Saudi, UAE send relief aid to flood-stricken Iran

Yahoo – AFP, April 18, 2019

Iranians carry sandbags to build barricades against flood water in the city
of Hamidiyeh, Khuzestan province (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent 95 tons of humanitarian aid to their rival Iran as it reels from deadly floods, officials said Thursday, after Tehran complained US sanctions were obstructing relief.

"The Saudi Red Crescent, as part of a joint Saudi-UAE initiative to alleviate the suffering of Iranian citizens, has dispatched a relief plane to Tehran with 95 tons of humanitarian aid to support those affected by floods," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The aid, which includes food and shelter material, was authorised by Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince, it added.

The Emirates Red Crescent was also involved in the relief operation, the UAE's official WAM news agency said.

At least 76 people have died in Iran after torrential rainfall, which has also caused billions of dollars worth of damage since March 19.

Iran's Red Crescent has repeatedly complained that US banking sanctions re-imposed last year make it impossible to receive donations from outside the country.

US President Donald Trump last year withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, later re-imposing sanctions focusing on oil exports and financial transactions.

Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran have a longstanding rivalry based as much on geostrategic interests as religious differences.

Facing off across the Gulf, the two major oil producers have taken opposing sides for decades in conflicts across the Middle East.

Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 in protest at the torching of its diplomatic missions by Iranian protesters angry over its execution of a leading Shiite cleric.

American Red Cross squandered aid after Haiti earthquake, report alleges

Despite raising nearly half a billion dollars and allocating $170m to ‘shelter relief’, the aid organization built only six permanent homes, an investigation has found

The Guardian, Alan Yuhus, 4 June 2015

An undated American Red Cross handout photo of the aftermath of the earthquake
shows the devastation to homes in Haiti. Photograph: Matt Marek/American
Red Cross/PA

Despite collecting nearly half a billion dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, the American Red Cross has built only six permanent homes and seemingly squandered millions in the country, according to a new report.

A joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR uncovered rampant mismanagement, high overhead costs and deeply rooted acrimony from Haitians toward the aid organization. Among the investigation’s findings was that although the Red Cross apportioned about $170m to the category of “shelter” relief, and although it at first planned to build some 700 houses, it only constructed six permanent homes.

The report charges the Red Cross with consistent misrepresentation of its projects, especially in housing. The authors cite promotional materials that say the Red Cross provided more than 130,000 people with homes, and then note that that total includes people in “transitional shelters”, recipients of short-term rent assistance, and people who had been “trained in proper construction techniques”.

The Red Cross disputes the report and asserts it has “helped build and operate eight hospitals and clinics” and “move more than 100,000 people out of make-shift tents into safe and improved housing”. In a statement, the organization said it is “disappointed” by the “lack of balance, context and accuracy” on the part of ProPublica and NPR.

A major problem for the organization was leadership and staffing, according to the report. Integral positions, including experts for health and shelter, were left vacant for months and sometimes years. The positions that were staffed were predominantly held by expats or by people flown in from the United States, many of whom could not speak French or Creole.

In one 2011 document, Red Cross official Judith St Ford notes that there are “serious program delays caused by internal issues that go unaddressed”, including for cholera relief.

“There is a clear lack of foresight and planning,” she wrote, and “the lack of leadership ability has contributed to poor morale in the field.”

She also urged her superiors to hire more Haitians: “the implication that talented, smart, competent Haitians cannot be found in Haiti has to be dispelled.”

In its statement the Red Cross says 90% of its current staff are Haitians; the organization did not break down the hierarchy or positions of its staff.

“If they were an organization that had a real history in Haiti I think this would’ve gone a lot better,” said Justin Elliott, one of the journalists who co-wrote the report. “The entire Haiti reconstruction effort has been really problematic, but the outside groups that have done better have roots there, have Haitian people working at high levels, have people who speak the language.”

In one 2013 email published by ProPublica, CEO Gail McGovern admitted a project had failed and that she did not know what to do with a $20m remainder. “Now that the Northern project is going bust and we are still holding $20 million of contingency, any ideas on how to spend the rest of this?” she asked, before mentioning a mysterious “wonderful helicopter idea”.

Without Haitians in leadership positions, the Red Cross was particularly ill-prepared to deal with Haiti’s land tenure rules, a system so tangled and unforgiving that it has intimidated USAid and Vatican relief efforts.

Residents of the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for people displaced by the 2010
earthquake, wait for customers outside their tent where they have set up a
stand to sell rice, oil and canned goods in Port-au-Prince on 9 January 2013.
Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

“Land tenure is probably the biggest stumbling block,” said Jonathan M Katz, a freelance journalist and author of a book about the earthquake, The Big Truck That Went By. The system has stymied aid organizations for years, and Katz said that for years aid organizations have “thrown up their collective hands and said ‘we don’t really want to deal with this.’”

The Red Cross entangled itself in a web of other organizations, often paying them to do relief work, themselves struggling in Haiti. This outsourcing is commonplace in the international aid industry, Katz said, and leads to inevitable but not necessarily unreasonable overhead costs. But eager to better solicit donations, organizations often try to downplay these costs.

The report notes that overhead charges by the Red Cross and its contractors undermine McGovern’s claim that “minus the nine cents overhead, 91 cents on the dollar will be going to Haiti.”

In one case, Elliott and his co-author, NPR’S Laura Sullivan, found that the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) exacted $1.56m in overhead from the American Red Cross’s payment of $6m, all to help give Haitians rental subsidies so they could leave tent camps. The IFRC said the costs were related to “administration, finance, human resources”.

In another case, the Red Cross commissioned Swiss and Spanish Red Cross societies to upgrade shelters, but still took 24% of the money for the project in additional overhead costs, according to the report.

Where exactly the $488m of the American Red Cross’s Haiti budget has gone is unclear, Elliott said, since “the whole international aid sector is pretty opaque in general. And the spending of the American Red Cross is incredible opaque. You can tell hardly anything from their disclosures.”

He said that the issue of money was particularly sensitive to Haitians who had coordinated with the Red Cross.

“They were furious basically over broken promises,” Elliott said. “About three years ago, the Red Cross told people they were going to build hundreds of new homes in this very hard-hit area, and this thing was just stalled. Over the next two years they had meetings with the community, handed out juice boxes and so on, and nothing happened for a long time.”

The Red Cross is now helping build a road and install solar lights in the area.

Katz said that the problems of the American Red Cross are “typical of the aid industry in general. The Red Cross is sort of the biggest kid on the block. Because they make way more money than anybody else, what they do is magnified.”

The interconnected NGOs and aid organizations of the world, ranging from the many satellites of the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders to the Clinton Foundation, Katz said, should deserve more skepticism from the public. Reports have traced the 2011 cholera epidemic to United Nations relief efforts, he noted, adding that many organizations operate more like businesses than anything else.

“Even when an aid group is pulling off a project well,” he said, “if it isn’t going to be there forever, if it isn’t going to be accountable for successes and failures, if it isn’t leaving something behind that’s permanent, then it’s still capable of doing damage.”

Last year the Red Cross similarly took issue with another ProPublica report that said the organization had disastrously mismanaged aid relief after hurricane Sandy.

India-Pakistan flood disaster prompts frantic rescue bid

Yahoo – AFP, Bhuvan Bagga, 8 Sep 2014

Residents stand on a roof as raging waters from the overflowing Tawi river

inundate a Hindu Temple in Jammu on September 6, 2014 (AFP Photo)

Authorities in India and Pakistan made frantic efforts Monday to pluck tens of thousands of people to safety from floods which have killed at least 350 as desperate residents huddled on rooftops.

With phone lines down and roads cut off, the full scale of the disaster in the cross-border Kashmir region and in Pakistan's Punjab province was still to emerge but video footage shot from army helicopters showed entire villages under water, with only tin roofs visible.

As Pakistan's premier toured some of the worst-hit areas, India deployed naval commandos as part of a massive relief effort.

Indian residents look on towards threatened

 houses as waters from the overflowing Tawi

 river rage past in Jammu on September 6, 

2014 (AFP Photo/STRDEL)

Some of the famous shikara wooden boats, which ferry tourists across the Dal Lake in Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, were pressed into service to reach isolated homes.

Divers toiled to help bring people to safety while residents on both sides could be seen waving from rooftops as vehicles and livestock were washed away by surging waters below them.

Disaster officials say at least 350 villages have been submerged on the Indian side of the de facto border in Kashmir by monsoon rains, making it the deadliest flooding there in over half a century.

Thousands of troops, police and other emergency personnel, backed by helicopters and boats, fanned out across the state to deliver relief supplies, including protein biscuits and bottles of drinking water.

Others were being fed in mass volunteer-run kitchens set up by mosques.

An Indian soldier carries a toddler as

 evacuated families alight from an Indian

 Air Force Mi-17 helicopter flying a rescue

 sortie in the Rajouri district of Jammu

 and Kashmir on September 7, 2014

(AFP Photo)

The home ministry said around 20,000 people had been rescued so far but the head of the army's northern command said many more remained marooned.

"For the next 48 hours, our focus remains on Srinagar and South Kashmir because there are still large numbers of people who are stranded and who are without any food and water," General D.S. Hooda told reporters.

"It's our idea to get them out as soon as possible. We will continue... until everyone is pulled out of this situation."

An Indian Navy spokesman said teams of divers were working "day and night" to rescue survivors.

Airport cut off

Srinagar airport was cut off from the city by heavy flooding just 700 yards outside the terminal, according to an AFP correspondent.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looks

 over a flood-affected area from an 

aeroplane during a visit to the state of 

Jammu and Kashmir on September 7, 

2014 (AFP Photo/PIB)

Delhi resident R. S. Gandhi was stuck at the airport after flying up from the capital to rescue his in-laws.

"The last time I was able to speak to them was yesterday and they had already moved up to the second floor of their building. Twelve feet of water had come into their building in just three hours," he told AFP.

"Now that I am here I don't know what to do next, how I can help or get them back to Delhi."

Communications were lost Sunday when the rain-swollen Jhelum river flooded large parts of Srinagar. Srinagar's main hospital and army barracks were among the buildings badly hit.

There was no fresh rainfall Monday and forecasters said only light drizzle was likely in the next few days. But Indian officials warned the death toll of 150 was bound to rise.

Refuge on roofs

Residents sit by the rubble of collapsed

houses which were destroyed by flood

waters from the raging Tawi river in Jammu

 on September 7, 2014 (AFP Photo/STRDEL)

In Pakistan officials said the number of dead on their side now stood at 206, with most killed in Punjab province.

Helicopters, troops and other emergency personnel have been deployed, according to Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif handed out compensation cheques to flood victims at Rawalakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

"There is no compensation for life, but government will help the affected brothers and sisters to rebuild their homes," he said.

In the remote mountainous district of Haveli in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, landslides have caused major damage to roads and electricity supplies, leaving residents without power or drinking water for days.

Pakistani residents wait to be evacuated

 by boat from the flood-affected town of 

Jalalpur Bhattian in the Hafizabad district

 of Punjab province on September 8, 2014

(AFP Photo/Arif Ali)

Local politician Masood Rathor said there was a shortage of food and medicine in the area, with only one doctor to treat the population.

Tariq Umer, 38, a labourer, told of his desperate struggle to save his family and possessions.

"I was sleeping with my wife and three children when the floodwaters came at around midnight. I barely managed to get my family out and could not save anything from the house," he told AFP.

"My house and all my belongings have been swept away in the water and I have been left with nothing. Now I am taking my family to relatives for refuge."

Raja Moazam, deputy director of the disaster management authority, told AFP the death toll in Pakistani Kashmir now stood at 64.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi toured his country's sector of Kashmir Sunday, describing the situation as "a national-level disaster" and also offering relief assistance to Sharif.

Related Articles:

Pakistan premier Sharif 'much satisfied' with Modi meeting

India's Modi makes landmark visit to disputed Kashmir

UN Security Council demands safe access for MH17 investigators

The UN Security Council has passed a resolution calling for an international investigation into the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. Permanent member Russia was among those who supported the resolution.

Deutsche Welle, 21 July 2014

Members of the security council vote on a resolution concerning access to the crash

site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 during a security council meeting at United

Nations headquarters, Monday, July 21, 2014. The resolution was adopted by a

unanimous vote. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

The resolution, which had been drafted by Australian diplomats, was adopted unanimously on Monday.

It condemned the apparent shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over rebel-held eastern Ukraine last week. It demanded that those responsible "be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability." It also called on all armed groups in the region to ensure "safe, secure, full and unrestricted access" for international investigators.

The passage of the resolution followed a weekend of intense negotiations and widespread pressure on Russia to support the measure.

Obama addresses Putin

This came just hours after US President Barack Obama used a statement to reporters at the White House to demand that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, use his considerable influence over separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine to ensure investigators full access to the wreckage of flight MH17.

Obama said it was clear that pro-Russian separatists who control the territory where flight MH17 came down last week were continuing to prevent international investigators from gaining full access to the wreckage.

"President Putin says that he supports a full and fair investigation, and I appreciate those words, but they have to be supported by actions," Obama added.

While he didn't directly raise the possibility of imposing fresh, tougher sanctions on Russia, Obama indicated that these could be in the offing. He said that if the Kremlin continued to back the rebels in eastern Ukraine, "the costs for Russia's behavior will only continue to increase."

Obama was speaking shortly before Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced in a televised statement that he secured an agreement with the rebels under which the bodies of the victims would be handed over to Dutch officials and that the black boxes would be turned over to a Malaysian team.

Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 crashed last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board. Of these, 193 were Dutch nationals.

pfd/mg (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)

Related Article:

'A political game with bodies': Dutch foreign minister on MH17 at UN (+Video)

Putin 'will help recover bodies, black boxes': Dutch PM

Putin 'will help recover bodies, black boxes': Dutch PM

Yahoo – AFP, 20 July 2014

Dutch Prime minister Mark Rutte gives a press conference in The Hague, on
July 20, 2014, about the situation of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
in eastern Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday promised Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte he will help retrieve bodies and black boxes from the Ukrainian rebel-held crash site of flight MH17.

Putin, who is believed to exert influence on the pro-Russia rebels, made the promise in his third conversation with Rutte since Thursday's crash, the Dutch government press service RVD said, amid growing international anger over the stranded bodies.

"Besides allowing unrestricted access to the crash site, the conversation focused on practical matters, namely the departure of the train that has many bodies and the handing over of the black boxes," a spokeswoman for the government press service RVD told AFP, asking not to be named.

"On both points Putin promised his full cooperation," the spokesman said.

Most of the 298 people on the Malaysia Airways flight, likely brought down by a pro-Russian rebel missile, were Dutch.

Around 200 bodies taken from the site in eastern Ukraine are being held in refrigerated trains nearby, pending the arrival of international investigators.

Ukrainian rebels have said that they have the black boxes, crucial in the crash investigation.

OSCE inspectors, part of the monitoring mission to Ukraine, document bodybags

 from MH17 in a refrigerated wagon at Torez train station, near the crash site,

on Sunday. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

Members of the security council vote on a resolution concerning access to the crash

site of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 during a security council meeting at United

Nations headquarters, Monday, July 21, 2014. The resolution was adopted by a

unanimous vote. Photograph: Seth Wenig/AP

Related Articles:

Dutch sending police, want to secure MH17 crash site: PM - New

A minute's silence for the MH17 dead as first coffins reach Eindhoven (+Video)
MH17 bodies expected Wednesday, IDs could take months: Dutch PM

Putin and Rutte discuss MH17 site access again

UN Security Council demands safe access for MH17 investigators

Malaysian PM wins guarantees regarding bodies, black boxes
MH17: Dutch experts arrive at crash scene as heavy fighting breaks out

'We have one aim, to get our people back,' Dutch prime minister says

Putin 'must take responsibility' for crash site access: Dutch PM

Malaysian Airlines MH17 passenger manifest (Pdf)

"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.

Florida jury slaps RJ Reynolds with $23.6 bn in damages

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. …”

US sends more troops to storm-ravaged Philippines

Google – AFP, 11 November 2013 

In this photo released by the US Marine Corps, Marines load equipment onto 

an aircraft on November 11, 2013 at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, in Okinawa, 

Japan, in preparation for a humanitarian and disaster relief mission to the Philippines 

(US Marines/AFP, David N. Hersey)

Washington — The United States said Monday it was providing $20 million in humanitarian aid as well as additional troops to help out in the Philippines after the devastating hit of Typhoon Haiyan.

Four MV-22B Ospreys -- aircraft that can operate in difficult environments -- and three KC-130J Hercules planes headed to the disaster zones from Japan, the US Marine Corps said in a statement.

On board were some 90 marines and sailors tasked with helping a humanitarian assistance survey team of around 90 US soldiers already on the ground in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan, which killed thousands of people when it flattened entire towns just days ago.

The United Nations said it fears more than 10,000 people were killed in the city of Tacloban alone, and warned it was "expecting the worst" for the final body count.

US Marines who arrived in the city of Tacoblan earlier Monday to deliver emergency supplies expressed shock at the devastation.

"Everything's destroyed," said Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, the commanding general of the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

In this photo released by the US Marine Corps, Marines secure gear onto a 

pallet on November 10, 2013 at the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma during 

preparation for a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission to the 

Philippines (US Marines/AFP/File, David N. Hersey)

Secretary of State John Kerry said the US government was "organizing emergency shipments of critically-needed material to provide shelter to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos driven from their homes," in addition to food and hygiene supplies.

To support these projects, the State Department said Monday the US humanitarian agency USAID was allocating some $20 million in emergency aid.

Kerry also said the State Department was working with the NGO Team Rubicon to deploy a group of veterans to the region.

"I want to assure the people of the Philippines and the many Americans of Filipino heritage that we are working as hard as possible to provide essential assistance to help the Philippine people and their government recover from this tragedy," Kerry said.

Since 1990, the US government has responded to more than 40 disasters in the Philippines, according to the Pentagon.

Related Articles:

Social networks proving key to disaster relief

Typhoon Haiyan: British and US warships head for Philippines

The Light Collective and Mother Gaia: In the Wake of Typhoon Haiyan

Chilean prosecutors drop charges over 2010 mine collapse

Deutsche Welle, 2 Aug 2013

The Chilean public prosecutor's office has decided not to press charges against the owners of a mine that collapsed in 2010, trapping 33 workers underground for 70 days. Miners have responded with anger.

After a three-year probe into the mine collapse, the public prosecutor's office said the investigation had left it "unconvinced" of the need to file charges.

One of the miners, Mario Sepulveda, told the AP news agency that the decision was "a disgrace to Chile's justice system."

"It's impossible that in an accident of this magnitude no one is held responsible," said Sepulveda, who became a spokesman for the men at the time of the collapse and subsequent dramatic rescue. He added: "Today, I want to dig a deep hole and bury myself again; only this time, I don't want anybody to find me."

Shortcomings

Laurence Goldborne, who was mining minister at the time of the accident, also condemned the decision.

"It seems incredible to me that this would be the decision after a three-year probe," he said, stressing that the mine had obviously not been properly managed.

"Had the chimney at the San Jose mine had a ladder, in accordance with regulations... the 33 miners would not have spent 70 days trapped 700 meters (765 yards) under the ground," Goldborne said.

After the rescue, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera had vowed that those responsible for the cave-in would be held responsible.

A civil suit for compensation for the miners has been filed. A lawyer for 31 of the 33 men, Renato Frenafeta, said most of them had suffered from "serious psychological consequences" following the accident.

He said many could no longer work.

Worldwide broadcast

The San Jose mine in the Atacama Desert caved in on August 5, 2010, trapping the 33 miners in a hollow space under tons of rock. More than two weeks passed before it became known that the men had survived, which they did by stretching their 48-hour supply of emergency rations for 17 days.

Eventually, a narrow shaft was drilled into the hollow where the men were enclosed, establishing contact and allowing food and water to be sent to them.

The miners were finally rescued on October 13 in a spectacular operation that was broadcast around the world.

The incident focused attention on safety issues in the Chilean mining industry, one of the country's most important sources of income.

Following the accident, the rate of mining-related deaths and accidents in Chile fell, a fact the Mining Ministry attributes to better oversight by inspectors.

 tj/rc (dpa, AP)

Luis Urzúa, the leader of the trapped miners and the last of

the 33 to be lifted  to freedom, celebrates with President Piñera

at San José Mine, during "Operación San Lorenzo".

Related Articles:

Chile's Congress blame mine owners for accident

33, the magic number

The BBC’s James Read says the number 33 has taken on a special significance for the miners, who are known to be superstitious: there are 33 miners, it took 33 days for the drill to complete the rescue shaft and Roman Catholic Chileans believe Jesus Christ was 33 when he died. Even President Sebastian Pinera mentioned the “magic number” in his triumphant speech after the first miner emerged from the shaft. The date of the rescue 13/10/10, adds up to - you guessed it - 33.


"The 33 Miners" – Oct 24, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The N in Kundalini" – Oct 20, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"The Human Design" – Oct 18, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

"... So finally, I give you an answer to a question that has not been asked, but is still on the minds of many. What happened last week in Chile was not an accident [the saving of 33 miners]. Everyone was amazed at how smooth it could be. So, look at the numerology around it! Even the mainstream media noticed - 33, 33, 33. But the media did not tell you the meaning of it, because they didn't know. To them, it was just coincidental, so many 33s!

Let me tell you what it means. Let us take a look at the numerology attributes of 33 from the ancients to modern day. The number 33 is called a master number. It is not to be broken apart numerologically, but you could still look at the attributes of the three alone if you wish. The three in numerological terms is a catalyst energy. A catalytic energy changes things around it. When you put two threes together, they represent one of the highest energies on the planet. It's so high that it's the last master number that is definable by humanity.

In numerology, 44 has no definition. Even those in Tibet who helped originate the numerological system said that 44 was multidimensional and had no paradigm of definition. Neither did 55 or 66 or 77. Thus, 33 was the highest of all defined master numbers and remains so to this day.

Now, don't misunderstand what I'm going to tell you, for this definition is not about the Human Being; it's about an attribute. Thirty-three is defined as the passion of the Christ. Not the man, but the attribute [the noun, compassionate redeemer], the passion of the Christ. Is there anything higher than this? The number 33 is the highest compassion number of them all, and here it was right in Chile, where the heart center moves to. This compassion for the miners was a metaphor filled with energy and things to look at, but nothing will ever be the same here. And how does it make you feel? ...."

Bangladesh building collapse: factories supplied shops in west

At least 119 dead at plant where staff were 'told to return to work' despite crack in wall

The Guardian, Saad Hammadi in Dhaka, Jason Burke and Rebecca Smithers, Wednesday 24 April 2013

Link to video: Dhaka building collapse kills dozens in Bangladesh

Hundreds of garment workers employed in factories that supplied high-street shops in the west, including Primark, the high street discount clothing store, , are feared dead after an eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.

Though the confirmed death toll was put at 119 on Wednesday evening, officials in the poverty-stricken south Asian country said it was certain to rise substantially, taking the final count into the hundreds. Most of the dead are women.

One rescue worker said about 2,000 people were working on the upper floors of the factory, the Rana Plaza in the suburb of Savar, when the collapse occurred at about 9am, just after work had started for the day. He added that around 1,000 had been pulled from the rubble. Other estimates for the number of workers in the building as a whole were as high as 5,000.

Bangladesh's booming garment industry is one of the country's biggest employers and foreign exchange earners but has been plagued by fires, building collapses and other accidents for many years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November 2012, 112 workers died in a blaze at a factory in a nearby suburb, putting a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh.

Survivors of Wednesday's collapse said there was no warning. "I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn't understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head," said factory worker Zohra Begum.

Rescuers gather after the eight-storey building, housing several firms making
clothes, collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photograph: AM Ahad/AP

Volunteers and relatives of buried victims were using their hands and rudimentary tools to shift mountains of rubble last night as teams of firefighters and soldiers attempted to reach survivors. Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, declared Thursday a day of mourning.

Among the businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels, New Wave Style, New Wave Bottoms and New Wave Brothers. The last three firms are all part of the same New Wave group which on its website named 27 main buyers, including firms from Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Canada and the US .

Primark, owned by Associated British Foods, said it was "shocked and saddened", as it confirmed it was currently being supplied by New Wave. The retailer has a total of 257 stores worldwide and in the UK has become symbolic of cheap, "throwaway" fashion which is sold and worn in high volume. It has opened 15 new stores in the past six months, including six in Spain, four in the UK, two in Germany, two in Austria and one in the Netherlands. It is also set to make its first foray into France by the end of the year.

A spokesman said Primark "has been engaged for several years with NGOs and other retailers to review the Bangladeshi industry's approach to factory standards. Primark will push for this review to also include building integrity".

Primark's ethical trade team was urgently working "to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from, and to provide support where possible", the spokesman added.

This week Primark revealed a 24% jump in sales.

At least one factory in the collapsed building has previously supplied the UK discount fashion chain Matalan.

A spokeswoman for Matalan, which has 212 stores in the UK selling fashion for men, women and children, and homeware, said: "We can confirm that New Wave has been a supplier to Matalan, although we don't have any current production with them. We are deeply saddened by the news and we have been trying to get in touch with our contacts since we heard to check if we are able to assist them."

Dilara Begum, a garment worker who survived the accident, said workers had been ordered to leave after a crack appeared in the wall of the building on Tuesday, but on Wednesday morning supervisors asked them to return to work, saying the building had been inspected and declared safe. "We didn't want to go in but the supervisors threatened to dock pay if we didn't return to work," said Begum, who worked at the Phantom factory, on the fourth floor of the building.

"The whole world seemed to shake and then all was dark." She said she had been pulled from the rubble by local people.

Mohammad Asaduzzaman, in charge of the area's police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after the crack was detected. There were five garment factories – employing mostly women – in the building. They included Ether Tex, whose chairman told Reuters he was unaware of any warnings not to open the workshops.

November's factory fire raised questions about how much control western brands have over their supply chains for clothes sourced from Bangladesh. Wages as low as $38.50 a month have helped propel the country to the second largest apparel exporter in the world.

Buildings in the crowded city of Dhaka are sometimes erected without permission and many do not comply with construction regulations.

Savar is a relatively new manufacturing zone and was once swampland.

Laia Blanch, international programmes officer with the charity War on Want, which campaigns for better working conditions for overseas workers in the garment and other industries, said: "It is dreadful that … governments continue to allow garment workers to die or suffer terrible, disabling injuries in unsafe factories making clothes for western nations' shoppers. How many more lives must be lost or crushed before ministers and companies act to stop these scandalous human tragedies?"

Related Articles:

Dhaka building collapse: Owner Mohammed Sohel Rana arrested

Bangladesh factory collapse: police detain owners, as death toll rises to 352

Dhaka building collapse: Factory owners arrested

Bangladesh police fire teargas at building collapse demo

Dhaka factory collapse: Can clothes industry change?

Bangladesh garment workers protest building tragedy