BOY WHO THREATENED SUICIDE SAVED BY LETTERS FROM STRANGERS

BULLIED TEEN WHO THREATENED
SUICIDE GETS SUPPORT FROM STRANGERS

http://itsybitsysteps.com - Tired of persistent cyberbullying, a seventh-grader turned to Instagram to announce his planned suicide, prompting thousands of strangers to send notes of support and encouragement. On January 26, Noah Brocklebank posted a photo of his cut arm on Instagram with the message, “Day of scheduled suicide, February 8th, 2013, my birthday.” “I just felt like everything was worthless,” Noah later told CBS News. “My life was terrible. I had no one.” Alarmed by her son’s post, Karen Brocklebank took Noah to the doctor where he was hospitalized for depression and anxiety. While there, she decided to start a Facebook page to ask for people’s help and support. 
“Noah needs to know that he matters and that it does get better. So many people have been asking me how they can help. Well, this is how,” she wrote on the page, requesting for  letters of encouragement for Noah.

“Noah has been dealing with bullying for the past year,” Karen also added. “He has been feeling alone and left out, ostracized from old friends and a misfit among new kids. Things begin to get better, and then another setback. He was once the life of the party among his friends; big man on campus at his first elementary school. Now his self esteem has disappeared.” After starting the page, she opened a PO Box with the expectation that they will get a few letters for Noah. Instead, within the month, Noah received thousands of letters of encouragement from all across the globe. 
“It has restored my faith in humanity,” Karen later told CBS. “I was focused on the bad side of the people, like the bullies,” Noah added. “Then I realized there are caring people out there that can be my friends.” The family later launched a website called LettersForNoah.com which continues to receive countless of messages for support for Noah and victims of cyberbullying.

Noah Brocklebank, a seventh-grade boy, who threatened suicide in a post on Instagram has received thousands of letters from strangers telling him not to give up hope. He thought no one in the world cared about him, but he soon discovered just the opposite. His mother, Karen, explained: “Cyberbullying is not something you can just turn off. It is another far-reaching tool in the bully’s arsenal.” Today, more than ever, parents and teachers need to be vigilant against the alarming rise of bullying in schools. This story ended well, but each day someone else is victim of ridicule and discrimination because of their appearance or way of being. Say NO to bullying!.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The sage Canakya, whose proverbs Srila Prabhupda would often quote, tested a person’s education by three questions - questions of character and ethics. ... “atmavat sarva-bhutesu”: an educated person sees other living creatures as he sees himself. Following the golden rule, he treats others as he wants to be treated. “Others” does not mean just one’s own family, one’s fellow citizens, or even just other human beings. ... Krishna defines a learned person as one who sees all living beings spiritually as part of Him. And Krishna says that ultimately a wise person surrenders to Him, seeing Him as all there is. Unfortunately, in this Dark Age of Kali thousands of schools award diplomas without considering the ethical and spiritual character of their students.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Real Education” - Sep 29 2006
http://www.dandavats.com/?p=1481
http://urmila.me.uk/

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

CHINA CRACKING DOWN ON DOOMSDAY GROUP

CHINA SEIZES OVER 500 IN
DOOMSDAY CULT CRACKDOWN

http://shanghaiist.com - China has detained over 500 members of an “evil cult” preaching the imminent end of the world, after the group allegedly attacked police and cheated multiple victims out of thousands of yuan. The latest arrests were made in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, where eight people were detained for spreading the group’s message door-to-door and in public. Meanwhile, four members of the group were also arrested in Inner Mongolia. Police were alerted by a man who said that proselytisers had convinced him and his wife to give nearly 3,000 yuan as a sacrifice to escape the coming doomsday, Xinhua reported. 
“They are telling everyone that on Friday the sun will rise in the west and then disappear for three days and then there will be 72 days of terrible natural disasters starting from January 1, 2013,” one 24-year-old former cult member whose 50-year-old mother is still an adherent told the Financial Times. 

“They’ve also told all members to withdraw their money from the bank in preparation for the end of the world,” he said. Members of the group, which calls itself the Church of Almighty God, organized a large-scale procession in Shaanxi last week, unfurling banners declaring that the coming cataclysm could only be survived by believing in Almighty God. Photos posted on a website dedicated to monitoring the group appeared to show violent clashes between believers and police, with images of battered police cars at the scene of the demonstrations. 
The group, also known as Eastern Lightning, has existed in China since the early 1990s, and by some estimates boasts over a million adherents. Incorporating many elements of Christianity, the church preaches that a Chinese-born messiah will overthrow the Communist Party and save believers from eternal damnation.

More than 500 members of Almighty God group have been arrested in China. They had been distributing apocalyptic literature and sending text messages throughout China preaching the end of the world and urging people to launch a “decisive battle” to slay the “big red dragon” of the Communist government. The Communist Party, particularly sensitive to the rise of any religious or quasi-religious organisation, launched a savage campaign against the Falun Gong spiritual movement in 1999. China has no established religion, and these rumours that the world is about to end, lays bare the Communist Party's obsession with social stability and maintaining its tight grip on power. Atheistic Communism collapsed in the Soviet countries, but is strong in China and North Korea. However, both those living in the Communist or Capitalist style of life, are still unhappy and their desire to know about God has increased.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The goal was a nation of atheists. Over three generations - seventy years - the government had an explicit, determined policy to create such a nation. As in the other Soviet Republics, atheistic propaganda permeated education and social life in Armenia. Any slight practice of devotion to God, in any religion, whether public or private, often met with swift, brutal consequences. ... Decades of government-induced atheism in the Soviet bloc simply increased people’s hunger for spiritual life. Now that a consumer culture has been introduced, people have become frustrated on both sides. They know that both communism and capitalism are cheating, because material happiness has not increased. To find lasting and expansive happiness that the soul seeks, one must go to the reservoir of pleasure, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Two Seeds that Grew in Iron”
March/April 2008
http://urmila.me.uk/
http://www.krishna.com/two-seeds-grew-iron

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

MORE RACISM CLAIMS OVER PUPIL’S RED STRING

CHILDREN SUFFER RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
VERBAL ABUSE DUE TO WEARING RED STRINGS

Johannesburg (iol news) - Parents of several pupils at Parkdene Primary School in Boksburg assert their children have suffered racial discrimination and verbal abuse because they wore red strings around their wrists, as part of their Hindu religion. For years parents had been afraid to speak out, from fears of retaliation against their children. 
One third-grade boy's parents overcame that fear and objected to the principal, claiming his music teacher had shouted racial and derogatory slurs at him because he was wearing a red string around his wrist which is used by Hindus before the beginning of religious ceremonies and is part of their culture. They claim their son was ordered to take off the string and called a “coolie” several times in front of his classmates by his teacher - a racism hell that this student has endured since Grade 1, when that teacher first noticed the string and ordered him to remove it. But despite several such complaints, nothing had been done. The parents were told their son should wear a jersey to hide the red string. 

Desperate to get help for their son, who has been refusing to go to school, the couple took the matter to Gauteng Education MEC Barbara Creecy. The department is now investigating the matter. Other parents have since come forward, saying the problem has persisted for over two years, and other children are being threatened and verbally abused by the same teacher - the only teacher in the school that has a problem with the red string. The principal apologized to the parents, saying the matter had been sorted out and the pupil could wear his red string; he would not have to cover it with a jersey. 
But this response, coming only after intervention by authorities, does not satisfy the angry parents, who say he is not fit to be a principal, nobody using abusive language and name-calling should be allowed to teach, and no child should be made to hide his cultural or traditional beliefs.

Authorities from South African Department of Education are investigating alleged racial and religious discrimination at a Primary School in Boksburg, near Johannesburg. This follows complaints against a teacher who has been accused of harassing a Grade 3 pupil for wearing the sacred Hindu red string (Mauli or Kavlava) around his wrist. Only after the authorities' intervention the principal apologised for the discrimination the child has had to endure. One of parent wrote in an e-mail, “I know full well that this issue has been ongoing for over two years and many parents at this school did not come forward because they are scared of their children being victimised. Why must a child be made to hide his cultural or traditional beliefs? This teacher has no traditional values.” Social Sectarianism should have no place in modern societies.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

It is fashionable in modern secular societies to regard sacred literature as the mythological musings of undeveloped people. Schools teach that with our current understanding of physics, medicine, psychology, democracy, and so on, we have little use for such writings except as literary art. Those who take scripture literally are pegged with pejorative terms such as “fundamentalists.” ... Certainly it is true that many stories in sacred writings seem fantastic to our scientific world. But many current technological wonders seemed fictional and implausible only a few decades ago. It is not, therefore, implausible that former societies could have had abilities and expertise unavailable today. ... Also, if a “religious” system claims that other genuine methods and scriptures are sinful, it should be abandoned as small-minded sectarianism.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Esteem for Sacred Writings”
http://urmila.me.uk/
http://www.krishna.com/esteem-sacred-writings

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

NYC HALLOWEEN PARADE 2012 CANCELLED

NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY POSTPONE
HALLOWEEN PARADE DUE TO SANDY

www.dailymail.co.uk - Ask any New Yorker or New Jerseyites what day today is and they might say Halloween - and they'd be dead wrong. Both the Big Apple and The Garden State have postponed their ghoulish festivities by decree of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who both declared the parades and trick-or-treating be moved to a later date when emergency responders have had a chance to secure their respective locales. Meanwhile, New York City initially cancelled their annual event, but today the Mayor announced it would be moved to next week. 
Halloween looked likely to be an uncharacteristically somber affair as up and down the East Coast people come to terms with Sandy's aftermath. Across New York and Westchester, around 811,000 people were without power - with that number reaching a staggering eight million along the Eastern Seaboard. The outages in Manhattan have been attributed to a huge explosion at an electrical substation, which blew up when it was apparently overwhelmed by floodwater. 

Traveling around the city remains difficult as it would still be four to five days before limited operation could begin on the New York subway, according to Bloomberg, with some reports estimating it might take as long as 21 days for service to become fully functioning. Halloween at the White House was all out cancelled due to Sandy. After three straight years of passing out goodies to area students and military children in the White House driveway, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, broke their Halloween tradition this year because of superstorm Sandy that walloped the East Coast. 
Hundreds of treat bags containing White House M&Ms, an orange-frosted, pumpkin-shaped sugar cookie, jelly beans and some dried fruit were be delivered to the White House Military Office and to school districts in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia that would have participated in the celebration. Pumpkins used to decorate the White House will be donated to area shelters.

It’s Halloween, that wonderful day when people get to consume large amounts of candy and go to parties dressed up in costumes; however this year it is not so happy. The traditional Halloween parade of ghouls, ghosts and monsters in Greenwich Village in New York City, which attracts thousands of visitors and NYC residents every year, has been cancelled for the first time in 39 years after widespread flooding brought on by Hurricane Sandy. When mundane Holidays involve simply sense enjoyment - which for a child can mean games, presents, fireworks, and special food - we are indirectly teaching our children that we are living for material pleasure.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

If we wish to raise our children to be absorbed only in thoughts of Lord Krishna, how should we treat these secular holidays? One approach is, as far as possible, to ignore them. ... But sometimes even when a child’s parents are fully convinced that observing devotional holidays is sufficient, avoiding materialistic celebrations is difficult. ... A second approach, therefore, is to find a way of relating nondevotional celebrations to Krishna. ... For example, one year on Halloween some of my high school girls dressed up as male devotees and went door to door selling Srila Prabhupada’s books. ... On Halloween night in the United States, children dress in costumes and go from house to house collecting candy and other treats. If we decide to have our children celebrate mundane occasions in the same way as the materialists, we greatly risk raising children whose idea of happiness is materialistic.

Śrīmati Urmila devi dasi :
“Observing Secular Holidays”
http://urmila.me.uk/
http://www.krishna.com/observing-secular-holidays

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/