Gardens of the world

I have been obsessed lately with my garden and the lack of any flowers therein. It has seemed that spring has taken forever to arrive in England this year. I usually have my daffodils up by February and by this time they are dead and making way for the next blaze of colour; roses, tulips, and the bluebells. Everything is slower this year to bloom. Not being a terribly patient person, I have found this quite difficult.

Maybe that is why gardens are so impressive and glorious here; people can wait for years to create a beautiful garden. There seems to be an inherent understanding of what endures and can endure and what will fade away with time. They have instinctive patience for the cycles of time.

I sometimes wonder if that is some of the attitude to world affairs as well. This too shall pass and we will all return to our gardens and plant new seeds and in time, reap the rewards of this patience. If we wait long enough, Tony Blair will be replaced by someone else who thinks they can fix the NHS, the School System and bring about world peace through war.

In the meantime, the ever present and enduring gardeners of Great Britain, contribute more money to charity than any other people in any other country in the world. I guess that is why I keep raising the matter of charity work here - it is making a much bigger difference than the government could ever hope to.

Action Aid www.actionaid.org is doing incredible work and making a huge difference throughout the world. I am fortunate enough to be doing some work for them right now and so I have been reading up on what they do and have done for the past 30 years. Quite a bit it appears. One of their main objectives is to end poverty.

What is also wonderful about Action Aid is the challenging treks that you can get involved in: Amazon Trek & Kayak in Brazil, Trek the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu (something I want to do), Saigon to Angkor Wat Cycle Ride in Vietnam and Cambodia, Footseps of the Maasai Trek in Tanzania and then a Trek to the Home of the Dalai Lama in India. These treks allow you to see their work first hand.

Get involved, make a difference and have fun - all in one fell swoop. We live in a beautiful world and there are some fantastic gardens out there. I can only imagine what Machu Picchu will look like in May of 2007 - hopefully, I will get to see for myself.

The Beauty of Alternate Medicine

Part of the process of moving into a more compassionate world is understanding the implications of our medical system on our health and well being. England is extraordinary in the world of healthcare in that doctors are responsible for the patient's health.

In the light of the investment that the government has made in the NHS it does make sense that this is the attitude. The implications, though, for our health and well being is alarming. The tools of the trade for doctors is drugs. That is what they use to help make us healthy.

When you put this all together what do you get? Well, you have people who are not taking responsibility for their own health - because it isn't their job - relying on people who use drugs to help them- because it is their job. This is not an equation that will result in a healthy and happy population. Sound familiar?

Alternative medicine or therapy seems to still be a scary idea - odd practices carried out by disreputable people who have no qualifications - seems to be the big fear.

In actual fact, many therapies are being used by the NHS as they do start to recognise the limitations and the lack of genuine healing that occurs with drugs. The other benefit of these less radical procedures is that they are safe, they are not intrusive and they are designed to help the body heal itself.

Another way that drugs and surgery are being misused is in the area of plastic surgery and botox. This provides a temporary fix but if the inner being has not been touched, beauty will not be the lasting result.

Loving ourselves enough to take care of our spiritual, emotional, mental and physical well being is the best path to lasting beauty and excellent good health.

Dreams Do Come True

One charity that I support is 'Dreams Come True' at www.dctc.org.uk.

'Dreams Come True (established in 1988) is a national charity and our aim is to lift the spirits of terminally and seriously ill children by enabling them to fulfill their most treasured dreams.'

What I really like about this charity is that they do not just want money handed over to them, they want relationships with people and for money to come from fundraising events - not the corporate coffers. If this appeals to you and you would like to become a supporter and partner with the charity, please click on the weblink to get more information.

Another cause that I would like to support, if only by talking about it and letting people know it exists, is The Red Balloon School. This is an alternate school set up by Carrie Herbert in response to a need to protect children who had been bullied. I don't know much about this school or Ms. Herbert, but I do know that bullying is systemic in schools and organisations throughout the UK. It probably happens everywhere else, but England seems to struggle more than most countries with the after affects of this debilitating practice.

From my own experience in schools, I have seen many cases of bullying and seen the effects that it has on children. If you want to know how you can help The Red Balloon School - see their website at www.redballoonlearner.cambs.sch.uk.

As I mentioned previously, we are either walking towards what we want - being focused and clear on our purpose - or we are running away from what we don't want.

If you want to make a difference, find something that fires you up and makes you feel good and put your heart and soul into it. The net result is that you will make a difference and you'll feel good too.

I think it's important not to feel helpless about how the world is sometimes. Knowing that there is something I can do helps me to feel good about me and the world that I inhabit.

ID Cards - Just Say No!

I Received the following email message from my cousin. I thought it was important enough to post in its entirety. It's a bit long - but worth the read.

You may have heard that legislation creating compulsory ID Cards passed a crucial stage in the House of Commons. You may feel that ID cards are not something to worry about, since we already have Photo ID for our Passport and Driving License and an ID Card will be no different to that. What you have not been told is the full scope of this proposed ID Card, and what it will mean to you personally.

The proposed ID Card will be different from any card you now hold. It will be connected to a database called the NIR, (National Identity Register), where all of your personal details will be stored. This will include the unique number that will be issued to you, your
fingerprints, a scan of the back of your eye, and your photograph.
Your name, address and date of birth will also obviously be stored there. There will be spaces on this database for your religion, residence status, and many other private and personal facts about you.

There is unlimited space for every other details of your life
on the NIR database, which can be expanded by the Government with or without further Acts of Parliament.

By itself, you might think that this register is harmless, but you would be wrong to come to this conclusion. This new card will be used to check your identity against your entry in the register in real time, whenever you present it to 'prove who you are'.

Every place that sells alcohol or cigarettes, every post office, every pharmacy, and every Bank will have an NIR Card Terminal, (very much like the Chip and Pin Readers that are everywhere now) into which your card can be 'swiped' to check your identity. Each time this happens, a record is made at the NIR of the time and place that the Card was
presented. This means for example, that there will be a government record of every time you withdraw more than 99p at your branch of Nat
West, who now demand ID for these transactions. Every time you have to prove that you are over 18, your card will be swiped, and a record made to the NIR. Restaurants and off licenses will demand that your card is swiped so that each receipt shows that hey sold alcohol to someone over 18, and that this was proved
by the ccess to the NIR, indemnifying them from prosecution.

Private businesses are going to be given access to the NIR
Database.If you want to apply for a job, you will have to present your card for a swipe. If you want to apply for a London Underground Oyster
Card, or a supermarket loyalty card, or a driving license you will have to present your ID Card for a swipe. The same goes for getting a telephone line or a mobile phone or an internet account.
Oyster, DVLA, BT and Nectar (for example) all run very detailed databases of their own. They will be allowed access to the NIR, just as every other business will be. This means that each of these
entities will be able to store your unique number in their database, and place all your travel, phone records, driving activities and detailed shopping habits under your unique NIR number.

These databases, which can easily fit on a storage device the size of your hand, will be sold to third parties either legally or illegally. It will then be possible for a non governmental entity to create a detailed dossier of all your activities. Certainly, the government will have clandestine access to all of them, meaning that they
will have a complete record of all your movements, from how much and when you withdraw from your bank account to what medications you are taking, down to the level of what sort of bread you eat - all
accessible via a single unique number in a central database.

This is quite a significant leap from a simple ID Card that
shows your name and face.Most people do not know that this is the true character and scope of the proposed ID Card. Whenever the details of how it will work are explained to them, they quickly change from being ambivalent towards it. The Government is going to compel you to enter your details into the NIR and to carry this card. If you and your children want to obtain or renew your passports, you will be forced to have your fingerprints taken and your eyes scanned for the NIR, and an ID Card will be issued to you whether you want one or not. If you refuse to be fingerprinted and eye scanned, you will not be able to get a passport. Your ID Card will, just like your passport, not be your property. The Home
Secretary will have the right to revoke or suspend your ID at
any time, meaning that you will not be able to withdraw money from your Bank
Account, for example, or do anything that requires you to present your government issued ID Card.

The arguments that have been put forwarded in favor of ID Cards can be easily disproved. ID Cards will not stop terrorists; every Spaniard
has a compulsory ID Card as did the Madrid Bombers. ID Cards will not 'eliminate benefit fraud', which in any case, is small compared to the
astronomical cost of this proposal, which will be measured in billions
according to the LSE. This scheme exists solely to exert total surveillance and control over the ordinary free British Citizen, and it will line the pockets of the companies that will create the computer
systems at the expense of your freedom, privacy and money.

If you did not know the full scope of the proposed ID Card Scheme before and you are as unsettled as I am at what it really means to you, to this country and its way of life, I urge you to email or photocopy
this and give it to your friends and colleagues. The Bill has proceeded to this stage due to the lack of accurate and complete information on this proposal being made public. Hand to hand, we can inform the entire nation if everyone who receives this passes it on. Please make sure you do this.

Very scary stuff - pass this information along - and just say no to ID cards.

Fear Vs Love in the Microchip World

This weeks Big Issue has a rather scary article about microchip implants that are now being used in Mexico as well as being tested in a bar in Glasgow.

In the case of Glasgow, customers are offered a chip so that 'by the time you walk through the door, your favourite drink is waiting and the bar staff can greet you by name.' At the end of the evening, they will also be able to tell their clients what their name is in case they have forgotton. Somehow I'm not surprised that this has been trialed in Glasgow, nuff said!

In Mexico, 160 employees in the office of the Attorney General have been chipped. The issue in Mexico is abductions. Kidnapping is a viable career option there and so the chip is used to trace people in the event that they are kidnapped. Again, not surprising that Mexico has embraced a hardwired form of big brother.

This can all sound very plausible and yet the motivation behind both of these situations is somewhat questionable. It comes back to the origins of the technology itself - 'the microchip was originally created int he wake of 9/11 when New York firemen were writing their badge numbers on their chests in case they were found dead or unconscious.'

Fear is a big motivator for taking actions that are largely oppresive and take away our security as well as our freedom. Fear is the oppostive of love. If we let fear rule our decision making and choose our priorities, we take ever increasing steps away from love.

As the saying goes, you are either moving towards what you want (Love) or running away from what you don't want (Fear).

I don't know about you, but I'm choosing to move ever closer to Love.

When will Americans wake up to their debt mountain?

Fund Manager for Schroders, Andy Brough, posed this question in todays Daily Telegraph "When will Americans wake up to their debt moutain?" Good question, especially on the 'wake up' part.

The debt was considered to be out of control back in the 70's - people wondered where it would all stop. According to Brough, the current US debt is $8,200 billion and growing at a rate of $2.14 billion per day. These numbers are almost too big to comprehend - how do you repay something like that? Or do you?

The fact that Americans continue to spend doesn't seem that odd when the government is notching up such a huge debt. There is a saying that children have automatic permission to be like their parents - they follow what they see. Likewise, the American people have automatic permission to be like their government. Is it any wonder that the debt continues to mount across the board?

The real question is, where will all of this end?

Until tomorrow - I'll leave you with that thought.

Ellen Riches

Just say no to drugs

Four men are seriously ill and two men are critically ill in a North London intensive care unit having agreed to be guinea pigs for testing an experimental drug. A drug test in the US is continuing despite heart attacks and one death. The two seriously ill are alive only because of life support technology. There is no antidote and little hope for a full recovery. They have become medical experiments.

Our addiction to, entitlement to, and expectation of immediate gratification and the drug company juggernauts ever willing to provide it at the right price are turning to be an unstoppable alliance, and definitely hazardous to our collective health. We reach for the pain killers so spontaneously that we scarcely give a thought to what caused the pain so we can carry on. I may be old-fashioned, but pain is an unequivocal signal to stop, a salient signal in the myriad internal transmissions we experience daily, not inconvenient noise to be suppressed as quickly and as effectively as possible

Take anti-depressants. Depression is addiction to loss, the effect of vigorous and incessant self hammering with negative thoughts (you heard it here first). People who stop using anti-depressants are even more depressed, because the signals have been suppressed, not the actual cause.

I am not advocating saying no to people who really need drugs, but most of us take drugs unquestioningly. Just say no to ourselves.

Rob Riches

Where are we going?

Since Rob is home sick today we are thinking more about the current situation in the world and especially where we sit right now in London. So much is going on in Iraq and Iran and England is playing a very big role.

I was chatting with a friend of mine on Monday and we were discussing how totally chaotic the situation is in schools right now. Kids seem to know that the big people really don't know what they are doing and so the level of respect that is usually accorded adults is completely missing.

At a school in the Midlands a couple of weeks ago, a young girl told me that they can figure out within about 15 seconds what a teacher is like and how much they can get away with. She said that they regularly had teachers in tears. For them, it was a kind of sport. Yet, they also knew who they couldn't do that with and who they had to buckle down and work for.

They aren't stupid, they know what's what and they don't much like it either. The kids and the rest of us are looking for enlightened and compassionate leadership. This doesn't mean weak - it means compassionate enough to know that real love has boundaries and strength.

I welcome your thoughts and your own personal experience in this area.

Love
Ellen

Authentic Education

Education is an area of particular interest to my husband and I. My husband teaches in a Sixth Form College and I teach study skills and motivation to students in schools. It is for this reason that I have decided to support Neil Crofts initiative on 'Authentic Education.' Neil is challenging all of us, who are unhappy with how children are educated in England, to come and participate in a meeting on April 12 in London.

He poses the following question:

If you were going to design a system for preparing children for adulthood from scratch and after a great deal of work you ended up with the one that we have at present - would you be satisfied?

If your answer to that question is - no!

The next question is what are you going to do about it?

One thing you can do about it is check out Neils web site at:

http://www.authentictransformation.co.uk/page340.htm

and then decide if you wish to participate or not.

We can make a difference - one step at a time.

Love

Ellen

The Economic Tide Turns

The US continues to rattle the saber and cause uncertainty on the world front. Yet, at home the economy is showing worrying signs of instability itself. Could it be that all of this investment in Iraq has had an impact at home?

The Globe and Mail in Canada reported on Thursday, http://www.theglobeandmail.com

"The U.S. trade deficit surged to another record as the country's foreign oil bill climbed sharply, auto imports rose and Americans' taste for imported wines helped increase the deficit in food products.

In other economic news, the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits rose to 303,000 last week, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week. It was the first time the level of jobless claims has been above 300,000 in eight weeks.

America's trade deficit hit a record of $723.6-billion for all of 2005 and many economists believe this year's imbalance will be even worse. The $68.5-billion January deficit in trade in goods and services surpassed the old monthly record of $67.8-billion set last October."

Then across the pond, here in the UK, London's Daily Telegraph reports on the purchasing ISA's before the cutoff of April 5th, Donna Bradshaw, IFG Group, was quoted as saying: (see this link for more information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/

"Avoid: USA

Ms Bradshaw said: "We do not have faith in Bush, and we are still very cautious about the level of consumer borrowing."

Perhaps war isn't as good for the economy as was previously thought.

I welcome your comments.

Ellen Riches

The Riches Report

Welcome to the news and view from the Riches. We are hoping to bring you a different view of what is happening in the world and ways that we can deal with the changes in a more productive and hopefully enlightened way.

Stay tuned as we prepare to launch our blog on an unsuspecting world.

Until then, stay awake and stay aware.
Ellen Riches