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  • Worldwide Discussion:
    NOW SCHOOLS TEACH CHILDREN
    HOW TO LIVE WITH TERROR

    So it has come to this.

    More and more schools across the country are now apparently involving children in so-called Active Intruder Drills.

    Complete with armed police bursting into darkened classrooms to “rescue” endangered children, the firing of blanks by fake “intruders” using real runs, and realistic enactments that in one case actually frightened students, these drills may soon become part of The New American Scene in classrooms from sea to shining sea.

    So we are told in a remarkable news story revealing this latest educational development published February 8 by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a column by writer Aisha Sultan headlined: Hiding in the hallways: Intruder drills get graphic

    In the story, Ms. Sultan describes how some schools involve members of the high school drama club who don gruesome make-up — complete with fake blood running down faces from make-believe bullet holes in students’ temples — and then play out an entire scene, giving school officials, teachers, and first responders “a chance to practice what would happen in such a worst-case scenario.” Except for the voluntary actors, other students are not involved in such drills.

    But, Ms. Sultan wrote in her Parents Talk Back column, not all such drills involve only adults.  “Masked ‘intruders,’ armed with guns, fired blanks at a group of teachers in a library in a rural Oregon school last year,” her article reported. Further, she reports, a student at Central York High School in New Jersey wrote about the deafening noise when those armed police officers burst into her dark classroom to “rescue” the students during a realistic active intruder drill.

    And yes, it allegedly happened that, according to Ms. Sultan’s report, “an El Paso, Texas district took it a step further with a surprise intruder drill so realistic that students sent panicked texts to parents.”

    The purpose of the drills is to potentially save lives by reducing panic in the case of an actual on-site intruder attack at a school, Ms. Sultan makes clear, just as schools for decades have run fire drills, tornado and earthquake drills — and even, in the 50s, air raid drills and atomic bomb drills.

    But the possibility of an intruder coming right into a classroom and killing students in could blood adds a new dimension to the model of the world with which a child grows up, one would have to conclude.

    Or, as Aisha Sultan wrote: “When you have to imagine yourself getting shot, your teacher hiding you, year after year since you were five years old, that creates some sort of impression. When a threat is so real that you can hear screams and shots fired and smell sweat during the trial runs, that changes a child’s perception of what places are safe,” even though, she continued, “schools remain one of the safest places for children.”

    Yes, but does the world feel safe to children who grow up made, in realistic invader drills, to line up against a wall where no one can see them so that their classroom looks empty? When they watch as their teacher quickly rolls down paper on all the windows? When they are told to not make a sound until they hear “all clear?”

    “So the defense we’ve given our children since massacres at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook is very often: Turn off the lights, stay quiet, and hide,” Ms. Sultan opines. “That’s certainly easier than trying to make even the smallest reforms to the country’s gun laws.”

    Changes such as restrictions on the purchase of assault weapons or even reasonable  requirements for background checks for gun buyers are supported by “the vast majority of Americans,” the writer asserts, but such modest gun control measures cannot survive any legislative process “because of the power of the gun lobby,” she alleges.

    Meanwhile school security “is an industry now,” she wrote in her column, “with trainers and equipment and realistic drills meant to convince us that teaching children to dodge bullets at school is somehow a normal part of growing up.”

  • Step Forward

    College, for the majority of students, is a time of opportunity wasted. After filling out their applications, they arrive to the university, and are literally granted with an incredible amount of opportunities at their fingertips. Any given student, during their time here, can make groundbreaking research, become a rising star in a fortune 500 company, and start an entire new way of life. But….most students don’t do this. And why? Because they get comfortable. They find a friend group, and they stick with it. They join an initial activity, and they don’t branch out. Why? Because it’s safe. Because it’s easy. Because it’s become their official standard identity.

    So, for the gift of friends, staying exactly who you are may seem like a small price to pay. BUT…sometimes, if you want to grow, if you want to truly become more of your greatest vision of the grandest version of Who You Truly Are, you need to expand yourself. In a time of deep contemplation, realize who will accelerate you forward and who will set you back.

    For a majority of my life, I have been a people-pleaser. Always wanting to tell people what they wanted to hear, giving people what they wanted to have given to them. But, as a result, I was living a warped life, one that was not truly mine, but rather bent and curved by the expectations and standards of those around me. In order to keep what I had, I felt it was necessary for people to only see me in the most ideal light – even if that light was much dimmer than my real spirit.

    As a result, I’ve decided to expand myself – even if it means changing from my current identity of who I am, who I spend my time with, and what I spend my time doing. I’m choosing to create a new reality everyday, one that challenges me to understand more about myself and my connection to Being. Though it comes with some change, I’ve accepted my own growth and my own self, and I’m loving every moment of it.

    The message in this article may seem shocking and insensitive to some. But, in our innermost understanding, we recognize that all of us travel the path back to Oneness at different paces. Don’t shun your friends for not being as spiritually aware yet, but rather, just accept that their journeys are uniquely different and wonderfully individualized. You are not truly separating from them, but rather, learning how to connect with them on an entirely different level. Let yourself be the guardian of your own growth, and never let anyone or anything limit yourself from it.

    So when at college, if you see yourself in this position, remember how much of an opportunity you have to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Depending on the size of campus, you can have 400 to 40,000 individuals who are eager and willing to share their story, their journey, and their experiences with you. You have incredible opportunities present all around you – you can be the difference now.

    (Lauren Rourk is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and attends Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. She can be contacted at Lauren@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • DOES ‘HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL’ WORK?

    There is an idea that has been going around the so-called New Thought community over the past couple of decades that to speak of anything, thereby “giving energy to it,” only serves to “make it bigger.” Therefore, this idea goes, humans should never talk about or “focus on” anything that they believe is not okay in our society, because they are only “spreading negativity” and ensuring that those conditions remain even more firmly in place.

    We should only give voice to that which we wish to see expanded in its manifestation and enlarged in our experience, this line of thinking asserts, using as its basis the oft declared New Age principle that “we create our own reality” with the power of our thoughts, words, and deeds.

    It is time to debunk this notion once and for all. Holding this idea as sacred can, in fact, be dangerous, by allowing detrimental or damaging aspects of our collectively created life to continue — often by going unnoticed.

    This business of never speaking a single word about what is simply not working in our collective experience is what I call a “New Age Bypass.” It is spiritual surgery that does not work, because it promotes a point of view that forever skirts the heart of the matter of what it means to be truly evolved and truly enlightened while being truly human.

    If a train is clammoring down the tracks and someone in the car hears this as the family auto approaches a crossroad, is that person not to speak of what she knows is just around the bend, for fear of breaking the New Rule of not “spreading negativity”?

    In other words, is simple observation of What Is So a “sign” that one is not among the Spiritually Advanced?

    What is the purpose of the increased consciousness and awareness growing out of the spiritual expansion and evolution of humanity, if it cannot be used to apply spiritual wisdom to the challenges of that evolutionary process itself?

    This newspaper has been criticized by some for publishing headline stories that in some cases describe what we believe to be less than desirable events or conditions in humanity’s present reality. We have been accused of “producing separation” and “creating more” of what we say we don’t want.

    “Why don’t you just focus on what you do want?”, one reader recently wrote.

    Yet if what we do want is to bring an end to some of the practices and behaviors of humanity, is never saying a word about those practices and behaviors the way to do it? Or is opening the door and throwing the light onto the darkness one way to change the darkness into light?

    This does not mean there is no place for positive, affirmative thought, word, and action. But it does mean that observation is not judgment, and a description of circumstances or conditions is not guaranteed to enlarge them.

    Life, says Conversations with God, proceeds out of our intentions for it. It is our intention that the Universe understands, and to which it responds.

    So if our intention in observing that the train is coming is to avoid being hit, that observation does not increase the danger of our demise, but reduces it. If it is our intention in describing an undesirable condition or circumstance is to change it for the better, that description in and of itself does not change it for the worse.

    Quite to the contrary. It makes it possible for us to make an improvement, to advance, thus to move forward in our evolution.

  • Nearly half of U.S. on brink of financial calamity: economic report

    The Corporation For Enterprise Development (CFED) released an article on January 30 by Lebaron Sims and Sean Luechtefeld in which it placed a new light on the economy in the U.S.

    In the article, the writers argued that “almost half of Americans are on the brink of financial calamity.”

    Reading the news, the writers said, “it would be easy to conclude that the economy is chugging along toward full recovery.” They pointed to new government data released on Jan. 30 which revealed that the economy grew at a “healthy” 3.2% in the last quarter of 2013. “Yet,” the writers said, “ask the average middle-class American and their economic outlook is anything but healthy.

    The 2014 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard, released by CFED last month, which finds that despite an improving national economy, “liquid asset poverty rates have barely budged,” the article by Sims and Luechtefeld said.

    “The percentage of households in the US who lack the savings needed to weather a financial storm like a job loss or medical emergency is holding tight at 44%,” they said.

    The Scorecard also found that problems like growing student loan debt and high rates of consumers with subprime credit—especially among households of color—”are to blame for Americans’ lingering inability to get ahead and build a more secure financial future for themselves and their families,” the writers said.

    The article went on to report that CFED President Andrea Levere has called attention to the fact that despite 50 years of progress in the War on Poverty, Americans’ economic mobility has stagnated, while household net worth continues to decline. Part of why these measures trend the wrong direction, Mr. Levere noted, “is the intergenerational transfer of wealth and the lack of policies in place to give a hand up to those who need it the most,” the article said.

    The story on its website said that the Corporation For Enterprise Development’s annual “Scorecard” has, for over a decade, been the go-to source for data on household financial security in America.

    “This year, however, the Scorecard includes assessments of all 50 states and the District of Columbia on 67 different policy measures. These measures illustrate how far states have gone—and how far they still need to go—to help their residents achieve financial stability,” the story went on.

    Ranging from mandatory all-day kindergarten to the establishment of a state housing trust fund, these policies offer legislators manageable and moveable ways to expand economic opportunity in their states, the CFED story asserted.

    Also new to the 2014 Scorecard are Estimated Impacts, CFED said in the article by Sims and Luechtefeld, are detailed projections of what effect improvements in 16 specific outcomes would have on the citizens of each state. “For example, Massachusetts has the nation’s lowest uninsured rate, at 4.4%. If Pennsylvania’s 11.5% uninsured rate improved to match Massachusetts’, 742,971 additional Pennsylvanians would have health insurance—no small matter. With this exciting new data tool, advocates can better illustrate the power that good policy can have on the lives of individuals and households,” the article said.

    The CFED’s Scorecard offers tools for anyone wishing to look more closely at the U.S. economy as they “make the case to policymakers, community leaders and funders for asset-building strategies that create pathways to economic opportunity,” the internet story declared.

    The entire story may be read here. Persons interested in a close-up look at the U.S. economy and its implications may follow the conversation about that on Twitter using #CFEDscorecard.

    A statement on its website says: “The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), a national nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, empowers low- and moderate-income households to build and preserve assets by advancing policies and programs that help them achieve the American Dream, including buying a home, pursuing higher education, starting a business and saving for the future. As a leading source for data about household financial security and policy solutions, CFED understands what families need to succeed. We promote programs on the ground and invest in social enterprises that create pathways to financial security and opportunity for millions of people.

  • You’ve got to find out what others are doing

    Did you know that there is a new book that identifies the 25 most important messages of the 9-installment Conversations with God series? It then offers practical suggestions on how to apply each message in every day life. Powerful and inspirational reading.  To see the first seven chapters and hear a one chapter sample of the audio book, click here.
    ================================================

    (This is Part VIII of an extended series on being part of the change, rather than simply observing the change, that is occurring on our planet right now.)

    In our last entry here we said that “the New Spirituality” that is talked about in the CwG books is based upon the following assumption: There is something we do not now fully understand about God and about Life, the understanding of which can change everything.

    The process of seeking, obtaining, and sharing wisdom is what will bring us closer to that understanding. This should be a lifelong process that is never ending. That is why I speak of being “in-the-moment clear” about who we are and what we are doing here.

    All true clarity is in-the-moment clarity. That is because there is nothing else but  the moment. “Now” is all there is, and everything else is an illusion. Yet even if we accept the terms of the Illusion, tomorrow, for all we know, a flying saucer could land here and change everything we ever thought we understood about life.

    You think I’m kidding? I’m not.

    So if you really want to be Part of the Change on our planet, use whatever tools are available to you to get clear on what is true for you. Another one of those very practical tools is meditation—and we will talk more about that when we discuss Step Four of the Ten Steps to Becoming a Spiritual Helper.

    More practical suggestions
    After getting clear on who you are and what you choose, there is another very practical thing that you can do to implement fully Step One, which, you will remember, is to ANNOUNCE OURSELVES TO EACH OTHER.  (We explored this step in our last entry here). This other practical thing you can do?  Find out what is already being done, and by whom.

    Make it your business to learn more about the world in which you live. Watch the news. Read the paper. Follow the Internet. Keep up with what’s happening.

    A lot of people in the new age community seem to feel it’s a good idea to avoid the news, to remove yourself from this “negative energy.” I disagree. I follow the news closely every day. Energy is what you call it. Or, as William Shakespeare famously noted, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

    I want to know what’s going on in my world. I want to understand the issues of the day, the matters of concern, the daily developments on our globe that co-create our collective experience.

    Perhaps more important, I want to discover who, if anyone, is gathering energy and doing something about the challenges we are facing, who is putting together a plan or a program, who is launching what effort to accomplish which goal.

    I want to know this because I want to connect  with these people. I want to use these resources.  I want to increase my effectiveness  as a spiritual helper by joining with others who are holding the same ideas I am nursing, and who are moving in the same direction I am going.

    Now in the case of readers of CwG there already is a “game plan” for those who have taken the messages of these books to heart. The game plan is to create the space of possibility for a New Spirituality to emerge upon the earth.

    This does not mean to proselytize or to start trying to “convert” everyone, and it certainly does not mean the creation of a new religion. The message of CwG is clear on this point. What the world needs now is not another religion, but an expansion, an extension, a rejuvenation and a refreshing of the thoughts and beliefs of our present religions.

  • Remembrance

    Having been there myself and having met so many others who are there as well, the one message that really needs to be sent out to those who are battling with addictions is: You are not bad; you are a spiritual being choosing a human experience called addiction.  And guess what?  You can choose again, right here, right now. You can decide to be a person who in the past struggled with addiction.

    There is a viral letter going around Facebook right now that is finding its way into many people’s lives, and I would like to share that message with you here in this column today because I find it to be a very important piece of knowledge for people suffering through the hardship of addiction.

    The following  was written by a woman named Courtney A. Walsh.

    “Dear Human:  You’ve got it all wrong.  You didn’t come here to master unconditional love.  That is where you came from and where you’ll return. You came here to learn personal love.  Universal love.  Messy love.  Sweaty love.  Crazy love. Broken love.  Whole love.  Infused with divinity. Lived through the grace of stumbling. Demonstrated through the beauty of… messing up —- often.  You didn’t come here to be perfect.  You already are.  You came here to be gorgeously human. Flawed and fabulous.  And then to rise again into remembering. But unconditional love? Stop telling that story.  Love, in truth, doesn’t need ANY other adjectives.  It doesn’t require modifiers.  It doesn’t require the condition of perfection.  It only asks that you show up. And do your best. That you stay present and feel fully. That you shine and fly and laugh and cry and hurt and heal and fall and get back up and play and work and live and die as YOU.  It’s enough.  It’s plenty.”

    There are two specific parts to this letter that I find to be powerful and healing.  The first is that our love can be demonstrated through “messing up.”   In the writing of CWG, God makes it clear in his message:

    “Taken to ultimate logic, you cannot experience yourself as what you are until you’ve encountered what you are not. This is the purpose of the theory of relativity, and all physical life. It is by that which you are not that you yourself are defined.”

    It is pretty clear that active addiction is not ultimately who we really are.  For most of us, our behavior impacted others negatively, criminally, selfishly, and even ruthlessly.  All of these things we have done out of the distorted view of love we have.  Some feel the bar of morality is set to high for them to achieve, others do not feel worthy of love.  The one thing I am more sure of now than ever is that we are all worthy of love, regardless of our past.

    When in the depths of addictive behavior, we are always one decision away from freedom.  We can “rise again into remembering,” as Courtney points out in her letter, “You didn’t come here to be perfect, you already are.”  You did come here to experience life and realize your wholeness. We tend to forget this or simply haven’t awakened to this yet.  Maybe the message hasn’t been delivered in just the right way for you to hear it. It is my hope that this column can send that message.

    The second part of this “Dear Human” letter that strikes a chord within me is this: “It (love) doesn’t require the condition of perfection.  It only asks that you show up.”  In fact you are showing up.  You can’t not show up for life. You can, however, check out of life.  And active addiction is just that, checking out. Making a decision to give life a chance without your addiction gives you the opportunity to “show up” as a more complete version of who you really are.

    In CWG Book 1, God calls what we are doing here Re-membering.  And it is we who choose this remembering.  And choosing to remember who we really are is a pure act of creation.  So why not put to rest the current story you are telling about who you are and awaken to the next grandest version of you?  Have you not experienced the darkness of addiction enough?  Are you aware that enough is enough when you say it is?  You are not powerless, you are not a victim, you are God living a human experience.

    Your awakening will not be without reward. Life after addiction is filled with many gratifying experiences.  The beauty of the light after living in the darkness has been experienced by millions of people who are living long-term recovery.  The journey of many recovering people has included joining together to support one another and ultimately share their gifts with other like-minded people.

    “Your job on Earth, therefore, is not to learn (because you already know), but to remember Who You Are. And to re-member who everyone else is. That is why a big part of your job is to remind others (that is, to re-mind them), so that they can remember also. All the wonderful spiritual teachers have been doing just that. It is your sole purpose. That is to say, your soul purpose.” CWG Book 1.

    *Courtney A. Walsh can be found easily through Google by searching for “Dear Human.” The original intent from Courtney was for this to be “the seed of an empowerment movement for suicide prevention and bullying awareness.”

    (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist.  He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, recovery coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery.  Kevin has a passion for holistic living, personal awareness training, and physical meditation. You can visit his website Life After Addicton for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)

  • Large U.S. pharmacy is kicking its cigarette habit

    CVS Caremark Corp, one of the largest drugstores in the United States, stated that as of October 2014 it will no longer carry tobacco products in any of its 7,600 stores around the country, hoping its voluntary decision will have a ripple effect among other pharmacy chains.

    Larry J. Merlo, president and CEO of CVS Caremark, said in a statement, “Ending the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy is the right thing for us to do for our customers and our company to help people on their path to better health.  Put simply, the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose.”

    President Barack Obama praised the pharmacy’s precedent-setting move and said in a statement, “As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today’s decision will help advance my administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs — ultimately saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come.”

    CVS estimates that it stands to lose upwards of $2 billion as a result of pulling cigarettes and other tobacco products off their shelves.  But when weighed against a reported $123.1 billion in revenues in 2012, it doesn’t appear that CVS will be feeling much of a fiscal pinch.

    Tobacco still remains the number one cause of preventable disease and death.  A U.S. Surgeon General report last month linked smoking to 480,000 deaths annually, up from a previous estimate of 443,000 deaths. It attributed at least $289 billion in annual costs from smoking, including $150 billion for lost productivity and $130 billion in medical care.

    But CVS is not being hailed a hero by everyone.  Many critics are calling into question the mega pharmacy’s decision to pull tobacco products while at the same time continue to stock and sell unhealthy processed food choices and alcoholic beverages.  Others are disgruntled over the restrictions and regulations being placed upon them as they watch their freedom of choice being chipped away at by just another big corporation.

    Perhaps the drug chain is just following the breadcrumbs on the money trail, keenly aware of the significant decline in the number of cigarette smokers over the years and a steadily rising number of prescription drug sales.  Stores like CVS and Walgreen’s are the gatekeepers to highly addictive and oftentimes abused prescription drugs like painkillers, tranquilizers, antidepressants, sleeping pills and stimulants, which can be just as addictive and potent as the heroin or cocaine sold on the street.  And with the surging number of “pain management” clinics and pill mills popping up around the country, the business of pedaling prescription drugs has turned into a multi-billion dollar racket.

    Maybe a company’s decision to remove a product known to harm people is as a result of a new world attempting to emerge, a world where the multi-million dollar corporations are forced to make changes in response to humanity’s evolution.  Human beings are waking up and wising up to tobacco companies engineering addictive products and marketing them disingenuously as “cool” or “relaxing,” no longer willing to sit back and watch cigarette makers rake in billions of dollars at the expense of people dying from cancer, emphysema, and heart disease.

    So what do you think?  Is CVS’s decision a step in the “right’ direction, a cause for celebration?  Or is it another slight-of-hand marketing ploy created to divert our attention from what is going on somewhere else in their stores?  How does their declaration of “helping people on their path to better health” feel to you?  Authenticate?  Genuine?  Promising?  Contradictory?  How long will financial benefit continue to be a dominating factor in the way people and businesses operate and function in our communities?  In our world?  Are we well on our way or at least beginning to see the day where the collective desires and longings for a better world, a freer world, a healthier and happier world, a more spiritually aware and conscious world, will produce and bring forth exactly that?

    (Lisa McCormack is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and lives in Orlando, Florida.  To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • Worldwide Discussion:
    DO PRIVATE COMPANIES BEAR ANY
    RESPONSIBILITY FOR WORLD CITIZENS?

    In an enlightened society of sentient beings, what is more important and what is most reflective of a spiritually advanced culture: (A) protecting the intellectual property rights of innovative creators within that culture, or (B) making the innovations of innovative creators within a society available for the benefit of the largest number of people everywhere?

    And what if the innovations are life-saving, illness-curing, sickness-abating drugs that have been researched, invented and manufactured at considerable cost by major, privately owned pharmaceutical companies, and sold by those companies around the world?

    The above is not simply a philosophical inquiry. It may be playing itself out very soon in international courts — and it drives to the question of why the large pharmaceutical companies produce their products to begin with: to save the largest number of lives, or to make the largest possible profit?

    According to a report by writer Abby Zimet published at the website CommonDreams.org, the CEO of the German-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Bayer — a gentleman named Marijn Dekkers — gave the reasons that Bayer researched, created, manufactured and has sold its anti-cancer medicine Nexivar around the world . . . and it was not to make the potentially life-saving drug available in places like, say, India, where Nexivar cost around $5,500 a month to use.

    “We did not develop this medicine (Nexavar) for Indians,” the Common Dreams website reports Mr. Dekkers as saying at a little reported pharmaceutical conference. “We developed it for Western patients who can afford it.”

    A check with the global information reference site Wikipedia appears to have confirmed the report. The Wikipedia article says: “In an interview given to the Businessweek following controversies surrounding the Indian government’s decision to award a compulsory license to Indian company Natco Pharma Ltd. for Naxavar (sic) (Sorafenib), Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers equated the compulsory license with theft.

    “Regarding targeted markets, he said, ‘Is this going to have a big effect on our business model? No, because we did not develop this product for the Indian market, let’s be honest. We developed this product for Western patients who can afford this product, quite honestly. It is an expensive product, being an oncology product’.” (“Merck to Bristol-Myers Face More Threats on India Drug Patents”. businessweek.com. 2014-01-21).

    As noted above, Mr. Dekker’s comments came in response to media inquiries regarding an action taken by the government of India, which has compelled a local Indian drug manufacturer to produce a generic version of Nexavar for the Indian market, saying that because the product produced by Bayer violates Indian law because it is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price.

    The government invoked what it says is its authority to compel the manufacturing of sorafenib, a generic version of Nexavar, and have it made available to the Indian population as a life-saving measure for its citizens suffering from kidney cancer or liver cancer.

    As a result, a local Indian company, Natco Pharma, is now allowed to manufacture and sell sorafenib in India for about $178 per month, rather than the $5,500 per month that Nexavar costs. By government order, Natco must make the generic drug available for  free to 600 Indian patients per year who cannot even afford this cost, and must pay a 6% royalty on all sales to Bayer quarterly.

    The Bayer company — which reportedly finished 2011 with a near-doubling of net income year-over-year to €2.5 billion (about $3.3 billion) —  has said it will evaluate its options “to further defend our intellectual property rights in India,” a Bayer spokesperson said in media reports. Bayer said it was “disappointed by the decision” of the Indian government to grant a license to a local drug firm in India to produce a generic version of its highly touted cancer-treating drug so that India citizens could afford it.

    As reported by the media, Bayer’s CEO equated the action with theft. The question, then, for highly evolved beings: Is Bayer being stolen from . . . or are the people whose lives are being taken by kidney and liver cancer in India being stolen from because they cannot afford $69,000 a year for a drug that could be made available to them for $178 a month in its generic form, if Bayer would only let it happen?

    What responsibility — if any — does a company which nearly doubled its net income from 2011 to 2012 have to a global society? (A major percentage of India’s population lives below the poverty line. The government’s most recent estimate is 32%. The World Bank says it is ten percent higher.)

    I’d very much like to hear your answer to the above question. Please post your comment below.  Thanks.

  • The gift of responsibility

    Life is a gift – a very true statement, in my opinion. Recently, I have experienced this, not just in living Life Itself, but in all of the things that happen from moment to moment and day to day. These little incidents are the gifts! And the gift of responsibility is probably the one that stands out the most.

    Have you ever felt completely at peace with all the responsibility that you have? Seriously, take a moment and think about it. Do you think most people have gratitude for the daily responsibilities that they possess?

    Recently, I have taken on the large responsibility of becoming a full-time, hands-on grandmother to my son’s ten-month-old daughter. I am not raising her; however, because she and her mother have moved into my home, I am with her nearly every day. Although it is temporary, it brings the idea of change, and what it means, to me – full force.

    That reminds me of something.  Didn’t Neale Donald Walsch write a book about that? When Everything Changes, Change Everything! Of course he did! It has been very helpful to me.

    My current situation is a complete 360-degree change from where it was a few months ago when I didn’t get to see her as I would have chosen. It was a very devastating time, and in missing her, I truly felt the loss of a soul. With this being said, after talking to God and the universe, my prayers were answered. When the opportunity arose, or when the door opened to embrace change, the only question I asked myself was, “What would love do now?” Then all fear, doubt, anger, and frustration left me and instantly turned to joy, forgiveness, selflessness, and, most importantly, love.

    Embracing this responsibility has been one of many blessings and gifts in my lifetime. Not only do I have the opportunity to see and hold my grand baby on a daily basis again, but I am now blessed with seeing her grow, explore, and learn new things. Instead of viewing my house as more crowded, noisy, and inconvenient, I am choosing to view it as more filled with love, light and laughter!

    I feel we all are given the gift of responsibility and all of the things we get out of it. I bet you have seen this with friends and loved ones?

    I have a friend who, together with his wife, decided to allow their niece to come live with them when she was in need. They took on their niece. And the experience (the gift) of this responsibility, watching her grow and flourish with their love, has outnumbered any potential negatives or inconveniences(financial or otherwise) that one could hold around it.

    Parenting (and grandparenting, too) is the biggest responsibility there is, and we feel every decision we make for our precious children to our core in one way or another. For me, gratitude is the key to finding peace in what society calls responsibility. The gratitude for experiencing what you have asked for, what may be in front of you, and being the person you are in order to feel the responsibility. The beautiful, heartwarming, devastating, sometimes frightening wonderful thing we call life.

    Do we call it responsibility or do we call it life? Do we embrace all of life or do we run from it? Gratitude, my friends, abundant gratitude, will allow the responsibilities of life to flow. This is my door to CwG core concept which says that the wonderful ways to be are honest, responsible, and aware. My gratitude runneth over with the beautiful responsibility of being alive. Having my granddaughter with me is beyond living; it is heaven.

    Am I suggesting, then, that every day can be heaven? Yes, I am! I feel if we can find a way to see the gift in everything, even those things that feel overwhelming, pressing, exhausting, or out of our comfort zone, and even our “responsibilities” as gifts, we then experience heaven on earth. Breathe in life and all that it sets down in front of you. The gifts are waiting!

    (Laurie Lankins Farley has worked with Neale Donald Walsch for approximately 10 years. She is the Executive Director of his non-profit The School of the New Spirituality and creative co-director of CwGforParents.com. Laurie has published an inspirational children’s book “The Positive Little Soul.”  She can be contacted at Parenting@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

  • How can I receive God’s help in order to not take on others’ pain?

    I am a 31 year old woman, living in South Africa. I work for an NGO that deals with domestic violence. I work in the administration office as well as in the reception, but because we are under-staffed, I often do basic counseling for clients. The environment has changed me and made me rather highly sensitive. I cry myself to sleep weekly because I feel the pain that these individuals go through daily. It pains me so much that I feel paralyzed, not knowing what to do with the amount of violence in our country.

    I want to be 100% sure that it is His voice that I am hearing and not mine, so that I can receive solutions step by step like in the 3 books. I think that is all everyone wants. Your help will be appreciated… May

    Dear May…

    If you go back and read pages 4 and 5 in Conversations With God Book 1, you will find the answer to your question of discerning whether it is God talking to you. It says, “Mine is always your Highest Thought, your Clearest Word, your Grandest Feeling. Anything less is from another source… The Highest Thought is always that thought which contains joy. The Clearest Words are those words which contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is that feeling which you call love.”

    Those of us who work in the helping professions must create boundaries that protect our well-being. We must mentally separate ourselves from those with whom we are working, lest we take on their problems as our own. For how can we help anyone if we are dwelling in sadness ourselves? We simply can’t let anyone take us down with them. Our jobs are to lift people up!

    Would it help for you to remember that everything is truly in Divine Right Order, and that anything that looks otherwise is nothing more than an illusion? When we are surrounded by negativity, it is of the utmost importance for us to remain steadfast in our faith that God knows exactly what It is doing, all the time. No exceptions.

    You mention that there is a lot of violence in South Africa. Do you realize that every single person on this Earth, even if they seem to be violent villains, goes back Home to God? There is no path that doesn’t eventually lead to God, yet some paths certainly seem to be more fraught with chaos than others. Conversations With God says that there are no victims and no villains because God is all there is. It shows up in ways that are hard to recognize sometimes, so it’s very important to trust that given the benefit of hindsight, we will see the perfection that may not be obvious to us now.

    I, myself, was once involved in a relationship where anger escalated to domestic violence on a regular basis, and I can tell you now that I am grateful for the experience! It opened up the space for all kinds of wonderful things in my life, including healing the relationship with my mother, and the opportunity to marry my soulmate. Talk about a happy ending!

    The best thing we can do for another who is in pain, is pray for them in the affirmative. Not cosmic begging or pleading; rather, knowing for that person that he or she is Whole, Complete and Perfect, and that anything that looks otherwise is not the truth. I hope this helps, dear one. I implore you to shield yourself from others’ misery. Ask God to help you in every waking moment, then pay attention to your feelings as you are guided. Remember the guidelines for discernment I mentioned above. Then walk as closely with God as you can, in order to be strong enough to do the work you came here to do. Perhaps the serenity prayer might help:

    “Dear God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

    Amen and amen.

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

    An additional resource:  The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services.  The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions.  What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God.  It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.