AMY ON PEOs

Amy has been with me for over two years now so she knows all the stuff I've been proselytizing about EFAs (now PEOs), carbohydrates, and more. Amy is also pregnant. And Amy, being the intelligent, caring mother that she is really wants to make a concerted effort to give her future child the best possible chance for a healthy life. Smart gal, that Amy!

She asked me a question in PM, and there was also a discussion over on Stefnee's blog about whether the EFAs are "safe" for pregnant parents. So I started to reply over on Stefnee's blog and it went on and on and on... And then I realized I should just put it here for anyone interested to read in the blog rather than as a run on comment (after all, people expect run on blogs from Cammy, right?)

First, please head over to Stefnee's Weekly Blog of Rock/ Gratitude / Thanks to Cam! to catch up on this dialogue (the comments are all essential, so please read them). When done there, please come back and continue reading as this is my reply that I had typed where it now says, "blog for Amy coming up. Damn."

Ready? Let's lactate & loll!

Yes, they are calling them PEOs now because the goddamn nutrition and health industry started labeling everything as EFAs to get on the marketing bandwagon. And they messed up again! EFAs are ESSENTIAL fatty acids, meaning that you need them, but you cannot make them in your body. But now they are calling DHA, EPA, and all of the Omega 6 and Omega 3 fatty acid DERIVATIVES EFAS as well and messing the consumer up! Our bodies CAN MAKE all of the derivatives, so they are not essential.

Thus, Brian Peskin who developed the PEOs from Y.E.S. Supplements based on over 100 years of science on the subjects, wanted to change the name to PARENT ESSENTIAL OILS (PEOs) because the PARENT Omega 6 and PARENT Omega 3s are the ONLY ones we need. From them we NATURALLY Make the rest in the quantities we need. You can visit Brian Peskin's page which has links to lots of research (that I have read in the past 10 years and have on my computer in word format....) Everyone connected to me taking EFAs (now PEOs) are taking these and you can ask them individually for their results if you wish, or you can start doing the years of reading it takes to put the pieces of the puzzle together (which is why doctors don't get it - they don't have time!).

Amy - YES! You SHOULD be taking the PEOs during pregnancy because ... well, if you have read all of the blogs I've written about them, you'll understand (but you may have zoned out over the past two years like SOMEBODY ELSE I KNOW WHO YADDAYADDAd me.... *smooch*). I didn't port them over to Multiply so for anyone who wants to read them, you will need to go to my http://360.yahoo.com/camswitzer page, and click on the EFA, Carbohydrate, Cancer, etc. Tag Clouds. From there you can read yourself to sleep... forever!

Anyway, here it is in a nutshell for you, OK? (ha! reading over this I laugh at my own "in a nutshell" comment because it has become an entire blog!! And I thought I gave up writing health blogs!)

1) Our brains, our nerve synapses, are cell walls, our skin, basically everything are made of lipids (fatty acids). In order to make these, the body requires the parent fatty acids which we can only get by eating them.

2) Without them, it has been shown that ADD/ADHD increases, skin psoriasis diseases increases, brain function decreases, nerve response decreases, asthma increases, anger increases, motor function skills decrease, and more.

3) When you give birth (which you have .. twice I think?) you basically give all of your nutrients to the foetus. And then you give them MORE through mother's milk (unless of course you fed them cow's milk, and then you were giving them mother cow hormones... which likely was not such a good thing for us at that most delicate time to tell the truth - but nobody thought about that back then; they just told our parents that milk was good for us - goddamn (sorry Stefnee's religious brother!) milk board!). By the time this was all done, your body was pretty much "spent" (and not in a sexually enjoyable way). Do you recall your hair? Your skin? Your overall health and energy levels? I don't know shit about parenting, but unless I am mistaken, most moms probably are so depleted by the time they wean their babies that their bodies are on the verge of physical collapse in many areas.

4) Now realize that we cannot get the essential oils from foods in sufficient quantities to replenish our "empty PEO resources". Even if we eat lots of food, we are told to cook it well, heat it, etc. and guess what? Those essential oils are EXTREMELY heat sensitive, meaning they break down and become useless.

5) So moms go through the years deficient in the essential fatty acids they need and all at the same time they start eating "healthier" which according to our healthcare and gov and nutritional institutions, was LESS natural fats, LESS meats, LESS eggs, LESS cheeses (where we have at least the potential to GET PEOs), and more grains (which are COMPLETELY useless to our physiology), more vegetables (which our body cannot break down), more fruit (i.e. sugars), etc. We also start sucking back tons of junk food that is loaded with adulterated fats that are DAMAGING to our body and love to attach to the PEO receptors and prevent the REAL PEOs from getting where they need to go. Hence, illnesses have skyrocketed in the past 50 years.

6) Then you get pregnant and have another child. Your body is basically now a wasteland, a desert void of any PEOs that you can give to your newest child in any quantity that will make a difference. You give birth to your beautiful baby and they start life from a deficient stage, where they have now a high chance of immunodeficiency diseases, food allergy weaknesses, skin diseases, attention and learning disorders, anger issues, and various other diseases. Sounds a lot like the kids of today, doesn't it?

7) Summary: If you boost up your essential fatty acids in your body (the parent omega 6 and parent omega 3) while you are pregnant, your body will once again have the nutrition to feed the embryo, the foetus, and eventually the baby through your breastfeeding (which is extremely essential - don't give up on that early at all, even if it hurts like hell because you will be depriving your child from all the future health benefits they get from the nutrients you are supposed to share).

But then again, what do I know about this stuff? I've never even dabbed a bottle nipple against my wrist to check the temperature of the stuff, let alone raise a child!

Regarding literature... I think you would have to do all the reading I have done, and all the puzzle piecing I have done in order to see the whole picture. This is why 99% of the people don't get it. You COULD go to Khanada Taylor's The Science of Health Index and read every single article there. In fact, I highly recommend it. There you will find all of the addresses to all of the research that Brian's EFA/PEOs are based upon. It will blow you away. But if you REALLY want to do it right, then for the next little while put away your Jackie Collins' books, or your Golden Compass Series, or your Stephen Hawkins Books on Physics & Black holes, and head over here every single day to read as much as you possibly can. On top of that, all of the medical journals are listed as well, so if you find any that are absolutely fascinating or want to read yourself, you can copy the address and head over to the library to see if you can dig the journals up.

I hope this helps out with "links" as this is the only way I can suggest helping you to get "eddicated". But start soon because every day you give your future baby the essential nutrients it needs, that is one day of added health, intelligence and happiness you are providing!

Thank you for asking, and I hope this reply to you will meet your needs. If there is anything else I can do to be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. I promise you will not get "voice mail hell" when you contact the Camster!

And yes, PLEASE start the PEOs as soon as you possibly can! My recommendation is to CALL Khanada at YES Supplements (the number is on the website). Tell her who you are. Tell her you know me. Tell her you know Stefnee. Tell her you know Jenny. Tell her you know Paula and tell her that you really want to get started on these ASAP. Don't just be another "number in the system" by ordering through their website. You are SPECIAL! Go direct to the source. Khanada is absolutely fantastic (if a bit harried at work because she does everything there) and will take care of you! Ask for her directly. Her name is pronounced, kuh-NAY-duh.

I love you, Amy! Thanks for giving me the opportunity to get my brain rolling again first thing in the morning!

Oh, damn! I have to take the garbage out! Gotta run!!!

Cam

Covert operation finally exposes Taiji's annual dolphin horror

Let's see if THIS finally makes the Japanese, who tend to completely avoid any discussion regarding their country's fishing methods, squirm in their own nets, and take up a more global stance on methodologies of fishing. I wonder if it will even get to show here... Cam

Covert operation finally exposes Taiji's annual dolphin horror

By Boyd Harnell
Special to The Japan Times
Sunday, March 30, 2008

For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation.

OPS filming team leader Louie Psihoyos (foreground, above)
and assistant director Charles Hambleton in camouflage overlooking
Taiji's "killing cove," where whalers (below) haul dolphins
aboard their boat from the blood-red sea. OPS PHOTOS 

The secret filming by members of the U.S. conservation group Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) — equipped with state-of-the-art technology and financed to the tune of $5 million by Netscape founder Jim Clark — is being turned into a major documentary feature film destined for worldwide release this summer (although distribution in Japan is at present not certain).

The story of how this film of the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins was made — together with the resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content — is told here, exclusively, for the first time anywhere in print.

The footage of the annual seven-month dolphin "drive fisheries" (as they are known in Japan), and of the brutal practices involved in them — as well as the complicity in the killings by various dolphin trainers and officials from Taiji Whale Museum — is sure to shock the world. But whether Japanese people themselves will be able to see the film and arrive at their own conclusions is still by no means certain.

The annual dolphin slaughter at Taiji, a town with a population of some 3,500 in the beautiful Yoshino Kumano Kokuritsu Koen national park, follows a regular pattern.

First, hunter boats from the Taiji Isana Union (numbering at most 13 skiffs, with two crewmen each) head out to sea and surround pods of dolphins or pilot whales (which are actually large dolphins). Then they drive them into a "capture cove" by banging on long metal bell-ended poles placed in the water to disrupt the dolphins' sonar, causing them to become completely disorientated and panic.

After these animals have spent a night supposedly relaxing in the netted-off capture cove (in an attempt by the whalers to make their meat more tender), they are driven to the neighboring "killing cove." There, behind huge blue tarps strung across the cove to keep prying eyes away — in much the same way that Japanese police cordon off crime scenes — the dolphins meet their gruesome predawn end.

It is a gory spectacle that Taiji has long striven to keep anyone from seeing — and one that is crucially fueled by the lucrative, worldwide dolphin captivity and display industry. Aquarium operators, some of whom have claimed to be saving dolphins' lives by selecting a few as performers, pay up to $150,000 per animal.

The brutal selection process, though — as shown in the OPS footage — causes many of these highly intelligent marine mammals to die of shock or drown.

Meanwhile, cruelty apart, the government-sanctioned slaughter is widely condemned by Japanese scientists, activists and a few Taiji officials, who all cite the serious health issues related to consumption of the dolphins' mercury-tainted meat.

A baby dolphin leaps to its death on rocks (above) after its mother is killed,
and a whaler (below) hauls in another speared victim. OPS PHOTOS

One of the officials OPS filmed was Taiji City Councilman Junichiro Yamashita, who organized certified tests on local dolphin meat bought from retail outlets in the town. The shocking test results revealed mercury and methylmercury levels that were 30 and 16 times, respectively, above advisory levels set by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. As a result, Yamashita hastily distributed newsletters to Taiji residents warning them to avoid consuming the meat — which he called "toxic waste."

Although a massive blackout of this long-standing butchery of small cetaceans is aided by an apparent self-imposed boycott of the subject by Japan's vernacular and other English-language media, this newspaper has published a 2 1/2-year-long series of exposes that have won it two international press awards from the Humane Society of the United States.

Now, though, the focus is on the meticulously planned $2.5-million covert operation — the cost of which is estimated to double by the time of the film's projected release in June.

From their base in Boulder, Colorado, the OPS group made six trips to Wakayama Prefecture, where they were constantly followed by local police and stalked and harassed by Taiji "whalers." Despite this, their mission was successful. Their high-tech film gear was covertly inserted in the "killing cove" and extracted 16 times thanks to the efforts of the film's assistant director, Charles Hambleton, and three members of the OPS team. Their hidden, high-definition (HD) cameras successfully recorded the horror that unfolded behind Taiji's blue tarps. And what they saw was beyond their belief.

Captured dolphins were filmed writhing in pain as Taiji whalers speared them repeatedly or cracked their spines with spiked weapons. Stricken dolphins are also shown thrashing about wildly, blood pouring from their wounds until they finally succumbed. Meanwhile, a number of dolphin trainers and officials from the Taiji Whale Museum are shown cooperating in the slaughter — some even laughing — as the killing cove's bloodied, ruby-red water swept round into the adjacent capture cove.

But perhaps the most iconic scene is one in which a baby dolphin leaps to its death on the rocks after its mother is killed. This really was a surreal and incredibly sad sight to see.

OPS team leader Louie Psihoyos, a world-renowned photographer formerly with National Geographic Magazine, and members of his group, conducted the extraordinary covert operation with the daring elan and minute precision of a military-style, special-forces mission.

With funding from billionaire conservationist Clark, the team was able to use the most sophisticated equipment money could buy. Among their weapons of choice were a battery of HD cameras. Some of those cameras were encased in fake rocks sculpted out of high-density foam by movie-model makers with Kerner Optical (formerly George "Star Wars" Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic Shop). These disguised cameras were strat- egically positioned inside the killing cove.

Members of a multi-national pro-surfer group at Taiji last October,
where — despite harassment by whalers — they formed a prayer circle of protest
in the waters of the "killing cove" where dolphins were being speared. OPS PHOTO

Also included in the formidable lineup of high-tech gear for this covert operation were standard-size HD cameras, $50,000 military-grade HD forward-looking infrared (FLIR) P-645 thermal cameras (to detect anyone the whalers had on lookout); hydrophones and HD underwater cameras (to record the dolphins' underwater throes); unmanned gyro-stabilized helicopters; a number of "shotgun" microphones disguised as tree branches; walkie-talkies; and a host of ancillary equipment.

The mission objective was to produce a well-balanced, full-length documentary feature for general worldwide release encompassing all facets of the Taiji dolphin cull and its health risks.

"We succeeded," Psihoyos said, "but we also came back with an epic horror film resembling a Steven King novel more than a documentary."

Psihoyos emphasized that the film is neither anti-Japanese nor a "Japan-bashing" production.

In fact, the whole OPS Taiji odyssey (with backing from Clark) began in the winter of 2006. Then, Psihoyos says, "My assistant director, Charles Hambleton, and I had a seven-hour meeting at the mayor's office with Taiji town officials about making a movie of their town.

"An official, who represented Mayor Kazutaka Sangen, said they were concerned about Westerners showing blood in the cove — that it gave the town an evil look."

Psihoyos says he told the officials he would not show blood in his film — if they allowed him to position two cameras at the entrance to the cove and to interview the whalers. After mulling it over, though, both officials and whalers cut off contact with Psihoyos and denied him permission to film near the cove. As well, they demanded that he should restrict footage showing blood — apparently fearful that barbarous images may lead to their drive hunts being banned.

Entrails and internal organs of dolphins killed in "drive fisheries"
and then brought to land for butchering lie unsuccessfully hidden
from view on the floor of the slaughterhouse in Taiji adjacent to
the "killing cove" there. BOYD HARNELL PHOTO

In this volatile atmosphere, local police warned the whalers and their supporters off any repeat of violence or threats of violence such as had happened before. In fact, Nigel Barker, a former Australian resident in Taiji, says he was threatened with bodily harm for providing The Japan Times with details of the whalers' brutal methods. In another incident, Psihoyos said he, too, was threatened by whalers, who said, "We will kill you."

Amazingly, though, after their talks broke down and the OPS people were leaving their final meeting with Taiji town officials, they were given a detailed map of Taiji, red-lining areas where filming was restricted. This map became a precious tool for planning the group's covert ops over the next year.

Now the gloves were off. No agreement had been made with the officials and Psihoyos immediately planned a thorough reconnaissance of the Taiji area. Precise vantage points were selected to position their cameras. Several camouflaged camera blinds were set up on the headland adjacent to the Whale Museum that overlooks the killing cove. But their major challenge was figuring out how to insert and extract their "rock cameras," underwater cameras, hydrophones and hidden microphones without being detected.

Psihoyos contacted Ric O'Barry, who captured and trained dolphins for the 1960s TV series "Flipper," asking for his help in detailing the whalers' routine during drive hunts.

O'Barry, head of the international Save Japan Dolphins coalition, had monitored the drives in Taiji for more than five years, and he agreed to be the point man for OPS. O'Barry was already hated by the whalers for his activities, including bringing the media to Taiji to film the brutal drives. In fact, he tells how whalers greet him with throat-cutting gestures when they see him there.

Following O'Barry's advice, the OPS group implemented their high-risk strategy for filming the covert mission. As the two headlands overlooking the killing cove were constantly monitored by whalers, members faced the loss of expensive gear and possible arrest. That was despite Japanese attorneys telling them that the legality of blocking access to a national park was questionable. They said, though, that police "made up their own rules" in enforcing the blockade.

Ric O'Barry, trainer of the dolphins for the 1960s TV series "Flipper,"
and head of the Save Japan Dolphins coalition, wears a video-vest
in Tokyo's hip Shibuya district showing graphic images
of dolphins being killed in Taiji. 

The OPS group was headquartered in hotel rooms in the area, where their missions were planned and piles of pricey equipment occupied most of the space. Two vans were rented to haul their weighty gear to their target locations. Another small, unobtrusive rental car driven by OPS member Joe Chisholm was used for scouting — mostly for monitoring the Taiji harbor area to check if drive boats were out. Chisholm also kept an eye on the roads to detect whether police were following the group. Altogether, the incredible challenges of making this film elevated it to a major undertaking on a scale never before attempted.

Throughout this buildup period, drive fisheries were being conducted during daylight. If the whalers were successful, captured dolphins would be trapped in the holding cove sealed off with nets. Before daybreak the next day, men in motorboats would herd the panicked animals into the killing cove of no return.

The horror of the dolphins' final moments there were recorded not only by the "rock cameras" above the waterline, but also from below by using underwater microphones and an underwater "blood-cam" HD camera devised by OPS high-tech guru Simon Hutchins, which yielded graphic footage of the sea slowly turning red as the killings continued.

To make this possible, OPS called on Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, a seven-time world free-diving champion, and her famed coach and husband, Kirk Krack, to plant the devices. (Cruikshank recently broke her own world record by free-diving down to 88 meters and back in 2 min. 48 sec.) Both eagerly accepted the risky challenge.

"Good to go Mandy," crackled through the two-way. It was 3 a.m. The OPS support group on land had just completed a thermal-imaging sweep of the capture and killing coves. No security was detected. As the OPS van dropped the two off above the holding cove's small beach, and sped away, the free-diving pair, clad in wet suits, entered the water. The moon was full, helping them to see obstacles.

"Tensions were high . . . we had to get around a barbed-wire fence and hike down over some boulders to get into the water," Mandy said. "Then we swam around to the killing cove. It was about 40 feet (12 meters) deep. We had an underwater camera and hydrophone, and we used a flashlight to get a reference point so we knew where to retrieve them from after we made a reconnaissance, but we had to turn it on and off quickly to escape detection. Then Kirk and I put down the devices fairly easily."

On their return to the beach in the holding cove, Cruickshank said, "We saw a car going into the parking lot, so we hid in bushes until they left and then we waited for the van to pick us up."

Before that mission and again afterward, she said, "We were constantly monitored by police."

A few days later, Cruikshank said that from that same beach in the capture cove they saw a pod of 40 herded round to the killing cove, where the slaughter began. "They had separated the babies, some only as big as my arm, and then the emerald water in front of us began to turn red and you could hear the dolphins screaming. One stabbed dolphin tried to escape, and it made it over two nets from the killing cove and was heading toward the beach in the capture cove with blood streaming from it. We saw the last two breaths it took — it was impossible not to cry.

"The babies were led out to sea and were either killed or set free to die of starvation," she said.

Meanwhile, Psihoyos' team was embedded in their camera blinds on overlooking hillsides, sometimes for as long as 17 hours a day. Dressed in full camouflage gear and wearing face paint, they looked like military sniper teams. Black masking tape covered reflective surfaces on their cameras to avoid detection. For over 3 1/2 weeks, the OPS team survived on a daily ration of 3 hours' sleep. When filming from the camera blinds, they subsisted on energy bars and water. Whaler security men, always wary of outsiders monitoring their hunts, constantly scanned the high terrain, the bushes and undergrowth surrounding the two coves, their flashlights searching for intruders. 

Fake rocks to disguise hidden cameras are sculpted out of foam (above) at Kerner Optical
in California (formerly George "Star Wars" Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic Shop);
world free-diving champion Mandy-Rae Cruickshank (below), who, together with her husband
Kirk Krack (below, in thermal-image photo) secretly positioned many of the high-tech
devices to record what happens in Taiji's "killing cove," OPS PHOTOS 

 

Psihoyos recounted his attempt in setting up the initial camera blind in a spot overlooking the killing cove.

"It was a moonless night and I had a full-size def (HD) camera in tow with a large tripod. I scaled a cliff and descended on a rope and perched on a shelf as big as an average office desk — but at a slope of about 30 degrees.

"I braced my feet against a small tree and didn't move them for the next 15 1/2 hours," he said, adding, "the lagoon was filled with pilot whales — they made a protective circle around their young. I shot frantic clips from my unstable perch as I saw whales killed and dragged away."

Reacting to these brutal scenes, Psihoyos recalled thinking, "If there's a god, don't let their lives be wasted in vain."

Originally, OPS's hidden rock cameras focused on the killing cove from surrounding headlands could only film for three hours, but a high-tech piece of kit they acquired "turbocharged" the batteries to allow them to film for 11 hours continuously, ensuring they would capture all facets of the cull.

The hidden microphones revealed startling comments from whalers in the killing cove, including one during the cleanup after a killing session, when a dead calf was on the beach in the killing cove. Countering the whalers' contention they never harmed a mother or its calf, one was heard saying: "Hey, that guy over there saw the dead calf, didn't he? Is it a problem?" His friend responded, "He came from the [whalers'] union — it's not a problem."

Indeed, contrary to their statements, the Taiji whalers seem unconcerned about killing female dolphins and their calves — as is graphically depicted in one of the film's sequences.

However, along with the film's horrific images, Psihoyos also interviews on camera Japanese scientists and others involved in the mercury health issues surrounding dolphin meat.

Dr. Shigeo Ekino, a prominent researcher from Kumamoto University's Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Kyushu, compared the high mercury levels found in contaminated fish in Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s during the world's worst mercury-pollution disaster, to levels of mercury currently found in dolphin meat.

Ekino, who was filmed holding a tested sample of Taiji dolphin meat, said: "This dolphin meat is 98.9 ppm (parts per million of total mercury) — which is higher than the level (of the fish and shellfish) in Minamata Bay. It's a clear danger!"

His sample was 247.25 times the Japanese health ministry's advisory level of 0.4 ppm for total mercury.

Tetsuya Endo, a professor at Hokkaido's Health Science University, also conducted mercury tests on dolphin meat, and his results were published in 2005. In a filmed OPS interview, he said: "I found 100 ppm of total mercury in . . . bottlenose dolphin and 2,000 ppm of total mercury in the liver of an unknown (dolphin) species. All of it was toxic." In fact, the higher figure was 5,000 times the health ministry's advisory level for mercury.

In another OPS interview, Psihoyos asked Hideki Moronuki, deputy director of the Far Seas Fisheries Division of the central government's Fisheries Agency, "How are the dolphins killed now? . . . and are the dolphins being dragged around by their tails during the selection process for captive specimens?"

Assistant director Charles Hambleton fits an HD camera
into a fake rock set to capture the "killing cove" killings. OPS PHOTO

Moronuki is filmed replying, "Fishermen are using specifically made knife (sic), and put it through the spine . . . most of the animals are killed instantly." As for allegations of them being dragged by their tails, he says, "That's not happening anymore."

When Psihoyos showed Moronuki a film clip of the inhumane, random spearing of dolphins while others were dragged by their tails — all filmed recently — he froze and told Psihoyos: "I have to instruct them again. They are using inappropriate method to treat dolphin."

At Psihoyos' request, Moronuki gave him a hair sample to be tested for mercury. The result: a readout of 5.874 ppm of total mercury, which is 14.68 times the health ministry's advisory level.

Moronuki's response was peculiar: "I was very happier to know that I have eaten so much fish which make me much healthier than meat-eating peoples."

Another dramatic highlight of the footage shows a surfer invasion in Taiji last October led by legendary Australian pro surfer Dave Rastovich, along with a few TV celebrities and some surfer buddies. They paddled into the cove where dolphins were being slaughtered and formed a prayer circle. Shocked by the atrocity, they finally retreated when whalers in skiffs came and prodded them with poles and sharp-hooked gaffs.

Producers of the OPS documentary are aiming for a worldwide release in June, including a special Japanese version creatively marketed and circulated to ensure maximum viewing even if major distributors turn it down. The film's narrator will be an actor selected from Hollywood's "A list," they said.

Referring to his hopes the film will benefit the dolphins, Psihoyos said: "Dolphins are the only wild animals known to rescue humans. With this film, we'd like to come to their rescue and, in the process, save ourselves."

Pointedly, just months before the surfers went into the killing cove at Taiji, their leader Dave Rastovich had survived a shark attack in Australia when a dolphin swam between him and the shark and allowed him to escape.

We welcome your opinions. Click to send a message to the editor.

Sharpen the Saw: Balance & Renewal

This is kind of a continuation from my previous blog, "Share Your Love, Gratitude & Appreciation Today" to explain a bit further Stephen Covey's "Sharpen the Saw" reference. For those of you who know this author and his books, feel free to pass by. But for the curious of heart who might wonder what that reference was all about, I will present you with a reasonable summary that I "borrowed" from the Net.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was a bit of a tedious book for me to read the first time around. It took Stephen Covey's important 7 Principles, and applied them to work. I actually put the book back on the shelf and left it there for a couple of years. When I picked it up the second time, it meant more to me, and therefore I was able to get a lot out of it.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families was much more enjoyable, and applicable to real life. Apparently Covey's wife gave him hell for being too "cut and dry" and for not giving enough real life examples. thus this book came around. I would recommend reading this one, and skipping "People" all together because Covey uses real examples that we can relate to in "Families" and the concepts can be applied to your private, or work life in an even better, more realistic way.

About three years ago I purchased The 8th Habit but have not yet gotten around to reading more than a couple dozen pages. It just came at the wrong time when I was strung out with all of my MBA reading and research for assignments. It is a book that I will be pulling out again, soon.

(Note: you can "Amazon" these to your heart's content to get more information on them, or order them if you like; I'll leave that up to you.)

In my previous blog, posted earlier today, I briefly mentioned Covey's Seventh, and in my opinion the most important Habit: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal. He discusses some important things we need to do to renew ourselves, or, as I put it in the last blog, to fill up the self-love tank to full again so that we can keep going and keep sharing our unconditional love with others in a way that is (and this is critical) meaningful to THEM.

(Note: Remember what Ganesha says: We all have ONLY the same 24 hours in a day. In order to add something new to your life, to your schedule, the only way to do this in a sustainable fashion is to take away some other activity. You may have to think about this, to determine what you can take away from your life, but if you think about it, the chances are, you will know what you can do without.)

Here is a reasonable summary of the Seventh Habit: Sharpen the Saw. Now don't forget to read between the lines here. It sounds lofty, and it is. This review is from an accountant's book review page, so it will have a "business slant". But see if you can pull something/anything out of it that makes sense to you in your life; even one thing that might make from this moment forward ... better.

I love you! - Cam

*****

Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal - Habit Seven

Suppose you came upon someone in the woods working to saw down a tree. They are exhausted from working for hours. You suggest they take a break to sharpen the saw. They might reply, " I didn't have time to sharpen the saw, I'm busy sawing!"

Habit 7 is taking the time to sharpen the saw. By renewing the four dimensions of your nature - physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional, you can work more quickly and effortlessly. To do this, we must be proactive. This is a Quadrant II (important, not urgent) activity that must be acted on. It's at the center of our Circle of Influence, so we must do it for ourselves.

The Physical Dimension.
The physical dimension involves caring for your physical body - eating the right foods, getting enough rest and relaxation, and exercising on a regular basis.

If we don't have a regular exercise program, eventually we will develop health problems. A good program builds your body's endurance, flexibility and strength. A new program should be started gradually, in harmony with the latest research findings.

The greatest benefit of taking care of yourself is development of your Habit 1 "muscles" of proactivity.

The Spiritual Dimension.
The spiritual dimension is your center, your commitment to your value system. It draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to timeless truths of humanity.

A doctor suggested that Covey try a four step prescription at three-hour intervals at his favorite place as a child. Listen carefully, try reaching back, examine your motives, and write your worries in the sand.

When we take time to draw on the leadership center of our lives, what life is ultimately all about, it spreads like an umbrella over everything else. This is why a personal mission statement is important.

The Mental Dimension.
It's important keep your mind sharp by reading, writing, organizing and planning. Read broadly and expose yourself to great minds.

Television is the great obstacle to mental renewal. Most of the programming is a waste of time.

Every day we should commit at least one hour to renewal in the first three dimensions: physical, mental, and spiritual. This practice is a "Daily Private Victory."

The Social/Emotional Dimension.
The physical, spiritual, and mental dimensions are closely related to Habits 1, 2 and 3: personal vision, leadership and management. The social/emotional dimension focuses on Habits 4, 5 and 6: the principles of personal leadership, empathetic communication and creative cooperation.

Our emotional life is primarily developed out of and manifested in our relationships with others. Renewing our social/emotional dimension requires focus and exercise in our interaction with others.

Success in Habits 4, 5 and 6 is not primarily a matter of intellect, but emotion; it's highly related to our sense of personal security. Intrinsic security comes from within, from accurate paradigms and correct principles deep in our own mind and heart. It comes from living a life of integrity, in which our daily habits reflect our deepest values.

There is also intrinsic security that comes as a result of effective interdependent living and from service, from helping other people in a meaningful way. Each day, we can serve another person by making deposits of unconditional love.

Scripting Others.
Most people are living in a reactive mode based on the social mirror. Their scripts are based on the opinions, prescriptions, and paradigms of the people surrounding them. As interdependent people, we recognize our role as part of that social mirror.

We can affirm the proactive nature of others by treating them as responsible people. We can help support them as principle-centered, value-based, interdependent, worthwhile individuals.

In the story of the mix up of the "bright" and "slow" students, the teachers of a group of "slow" children erroneously classified as "bright" said, "For some reason, our methods weren't working, so we had to change our methods." The IQ scores of the students dramatically improved. Apparent learning disability was really teacher inflexibility.

Goethe taught, "Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be."

Balance in Renewal.
Self renewal must include balanced renewal in all four dimensions--physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional. Neglecting any one area negatively impacts the rest.

The same concept also applies to organizations. The process of continuous improvement is the hallmark of the Total Quality movement and a key to man's economic ascendancy.

Synergy in Renewal.
The things you do to sharpen the saw in any one dimension have a positive impact in the other dimensions, because they are so highly interrelated.

The Daily Private Victory, a minimum of one hour a day to renew the personal dimensions, is the key to the development of the Seven Habits and is completely within your circle of influence. It's also the foundation for the Daily Public Victory. It's the source of the intrinsic security you need to sharpen the saw in the social/emotional dimension.

The Upward Spiral.
Renewal is the principle and process that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement.

Education of the conscience is vital to the truly proactive, highly effective leader. Conscience is the endowment that senses our congruence or disparity with correct principles and lifts us towards them. Training and educating the conscience requires regular feasting on inspiring literature, thinking noble thoughts, and living in harmony with its small voice.

Dag Hammarskjold, past Secretary-General of the United Nations, said, "He who wants to keep his garden tidy doesn't reserve a plot for weeds." The law of the harvest governs, we will always reap what we sow--no more, no less.

Moving along the upward spiral requires us to learn, commit and do on increasingly higher planes.

- Michael Grey, CPA

Share Your Love, Gratitude & Appreciation Today

One of the things I learned when I read "Anger and the Indigo Child" (thank you again, She - it was a great book), is that we often neglect ourselves, sacrifice ourselves in order to "love others". This in itself sounds kind of right... but as the author explained in her book, if this happens too many times, eventually we run out of self-love. And when that happens, we stop being able to actually give love outwardly to others in a selfless manner. And as soon as the "selflessness" of the love is lost, it becomes a "selfish love" which immediately loses all of it's ability to heal because it becomes a needy-dependent-conditional love.

So, from my study of this book along with my other readings and my real life experimentation - oops - I mean study... I have come to understand that in order to continue to provide unconditional, selfless love that is not bound by any conditions at all, it is extremely important to make sure your self-love tank is full. Otherwise, the love you think you are giving, will not be received properly, which can lead to huge amounts of frustration on your part because you may then begin to think that "I'm giving all I can, but how come they aren't getting it???!!"

All you "sacrifical mom/lambs" out there, get that? As my friend Tornado always signs off, "Take Care of You!" And I would like to include an an addendum, "so that you can continue to share your unconditional love with your family and grow with them."

I realized yesterday that I haven't been sharing a lot of LOVE, GRATITUDE, RESPECT much these past couple of months as I am sitting here with little to no employ, driving here and there, going about my day. Like most people, I have kind of "slipped back into the old routine". It happens, it really does, even when you get into the "good habits". So it surprised me when I realized that I haven't been doing this. But you know... as soon as I started up again the other day...  good things started happening again and life felt... lighter.

Take the time today or tomorrow to reach out and touch someone's life. Maybe try someone that you aren't closely connected with. Think about the good things about them, think about what they have brought to your life and how much you appreciate them. Just totally out of the blue hit them with your Unconditional Genuine Love that is fueled by Unconditional Self-Love (USL).

If your USL tank is on E... take the time to stop and fill it up. It's like one of Stephen Covey's  critically important "Seven Habits": Sharpen The Saw (Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal); you need to physically create the time to renew yourself in order to continue on in a productive, efficient way.

What was it that Ganesha said the other day about being too busy to add new things to your life? Oh yeah! He suggested that we get rid of something in our schedule, so that we can open up some time to do new and important things. We all ONLY have the same 24 hours a day and adding a 25th hour onto the pile won't work for long!

This is what I love about sharing the concepts in "The Secret" to help people feel self-love. Here is a real life example that came into my inbox this morning.

I work freelance for the company that Mai is employed in. She is my contact, she sends me most of the outsourcing work. It seems that Mai has been quite stressed out at work these past couple of months because they are swamped with internal work.

I have not had much work at all from her these past two months. But I don't just lie down and die. No way! It is important to keep the contact alive, to keep checking in as I like to say, just to let them know that I have (way too much free) time on my hands for anything large or small they might like to toss my way.

In her replies, I could see how harried she has been. So I sent her this email, just because I thought of her. And she replied. And it made me smile.

Reach out and touch someone's life today. I love you. - Cam

*****

Subject: Just to say Thank You

Hello, Mai.

I am writing today because I want to tell you that I appreciate you, am grateful we connected through Mirra and my blogs, and that you have offered me work these past two years. I want to tell you that I really do appreciate what you have offered me. I also would like to let you know that I deeply respect your hard work, and am impressed by your dedication to the company. I have much respect for you and your work ethic.

So, basically I just simply want to say, with glowing eyes, and a smiling face...

THANK YOU.

And I hope that you enjoy the sakura as they seem to be in full bloom in Tokyo now. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy your walk home tonight. I hope that something really GREAT happens to you today! - Cam

*****

Dear Cam, Thank you very much for your e-mail. I don’t know what to reply… Thank you.

On Saturday, I walked along Meguro River seeing Sakura. It was wonderful! And my future plan got clearer by having a chance to talk about it with my boyfriend on that day. We were too busy this month to face each other until then. I believe your e-mail brought me a good chance.

I hope that we continue to work together from now on as well. Have a nice day! - Mai

Changes, Part 3/3: From the mouths of elephants

In  Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God, of my three part series on making changes, I introduced Ganesha and Boku, and explained how Boku had inadvertently called upon the Hindu god Ganesha to help him turn his life around. Ganesha gave him philosophy, chores, chiding and more in order to help Boku grow and expand his world.

 

Here is the list of the things that Ganesha has Boku do, in order to rework his life so that he develops a totally new outlook, and improves his potential to become exactly what he has always envisioned he wanted to become (in his mind). My interpretation of the acts follows.

 

You may say to yourself, "what the heck is THIS good for?", but let me tell you that these concepts are all very much entrenched in the minds of successful Japanese businessmen and have been employed for a very long time.

 

In parentheses are some names that Ganesha dropped when he was telling his stories about how he helped these people achieve greatness. There were several other names, but when I asked Mayu she couldn't remember the specific stories to which the famous people were connected. So I share with you those that we could work out.

 

• Polish your shoes regularly - Always keep all of your "tools for the job" that you rely upon regularly daily for survival in excellent condition. (Ichiro of Seattle Mariners fame)
• Donate your change at convenient store - When Rockefeller was a young man, even before he was rich and famous he continued to donate 10% of his income for worthy causes. By supporting other causes you support yourself. (Rockefeller)
• Don’t fill up yourself when you eat - When you fill yourself totally full, your brain shuts down from overeating so if you go to 80%, your mind will stay sharp.
• See through other’s wants to find their needs - People hardly ever tell you exactly what they mean, even if they tell you "I always say what I mean". I reality, they don't. There is always an underlying meaning to their words. If you ask a customer what they would like in a new product, they can usually never tell you. But if you make a habit of "listening", and looking, you can learn to read between the lines and discover their true thoughts. (Henry Ford)
• Make people you met laugh - Have a life with a sense of humour to soften the air, and improve communication. (Southwest Airlines)
• Clean your toilet daily - This is an activity that people always try to avoid. By learning to do the things that people don't want to do, you open yourself up to new possibilities. (Soichiro Honda)
• Go home straight from work – Avoid dallying or wasting time then you have more time to do your own planned things.
• Praise yourself for some achievement - Even if you've had a bad day there must have been something in your life that you can praise to give yourself a boost. And as the day progresses you can build up your confidence with little victories.
• Quit something you always do for a day - This will open up more time to do something new [and the one I talked about in the previous installment].
• Create the environment to stick to what you decided to do - Actively create the environment which forces you to think about your actions, rather than just involuntarily "reacting". Actively work towards your goals with your mind "in the moment".
• Check and settle yourself in the mirror from head to toe every morning - Your inner spirit takes a great deal to change, but your outer appearance can degenerate very easily so always make sure that you look your best to yourself every day.
• Ask around to find out what you are the best at - You can learn a lot from other people about yourself. You may find that others have a much different opinion of abilities you never knew you had which may open up new fields to venture into.
• Ask around to find out what you are the worst at - We often turn a blind eye to our faults and weaknesses, so it is essential to act upon them by first finding out what they are.
• Imagine your dream pleasantly - Enjoy the dreams and goals you have without forcing yourself to stress too much over it.
• Speak out that you are lucky - Physically say the words "I am lucky" and you will transmit that positive feeling to the Universe, which will come back to you magnified, in kind.
• Try to get something for free - In order to do this, you will need to explain WHY you want something for free. This will help you to develop better negotiation skills, and learn how to express yourself better.
• Prepare for tomorrow - Make plans precisely in order to maximize your time, and efforts so that you are not caught off-guard by any unexpected events. And stick to the plan.
• Make someone closest to you happy - We often think about pleasing the customer, and customer is #1, but it is important not to forget all of the sacrifices that those people very close to you do, and to actively appreciate them as well, as they are your support network, more so than the customers. Usually the day has a schedule, and everyone does their thing, so in order to really make someone happy you need to look at the events and the people around you in order to determine what is really important and needed by those people.
• Find one good thing about someone and praise it - Sometimes you have to really think hard to praise people, especially when you are in a difficult situation. But it is important to watch people carefully and always look for something positive about the people, to let them know that you appreciate their strength.
• Steal someone’s good points - Very few people invent the wheel, but everyone tries to reinvent it by improving upon it. If something works for someone, it may work for you.
• Keep your eyes on classified ads - It is important to see what kind of work is out there and be ready to make yourself available for positions that you may have never known existed before.
• Pay a visit to a shrine, temple, church - Many people think that visiting a holy place is "meaningless", but even those who don't believe in God, or Gods, will find that by visiting holy places to show your respect, they will care more for you. If you care less for them, they will care less for you. And nobody can prove or disprove the actual existence of the gods, so why reduce your potential for Supernatural assistance?
• Visit popular shops and watch for the reasons - Popular businesses are popular for a reason. It can help you tremendously to find out exactly what these businesses are doing right. And then steal the concept.
• Give a surprise gift - Surprise people with something small and make them happy for no reason at all.
• Start something you regret that you haven’t done today - Whenever we regret not doing something we should have (like a load of laundry), that is actually a sign to you to tell you to do it right now. So don't just waste your time regretting, and not doing; get off your but and start it right then and there!
• Talk about your dream as service - If you talk about your dreams and plans based on you as the center of attention, people will get tired of listening. But if you find a way to think of your plan, dream and goal as somehow serving others and including good things for others (not just for self), people will pay much more attention and strive to help make your goals a reality. (Konousuke Matsushita - Panasonic).
• Support other people’s success - When you support people and give them positive energy through being supportive, even when they become extremely successful (i.e. don't feel jealous), that support will come back to you in the future.
• Apply, Enter - The more times you apply for things, or enter things, the better the chance you have of winning something. If you don't apply, you can't win.
• Appreciate every day - Whether you are successful or not, happy or unhappy,, take the time to appreciate all the little things in life that we take for granted (like water coming out of a tap when you turn a knob to fill a tea kettle with water) because all of these things, at one time, did not exist without much creation and suffering by someone in the past. We may think that we can live our life alone, but without all of the conveniences around us created by others who came before us, life would be very difficult therefore it is important to appreciate it all.

And that, my friends, is it! Why don't you see if you can apply one, a few, some, several, many or all of these very good ways to improve your life today?! Don't have time to improve yourself? Really? Well, how about you stop reading my blogs, and instead do something else? That's a possibility... (I wouldn't recommend stop going to the bathroom, though *wink*)

 

Would you like to review parts one and two? Here you go!

• Changes, Part 1/3: Mind, Intention and Outcomes
• Changes, Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God

Have a lovely day. I love you!

 

Cam

Changes, Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God

In Part One of my three part series on Change I was telling you how I have learned through real life experiences that trying to fit more into an already full day is practically impossible. I am a very disciplined person who is able to multi-task to some extent (breathe and answer the phone at the same time without too much effort) and I must admit that it doesn't make sense to follow the belief that you can always add more just by "working harder or smarter". Those who do jam more stuff in usually end up burning out and dropping even more of the stuff they can't afford to give up due to brain (and body) drain. So this "smarter, harder" belief is not sustainable for ordinary mortals such as me.

 

But I figured out how to do it. the answer is brilliant and yet sooo obvious at the same time that I still slap myself in my forehead and say, "How could I have bee so stooopid?!?"

 

I'm glad I figured out how to make time for adding meditation and reading in my day; I need this time at this point in my life because changes are in order. I do not have the tools to easily make these changes, but I want to acquire them. And in order to do this, I need more time to learn how to find, and then use these "tools of change".

 

Considering how I haven't been able to add this stuff into my life for the past couple of years I never thought I really could, but thanks to a book that Mayu just finished reading, something she explained to me one day gave me an "Aha!" moment that makes perfect sense. Let me tell you a bit about this book ...

 

A Japanese businessman wants change in his life; he desperately craves change, but he doesn't really know what to do, or how to do it. So he takes a trip to India to try and shake up his boring life. It doesn't work. Or so he thinks.

 

One night some time after his return and his life has returned to the same old doldrums he goes out to a party and gets really drunk. He comes home and passes out, only to wake up to a dream/nightmare vision of a fat elephant-headed chain-smoking, bitching Indian god that floats around his apartment, and constantly drives him nuts.

 

The businessman realizes that this god Ganesha is there to help him change his life. If the man promises to do exactly as Ganesha says, he will have the chance to improve himself and thus his life dramatically, but if he ignores any of the steps, or fails to do as he is told, he will be doomed to live his life in boring mediocrity, and exactly the way he does not want to live!

 

From that point on, Ganesha, a very human-like God who is completely addicted to cigarettes, loves bacon and a specific Japanese sweet gives the businessman ("Boku", or "me") lots of tips about life in a very realistic, and extremely funny way. The strangest thing is that this elephant-headed stubborn, bitching, grumbling and very picky god speaks for some strange reason to Boku entirely in Osaka dialect, which according to the Tokyoites, a very funny way for a god to talk.

 

Boku agrees to write up a contract with Ganesha to follow his advice and do as told. He then learns every day the most bizarre things that to him, seem to have absolutely no relevancy to becoming a better, enlightened person! In fact, these seemingly incongruous lessons sound more like an excuse for Ganesha to hang around, chain smoke, be fed bacon every day, and have a place to sleep.

 

But as the days pass, Boku starts to understand more and more how these simple principles in life can have a huge change on the way we perceive our world, and thus the way we act within it. And this is where the change comes in.

 

In the end, as time draws near, Ganesha finally fades away, leaving Boku on his own, having learned all of the lessons taught, and ready to head back into the world, a changed man. The epilogue shows Ganesha appearing to some other person in need of life lessons and talks about Boku as "that famous architect". So it obviously worked!

 

The funny thing about this is that Ganesha uses all of the famous people in the world for examples that he personally visited and helped become famous: Bill Gates, Soichiro Honda, Ichiro, Richard Branson, The Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, and more, all the way back to the ancients (as gods live forever). Mayu was laughing the entire time she was reading this book. She likes to read at night to fall asleep, but during this book instead of falling asleep, she would wake me up at 2am with her laughing! I am glad it was a wonderful book for her because I only had to deal with night laughter two or three nights in a row.

 

Here is one of the things that Ganesha taught Boku, and one that makes a lot of sense to me, and gave me that "Aha!" moment I was talking about earlier:

 

We all have ONLY 24 hours a day and in our busy life, those 24 hours are often all booked up. It is important to add new things, try new things in order to grow but how do we fit them in? This is the biggest issue most people have. Ganesha explains that in order to fit in more than what we can do, sometimes we have to take away some things. This means in order to do something new, we need to stop doing something old (Boku sells his chesterfield so he doesn't come home from work, plop down on it, turn the TV on and waste time vegging out). And then that space will open up. Just adding another thing onto an already full schedule won't work, even though people say "squeeze it in". It never lasts. The trick is to STOP doing something else, to give up something else, and then you can get the time for something new.

 

In Part 3/3: From the mouths of elephants, I shall share the 20+ activities that Ganesha uses to train the people who want to move onto greatness. I will also try to explain the philosophy behind them, just in case you are wondering HOW some of these things could possibly be of help. But when you read these, please keep in mind all of the activities that the Karate Kid had to go through in his training...

 

I love you!

 

Cam

Changes, Part 1/3: Mind, Intention and Outcomes

When I visited NC and went to the Mindspring seminar, I purchased a 8CD set that is all about "Mind, Intention, and Outcomes". There are "seven processes" that the CEO of the company takes us through that helps us to become the observers of our universe. And as the observers of our universe, we consciously create the outcomes we deeply desire. I started listening daily, and have recently started process two. I try to do them back to back which takes an hour but I could do one at a time if I wished. When I am ready, comfortable with the process and able to do it with ease, that is the time I open a new CD and start another process. These CDs are not designed to listen completely through from start to end; they are intended to be integrated into our lives. this may take weeks, months or years, but that's OK because the results and the change is what is important. 

 

Here are some very powerful words:

 

"Do you often wonder why things turn out the way they do? Do you believe you can live the life of your choice? 'Mind, Intention and Outcomes' is a powerful and lasting resource that serves as a catalyst for growth, guidance and mastery of the answers within your Self. It assumes that you are the architect of your life and work, capable of directing the energy, flow and intention of your mind, body and emotions, regardless of the circumstances.

 

If you believe you will never be happy, you won't be. If you believe you are less than, you are and you will function that way. If you see yourself as powerless, then you will function as a powerless person and will use enormous opportunities in your life as circumstances in which to feel more powerlessness. As odd as it may seem, just when you think you have no choice in a difficult event, chances are you have been fooled. It is your mind at work. For you see, your function is not up to your mind, but to you, your Self, the one who is aware of your mind.

 

But consider another scenario. Consider changing your function. Do you believe that the mind is capable of bringing this new, powerful thought to reality? By increasing your attention and intention, you not only transform your Self, but also your workplace and your family. You are the agent of change and growth in your life and work. Stop procrastinating and stop postponing your goals and dreams. Begin creating your tomorrow today."

 

I have also started reading again. After my MBA I became so burned out with research and reading that honestly I haven't wanted to open a book in over a year! Instead I have been focusing intently on communicating with all of YOU through these blogs, because at this point in my life, communication with real live people who can interact back with me is more important than "book knowledge". But it is time to start reading again. I need to whittle down my huge pile of books.

 

But I have so many other things to do in the day that I really didn't know how I could add these hours in. I know that squeezing in more to a busy schedule rarely works in a sustainable way. I also know that "work harder, work smarter" is bullshit. It doesn't work; it's an ideal that can never really be achieved. It sounds great, makes us all look good, but it isn't a realistic way to achieve sustainable long-term change of habits.

 

But I figured out how to do this, thanks to a book Mayu just recently finished. And I'll tell you about this book in Part 2/3: Meet the Elephant God ...

 

I love you!

 

Cam

 

P.S. You can visit Mindspring Consulting's website at www.helpingyougrow.com. If you can afford the time and investment in your future to take any of their seminars, I highly recommend it. Located in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, Haydn and Terry have been bringing "enlightenment" to businesses and individuals alike for almost two decades. Their products are not cheap by any means, but they are excellent!

It's Tax Time, Canada!

 

Globalized Love Community

This is the Pantheon's Newest Addition to the Goddesses of the Multiverse; The Water Goddess.

Water makes up everything in life, and is an essential part of our mortal existence in the Multiverse. The Water Goddess is with you wherever you go, nourishing the very soul of your cells. She is in all things that bear life, and blankets our globe with love, strength, peace, nourishment, and power.

Here is where all imagery related to the GLC and the Greater Pantheon of Globalized Love will be housed and recorded.

Oh My Goddess! *: The Water Goddess

The Pantheon of Globalized Love and the Greater Globalized Love Community (GLC) warmly welcomes the newest addition to our beloved group of Goddesses: The Water Goddess!

This position has been unfilled for quite some time as the management of the GLC has been reviewing numerous applicants resumees, and history. With fierce competition for the limited Goddess Positions, each and every applicant's CV is scrutinized utilizing the most up-to-date systems possible in order to choose the one who best fits the position. It is extremely difficult to, at times, choose "a best one" for these very high level positions (VHL) as you can imagine, with each and every applicant possessing all of the necessary qualifications for the position.

But, as there can only be one Goddess per position it is essential that the Pantheon Administrators finalize their choice. This is why it can often take aeons for the position to finally be filled when an opening comes available.

Welcome to the Water Goddess!

The Administration would like to thank each and every applicant for their time and efforts and wish to assure them that they would all make excellent Goddesses, however only one can be chosen to carry on the tradition.

There are currently two other positions under consideration: Earth Goddess and Air Goddess. Once these positions have been filled, we will make a public congratulatory notification.

For those of you who wish to get in touch with the Goddesses in the Pantheon of Globalized Love, you may access their communication networks through the appropriate links below:

Redheaded Goddess
Ebony Goddess
Fire Goddess
Fabric Goddess
Health Goddess
Water Goddess

Once again, welcome Water Goddess, and we hope you enjoy your work awaiting for you for aeons to come!

For more information on the Globalized Love Community, please access The GLC Highstreet Proffitt.

With Unconditional Love & Respect,

Your humble servant,

Chief Secretary & Scribe
Department of Uniquities, Pantheon of Globalized Love, GLC

* Note: "Oh My Goddess!" is a seinen manga series by Kosuke Fujishima currently serialised in Kodansha's monthly Afternoon magazine. It was first published in 1988-08-25 (the September issue). Originally a typical magical girlfriend romantic comedy, over time it has grown to feature more action and the latest variant has had a greater focus on developing the mystical aspects of the world in which it is set.

The first novel of the series written by Urd's voice actress, Yumi Tohma, with the illustrations done by Fujishima, and Hidenori Matsubara (Animation Director for the OVA, movie and TV series). The story follows the manga, taking place three years after Belldandy and Keiichi first meet. The novel was first published in Japan in 2006 by Kodansha; the English translated novel came out on December 19, 2007 and was published by Dark Horse Comics.

You can purchase the English Language manga series through Amazon.com, or Dark Horse Comics directly. The novel, "Oh My Goddess!" is available at both locations in English.

David Bowie & All the Presidential Candidates on Change

I'll let these folks tell you all about "change"...

$$ Kaching!! $$

The Four Agreements

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Health, Mind & Body
Author:	Don Miguel Ruiz

Nancy sent me this great 138 page book on Toltec Wisdom.

I started reading the book today and I finished it late this afternoon. It was really nice. I hate to make it sound like I'm belittling (which I'm not), but I can't help but to feel the proper expression is...

"It's a really nice little book that takes sound principles for a healthy outlook on life, and explains them clearly and concisely."

I enjoyed reading this and found it to be a refreshing way of looking at the same concept we read about in "The Secret", "The Secret of the Ages", "A New Earth" and basically all of these kind of "New Age Healing" genre. I really enjoyed it.

I also am amazed that the stuff he talks about, telling people to tell everyone "I love you!" even if you don't know them and love them personally, is the same thing I have been trying to do here on the blogs! I came to the same conclusion independently from this, but it's really really nice to see another culture confirming what came to me through the Universe.

Here are the Four Agreements:

1) Be Impeccable With Your Word - Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word sto speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2) Don't Take Anything Personally - Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream (we live in a dream world that has been created and perpetuated before we existed, and we are all in a fog). When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3) Don't Make Assumptions - Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.


And the best one of all that ties them all together...

4) Always Do Your Best - Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

Simply said, extremely difficult to achieve due to our programming and reinforcement of the programming from birth, but #4 allows us to make mistakes, fall of the wagon, learn from our mistakes, get up and try try again until little by little it gets easier and our teeeny weeny successes gradually eat up the big failures until we are succeeding more than we are failing.

It's also nice because often people misuse "I always say what I mean" as an excuse to say things that HURT others, just because it's true. This goes against these Four Agreements because you need to say things IN LOVE. This means that you need to find a way to express the things you want to say in a loving, kind way without "blasting them with the truth".

I love you!

“Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)”

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Foreign

If this movie ever makes it to the west with subtitles, I HIGHLY recommend it! Rather than try to describe it in my own words, I will share with you a lengthy and excellent explanation by the scriptwriter for this superb movie.

It's important that we try to see war from as many angles as possible in order to better understand the bigger picture.

You can view the military history of General Tasuku Okada here.

Read on...

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The Making of ‘Best Wishes for Tomorrow’
by Roger Pulvers
New movie looks for honor amid the recriminations of war

W ar crimes constitute one of the leading issues of our time. But what exactly is a war crime, who should be held responsible, and how should perpetrators be brought to justice?

Whether we are talking about World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or any other conflict, the principles and execution of justice should be the same for all sides.

Let me cite one example.

Bombers are on a mission to drop high-explosive incendiary devices on a city. There are no military bases in or around the city, nor are there factories manufacturing goods of military significance. The purpose of the mission is to terrorize the local population and, it is hoped, cause them to abandon the will to fight.

The bombers successfully destroy civilian targets in the city, killing between 20,000 and 30,000 people and injuring many times that number. However, 38 fliers parachute out of their planes and are captured by the enemy. These fliers assume that they will be treated as prisoners of war and dealt with according to the rules set out in the Geneva Conventions. But their captors consider them not prisoners of war, but war criminals. They are given a summary trial before a military tribunal, sentenced to death and executed.

Massive and indiscriminate aerial bombardment, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties and leaving millions destitute and homeless, occurred across Japan during World War II. But it was in the Tokai area, centering on Aichi and Mie prefectures, that the above incidents took place. And it was in Nagoya and its vicinity that the 38 American fliers were decapitated, cremated and buried, the last of them on July 17, 1945, just a few weeks before the end of the war on Aug. 15.

After the war, the commander of the Tokai Army and 19 of his subordinates who had participated in the trial and execution of the Americans were arrested. They themselves were put on trial in Yokohama in 1948. The commander was Lt. Gen. Tasuku Okada. The trial of Okada and his 19 subordinates forms the core of the story of the film “Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)” that completed its shoot in the first week of July. I was fortunate to be able to write the script for this film, together with the director, Takashi Koizumi. We based the film both on the record of the trial itself, running to many thousands of pages, and on an account of it written by Shohei Ooka in his book “Nagai Tabi (A Long Journey)”.

In this film, we address the three questions at the opening of this article. Although the story of the trial is nearly 60 years old, I feel that the message coming out of it is totally relevant to our times. In an era of constant war crimes – be they caused by indiscriminate killing, torture under interrogation or any other gross infringement of human rights during a conflict – when the buck is passed as far down as it can be and leaders are not held to account for their heinous decisions, the story of Okada may show us another way of coming to terms with the aftermath of tragedy.

A MILITARY HISTORY

Tasuku Okada graduated from the Tottori Military School in 1909. He went on to study at the Military Staff College in Tokyo, from which he graduated in 1922. During the war Okada became commander of the 13th Area Army and subsequently commander of the Tokai Army, which was formed in early 1945.

After the war, Okada was arrested by the U.S. Eighth Army in Yokohama on Sept. 21, 1946, and arraigned on March 8, 1948. His trial began on March 8 and ended on May 19.

Okada was charged with ordering and causing his subordinates to prepare a plan of procedure, which he subsequently approved, to put to death captured American aircrew without the benefit of a proper trial.

American bombing of Japanese cities had been relentless during the last months of the war. Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay was spearheading a policy of fire raids across Japan using incendiary clusters, white phosphorous bombs and napalm. On March 10, 1945, 334 B-29s attacked Tokyo, causing a firestorm that killed up to 100,000 people and led to thousands of subsequent deaths. LeMay is remembered for his bon mot that “there are no innocent civilians.” Over 60 Japanese towns and cities were carpet bombed.

Nagoya was bombed 38 times, with the heaviest loss of life occurring on May 14 when 486 B-29s released a total of 2,563 tons of bombs. Eighty percent of the city’s northern area was destroyed by fire.

The Commission for the Regulation of Aerial Warfare, held in The Hague in 1923, had stated: “Aerial bombardment is legitimate only when directed at a military objective. Aerial bombardment for the purpose of terrorizing the civilian population, or destroying or damaging private property not of military character, or of injuring non-combatants is prohibited.”

Needless to say, countries did not respect this agreement. Britain was one of the first nations to flout it. Under Arthur (later, “Bomber”) Harris, Britain’s Royal Air Force bombed civilians in Iraq in the 1920s. On April 26, 1937, the German Luftwaffe, having adopted the then-novel tactic of carpet bombing, destroyed the town of Guernica in one of the Spanish Civil War’s most infamous incidents. As for the United States, President Franklin D. Roosevelt personally abhorred this practice. “It is my earnest hope,” he said in a speech on Sept. 18, 1939, not long after World War II had begun in Europe, “that the governments of the belligerent countries will renew their orders prohibiting the practice of bombing civilians in unfortified centers of population.” But this was before the U.S. had itself become a belligerent.

Okada’s defense was straightforward. He had judged the actions of the American fliers’ indiscriminate bombing to be an infringement of international law. He and his chief subordinates had created three categories by which to distinguish such enemy action.

Those who bombed military targets were deemed not to have violated international law and were held as prisoners of war. Those suspected of committing atrocities were tried by formal military tribunal. Those who clearly committed high crimes were stood before military tribunals where abridged procedures were followed. It was under this last category that the 38 captured aircrew were disposed of (shodan sareta).

Represented by Chief Counsel for the Defense Joseph Featherstone, Okada claimed that he had no choice but to deal with the fliers under this category. Every night had brought further destruction to his region, and his soldiers had had to protect the Americans from being lynched by an angry populace. After questioning the fliers as to the type of bombing that they undertook, he and his chief subordinates came to the conclusion that the bombing was indiscriminate. The interrogation report showed that the Americans had divided the city of Kobe, for instance, into six or eight sections and then carpet bombed each section in order to cover the entire city. The daylight raid on Kobe of June 5 alone produced 9,000 casualties, destroyed 55,000 homes and affected some 213,000 people.

Nagoya itself received many indiscriminate bombing attacks in 1945, though American intelligence had learned that by December 1944 all targets of major military significance had been destroyed. There were also no so-called “home industries” manufacturing military goods in the region.

The trial of the American aircrew by Okada’s subordinates was brief, lasting only about three hours, though many days had gone into the preparation of documents, which totaled some 150 to 200 pages in length. The Americans were afforded no counsel. Their personal defense, that they thought they were bombing military targets and, even so, could hardly be held responsible for following combat orders, held no sway. Okada approved the tribunal’s findings and the Americans were executed.

SEEKING JUSTICE

In the Yokohama trial of Okada and his 19 subordinates held under the auspices of the American Military Commission, Chief Prosecutor Richard Burnett pointed out the illegality of the summary tribunal by which the Americans were judged. In his final argument, he said that all of the actions of the Imperial Japanese Army could have been avoided if they had followed one rule: “Don’t bomb Pearl Harbor.”

After reading thousands of pages of transcripts of the trial, I came away with a firm impression of its fairness. The commission allowed the defense to indict the American bombardment of Japan as a war crime, and even went so far as to let references to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as possible war crimes be entered into the record.

Even Okada himself was impressed with his trial. Both in his testimony before the commission and in his private diary written in Sugamo Prison after sentencing, he praised the justice that he was dealt. For him, the trial was a legal battle to establish that the United States had violated international law. He was certainly not proud of his decision to execute the American aircrew and he actually fought against his own defense counsel by continually admitting his responsibility for what had happened to them at his hands.

I would like to quote from Okada’s final statement, given before sentencing. He said the following to the commission:

“When we think of our activities during wartime with a cool mind today, even we believe that what we did may well be criticized from the standpoint of jurisprudence.

“We have been coming to this court daily with a feeling of satisfaction and with the added feeling of gratitude to this court. [These feelings] are as clear as the blue sky without a single cloud in it. … I am sure that we – the people all over Japan – will be able to feel and hear the fair and generous attitude of the court…. I firmly believe that such a feeling of gratitude and satisfaction, with the United States being the elder brother and Japan the younger brother, will be the basis of the unification of spirit between the two countries.”

Okada’s only words to his wife, Haruko, who sat in the courtroom throughout the trial, were: “I am content.” This was as he was being led out of the Yokohama courtroom, after he was handed the sentence of death.

A FILMING HISTORY

The question now comes up: How do you make a film about these events? I do not believe in that allegedly antiwar type of film that purports to depict “war as hell.” So often these films, with their horrendous violence and gore, end up being seen as part of the genre of the horror film. Even more often, ardent patriots, in whatever country, root for their own side and wallow self-righteously in their victory. Having said that, it is no easy task to make a truly antiwar war film, one that people, after having seen it, will say, “I never want that to happen again, not to my people and not to anyone else’s.”

Films about war also seem to require heroes.

“Best Wishes for Tomorrow” has no heroes, unless we can consider the men who ran the military commission in Yokohama as such. Looking at the actual trial in 1948, I admire the passion of the defense counsel, the persistence of the prosecution and, above all, the impartiality of the members of the commission who, by secret ballot, judged and sentenced “Okada et 19.” This alone shows that there was once a balanced, humane and just America, one that was able to give its enemies, real or perceived, a fair hearing.

This story, and our film that depicts it, also shows, I would hope, that there is true virtue in assuming full responsibility for one’s actions. Okada’s trial and execution of the American aircrew were in no way praiseworthy. In addition, his defense of his subordinates, that they were only carrying out his orders, while genuinely compassionate, is at odds with his treatment of the American fliers, who themselves had no choice of action. Was a radio operator who got into a B-29 in Saipan and flew a mission over Nagoya responsible for the decision to destroy civilian life there? Of course he wasn’t. But Okada and his men judged him to be.

Such a double standard, which we are seeing today in conflicts all over the world, should never be upheld in a court of law. The people responsible for war crimes are primarily those who fashion the strategy and give the orders. The people who get tried for war crimes, however, are always those either way down the chain of command on the winning side or whoever can be captured, detained and arraigned on the losing side.

“Best Wishes for Tomorrow” is not my first experience with films about war. In 1982, I was assistant director on Nagisa Oshima’s film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.” We filmed Senmeri, as it is called in Japan, at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. It struck me then with an immense poignancy that, in that tranquil and beautiful setting, we were re-enacting the most horrifying racial and national violence. Yet every morning the hotel dining room was bustling with Japanese actor-soldiers in uniform and emaciated western POWs (a lot of skinny extras flown in from New Zealand), all lined up at the fresh fruit buffet holding their trays, smiling and chatting together amiably.

After we do our utmost to rip each other apart during a war, a few solemn bows, some tentative shaking of hands, and all is gradually re-interpreted in light of our concert of interests in the present. Maybe some hard feelings and a few scores to settle…but, “so sorry,” “Merry Christmas” and let’s get down to business. The aftermath of war teaches us that there is no such thing as natural enemies among nations, only convenient friends. As we watch people today wallowing in hatred and the cut-throat acrimony of war, we can be pretty sure of one thing: that some years later we are all going to be together as friends again, swapping old stories and bent photographs. And making movies.

The set of “Best Wishes for Tomorrow” was an especially harmonious one. The tone of the encounters was established chiefly by two wonderful actors: Makoto Fujita, playing Okada, and Robert Lesser as defense counsel Featherstone. Lesser, as Featherstone, accessed an enormous fund of empathy for the general and what he was going through. I can think of very few American actors who could have handled this part with more depth and subdued passion.

Having been a child before and during the war, Fujita knew well the conditions and ethical values that shaped Okada’s mentality. “My elder brother,” he said, “volunteered for the Special Forces when he was 16 and was shot down over Okinawa a year later. After the filming is over, I plan to go to Kumejima in Okinawa where my brother lies somewhere on the seabed and tell him that he can now rest in peace.”

Military Commission President Louis Rapp was played masterfully by Richard Neil. When Richard read out the sentence, I felt that he was sharing in Rapp’s own admiration for Okada’s integrity. (Rapp and his commission recommended clemency for Okada after the trial, but Douglas MacArthur rejected the recommendation. Okada was hanged in September 1949.)

Fred McQueen as prosecutor Burnett exposed the weaknesses in Okada’s testimony, particularly as it related to abridged procedures taken in the trial of the American aircrew. Sumiko Fuji plays Haruko Okada. Haruko and her husband do not speak to each other during the entire film; yet, the silent stares and nods, given meaning by voice-over narration, tell of a profound love between them.

Koizumi has made three films to date, and all of them are distinguished by a quiet, lyrical style. His last film, “Hakase no Aishita Sushiki (The Professor and His Beloved Equation)” was particularly moving in its story about a mathematician who has lost his memory. When we were in early discussions about the script for “Best Wishes for Tomorrow,” he specifically told me not to make the story “dramatic.” What this meant is that we did not put in episodes portraying violence, and we hopefully avoided the kind of melodrama that often seeps into a film about war and its aftermath.

In other words, this film will be a kind of document in itself. There are some fictional episodes in it, of course. But it is essentially the true-to-life story of a man, told against the background of his times with a theme that is contemporary to ours. The opening shot of the film is Picasso’s “Guernica.”

Countries that are on the losing side of a war are not, as a rule, allowed to celebrate heroes. But that does not mean that they cannot reflect on what may have been heroic behavior.

Okada’s actions during the war as they related to the trial and execution of American aircrew were, in a word, reprehensible, though given the desperate circumstances in which he found himself and his people, equally comprehensible. These actions should never be held in high regard.

But a person who respects his former enemy’s judgment and takes upon himself the full responsibility for what he did in wartime, to the extent that he considers his own final sentence fair and proper, stands as an example, not only in 1948, but also in 2007.

There is no cause for self-righteousness after a war. There is only the unending pity that we must all feel if we are to stop ourselves from starting yet another one.

A film that brings this theme to light is an antiwar film

It is my hope that “Best Wishes for Tomorrow” will demonstrate that we are all victims in a war, whatever side we are on. There is nothing at all to be gained from the form of murder we commit with one hand over our heart.