Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners

Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners
Widodo has pledged to bring reform to Indonesia

Ban appeals to Indonesia to stop death row executions

Ban appeals to Indonesia to stop death row executions
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pleaded to Indonesia to stop the execution of prisoners on death row for drug crimes. AFP PHOTO

Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person

Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person
The pope wrote that the principle of legitimate personal defense isn’t adequate justification to execute someone. Photograph: Zuma/Rex

Obama becomes first president to visit US prison (US Justice Systems / Human Rights)

Obama becomes first president to visit US prison   (US Justice Systems / Human Rights)
US President Barack Obama speaks as he tours the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

US Death Penalty (Justice Systems / Human Rights)

US Death Penalty (Justice Systems / Human Rights)
Woman who spent 23 years on US death row cleared (Photo: dpa)



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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Thursday, May 6, 2010

A quirky museum, a welcoming home

The Jakarta Post, Simon Marcus Gower, Contributor, Ubud | Thu, 05/06/2010 8:50 AM


Welcoming: The museum’s mansion house looms large on Campuan Hill. JP/Simon Gower

An impressive and imposing entranceway seems to stand guard as you approach the Antonio Blanco Museum located on a hill known as Campuan, in Ubud, Bali. Passing under this archway, the entrance road rises up steeply and there is a real sense of approaching something special but also a little reclusive.

It is said the King of Ubud gave the artist Antonio Blanco this land to build his home and which today stands as something of a monument to this renowned artist.

This land in Ubud is also said to sit at the confluence of two sacred rivers and so in a variety of ways is seen as an auspicious and special place.

It soon becomes clear that this is a place of restfulness and beauty: Gardens are beautifully kept, lawns are clipped and manicured, and statues are adorned with umbrellas and flowers.

The grounds of the museum immediately reflect this space is respected and worshipped. Signs over the entrance door into the grounds state that “Through these portals pass the most beautiful people in Bali”.

Antonio Blanco was an artist of Spanish parentage born in Manila, The Philippines, in 1911. It is evident from the museum that the artist enjoyed a varied and truly international life. After his high school education in Manila, he went on to study art in New York and developed skills and a liking for figurative and portrait art.

While this sentiment was to prevail throughout his artistic life, his arrival in Bali in 1952 proved central to the rest of his life. He married a Balinese woman famed for her Balinese dancing, Ni Ronji. Her portraits kept in the museum add a very personal touch to the museum, almost making the visitor feel like being at home.

Perhaps first and foremost it is the home of Antonio Blanco. His spirit seems to linger throughout the mansion at the center of the place.

The mansion is large and ornate; perhaps a little too ornate and even gaudy for many a modern person’s tastes, but it is important as it acts as a gallery space for so many of Blanco’s paintings.

These are displayed in often highly decorated frames, some of which were also designed by the artist.

But it is in the artist’s studio to the side of the mansion that visitors get a real sense of the artist’s work.

Antonio Blanco passed away in 1999 but his spirit seems to linger on in his small but intimate studio, where numerous frames and paintings either line the walls or rest, stacked up against the walls. One feels like someone needs to finish the pieces or take up the brushes and use the paints left in the center of the room.

Today, visitors to the museum are invited to sit as the artist would have and have their photograph taken posing with artist’s palette and brush in hand. Although this sounds almost terribly touristy, it is done in a fun way and the attendants are warm and welcoming.

This is, perhaps, one of the nicest aspects of this museum; although the mansion house is grandiose and imposing — practically demanding attention — there is still something of an intimacy and warmth about the place as a whole.

Antonio Blanco’s son Mario also became an artist, very much in his father’s tradition, and so his studio resides right next to that of his renowned father’s.

Antonio Blanco was one of many foreign artists to come to Bali and feel at home. His memory is, though, kept alive more powerfully than most with this museum that combines studios and a large mansion house.

The artist may have passed away more than a decade ago now and, to some extent, the times that he represents have passed; perhaps they were more stylish and genteel times. But this museum seems to look back on them with a fondness and warmth that is both simultaneously interesting to the mind and calming to the spirit.

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