United Nations Declaration (Articles 1 - 30):

Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts

Incoming UN chief names three women to top posts
Nigerian Minister of the Environment Amina Mohammed, seen in 2015, will be the UN's number two official (AFP Photo/Mireya ACIERTO)

Sustainable Development
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013. They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."
"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


The Declaration of Human Freedom

Archangel Michael (Via Steve Beckow), Feb. 19, 2011

Every being is a divine and eternal soul living in a temporal body. Every being was alive before birth and will live after death.

Every soul enters into physical life for the purpose of experience and education, that it may, in the course of many lifetimes, learn its true identity as a fragment of the Divine.

Life itself is a constant process of spiritual evolution and unfoldment, based on free choice, that continues until such time as we realize our true nature and return to the Divine from which we came.

No soul enters life to serve another, except by choice, but to serve its own purpose and that of the Divine from which it came.

All life is governed by natural and universal laws which precede and outweigh the laws of humanity. These laws, such as the law of karma, the law of attraction, and the law of free will, are decreed by God to order existence and assist each person to achieve life’s purpose.

No government can or should survive that derives its existence from the enforced submission of its people or that denies its people their basic rights and freedoms.

Life is a movement from one existence to another, in varied venues throughout the universe and in other universes and dimensions of existence. We are not alone in the universe but share it with other civilizations, most of them peace-loving, many of whom are more advanced than we are, some of whom can be seen with our eyes and some of whom cannot.

The evidence of our five senses is not the final arbiter of existence. Humans are spiritual as well as physical entities and the spiritual side of life transcends the physical. God is a Spirit and the final touchstone of God’s Truth is not physical but spiritual. The Truth is to be found within.

God is one and, because of this, souls are one. They form a unity. They are meant to live in peace and harmony together in a “common unity” or community. The use of force to settle affairs runs contrary to natural law. Every person should have the right to conduct his or her own affairs without force, as long as his or her choices do not harm another.

No person shall be forced into marriage against his or her will. No woman shall be forced to bear or not bear children, against her will. No person shall be forced to hold or not hold views or worship in a manner contrary to his or her choice. Nothing vital to existence shall be withheld from another if it is within the community’s power to give.

Every person shall retain the ability to think, speak, and act as they choose, as long as they not harm another. Every person has the right to choose, study and practice the education and career of their choice without interference, provided they not harm another.

No one has the right to kill another. No one has the right to steal from another. No one has the right to force himself or herself upon another in any way.

Any government that harms its citizens, deprives them of their property or rights without their consent, or makes offensive war upon its neighbors, no matter how it misrepresents the situation, has lost its legitimacy. No government may govern without the consent of its people. All governments are tasked with seeing to the wellbeing of their citizens. Any government which forces its citizens to see to its own wellbeing without attending to theirs has lost its legitimacy.

Men and women are meant to live fulfilling lives, free of want, wherever they wish and under the conditions they desire, providing their choices do not harm another and are humanly attainable.

Children are meant to live lives under the beneficent protection of all, free of exploitation, with unhindered access to the necessities of life, education, and health care.

All forms of exploitation, oppression, and persecution run counter to universal and natural law. All disagreements are meant to be resolved amicably.

Any human law that runs counter to natural and universal law is invalid and should not survive. The enactment or enforcement of human law that runs counter to natural and universal law brings consequences that cannot be escaped, in this life or another. While one may escape temporal justice, one does not escape divine justice.

All outcomes are to the greater glory of God and to God do we look for the fulfillment of our needs and for love, peace, and wisdom. So let it be. Aum/Amen.


Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit

Pope Francis arrives for historic first US visit
Pope Francis laughs alongside US President Barack Obama upon arrival at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, on September 22, 2015, on the start of a 3-day trip to Washington (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)


Today's doodle in the U.S. celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech on its 50th anniversary (28 Aug 2013)

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'

'Love is love': Obama lauds gay marriage activists in hailing 'a victory for America'
The White House released this image, of the building colored like the rainbow flag, on Facebook following the supreme court’s ruling. Photograph: Facebook

Same-sex marriage around the world

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'

Merkel says Turkey media crackdown 'highly alarming'
Reporters Without Borders labels Erdogan as 'enemy of press freedom'

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

On the trail of the offshore tax dodgers

BBC News, by Ian Pollock, Personal finance reporter, 13 December 2011 

Related Stories 

Greg Skyte, the man in charge of the search for
offshore tax dodgers
The government's attempts to squeeze more money from offshore tax dodgers is being run from just about the most nondescript set of offices you could possibly imagine.

Based at the back of a tax advice centre in the middle of Birmingham, the Offshore Co-ordination Unit (OCU) is the latest measure of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to tackle offshore tax evasion.

As the name of the OCU suggests, it will try to co-ordinate the Revenue's scrutiny of the extra information it is now receiving on UK taxpayers with money abroad.

That includes data generated by recent tax deals with the Liechtenstein and Swiss governments.

"The information HMRC holds is vast and we hold about 80 times more data than the British Library," says the new unit's boss Greg Skyte.

"It's about getting a grasp on all the data we have. The unit is about placing the right data with the right people and making the best use of the data we have."

Time to confess

The unit's first salvo has been to write to the first 1,000 of about 6,000 UK residents who were recently revealed to own accounts with the HSBC bank in Switzerland.

They will be asked to certify that they do not owe anything to HMRC - or confess that they do.

The betting must surely be that money will soon come in.

The deal struck with the Liechtenstein authorities in 2009 has already flushed out 1,721 people who have voluntarily admitted they hold untaxed money there.

As of March this year they had already paid over an extra £140m.

All that has happened even before the banks in Liechtenstein start writing, next March, to their account holders from the UK.

They will ask those customers to confirm they are in a regular position with the UK authorities, or tell them to close their accounts and take their money elsewhere.

Surely collecting hidden tax from the HSBC customers will now be a piece of cake, given that the UK authorities know their names and addresses, and details of their Swiss bank accounts as well?

Greg Skyte says previous experience suggests it will not be so easy.

"A lot of it [the money] is put through trust structures, there are company structures involved, and numerous individuals who are linked together and it's not always straightforward," he says.

"It is not always immediately apparent who has ownership of that bank account - we have to establish that before we can establish a liability."

Who are they?

It is no surprise to anyone that there are tax dodgers hiding their money offshore.

So what has the Revenue learned about the ones it has been uncovering recently?

"Anecdotally, people are hiding money offshore not necessarily just for tax purposes, the hiding of the tax is a secondary motive for them," says Greg Skyte.

"We do have cases where individuals have simply stashed significant sums offshore, purely for the purpose of keeping it hidden from the rest of their family," he explains.

That does not make it legal, of course.

His colleagues have also come across a few cases where the money has, apparently, originated in attempts to keep cash and assets out of the hands of the Nazis before and during World War II.

"What we have found under the Liechtenstein disclosure facility is that there are quite a number of individuals, some in the Jewish community, who have hidden their investments and assets from the war," Greg Skyte says.

"This has been passed down from generation to generation, and the assets have built up significantly due to the interest and we are finding instances where those assets run from hundreds of thousands to millions of pounds."

What has motivated the owners of all this cash to come clean now, apart from the fact that the Revenue is on to them?

"Those individuals who have now had it passed down to them are now asking if they really have to disclose this income," Greg Skyte explains.

"There are a lot of individuals who are in their twilight years who have had this playing on their conscience for quite a few years, maybe decades, and who want to come forward to put their tax affairs on the right footing before they die so they don't pass their concerns and liabilities to their children."

Thwarted no longer

The OCU's existence is part of the Revenue's grand plan to squeeze an extra £7bn from tax dodgers in the next few years.

Starting with just 25 staff, the Birmingham unit plans to expand to 100 or so in the next few years.

They are using computer programmes to scrutinise existing HMRC data, and numerous databases the Revenue is building with the information now being supplied to it by offshore banks and investment firms.

The Revenue's efforts to claw back potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of uncollected tax were kick-started in 2006.

After years of being thwarted, it finally won a breakthrough legal case, giving it the right to demand that banks operating in the UK reveal the names and addresses of UK customers with accounts offshore.

Since then, vital deals have been struck to exchange individuals' tax information with the governments of Liechtenstein and Switzerland, after both governments caved in under international pressure.

These countries had been two of the world's most notorious tax havens where secrecy had been the watchword of their banks.

As well as overseeing the existing operation of the Liechtenstein "disclosure facility" and the HSBC cases, the OCU will also directly scrutinise the affairs of up to 500 people a year, whose bank details the Revenue will soon be able to request from the Swiss authorities.

Not enough staff

Greg Skyte expects that quite a significant number of people his unit contacts will end up owing nothing to the UK tax authorities.

"Maybe they are not UK resident although they have a UK address, and [then there are] those who are non-domiciled. They may not fall under the UK tax umbrella," he points out.

"Because of their non-domiciled status, provided they hold their investments offshore, and they don't remit any of that income to the UK, they won't be chargeable on that liability."

What if people simply do not respond to a letter from the Revenue, or the UK's tax inspectors don't believe the person's claim that there is nothing to declare?

Greg Skyte says each case will be assessed, and if there is reasonable evidence the person has been less than frank they will receive further scrutiny.

But he admits that his department will not have the staff or resources to, for instance, call in all 6,000 people on the HSBC list for a grilling.

"It just isn't practical to issue letters inviting each and every one of those to come in," he says.

"We don't have the resource, short term, to take forward enquiries on such a scale. But we will ask questions on a significant number of those cases."

That does not mean someone can expect to get away scot-free simply by lying and signing a certificate saying they have no UK tax to pay.

Anyone who responds this way, even if they are not followed up immediately, will find they stay on file, with the information they supplied cross-checked in the future against other records held by both HMRC and foreign tax authorities.


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