Global @ MindSay 
warming
(06-13) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Alan Fram
People around the globe widely expect the next American president to improve the country's policies toward the rest of the world, especially if Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is elected, yet they retain a persistently poor opinion of the United States, according to a poll released Thursday.
The survey of two dozen countries, conducted this spring by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, also found a growing despondency over the international economy, with majorities in 18 nations calling domestic economic conditions poor. In more bad news for the United States, people shared a widespread sense the American economy was hurting their countries, including large majorities in U.S. allies Britain, Germany, Australia, Turkey, France and Japan.
Even 6 in 10 Americans agreed the U.S. economy was having a negative impact abroad.
Views of the United States improved or stayed the same as last year in 18 nations, the first positive signs the poll has found for the U.S. image worldwide this decade. Even so, many improvements were modest, and the United States remains less popular in most countries than it was before it invaded Iraq in 2003, with majorities in only eight expressing favorable opinions.
Substantial numbers in most countries said they are closely following the U.S. presidential election, including 83 percent in Japan - about the same proportion who said so in the United States. Of those watching the campaign, optimism that the new president will reshape American foreign policy for the better is significant, with the largest segment of people in 14 countries - including the United States - saying so.
Andrew Kohut, president of Pew, said many seem to be hoping the U.S. role in the world will improve with the departure of President Bush, who remains profoundly unpopular almost everywhere.
"People think the U.S. wants to run the world," Kohut said. "It's not more complicated than that."
Countries most hopeful the new president will improve U.S. policies include France, Spain and Germany, where public opposition to Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere has been strong. Strong optimism also came from countries where dissatisfaction with U.S. policies has been less pronounced, including India, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa.
Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon have the strongest expectations that the next president will worsen U.S. policies, consistent with the skepticism expressed on many issues in the survey by Muslim countries. Japan, Turkey, Russia, South Korea and Mexico had large numbers saying the election would change little.
Among those tracking the American election, greater numbers in 20 countries expressed more confidence in Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, than John McCain, the Republican candidate, to handle world affairs properly. The two contenders were tied in the United States, Jordan and Pakistan. Obama's edge was largest in Western Europe, Australia, Japan, Tanzania and Indonesia, where he lived for a time as a child.
The United States was the only country where most expressed confidence in McCain. Besides the countries where he and Obama were tied, McCain's smallest gaps against his rival were in India and China, where neither man engenders much confidence.
The United States is seen as the world's leading economic power by 22 countries in the survey. Yet in 11 countries, more think China will replace the United States as the world's dominant superpower or has already done so than predict that will never happen.
At the same time, China's favorable ratings have edged downward since last year, with widespreadworry over its military power, pollution and human rights record. The survey was taken during China's crackdown on unrest in Tibet, but before last month's earthquake in China.
The polling was conducted in March and April, interviewing adults face to face and by telephone. The number interviewed in each country ranged from 700 in Australia to 3,212 in China.
Whether the world is moving rapidly into global warming or whether it is moving into a period of global cooling, we should be concerned that our activities are not without consequence to outselves, the collective communtiy of humantiy, and the environment in which we live. The ignorance is amazing, but not surprising ina global age where capitalism is spreading through the veins of the world like a hypnotic opium. The excstacy won't last and neither will we. The sobering of the world would mean a purging of the toxin that has immobilzed and left many commatose. I do not mean to sound cynical towards capitalism, but capitalsim values the individual or individual group's interests over the good the indivual and collective humanity. The US has fallen asleep. Such sedation will only serve to allow for dreams and nightmares removed form the reality of the concious state that is our reality. How long can we say it doesn't affect me until it does in the most forcefull and terroristic way. The only terrorists we have to fear is the ego within us that desire to consume relentlessly. Whether science approves it or disapproves it, we must concern ourselves with how we are responsible for this world and ourselves and be aware that all actions result in concequences(good and bad). In the end whent he world is swallowed up by its own volition both the liberal and the conservative, the christian and the atheist, the rich and the poor, the white and the nonwhtie will all be victims, engulfed in neglected self-fulfilling prophecy, to such gluttony of power and indiviudal pursuit. What argument will you extend when the world has been exhausted and sickened by mann that it will it eaither whither or purge man from it inorder to reset time?
I am of course talking about the need for spiritual enlightenment! The need for a mass global collective consciousness. Peace is at our fingertips, yet it seems so hopelessly far away sometimes, doesn't it? Such an idea should, one would think, be universally welcomed and accepted. Shouldn't everyone be trying to live with the best of intentions and the warmest of hearts in an attempt to create that idealistic Utopia? That state of Shambhala? Life, as we know it, could be exponentially better!!! Our health, our homes, our relationships (intimate or not) and generally our overall happiness could be the best we would have ever known. A shift in mindset could see the development of impoverish nations, the feeding of every hungry belly, the adoption of cultural beliefs into other cultures and so forth.
Now I am definitely not the most spiritually inclined, nor am I the most positive of people at times, but as an individual, I have begun to devote myself to following a healthy spiritual lifestyle. I am most assuredly not religious in any way, so I searched for something else to fulfill that void I was feeling. I have met many many wonderful amazing people and through these people I discovered a whole world right in front of me! It's the same world you and I both live in , the same people are around me, but it is 100% different. It is a world based entirely on love and energy. A close friend, who calls himself the "Love Activist" taught me the most important thing I have ever learned to this date. No matter who we are, where we are from, what we believe or don't believe in, we all have the capability to do one universal thing. LOVE. Yes, that's it. It really is as simple as that, though I never before would have guessed it. Love is something we are born with and blessed with. With enough love, we can conquer all trials and tribulations. We can eliminate greed, and fear for with love, we need nothing else but each other. With enough love, everyone will be taken care of because that's what love ensures.
Life is hard, make no mistake about that. But with the beauty of such things as Synchronicity and Manifestation, we can start to see how our choices affect our paths, and how our thoughts are one of the most powerful tools we have. Our intentions that we set can determine our successes, our thoughts can forge a path through anything. By connecting ourselves to the beauty in everything, and embracing the feeling of love we can begin a progressive and powerful change in our lives. It will not happen overnight, and will not happen if we don't open our eyes to the truth many people have not yet been introduced to. But with time and patience, we can overcome the dramas of today, the genocides, the wars and the famines.
So educate yourselves! Pick up Celestine Prophecy, or watch The Secret. Learn the Sedona Method, learn to meditate or simply talk with those around you who may have reacher a higher spiritual frequency. There are many others like myself who know a tonne more than I do at this point. But what I do know is that the time for change is now, and that it is our movement that will encourage others to follow suite!
As Bob Marley once said, "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, None but ourselves can free our minds."
The above is a link to a video of a speech that Michael Crighton gave at the Smithsonian about Complexity theory. His information, thoroughly researched, is very enlightening. I realize the speech is lengthy, but please, please make the effort of watching. Your thoughts will be stimulated and your perspectives on a lot of issues might change due to the information presented.
If you prefer to read a transcript, follow this link: LINK TO TRANSCRIPT>
Some things discussed are the fact that humanities carbon usage has fallen dramatically and well before the 'global warming scare" of late. Also discussed is the fact that not 50 years ago we were headed into an ice age.
Perhaps most enlightening of all is the Population Bomb disclosures.
I highly encourage each and everyone of you out there that has a thinking brain to go and listen to the man.
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