(Writing in single lines with spaces between the lines makes it difficult to read quickly. Group your ideas into coherent visual blocks (paragraphs). This is almost the extreme opposite of what Buck does where everything is jumbled together.)
The quake relief is getting through very slowly because the Nepalese government is following their custom import rules and requiring all packages be inspected thoroughly and thus relief supplies are being significantly delayed in getting to the disaster areas. That certain people survive a disaster is fine, but attributing only part of the story to providence and ignoring the bad parts, the destruction and death and injury, as if providence is not involved, is a failing of the human intellect. Insurance companies call all the bad stuff 'acts of God'. That is the part they don't want to pay off on. If you are going to give a religious slant to an event why not say, 'Boy, I am sure glad God killed my wife/son/daughter/wonderful neighbour instead of me'. Otherwise you are demeaning God's all encompassing majesty by reduction of omnipotence. Assuming of course, a person thinks like this. Scientist don't have to think like this, all they have to say is a crack in the Earth's crust shifted and mayhem followed according to the known laws of nature. You get down to the business of trying to rescue those that were not killed and getting food, water, medical relief, and shelter to them without the distraction of a mental fantasy circulating in your brain. If there is more coherence, why are supplies being delayed, and why did the earthquake happen in the first place? Post hoc justifications serve no useful purpose except to shield failed ideas from scrutiny. It is a form of cultural and personal self-deception. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Look, Barry, let me work with you for a minute. It may make me late for work, but that's okay. Do you realize that you act like a dog that has to lift his leg and take a piss on every fire hydrant, every tree it goes by on it's daily walk. I guess your brain works like this: "Is this a cult sentiment being expressed? I don't know. Better give it squirt of my patented "anti cult medicine" Someone making a suggestion that will no one is going to pay attention to? "Better deposit a dump on that one, juuuuuust to be sure." See, you've become the object of this cult behavior you claim to be studying. Funny how that works, isn't it? (-: Maybe some variation of Copenhagen Syndrome! (-: (-: (-: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Damn Barry, people expressing opinions you don't agree with. How very annoying. And, Jesus, you're really escalating this Doug situation to a capital offense. Did it ever occur to you that you bounce from one obsession to a different obsession. Chill. Just chill. It's all good. Everything will work out. No need to call daddy. A tempest in a teapot is just that. A tempest in a teapot. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : While I thank Steve for his "feet on the ground" report, I want to comment briefly on his rap at the end. The one at the end, in green print. You know, the one in which he felt that he had to explain WTF the "Laws Of Nature" were thinking when they created this earthquake and then spared some folks and not others. See, this is an issue that would never occur to someone who lives in the real world, the world of reason and science. In this real world (the only one that we know for sure exists), earthquakes happen as the result of plate tectonics, and don't have any intelligence -- angry OR benevolent -- underlying them. The ground just shakes, and shit happens the way shit tends to happen when the ground shakes. Steve seems to feel it's a "miracle" that none of the people he knows there got hurt. Presumably that's because he and his friends were there "creating coherence" by bouncing on their butts a lot, so the sentient "Laws Of Nature" made sure they were OK. Equally presumably, these "Laws Of Nature" *didn't* feel the same way about the over 6,000 Nepalis who got squished because of all the shaking. I guess that getting squished was their fault because they didn't bounce on their butts, too, or pay money to the "Maharishi pundits" to chant for them. That IS what Steve is implying, although I'm sure he doesn't recognize it. Look, I'm sure that Steve is a nice guy, and was just trying to put a nice spin on horrible events. But I'm just pointing out how ludicrous his spin IS. No one was "spared" because of anything to do with TM or the TMSP, and no one was killed because of it. Earthquakes just happen. They don't even know that TM, the TMSP, the "Maharishi pundits," and Steve fuckin' EXIST, much less have an opinion about whether they should survive or not. Steve and his friends were lucky. That's all. It would be less insulting to the over 6,000 people who *weren't* as lucky if he'd stay away from Woo Woo interpretations of what was, after all, a random natural event. From: "William Leed WLeed3@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steve <steve@... mailto:steve@...> Date: Sun, May 3, 2015 at 6:10 AM Subject: Nepal earthquake report from TM Center in Kathmandu To: Stephen Van Damme < steve@... mailto:steve@...> TM Center in Kathmandu - Nepal Earthquake Report Namaste, I am writing a sort of general report for friends and for supporters of the Nepal Projects. This is going to a number of people and has nothing confidential in it, so anyone may freely share it with others. There are so many enquiries about the situation here and even offers of help for relief work as we start to get our legs back from under us, since the earthquake. It is difficult for me to reply to everyone one at a time so please bear with the situation and not mind the generalities of this report. April 25th, just before noon, Nepal was struck by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The epicenter was approximately 50 miles from Kathmandu and about 30 miles from Pokhara.. roughly the center of the country…. As anyone following the news knows there has been a lot of damage in the Kathmandu Valley and massive destruction in the rural districts surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. At the latest count, more than 6,600 people were killed and property damage is at least 130,000 homes completely destroyed and maybe up to 600,000 damaged to some degree. Many, many people are homeless and are surviving outdoors as best they can, as relief efforts to provide them with the basics of survival arrive. In the village areas the devastation is such that whole villages were flattened and in many place 70-90% of all buildings collapsed. The number of people affected by this calamity is estimated to be about 8 million people or roughly 25% of the population of Nepal. Right now about 650,000 people have left the Kathmandu Valley to return to their home villages to help their families or start relief work and salvaging what they can of their village homes. Kathmandu is starting to come back to life, but today (Saturday the 2nd) not 10% of the shops were open and traffic was almost negligible. The city has a largely deserted feeling and the people are doing OK, most Nepalis are cheerful by nature and stoic by disposition so they are handling things amazingly well. The old parts of the city have been badly damaged and we have lost many wonderful, ancient Temples and national monuments. The Holy Temple of Pashupatinath was hardly damaged although many surrounding buildings were. Bhakatpur suffered a lot and I read that about 25 % of the houses came down, along with many temples, including the Natyapol temple, which is the biggest and most majestic of them all. In Kathmandu amongst other collapsed structures was the KASTHMANDAP… dating from the 12th century, Kathmandu supposedly took its name from this ancient mandap in the Durbar Square. In contrast to all of this... much of the city shows little to no damage.. It seems to depend on the quality and age of the building construction. However many of the new apartment buildings have damage and it is too early to know if it is just cosmetic or structural and if they will have to come down. The economic loss is in the billions of dollars and the tourist industry will take huge hit and time to recover. Now that all sound rather harsh and certainly it is, but here is another angle and this is the underlying reality… The geologists and seismologists have been predicting a major earthquake could come at any time.. and in fact is considered long over due. The last major quake to hit Kathamndu was in 1934 and was proportionately even more devastating, considering the population of the Valley was less than 10% of what it is now. The predictions of the seismologists were very dire, with estimated fatalities in the 100s of thousands… Now here is the thing,.. the quake hit at noon on aSaturday, the day off in Nepal. The timing was such that schools were closed and many places of business and all government offices were closed. In the rural areas most families were out in the fields planting the spring crops or preparing their fields. If the quake had struck at night or the morning hours the death toll would have in fact been in the hundreds of thousands. These village homes are largely made of mud and stone with no mortar and they simply crumbled in a heartbeat. There is no way to get around it… the Himalayas is one of the most seismically active areas of the world.. In fact this earthquake moved Kathmandu about 10 feet south and raised the Valley up about 3 feet… all in one go.. (Mount Everest sank by about an inch…) So, when you consider the Laws Of Nature, it is in fact almost a miracle that the damage occurred in a relatively narrow window of the day and day of the week that could mitigate such a potential calamity. People here are very much aware of this and deeply grateful that Nature’s timing was as kind as it was.. This is not to belie the extent of the suffering and destruction.. It IS MASSIVE, but it could have been so very much worse. Now that is interesting from our perspective in that these days in Nepal there are very many Maharishi Yagyas going on… None of the Maharishi Pandits were harmed although many lost family village homes.. They have been working for the last 6 years to create coherence for Nepal and the world…. During this time, we have seen a marked increase in coherence in the political field. The Maoist party lost their destructive edge, were sidelined by the political process and have now faded largely into irrelevancy. The political parties have a long way to go, no doubt, but the situation has improved like the day from the night. In many areas of society we have seen all the predicted signs of increasing coherence and especially since we have had the first TM SIdhi Courses in Nepal. I am writing these points because it is important to have a perspective during times of natural calamity… they can seem so arbitrary and the suffering can seem so vast. In truth, yes we are suffering now in Nepal… but it is a fraction of what was predicted and considering everything we are very grateful. Another area of gratitude that I must acknowledge is the response from the International Community. Relief aid is flooding into the country. Even I received 95 concerned emails from friends and Foundation supporters, the very morning after the earthquake… So, I am confident that Nepal will rebuild… it is going to be an on going effort for some time, but the Nepalis are a self reliant people. getting through the next months will be hard, no doubt, but they will do it. I have told friends that ‘if’ I have to face such a situation as this, in my life, then there are no better people to go through it will than our Nepali friends. I love these people and for me this is home. I want to thank all the friends and supporters for your kind attention and the sincerity of your hearts.. It has been a great honor for me to have helped host many guests these last years and watch the marvel on your faces as Nepal unfolded HER magic for you. If anyone wants to participate in the relief efforts or offer support in any way, it is welcome. But, neither Atmaram-Dai nor I are soliciting any donations from anyone or anywhere. If you contact us individually we can steer you to legitimate Foundations that can accept donations and give you a tax exemption. Our work is to create coherence and support the Cultural Integrity of Nepal and it is the most heart felt work that I have ever done in my life. I consider it to be the greatest gift that I have ever received and sharing it with others has been just a huge and wonderful part of my life. Thanks. Jai Guru Dev and all the best to all of you. Ramprasad ============================================ Nepal earthquake in 75 photos: All about the disaster that killed 6,100, destroyed 6 lakh houses| May 01, 2015 http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nepal-earthquake-all-about-the-devast%20ating-disaster-that-killed-thousands-affected-millions/article1-1342182.aspxhttp://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nepal-earthquake-all-about-the-devast http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nepal-earthquake-all-about-the-devast ating-disaster-that-killed-thousands-affected-millions/article1-1342182.aspx
