Thousands feared dead as major quake strikes Haiti

Play Video AP  – 7.0 quake

Reuters – A major earthquake hit the impoverished country of Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing buildings in the capital …

By Joseph Guyler Delva Joseph Guyler Delva – 1 hr 23 mins ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – A major earthquake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help. A five-story U.N. headquarters building was also brought down by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Reuters television footage from the capital, Port-au-Prince, showed scenes of chaos on the streets with people sobbing and appearing dazed amid the rubble. The presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls. The quake's epicenter was only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince. About 4 million people live in the city and surrounding area. Aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 rattled the city throughout the night and into Wednesday. Reports on casualties and damage were slow to emerge due to communication problems. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he feared everyone in the U.N. building was killed when it collapsed. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the missing included the chief of the U.N. mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, but he could not confirm reports Annabi had died. He said some 100-150 people were in the building when the quake struck. Several bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the U.N. headquarters, U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said. He told reporters fewer than 10 people, "some dead, some alive," had been pulled from the rubble but many remained underneath. Brazilian General Carlos Barcellos said at least four Brazilian members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed and a large number of Brazilian soldiers were missing. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel. "I am appealing to the world, especially the United States, to do what they did for us back in 2008 when four hurricanes hit Haiti," Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to Washington, said in a CNN interview. "At that time the U.S. dispatched ... a hospital ship off the coast of Haiti. I hope that will be done again ... and help us in this dire situation that we find ourselves in." He said Haitian President Rene Preval and his wife were unharmed despite the collapse of the presidential palace, but that it was impossible to estimate causalities. "If a building like the palace, which is very solid, collapsed, then the devastation is going to be worse because a lot of the buildings are not up to code around Port-au-Prince," he told ABC's Good Morning America. "They're flimsy little abodes hanging on the sides of hills." Sara Fajardo, a spokeswoman for Catholic Relief Services, told the Los Angeles Times its representative in Haiti said the death toll could be in the thousands. The Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) aid organization said it was treating about 600 people in its hospitals in Haiti. It also was sending reinforcements to the disaster zone, as was the International Red Cross. U.S. ORGANIZING RESPONSE U.S. President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and pledged immediate aid. He was to make a statement on the quake on Wednesday. A late-night White House meeting involving various arms of the government took place to coordinate the U.S. response. The State Department urged Americans not to travel to Haiti. In Geneva, U.N. officials said they expected the world body would issue an international emergency appeal for funds and other assistance for Haiti in the next few days, once needs on the ground had been assessed. Germany was sending 1 million euros in immediate aid, said Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, adding "I'm shocked by the dimensions of the earthquake disaster in Haiti." The Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $200,000 in immediate aid. The World Bank, which said its local offices were destroyed but most staff were safe, planned to send a team to help assess damage and plan a recovery. The U.S. Coast Guard said it was sending cutters and aircraft close to Haiti to give humanitarian assistance. The United States, Britain, Canada and France were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment. The quake hit at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT), and witnesses reported people screaming "Jesus, Jesus" running into the streets as offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed. Experts said the quake's epicenter was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles, which was likely to have magnified the destruction. Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris. "The whole city is in darkness. You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go," said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity. "There are people running, crying, screaming." LITTLE HELP FOR VICTIMS In the hillside neighborhood of Petionville, Domersant said he saw no police or rescue vehicles. "People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights," he said. "I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement." Witnesses said they saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble as the earth shook. "The car was bouncing off the ground," Domersant said. U.N. officials said normal communications had been cut off and the only way to talk with people on the ground was via satellite phone. Roads were blocked by rubble. Some 9,000 U.N. police and troops are stationed in Haiti to maintain order and many countries were trying to determine the welfare of their personnel. France's minister for cooperation, Alain Joyandet, said on French radio the Hotel Montana had collapsed and that about 100 of its 300 guests had been evacuated. (Additional reporting by Sophie Hardach, Raymond Colitt, Alister Bull, David Morgan, Jane Sutton, Phil Barbara, Patrick Worsnip; Writing by Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Flowers and photography

Welcome to my world. Enjoy! now, when it is winter and snow and it is very cold, we are thinking to the hot summer time.Let's remember that beautiful time, enjoying and looking at some beautiful flowers.

 

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Grade de initiere in viata

Welcome to my world. Enjoy!

Din vremuri străvechi există ceea ce se cheamă Ştiinţa Iniţiatică, la care şi noi am făcut de atâtea ori referire în revistă. Această Ştiinţă cuprinde multe capitole, printre care şi cel ce explică natura şi gradul Iniţierilor spirituale prin care trec cei ce aspiră la nivelul de Maestru spiritual. Trebuie spus că, deşi sîntem peste 6 miliarde de fiinţe umane la ora actuală, aproximativ 85%-90% din populaţie încă este tributară foarte mult reacţiilor emoţionale necontrolate, ceea ce determină ca majoritatea oamenilor să fie sub un anumit prag, şi veţi vedea care.
Criteriul evoluţiei spirituale se bazează strict pe controlul propriilor energii, care se manifestă sub forma emoţiilor, mentalităţilor şi ideilor. Cum spuneam oamenii sînt sclavii emoţiilor. Câtă lume nu merge la biserică de frica păcatelor, cum îi sperie preoţimea cu acel bau-bau religios, ori câţi oameni se agaţă zilnic de lucrurile lor, pretinzând că sînt doar ale lor, când în realitate toate vin şi pleacă apoi de la şi către Dumnezeu? Şi exemplele pot continua. Trebuie să înţelegeţi că sîntem fiinţe umane, create de Creator pentru a fi LIBERE din toate punctele de vedere, nu fiinţe care să se sperie de bazaconiile îndrugate de preoţime sau egoiste, în sensul de a avea multe în dauna altuia. Din acest punct de vedere, există pentru nivelul terestru 4 grade de Iniţiere, pe care puţini le ating.
Primul nivel este cel al Iniţiatului de gradul 1 – o astfel de persoană începe să-şi dea seama de importanţa corpului său şi treptat, iese de sub influenţa instinctelor animalice, preţuind ceea ce este acest corp fizic şi sănătatea sa.
Următorul grad este cel al Iniţiatului de gradul 2 – acesta intră pentru prima dată în inima sa, începând să-şi controleze propriile emoţii. Cum se spune, intră în „Peştera lui Christ”, adică entitatea Crist se trezeşte în el. Dar un asemenea nivel încă este tributar emoţiilor şi va trebui să parcurgă un număr de 7-10 vieţi, în funcţie de voinţa sa, până scapă de reacţiile emoţionale necontrolate. Vedeţi ce înseamnă emoţia şi cât îi trebuie omului pentru a autocontrola?
Următorul nivel este al Iniţiatului de gradul 3 – pe acest nivel ajung cei care, după ce au învăţat să-şi controleze emoţiile (a nu se crede că acestea trebuie înnăbuşite, ci înţelese în manifestarea lor), pot să înceapă lucrul cu modelarea propriului ego care îndeamnă mereu omul la a fi egoist în multe privinţe. Mai simplu spus, este lucrarea de educare şi modelare a mentalului – intelectul, care are funcţie de adunare de informaţie pentru  cunoaştere. În această etapă Iniţiatul de gradul 3 începe să înţeleagă mai clar că ceea ce stă la baza suferinţelor oamenilor este egoismul provenit din reacţiile emoţionale necontrolate, şi se străduieşte să îşi modeleze personalitatea pentru a-şi ajuta semenii. Este necesar să ştiţi că de abia de la acest nivel un Discipol – Iniţiat se poate considera Maestru, nivelul 3 fiind în realitate primul grad de Maestru.
Iniţiatul de gradul 4 care este şi Maestru – la acest nivel aspirantul trebuie să conştientizeze că toate lucrurile lumeşti au un început şi un sfârşit, spre deosebire de lucrurile spirituale care sînt eterne. Atunci când ajunge la acest nivel de evoluţie spirituală, după multe vieţi trăite pe Pământ, aspirantul înţelege că Detaşarea, Renunţarea faţă de lucrurile lumeşti îi poate asigura chiar cele de care are nevoie în viaţa sa. Însă chiar şi la acest grad există riscul major de a cade înapoi către nivelele anterioare, dacă spiritul nu are suficientă voinţă de a urma Lumina Creatorului, şi asta din cauza energiilor care sînt vehiculate prin intermediul banilor, a laudelor şi a cuvintelor care zgândăresc orgoliul Maestrului de gradul 4.