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It is India’s duty to rejuvenate the eternal spiritual religion: Sri Aurobindo

By
Sunil Kumar
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1. Bharat’s Wisdom: Our leaders including Pt. Nehru, Smt. Indira Gandhi, Sh. Modi, and many others have accepted Vivekananda, Gandhiji, Sri Aurobindo as our role models. For good or bad our USP has so far been to have spiritual leaders as our guides and leaders. Sri Aurobindo, then an agnostic, received a divine inspiration, while in Jail for being a freedom fighter. The divine voice spoke to him of the grandeur of Sanatana Dharma, Eternal religion, and of the mission of India, and the very purpose of its being. We’ve yet to ensure that the educated respect, study, imbibe this universal spiritual wisdom, to enable us fulfill our obligatory duty as an Indian. Let us listen to the speech he made on coming out of imprisonment: –

2. The universal worldview of Oneness: The divine voice spoke to me: “I have shown you that I am everywhere, in all men and in all things, for those striving for the country and for those opposing them. I am working in everybody and men can do nothing but help in my purpose. They’re not my enemies but my instruments. In all your actions you are moving forward without knowing which way you move. You mean to do one thing and you do another. Since long I have been preparing for this uprising and now the time has come and it is I who will lead it to its fulfilment”.

2.1 Very purpose of India: He continues: “Protection of the religion, the protection and uprising before the world of the Hindu religion, that is the work before us. But what is the Hindu religion, which we call Sanatana, eternal? It is called Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it, because in this Peninsula it grew up in the seclusion of the sea and the Himalayas, because in this sacred and ancient land it was given as a charge to the Aryan race to preserve thru’ the ages. But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world.

That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion, because it is the universal religion that embraces all others. If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal. A narrow religion, a sectarian religion, an exclusive religion can live only for a limited time and a limited purpose. This is the one religion: –

i) That can triumph over materialism by including and anticipating the discoveries of science and speculations of philosophy

ii) That impresses on mankind the closeness of God to us and embraces in its compass all the possible means by which man can approach God

iii) Which insists every moment on the truth which all religions acknowledge that He is in all men and all things and that in Him we move and have our being

iv) Which enables us not only to understand and believe this truth but to realize it with every part of our being

v) Which shows the world what the world is, that it is the Lila (play) of Vasudeva

vi) Which shows how we can best play our part in this Lila, its subtlest laws and its noblest rules

vii) Which does not separate life in any smallest detail from religion, which knows what immortality is and has utterly removed from us the reality of death”.

2.2 Need for Spiritual Leaders: He ends, “This is the word that has been put into my mouth to speak to you today. I spoke once before when I said that this freedom movement is not political; nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. Today I say nationalism is Sanatana dharma. The Hindu nation was born with Sanatana dharma; with it, it moves and with it, it grows. When Sanatana dharma declines, then the nation declines. This is the message I have to speak to you.”

3. Modern Western ideas we’re aping – Myth or Reality? Good or bad? Western worldview, based on their own materialistic culture and history, hold that their ideological, belief-based religion, alone is true; but not fit to be a part of schooling! Not universal, and not scientific enough, perhaps! They hold that rulers are oppressive, enslave people, don’t allow freedom to live as they wish, etc. So, they’ve fought for freedom believing that people know best (do they?) and must be free to choose leaders of their choice. Myth or reality?

4. Bharat’s ancient ideal had been the rule of raja-rishis. Freedom is mankind’s goal earned thru’ obedience and discipline; it is not the beginning! Our rulers and teachers were spiritually mature, guided by seers with long-term vision. They had the moral authority and wisdom to dispense justice fairly and create systems to educate and guide society to be good. Ultimately, only a few people can be good and be good rulers. And it is easier to identify and educate the few!

If all men are equal, and schooling is focused on knowledge of this and that, who is now responsible to make the good and who is to guide whom, and why? Modern ideas have failed to create good people and place them in positions of responsibility. Can politics of democracy ever succeed? Why not learn from our culture too!

5. Now what? Hopefully, modern schooling will provide an academic milieu where students and faculty can openly discuss and explore the universal ideals of religions, bereft of ideological beliefs and get established in the habit of daily self-development practices and become Karma-yogis, inspired to work for good of society and grow more and more in feelings of love, care, concern for each other.

Disclaimer

Views expressed above are the author’s own.

Uganda chafes at EU criticism over Museveni re-election

By
Newsdesk
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0

A man reads the “Sunday Vision” newspaper whose front page shows a portrait of re-elected President Yoweri Museveni. (Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP)

  • Uganda’s handling of elections last month is back to haunt them as the European Union mulls sanctions.
  • On Thursday, the EU parliament passed a resolution saying the election was not democratic, police and soldiers used excessive force, and detainees should be released.
  • To their end, Uganda accused the EU of “unbalanced” and “unobjective” resolution.

Uganda accused the European Union of meddling on Friday after the bloc’s parliament recommended sanctions over a crackdown and arrests of opponents around President Yoweri Museveni’s disputed re-election last month.

In power since 1986, Museveni was declared winner of the presidential poll with 59% of votes, but his main rival – pop star and lawmaker Bobi Wine – rejected the ballot as fraudulent.

On Thursday, the EU parliament passed a resolution saying the election was not democratic, police and soldiers used excessive force, and detainees should be released.

“Asking Uganda to release suspects already before the courts of law is tantamount to undue interference with a legitimate judicial process,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo told Reuters in response.

“We consider its resolution against Uganda as unbalanced and unobjective, the motive of which we are yet to establish.”

READ | Troops withdraw as Uganda lifts blockade of defeated opposition leader Bobi Wine’s home

Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has challenged the results at the Supreme Court. During the campaign, security forces dispersed his rallies with teargas, bullets and beatings.

The government cited violations of anti-coronavirus measures as justification and accused Wine’s camp of destabilisation. At least 54 people were killed in November and some 600 detained.

READ HERE | Uganda slams US over attempted visit to confined opposition leader

“The election process was not democratic and transparent,” the EU resolution said. It condemned the security forces for brutality and interference in politics and chided the government for using Covid-19 as an excuse for repression.

“Sanctions against individuals and organisations responsible for human rights violations in Uganda must be adopted,” the lawmakers said in a recommendation to the 27-nation bloc’s executive.

ALSO READ | US ‘deeply troubled’ by reports of violence, irregularities in Uganda poll

Museveni, 76, has long been a Western ally, receiving copious aid flows while deploying his military to trouble spots like South Sudan and Somalia. His longevity in power and treatment of opponents have, however, caused increasing anger abroad.

The EU lawmakers’ call followed a similar plea from two US congressmen who asked Washington to impose sanctions on seven Ugandan security officials for alleged rights violations.

EU urges China to reverse ban on BBC World News TV channel

By
Newsdesk
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0

The European Union on Saturday called on China to reverse its ban on the BBC World News television channel imposed in apparent retaliation for Britain’s pulling of the licence of state-owned Chinese broadcaster CGTN.

The EU said in a statement that Beijing’s move further restricted freedom of expression and access to information inside its borders,” and violated both the Chinese constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The statement also said that Hong Kong’s announcement that its public broadcaster would also stop carrying BBC broadcasts added to the erosion of the rights and freedoms that is ongoing” in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory since the imposition last year of a sweeping new national security law.

The EU remains strongly committed to safeguarding media freedom and pluralism, as well as protecting the right to freedom of expression online and offline, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information without interference of any kind,” the statement said.

While Britain is no longer in the EU, it remains a member of the Council of Europe, which oversees a 1989 agreement linking broadcasting licenses. Britain, the U.S. and foreign correspondents based in China have also expressed dismay over the BBC ban.

China’s move Thursday was largely symbolic, because BBC World was shown only on cable TV systems in hotels and apartment compounds for foreigners and some other businesses. However, it comes against the backdrop of growing conflict between Beijing and Western governments over a slew of issues ranging from human rights to trade and the COVID-19 pandemic in which Chinese criticisms over foreign media coverage have played a prominent role.

China’s National Radio and Television Administration said BBC World News coverage of the country violated requirements that news reporting be true and impartial, reflecting complaints over BBC reports about the government’s initial response to the virus outbreak in China. Other complaints were over allegations of forced labor and sexual abuse in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang, home to Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. The EU statement specifically linked the ban to BBC reporting on those topics.

It wasn’t clear whether BBC reporters in China would be affected. Last year, Beijing expelled foreign reporters for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times amid disputes with the Trump administration and complaints over media criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

Britain’s communications watchdog, Ofcom, revoked the license for CGTN, China’s English-language satellite news channel, on Feb. 4, citing links to the Communist Party, among other reasons.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Ofcom acted on political grounds based on ideological bias.

Losing its British license was a major blow for CGTN, which is part of a global effort by the party to promote its views and challenge Western media narratives about China, into which it has poured enormous resources. CGTN has a European operations hub in London.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the European Times staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Horror unearthed in Mexico’s ongoing drug war – Vatican News

By
officialinstitutions
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Horror unearthed in Mexico's ongoing drug war - Vatican News

By James Blears

The grisly discovery was made by Police Officers, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico`s second city, and the capital of the State of Jalisco. They came across this, after finding a severed human leg, near a highway bridge. During a more detailed search, they found a huge pile of black plastic bags taped shut. On opening them, they found a carnage resembling a slaughter house. 

The ultra violent “new generation Jalisco drug cartel,” which is based there, is the prime suspect in this slaughter. Its henchmen have killed hundreds of people and it`s spread its tentacles of influence throughout the entire Country. Several years ago, they even shot down a police helicopter, killing all of its occupants, using a rocket launcher. 

Since Mexico`s Drug War started in in 2006, more than quarter of a million people have been killed and more than eighty thousand people have vanished. Experts also estimate that thousands of Central American migrants go missing annually, as they trek across Mexico, trying to reach the US Border and cross.  Often as not they`re kidnapped by the cartels. then there are three options. Their relatives pay a ransom, or they join the ranks of organized crime, or if they refuse, they`re shot in the back of the head and dumped in clandestine gravesite shallow ditches, mostly located in desolate badlands. 

Listen to the report by James Blears

ANOTHER COLD-BLOODED MURDER OF AN AHMADI MEDICAL ASSISTANT IN PAKISTAN

By
Robert Johnson
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It is with agonizing heart-rending grief that we come to you with the horrible news of the murder of a medical assistant ABDUL QADIR working in the Clinic of Dr. Bin Yameen in the Bazid Khel area of Peshawar, Pakistan.

On Thursday February 11 2021, at around 2 p.m. when the clinic staff was on break for lunch and afternoon prayers, someone rang the clinic doorbell and Abdul Qadir opened the door to answer the bell. He was instantly shot twice and fell at the doorsteps. He was taken to hospital but sadly succumbed to his injuries and died.

Abdul Qadir was a senior member of the clinic staff. He was 65 years old. He was very well respected in the local community and was always very kind and helpful to the patients.

We have been regularly informing the sober minded advocates and defenders of human rights, of the monstrous wave of persecution, torture, harassment, and target killings of Ahmadis because of their faith and belief, going on in Pakistan.

The Government, its judiciary and law & order maintaining agencies are not taking any notice of the atrocities upon the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Pakistan and the venomous clergy are at liberty to carry on their acts of butchery against Ahmadis.

You will be shocked to hear that just in recent months this is the eighth killing of an Ahmadi and the fifth one in Peshawar which is in the province under the rule of the Governing Party PTI. There are in addition countless fabricated cases filed in courts against Ahmadis and threats and acts of violence all over Pakistan.

EU for lasting solution to Rohingya crisis

By
Newsdesk
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0

President of the European Council Charles Michel has reaffirmed European Union’s continued support to Bangladesh for a lasting and peaceful solution to the Rohingya crisis.

He said this when Ambassador Mahbub Hassan Saleh, the newly-appointed Head of Mission of Bangladesh to the EU, met him to present his Letters of Credence in Brussels on Thursday.

Ambassador Saleh stressed the need for Myanmar authorities taking credible measures to generate confidence among the forcibly-displaced Rohingyas, temporarily sheltered in Bangladesh, for their safe, dignified and sustainable return to the Rakhine State.

President Michel recalled his previous meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, including the last one held in Madrid in December 2019.

Ambassador Saleh also conveyed the greetings of the president and the prime minister of Bangladesh to the president of the European Council.

The European Council president acknowledged Bangladesh’s preoccupation with climate change, and noted the current presidency of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF).

Saleh suggested establishing a dedicated bilateral platform between Bangladesh and the EU for exchanging views and working more closely to address the challenges of climate change.

He also suggested holding a CVF-EU leaders’ meeting, during the lead-up to UNFCCC COP-26 in the UK later this year.

Michel responded positively to these suggestions.

The Bangladesh ambassador also underscored the need for expanding the scope of Bangladesh-European Union partnership.

He also conveyed Bangladesh prime minister’s invitation to the European Council president to visit the country at his earliest convenience.

The meeting took place following the existing health regulations in Belgium.

The ambassador was accompanied by Md Safiul Azam, counsellor (commerce) and Kaniz Fatema, first secretary (political) of the mission.

UK/EU talks to overcome post Brexit frictions in Northern Ireland; Dublin pleads for calm

By
Newsdesk
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0
UK/EU talks to overcome post Brexit frictions in Northern Ireland; Dublin pleads for calm











UK/EU talks to overcome post Brexit frictions in Northern Ireland; Dublin pleads for calm

Friday, February 12th 2021 – 09:33 UTC

Full article



The 499-kilometer border separating north from south Ireland has become one of the most contentious issues since, not least over trade

Britain and the EU vowed on Thursday to resolve post-Brexit trade frictions over the Northern Ireland border in the wake of the UK’s departure from the bloc. Northern Ireland was barely mentioned in the parliamentary debates prior to the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Yet the nature of the 499-kilometer border separating north from the south has become one of the most contentious issues since, not least over trade and the vulnerability of the peace accord struck in 1998 — the Good Friday Agreement — that largely ended sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland that had ensued since the late 1960s.

Since the UK fully left the EU after the post-Brexit transition period ended on January first, significant shortages of fresh produce and other goods has occurred across Northern Ireland, exacerbating post-Brexit tensions.

Senior British Cabinet Minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic held “a frank but constructive discussion” with the Good Friday Agreement and issues over the supply of goods at the center of those talks, the pair said.

Their statement added that they would “spare no effort” to implement solutions agreed in December under the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.

Relations between the UK and the EU have become increasingly fractious, with Ireland keeping a close eye on proceedings.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin has called on both sides to “dial down the rhetoric.” “We just need to calm it, because ultimately we want the United Kingdom aligning well with the European Union. We want harmonious, sensible relationships,” he told RTE radio.


SuperBowl runs a new Scientology ad for the 9th consecutive year

By
Juan Sanchez Gil
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Scientology ad BE MORE

A new Scientology Super Bowl ad has run for the ninth year running, and while the graphics and music, pacing and use of light are very similar to the ones of previous years, there is one point that makes it unique. Most of earlier productions were intended as stand-alone, timeless communications. This year’s was clearly tied to the past year’s ordeal. It begins, as described by Kelly Frazier to World Religion News “with stark footage of empty places — streets, a classroom, a stadium — followed by a montage featuring desperate health care workers trying, and possibly failing, to save lives. It shows people isolated, and not coping, alone at home”.

The video is a direct appeal to the rediscover spiritual power of each individual, to recover hope, challenging viewers to strive to “Be More,” which is the title of the ad has now player for for 1.4 million times, ends with the now familiar question—one first posed at the end of their ad in 2018 when the church launched its 24/7 DIRECTV television network: “Curious?” And it has been launched concidentaly with the launching a new section of their official website called: “A LOOK BACK & A LOOK AHEAD”, that presents what they have done right before the pandemic, during it, and what they plan for the near future.

Stop burning trees for energy, hundreds of scientists tell EU leaders

By
Newsdesk
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0
Stop burning trees for energy, hundreds of scientists tell EU leaders

A group of more than 500 scientists have signed a letter calling on the EU to stop treating the burning of biomass as carbon neutral.

They are asking governments around the world, including Europe, to end subsidiaries for burning wood that are harmful to biodiversity and pose a serious threat to the world’s forests.

They claim that for each kilowatt hour of heat or electricity produced by burning trees, “it will likely add two or three times as much carbon to the air as using fossil fuels.” This is because wood is not as energy-dense as fuels like coal or oil meaning more has to be burnt in order to generate the same amount of power.

The letter is addressed to EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel as well as US President Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Suga and South Korean President Moon.

It was signed by hundreds of scientists and economists including former chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jean-Pascal van Ypersele. The group worry that this “false solution” is replacing real efforts to reduce carbon emissions in countries around the world.

“Fighting the climate emergency without changing the EU’s biomass rules is like trying to bail out a boat with a hole in the bottom,” says Alex Mason, Senior Policy Officer at WWF European Policy Office.

He adds that it is what you are burning that matters “not how sustainably the forest was managed”.

Why is burning wood a bad idea?

Although technically ‘renewable’, regrowing trees takes years. Natural regeneration of forests has been found to capture carbon faster and for longer than replanting efforts. Simply leaving trees to grow on their own could potentially be the “single largest natural climate solution available to us”.

For years, producers of paper and wood have used their waste to generate electricity which did not lead to extra trees being cut down.

But, the group of scientists say, “in recent years there has been a misguided move to cut down whole trees or divert large portions of stem wood for bioenergy, releasing carbon that would otherwise stay locked up in forests.”

“If the world supplied just an additional 2 per cent of its energy from wood, it would need to double its commercial wood harvests,” reads the letter. They add that there is good evidence that increased use of bioenergy already means more forests are being harvested in Europe.

“The revision of the EU renewables law is a crucial chance; the Commission must listen to scientists and citizens and stop trees being burned in the name of the climate,” says Mason.

IQM Announces EU Consortium to Accelerate the Commercialization of Quantum Computing

By
Newsdesk
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0
IQM Announces EU Consortium to Accelerate the Commercialization of Quantum Computing

ESPOO, Finland, Feb. 12, 2021 — Europe has always been excellent in academic research, but over the past few decades commercializing research projects has been slow compared to international competition. This is starting to change with quantum technologies. As one of the largest efforts in Europe and worldwide, Germany announced € 2 Billion funding into quantum programs in June 2020, from which €120 Million are invested in this current round of research grants.

Today, IQM announced a Quantum project consortium that includes some of Europe’s leading startups (ParityQC, IQM), industry leaders (Infineon Technologies), research centers (Forschungszentrum Jülich), supercomputing centers (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre), and academia (Freie Universität Berlin) has been awarded € 12.4 Million from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Announcement in German).

The scope of the project is to accelerate commercialization through an innovative co-design concept. This project focuses on application-specific quantum processors, which have the potential to create a fastlane to quantum advantage. The digital-analog concept used to operate the processors will further lay the foundation for commercially viable quantum computers. This project will run for four years and aims to develop a 54-qubit quantum processor.

The project is intended to support the European FET Flagship project EU OpenSuperQ, announced in 2018 which is aimed at designing, building, and operating a quantum information processing system of up to 100 qubits. Deploying digital-analog quantum computing, this consortium adds a new angle to the OpenSuperQ project and widens its scope. With efforts from Munich, Berlin and Jülich, as well as Parity QC from Austria, the project builds bridges and seamlessly integrates into the European quantum landscape.

IQM Quantum Computers Design

“The grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany is a huge recognition of our unique co-design approach for quantum computers. Last year when we established our office in Munich, this was one of our key objectives. The concept allows us to become a system integrator for full-stack quantum computers by bringing together all the relevant players. As Europe’s leading startup in quantum technologies, this gives us confidence to further invest in Germany and other European countries” said Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO of IQM Quantum Computers.

“DAQC is an important project for Germany and Europe. It enables us to take a leading role in the area of quantum technologies. It also allows us to bring quantum computing into one of the prime academic supercomputing centres to more effectively work on the important integration of high-performance computing and quantum computing. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration,” said Prof. Dr Martin Schulz, Member of the Board of Directors, Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ).

About IQM Quantum Computers:

IQM is a European leader in superconducting quantum computers, headquartered in Espoo, Finland. Since its inception in 2018, IQM has grown to 80+ employees and has also established a subsidiary in Munich, Germany, to lead the co-design approach. IQM delivers on-premises quantum computers for research laboratories and supercomputing centers and provides complete access to its hardware. For industrial customers, IQM delivers quantum advantage through a unique application-specific co-design approach. IQM has raised € 71 Million from VCs firms and also public grants and is also building Finland’s first quantum computer.

For more information, visit www.meetiqm.com.

Source: IQM Finland Oy

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