Earth System Global Governance, The Earth Charter, and Sustainable Development

One of the influential voices of the progressive environmentalist movement is The Earth Charter. This organization emphasizes global control of everything. Here is a sampling of its charter with direct quotations.

“Respect and care for the community of life”

-          Respect Earth and life in all its diversity (Protect the delta smelt in California by dumping fresh water into the ocean while an entire state is experiencing drought?)

-          Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love 

-          Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful (Is it statistically true that democratic societies are peaceful, just, and do not go to war but constitutional republic do? Where is the evidence?)

-          Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations (Would that be accomplished by taking arable land out of production, re-wild it, and then restrict human habitation to designated urban areas as evidenced by the Biodiversity map also known as the Wildlands Project map?) http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/images/wildlands_map.jpg

“Ecological integrity”

-          Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives (This is definitely in full swing in all the Green Growth, Smart Growth Initiatives of Agenda 21 that restrict zoning to multi-purpose high rise living, particularly in the U.S.)

-          Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being (Would U.N. decide the patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction?)

-          Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction (Who exactly decides what is responsible reproduction and what is not and how will it be enforced?)

-          Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world (Who becomes the arbiter of lifestyle and what constitute material sufficiency?)

-          Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind” (Who decides what ‘restraint’ is in using energy and what is the cutoff when use is disallowed?)

 “Social and Economic Justice”

-        Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative

-        Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations (Redistribution of wealth is already underway, from producers to non-producers.)

-         Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity (This gender equality and equity seems to be working well in the Muslim world dictatorships.)

-        Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities” (If it’s universal access, isn’t it discriminatory to give special attention to certain groups? What kind of ‘right of all’ are they talking about?)

“Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace”

-        Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development (Empower youth to do what with sustainable development?)

-        Treat all living beings with respect and consideration (Would animals receive lawyers to make sure humans treat animals with ‘respect and consideration?’)

-        Demilitarize national security system to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration (Who decides what constitutes levels of non-provocative defense posture and how military resources will be converted to peaceful purposes?)

-        Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-the-Charter.html

And who is going to do all this global governance (control) of the Earth through sustainable development, the lynchpin of U.N. Agenda 21? United Nations, of course, run by none other than third world nations, the very beneficiaries of this wealth redistribution through “justice and peace” scheme.

I would not exactly call wealth confiscation from the producers to the non-producers “justice” or “peaceful.” I would call it unjust and coercive seizure of earned wealth under the guise of saving the planet from a non-existent   environmental meltdown. The constant loud rhetoric coming from the progressive main stream media, academia, and crony capitalists has created a very rich and lucrative climate change industry worth trillions.

“In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.”

On the occasion of the Earth Charter’s 15 years of sustainable global governance indoctrination, the Earth Charter is planning activities and propaganda around the globe to push further its “universal ethical principles of sustainable development under the slogan, “One Earth Community, One Common Destiny” and the banner “Earth Charter +15.”

The Earth Charter was launched on June 29, 2000 in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The partners of the Earth Charter are listed here. http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Partners.html Council members listed oversee the work of the Earth Charter Secretariat. http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Council.html The Earth Charter Secretariat staff is listed here. http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Secretariat%20Staff

Mikhail Gorbachev, the co-author of The Earth Charter wrote, “I envisage the principles of The Earth Charter to be a new form of the Ten Commandments. They lay the foundation for a sustainable global earth community.” The citizens of various countries who believe in the Biblical Ten Commandments must reorient their entire lives to fit this new directive of progressive global governance.

According to the United Nations Commission on Global Governance, “Regionalism must precede globalism. We foresee a seamless system of governance from local communities, individual states, regional unions, and up through to the United Nations itself.” What a neat Ponzi scheme of wealth redistribution in the name of saving the Earth from man-made Armageddon!

If you wonder about this new world order, here is a simple explanation how they are doing it. “The alternative to the existing world order can only emerge as a result of a new human dimension of progress. We envision a revolution of the mind, a new way of thinking,” said Mikhail Gorbachev at the State of the World Forum. Schools have been quite busy in the last forty years indoctrinating children into the global governance new way of thinking and the global citizen mindset.

The 2015 Canberra Conference on Earth System Governance, “Democracy and Resilience in the Anthropocene,”  will offer a Summer School on Earth System Governance (December 9-12, 2015) and an excursion to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (December 13, 2015).

According to the Smithsonian, “Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword ever since the atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen popularized it in 2000.” Environmental activists have blamed “man” (anthropo) and “new” (cene) for causing extinction of plants and animals and polluting the planet through man’s industrial revolution, having changed the atmosphere and the climate irreversibly.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/#RApVwdO4tHMSkqrT.99

The newest title in the Earth System Governance series is available from MIT Press, “Consensus and Global Environmental Governance: Deliberative Democracy in Nature’s Regime,” exploring “the practical and conceptual implications of juristic democracy as a new approach to international environmental governance.” More global governance publications and abstracts can be found at www.earthsystemgovernance.org/publications

If you are wondering what “juristic democracy” is and what it has to do with the environment, you are not alone. I don’t think that “consensus” has a place in science and science reasoning; “consensus” means general agreement of opinion, it is not a scientific fact.

According to its website, “The Earth System Governance Project is the largest social science research network in the area of governance and global environmental change.”  The researchers include “social and natural scientists.” http://www.earthsystemgovernance.org/

The Sustainable Development buzz word that is now used in every facet of our lives has been defined in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland Commission) report titled ‘Our Common Future.’ Sustainable Development is “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

United Nations agencies working against the economic needs and wishes of U.S. citizens compiled a blueprint for achieving sustainable development called U.N. Agenda 21. This 40 chapter document (about 300 pages) addresses every facet of human life and how sustainable development should be implemented through local, state, and federal government. With its grant-making power (‘visioning grants’ and ‘challenge grants’) and conservation easements (lower taxes in exchange for taking land out of agricultural use or any use for several years or in perpetuity) , the federal government promoted the sustainable development idea and policies to the state and local levels with the creation of an army of new community of sustainable development NGOs (non-government organizations) such as the American Planning Association, the Sustainable Resource Center, and the Institute for Sustainable Development. There is not one level of government left in the U.S. or university that does not have a Sustainable Development plan in place or a degree program that involves the phrase Sustainable Development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism and Sighet Museum

I was digging furiously through my book shelves, looking for one special volume which I had brought with me from Romania when I immigrated to the United States. After half an hour I found my May 1977 first edition of Romulus Rusan’s book, “Greyhound’s America,” published in Romanian during the brutal communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.

I never understood how such a book that told the truth about life in the west escaped his publishing censoring goons. I was going to finally find out as I was going to meet Romulus Rusan and his equally famous and lovely wife, the poet Ana Blandiana.

Romulus Rusan told me that his editor revealed to him that, of the 100,000 plus copies of his first edition book that were sold in Ceausescu’s Romania, probably half of the readers immigrated to the U.S. He could not understand why Rusan was not arrested by the communist regime. His wife joked that they must have labored under a lucky star, under divine protection.

Romanian Ambassador at Washington
Romulus Rusan and Ana Blandiana
(Photo: Ileana Johnson, June 3, 2015)

I met Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan at a Romanian Embassy serata honoring their literary work and their untiring efforts to bring to light the horrors of communism in the First Memorial to the Victims of Communism at Sighet, Romania. A true labor of love, their work began in 1993 with the acquisition of the Sighet Prison, a condemned ruin.

The former prison built in 1897 to incarcerate common criminals, was used during First and Second World Wars for political inmates, priests, Polish revolutionaries, and Romanian deserters. During the period of 1948 to 1950, resistance fighters from Maramures, peasants and students, were imprisoned here.

Between May 1950 and July 1955, it served as a maximum-security facility, holding ministers, members of Parliament, journalists, officers, priests, and other religious leaders. During this time, 54 of those held died while in custody and were buried in unmarked graves. In 1955 the prison became again a jail for common criminals with more creature “comforts.” Because of a decree in 1975 which ruled that prison sentences had to be served in the workplace, the prison was closed and abandoned.

Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan petitioned the Council of Europe to open a museum in the former prison which had become, as they described it, an “insalubrious ruin.”

Sighet Museum
(photo: Wikipedia)

With funds from the Civic Academy Foundation, the International Centre for Studies of Communism, and the untiring efforts of Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan, the former prison became the first museum of its kind in the world, dedicated to the victims of communism in Romania and in all former communist countries of the Iron Curtain.

Each cell became a separately-themed room with its own chronology of death and destruction of the human body and spirit caused by the most oppressive form of dictatorship in history – communism.

After the Civic Academy Foundation was established to create the museum at Sighet, the 175 founding members chose Ana Blandiana to be President.

The exterior of the building was repaired with help from Hanns Seidel Foundation and from private donations. The actual repair work commenced on July 1, 1996 and the Memorial was inaugurated on June 20, 1997.

Former political prisoners, Orthodox priest Constantin Voiculescu and Graeco-Catholic priest Eugen Popa, held the religious service to consecrate the Space for Recollection and Prayer.

I was amazed that a husband and wife team was able to bring to life such a significant memorial with limited resources and a gargantuan effort, yet the west is still struggling to raise funds to build a similar museum.

In addition to the Civic Academy which is attended by students and professors from Europe, the International Center for Studies into Communism, the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and to the Resistance, the Sighet Museum has been visited to date by more than one million people.

The Cortege of the Sacrificial Victims by Aurel I. Vlad

(Photo: Widipedia)

 

The symbolic statuary entitled “The Cortege of the Sacrificial Victims” by Aurel Vlad depicts humans walking in various stances of resignation, heads bowed down or raised to the sky, some with hands up, begging, imploring, appealing to a higher power, and wondering why. When it rains, the rivulets make the statues appear as if the victims are crying.

Sighet prison cells

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Dozens and dozens of rooms in the museum tell the horrible stories of the most oppressive period in Romania’s modern history:

-          More than 10,000 trials were held according to the Communist Party template – accusations of  ‘treason,’ ‘plotting against the social order,’ ‘espionage,’ ‘sabotage,’ ‘diversion,’ ‘inimical attitude,’ ‘public instigation,’ ‘fraudulent crossing of the border,’ ‘omitting to make a denunciation,’ and ‘dissemination of forbidden publications;’ they were always followed by hard prison time and sometimes death.

-          More than 2 million people were persecuted politically using “coercive methods,” with hundreds of thousands arrested administratively, without trial, some up to ten years.

-          600,000 Romanians were arrested and sentenced to prison between 1945-1989

-          200,000 Romanians were deported to forced labor camps.

-          Destruction of traditional parties, National Peasant Party, National Liberal and Social Democrat Party, and installation of one party, the Communist Party, replacing a multi-party democratic regime with a one-party state.

-          Repression against the Romanian Orthodox Church, Graeco-Catholic Church, Protestant and Evangelical churches.

-          Installation of the dreaded Securitate by decree in August 1948, following the infiltration by communists of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1944.

-          Use of political detainees in hard labor camps for various building projects.

-          How individual farmers were forced into collectivization, the peasants’ resistance, and their swift repressions.

-          The sovietization of the population, forced submission into communism by purging, beatings, and confiscation of personal property.

-          Orchestrated by communist organizers like Emil Bodnaras, Ana Pauker, and other Moscow agents, the army, the police, and the justice system were forcefully transformed into communist arms of the police-state.

-          Firing and assignment to manual jobs or labor camps of any teachers opposed to the communist regime; those remaining and the new teachers had to become the “new man” through violent ideological and propaganda subjects, becoming tools of the Marxist-Leninist education based on Soviet-style textbooks.

-          Ethnic repression, accusations of “Zionism” and the maltreatment of gypsies.

-          Deportation of 44,000 people to the Baragan steppe; 1,700 of the deportees died; the oldest person was deported at the age of 95 and lasted until he turned 100.

-          Anti-communist resistance in the Fagaras Mountains and Western Carpathians.

-          Women who gave birth in prison and their children were removed and sent to orphanages; 4,200 women, mothers, wives, or daughters of political prisoners were also imprisoned as “dangers to the social order.”

-          The famous historian Gheorghe I. Bratianu was imprisoned at Sighet for twenty-four months and died there in April 1953; on August 6, 1953, the Interior Ministry decided to increase the prison sentence of a dead man by 60 months.

-          High school students were deported and served time in communist prisons for either running into the mountains to join the partisans or defacing/tearing up official posters and portraits, telling jokes, writing epigrams, and drawing cartoons.

-          Doctors and medical students were imprisoned for refusing to adopt communist jargon and for not rejecting “all that was western.”

-          Room 9 is the cell where the famous Iuliu Maniu died in 1953 (1873-1953); his cell was left untouched, with thick bars and the broken bed with wires sticking out from the dirty mattress; Maniu, the architect of the unification of Transylvania with Romania in 1918, the former Romanian Prime Minister, leader of the National Peasant Party and of the National Romanian Party, former Parliament member in Bucharest and Budapest, attorney for the Graeco-Catholic Church, landowner  and leader of the Democratic opposition, a man who dedicated his entire life to public service, died alone in his frigid cell, without a candle or the presence of another human being.

-          Those who died in prison at Sighet from 1952 on were buried secretly at night on the banks of the River Tisa at the border with the former USSR. (Romulus Rusan, Museum Archives and Guide, 1993-2014)

Horrible details about the prison life had emerged slowly from those who survived, from guards, and from those forced to clean and sweep the hallways and the prison courtyard. They would sometimes exchange a few words with political prisoners who were stronger and able to stand up and speak. Those who became very ill were usually isolated and deprived of medical treatment until it was too late to assimilate extra food such as potatoes, and they expired.

The food served was inadequate for survival. The communist guards hoped the prisoners would die quickly of malnutrition and starvation. Cardinal Iuliu Hossu of the Cluj Graeco-Catholic Church wrote in his memoirs that the “soup was water with a piece of vegetable floating in it.” It was considered a delicacy to find a “hard piece of a cow’s hairy lip” bobbing in this watery soup. http://www.romanialibera.ro/aldine/history/cum-a-murit-iuliu-maniu-la-sighet-215636

The inmates received no medical assistance. Knowing that dying men and women were unable to metabolize the extra calories, the guards would give them extra food. And if the lack of proper nutrition and medical care did not kill the political prisoners, the bitter cold of northern Romania exacerbated by the thick walls most certainly caused hypothermia and death.

The Sighet Museum is a living monument to the cruelty of communism and to the inhumane treatment that millions of innocent citizens were subjected to by tyrants and their failed ideology, an ideology concocted by a dangerous man named Karl Marx whose theories ultimately destroyed the human spirit, imprisoned free men, and killed over 100 million worldwide in the name of collectivism, equality, and social justice. http://www.memorialsighet.ro/index.php?lang=en

 

 

The Socialist Left Wants to Make Things Right

It is a tune many failed socialist nations have heard before. When the mainstream media proclaimed a few years ago, “We are all socialists now,” people shrugged their shoulders and went about their capitalist business. http://www.newsweek.com/we-are-all-socialists-now-82577

Do Americans at large understand that socialism involves various economic and political theories which advocate collective or government ownership of the means of production and the distribution of goods? I bold-faced the word “theories” because the practice is quite a resounding failure in all countries in which it was tried or it is currently used.

If you point to European Fabian socialists as a success story, you are not paying attention to the bankruptcy level of debt of all these countries, the result of decades of unrestrained welfare and failed multiculturalism, to the level of confiscatory taxation, enslavement to government, and its forced tolerant social programs.

Under socialism there is no private property, advocates and supporters say. It could have fooled me. During the twenty years I lived under the transition form from socialism to communism, all the elites had their private property, including the union bosses appointed by the Communist Party, while the proletariat had nothing. The State run by the Communist Party controlled everything, all the means of production. All we could and had to control was our speech. We could only use thoughts to curse the abject enslavement that the Communist Party apparatchiks subjected us to every day.

The ever-clever theoretician and parasitic thinker who survived on the generosity of rich friends and patrons, Karl Marx, wrote while scratching his dirty hair, that socialism is an imperfect transition between capitalism and communism where goods and pay were unequally distributed, according to work done. 

In practice, doctors and unskilled labor were paid approximately the same, removing the incentive to spend years in college to become a doctor. The Democrats and their Occupy Wall Street denizens said, it is obscene for a doctor to make a profit, they don’t deserve it.

These same socialists advocate quite loudly a living wage of $15-25 per hour for minimum wage unskilled workers. It is only “fair” and “social justice” to pay someone enough money where they can live comfortably while expending no effort to educate themselves for a career that would enable them to earn a deserved living wage.

As someone said, in socialist/communist countries, the remuneration was so poor, “we pretended to work, and they pretended to pay us.” The elites, however, were paid handsomely for doing nothing. But then again, community organizing and agitation must have been hard work for most Bolsheviks who often did not have a high school diploma and were hard-pressed to write an entire sentence coherently.

Socialism is an economic system in which the omnipotent government controls “substantially” the production and distribution of goods, while private enterprise dwindles. We have witnessed the growth of big government in this country and the shrinking of the private sector. Under socialism, competition no longer guides economic activity, cooperation and submission to government rules become the norm.

And then there are the Fabian Socialists in existence since the Fabian Society (a British socialist group) was founded in 1884 with “the purpose to advance the principles of socialism via gradualist and reformist means.” The original purpose was to have a socialist economy. Today the society is a think tank affiliated with the Labour Party.

There is never a shortage of new converts to socialism or socialist wannabes. Take for instance the socialist reading groups spreading around the country among Millennials. Michael Savage called the Millennials “the new Red Brigades.”

Influenced by the magazine named after the Haitian rebel slave Jacobin, the reading groups (Millennials and Occupy Wall Street “veterans”) are focused on organized labor even though union membership has dropped to 11 percent in this country. Jacobin is a popular magazine among “a disaffected white bro socialist demographics.” http://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-washington-post1047/20150613/282183649677663/TextView

Because the economy is so bad and these Millennials are finding that employment is hard to find especially when they have pursued unmarketable majors such as Studies of…, Human Rights, Social Justice, Sustainable Development and other worthless degrees, they are easy prey to community organizers who want to put a shiny new coat on socialism in the 21^st century, repackage it, and sell it to a bunch of spoiled brats who have never experienced shortages of anything in their lives but were subjected to constant indoctrination in schools about the utopian marvels of socialism and communism. And the indoctrination of the last 40 years is finally bearing fruit.

They should have asked the people who risked death fleeing hellholes of socialism in order to come to this country where private enterprise gave them the opportunity to grow out of poverty and become successful if they were willing to work hard. Unfortunately many new immigrants, legal and illegal, want to establish in this country the exact third world poverty and crime they’ve escaped.

Two immigrants who love America discuss on am radio why communism is bad

 https://l.facebook.com/l/TAQFEBJx-AQEkUa6bx7mPJSFORIVjoKkFME2nAYJlJkuEfQ/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTVEf52Wd21w

Brasov, a Jewel in Transylvania's Crown

Brasov Downtown (photo: Ileana 2015)

Brasov is truly a jewel, a rare pearl in the Transylvanian crown. The Barsa Land surrounding Brasov is a portal into the southern Carpathians’ thick forests, castles, citadels, Evangelical churches, and other historical sites.

The Teutonic Knights protected this area between 1211 and 1225 from the invasion of the Cumans, a Turkic migratory tribe. South of Brasov is the Prahova Valley where I was born and raised decades ago, a land rich in oil with fields of corn and wheat stretching as far as the eye can see.

Despite its heavy industrialization during the communist regime, Brasov kept its medieval character and fresh air. Workers were crushed here in 1987 during a revolt against Ceausescu’s tyrannical regime. Many were arrested and taken to infamous prisons around the country to serve as model for those who would dare again to oppose the dear leader.

Brasov pedestrian walk (photo: Ileana 2015)

The pedestrian walkway from the downtown center to the Black Church is dotted with cozy cafes and restaurants offering local cuisine, street food, Strudel, pizza, and gelato. The cobble-stoned Council Square is very close to the History Museum which holds among its collections the first known document written in Romanian in 1521; the Black Church and the Ethnography Museum, with displays like a walk through a medieval market, are flanking the square.

The famous “Cerbul Carpatin” (Carpathian Stag) restaurant serves delicious Romanian cuisine both indoors and outdoors. Folkloric groups entertain guests with their Romanian music and famous vocalists soothe the hearts of those longing for lost loves. Hunting trophies complement the décor, typical country art with handmade furniture, stained glass, and peasant table cloths.

The Black Church is actually St. Mary’s Evangelical Church. Its walls have been blackened by a fire during the Habsburg siege of Brasov in 1689 which killed 3,000 people. This church has been in existence since 1383. A statue of its most famous priest, Johannes Honterus (1498-1549), stands outside. Honterus helped disseminate Martin Luther’s 1517 “95 theses” challenging the “corrupt practice of selling ‘indulgences’ to absolve sin.” The Protestant Reformation that “emerged was shaped by Luther’s ideas. His writings changed the course of religious and cultural history in the West.”  http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses

Black Church on the left (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

Black Church tombs in the walls (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

Famous citizens of Brasov (Kronstadt) were originally buried in the Black Church and their sarcophagi with intricate tombstones are seen in the walls. The practice was stopped centuries ago for sanitary reasons. The local rich who could afford such a burial in the church walls are now entombed in the cemetery across town.

Black Church pew (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

The pews are beautifully carved indicating which guilds owned them. There are over 100 Anatolian rugs gifted by Saxon merchants who bought them from Turkish soldiers.  The blue organ is used three times a week since there are worries that the heavy sounds vibrate the walls too much, further deteriorating the precious building.

Ethnography Museum in Brasov (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

On my way to the quaint square where the First Romanian School is located, I came upon Strada Sforii (Rope Street), 3.6-4.4 feet in width, advertised to be the narrowest street in Europe.

First Romanian School (Photo: Wikipedia)

The First Romanian School is located on the grounds of a 16^th century church, Sf. Nicolae (St. Nicholas), past the Schei Gate. The school was attended by one pupil per village as space was limited. This pupil was supposed to go back to his village and disseminate to others what he had learned.

According to the energetic caretaker and guide, Vasile Oltean,  the school was established in the 14^th century but the building itself was not erected until 1495. Vasile Oltean was himself a former pupil and teacher at the school. The school was still used in the 20^th century, closing in 1941. When I walked in, a jocular and animated guide was giving a lecture in the classroom to a group of Italian tourists.

First Romanian School printing press (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

The first Romanian Bible was printed here and Deacon Coresi’s printing press on display in the museum managed to publish only 35 titles but in hundreds of copies. It was so labor-intensive, 10-20 apprentices toiled to hand-sculpt each page through a process called xilo-engraving. It was a labor of love because they helped promote the linguistic unity of the people.  The wooden press printed the first Romanian letter in Latin, the first Romanian grammar textbook and the first Bible printed on goatskin, with a cover weighing seven kilograms.

The square where the First Romanian School is located (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

The plaque above the school entrance described the school as the first Romanian School of Greater Romania, rebuilt in stone 1595-1597 with a gift from Prince Aron of Moldavia under the care of Archpriest Mihai, and rebuilt in 1761. The center of education for hundreds of years, it enlightened children and adults alike.

After the primary schools and Orthodox high school of Brasov were built, the building served as a meeting place for the parish council and later housed the historic archives of St. Nicholas Church. The tiny school building to the left of the church was not very imposing, but, as a life-long teacher, it made an indelible impression on me on that rainy spring day.

Whimsical fountain downtown Brasov (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

Rasnov Citadel (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

The one location that attracts the most visitors about 10 miles past the Rasnov Citadel built by Teutonic knights in 1215 and past the National Park Piatra Craiului with its 7,000 foot peak, is the village of Bran with its famous Bran Castle.

Bran Castle in the village of Bran (photo: Ileana 2015)

 

Bran’s Castle is known to westerners as Dracula’s Castle even though Voivode Vlad Tepes III’s connection to this castle was rather vague. He briefly captured the castle during a period in 1459 when he was arguing with the town’s merchants.

Bran’s ownership has been a struggle across the centuries. According to the National Geographic, the castle has been controlled from the late 15^th century until 1920 by the Saxons of Brasov even though the Turks have assaulted it and their last failed attempt happened in 1787. In 1920 the city of Brasov gave the castle to the royal family. It was remodeled by Regina Maria who had electricity installed. “After years spent as a summer palace, a field hospital, and a communist-run museum, the castle now belongs to three members of the Habsburg family; the Brasov city council hopes to raise $78 million to buy it back.” (National Geographic Traveler, p. 148)

The adjacent Village Museum is an outdoor vivid lesson about the history and culture surrounding the castle and Brasov. This museum is located on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia (Muntenia). Looking up from the verdant yard below, the sheer walls of the castle with its ominous aura of impenetrable solid rock appearance, one can understand why Bran was a perfect location for a frontier garrison and customs post, documented as early as 1377.

The castle, which is located on a crag and appears impossible to destroy, is actually crumbling under its own weight. Engineers discovered in 1989 that the rocky cliff is crumbling. During the engineering exploratory digs, medieval wall frescoes have been found.

A handmade iron (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

Seven bastions and fragments of protective walls built by the Saxons in 1395 are still preserved today in Brasov. The circular bastion of the Weavers is the best preserved, built by the weaver’s guild in the 16^th century. Life was organized around trade unions called guilds in medieval times. They kept their paperwork in beautifully carved wooden trunks.

Brasov view from Tampa Peak, 960 m (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

An Orthodox church in Brasov at the foot of Cetatea (Photo: Ileana 2015)

 

A sixteenth century fortress named Cetatea still stands today. A steep climb through a wooded area of Brasov or a leisurely drive rewards the visitor with a breathtaking view of the downtown center of Brasov, the pearl of Transylvania.

Copyright: Ileana Johnson 2015 

"Global Wind Scam Day"

Danish mink farm (Photo: WCN)

Touting the power of wind and “the possibilities to reshape our energy systems, decarbonize our economies and boost job growth,” the Global Wind Day is coordinated worldwide by the European Wind Energy Association, the Global Wind Energy Council, and various national associations.

Solution Wind, a global awareness campaign is also publicizing the wind industry in advance of the COP21 (U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as “Paris 21”) climate negotiations in Paris,  November 30-Decemmber 11, 2015. http://www.cop21.gouv.fr/en

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change was one of the three documents produced in 1992 at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.  President George H.W. Bush signed the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate and U.N. Agenda 21 documents produced at this conference but refused to sign the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity document. http://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/items/2627.php

Having invested $100 billion in 2014, the wind lobby advertises wind energy as “mainstream and the fastest growing industrial sectors in the world.” Activities to convince the general public that wind energy is harmless include “family outings, wind farm visits and seminars with experts and leading industry figures.”

Their website explains that “In the EU alone, the wind industry installed more than gas and coal combined last year with enough cumulative installed capacity to meet 10.2% of the region's electricity consumption, equivalent to powering 73 million households.” What about the other 90% of electricity needs? http://www.ewea.org/globalwindday/

Mark Duchamp, Chairman of the World Council for Nature has issued a press release in advance of the “wind lobby celebration of Global Wind Day” on June 15, 2015. “Hundreds of events are organized worldwide to convince people that wind farms are useful, cheap, harmless to birds and people, good for property values and great for tourism and the economy,” said Mr. Duchamp.

Calling this celebration a “global wind scam day,” Mr. Duchamp lists many economic problems and health issues associated with wind farms which have been operated on a worldwide scale since the 1980s. They provide unreliable and intermittent electricity at a cost that is “three times more expensive than that generated by conventional power.”

He claims that the wind industry, heavily subsidized in all countries, finances political parties through kickbacks via a subsidy “revolving door.” The wind industry provides and guarantees profits to a new “class of green crony capitalists.” In his view, the wind turbine industry negatively affects the economy of some countries, facilitating the political takeover of “anti-establishment parties” such as “Podemos” (We Can) in Spain. Where have we heard that catch-phrase before?

Making references available to readers, Mr. Duchamp lists the unresolved economic and social issues associated with wind turbines:

-          State and countries who rely on renewable energy become less competitive and poorer

-          Wise investors prefer states where energy is cheaper

-          Higher energy prices and taxation related to “green energy” cause companies to relocate abroad

-          Higher renewable energy costs are subsidized by taxpayers and consumers, thus causing “fuel poverty”

-          Deficits increase when subsidies and other bailouts finance “unprofitable and unreliable wind energy”

-          The unsightly wind turbines alter the landscape, destroy the “view shed” touted by environmentalists in this country, and depreciate the value of “heritage sites”

-          The huge turbine blades chop millions of birds and bats every year, including the majestic golden eagle in the U.S. and perhaps some endangered species

-          Properties located near the turbines lose anywhere “from 10% to 50%” of their value

-          Just because a turbine spins, it does not necessarily produce energy

-          Wind turbines must use electricity generated by “dirty” fossil fuels in order to be properly maintained and to prevent rusting of gears

-          Many turbines have been abandoned or shut down as requested by residents who could not stand the noise even after the community had invested millions in their installation

-          Frequently hit by lightning, turbines catch fire and threaten anyone nearby when the fire cannot be put out or the blades literally spin out of control

-          Residents living in the vicinity of turbines are affected by “shadow flicker” during certain hours of the day and stressed out by the constant thump-thump noise coming from the wind turbine, especially at optimal operating wind speed - “allowed noise limits are frequently exceeded”

-          Residents and animals are negatively affected by infrasound emitted by turbines and exhibit disturbing behavior and serious negative health effects

http://wcfn.org/2015/06/04/global-wind-day-2/

 

Unfortunately, Mr. Duchamp said, wind farm victims are ignored, accused of imagining their real health issues such as insomnia, headaches, nausea, tachycardia, disturbed menstrual cycles, loss of balance, genetic mutations during gestation, and other ailments.