Open-air classes for Denmark's students

Yahoo – AFP, April 29, 2020

Teacher Marie Kaas-Larsen speaks with her pupils of the Norrebro Park primary
school outside in a nearby park in Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP Photo/Thibault Savary)

Copenhagen (AFP) - With ancient gods and Danish on the lesson plan, Marie Kaas-Larsen taught her 10 fourth graders in a central Copenhagen park on Wednesday, braving the cold as part of new coronavirus protocols.

Denmark was the first country in Europe to reopen its schools for the youngest pupils on April 15.

In addition to practising social distancing and regular handwashing, classes must be held outdoors as much as possible to limit the spread of the virus.

"It's very different from how we usually work," the 32-year-old teacher told AFP.

"I'm not afraid that kids are not learning enough. I think that they learn a lot by having this kind of school," she said.

Seated in a circle around her, the children, aged 10 and 11, listened eagerly to the adventures of Neptune before doing some gym exercises to keep warm.

Pupils of the Norrebro Park primary school have lessons outside in a nearby 

park in Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP Photo/Thibault Savary)

At the Norrebro Park Skole in central Copenhagen, 450 primary school students -- six grades between the ages of six and 11 -- resumed classes two weeks ago after a five-week closure.

Middle school and high school students could return to their desks on May 11 but no official plan has been announced for them yet.

At Norrebro Park Skole, students' morning arrivals are staggered to ensure that hallways and stairways are not overcrowded.

And before entering their classrooms, students have to wash their hands.

"I think almost all of them go directly to wash their hands without us even telling them to do it," Kaas-Larsen said.

The students are happy about the way things are going.

A sign informs the public they not welcome in the park as pupils of the Norrebro 

Park primary school spead time outside for lessons in Copenhagen, Denmark (AFP 

Photo/Thibault Savary)

"I like how we wash our hands and everything, because it's to protect us," said one student named Siham.

Social distancing is the hardest part for the children, and even for teachers who have to be careful to not get too close to the students, the teacher said.

The class has been divided in two, and while the kids are happy to be back together, some wish there could be more mixing of the groups.

In one huddle of friends, there are murmurings of an upcoming pyjama party. "Are you sure we're allowed?" asked one child.

In Denmark, gatherings are restricted to a maximum of 10 people, but smaller groups are allowed to get together.

The country on Wednesday confirmed 9,206 cases of the virus and 443 deaths, as Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it had the spread "under control".

Dr Barbie, nurse Ken: French toymakers to fight stereotypes

Yahoo – AFP, Mariëtte Le Roux, September 24, 2019

Des poupées dans un magasin parisien, le 30 novembre 2011 (AFP Photo/
PIERRE VERDY)

Paris (AFP) - French toymakers signed a pact on Tuesday, three months before Christmas, to rid games and toys of gender stereotypes the government blames for keeping women out of maths and science careers.

The charter for a "balanced representation (of genders) in toys" was signed by the government, the FJP toy industry federation and the association of toy manufacturers.

Explaining the initiative, junior economy minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said many toys project an "insidious" message that discourages girls from pursuing careers as engineers or computer coders -- fields perceived as more appropriate for their male counterparts.

"There are toys for girls that are generally very pink and generally very focused on domestic life, whereas toys for boys are generally themed around construction, space travel, and science and technology," she told broadcaster RTL.

This message that jobs are gender-specific is hammered home from a young age, with the result that "very few women" enter science and technology, Pannier-Runacher lamented.

"If you go to a shop to buy a toy for your young niece or nephew, the first question is: 'Is it for a girl or a boy?' and not: 'Do they like to play outside? Do they like to play construction games? Do they like to play at taking care of a baby?'," she said.

This has the effect that girls, even though they tend to perform better than boys at maths and physics at school, are underrepresented in the sector as adults.

"Today, ten percent of coders are women, which means that 90 percent of coders are men designing the algorithms of tomorrow," said Pannier-Runacher.

At France's national research centre, the CNRS, women represented just 38 percent of researchers in 2017, and less than a third of research managers. Women are more than half the French population.

Toys have a "fundamental" role in helping girls find their calling, says Florence 

Barnier, who heads the Elles Bougent (They Move), which seeks to boost the 

number of girls in the sciences (AFP Photo/Alastair Pike)

Apart from changes in toy design, the charter also envisages that manufacturers will adapt the way their products are advertised.

And there will be retraining for toyshop attendants, so they can learn that "what is important is the potential of the child and what they love", that "a baby in the arms of a small boy or a Meccano (building set) in the arms of a girl is also good," said Pannier-Runacher.

Girls can be knights

"A little girl may not wish to be a princess. She might want to be a knight... and go to combat rather than being confined to a castle hosting her friends for tea," the junior minister added.

Pannier-Runacher tweeted a picture of the new charter along with "you can be anything" Barbie dolls dressed as an astronaut and a robotics engineer.

Last year, Barbie-maker Mattel announced a campaign to teach young girls not to buy into sexist stereotypes.

It has given the decades-old doll known for her original impossible physique a number of metamorphoses in recent years, including as an engineer, a scientist and a mathematician.

The charter signed at the economy ministry does not envision sanctions for not complying, Pannier-Runacher said, but companies stand to receive a reputational boost if they do.

The FJP federation said in a statement it was committed to taking "measurable" steps towards boosting gender neutrality in toys.

Toys play a "fundamental" role in helping girls find their calling, added Florence Barnier, who heads the Elles Bougent (They Move) movement which seeks to boost the number of girls in the sciences.

"If we do not give science-themed toys to young girls, they will not be able to see themselves in these jobs," she said.

Malala lauds feminism as Trump lands in Davos

Yahoo – AFP, 25 January 2018

Malala lauds feminism as Trump lands in Davos

Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) - Nobel peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Thursday urged women to "change the world" without waiting for the help of men, as she addressed an audience of the global, and mostly male, elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The 20-year-old global education campaigner spoke not long before the arrival in Davos of US President Donald Trump, who reached the White House a year ago despite revelations of inappropriate conduct towards women.

On Saturday across the United States, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in a Women's March to mark a year to the day since his inauguration.

The annual Davos conference, which unites the world's business and political elite, also takes place this year in the shadow of the feminist #MeToo campaign that shook Hollywood and spread across the globe in 2017.

"We won't ask men to change the world, we're going to do it ourselves," said Yousafzai.

"We're going to stand up for ourselves, we're going to raise our voices and we're going to change the world," she said.

Yousafzai, who was shot and nearly killed by the Taliban in her native Pakistan in 2012 for insisting on the right of girls to go to school, has become a global sensation, pleading for the education of women.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, she has continued her campaigning while pursuing her studies at Oxford University.

"Feminism is just an other word for equality ... and no one will object to equality," she said.

"It is very simple, it's not as complicated as some people have made it."

EU launches debit cards for refugees in Turkey

Yahoo – AFP, September 26, 2016

European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos
 Stylianides (L) delivers a speech next to Turkey’s EU Minister Omer Celik (R)
during a joint press conference following their meeting on September 26, 2016
(AFP Photo/Adem Altan)

Ankara (AFP) - The European Union on Monday launched a scheme worth almost 350 million euros providing mainly Syrian refugees in Turkey with pre-paid debit cards, the biggest project yet under a landmark deal between the bloc and Ankara.

EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides, in Ankara for the start of the programme, said the debit cards will help give vulnerable refugees a "sense of normality" in their lives.

The refugees will be able to use the cards in shops or institutions to pay for food, education, housing and clothing or also to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Each card will be automatically topped up with 100 Turkish lira ($33.50) a month, giving people the chance to choose their own purchases.

Stylianides said the programme was an "unprecedented response" to an "unprecedented crisis".

"This (scheme) is, in our humanitarian field, a game-changer in the delivery of humanitarian aid. Refugees can choose what they spend money on."

Turkey is home to some three million refugees, most of them Syrian. The vast majority live in cities without direct support from non-governmental organisations and aid groups.

Supported with 348 million euros ($392 million) from Brussels and its member states, the scheme will be rolled out by Turkish Red Crescent and the UN World Food Programme supported by the Turkish authorities.

Applications will start in October for the scheme. Families who have children going to school will receive more cash. All refugees registered in Turkey, including Iraqis, are eligible to apply.

Stylianides suggested that the programme would also benefit Turks.

"The money will be spent in local shops, boosting local businesses and encouraging social cohesion between citizens and refugees."

The project is part of a six billion euro ($6.75 billion) deal struck in March between Brussels and Ankara to curb the migrant influx into Europe, which saw more than a million arrive in the EU last year.

There have been fears the deal could collapse with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complaining that the promised money was not handed directly to Turkey.

In exchange for cutting the flow, Brussels also offered Turkey visa liberalisation for its citizens to visit EU countries in the Schengen area as well as accelerated membership talks.

But Ankara has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if Europe does not allow visa-free travel for Turks by next month, though the numbers coming to Europe have dropped significantly since March.

German state lifts headscarf ban for public school teachers

Deutsche Welle, 9 Sep 2015

Lower Saxony has lifted a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves while teaching in public schools. The move follows a high court ruling that such a ban is against principles of religious freedom.

From now on, public school teachers in the German state of Lower Saxony will be permitted to wear a headscarf while at work. The state's Ministry of Education made the announcement in Hanover on Monday following a decision by Germany's high court that the ban violates religious freedom.

Before the change, teachers were only allowed to wear headscarves if they were religious education instructors giving lessons on the Islamic faith. From now on, all teachers in all subjects may wear a headscarf if they wish, unless it 'provokes dangerous conflict' or 'disturbs the peace' - in which case each incident will be reviewed by the ministry on an individual basis.

But this is unlikely to lead to any major constitutional changes in Germany, as the court's decision was vague enough not to demand that the other eight states that have bans on head scarves for public school teachers - among them Berlin, Bavaria, and Germany's most populous state, North Rhine Westphalia - change their statues.

According to Lower Saxony's Ministry of Education, only one of its 17 female Islamic religious education teachers chose to wear a head scarf last year, and no one had ever brought the ban to their attention as a problem. Allegedly the head scarf ban was a sticking point with a deal the state hopes to make with Islamic associations this coming fall.

es/jr (epd, KNA)

Muslim women wearing various type of Islamic veils (closewise from top left):

a hijab; a niqab; a burqa and a tchador (AFP Photo)

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Merkel explains 'tough' asylum policies to crying Palestinian girl

Yahoo – AFP, 16 July 2015

German Chancellor Angela Merkel comforting a a crying Palestinian girl

 threatened with deportation on July 15, 2015 in Rostock, northern Germany

(AFP Photo/Steffen Kugler)

Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a social media storm Thursday after the release of a video showing her awkward interaction with a crying Palestinian girl threatened with deportation.

In a week in which Germany has confronted international criticism for a hard line on debt-mired Greece, Merkel was hit with fresh accusations of coldness, just as others leapt to her defence.

Merkel was attending a public discussion with teenagers in the northern city of Rostock as part of a government-initiated series called "Living Well in Germany".

As seen in the video broadcast on public television, the Palestinian girl named Reem told Merkel that her family had been informed they would have to return to a camp in Lebanon imminently only to receive a last-minute temporary residence permit for Germany.

"I would like to go to university," Reem, who has spent four years seeking asylum in Germany, said in fluent German.

"It's really very hard to watch how other people can enjoy life and you yourself can't ... I don't know what my future will bring." Merkel expressed sympathy before defending her government's asylum policies.

"Politics can be tough," she said.

More than half the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live across 12 refugee camps,

 all of which suffer from serious problems, including poverty, overcrowding, 

unemployment, poor housing conditions and lack of infrastructure (AFP Photo/

Joseph Eid)

"You are an extremely nice person but you also know that there are thousands and thousands of people in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon."

She added that Germany would be unable to shoulder the burden of all the people fleeing war and poverty who would like to move to Europe's top economy seeking a better life.

"We couldn't manage," she said.

The group discussion continued for a few minutes until Merkel noticed that Reem was crying.

"But you did great," the 60-year-old chancellor said, gingerly stroking Reem.

The moderator interjected: "I don't think, Madam Chancellor, that it's about doing great but rather about a very difficult situation."

"I know it's a difficult situation -- that's why I want to stroke her," Merkel fired back, adding that she had wanted to express to the girl, "that you indeed have it hard and that you described the situation of many, many people very well".

Merkel does not project the image of a glad-handing politician but after nearly 10 years in power, she still enjoys impressive popularity ratings of around 70 percent.

Merkel strokes

However the video drew a powerful backlash, with detractors saying the German leader lacked empathy.

#Merkelstreichelt (Merkel strokes) became the top trending hashtag on Twitter in Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel played a leading role in negotiations on a

 bailout deal for debt-ridden Greece, earning her international criticism for taking a 

hard line (AFP Photo/Odd Andersen)

"If you have the problem that you find Merkel too likeable, watch this video and pay attention to the end," blogger Sascha Lobo said.

"This week has been fantastic for German public diplomacy. All that was missing was Merkel making refugee children cry," Belarusian-born writer Evgeny Morozov tweeted.

However Merkel also had defenders.

"She was honest and certainly not cold," prominent leftist journalist Ines Pohl said.

Pohl said it would have been crueler to make false promises to the girl or evade her question, and noted that until a majority of Germans begin to back far more liberal asylum policies, Merkel's hands were tied.

Germany took in 200,000 asylum seekers last year and expects as many as 450,000 this year.

Merkel defends gesture to comfort crying Palestinian teen

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The Evolution of Belief" - July 26, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) ( >26 Min - reference to the current conflicts in the Middle East)

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… What have we told you about the bridge? Actually, not much except that in crossing the bridge, the old energy ones were not going to like it. Old energy does not want you to escape! Old energy doesn't want you to cross the bridge because it can't cross. Did you know that? It can't cross. The old paradigms of Human nature that you've known all of these millenniums have to stay on the old side of the bridge. It cannot cross, for the bridge rejects all that is not in love, compassion and light. Those things that are dark, including Human nature of the past, will not be able to go. But the ones I speak to right now are already on the bridge. That was your design, old soul, and those are the words that are ringing in your ears to this day and the ones given at the wind of birth, that this might happen in your lifetime. So what's going to happen next?

Swords

Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”

Luxembourg's prime minister first EU leader to marry same-sex partner

Xavier Bettel and his partner, Gauthier Destenay, among first gay men to wed in mostly Catholic Grand Duchy

The Guardian, Damien Gayle, Friday 15 May 2015 

 Xavier Bettel Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

Luxembourg’s prime minister is to become the first European Union leader – and only the second worldwide leader – to marry someone of the same sex.

Xavier Bettel, 42, and his partner, Gauthier Destenay, an architect from Belgium, are among the first gay men to wed in the mostly Catholic Grand Duchy since it became the latest EU state to extend full rights to same-sex couples.

Their union comes five years after Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the then prime minister of Iceland, became the first serving leader in the world to marry a same-sex partner.

Bettel and Destenay, who have been civil partners since 2010, were expected to say their vows in a quiet civil ceremony with friends and family, away from the glare of publicity.

“It won’t be a flashy ceremony but the symbolism’s very strong,” said French broadcaster Stéphane Bern, a friend of Bettel and Destenay. “Everyone’s warm and positive,” Bern was quoted as saying by the Luxemburger Wort newspaper.

Few details have emerged about the wedding, which Bettel had aimed to keep private. Press photographers have been banned.

“He does not want to put his private life in the public spotlight and he has turned down requests from the celebrity magazines to cover the event,” a friend told Agence France-Presse earlier this month.

Bettel, who is leader of Luxembourg’s centre-right Democratic party, came out publicly as gay in 2008. But since taking power 18 months ago he has played down the significance of his sexuality, insisting “what happens at home remains private”.

His party won its leading place in a coalition government after promising to be a modernising force for Luxembourg, with plans to replace religious education in schools with general ethics classes, and to lower the voting age to 16.

Same-sex marriage was another key pledge. It was previously knocked down in 2007 by the then ruling Christian People’s party, but a poll in 2013 found 83% of Luxembourgers supported a change in the law.

Little is known about Destenay, who works for the Belgian-Luxembourger architecture firm A3. He has appeared alongside Bettel at a number of official events, including the royal wedding of Prince Guillaume and Princess Stéphanie in 2012.

What is known is that it was Destenay who proposed, reportedly asking for Bettel’s hand just weeks after Luxembourg’s parliament last July became the ninth EU legislature to lift a ban on gay marriages.

“I said ‘yes’,” Bettel told the Los Angeles Times. “I have just one life and I don’t want to hide my life.”

Norway ranks as world's best place to be a mother

Yahoo – AFP, 5 May 2015

Norway ranks as the world's best place to be a mother, well ahead of the 

United States which dropped to the 33rd spot in the annual scorecard 

released by Save the Children (AFP Photo/Olexander Zobin)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Norway ranks as the world's best place to be a mother, well ahead of the United States which dropped to the 33rd spot in the annual scorecard released by Save the Children on Monday.

Somalia is the worst place, just below the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

Save the Children also reported that 

mothers are having a tougher time in the

 world's expanding cities, with survival

 gaps between rich and poor widening 

(AFP Photo/Olexander Zobin)

Save the Children released its 16th annual Mothers' Index, which rates 179 countries based on five indicators related to maternal health, education, income levels and the status of women.

This year, the United States dropped from number 31 on the list to 33, behind Japan, Poland and Croatia.

American women have a one in 1,800 risk of maternal death, the worst level of risk of any developed country in the world, according to the report.

An American woman is more than 10 times as likely to die in childbirth than a Polish woman.

Scandinavian countries have consistently taken the first spots in the Mothers' Index, with Norway this year beating out Finland which held the top spot last year.

Among the top ten, Australia is the only non-European country, at number nine.

France and Britain take the 23rd and 24th spot, below Canada at number 20.

The ten worst places are all sub-Saharan African countries, with Haiti tied with Sierra Leone for the 169th spot.

Nine of the bottom ten countries are wracked by conflict.

The disparity in terms of infant mortality is striking.

In the top 10 countries, one mother out of 290 will lose a child before the age of five. In the bottom 10, that rate stands at one in eight.

Dying young in Washington

Save the Children also looked at infant mortality rates in the world's 24 wealthiest capital cities and found Washington had the highest rate at 7.9 deaths per 1,000.

By comparison, Stockholm and Oslo had infant mortality rates at or below 2 deaths per 1,000.

Somalia is the worst place to be a mother, just below the Democratic

 Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, according to Save

the Children (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

Save the Children CEO Carolyn Miles said the data confirmed that a country's economic wealth is not the sole factor leading to happy mothers, but that policies need to be put in place.

In the case of Norway, "they do have wealth, but they also invest that wealth in things like mothers and children, as a very high priority," Miles said.

Save the Children also reported that mothers are having a tougher time in the world's expanding cities, with survival gaps between rich and poor widening.

Cities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe have the highest gap for child survival, with poor children three to five times more likely to die than their affluent peers.

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Women attend a prayer service at Baiturrahman Mosque in Banda Aceh, in

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 of the tsunami that hit the west coast of Aceh province (AFP Photo/

Chaideer Mahyuddin)

"Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

“… Mass Human Death

The final one, dear Human, is the hardest one for my partner and the one we wish to leave you with in this channeling tonight. This is the one that my partner doesn't want to even have me talk about. It's the appropriateness of mass death. For you, built in to your very essence is the honor for life, and the sorrow when it passes. It's correct and appropriate that this is there, and never let it be tempered. But the wisdom of understanding is also needed to help you get past some challenges of the Human heart.

"Dear Kryon, was the tsunami really necessary?" Yes it was. Almost 200,000 Human Beings passed over. It's an event that for you is filled with horror, sorrow, emotion, and challenge. Back in 1989, we told you of those that might have to leave the earth en masse, and here it is. Yet even my partner [Lee] asks the questions, "Why the children? Why the poorest parts of the earth? Why the seeming inappropriateness of all this death?"

And I say to you the same thing I said with respect to Terri: Do you understand yet that death is often as precious as life on this planet of many energies and lessons? They are not gone! They're all here [speaking from Kryon's perspective]. They're having a great time! They're joyful! It seems like a moment ago they leaned into the wind of birth with us beside them. We said, "How would you like to participate in an event that will change the compassion factor of the planet so that energies can move forward and provide faster acceleration of vibratory shift? How would you like to help create peace on earth through a consciousness shift within Gaia itself? And they said, "Show us the way!"

Do you understand why we are in love with humanity... that you would love the earth and the Universe so much that you would go through these things? So much of what you see is horrible tragedy, yet you're looking at the heroes of humanity as they deliver a gift that will change the very fabric of Gaia through the compassion created as a wave of humanity responds to their plight.

They knew the potentials and they went through with it. Even the children knew, for they're old souls within their divinity. There was so much compassion created at that time, in that one week, the earth has never seen anything like it in your lifetime. Billions of Humans were involved with a compassion that instantly went to the core of the planet. It went into the earth and it's still there. It changed the actual energy of where you walk and it planted a seeds that will grow that will indeed emerge later in Israel, and those surrounding Israel.

And that's what it's about. Yet some of you didn't want to hear that, did you? But they're here, with me now... and with you as well. How could you fit them all in this room, you might ask? They can fit on the head of a pin! That's interdimensional talk. They can go home in your purse or your pocket! That's interdimensional talk, too. And they've got a message for you that we've given before, but you can't hear it enough: "We did our part - now you do yours, Lighthouse! For the ones who remain are the only ones who can manipulate the tools we have helped create."

When you go home tonight, you're not going to be in a survival situation - in a tent in a tribe with no lights or clean water, with no food. You're not going to be in sorrow or despair. Instead, you go home to a warm place with plenty of food and friendship and the love of family. That's why you're the Lighthouses, because you have time for it. You've got the intellect for it. You're not in survival mode, as is so much of humanity on the earth. You have the education for it and the intuition for it. Now, do you understand why there are so many Lighthworkers in the western world? It's because your culture has created a situation where there's abundance of these things, and it allows you to lead the way in changing the energy of earth, instead of having all your time spent just trying to survive. Does this help you understand the responsibility of what you have before you?

Strike the light and send it to the Sudanese. Strike light and send it to those dark places with governments where there's corruption. Strike the light and send it to the scientists and researchers who already have the cures for the more virulent diseases on the planet, but can't begin their work due to the barriers of certain leadership and their old ways. Strike the light and send it to Israel and Palestine and get on with this solution! This is why you're here, and this is the agreement you made when you arrived and selected the culture you live in.

Achievable in your lifetime, it is. Peace and compassion will prevail. You shall see. You shall see.

And so it is.

Kryon

World's first academy for humanitarian relief to be launched

Humanitarian Leadership Academy to train aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies

The Guardian, Julian Borger Diplomatic editor, Sunday 22 March 2015

Local residents receive humanitarian aid in the city of Debaltseve, Ukraine.
The world’s first academy for humanitarian relief will train aid workers in
responding to disasters and emergencies. Photograph: Sokolov Mikhail/
Sokolov Mikhail/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

The world’s first academy for humanitarian relief is to be launched, aimed at training 100,000 aid workers from over 50 countries in organising rapid responses to disasters and emergencies.

The Humanitarian Leadership Academy, launching on Monday, is a response to the growing number of humanitarian crises around the world, driven by climate change and conflict, combined with a severe and worsening shortage of people with the skills necessary to coordinate the large-scale response required in the critical first days to prevent mass casualties.

The HLA is being set up by a global consortium of aid organisations with initial £20m funding from the UK Department for International Development, out of a target of £50m. The Save the Children charity has paid the startup costing and is hosting the academy’s hub in London.

Further centres will open in Kenya and the Philippines later this year, and by 2020 the plan is to have ten training centres around the world, which would offer both classroom and virtual training for the surrounding regions, in mobilising the rapid response in resources and manpower needed in the wake of a disaster.

Jan Egeland, a former UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, will be the academy’s first chairman. He said the initiative “may revolutionise the entire humanitarian sector”.

“Investment in a new and better trained generation of humanitarian workers closer to where we find the greatest needs will bring development and sustainability to many of the world’s most fragile communities,” Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said.

Last year witnessed a record number of severe global humanitarian emergencies and the highest number of refugees the world has seen since the second world war. 50 million people were forced to flee their countries.

  

Justin Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, said: “If we are to save more lives in some of the toughest places in the world we need to train and support local people themselves to become the humanitarian workers and volunteers of the future. The academy will do this by bringing together an extraordinary and unique coalition of actors to train and share best practice, transforming the humanitarian system.”

The idea behind the establishment of ten national and regional centres around the world is that each should be able to tailor responses to crises in terms of local conditions and local culture. Aid experts have said that previous attempts to increase local and regional capacity to react to large-scale emergencies have foundered because they were seen as impositions of practices developed far away.

The plan is for each centre to provide a common pool of knowledge, the latest technology and examples of best practice, as well as solid career structures for humanitarian workers, with internationally recognised certification for successive levels of achievement, recorded in ‘humanitarian passports’. The end result should be to expand the pool of people available in every region to manage the humanitarian response in the first 72 hours of an emergency.

“This is potentially one of the most transformational projects I have been involved in,” said Gareth Owen, Save the Children’s director of emergencies, who has been working on the academy project since 2007. “It is based on the recognition that many studies of humanitarian disasters and emergencies point to leadership and decision-making as the critical factor. Really by now we should have a global capacity that we can draw on that is far greater and more diverse. We haven’t invested enough in people on the ground.”

Owen said that climate change was adding to the relentless annual toll of humanitarian crises: “We used to have a big natural disaster about once a decade and that has come down to one every two or three years.”

Global funding for emergency relief has largely stagnated. Owen said the $20bn (£13bn) spending on the response to humanitarian emergencies is a third of the amount the world spends on yoghurt, for example, and that there is no comparison with the $1.5tn spent on arms.

“The Humanitarian Leadership Academy will help create a faster and more effective disaster response system by empowering local people in the most vulnerable countries to be the first responders after a disaster strikes,” Justine Greening, the secretary of state for international development, said. “The high quality training and expertise delivered by this academy will mean humanitarian responses not only provide immediate, life-saving relief, but also help build a more secure and resilient world.”

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