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. …

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Has Anyone Seen Our Tourists?

Despite Record Setting Foreign Tourist Arrival Numbers, Many Businesses Complain that Business is Bad.

Balidiscovery.com, 26 May 2007

While balidiscovery.com's continuing series "Bali by the Numbers" suggest foreign tourist arrivals to Bali are hitting record highs [See: April Foreign Arrival Numbers Set New Records], we are often accused of "cooking the numbers" by local observers who have a difficult time reconciling buoyant arrival reports with quite shops, restaurants and hotels across the Island.

And, in fact, local press reports confirm that many handicraft shops and their supporting workshops are closing down in the face of a dramatic downturn in customers as compared with business in the recent past. A similar fate is also being experienced by restaurant owners and small hotels no longer able to generate the necessary cash flows to meet daily operating expenses.



Where are All the Tourists?

Recent surveys carried out by the Bureau of Statistics (BPS) and Bank Indonesia (BI) in Bali confirm that while the quantity of tourists visiting Bali is increasing dramatically, the overall quality of those tourists is on a sharp decline. Increasing competition among accommodation providers, which now include hundred of private villas and new resorts, has made the current lack of quality embodied in current arrival numbers even more apparent. The survey, conducted in January 2007, showed many starred hotels in Bali are running with occupancies at less than 50%, a fact underlining the dramatic over-supply of rooms facing the Island.

The BI and BPS surveys also showed that there have been fundamental changes in the complexion of inbound tourism to Bali. Much of the growth in arrival numbers can be credited to the advent of low-cost carriers serving short-haul markets in the Asia-Pacific region bringing visitors who spend less and stay for shorter duration than their long-haul counterparts from Europe and the Americas.

While the Bali-based survey suggested an average overall length-of-stay (LOS) of 9.87 days, this figure is down markedly from the 11.71 day LOS recorded just a few years ago. That the actual length of stay may be even lower is suggested by the overwhelming preponderance of Bali visitors who opt for a 7-day visa-on-arrival as opposed to the next alternative of a 30-day visa. This is consistent with other results from the survey which show that North Asian and East Asian visitors are staying on the Island for only 6.83 days while ASEAN visitors spend an even shorter period of 5.10 days in Bali.

Overall, 55.20% of all visitors to Bali stay for less than 7 days.

Spending Less

While regional airlines championing "Now Everyone Can Fly" have largely lived up to that promise, the amount of money left in Bali by regional travelers on perhaps their first trip abroad is much less than more seasoned travelers of yesteryear. One local hotelier said that requests for three or four people sharing a single room are increasingly common and these customers leave the hotel to purchase their meals from local street vendors or dine on food items purchased from local supermarkets.

Arguably, if there is a bright side to this situation it is the money reaped by street vendors lucky enough to snare a share of the "new travelers" and the local inns and home-stays attracting the conservative-spending regional tourists.

In the end, however, the overall net effect for both Bali's larger businesses and small local traders experiencing larger arrival numbers comprised of visitors who stay briefly and spend sparsely means that business is down.

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