Opinion: (Henning Meyer, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and managing editor of Social Europe Journal): “As 2011 draws to a close, it is fair to say that this year has been one of the most disastrous for the European Union in its history. The eurozone crisis has spread from the periphery to the core and all political and financial rescue packages were too little, too late.”

My Comment: Apparently, a European sense of superiority and stubbornness do not allow the EU to come to unity in a short and easy way, but only through the path of suffering.

“The inability to move beyond the perceived short-term ‘national interest,’ at the expense of what is better in the mid to long term, has been a key reason for the EU’s powerlessness to respond adequately to the challenges it faces. We are moving towards political deadlock in a severe and worsening crisis and the forecast for next year doesn’t look good either.

“Last week Christine Lagarde of the IMF issued a warning not just against the looming downturn but against 1930s-style policy responses of protectionism and isolation in the name of the ‘national interest’ (here it is again). …Protectionist policy measures will trigger defensive responses, which will worsen the aggregate situation further so a depression becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The world has been in this situation before – and it did not end well.”

My Comment: Specifically in the name of national interest, it is necessary to establish a close relationship and comprehensive program for merging the EU into one whole!

“If we continue on current trends, I predict more than one riot for 2012. One of this year’s novelties, stemming from junctures such as the Arab spring, the ascendancy of the Occupy movement, and the massive protests against economic policies in Spain and Greece, was the rise of new social movements and the widespread use of communication technologies to co-ordinate civil unrest. Once the genie is out of the bottle it is almost impossible to put it back in. So unless the protest causes are addressed effectively, which seems unlikely, civil unrest is set to continue and grow next year.

“But unless EU leaders completely change course and overcome political and legal obstacles to install the European Central Bank as a lender of last resort, draw up plans for a real fiscal union, introduce eurobonds, devise a strategy for new growth, pursue necessary structural reforms in surplus as well as deficit countries, and finally reform the financial sector, there is little hope the current malaise can be overcome.”

My Comment: If the ECB knew what it needs to do!..

“And a mixture of disappointment and outright anger could also tempt other countries to reassess their membership, sending the EU into a process of disintegration, which would spell further economic and political disaster. It is not too late to change course, but the window of opportunity is closing very fast. If we continue down the current path, the Unwort des Jahres 2012 will not be ‘national interest’ but rather ‘return of nationalism.’ We are on a slippery slope and EU leaders would do well to fathom the long-term consequences of their actions.”

My Comment: The fact is that only the understanding of the plan of our evolution and following it will allow us to take correct steps; otherwise, the corrective forces of nature will cause an even greater crisis to show us the correct path, but this is the path of suffering.
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Opinion: (Sergei Kurginyan, political scientist, from iarex.ru): “The path of modern development, which the West has been taking for 500 years, is over. It was a great path, but today humanity has completed it. We need a different path.

“The only country in the world that is familiar with it is Russia. We have a real live experience. After all, the Soviet Union was developing. But the valuable experience of the USSR is banned. I know that the world has accumulated great contempt towards Russia for rejecting itself—in India, China, and Vietnam.

“But at the same time, there is a hope that the Russians are about to wake up and invent something new again. Of course, they may commit follies, and then the world would steal these ideas and improve them. And when that hope dies, Russia will be finally sentenced.”

My Comment: I am personally in favor of taking experience from the former USSR and building a new integral society and humanity, but certainly with a preliminary implementation of integral education and upbringing for everyone. Specifically the lack of education and upbringing of the population and replacing its conscious participation with a forceful one under the red terror created all the prerequisites for the failure of the great communist idea.
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People who have spiritual attainment know the laws of the universe and understand the nature of the masses. They not only have knowledge, but also experience of their own development, which also began from the lower, inanimate level. They have gone through inner corrections and have learned empathy, concessions, love. They have acquired the necessary “toolkit” to take care of the masses. They always act for the good of the people rather than for their own benefit because they live in a different, spiritual nature.

Question: What is their care for the world aimed at?

Answer: They want to “raise a lad in his own way.” In his own way, but to raise him, meaning to gradually cause him to advance by means of studying, explanations, and examples rather than by suffering. These sages carry out the main work, attracting the Light, while the masses receive the benefit from it.

Today the masses suffer: some are left without jobs, some are hungry, some have bad health, problems with their families, children, and so on. In the meantime, the sages attract the Light that reforms and teach people on a simple, accessible level, enabling the Light to flow to the masses and correct them.

As a result, people receive the Lights of Nefesh and Ruach, while the Lights of Neshama, Haya, and Yechida remain with the sages at their higher degrees, according to the reverse order of the Lights and vessels.

Thus, the masses receive fulfillment which precisely corresponds to their desires. People want good children, well-being in their families, a sure pension, health, activities, a good household, a pleasant vacation, safety, etc. They don’t have desires of a different level, and they don’t need them either.

Only later, as part of the general process, will the masses begin to join the sages, and then a mutual inclusion will occur. But again, it will be passive on the masses’ end.

Thus, the great ones descend for the sake of serving the people, but they don’t descend on the inside. Precisely their high degree allows them to pull the masses up, level by level.

Question: Doesn’t this entail a danger of unwillingly causing harm?

Answer: Can a loving mother harm her baby? After all, we don’t attach a policeman to every mother. This is a mother’s nature: to take care of the baby. And the mom doesn’t just take care of the baby, but is imbued by his desires. So can she harm him? All her thoughts are focused on what will give him pleasure, what will benefit him. What formula, temperature in the room, water bottle—a mother does not disconnect from this wave of love even for a moment.

Similarly, the upper one does not have his own desires. He receives desires from the lower one and works on them. Love obligates him to do what is good for the one he loves. I can love either him or myself. If I love the neighbor, then I ascend above self-love, and then I use everything I have to serve him, leaving only the necessities for myself.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “The Freedom”

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“Love your neighbor as yourself”—this quality is our only goal, the spiritual sensation that is meant to fill all our desires. This means concern for the state of the world, for how much all people, all humanity, will advance toward a good state.

And clearly, certain influences will seem good to them and certain—bad, and they might resist and refuse to accept us, or even look down on us like small children who don’t understand anything. After all, they think we have different views of the goal, of the future of the world.

But this inner worry about the world must be alive in all our actions and thoughts, and it must guide us. If a person feels this concern, that means he is attuned correctly. And if he pursues various other goals and this concern or worry does not guide him, is not present inside, this is a sign that the intentions “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” (a person aimed straight at the Creator, the Light of correction, and the Creator) do not connect within him. That is the only thing we act and study for.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/2/12

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Opinion: (Andrey Milovzorov, from utro.ru): “Saxo Bank predicts that wheat prices will double in 2012. But what will change in the lives of European or Russian consumers if a loaf of bread costs twice as much? Nothing. The average European spends on food 20% of his income, and the average Russian 50%.

“However, there are countries where people spend 90% of their earnings on food. In Somalia, a quarter of a million people could die because of a severe drought. No one hurries to help because it is a market for western farmers.

“Large-scale deliveries of food aid feed a huge army of stock market speculators. The market is not interested in developing agriculture in the starving countries.

“It seems that to change the logic of the markets, we need more serious arguments than a rise of the price of bread in Europe. For example, a mass exodus of refugees from Africa to Europe, who are fleeing from hunger (there may be up to 150 million of them), or food riots that could affect the entire world trade and cut off oil supply to the West.”

My Comment: Mass famine will have unpredictable consequences, and mainly they will force the world to reconsider its disdain for their neighbors and take care of mutual guarantee.
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In the News (from pakalertpress.com): “For the better part of two decades Celente and his Trends Journal have been forecasting political, financial, economic and social trends with an uncanny ability for accuracy.

“In his latest interview Celente discusses a variety of different topics – from Iran and Europe to domestic militarization and the economy – and warns that our worst fears will soon be realized.

“Gerald Celente on Jeff Rense Radio:

“‘This passed (National Defense Authorization Act) the Senate by 93-7. I’m mentioning this because all the pieces are in place now. The economy is going to crash. There is going to be chaos. Economic martial law will be called. Banks will close. And, chaos will ensure. The law is now in place for the military to come in and take over. Fascism has come to America.’

“‘And if anyone thinks that I’m over blowing this, you may recall, for those of you who have been listening to Jeff Rense for the years that I’ve been on, that when Obama got elected I said there was a high probability, in 2009, of a bank holiday because of the disastrous economic conditions.’

“In an interview with Lew Rockwell on November 30, Celente provided a timeline for events, suggesting that things may start heating up as soon as the first quarter of 2012.

“‘And my belief, and this is going to be a Top Trend of 2012, is that, in the new year, they are going to bring down the gavel on the system. They are going to pump it up to soak every last penny from the suckers to spend money on Christmas stuff they don’t need. And after that, after the Christmas holiday’s over, then were going to get the bank holiday… some form, whether its that or not, some form of economic martial law.’

“If our economy buckles, and we strongly believe it is only a matter of time, then you can fully expect that banks will close and chaos will ensue on the streets of America. Given recent legislation and the training exercises involving thousands of US military troops to be used to quell civil unrest, we can only gather that Celente is, yet again, right on target.”

My Comment: The books of prophets, The Book of Zohar, AGRA, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash, all point to our time as the period of transition from the “animate” to “human” level. This switch occurs as a consequence of people’s realization of a unified nature, in which they exist in their aspiration to become similar to it through their unification.

Nowadays, when we have unwillingly started this transition, many in the world feel its flow and necessity. With each passing day there are more and more of such people in the world. They are our only hope that the transition will result in people’s realization and the revolution of our consciousness, rather than through the path of blood, when great suffering will force us to change nonetheless.
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In the News (from expert.ru): “HSBC Global Research forecasts economic uncertainty on a grand scale for the world economy in the first quarter of 2012. A year ago, politicians and economists were moderately optimistic in their predictions and said the worst is in the past. Now it’s obvious that this point of view was wrong.

“HSBC predicts a full-scale recession for the Euro zone. If China’s economy will continue to slow down, there is a possibility that the world economy will go into recession.

“As a result, HSBC predicts that the world’s GDP in 2012 will grow by 1.9% instead of 2.6%, as per previous forecast issued in October.”

My Comment: The time has expired; integral education and upbringing must be urgently introduced in the world. It will change society so that it becomes similar to integral nature, thus cancelling all these crises.
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In the News (from Business Insider): “Overnight, the threat of further Chinese tightening multiplied as a result of food price inflation. A basket of 18 key vegetables saw their prices increase by 62.4%, year-over-year, in the first 10 days of November.

“But just how likely is Chinese tightening?

“Waverly Advisors feel that it is now a near certainty, based on the political realities within China. The fact that Premier Wen Jiabo chose a supermarket as the location for a press appearance to comment on anti-inflationary measures today indicated how seriously Beijing is taking the potential disruptive impact of rising cost at the cash register.

“But this isn’t just a Chinese problem. 40% of the world’s population, found in China, India, and Brazil, is seeing their food prices skyrocket as a result of price inflation.”

My Comment: This is not the treat of famine, but food riots, unrest, and violence, which will afflict more than half the population of the globe. The only salvation of the world is to introduce integral upbringing immediately and to restructure society to a society of reasonable consumption. Otherwise, humanity will have to advance by the path of suffering.
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Opinion: (Michael Khazin, economist, from km.ru): “For nearly two years, a serious debt crisis has been taking place in the EU, and its authorities are silent about its main cause: the change of lending model and inability to maintain a standard of living due to the growth of debt. But how can one deal with the crisis without knowing its real causes?!

“The European monetary authorities cannot compete with the crisis: They are just trying to push the economy to grow by monetary incentives, but it resists.

“Probably, there is a strict taboo on the reduction of the euro area, the collapse of the European Union, and a sharp drop in living standards. But behind closed doors, it needs to be discussed! However, the real causes of the crisis are not discussed at all.

“This suggests that either the current political elite is so degraded that it is not even able to act more or less adequately, or that the raised issues touch some topics that are serious taboo in Western outlook, such as the possibility of building socialism in the wake of rejecting private property. Then, we can only conclude that the Western society with all its ideology has reached a serious impasse, getting out of which is possible only through the total destruction.”

My Comment: I completely agree with Michael on this issue. To turn towards the question of change in society, a new attitude to life, is like economic death for them because they think they thereby lose power and money, that is, their life…. What transpires here is not alienation, but confrontation between the elite and the masses, as well as necessary manipulations of people, up to a war, and all that is done in order not to part with possessions….
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Opinion: (Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF Chief): “The former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has warned that the eurozone is a ‘raft that will sink’ unless the region’s leaders come up with a solution ‘within weeks.’

“He said one problem is the French and German leaders — Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel — do not understand each other.

“The blunt and highly critical speech was made at an economic conference in Beijing.”

My Comment: Of course, he is right but only partly. The fact is that his decision to recapitalize the banks in the EU is only to buy time, during which it’s necessary to begin to educate the Europeans in the understanding of a new state of the world so that they see the world through the “integral glasses,” interconnected, and act only on the basis of this condition.

In this case, during the process of learning new integral relationships, interconnectedness, and mutual guarantee, people will be able to change social relationships from egoistic to mutual guarantee gradually and “gently,” to transform the relationships in the family, workplace, and then in business, economics, and finance.
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