CHROMA – Wings For Freedom (Mateo Pascual) [2014 – Intense Pounding Choral Orchestral Hits] – Video

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CHROMA - Wings For Freedom (Mateo Pascual) [2014 - Intense Pounding Choral Orchestral Hits]
Artist: CHROMA Title: Wings For Freedom Composer: Mateo Pascual Pascual Album: Chroma Music Sampler Vol. II Track No.: 18 Publisher: Chroma Music Now Released: December 25, 2014 (Industry ...

By: Marc Lange

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CHROMA - Wings For Freedom (Mateo Pascual) [2014 - Intense Pounding Choral Orchestral Hits] - Video

Religious freedom and economic growth linked in 2014

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There may seem to be little, if anything, in the way of a connection, but it turns out that religious freedom and a healthy economy have a link, a leading researcher said this year.

Franz Pfluegl, Foto Franz Pfluegl

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Making an economic case for the impact of religious freedom may seem odd, but in fact it's quite sensible, one advocate emphasized this year.

Brian J. Grim, who earlier this year left his job as a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center to become president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, emphasized the point at the American Enterprise Institute's leadership summit in September, according to the Christian Post.

"Why should businesses be concerned about religious freedoms?" Grim was quoted as asking. "Because religious persecution is a predictor of a lower GDP." Over 43 percent of the countries in the world have restrictions on religious liberties, the website said.

In a study published in June, Grim and his coauthors said, "Religious hostilities and restrictions create climates that can drive away local and foreign investment, undermine sustainable development, and disrupt huge sectors of economies."

Earlier, Grim told Religion News Service why he decided to concentrate on the religious freedom/economic growth connection: "For the past decade Ive been measuring the rising tide of restrictions on religious freedom around the world. Im always asked where the success stories are and what can be done to roll back the tide. As a data person, I saw that the business and sports communities were missing from the religious freedom field. I know how much religious freedom helps economic progress and how much it suffers without."

But it's more than mere economics, Grim maintains, saying that religious freedom in a country can enhance peace. In October, the foundation offered this observation about religious freedom's societal benefits: "Countries with greater religious freedoms are generally more peaceful, whereas countries with less religious freedom are generally less peaceful. Additionally, the most influential factor affecting religious freedom is the government type. Full democracies are the most peaceful and have the greatest level of religious freedom, regardless of the type of religious belief or various religious characteristics."

Not all is positive on the religious freedom front, as many tragic events in 2014 bear witness. Writing in the Deseret News, Grim and Brigham Young University's Robert T. Smith called for a greater emphasis by the United States on protecting believer's freedoms around the world.

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Religious freedom and economic growth linked in 2014

Councils keeping watch on freedom camper hot spots

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Dean Kozanic/Fairfax NZ

EYES ON CAMPERS: Marine Pde, New Brighton, is popular among freedom campers. Alex Doroschenko, a German tourist, camped near Thompson Park this week as part of a freedom camping trip around New Zealand.

South Island councils are taking a Big Brother approach to freedom campers this summer with officers monitoring hot spots across the city and Banks Peninsula.

Last year freedom campers clogged up the car park at the Akaroa boat ramp, creating chaos when boaties went to launch. They washed their hair under a tap. They cleaned their teeth at a drinking fountain.

Tensions boiled over and there were conflicts between boaties and tourists.

Residents at Catons Bay reportedly let out roosters to drive freedom campers away.

This year "no camping" zones were introduced around the Akaroa boat ramp to encourage people to use motorcamps instead, Akaroa-Wairewa Community Board chairwoman Pam Richardson said.

"That's where the facilities are and that's where people should be," she said.

The solution falls short of a bylaw, which councils on the West Coast and in the North Island have implemented.

In 2011 the Government passed the Freedom Camping Act, giving councils the power to regulate the practice.

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Councils keeping watch on freedom camper hot spots

The world needs more internet freedom, not less

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To keep the Internet as the socially empowering and productivity-boosting tool it is today, we should guard against government attacks on internet freedom.

Late last month, the Americanbased non-governmental organisation Freedom House released the latest edition of its annual Freedom on the Net report, which assesses the extent to which citizens in 65 countries are able to access and use the internet without legal and other restrictions.

The report establishes an internet freedom index using measures capturing obstacles to access (including government blocking of apps and technologies), limits on content (such as filtering and blocking websites and social media censorship), and violations of user rights (through surveillance and legal restrictions of online activities).

On a global scale, internet freedom had deteriorated for the fourth consecutive year, Freedom House said.

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That is mainly the result of repressive tactics adopted in autocratic, or increasingly autocratic, regimes such as China, Russia and Turkey, which included blocking political dissent through social media, increasing surveillance of web users, and governments putting pressure on internet providers and online companies to censor themselves.

While the merits of the disclosure of United States National Security Agency activities by Edward Snowden continue to be debated, it is unfortunate that governments around the world are using the NSA revelations increasingly as an alibi to crack down on free expression over the internet.

And there have been some recent concerns raised about the effective future Balkanisation of the World Wide Web resulting from the United States, which has traditionally dedicated itself to promulgating an open internet, considering scaling back its role in global internet governance of web addresses and domain names.

Australia was ranked the 17th-freest country for internet access and usage - a position it has held the past few years - behind Iceland, Estonia and Canada in the international rankings of internet freedom in 2014.

This country is lauded for its relatively affordable, highquality internet and digital media access, and people's ability to discuss controversial and sensitive political and social issues freely online without the threat of political persecution.

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The world needs more internet freedom, not less

Community radio is the true voice of the people

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These days, terms such as ''freedom of speech'' and ''democratic media'' increasingly appear as empty statements, disconnected from real life or personal experience. Worse, they are shrieked from powerful places within society.

It was refreshing then to read Bec Zajac's article ''The freedom to speak'' in The Sunday Age and the profile it provided of Eritrean Voices. Here was Melbourne's Eritrean community enjoying a media freedom absent in their home country.

However, an essential element, not necessarily driven home in the article, is the type of radio Eritrean Voices broadcasts on.

The show goes to air on 3CR community radio - locally on 855AM and globally on 3cr.org.au. This is not just any type of radio: the station's structure and purpose are central in enabling precisely the type of ''freedom to speak'' Eritrean Voices enjoys.

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3CR has held a community radio licence since 1976. It is community-owned and run, and is not for profit. It's also volunteer-driven, democratically governed and exists with the clear intention of providing training, space and support to communities habitually ignored in the mainstream media.

Because of these factors, the Eritrean community can create a radio broadcast that allows for news and information specifically relevant to it.

This doesn't mean every community radio station around the country is actively engaged with pursuing the ''freedom to speak'' and facilitating programs such as Eritrean Voices.

Unfortunately, such examples across the hundreds of community radio stations in Australia are few and far between. However, 3CR boasts many, including Voice of West Papua, Chin Radio and Tamil Voice.

3CR programming features people and issues that are absent from mainstream radio - homeless people, people with disabilities, refugees, Aboriginal activists, the list goes on. Not as guests, but as producers and presenters of their own radio shows.

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Community radio is the true voice of the people

Cyborg parking wardens for Sydney

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Google Glasses: These will be part of traffic enforcements latest arsenal Source: News Corp Australia

YOUR least favourite people just got a little less likable.

Parking wardens equipped with numberplate recognition software in front of their eyes are about to hit the streets of Sydney which will put an end to the trick of simply wiping chalk marks off tyres.

The cyborg-like devices are expected to raise even further revenue through fines for councils.

Google, in conjunction with Sydney company TechBeach, has developed software that will enable council workers to tell if somebody has overstayed their welcome in less than a blink of the eye.

The software will be embedded in pairs of Google Glasses worn by parking officers.

Manly Council will be the first to trial the software, however a number of councils around the state are understood to be considering rolling out the technology.

Google Glass Source: Supplied

At least one parking officer in Manly will be wearing Google Glasses from as early as next month.

While details surrounding the futuristic measure remain scant, it is believed parking officers will be able to tell how long a car has been in a certain parking spot simply by looking at it.

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Cyborg parking wardens for Sydney

Beach Video of California Beaches ~ Calm Peaceful Waves Beautiful – Video

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Beach Video of California Beaches ~ Calm Peaceful Waves Beautiful
Beach Video of California Beaches ~ Calm Peaceful Waves Beautiful http://www.cansoup.com On the way back form the dealer car auction and thought it would be nice to stop at the beach for a...

By: Cereal Marshmallows

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Beach Video of California Beaches ~ Calm Peaceful Waves Beautiful - Video

Tourist survivors revisit tsunami-hit Thai beaches

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On Boxing Day, hundreds of survivors joined a candlelight vigil in the resort hub of Khao Lak, southwest Thailand, to mark a decade since the tsunami claimed 220,000 lives across 14 nations.

KHAO LAK: Ten years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, foreign tourists who survived the crushing waves still return to the Thai beaches where thousands lost loved ones, seeking recovery and solace.

As soon as I could walk properly, we came back, said Steve McQueenie, a detective for Londons Metropolitan Police, explaining the powerful urge to revisit Thailand just six months after the December 26, 2004, disaster to make sense of the unfathomable.

On Boxing Day this year the 46-year-old Glaswegian again returned, joining hundreds of other survivors at a candlelight vigil in the resort hub of Khao Lak, southwest Thailand, to mark a decade since the tsunami claimed 220,000 lives across 14 nations.

Memories of the calamity are never far away for McQueenie and his wife Nicola, who survived waters that killed 5,395 in Thailand alone half of them foreign holidaymakers celebrating Christmas.

Sitting before a tranquil Andaman Sea, just a few metres (feet) from where they had stayed, he recalls the sudden huge brown wall of water that ripped apart their bungalow and plunged him underwater.

When I reached the surface, everything I could see was water. I couldnt see any buildings above it, I couldnt see inland really, and it just felt wed been dropped in the middle of a really rough ocean.

Flung further inland by the colossal wave, he kept afloat long enough to latch onto a palm tree until the water retreated.

In spite of a severe leg injury the policeman limped towards the road and was eventually transported up into the hills by Thais who feared more waves would strike.

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Tourist survivors revisit tsunami-hit Thai beaches