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 »

(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 »

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).

I'd like to tell you about my service project. I'm Lloyd Standish, your TOS-USA webmaster.  read more »

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 »

At long last I got to visit the TOS in the Philippines last month.  First I attended the heartwarming and uplifting triennial Indo-Pacific Federation Conference.  Afterwards, a big group of us visited the Golden Link School.  This is the theosophically-oriented kindergarten, primary and secondary school about which many have been hearing since its foundation by the TOS in 2002. Some of you have even been donating to it.  read more »

The Historical Judgment in Saudi Arab: A 19-year-old girl who was gang raped 18 times by 7 people was sentenced to 90 lashes.  However after the appeal for leniency, her punishment was increased to 200 lashes and 6 months jail term.  Reason: Her lawyer informed the media about this case and it embarrassed the Saudi Government. 

[The webmaster wishes to draw attention to the disclaimer at the bottom of pages of this website.]  read more »

The following information is from Educational and Welfare Activities section of the Adyar TS website.  Listed are all the schools that the US Federations, Lodges and Study Groups can contribute to.

Two October is the United Nations-designated International Day of Non-Violence.  October second is the anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Gandhi who has become the world-wide symbol of non-violent action against injustice.  Speaking of the power of non-violence, which he called Satyagraha (holding fast to truth), Mahatma Gandhi warned that “Unless all of us strengthen the forces of satyagraha, the methods of violence are bound automatically to gain ascendancy.  read more »

The determination of Burma's Buddhist monks to bring about change non-violently in their country has awakened a civilian population long held in fear by the governing military. The monks are marching behind large banners saying "Love and Kindness must win over everything." Demonstrations have been growing in city after city as the monks have taken the leadership of protests which began in early September against the sudden rise in fuel, food, and transportation costs.  read more »

by Rene Wadlow

In an earlier article Arctic Oil and the Law of the Seize, I mentioned that some such as Scott Borgerson, who teaches maritime studies at the US Coast Guard Academy and is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, are looking to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 as a model to prevent an Arctic race for oil by avoiding the provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention which the USA has not signed.  read more »

by Betty Bland, TOS-USA Secretary

Introduction

The Tibetan Orphanage Initiative is the result of the recent Pilgrimage to Tibet sponsored by the TSA. While on that Pilgrimage we had the opportunity to visit two orphanages. Both of these operations are known by and supported by our Pilgrimage guide, Glenn Mullin, and Organizer, Pawan Tuladhar.  read more »

 
The following information was relayed to me by Betty Bland, Secretary and record keeper of TOS-USA.

"Dr. R Gandhi, grandson of Mohandus Gandhi, is visiting prof. at U of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.  I don't know for how long, but can we see about having him speak here?  read more »