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, April 25, 2010

Asia House: Bridging global culture

The Jakarta Post, Sri Owen, Contributor, London | Sun, 04/25/2010 1:22 PM

Asia House! It could be a hostel for Asian students. I’m sure a lot of Londoners would assume it’s either an embassy (but continents don’t have embassies) or a restaurant. I dare say you could find several eateries under the same name in the phone book. However, Google says the nearest is in Odense, Denmark.

London’s Asia House is essentially a cultural organization, but it is much more than that. I’d known about the place for years before I became seriously engaged with it. But once I started, I became more and more interested in its activities and eager to take part in them.

At first I thought it must be a quango, a “quasi non-governmental organization,” in other words, a semi-official body, with government backing but free to pursue its goals in its own way.


People take Indonesian food during an event at Asia House. (Courtesy of Sri Owen)

In fact, it’s completely independent and is financed entirely by members, some of whom are very wealthy, others – the majority, in fact – just plain folk; many, indeed, are students. In its own words, “Asia House is the leading pan-Asian organization in Britain”.

Its program of events aims to “promote appreciation and understanding of Asian countries, their arts, religions and economies, and to foster closer communication between the peoples of Asia and Europe, among others”.

Most of us ordinary members have no direct experience whatsoever of these lofty occasions, but there is always lots to do: art exhibitions, screenings of Asian films, social gatherings, visits to museums and art galleries: the list goes on.

Authors launch books here: I did it myself, in 2008, for my own most recent book, Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food.

But in the Indonesian cultural stakes, my friend Kestity Pringgoharjono was ahead of me; she introduced a deluxe English edition of the Serat Centhini, The Javanese Journey of Life, in 2006.

Musicians play, dancers dance, and in the basement there’s a gallery that puts on several exhibitions each year of work by Asian artists — I particularly remember an impressive and moving collection of pictures by a young Burmese artist, made over six years while he was a political prisoner in Myanmar, painting on whatever scraps of material he could find with any brushes and colours he could get or make in his prison cell.

Asia House was founded in 1996, and in its early years occupied premises in Piccadilly, a very prestigious address. Ten years later, it had outgrown its available space and acquired a long lease on a magnificent late-18th-century town house in New Cavendish Street, a block or two north of Oxford Street.

Asia House has refurbished its New Cavendish Street building in high but rather severe style, with palely-tinted walls and white woodwork. The principal rooms have great fireplaces with marble surrounds, and are still lit by massive crystal chandeliers.

I hope the coffee bar will be revived, but in any case I always enjoy my visits to Asia House functions. There are plans to extend conference suites at the rear of the building, and perhaps to add a fully-equipped auditorium-cum-cinema.

This is all very admirable, and I am sure these facilities will be put to good use, but at the moment I’m more interested in promoting my knowledge of Indonesia and of the aspect of Indonesian culture that I know best, and that is of course Indonesian food ... Cookery demonstrations? — Certainly!

I’ve done several over the past five years, including one which led into a sit-down lunch for thirty or so guests. In October 2008, as part of its ongoing “Connecting Cultures” program, Asia House staged a series of events under the title “Indonesia Inspired”: this included lectures on contemporary Indonesian design, fashion, and cinema, plus a talk on Indonesian culinary tradition by the country’s leading food celebrity, William Wongso; Pak William also created an impressive 10-day festival menu for the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.

Of all the world’s continents, Asia surely has the longest, most varied, and most creative range of cultural traditions. Many people (and not just Asians) are convinced that Asia will lead the world through the 21st century.

An awful lot depends on Asia’s food supplies, the ways it gains them and the ways it uses them. The little I’ve been able to do, to make my Indonesian countrymen and fellow-Asians aware of how good our food is and how vital our food traditions are, seems almost pathetic: a few cookbooks, some teaching to small classes, a fair amount of travelling and meeting people, a lot of cooking and many dinner parties.

My most recent appearance at the House was a smaller, much less formal occasion. In February this year I had a non-starring role in Asia House’s Food of Asia Festival. Its stars were a young Chinese lady, Cheng He Huang, on “flavors of Chinese regions” and Datuk Chef Wan, on “Palace Food of Malaysia”. Both are big TV chefs, which I most certainly am not.

But I enjoy what I do — in this case, providing teatime treats for a small but appreciative audience.

Asia House is not only an excellent institution. It’s also a useful platform from which I hope to make my voice heard among a wider, more influential audience.

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