calling for the UK to leave the EU. …
“Lord Lawson said he welcomed the IEA’s initiative, adding: ‘Now that we have been promised an in-out referendum on Britain and the EU in 2017, it is essential that this momentous decision is preceded by a well-informed debate.’”
My Comment: Separation will not be profitable because the whole plan of nature is towards integration; it is necessary to change only the forms of connection and not to separate; the one who separates will face big losses and suffering. The world will move towards greater consolidation!
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“ECB Cannot Solve Euro Zone Crisis”

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Jens Weidmann, German economist, president of the Deutsche Bundesbank): “The European Central Bank cannot solve the euro zone crisis, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann told economists on Sunday, pressing the bloc’s governments to get their economies in shape and tighten their fiscal rules. …

“’Monetary policy has already done a lot to absorb the economic consequences of the crisis, but it cannot solve the crisis,”’ Weidmann said in his speech.

“’This is the consensus of the Governing Council. The crisis has laid bare structural shortcomings. As such, they require structural solutions.’”

My Comment: No one sees the end of this. And this awareness of the helplessness to regulate the economy is the best state of humanity. It should lead us, by the path of suffering and the realization of our egoism as evil, towards the need to change our nature by the method of integral education. It is gratifying to see how quickly the process of realizing the unknown is taking place… Suffering will force us to pay attention!
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“Study: People With A Lot Of Self-Control Are Happier”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Atlantic): “’Improbably enough, people who are better able to resist impulses report being more satisfied with their lives.

“Among humankind’s most valuable assets’ is self-control, according to Wilhelm Hofmann and his team of researchers at the University of Chicago. They define it as ‘the ability to override or change one’s inner responses’ and to refrain from acting on impulses. …

“The more self-control people reported having, the more satisfied they reported being with their lives. And contrary to what the researchers were expecting, people with more self-control were also more likely to be happy in the short-term. In fact, when they further analyzed the data, they found that such people’s increased happiness to a large extent accounted for the increased life satisfaction.

“As they go about their daily lives, people with a lot of self-control appear to generally be in higher spirits; in the long run, they’re happier with their lives. To explain why this would be so, the researchers conducted another online survey. What they figured out is that instead of constantly denying themselves, people high in self-control are simply less likely to find themselves in situations where that’s even an issue. They don’t waste time fighting inner battles over whether or not to eat a second piece of cake. They’re above such petty temptations.”

My Comment: Precisely, restriction (Tzimzum Aleph) and receiving after certain calculation with a specific intention (the screen and the Returning Light) makes reception acute (the Light of NRNHY), up to the point that a person can feel its source, the Creator, in any pleasure! That is the way the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us to reveal the Creator, through receiving pleasure from Him.
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Accepting Same-Sex Marriages

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Reuters): “Most adults in developed countries favor gay marriage or some type of legal recognition for same-sex couples and think they should be able to adopt children, according to an international poll released on Tuesday.

“With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on gay marriage this month and France’s recent decision to legalize same-sex unions, an Ipsos poll for Reuters showed that 52 percent of people in 16 nations favor full marriage equality for gays and 21 percent support legal recognition but not marriage. …

“In Sweden, Norway, Spain, Belgium, Canada and France, where gay marriage is legal, a majority of people supported full equality for same-sex couples, along with most Germans, Britons and Australians.”

My Comment: As a result, the recognition of same-sex marriage and the legalization of drugs become the method of reducing the pressure in society, and that is why the trend will continue.
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Why Advertising Works

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from EurekAlert!): “Researchers at Duke University who study how the brain values things – a field called neuroeconomics – have found that your feelings about something and the value you put on it are calculated similarly in a specific area of the brain. …

“Now, after a series of experiments in which subjects were asked to modify how they felt about something either positively or negatively, the Duke group is arguing that emotional and economic calculations are more closely related than brain scientists had realized.

“’This changes our frame of reference for thinking about these things,’ Huettel said. He said advertisers have long been using emotional appeals to get people to value their products, ‘but they didn’t know why it worked.’ …

“’It’s not the case that you never want to reappraise a positive emotion,’ said Huettel. But when buying a house or a car, it’s a good idea to dampen your infatuation down a bit, he added.”

My Comment: Time does its thing: Personal egoism came into conflict with the integral forces of nature, and people lose their desire to work for clothes and impress others. And others will find brands ridiculous. We will slide down against our will or rationally accept ease and convenience as style. And our desires will direct us at the invisible goal – the meaning of this life…
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More Food Is Produced Than Humanity Needs

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Washington Post): “It’s a question that keeps crop scientists up at night: How are we possibly going to feed the world over the next few decades?

After all, consider what we’re up against: The global population is expected to swell from 7 billion today to 9.6 billion by 2050. …

“Farmers are doing everything they can to squeeze more productivity out of their farmland, but they’re starting to hit a biological ‘wall,’ a limit on how much yields can keep rising.”

My Comment: Actually, the only problem is that food is distributed unevenly between different countries. And its even distribution depends only on people, on their care for each other. And no international organizations will solve this problem.

Otherwise, in full abundance, we arrive to the point that half of humanity throws out surplus food that would suffice the second half. And the hungry half raises riots and wars. Nature forces the human being to change himself.
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