Service Projects for all Humanity

An International Online Service Community, by TOS-USA

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk:

"The death toll from last week's earthquake in south-west China has risen to 40,075, officials have said. Chinese aid workers are struggling to find shelter for millions who lost their homes. Foreign medical teams have started arriving in the area.
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I am sending a revised version of my food policy text to take into account the UN meetings in Switzerland on Monday and Tuesday and the calling of a World Food Security Conference for 3-5 June in Rome. It would be important to get more voices into the act than the regular Department of Agriculture people and the Farm lobbies. TOS members and all other viewers are urged to contact their representatives indicating the importance of the food shortages and the need for longer range agricultural policies. There is a short term need for money but the real problems are longer term.  read more »

Jackie Lapin
The Art of Conscious Creation: How You Can Transform The World
(Charleston, SC: Elevate, 2007, 210pp.)

There is a Zen story in which the student asks the master “What is the secret of enlightenment?” The master writes on his board “attention”. The student asks again “Is that all? The master writes “Attention, attention.”  read more »

by Tim Boyd
President, Theosophical Order of Service USA

From time to time in our attempts to do good an opportunity comes along for us to make a profound difference for a worthy cause. For the Theosophical Order of Service in the USA we find ourselves in that position today. However, in order for us to make this opportunity a reality we need your help.  read more »

(Editor's Note: The TOS is about action to relieve suffering.  At the end of this article you can find names and addresses of officials to whom you may appeal for redress.)

"Whether it is under the guise of survival and self-defence or directly expressed through domination and greed, the failure to recognise the common humanity shared by us all lies at the heart of our difficulties. To overcome it, we should begin to develop, from the level of the individual through that of society to the world at large, what I call a sense of universal responsibility; a deep respect for every living being who lives on this one small planet and calls it home." — the Dalai Lama

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A Modern-Day Slave Trade.

The United Nations, under the leadership of Antonio Mario Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has just completed mid-February 2008 the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking. Meeting in Vienna, Austria, the Forum brought together government representatives, including a large number of police and immigration officials with representatives of non-governmental organizations.  read more »

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Jose Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor, was shot twice in the back by rebel soldiers in an attack on his home in Dili in the early hours of Monday, 11February 2008.  This article gives details and reviews his life-long service to humanity in the cause of human rights.

The attack was led by the fugitive rebel commander Alfredo Reinado who was killed in the attack.  One of Ramos-Horta’s security guards was also killed.  Alfredo Reinado had been jailed in 2006 for murder and for inciting bloody clashes based in part on ethnic rivalries among military and police forces.  Some 30 people had been killed in the violence at the time, and many fled their homes before an Australian-led international force supported by the UN restored order. In August 2006, Reinado was helped to escape jail and had been hiding in forests while regrouping his supporters. Ramos-Horta has been flown to Darwin, Australia for treatment. The Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who had been President before Ramos-Horta, will lead the government while Ramos-Horta is away.

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I've noticed that many TS/TOS people use "CC" ("carbon copy") to send emails to multiple recipients.  Whenever the mailing is of the nature of a newletter or mass-mailing, this is not generally a good idea, especially in these days of rampant spam.  Today I found a article on about.com that clearly explains why and how to avoid misuse of Cc:  read more »

by C.V.K. Maithreya, Adyar, India

The International Centenary Gathering was held at Adyar on January 2nd & 3rd, 2008. Mrs. Radha Burnier, the International President, addressed the gathering. Mrs. Diana Dunningham Chapotin gave a report of the activities of the TOS across the globe. Mr.B.L.Bhattacharya added a word of welcome, on behalf of the Indian TOS, while Mr.P.S.Mital gave a brief report of the activities of the TOS in India. Greetings were received from many parts of India and the world. A tribute to Dr. Annie Besant was delivered by Ms. Dorothy Bell.  read more »

(Reported by Diana Dunningham-Chapotin, TOS International Secretary):
"... let us welcome a brand new group into our ranks: the TS in Singapore has just received approval from Radha to start a chapter of the TOS, with Danny Giron as its coordinator.  They will have their inaugural meeting on February 23 in the very month that Annie Besant started the TOS one hundred years ago – an auspicious time, if there ever was one.  Welcome, Danny, Sanne, Lily and the rest of you!"

Mahatma Gandhi was a man of dialogue and compromise. A British-trained lawyer, he always knew the limits of the law and knew when not to push too far even when his aim was to be arrested. However, when your opponents refuse dialogue, when events move so fast that no compromise is possible, what is one to do? On the anniversary of his assassination, 30 January, these questions confront us as we try to find peaceful ways to resolve conflicts.  read more »

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 – 1950 )

Into the golden vessel of great song
Let us pour all our passion; breast to breast
Let other lovers lie, in love and rest;
Not we, — articulate so, but with the tongue
Of all the world.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a Dionysian of passion who symbolized the “New Woman” at the end of the First World War. However, she wrote largely in the most controlled of poetic forms, the sonnet.  read more »

NAIROBI LODGE - THEOSOPHICAL ORDER OF SERVICE Report – 2007

The Theosophical Order of service is the service arm of the Theosophical Society. It was founded by Dr. Annie Besant, the second International President, in February 1908. So, as you can see, the T.O.S. is in its hundredth year of existence. The year beginning February 2007 to February 2008 has officially been designated as the Centenary Year of the T.O.S.  read more »

Those interested in reading about TOS-founded Golden Link School in the Philippines will want to download or view the school's beautiful leaflet (488K, Adobe Acrobat Reader or equivalent required).

by Rene Wadlow

The recent, 27 November 2007, Israel-Palestine conference sponsored by the US administration at Annapolis has highlighted the need for concerted efforts to bridge the walls of separation between Israelis and Palestinians. The conference also made evident the need to place the Israeli-Palestinian tensions in the context of broader Middle East currents including Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria where tensions and difficulties abound. On all these issues, governments and their diplomatic representatives have an important role to play.  read more »