http://zircorn.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/767461 Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.


Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"


Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcF75h4BHk8feature=related]]> Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:14:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/767461 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/765623
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold:
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Ev'ry pow'r as Thou shalt choose.
Ev'ry pow'r as Thou shalt choose.


Take my will, and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
It shall be Thy royal throne.

Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself, and I will be,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Ever, only, all for Thee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU9Pi4g_3No

]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:10:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/765623 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/765303 Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.]]> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:49:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/765303 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/717467

People are often unreasonable, illogical,
And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway.

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/mother+theresa/video/x67iux_mother-theresa_people?hmz=746162

]]> Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:06:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/717467 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/716135 When we head a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
And it's time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of all

We can't go on
Pretneding day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

Send them your heart
So they'll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping hand

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

When you're down and out
There seems no hope at all
But if you just believe
There's no way we can fall
Well, well, well, well, let us realize
That a change will only come
When we stand together as one

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM

Title: Michael Jackson - We Are the World lyrics

Artist: Michael Jackson Lyrics
]]> Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:50:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/716135 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/664263 http://www.ccsd.ca/home.htm

Titled "Financial Advocacy as a Tool for Poverty Alleviation in Canada", the study explores the use of financial advocacy tools and strategies to help the Poor navigate through the financial labyrinth the face; dealing with their problems and harnessing the opportunities hidden from them due to their circumstances.

The study conducted over 2005 through 2007 involved over 200 participants each year from Shelters, Food Banks and Subsidized Housing in Toronto.

Through Financial Advocacy over $ 50,000 in tax refunds was recovered for participants each year.

The study concludes that "Given its enormous potential and with its demonstrated impact in the United States as a tool for PA, in this era of tight budgets and limited resources, making sure that existing programs and services benefit the Poor is perhaps the best vehicle for poverty alleviation."

An Abstract of my Conference Presentation is as follows:

Financial Advocacy as a tool for Poverty Alleviation in Canada©
Abstract

By


T. Kofi Hadjor, MBA
Founder/Research Director
©Green Pastures Society™

Submitted in response to the Call for Abstracts for the Canadian Social Forum January 20, 2009


ABSTRACT

The pervasiveness of poverty in Canada has mobilized community groups to advocate for sustainable livelihood for the Poor and has made poverty alleviation priority issue with all levels of government.

Financial ability and challenges are major obstacles faced by the Poor. Spending as much as 77 percent of their income on rent/mortgage leaving less than 30% available for other expenses, the poor search for opportunities to increase their income, access to benefits, strategies to build assets, banking services to cash their “pay” check for funds of which will last at best two weeks.

The financial crunch forces many to turn to costly alternatives to get money for basic living expenses including: getting very costly pay day loans to tie them over until their next check, borrowing from pawn shops and selling their tax/GST refunds at deep discount for immediate cash, using very expensive alternative prepaid services including credit cards and pay as you go cell phone.

In connecting with uncoordinated services, the poor face a daunting task: they must navigate a maze (of informal social networks, service providers/government agencies) seeking solution(s) to the problem(s) they face. The poor must navigate a labyrinth of forms required to access financial entitlements. Thus with limited resources (skills, mental health, financial literacy) the poor shoulder on seeking solutions to the financial challenges they face.

Other research findings shed light on missed opportunities and other challenges facing the Poor. These include: SEDI/FCAC 2005, Larry Orton 2007, SEDI/St. Christopher House 2006, Statistics Canada 2005, the Auditor General of Canada 1996, Myriam Fortin 2007, Howe Institute 2003, CMHC, Retirement Planning Institute.

The Green Pastures Society initiative explores the use of Financial Advocacy (FA) as a tool for addressing the financial challenges faced by the Poor. One of the five pillars of sustainable livelihood, FA increases the economic opportunities available to the Poor by improving access to public, private and non‐profit programs and services including opportunities for building financial assets through employment, self‐employment, skills development and taking full advantage of the financial assistance available in social support programs and entitlements offered under income tax/pension legislation.

Case studies were conducted in three low-income communities in Toronto; St. Clair West, Toronto Centre and West.

Participants are residents in a supportive housing establishment, shelters and users of Food Banks. Between 2005 and 2007, over 200 people participated each year (in response to flyers, financial management seminars, income tax clinics and referrals). Participants were interviewed to identify financial challenges they face. Following an assessment of the unrealized financial opportunities they had, financial advocacy services were rendered to them.

The Poor face major financial challenges. With limited financial literacy, they are unable to navigate the labyrinth of services, rules and forms to access their financial entitlements and take advantage of untapped financial opportunities. Many of them experience loss of benefits [CTB, GIS, Pension, SAB, ODSP] and delays in accessing benefits [Refund of Tax/GST/PTC and SA/ODSP Entitlements]. Financial support entitlements and financial literacy have direct effect on sustainable livelihood.

Unlike Legal Advocacy, FA is underdeveloped in Canada with very few service providers offering FA services. Given its enormous potential and with its demonstrated impact in the United States as a tool for PA, in this era of tight budgets and limited resources, making sure that existing programs and services benefit the Poor is perhaps the best vehicle for poverty alleviation.

FA will increase financial literacy and enable the Poor access solutions to their financial challenges. This interactive workshop explores the financial challenges experienced by the Poor and will provide an overview of financial advocacy tools for poverty alleviation. Using a survey of participant experiences in serving the Poor, the workshop will focus on the role their organization can play in developing and implementing FA solutions to help their clients. As a result of this workshop, participants will develop an understanding of the opportunities for FA and the pathways to activating these opportunities.


Green Pastures Society ™

• We connect low-Income persons to financial supports, solutions and economic opportunities.

• We train Service Agencies in implementing Financial Advocacy solutions to help the people they serve.

• We conduct research and develop solutions to help low persons transit poverty into prosperity.

• We help Service Agencies serving the Poor conduct Operations Review to identify and redeploy Hidden and Wasting Assets to fund strategic activities and projects/programs.

• We undertake public lectures to educate and mobilize the general public to help low income communities through Community Service.

Contact Information

http://greenpasturessociety.org
Email greenpasturessociety@yahoo.ca
Blog Address http://zircorn.tigblog.org/

]]> Mon, 11 May 2009 23:04:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/664263 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/514407 Carl Sagan
A transcript from the final program in the Cosmos television series first shown during 1980 on the Public Broadcasting System in the United States. This version differs from that in the published book of the same title.

…The civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and sky. In our tenure of this planet, we have accumulated dangerous, evolutionary baggage -- propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. We have also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience, and a great, soaring passionate intelligence -- the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity.

Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet earth. But, up and in the cosmos an inescapable perspective awaits. National boundaries are not evidenced when we view the earth from space. Fanatic ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our planet as a fragile, blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.

There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably into self-destruction. I dream about it . . . and sometimes they are bad dreams.

In the vision of the dream I once imagined myself searching for other civilizations in the cosmos. Among a hundred billion galaxies and a billion trillion stars, life and intelligence should have arisen in many worlds; some worlds are barren and desolate. On them life never began or may have been extinguished in some cosmic catastrophe. There may be worlds rich in life not yet evolved to intelligence and high technology; there may be civilizations that achieved technology and then promptly used it to destroy themselves; and, perhaps, there are also beings who learn to live with their technology and themselves, beings who endure and become citizens of the cosmos.

Immersed in these thoughts, I found myself approaching a world that was clearly inhabited, a world I had visited before. I saw a planet encompassed by light and recognized the signature of intelligence. But, suddenly, darkness -- total and absolute.

In my dream, I could read the "Book of Worlds", a vast encyclopedia of a billion planets within the Milky Way. What could the galactic computer tell me about this now darkened world? They must have survived some earlier catastrophe. Their biology was different from ours. High technology. I wondered what those lights had been for; there must have been signs they were in trouble. The possibility of survival in a century -- less than one percent, not very good odds. Communications interrupted. Their world society had failed; they had made the ultimate mistake. I felt a longing to return to earth.

The television transmissions from earth rushed past me, expanding away from our planet at the speed of light. Then suddenly -- silence, total and absolute. But the dream was not yet done.

Had we destroyed our home? What had we done to the earth? There had been many ways for life to perish at our hands; we had poisoned the air and water; we had ravaged the land. Perhaps we had changed the climate. Could it have been a plague or nuclear war? I remembered the galactic computer. What would it say about the earth?

There was our region of the galaxy; there was our world. I had found the entry for earth: HUMANITY: THIRD FROM THE SUN. They had heard our television broadcasts and thought them an application for cosmic citizenship. Our technology had been growing enormously (they got that right). Two hundred nation states, about six global powers, the potential to become one planet. Probability of survival over a century -- here, also, less than one percent. So, it was nuclear war, a full nuclear exchange.

There would be no more big questions, no more answers. Never again a love or a child; no descendents to remember us and be proud; no more voyages to the stars, no more songs from the earth.

I saw east Africa and thought, "a few million years ago we humans took our first steps there. Our brains grew and changed. The old parts began to be guided by the new parts, and this made us human -- with compassion and foresight and reason. But, instead, we listened to that reptilian voice within us, counseling fear, territoriality and aggression. We accepted the products of science; we rejected its methods".

Maybe the reptiles will evolve intelligence once more. Perhaps, one day, there will be civilizations again on earth. There will be life, there will be intelligence; but there will be no more humans -- not here, not in a billion worlds.

******

Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows its madness, and every country has an excuse. There is a dreary chain of causality. The Germans were working on the bomb at the beginning of World War II, so the Americans had to make one first. If the Americans had one, the Russians had to have one. Then the British, the French, the Chinese, the Indians, the Pakistanis. Many nations now collect nuclear weapons; they are easy to make. You can steal fissionable material from nuclear reactors. Nuclear weapons have almost become a home industry.

The conventional bombs of World War II were called "blockbusters", filled with 20 tons of TNT they could destroy a city block. All the bombs dropped on all the cities during World War II amounted to some 2 million tons of TNT -- two megatons. Coventry, Rotterdam, Dresden and Tokyo -- all the death that rained from the skies between 1939 and 1945 -- a hundred thousand blockbusters, two megatons. Today, two megatons is the equivalent of a single thermonuclear bomb -- one bomb with the destructive force of the second world war. But there are tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. The missile and bomber forces in the Soviet Union and United States have warheads aimed at over 15,000 designated targets. No place on the planet is safe.

The energy contained in these weapons -- genies of death, patiently awaiting the rubbing of the lamps -- totals far more than 10,000 megatons; but, with the destruction concentrated efficiently, not over six years but over a few hours. A blockbuster for every family on the planet; a World War II every second for the length of a lazy afternoon.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima killed 70,000 people. In a full nuclear exchange, in the paroxysm of global death, the equivalent of a million Hiroshimas would be dropped all over the world. And, in such an exchange not everyone would be killed by the blast and the fire storm and the immediate radiation. There would be other agonies. The loss of loved ones; the legions of the burned and blinded and mutilated; disease; plague; long-lived radiation poisoning the soil and the water; the threat of stillbirths and malformed children; and, the hopeless sense of a civilization destroyed for nothing. The knowledge that we could have prevented it and did nothing.

The global balance of terror pioneered by the United States and the Soviet Union holds hostage all the citizens of the earth. Each side consistently probes the limits of the other's tolerance -- like the Cuban missile crisis, the testing of anti-satellite weapons, the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars. The hostile military establishments are locked in some ghastly mutual embrace, each needs the other but the balance of terror is a delicate balance with very little margin for miscalculation. And the world impoverishes itself by spending half a trillion dollars a year in preparations for war and by employing perhaps half the scientists and high technologists on the planet in military endeavors.

How would we explain all this to a dispassionate, extraterrestrial observer? What account would we give of our stewardship of the planet earth?

We have heard the rationales offered by the superpowers. We know who speaks for the nations; but who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for earth?

From an extraterrestrial perspective, our global civilization is clearly on the edge of failure and the most important task it faces is preserving the lives and well-being of its citizens and the future habitability of the planet. If we are willing to live with the growing likelihood of nuclear war, shouldn't we also be willing to explore vigorously every possible means to prevent nuclear war? Shouldn't we consider in every nation major changes in the traditional ways of doing things, a fundamental restructuring of economic, political, social and religious institutions? We have reached a point where there can be no more special interests or special cases. Nuclear arms threaten every person on the earth.

Fundamental changes in society are sometimes labeled impractical or contrary to human nature: as if nuclear war were practical or as if there were only one human nature. But fundamental changes can clearly be made. We are surrounded by them. In the last two centuries abject slavery, which was with us for thousands of years, has almost entirely been eliminated in a stirring world wide revolution. Women, systematically mistreated for millennia, are gradually gaining the political and economic power traditionally denied to them. And some wars of aggression have recently been stopped or curtailed because of a revulsion felt by the people in the aggressor nations. The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalism are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet.

One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth, finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time. But this is an ancient perception . . . history is full of people who, out of fear or ignorance or the lust for power, have destroyed treasures of immeasurable value which truly belong to all of us. We must not let it happen again.

We have considered the destruction of worlds and the end of civilizations, but there is another perspective by which to measure human endeavors. Let me tell you a story -- about the beginning.

Some fifteen billion years ago our universe began with the mightiest explosion of all time. The universe expanded, cooled and darkened. Energy condensed into matter, mostly hydrogen atoms, and these atoms accumulated into vast clouds; rushing away from each other they would one day become the galaxies. Within these galaxies the first generation of stars was borne, kindling the energy hidden in matter, flooding the cosmos with light. Hydrogen atoms that made suns and starlight. There were in those times no planets to receive the light, no living creatures to admire the radiance of the heavens. But deep in the stellar furnaces nuclear fusion was creating the heavier atoms -- carbon and oxygen, silicon and iron. These elements, the ash left by hydrogen, were the raw materials from which planets and life later arrived.

At first, the heavier elements were trapped in the hearts of the stars, but massive stars soon exhausted their fuel and in their death throes returned most of their substance back into space. Interstellar gas became enriched with heavy elements.

In the Milky Way galaxy the matter of the cosmos was recycled into new generations of stars now rich in heavy atoms, a legacy from their stellar ancestors. And in the cold of. interstellar space great turbulent clouds were gathered. by gravity and stirred by starlight. In the depths the heavy atoms condensed into grains of rocky dust and ice, complex carbon-based molecules. In accordance with the laws of physics and chemistry, hydrogen atoms had brought forth the stuff of life. In other clouds more massive aggregates of gas and dust formed later generations of stars. As new stars were formed, tiny condensations of matter accreted near them, inconspicuous moats of rock and material ice and gas that would become the planets And on these worlds, as in interstellar clouds, organic molecules formed made of atoms that had been cooked inside the stars. In the tide pools and oceans of many worlds molecules were destroyed by sunlight and assembled by chemistry. One day, in these natural experiments, a molecule arose that quite by accident was able to make crude copies of itself.

As time passed self-replication became more accurate as molecules that copied better produced more copies. Natural selection was under way. Elaborate molecular machines had evolved slowly, imperceptibly -- life had begun. Collectives of organic molecules evolved into one-celled organisms. These produced multi-celled colonies. Various parts became specialized organs. Some colonies attached themselves to the sea floor; others swam freely. Eyes evolved and now the cosmos could see. Living things moved on to colonize the land. Reptiles held sway for a time and gave way to small, warm blooded creatures with bigger brains who developed dexterity and curiosity about their environment. They learned to use tools and fire and language -- star stuff, the ash of stellar alchemy had emerged into consciousness.

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. We are creatures of the cosmos and always hunger to know our origins, to understand our connection with the universe. How did everything come to be? Every culture on the planet has devised its own response to the riddle posed by the universe. Every culture celebrates the cycles of life and nature. There are many different ways of being human.

But, an extraterrestrial visitor examining the differences among human societies would find those differences trivial compared to the similarities. We are one species. We are star stuff harvesting star light. Our lives, our past and our future are tied to the sun, the moon and the stars. Our ancestors knew that their survival depended on understanding the heavens. They built observatories and computers to predict the changing of the seasons by the motions in the skies. We are all of us descended from astronomers.

The discovery that there is order in the universe, that there are laws of nature, is the foundation on which science is built on today. Our conception of the cosmos -- all of modern science and technology --is traced back to questions raised by the stars. Yet, even 400 years ago we had still no idea of our place in the universe. The long journey to that understanding required both an unflinching respect for the facts and a delight in the natural world.

Johannes Kepler wrote: "We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment."

It is the birthright of every child to encounter the cosmos anew in every culture in every age. When this happens to us, we experience a deep sense of wonder. The most fortunate among us are guided by teachers who channel this exhilaration. We are born to delight in the world; we are taught to distinguish our preconceptions from the truth. Then, new worlds are discovered as we decipher the mysteries of the cosmos.

Science is a collective enterprise which embraces many cultures and spans the generations in every age and sometimes in the most unlikely places there are those who wish with a great deal of passion to understand the world. There is no way of knowing where the next discovery will come from. What dream of the mind's eye will remake the world. These dreams begin as impossibilities. Once, even to see a planet through a telescope was an astonishment; but we studied these worlds, figured out how they moved in their orbits, and soon we were planning voyages of discovery beyond the earth and sending robot explorers to the planets and the stars.

We humans long to be connected with our origins so we create rituals. Science is another way to experience this longing. It also connects us with our origins, and it too has its rituals and its commandments. Its only sacred truth is that there are no sacred truths. All assumptions must be critically examined. Arguments from authority are worthless. Whatever is inconsistent with the facts -- no matter how fond of it we are -- must be discarded or revised. Science is not perfect. It is often misused. It is only a tool, but it is the best tool we have -- self-correcting, ever changing, applicable to everything. With this tool we vanquish the impossible; with the methods of science we have begun to explore the cosmos. For the first time scientific discoveries are widely accessible. Our machines -- the products of our science -- are now beyond the orbit of Saturn. A preliminary spacecraft reconnaissance has been made of 20 new worlds. We have learned to value careful observation, to respect the facts even when they are disquieting, when they seem to contradict "conventional wisdom".

WWe depend upon free inquiry and free access to knowledge. We humans have seen the atoms which constitute all of nature and the forces that sculpted this work and others. We have found that the molecules of life are easily formed under conditions throughout the cosmos. We have mapped the molecular machines of the heart of life. We have discovered a microcosm in a drop of water; we have peered into the bloodstream and down on the stormy planet to see the earth as a single organism. We have found volcanoes on other worlds and explosions on the sun, studied comets from the depths of space and traced their origins and destinies; listened to pulsars and searched for other civilizations.

We humans have set foot on another world in a place called the Sea of Tranquility, an astonishing achievement for creatures such as we, whose earliest footsteps three and one-half million years old are preserved in the volcanic ash of east Africa. We have walked far.

These are some of the things that hydrogen atoms do given fifteen billion years of cosmic evolution. It has the sound of epic myth, but it is simply a description of the evolution of the cosmos as revealed by science in our time. And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we have begun at least to wonder about our origins -- star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of nature, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet earth, and perhaps throughout the cosmos.

Our loyalties are to the species and to the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring!

Source:
http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/sagan_cosmos_who_speaks_for_earth.html

Watch Video on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQq1dMdYxHs



.]]> Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:20:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/514407 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503865
We are poised to embrace our next initiation as a people.

We must embrace our Diversity,

We must embrace being our brother/sisters Keeper;

We must embrace the prescription of Harmony in our Universe;

We must follow the tenets of the economics of the Universe;

We must shed the shackles of our ignorance;

We must embrace the Transcedental Framework of Eternity;

We must embrace Servant Leadership.


For in so doing, we will change ourselves.

We will transform our relationships;

We will inaugurate a New Age on Earth;

We will grow into the knowledge and ways of our Creator;

We will become Citizens of the Universe.


Looking back, we will celebrate the transformative role of our Ignorance;

And like the Toddler learning to Walk by Crawling,

We will discover a deeper revelation;

That the Winter of Our Ignorance was to give birth to The Dawn of our Enlightenment!


This is Our Moment!

This is Our Time!

This is our Task!


We Have Heard the Call of Enternity,


Let us Answer to this Call;

Let us Rise to Our Destiny;

For We are Citizens of the Universe!

And our traditions are the Ways of The Universe!


We cannot settle for anything less!

Amen!

T. Kofi Hadjor
The Serpent Bearer
http://www.universeafrica.com
http://www.greenpasturessociety.org

]]> Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:44:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503865 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503383
Among other things, TIG connects us, enables us to exchange ideas and support each other as we implement ideas and programs to make a difference in our World.

Now is the time for us to mobilize and tell our networks about TIG and the TIG experience can expand their horizons!

By increasing the membership in our TIG Community, we will increase our impact in the communities we are connected to.

We are the change we want to see in our World.

Let us take TIG to the next level.

TIG is Simply the Best!

Kofi]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:10:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503383 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503263 We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.

Chief Seattle]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:26:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503263 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503257
Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter (1992)
]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:04:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503257 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503241
Read about the experiences of Indigenous Peoples of the World
http://www.ifad.org/pub/factsheet/ip/e.pdf]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:48:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503241 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503111 Oct 16, 2008, 7-9pm

Come for an evening of music, dance, installations, poetry, theatre, talk and visual arts from around the world.

The event will also feature "A Fork in The Road – Personal Stories of Overcoming Homelessness and Starting Again," including Three Thousand Days in the Wilderness: A Spiritual Journey Through Homelessness, by T. Kofi Hadjor, MBA story teller, poet and public speaker.

Hadjor emigrated from Ghana to Canada in his early 20s, earned an MBA, worked as a chartered accountant on Bay Street and served on the board of governors of the University of Guelph and the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy.

In 2006, Hadjor founded Green Pastures Society, a not-for-profit corporation specializing in financial advocacy for the poor.

To reserve tickets, call 416-650-2968 or buy them at the door.
________________________________________
Location: Student Lounge (second floor), Accolade East Building
Sponsor: Humanity in Harmony Foundation Inc.
Posted by: Isaac Akrong

Web Site http://www.yorku.ca/yfile/archive/index.asp?Article=9226

Event Poster
http://www.afridance.com/index.html




]]> Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:34:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/503111 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/502435
The Commission was the first global initiative to focus on the link between Poverty and the Law.

Legal Empowerment is not about aid, but about helping poor people lift themselves out of poverty by working for policy and institutional reforms that expand their legal opportunities and protections.

Download the Reports of the Commission's work from this link:

http://www.undp.org/legalempowerment/reports/concept2action.html

T. Kofi Hadjor
www.greenpasturessociety.org]]> Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:04:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/502435 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/501755
You can get more information on this program by visiting the following link:

http://www.intracen.org/pact/programme/AAGuide_En.pdf

Trade has been recognized as a primary vehicle for Poverty Alleviation by the United Nations.

One of the areas Least Developed Countries have a comparative advantage is in Cultural Products (including Textiles) made by hand and in their Villages.

Developing small enterprises to take advantage of improving market access in Industrialized Countries will assist in poverty alleviation in Least Developed Countries of the World.

It will also help in preserving their traditional culture from dying out.

T. Kofi Hadjor
http://www.universeafrica.com/service_ldc.html]]> Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:15:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/501755 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/501315
The Golden Globe is glittering in the Brilliant Blue Sky!
The Gentle Breeze is forever caressing you;
As the Birds, the Long Distance Travelers, dance in the Sky overhead or settle in their nests - feeding their newborn!

You cannot help but feel the deep Silence of the landscape; it acts as a vacuum that cleanses your being and transforms you inside out!

Of all the billions of Humans who have lived on the Earth, less than a handful have traversed this landscape!

It has been a Silent Witness to all that has happened over 3 Billion Years!

It has never been defiled by Humans! It has witnessed all we have done. It has waited patiently for the return of the Dawn of Wisdom on the Earth!

It is to such Sacred Places that I return for renewal and homage to the Creator of the Universe!

Welcome to the surviving Sacred Places on Earth!

T. Kofi Hadjor
http://www.universeafrica.com/klub_remote.html]]> Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:33:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/501315 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500957
The World would do what we say!

Watch Video Michael Douglas Video presented at the link below

http://www.millenniumcampaign.org/atf/cf/%7BD15FF017-0467-419B-823E-D6659E0CCD39%7D/MichaelDouglas.mpg]]> Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:14:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500957 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500927
Muhammad Yunus
December 15, 2006

Muhammad Yunus is the head of Grameen Bank, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for it's innovative work on microcredit lending with the poor of Bangladesh.

This is an excerpt of his acceptance speech, given on December 10 to the Nobel Foundation in Oslo. The full text can be read here.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

By giving us this prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has given important support to the proposition that peace is inextricably linked to poverty. Poverty is a threat to peace. World's income distribution gives a very telling story. Ninety-four percent of the world income goes to 40 percent of the population while 60 percent of people live on only six per cent of world income. Half of the world population lives on two dollars a day. Over one billion people live on less than a dollar a day. This is no formula for peace.

The new millennium began with a great global dream. World leaders gathered at the United Nations in 2000 and adopted, among others, a historic goal to reduce poverty by half by 2015. Never in human history had such a bold goal been adopted by the entire world in one voice, one that specified time and size. But then came September 11 and the Iraq war, and suddenly the world became derailed from the pursuit of this dream, with the attention of world leaders shifting from the war on poverty to the war on terrorism. Till now over $ 530 billion has been spent on the war in Iraq by the U.S.A alone.

I believe terrorism cannot be won over by military action. Terrorism must be condemned in the strongest language. We must stand solidly against it, and find all the means to end it. We must address the root causes of terrorism to end it for all time to come. I believe that putting resources into improving the lives of the poor people is a better strategy than spending it on guns.

Poverty is Denial of All Human Rights

Peace should be understood in a human way—in a broad social, political and economic way. Peace is threatened by unjust economic, social and political order, absence of democracy, environmental degradation and absence of human rights.
Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustrations, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. For building stable peace we must find ways to provide opportunities for people to live decent lives.

The creation of opportunities for the majority of people—the poor—is at the heart of the work that we have dedicated ourselves to during the past 30 years.

Free Market Economy

Capitalism centers on the free market. It is claimed that the freer the market, the better is the result of capitalism in solving the questions of what, how, and for whom. It is also claimed that the individual search for personal gains brings collective optimal result.
I am in favor of strengthening the freedom of the market. At the same time, I am very unhappy about the conceptual restrictions imposed on the players in the market. This originates from the assumption that entrepreneurs are one-dimensional human beings, who are dedicated to one mission in their business lives—to maximize profit. This interpretation of capitalism insulates the entrepreneurs from all political, emotional, social, spiritual, environmental dimensions of their lives. This was done perhaps as a reasonable simplification, but it stripped away the very essentials of human life.

Human beings are a wonderful creation embodied with limitless human qualities and capabilities. Our theoretical constructs should make room for the blossoming of those qualities, not assume them away.

Many of the world's problems exist because of this restriction on the players of free-market. The world has not resolved the problem of crushing poverty that half of its population suffers. Health care remains out of the reach of the majority of the world population. The country with the richest and freest market fails to provide health care for one-fifth of its population.

We have remained so impressed by the success of the free market that we never dared to express any doubt about our basic assumption. To make it worse, we worked extra hard to transform ourselves, as closely as possible, into the one-dimensional human beings as conceptualized in the theory, to allow smooth functioning of free market mechanism.

By defining "entrepreneur" in a broader way we can change the character of capitalism radically, and solve many of the unresolved social and economic problems within the scope of the free market. Let us suppose an entrepreneur, instead of having a single source of motivation (such as, maximizing profit), now has two sources of motivation, which are mutually exclusive, but equally compelling—a) maximization of profit and b) doing good to people and the world.

Each type of motivation will lead to a separate kind of business. Let us call the first type of business a profit-maximizing business, and the second type of business as social business.

Social business will be a new kind of business introduced in the market place with the objective of making a difference in the world. Investors in the social business could get back their investment, but will not take any dividend from the company. Profit would be plowed back into the company to expand its outreach and improve the quality of its product or service. A social business will be a non-loss, non-dividend company.

Role of Social Businesses in Globalization

I support globalization and believe it can bring more benefits to the poor than its alternative. But it must be the right kind of globalization. To me, globalization is like a hundred-lane highway criss-crossing the world. If it is a free-for-all highway, its lanes will be taken over by the giant trucks from powerful economies. Bangladeshi rickshaw will be thrown off the highway. In order to have a win-win globalization we must have traffic rules, traffic police, and traffic authority for this global highway.

Rule of "strongest takes it all" must be replaced by rules that ensure that the poorest have a place and piece of the action, without being elbowed out by the strong. Globalization must not become financial imperialism.

Powerful multi-national social businesses can be created to retain the benefit of globalization for the poor people and poor countries. Social businesses will either bring ownership to the poor people, or keep the profit within the poor countries, since taking dividends will not be their objective. Direct foreign investment by foreign social businesses will be exciting news for recipient countries. Building strong economies in the poor countries by protecting their national interest from plundering companies will be a major area of interest for the social businesses.

We Can Put Poverty in the Museums

I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and social system that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts that make up that system; the policies that we pursue.

Poverty is created because we built our theoretical framework on assumptions which under-estimates human capacity, by designing concepts which are too narrow (such as concept of business, credit- worthiness, entrepreneurship, employment), or developing institutions which remain half-done (such as financial institutions, where poor are left out). Poverty is caused by the failure at the conceptual level, rather than any lack of capability on the part of people.

I firmly believe that we can create a poverty-free world if we collectively believe in it. In a poverty-free world, the only place you would be able to see poverty is in the poverty museums. When school children take a tour of the poverty museums, they would be horrified to see the misery and indignity that some human beings had to go through. They would blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhuman condition, which existed for so long, for so many people.

A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself, but also to contribute to enlarging the well-being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree, but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with. They die unexplored and the world remains deprived of their creativity, and their contribution.

Grameen has given me an unshakeable faith in the creativity of human beings. This has led me to believe that human beings are not born to suffer the misery of hunger and poverty.

To me poor people are like bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a flower-pot, you get a replica of the tallest tree, only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted, only the soil-base that is too inadequate. Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong in their seeds. Simply, society never gave them the base to grow on. All it needs to get the poor people out of poverty for us to create an enabling environment for them. Once the poor can unleash their energy and creativity, poverty will disappear very quickly.

Let us join hands to give every human being a fair chance to unleash their energy and creativity.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me conclude by expressing my deep gratitude to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for recognizing that poor people, and especially poor women, have both the potential and the right to live a decent life, and that microcredit helps to unleash that potential.

I believe this honor that you give us will inspire many more bold initiatives around the world to make a historical breakthrough in ending global poverty.

Thank you very much.


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/15/poverty_is_a_threat_to_peace.php]]> Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:39:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500927 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500913
Times of remembrance offer us an opportunity to reflect and assess our performance in regards to that which is being remembered. To ensure the integrity of the process, each person or community that initiates this act of remembrance must approach it with the solemnity and reverence.

On this occasion, we are called to perceive the underpinnings which manifested Slavery and Racial Discrimination and renew our efforts in ushering an age of enlightenment in our world. An age in which we grow into the mind set of and become one with our Maker, celebrating His Supreme accomplishment as expressed in the miraculous creation that we call the Universe!

Slavery and Racial Discrimination are born out of greed and ignorance!
Greed because there is a belief that if the other shares in the collective wealth of the Earth, I will be without. Ignorance because we are toddlers in comprehending the magnificent expression of the Rainbow tribes! So fueled by greed and ignorance, we concoct debased systems which seek to deny the elegance of the magnificent expression of creation.

Our present experience can be summed up thus: we have great computer hardware; however, our essential software is obsolete! Going forward requires that we replace this obsolete software with one that celebrates the magnificent creation represented by the Universe!

The Ancients understood this essential reality. Theirs was a society based on establishing a society on Earth that reflected the harmonious which is expressed in Heaven, the celestial realm of the Sky. They made a commitment to uphold the traditions of the First Time, the moment of creation, when all the eternal harmonic laws of the Cosmos were established. Theirs was a continuous commitment to attain the insight and the wisdom of the force behind the creation of the Universe and in the process preserve and protect the harmonic conditions on earth.

Since the time of the Ancients, the Earth has descended into a dark age. We have lost the knowledge and insight which the Ancients left us; we have descended into the age of ignorance and greed. However, remnants of this wisdom exist in the cultures of dominated peoples of the Earth.

Slavery and Racial Discrimination are but two of the fruits of the shackles of ignorance and greed. Others include: the existence of an economic system that enslaves over 6 Billion people on Earth for the benefit of a negligible few; the transfer of the collective wealth of the Earth into the hands of the privileged few (people/countries); the destruction of habitats for all life forms on Earth, Ethnic cleansing, suppression and abuse of women, the erection of artificial barriers to prevent the realization of the dreams of certain people to mention just a few.

We are called, on this momentous occasion, to be resolute in our resolve; that we will inaugurate an era to reclaim our birth right as citizens of the Universe; that we will transform the systems of the world into ones of trusteeship of the planet. That, the night of our ignorance will usher us into crossing the bridge into the day of enlightenment and wisdom on Earth.

As we renew this resolve, we must remember that the competing view point will try to frustrate our mission. President Lydon B. Johnson described this process the best in an address to the US Congress on March 15, 1965, as he sought passage of the Civil Rights Bill to give Blacks the right to vote:
“Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument: every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to insure that right. Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.
Every device of which human ingenuity is capable, has been used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists and, if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name, or because he abbreviated a word on the application. And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of state law.
And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write. For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin. Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books, and I have helped to put three of them there, can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. In such a case, our duty must be clear to all of us.”

President Lydon B. Johnson
“We Shall Overcome” Speech to Congress
March 15, 1965

We must convert the obstacles placed in our way into stepping stones to forge our ascension to the glorious height of life that we seek on Earth. We must be audacious in conceiving the pathway to its realization. We must not surrender to convenient but debased formats which will shipwreck our drive to the destination we seek; a world in which togetherness and common interest propagates, a world in which our energies are directed at realizing the fruit of the Glorious Earth!

How do we proceed from where we are at present? Realizing that our software and controlling systems are obsolete, we must surrender to the tides of the emergent but ancient reality.

We need to re-educate ourselves about the miraculous expression of creation. How is it that the Universe and for that matter our planet is what it is? Entering into this realm of understanding requires the establishment of a new format in education. One that is different than the existing system which is based on the reckless exploitation of the resources of Earth, humans included! The new system will have as its goal the attainment the principles of harmonious Earth. This will arrest our drive towards the precipice and self destruction.

In every hamlet of our world, we must mobilize those who presently share in this objective. We must institute permanent institutions which will mobilize our collective strength and serve as forums to propagate our view of the Glorious Earth. They will also serve as beacons for our world. It is through this congregation of our collective energy that we will show our world the glimpses of a different but Glorious Earth.

Some of our programs will include celebrations of cultural diversity and processes promoting togetherness, trusteeship of earth and all life forms. We must also transform our economic system into one that reflects the economic system of the Universe; one in which we take what we need while preserving the integrity of the Earth.

Already there exist many organizations around the world who share in the vision of a Glorious Earth! Though fragmented in their orientation, collectively they are working for the realization of this vision. Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Cultural Survival, Sierra Club are but a few of these organizations. We need to bring these organizations together to harness their collective power into a transformative resource for our world.

Underlying these groups is the 6 billion voices of our planet; the ones who bear the burden born of greed and ignorance. The hidden strength of the 6 billion voices will be unleashed into transforming our world into a paradise for all. This hidden strength can change all processes on Earth; from addressing issues of the environment, changing the economic system into one facilitating both the realization of the potential of people on Earth while maintaining our trusteeship of the planet.

As a ten year old African boy, I had occasion to perceive that the ways of the world were debased. As a young man in Canada, I experienced discrimination because I married an Italian Canadian. That marriage ended a few years later.

As a professional, I experienced the glass ceiling effect. As an entrepreneur, I encountered the falsehood of the promise society has made to minorities: that you will have access to the tools for your self realization if you attain higher education coupled with the necessary experience and superlative record. Having met all the conditions, I came face to face with the ultimate deception of this invocation.

Having recovered from this nightmarish experience, I am guided by the resolve forged in the critical moment of insight as a ten year old African boy. I have unmasked the ways of the systems of the world as they exist at present.

I am resolved, as I was at the age of ten, to finish my passage on Earth fostering and promoting frameworks for the attainment of the Glorious Earth. The seeds for this realization are around us; laying on the sand of time awaiting the commencement of the rainy season.

This rainy season is here now!

This occasion of remembrance is a milestone in the inauguration of the rainy season.

The seeds have felt the onset of the long expected rainy season. The process of their new expression and unfoldment has begun. In time the buds will come, then the flowering and finally the fruits of their experience will be served to both those who desire to eat and those who need to plant for the next harvest.

May this occasion focus our insight and creativity! May we rise to the call of this remembrance.

May God Bless you in your deliberations!

T. Kofi Hadjor
The Serpent Bearer
www.universeafrica.com]]> Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:44:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500913 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500253
Of the worldwide commemorations, Earth Day is the one which best focuses our attention on perennial questions which have faced all generations of humans:
Who made the Universe? How come our World is what it is? What is the purpose of life and thus our responsibility in this marvelous expression of the supreme creative force?

Everywhere you look, you come face to face with these ever present but silent and invisible questions. A walk in the woods or the ravines of our communities
(in the quiet and serene environment) brings you face to face with these questions. The present tenuous situation on Earth further heightens your desire to understand and in the process seek out new pathways to preserve and protect the original intent of creation.

Earth Day, accords us the opportunity to reflect on these perennial questions and renew our resolve to preserve and protect conditions for bio-diversity on the Glorious Earth.

The Unfolding of the Eternal Mystery:

The eternal mystery of the Earth and the life forms on the planet can be summarized as follows:

Everywhere you look you cannot help but be marveled. The different forms and stages of manifestation are before your gaze; facilitated by the air, the waters, the land and the Sun. Acting in concert, the four forms of matter mold and provide a platform for life to unfold. The different species of animals and vegetation populate this platform, the Earth. Within both the platform and its population, the unstoppable wheel of creation surges forward.

As this goes on, the platform, the Earth, is also surging forward, unstoppable in its prescribed journey around the Sun. Similarly, the Sun undertakes its quarter of a billion years journey around the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy also continues this symphony of expression; moving around the Great Attractor represented by the Virgo Super Cluster of galaxies. This process of harmonic integration and motion continues throughout the Universe!

The prescription for this symphonic expression was specified at the First Time, Zep Tepi, the moment of creation. The preservation of this elegant expression requires the system to operate within the specified limits, the Covenant. Any excursions out of the zone of harmonious expression of life will trigger a bitter harvest as the system adjusts to return to the zone of harmonious expression.

We are all born of this eternal dance of creation. We are called to journey into the Consciousness of the supreme force of creation; to grow into the wisdom of its ways and prescriptions, to become one with it! This is the ultimate fruit of Life; to return into the eternal Cosmic Ocean of the Universe!

Deviations from the Covenant

The descent into ignorance and greed has characterized our recent history spanning two millennium. As we deviated from the path of the Covenant, we lost touch with the frameworks which the Ancients left us.

Unlike the Ancients who saw themselves as trustees of the First Time, we do things because it is possible for us to do them; because it is convenient to do so and not because it is the wisest thing to do. Our decisions are made without a deep assessment of the corollary effects. Consequently, we plant the seeds which yield a bitter harvest in future.

This philosophy and way of life has infected all our processes of relating to each other including governance, economic system - from production to exchange, religious and legal institutions to mention just a few. No doubt, we act as though our world is a limitless garbage dump; assaulted and defiled unceasingly with the limitless garbage of our lives! Stewardship of the planet is an after thought to desire for paper treasures. The current challenges facing our world flow from this modus operandi.

The Way Forward

Our mentality is in need of transmutation, moving from our toddler framework to a transcendental framework.

The journey begins with hearing the call from the Universe and answering it!

Communicating in silence, without uttering a word, the Earth/Universe (and everything in it), poses a series of questions; the consequences of which is to effect our initiation into its deeper mysteries:

Do you know me? Do you know why I take the form you see? Do you know that I am related to all things around me, including you? Do you know the pathways and bridges between me and all things? Do you know I am you and you are me? Do you know that I am all things and all things are me? Can you read what I have written? Do you understand my message to those yet unborn? Do you thirst to attain this insight of Eternity? To get this insight, are you prepared to surrender to me? Are you willing to repudiate all you know to attain the wisdom of Eternity?

Such is the nature of the dilemma each one of us faces.

To surrender all that you have and possess (physical and mental); to empty yourself of all you have acquired to date. Then, to begin the long and difficult journey to reclaim your essential birthright as citizen of the Universe!

With the awakened consciousness, when you become one with the Universe, you become a Trustee of the Universal Tradition of Zep Tepi.

The Ancients acquired this wisdom. They left us with the frameworks for attaining the realm of the Supra Humans! They documented them via many mediums. Collectively, they are called the cosmological traditions (elements of which exist to varying degrees) in many indigenous cultures of the world. They provide an integrated understanding of the matrix of universal processes, the pathways to their revelation and attainment.

The medium for documenting the sacred insight include sacred texts, hand woven textiles, art forms, symbols, carvings, music, oral and written stories etc. This is further augmented by rituals, remembrances and celebrations. Collectively they initiate the members of the community into ways of preserving the harmonic conditions for life on Earth.

Drawing from the template used by the Universe, the Ancient Masters mapped out a ubiquitous system for communicating the essential wisdom to those yet unborn. The transmitted knowledge was captured in their symbols and designs; structure of their stories etc.

The Activation of the Real Treasure of Humankind

This is the real treasure of Humankind; awaiting discovery, activation and application in guiding us to the destination of a Glorious Earth. And this is the prophecy of all spiritual traditions; the time on Earth when all beings will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, the Creator and Master of the Universe!

On attaining this supreme height, you are forever free from the shackles of ignorance and the labyrinths of the debased systems of the world.

No longer are you susceptible to the seductions of the perverse ways on Earth!
No longer are you willing to trade your birthright and allegiances to impostors on Earth!
No longer are you willing to enslave others, desecrate and defile the Earth and all its inhabitants!
But you will be called on to shepherd those who are stranded along on the pathway to the revelation of Eternity!

Just imagine the possibilities of life on Earth in such an exalted state of being!

The Buds of the Tree of Wisdom

In December, we crossed the bridge from the longest night of winter; we have now entered the growing light of spring. We are on our way to rendezvous with the exalted state of the Summer Solstice and the longest day of the year.

This movement from darkness into light is symbolic of the journey of Humankind from ignorance to the exalted states of the Supra Humans.

We have entered the darkest night of the winter of our ignorance! Like the weather outside, we are approaching the spring of our awakening! The feedback from the Earth will awaken us from our sleep of ignorance and greed.

And when that spring takes full effect as it is now, we will know that our winter of ignorance is passed. We shall witness the return of the buds of the Tree of Wisdom.
Like now, Humankind will start their migration from mentalities which are on their death bed into the embrace of the emergent yet ancient reality.

Embracing the Universe!

As you walk on the pathways in the woods this spring, take the time to witness the unfolding of the eternal mystery of creation. Take the next four month to watch the movie of the unfolding revelation; the buds, the leaves, then the flowers, the fruits and finally the harvest.

Take the time to reflect on the hidden message expressed by the trees and shrubs. Contemplate what drives their expression.

You will enter into the world of the little ones which reside in all things and do the heaviest work of all; making sure that everything works as planned by our Creator!
And ask yourself why you are not doing the same as the congregation of little ones which make the Universe function in its harmonious ways.

Reflect on the ever present invitation the Universe extends to you; to enter into its embrace!

Any lasting effort of dealing with the challenges facing our world begins with entering into this embrace and surrendering to the dictates of Eternity and the Cosmic Ocean!

For as it was in the beginning, so shall it be forever and ever!



T. Kofi Hadjor
The Serpent Bearer
www.universeafrica.com


]]> Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:31:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500253 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500249
Avoiding the call of today, just postpones the initiation we must embrace to facilitate our ascension to a Higher office. We must submit to this initiation if we are to receive the grandest gift we seek from our Creator!

Live today, embrace all that is in you path. They have been sent to prepare you for the Higher Purpose your Creator has waiting for you!

Let us Dance the Dance of Possibilities; for in so doing all the things which are disguised as storms and challenges in our lives will carry us to the destination we seek - the Abode of Stillness and Bliss, Inside the Eye of the Hurricane of Existence, the Abode of the Citizens of the Universe!

Let us dance the Dance of Creation and reclaim our Universal Heritage!

Kofi
The Serpent Bearer
]]> Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:21:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/500249 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/499389
We shall then map out the pathways to this realization for those who yearn to achieve the crossing into this realm.
]]> Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:05:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/499389 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/498209
Abstract:

Out of The Blue comes The Bolt of Lightning
Screeching Halt, Turbulence,

Loss of Control, Dislocation, Staggered, Overwhelmed, Abandonment, Stress, Suicidal Thoughts,

Into The Whirlpool, Cross Currents, Tidal Waves,
Abandonment, Rejections and Betrayal of Trust, Into The Cold and Into the Furnace,

The Life Guards, The Rescuers, The Refuge, The Shelter,
Into The Midst of “Strangers”

The First Transition – Your New Life, Riding The Roller Coaster
The New Paradigm – The Spartan Life - Living With Less
Tools Kit for Survival In The Darkest Cave,

Taking Stock of Your Life, Survival, Plotting the Comeback,
Finding Your Way Out of The Abyss, Selling Your Soul,
Groping for The Dark and Invisible Path Out of The Labyrinth,
Murmurs of Healing, Bouts of Relapses and Recoveries,

Living in The Moment, One Day At a Time,
The Descent Into The Silence,
The Oasis in The Desert and Frozen Tundra,
Learning To Trust Again.
The Barriers and Walls,

The Treacherous Crossing to Healing
Embracing The Experience,
The Long Trek Across The Barrens,
Rebirth and New Beginnings,
The Second Paradigm - The Archetype of The Survivor

The Return From The Underworld, With Different Values,
New Eyes, New Understanding and A New Life Purpose and

Mission.
Five Key Words: Sudden Dislocation, Safe Harbor, Healing Path.
By
©Tetteh Kofi Hadjor
The Initiate
December 16, 2004]]> Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:24:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/498209 http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/498207

Three Thousand Days In The Wilderness: A Spiritual Journey Through Homelessness!
By
T. Kofi Hadjor, MBA

Story Teller, Poet and Dynamic Public Speaker, T. Kofi Hadjor will share with listeners his personal experience in and out of homelessness.

After emigrating from Ghana to Canada in his early 20s, Kofi earned a MBA, worked as a Chartered Accountant on Bay Street and served on the Board of Governors of the University of Guelph and the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy.

In 1986 he founded a business management services company with over 400 clients in the creative industries.

Kofi was also a frequent Guest speaker on “Professional Practice Management” at Professional Conventions, on “Self Employment and Empowerment” at Colleges and Universities; on “Strategic Management” in Non Profit and Charitable Organizations.

In 1998, precipitated by critical traumatic events, Kofi he experienced the loss of his 8000 square foot home and begun “A Spiritual Journey through Homelessness”. For over 3000 Days, Kofi lived in “the Eye of The Hurricane of Emotional Turbulence” and explored The Inner World of the Homeless Experience. This experiential exploration he has summarized in his Poem “The Bridge to The Coming of Day – The Return of the Initiate.”

His new life mission, Kofi explains, is to be “A Voice for the Voiceless”.

Starting January 2006, Kofi takes his “Homelessness In The Classroom Project” on a Lecture Tour of Schools, Colleges, Universities and Community Associations.

Entitled “Embracing The Winter of Life”©, the Homelessness In The Classroom Project© educates and mobilizes the Canadian community to support the Homeless with opportunities for self- restoration and educate the public about dealing with catastrophic life events that trigger sudden dislocation and the emotional turbulence of Life.

In 2006, Kofi founded Green Pastures Society, a not-for-profit corporation specializing in Financial Advocacy for the Poor including Students, the Homeless, Vulnerable workers, Low-income families, Seniors and individuals by improving access to public, private, and non-profit programs and services.



His audiece will gain important insight into the inner world of the homeless experience that can inform policy and research.

The following is an excerpt from his poem, “The Bridge to the Coming of Day – The Return of The Initiate.”

“Out of the Blue comes the bolt of lightning Secreeching halt, loss of control, dislocation Abandonment…..sucidal thoughts.

Into the whirlpool, cross currents, tidal waves. Into the cold and into the furnance.

The Lifeguards, the Rescuers, the Refuge, the Shelter; Into the misdst of “Strangers.”

The first transition into your new life – Riding the Rollercoaster.

The new paradigm - the Spartan Life!

Gathering tools for survival in the darkest cave.

Plotting the comeback.

Groping for the dark and invisible path out of the labyrinth.

Selling your Soul…..”



Contact Information


T. Kofi Hadjor, BA, B.Comm, MBA
Founder/Research Director

Green Pastures Society

Voice of the Voiceless!

Serving the Poor through Financial Advocacy, Education and
Strategic Management Services for Agencies serving The Poor


E-Mail: greenpasturessociety@yahoo.ca

Website: www.greenpasturessociety.org]]> Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:16:00 EDT http://zircorn.tigblog.org/post/498207