Sovereign Man- Indonesia is Calling, anyone interested?

Sovereign Man
Notes from the Field


Date: July 5, 2012
Reporting From: Jakarta, Indonesia

[Editor's note: Sovereign Man Chief Investment Strategist Tim Staermose is filling in for Simon today.]

Fourteen years ago during the Asian financial crisis, Indonesia endured a currency collapse, a severe 2-year recession, and an embarrassing IMF bailout.

Western bureaucrats wagged their fingers incessantly at Indonesia, lecturing the country about the dangers of excess and fiscal irresponsibility.

How sweet the irony is. In a stunning rags-to-riches story, Indonesia contributed US$1 billion to the IMF last week in order to help bail out bankrupt Western nations.

As I've written before, unlike Japan, the US, and Europe -- which all seem to think the answer to an economic bust brought on by a debt-binge is to borrow and spend even more money-- Indonesia took its medicine when its economy collapsed back in 1998.

The government cut spending. The economy was de-regulated and thrown open to more foreign investment.

The banking system was restructured, and after a difficult and admittedly very painful two years, the foundation was laid for new economic expansion, which continues to this day.

To be sure, the 1998 collapse of the Indonesian economy cost the incumbent political elite here their cushy positions. President Suharto's three-decade long iron-grip came to an ignominious end. There were riots in the streets, and he was literally turfed out of office.

But so what? That's EXACTLY what was needed. Part of the renewal process should always be to ship out the dead wood.

Wandering the streets of Menteng this week, Jakarta's most up-market residential suburb, it's as though the Suharto era never existed. The street where he used to live is just another non-descript, quiet, residential street in this leafy inner-city suburb.

Ironically, US President Barack Obama spent some of his childhood in this same suburb of Jakarta.

Unfortunately, as he pulls out all stops to cling to power for a second term, the kind of tough decisions that could help the US emerge from its economic malaise have no chance of being made.

Lest anyone accuse me of being "anti-Obama" or, shock-horror, FOR the Republicans, let me state emphatically that the PROBLEM is not one side of the aisle or the other. In fact, whoever coined the terms "Demopublicans" and "Repulicrats," is right on the money in my book.

It's the ENTIRE system that's the problem. And that goes for nearly every Western, "free market," democracy out there.

I use the term "free market" reluctantly, because these economies are anything but. There has not been a true free market economy anywhere in the Western world for many decades.

The most important price of all -- that of MONEY -- is completely rigged by a small band of dark-suited men who sit around an impressive boardroom table and DECREE what interest rates should be. It is a farce.

Moreover, politicians from opposing sides of the political spectrum may disagree in public and harangue each other in the press.

But, at the end of the day, they're generally all members of the same club-- a cabal of privileged, self-righteous individuals who think they know how to spend your money better than you do.

This system has a vice grip on society, and nothing short of a revolution-- such as what Indonesia experienced in 1998-- will force any change.

That leaves most people with a rather interesting choice--stay at home in a declining, bankrupt, insolvent nation and hope that a social and political revolution comes quickly...

... or head to greener pastures, to a place that's stable, thriving, and has already swallowed its medicine.

Here at Sovereign Man, we strongly urge you to come on in. The water's fine, and the view is much better from this side.

Tim Staermose
Chief Investment Strategist
Sovereign Man

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What A Day That Will Be!- song

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Until Then! - song

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Until that Perfect Day!

Encouragement for older Christians and disciples
or anyone who is concerned about growing weary in well-doing
By Maria Fontaine

Download Audio (5.66MB)

It’s natural to be concerned that in the future, as time goes on, you might get so weary or tired that you won’t be able to continue doing much, if anything, for Jesus. You might wonder, “Can I make it?” It’s not that you don’t want to, but you look down the line and think, “If I feel so tired now, what are 10 or 15 more years going to do to me? I might just fizzle out and not be of much use to the Lord or anyone else!”

Here’s a message that was received for someone who was concerned about this question and was asking the Lord, “Am I going to be able to make it?”

Jesus said in prophecy:

“You wonder if you will succumb to weariness at some point? As with all things pertaining to your walk with Me, it’s a walk of grace, a walk of faith, and a walk lined with My mercy.

“The Enemy will always be trying to convince you that the way is too difficult, that I make things too hard, and that the easier way is to be content with what you’ve accomplished so far and the rewards you will receive in heaven for your service. He’ll tempt you to believe that if things aren’t so difficult for you right now, at somepoint they will be—especially as you age—so you might as well surrender now.”

Has the Enemy ever told you that? Well, what he didn’t tell you is what the Lord goes on to say here:

“The path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto that perfect day! That means My light and strength can shine through you more and more as you keep going—regardless of your age. The more you walk My path, and keep on walking no matter how you feel, and no matter how much the Enemy tempts you to succumb to weariness, the more of Me walks inside you and the more of My light—and strength—descends on you.

“Your physical strength and stamina may decrease, but as long as you keep leaning on Me, I will give you what you need. That means that the strength that you need in order to continue will never run out, because more of Me will be inside you.

“It doesn’t matter how many faults or weaknesses you have, or how much you miss the mark here and there. It’s a grace walk and a mercy walk. My mercy toward you is from everlasting to everlasting.

“The Enemy would like to have you believe that I’m a hard taskmaster, a cruel taskmaster, and that you walk a tightrope for Me, whereby if you falter or totter or can’t quite meet the mark, you will fall from My grace and My service. But in actual fact, the path you walk for Me—even though it is narrow—is broad enough to allow for your humanness, your mistakes, your errors, and your weaknesses.

“Always remember that My straight and narrow way is lined and hedged about with My mercy and My grace. I always look at your heart, and if your heart is willing and desires Me and My way above all, then the times that you falter, or don’t quite measure up, or stray here and there, will not result in your falling away from the path of My will or service.

“What does make someone step away from the path of My will or service due to weariness or lack of vision is the same as I have always said: Somewhere along the way there has been a break in their connection with Me, and as a result that person becomes unwilling to keep progressing and growing in Me. For I am the source of sustaining strength. I am the source of happiness, of joy, and of fulfillment.

“That’s the secret—desiring Me and My words above everything else. It has to be above everything else. You have to know that I and My Word are the source of your strength and power. That’s the secret to you continuing to follow Me closely—being in love with Me and My words.

“Your heart, mind, or steps upon My path won’t grow too weary if that love and desire are there. You’ll be tempted along this line, especially as you grow older or as the Enemy tempts you with weariness. But if I and My words live and move within you and you’re taking steps forward with Me, then weariness cannot take hold. The Spirit is stronger than the temptations and weaknesses of the flesh, if you take hold of Me and desire Me above all.

”Everyone can continue on the path of My will—no matter what their age or physical condition—if they want to, if they have that desire and their will is firmly set on Me. The specifics of what I ask of you may change as the seasons come and go, but My desire to work with you to accomplish My will in your life does not change. All I ask for is your love and your desire and your dependence upon Me. I cannot fail you if you give Me these things.

“Nurture our bond and never let it slip away, for from this stems everything having to do with your spiritual strength and spiritual growth. My grace is able to keep and sustain you. None of these things will move you as you keep your eyes and heart fixed on Me.”

Originally published November 2008. Updated and republished July 2012.
Read by Bethany Kelly

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Fazer uma Estimativa Correta de nós Mesmos

A Compilação

Humildade não é se menosprezar, é pensar menos em si. Humildade é pensar maisnos outros.—Rick Warren

*

[Os frutos do Espírito são] qualidades que Jesus incorpora às nossas vidas conforme passamos tempo na Sua companhia. Elas retratam o Espírito de Deus.

Jesus disse em profecia, “Pense nos frutos de ficar perto de Mim. Estenda as mãos e os agarre a cada momento. Peça-Me os que lhe faltam.

“Nos momentos de convívio Comigo, peça-Me para lhe mostrar como ter paz de espírito, amor, alegria, longanimidade, benignidade, bondade, mansidão, temperança e fé. Perceberá que cada uma dessas qualidades está envolta no espírito de humildade, que é a sua base e estrutura. A Minha meta é que você manifeste cada um desses frutos, assim se aproximará mais de Mim, e a Minha presença se manifestará em você e se integrará mais a você.”

Procurei a palavra humildade no dicionário bíblico, e tinha uma definição bem interessante. “Estar livre da arrogância pelo fato de entender que tudo o que temos e somos provem de Deus”. E continua, “Os filósofos gregos desprezavam a humildade, porque implicava em alguma forma de incapacidade, falta de dignidade e de valor. Mas não é esse o sentido de humildade na Bíblia. Jesus é o exemplo supremo de humildade, e Ele é mais do que capaz, e de uma dignidade e valor infinitos. A humildade segundo a Bíblia não é se menosprezar, mas exaltar ou louvar os outros, principalmente Deus e Jesus. A pessoa humilde foca mais em Deus e nos outros do que em si mesma.

“A humildade no conceito bíblico implica também em reconhecer que somos incapazes, indignos e nada valemos por nós mesmos. No entanto, por termos sido criados à imagem e semelhança de Deus, e por acreditarmos em Cristo, nossa dignidade e valor são infinitos. A verdadeira humildade não gera orgulho, mas gratidão. Por Deus ser nosso Criador e Redentor, a nossa existência e justiça estão atreladas a Ele”.

Algo que gosto particularmente nesta definição e explicação é o conceito de que humildade não é se menosprezar ou ser negativo a seu respeito, nem focar seus pontos fracos e incapacidade, mas sim louvar ao Senhor por nos ter salvado, criado, e que, por Ele viver em nós, somos dignos e temos valor.

Ser humilde não é focar nossas incapacidades, mas sim a capacidade do Senhor. É concentrar-se no fato de que o Senhor age por meio de nós e que, por mais fracos e incapazes que sejamos, Ele pode operar milagrosamente por meio de nós e nos usar. É maravilhoso e uma ótima perspectiva da vida!—Peter Amsterdam[1]

*

Ser verdadeiramente humilde não significa se desprezar, rejeitar, considerar-se menos e rastejar… mas saber estimar o que somos com base na opinião que Deus tem de nós.—Tryon Edwards

*

Eu amo pessoas humildes. Elas não vivem tentando provar que estão certas e os outros errados. Vivem em paz porque não se preocupam consigo mesmas. São fortes porque sabem que podem ser naturais e, dessa forma, glorificar Àquele que as criou. A humildade é sem dúvida a maior prova de força.—Thomas Merton

*

Aprenda a ser humilde, não tímido. Algumas pessoas confundem timidez com humildade. A humildade é uma virtude, a timidez é um problema.—Jim Rohn

*

Ser humilde não significa considerar-se menos que os outros nem ter uma opinião ruim dos seus próprios dons. A pessoa humilde nem pensa em si mesma.—William Temple

*

Não pense que se encontrar alguém humilde de verdade a pessoa vai se encaixar na percepção atual de “pessoa humilde”. Não vai ser alguém sujo de graxa, encardido, que vive dizendo que é simples e nada vale. Provavelmente vai encontrar uma pessoa, alegre, inteligente e interessada no que você diz. Se não gostar dela será por inveja de alguém que desfruta tanto da vida e não está pensando em si. Agora acho melhor parar. Se alguém quer adquirir humildade, acho que posso lhe aconselhar o primeiro passo. O primeiro passo – e bem difícil -- é perceber que todos nós somos orgulhosos. E nada pode ser feito até nos conscientizarmos disso. Se você não se acha convencido, é sinal de que é convencido, e muito!—C. S. Lewis

*

A pessoa mansa não é a pessoa omissa que se considera inferior. É alguém que aceitou a avaliação de Deus, ou seja, que em si mesmo nada pode, mas com Deus ela é tudo. Essa pessoa sabe muito bem que o mundo nunca terá a mesma opinião de Deus a seu respeito, e deixou de se importar com o que os outros pensam.—A. W. Tozer

*

Aquele que entende o valor implícito na ternura de Deus sente-se indigno e incapaz de declarar a sua própria bondade ou valor.—Marian Scheele

*

Eu tenho certeza que muitos cristãos admitirão ter uma experiência bem parecida com a minha, em outras palavras, conhecemos o Senhor há bastante tempo, mas nunca tínhamos percebido que ternura e humildade de coração deveriam ser características distintas no discípulo, assim como eram no Mestre. Essa humildade não é natural. É preciso buscá-la, orar para conquistá-la, ter fé e praticar.—Andrew Murray

*

[Falando de uma campanha de oração de 40 dias junto com outros crentes:] E se abordássemos nossa espiritualidade da mesma forma que um cientista faz suas experiências? Com certeza existe um elemento místico. Mas e se testássemos as promessas de Deus? Não falo de “testar Deus”, mas de fazer um teste com base na confiança. Testar porque confiamos... O que aconteceria se realmente nos humilhássemos e orássemos de joelhos todos os dias? É o que pretendo descobrir.

Vou ser sincero. O primeiro dia foi desanimador. Fui a Baton Rouge fazer uma preleção e estava cansado, distraído, com pouca unção. Não sei explicar o que aconteceu. Mas na volta, no avião, o Espírito Santo me disse, “Você achou que seria fácil?”

Nós queremos semear e colher instantaneamente. Queremos plantar a semente no começo do dia e colher no fim do dia. Não é assim. Se fosse fácil assim, nem daríamos valor. Provavelmente faríamos mau uso da unção e da bênção. Não se trata do que Deus faz no primeiro, no décimo ou no quadragésimo dia, mas sim de cultivar o hábito da humildade. Nós vamos parar, nos entregar e orar. Vamos ficar de joelhos todos os dias! O nosso modus operandi não vai ser estilo DE IMEDIATO, mas sim POR MAIS QUE DEMORE.

Humilharmo-nos é o processo de morte para o ego e o pecado. E não é fácil morrer para si. É a coisa mais difícil e dolorosa. Mas se nos dedicarmos, nos esforçarmos e persistirmos, um dia, em retrospectiva, ficaremos maravilhados ao compararmos o que somos com o que éramos. O velho ego egoísta e pecaminoso se tornará um estranho. Olharemos para trás e diremos, “Quem era eu?” Nós nem vamos nos sentir mais a mesma pessoa.

Sinto como se tivesse contrações durante a oração. Não sei bem como descrever. É como se o Espírito Santo desse à luz algo novo em mim. Eu nem sei como definir, mas sei que vai gerar uma vida nova, porque o Espírito Santo está arando e colocando um solo novo no meu coração. Ele está plantando novas sementes. E vai haver uma colheita de coisas novas. Sem dúvida vai exigir poda! Os pensamentos antigos darão espaço para novos pensamentos. As velhas rotinas darão espaço para novas rotinas. As velhas canções darão espaço para novas canções. As misericórdias antigas darão espaço para novas misericórdias. Será um novo dia, uma nova maneira de ser normal.—Mark Batterson[2]

Publicado no Âncora em junho de 2012.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Denise Oliveira.


[1] Publicado originalmente em fevereiro de 2009.

[2] http://www.markbatterson.com/uncategorized/holy-experiment/

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Russians & Syrians, Allied by History and Marriage

Russians and Syrians, Allied by History and Related by Marriage

By Ellen Barry, NY Times, July 1, 2012


MOSCOW—On one jasmine-shaded block in the Syrian port city of Latakia, Natalya lives three doors away from Nina, two from Olga, across a narrow alley from Tatyana, and a short walk from Yelena, Faina and Nadezhda. They are all women from the former Soviet Union who married Syrian men. Pan out to the greater expanse of Syria and the number of Russian wives grows to 20,000, the human legacy of a cold war alliance that, starting in the 1960s, mingled its young elites in Soviet dormitories and classrooms.

This unusual diaspora offers some insight into the many-stranded relationship between the two countries, one that makes the Kremlin reluctant to cast off Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. Russia has strategic interests in Syria, including arms contracts that amount to $700 million a year, and a tiny port on the Mediterranean Sea that is its last military base outside the former Soviet Union.

But there is also a human factor, set in motion 50 years ago when social ties were forged among young people who met in college. Walk into any government ministry or corporate headquarters in Syria and you will almost certainly find men who spent their 20s in Russia; many brought home wives and raised children in Russian-speaking households.

“They are wives of the elite, who can have some influence, but it’s a soft influence,” said Nina Sergeyeva, who until recently led an organization of Russian expatriates from her home in Latakia. “The elite of Syria, the men, are very oriented toward Russia.”

As the conflict in Syria continues to defy a diplomatic solution, there are an estimated 30,000 Russian citizens living there, most women and children, Russian government officials estimate. This is an issue that Moscow has confronted before in the Middle East, when the collapse of Soviet-allied governments left Russian citizens stranded. But it has not faced anything on these proportions, or in the age of social media, when the plight of ethnic Russians could prove a serious embarrassment to Moscow.

“Based on the recent experience of evacuation from Lebanon and Palestine in recent years, problems always arise—though there we weren’t talking about thousands or tens of thousands of people, but several hundred,” said Yelena Suponina, a Moscow political analyst specializing in the Middle East. The task of evacuating Russians from Syria, she said, “would be 100 times worse.”

The Russian population in Syria is the result of an experiment begun in 1963, when the socialist Baath Party came to power. The Soviets provided education to top students from Asia, Africa and Latin America, throwing them together with Soviet classmates in work brigades and “evenings of friendship.”

The goal was to forge a global, pro-Soviet intellectual elite; the immediate result was weddings. Young women emigrated as the wives of doctors, professors and officials; “the Soviet side said farewell to them and essentially gave them up for lost,” said Natalya Krylova, a historian who has published widely on Russian populations in Africa.

Syrian-Russian unions were especially common—and not just for geopolitical reasons, husbands and wives said in interviews. Many Syrian men felt genuinely transformed by their time in Russia; they also sought to avoid paying a bride-price as is customary in the Middle East. Mahmoud al-Hamza, who met his wife, Nadezhda, in a Moscow park in 1971, said that in order to marry a Syrian, “you need an apartment, you need to pay money, you need to buy gold, and for a Russian woman you just need a wedding ring.”

Soviet women had their own reasons to pursue Syrians—nondrinkers who, thanks to the Baath Party’s ties to the Communists, traveled freely in and out of the Soviet Union. A new wave of marriages followed the Soviet collapse, as young women sought a way out of economic chaos.

Russian-Syrian families were drawn into a bitter conflict 16 months ago, when Mr. Assad’s government began a harsh crackdown on antigovernment protests. The opposition has since become an armed insurgency. Russia blames outside elements for the bloodshed and stands staunchly behind the government, continuing to supply Syria with arms and blocking international efforts to force Mr. Assad from office.

The Russian Orthodox Church has also defended Mr. Assad’s secular government, arguing that it protects religious minorities and acts as a bulwark against radical Islamism.

In February, after Russia blocked a United Nations Security Council Resolution calling for Mr. Assad to leave, the top representative of the Orthodox Church in Syria complained to Interfax that his parish was melting away as Russian families left Syria, the embassy had closed its school and, he said, “our women are insulted out loud in some districts of Damascus.”

A Russian consular official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said about 9,000 Russians have officially registered with the embassy, though upward of 30,000 citizens are believed to be in Syria. He said there are currently no plans for evacuation, but said that if the need arose, buses would be sent to cities to transport Russian citizens to safety.

Such an operation would be especially daunting, because a vast number of the expatriate wives come from Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, countries that would almost certainly turn to Moscow for assistance with their own citizens, Ms. Suponina said. She said she knows dozens of families who have quietly flown out women and children to Russia in recent weeks. Officials, she said, “are paying more and more attention to this.”

“You can criticize them for some mistakes, but nonetheless in Moscow they understood long ago that this is a very painful question,” she said.

Among the thorniest aspects is that, after 50 years of intermarriage, the line between who is Russian and who is not may be difficult to find, if it exists at all.

Svetlana N. Zaitseva, who spoke by telephone from her home in the Syrian port city of Tartus, was 19 when she met her husband, a linguistics student living in the same dormitory in what was then Leningrad.

She and her friends had only the dimmest idea of what life was like in other countries, she said. In the Soviet Union, “it was like the entire world was our friends, brothers and comrades.” Six months after the two met, she said, “I realized that we loved each other and could not live without one another.”

“From the height of my age, I must say that it’s of course better to marry someone from your own country,” she said.

But that decision is long past for Ms. Zaitseva, 62, a mother of three and grandmother of four. She is clinging to the hope that the conflict will end; but even if it escalates into war, she said, she would still choose to stay in Syria to the end.

“It cannot be otherwise,” she said. “We have become part of this place. Our children are here, who are citizens of Syria, and our grandchildren. Everything here is ours.”

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The End of American Independence

By Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, July 1, 2012

We celebrate the fourth of July with fireworks, memorializing the American colonists’ struggle against the British empire by reenacting, in symbolic fashion, what was a war for independence—that is, an assertion of American sovereignty. As we’ve built an empire of our own, however, the celebration has degenerated into an orgy of nationalist vaunting, with the original conception obscured and mostly lost. Indeed, the US government disdains the very concept of national independence, routinely violating the sovereignty of others—and even denying its own.

When the colonists declared their independence, they recorded their reasons in a document—a Declaration that demonstrated this wasn’t just a territorial matter. They asserted their right to make a revolution because sovereignty resided in the people—not the king and his councilors. They didn’t want to create a centralized European-style state that would mimic the imperial grandeur of Britain. They wanted a republic—and they wanted to be left alone.

Flash forward 236 years, and—poof!—the republic is an empire, one that asserts its “right” to attack any nation on earth for any reason. Having divested itself of its modest republican cloth coat, and taken to wearing the imperial purple, Washington has also discarded the old-fashioned concept of popular sovereignty as conceived by the Founders. When the President can take the country to war with a single command, without consulting anyone, sovereignty is no longer in the hands of the people, but of one person—our de facto king.

If this power has no respect for the sovereignty of other nations, neither does it honor its own. Instead of petitioning Congress to unleash the dogs of war, American presidents routinely go before the UN Security Council to seek international sanction first—while stoutly maintaining congressional approval is unnecessary. When George Herbert Walker Bush went to war against Iraq he did it in the name of a “New World Order”—a concept that takes old-fashioned imperialism to a new level. For it would not be an American empire so much as it would be a trans-national entity, one that hovers over the world, but owes no special allegiance to any particular spot.

The idea was taken up by Bush I’s successors. “In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete,” declared Strobe Talbot, Bill Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State and one of that administration’s Deep Thinkers. “All states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.” The American revolutionaries, according to Talbot’s logic, should have saved themselves the bother of Valley Forge.

As Ron Paul has pointed out, the very idea of national sovereignty has been under attack, with all sorts of “multilateral” institutions—not only the UN but also the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the proposed North American Union—that are chipping away at the traditional concept of America’s independence.

These institutions are inhabited and controlled by a wealthy, arrogant, continent-hopping elite that owes no allegiance to any national entity, but only to its own interests as an emerging ruling class. Centered not just in Washington, but in all the capitals of Europe and the developing world, this unmoored elite of government officials, international bureaucrats, transnational corporate honchos, and professional do-gooders is hungry for its turn at power, and ruthless about attaining it. There is no international “crisis” where they haven’t meddled, making it worse—and providing an opening for direct military intervention by the Western powers.

Syria is a perfect example of how this crowd operates. Fund the “opposition,” funnel arms to the rebels, manufacture atrocity stories and feed them to complicit “mainstream” media outlets—then let the UN and NATO do the rest. In thinking about how the concept of national sovereignty has fared recently, I was struck by this account of the UN’s latest pronouncement on the Syrian crisis:

“The UK and French foreign ministers have said a UN communique drawn up in Geneva on Saturday night to address the escalating conflict in Syria will mean President Bashar al-Assad is ‘finished’ and will have to step down.

“The communique, which agreed terms for a transitional authority to oversee the end of violence in the country, was hammered out with the inclusion of Russia and China and called for ‘clear and irreversible steps’ after a fixed time frame.

“It stated that present members of the government could be included in the new body and initially leaving unclear the key question of whether Assad could be part of that transitional government.

“However, speaking on Sunday morning, the foreign secretary, William Hague, confirmed Assad would be excluded from any unity government under the terms of the agreement.”

Not an eyebrow is lifted by the imperious tone—and the assumption that the UN has the right to depose and enthrone at will. What if the Security Council decided a duly-elected US president was to be excluded from holding office? Americans think they are exceptions to this New World Order-ish rule, but they may wake up one day to find out they aren’t.

We are a prisoner of our own allies, who have constructed a thousand tripwires that can set us careening off into yet another war at a moment’s notice. We are, finally, a captive to our own self-conception as “the indispensable nation,” so puffed up with our own sense of ultimate power that we cannot conceive a crisis in which we do not have a hand.

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The Little Blind Angel

By Angela Koltes

On a dreary and overcast winter day, I set out with a few friends to spend the afternoon at the nearby school for the blind. It was one of those “any old Sundays” where I was exhausted from the week’s busy schedule and longed for the comfort of my warm bed and the welcoming idea of lounging at home.

I had no desire to go outside; after all, almost everyone would be spending time on themselves and taking the day off. But because we had promised to go by the school to give the children a little cheer and fun on a lonely Sunday afternoon, we were obligated to go.

On weekends, most of the families of students came to pick up their children, as the blind children boarded at the school during the week. So there were few kids this Sunday, yet each one of them showed their delight at our coming, welcoming us with joyful expressions.

We didn’t have much of a plan, but we brought a guitar, shakers, and bongos, hoping to bring some happiness into their seemingly colorless worlds. The children crowded around us, listening to the music and trying to understand where we came from and what we looked like. Some of them had their own instruments, as most of them are musically talented, and they played along, enthusiastically showing us what they knew.

In the midst of all the noise and activity I noticed one little short-haired girl sitting shyly away from the other children. I wondered who her parents were and why they hadn’t come to visit such a beautiful little girl. I felt angry, wondering how this child could deserve to be deprived of her sight and made to live as handicapped.

While watching her, the first thing that captured me was her bright and radiant smile. “How could this little blind girl, in her sad condition, be so happy?” I wondered to myself. The teacher, who followed my gaze, began to tell us her story. Seda was seven years old and had been through a brain operation two years before. “I could see the trees, the birds, the doctor’s face, everything.” She added, listening to her teacher, “But after I woke up, I couldn’t see anything anymore.”

It was as if a rock fell from a high ledge and landed at the bottom of my heart! I could only continue to watch the little girl in silence.

“But I am so happy!” she exclaimed, giggling and playing with her hands. “Why are you happy, Seda?” her teacher asked for us. “Well,” she began softly, “Even though I cannot see on this earth anymore, I will be able to see again in heaven—and I am waiting and looking forward to that day.”

My eyes filled with tears, and I knew by looking around that my friends shared the same feeling. The rest of the afternoon Seda stuck near me. She grabbed my hand and led me around the school. She sat on my lap and talked about all the food she liked to eat, each vegetable and fruit she enjoyed and why. She found such delight in the tastes and sounds around her, it was as if she had forgotten she could not use her sense of sight.

When I drove home that evening, Seda’s face stuck in my mind. What did this girl see in her black world that made her so happy? Later, when I would feel the strain of a difficult workday, whatever I might be going through at the moment, when I thought of Seda, I knew I couldn't complain.

Sometimes the dark days we are forced to pass through seem unbearable and we see no shining rays of dawn. We struggle each day while despising what we see around us. Yet I know if I can only strive to think as that little angel did, whose sight had been taken from her, and look toward heaven as she did, I can praise for each day I have been given on this earth.

Whenever I am tempted to curse the darkness and criticize what I see around me, that little girl’s smile comes to mind. I think of her faith and I think of the eyes that were given to her to see the daylight of tomorrow, and I know if she can, I surely can too.

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Yitzhak Shamir- a Pole we are not proud of! How a terrorist became Prime Minister in Israel!

By Joel Brinkley, NY Times, June 30, 2012

Yitzhak Shamir, who emerged from the militant wing of a Jewish militia and served as Israel’s prime minister longer than anyone but David Ben-Gurion, promoting a muscular Zionism and expansive settlement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, died Saturday at a nursing home in Tel Aviv. He was 96.

Mr. Shamir had Alzheimer’s disease for at least the last six years, an associate said. His death was announced by the prime minister’s office.

A native of Poland whose family was wiped out in the Holocaust, Mr. Shamir was part of a group of right-wing Israeli politicians led by Menachem Begin who rose to power in the 1970s as the more left-wing Labor Party declined, viewed as corrupt and disdainful of the public.

Stubborn and laconic, Mr. Shamir was by his own assessment a most unlikely political leader whose very personality seemed the perfect representation of his government’s policy of patient, determined, unyielding opposition to territorial concessions.

Many of his friends and colleagues ascribed his character to his years in the underground in the 1940s, when he sent Jewish fighters out to kill British officers whom he saw as occupiers. He was a wanted man then; to the British rulers of the Palestine mandate he was a terrorist, an assassin. He appeared in public only at night, disguised as a Hasidic rabbi. But Mr. Shamir said he considered those “the best years of my life.”



Prime Minister Begin appointed Mr. Shamir as foreign minister in 1980. When Mr. Begin suddenly retired in 1983, Mr. Shamir became a compromise candidate to replace him, alternating in the post with Shimon Peres for one four-year term. Mr. Shamir won his own term in 1988.

As prime minister, Mr. Shamir promoted continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which Israel conquered in 1967; the Jewish population in the occupied territories increased by nearly 30 percent while he was in office. He also encouraged the immigration of tens of thousands of Soviet Jews to Israel, an influx that changed the country’s demographic character.

One of the most notable events during his tenure was the Palestinian uprising against Israeli control that began in December 1987, the so-called intifada. He and his defense minister, Mr. Rabin, deployed thousands of Israeli troops throughout the occupied territories to quash the rebellion. They failed; the years of violence and death on both sides brought criticism and condemnation from around the world.

The fighting also deepened divisions between Israel’s two political camps: leftists who believed in making concessions to bring peace, and members of the right who believed, as Mr. Shamir once put it, that “Israel’s days without Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip are gone and will not return.”

The intifada dragged on year after year as the death toll climbed from dozens to hundreds. Israel’s isolation increased, until finally the rebellion was overshadowed in 1991 by the first Persian Gulf war.

Yitzhak Shamir was born on Oct. 22, 1915, in a Polish town under Russian control to Shlomo and Perla Penina Yezernitzky. He immigrated to the Palestine mandate when he was 20 and selected Shamir as his Hebrew surname. The word means thorn or sharp point.



Members of his family who remained in Poland died in the Holocaust; his father was killed by Poles whom the family had regarded as friends. Memories of the Holocaust colored his opinions for the rest of his life.

In the British-ruled Palestine mandate, Mr. Shamir first worked as a bookkeeper and a construction worker. But after Arabs attacked Jewish settlers and the British in 1936, he joined the Irgun Zvai Leumi, the underground Jewish defense league. In 1940, the Irgun’s most militant members formed the Lehi, or Stern Gang, named for its first leader, Abraham Stern.

After the British police killed Mr. Stern in 1942, Mr. Shamir became one of the group’s top commanders. Under his leadership it began a campaign of what it called personal terror, assassinating top British military and government officers, often gunning them down in the street.

To the Jewish public, and even to the other Jewish underground groups, Mr. Shamir’s gang was “lacking even a spark of humanity and Jewish conscience,” Israel Rokach, the mayor of Tel Aviv, said in 1944 after Stern Gang gunmen shot three British police officers on the streets of his city.

Several histories of the period have asserted that he masterminded a failed attempt to kill the British high commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, and the killing in Cairo of Britain’s minister of state for the Middle East, Lord Moyne. When Mr. Shamir was asked about these episodes in later years, his denials held a certain evasive tone.

It was during his time in the underground that Mr. Shamir met Shulamit Levy, who was his courier and confidante, he wrote in his autobiography, “Summing Up.” The couple married in 1944, meeting at a location in Jerusalem and gathering people off the street as witnesses, said their daughter, Gilada Diamant. After a hasty ceremony in deep cover, each departed immediately for a separate city.

For a brief period after World War II, the three major Jewish underground groups cooperated—until the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946. Scores of people were killed, and Mr. Shamir was among those arrested and exiled to an internment camp in Eritrea. But he escaped a few months later and took refuge in France. He arrived in the newly independent Israel in May 1948.

Mr. Shamir was a pariah of sorts to the new Labor government of Israel, which regarded him as a terrorist. Rebuffed in his efforts to work in the government, he drifted from one small job to another until 1955, when he finally found a government agency that appreciated his past: the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. He served in several posts, including that of top agent in France, but returned to Israel and spent several years in business.

He joined Mr. Begin’s Herut Party in 1970 and was elected to Parliament in December 1973. When the Likud, or unity, bloc, which absorbed Herut, won power in 1977, Mr. Shamir was elected speaker. And when President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt visited Jerusalem in November 1977, Mr. Shamir and Israel’s president, Ephraim Katzir, escorted him to the speaker’s rostrum for his speech. But the next year, when the Parliament voted on the Camp David accords, which set out the terms for peace with Egypt, Mr. Shamir abstained.

In 1979, when Moshe Dayan resigned as foreign minister, Mr. Begin proposed appointing Mr. Shamir to replace him. Yechiel Kadishai, chief of the prime minister’s office under Mr. Begin, recalled that Mr. Shamir was chosen because the prime minister did not want or need a powerful figure high in his cabinet.

The liberal members of Mr. Begin’s coalition objected, so Mr. Begin named himself foreign minister until 1980, when Mr. Shamir finally took the post.

Mr. Shamir’s political opponents said that his laconic nature played into his handling of the massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut in September 1982, during Israel’s war in Lebanon.

On the evening of Sept. 16, Phalangists—Lebanese Christian militiamen—entered the camps and began killing hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children while the Israeli Army stood guard at the gates.

The next morning in Tel Aviv, Ze’ev Schiff, a prominent Israeli journalist, received a call from a military official who told him about the slaughter. He rushed to the office of his friend Mordechai Zipori, the minister of communications, and told him what he had heard. Mr. Zipori then called the foreign minister, Mr. Shamir.

Mr. Shamir was scheduled to meet with military and intelligence officials shortly, so with some urgency Mr. Zipori told him to ask about the report he had received that the Phalangists “are carrying out a slaughter.”

Mr. Zipori remembered that Mr. Shamir promised to look into the report. But according to the official findings of an Israeli government commission of inquiry, Mr. Shamir merely asked Foreign Ministry officers to see “whether any new reports had arrived from Beirut.” When the meeting ended, Mr. Shamir “left for his home and took no additional action,” the report said.

Mr. Shamir was certainly not the only Israeli official who failed to act, but the commission found it “difficult to find a justification” for his decision not to make “any attempt to check whether there was anything in what he heard.”

When Mr. Begin retired in 1983, Mr. Shamir was designated his successor largely because of his position in the Foreign Ministry.

Even many in his own party thought Mr. Shamir would lose the election. And even after he took office, many saw this low-key, colorless man as a caretaker. In some ways he was. Asked once what he intended to do in his second full term in office, he said he had no plans except to “keep things as they are.”

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The Rock - Devotional

By P. Amsterdam

My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Switzerland for a yearly foundation board meeting as well as other related business meetings. While there, I would often look out the window at the beautiful lake and surrounding mountains, which I could see from the windows of the home of the friends we were staying with. There is one mountain in particular, across the lake, which stood out to me. It juts up like a gigantic rock, and each morning when we opened the curtains I would look at it and marvel at how majestic it was, towering over the lake. At the base of the mountain and going about halfway up, there are fields and trees. Then beyond the tree line it’s sheer rock all the way to the top.

We had many meetings, but during each break I’d step outside to look at the beautiful lake view and scenery, and would invariably end up focusing on the mountain, enjoying its splendor. Some days the sky was blue and clear, and the mountain seemed close enough to reach out and touch. One day, the top half of the mountain was covered in clouds, and all that could be seen were the trees which reached halfway up, while the rest was obscured. One morning, because of fog, it wasn’t possible to see the mountain at all. I knew it was there, but it was hidden from my view.

On our last morning in Switzerland, when I was looking one last time at the mountain, the Lord brought to mind a number of friends that I have spoken with or heard from of late and the different experiences and challenges they have been facing. One found himself fighting a severe life-threatening illness virtually from one day to the next, which required months of being in the hospital, with the uncertainty of whether he would recover or not. One couple had plans in place which would help them financially, but at the very last minute their plans fell through. Another is moving her family to another country without knowing whether she will have the means to make it financially once she arrives. She needs to go for a variety of reasons, she has desperately sought the Lord for His guidance, and things are falling into place, but it’s still a major step of faith. One couple’s ministry, which they’ve had for years, has come to an end, and they are struggling, not knowing what to do next. Another man’s job came to an end at the same time as he and his wife were facing some sickness in their family, and he hasn’t been able to get a new job yet.

I was looking at the mountain and thinking of these friends, and of the challenges they have been faced with. I thought about their fears, not knowing what’s ahead, not knowing how they will make it or what the future will bring. Each of them has expressed that while their faith has been tested and is still being tested, they believe the Lord will bring them through. As I thought about these loved ones, and so many others who are faced with uncertainty, the Lord reminded me of what I had observed while looking at the mountain over the previous days.

He reminded me that on some days the mountain was so clear, so obviously there, while on other days parts of it were obscure, and on the foggy day I couldn’t see it at all. And yet, whatever the weather, even when it couldn’t be seen, the mountain was there. Fog or clouds or raging storms might make it difficult to see, or even invisible, but it is always there, standing strong, unmovable.

I was struck by the courage of these people and of countless others who face the uncertainties of life with deep faith, even when the Lord’s presence is less evident. The Bible verse “we walk by faith, not by sight” came to mind.[1] The fact is that, like the mountain, God in all His majesty is there, always. Whether we see or feel Him is irrelevant to the fact that He is there. Through all the storms of our lives, through the times of uncertainty or confusion or weakened faith, through the fears, the questions, the doubts, the loss, He is there.

Sometimes things are bright and sunny in our lives, and God’s blessings are very clear to us. At other times, like when the top of the mountain is covered in clouds, it’s a bit more difficult to see or feel His presence; and in the dense fog of uncertainty one can question if He’s there at all. But, like the mountain, nothing has changed on His side. He is there, solid, unmovable, ever loving, ever caring, never failing. As mentioned in The Heart of It All: The Nature and Character of God—God’s Immutability, the Old Testament repeatedly calls God “the Rock.” It was the ancients’ way of expressing His steadfastness, His total faithfulness; the fact that He doesn’t waver, that He is always true to His word, His promises; that He doesn’t change His mind, that He is always there for us. I understood this better as I looked upon this mountain, realizing that through everything that happens around it, it stands; it is never moved.

Who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?[2]

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.[3]

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.[4]

Looking at this mountain—this gigantic rock rising above the lake—brought to mind the stability of God, the sureness of His presence and help, regardless of the circumstances. We may worry or fear; we may doubt or be unsure. The storms that seem to engulf our lives at times can make it seem that He’s not there, not listening, or not concerned. But the simple fact is that the storms, the fog, and the winds in life don’t affect the presence of God any more than these elements in nature affect the mountain.

God is there, always. He is faithful, always. He is the unmovable Rock. He will never leave nor forsake us.[5] Our faith may fail, but He isn’t dependent on our faith, for He is the Rock, the mountain, the faithful one whom we can depend on. Always.

This mountain was to me a reminder of God’s faithfulness, love, and concern; a reminder that God is in control. Even if things seem uncertain to me or in the lives of loved ones, even when it seems the clouds or fog have been there for a long time, the rock still stands, the mountain is there.

Later, when I was meditating on this and praying about it, the Lord said:

I am the solid rock, the firm foundation. I am He who is faithful and true, who is always there for you, who has everlasting love for you. Though there are times when you may not feel Me—when you feel that I have forsaken you or when you are fearful and feel the need of reassurance, but don’t seem to find it—you should remember that I am always there. Your circumstances do not determine whether I am with you. I am with you always. I always hear your prayers, and I will always answer you. It may not be on your timetable, it may not even seem to be the answer that you want or expect, but I always respond.

It often takes patience on your part to receive, and to even understand, the answer I have given. Sometimes you have to wait for the fullness of the answer, or the understanding of how I have answered. Sometimes My answers are a process which requires certain events to transpire one after another over time. But I am always there, ready to hear your prayers and to answer them.—And the lack of an immediate answer, and the subsequent time when things are foggy and uncertain, doesn’t mean that I am not there or that I am refusing to answer. You must always remember that beyond the fog and the uncertainty, I am there, just as the mountain is there even when you can’t see it. I am faithful and true, I am the Rock you can run to. I am steadfast in My promises, in My love and care for you and yours. I am with you always, even to the end of the earth, even for eternity. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen, know that I am always here, I will always love and care for you, and I will never fail you. Keep trusting Me, because I am always there.

This morning, when thinking and praying about some of my own tests of faith and uncertainties, I found myself singing an old hymn which quotes Psalm 121. It was a reminder to me about the Lord’s faithfulness and of His promise to keep us throughout our lives.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.[6]

[1] 2 Corinthians 5:7.

[2] Psalm 18:31 ESV.

[3] Psalm 18:2 ESV.

[4] Psalm 62:2 ESV.

[5] Hebrews 13:5.

[6] Psalm 121:1–8 KJV.

Copyright © 2012 The Family International.

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