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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied the brains of meditators using functional magnetic resonance imaging (f-MRI) and found that “positive emotions such as loving-kindness and compassion can be learned in the same way as playing a musical instrument or being proficient in a sport.”

Compassionate meditation is a practice in which meditators focus on the wish for happiness for others and wish to relieve others’ suffering.

The MRI scans revealed that brain circuits identified as emotion detectors and feeling signals were dramatically changed in individuals who regularly practiced compassion meditation. There was significant activity in the insula – a region in the frontal brain that plays a key role in bodily representations of emotion. Activity also increased in the temporal parietal juncture in the right brain associated with processing empathy as one perceives the mental and emotional state of others.

Similar activity occurred in the new subjects – the controls – who had no previous training, but were taught the compassionate meditation techniques for two weeks prior to the scans. Study director Richard Davidson, in the department of psychiatry at UW-Madison, noted the study suggests that many types of individuals could benefit from such meditative practices including children who bully others or people prone to depression.

This study is included in the ongoing protocol of investigations with a group of Tibetan monks and lay practitioners who have been meditators for a miniumum of 10,000 hours.

The results support the theory that “people can develop skills that promote happiness and compassion,” Davidson concluded. The brain is plastic. “People are not just stuck at their respective set points,” he added.
Source: Newsmax Health 2008-04-17
 
A Los Angeles judge is deciding whether a case against Occidental Petroleum brought by the Peruvian Achuar people can proceed here or be sent back to Peru, writes Dan Collyns for BBC News.

A modern David and Goliath story has emerged in which no one thought the alleged giant causing destruction to a pristine wilderness could be stunned by sticks and stones. But the Achuar tribe living in the Amazon rainforest in north-eastern Peru rallied sticks and stones in the form of a lawsuit against Occidental Petroleum. A Los Angeles judge is now deciding the venue of the case.

Oil drilling began over 30 years ago when the Peruvian government recognized their natural resources wealth and issued open invitations to oil companies. Occidental, which denies liability, pulled out eight years ago and its operations were taken over by Pluspetrol. Pluspetrol only agreed to change practices after the Achuar, following repeated efforts to negotiate, took direct action last year.

The government and its citizens were slow to recognize the devastation that would ensue. Tomas Maynas, spiritual leader of the Achuar and plaintiff in the lawsuit, notes that “the animals ran away, the fish died and crops started to wilt.” According to Collyns, the lawsuit alleges that “Occidental Petroleum ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices, dumping around 9 billion barrels of toxic waste water into streams and rivers over 30 years.”

Last year, in a dramatic “peaceful” show of shotguns and spears, writes Collyns,.the Achuar occupied and held the Amazon oil wells until the government and the company, “losing millions of dollars a day, were forced to come to the negotiating table.” The Achuar won a commitment from Pluspetrol to reduce practices leading to contamination, initiate a 10-year healthier plan, as well as contribute large sums to a clean-up.

A new generation of “community” leaders have grown up in the Amazon rainforest. Says 29-year-old resident Petronila Chumpi, “A whole generation had their health damaged. How can we keep quiet as our parents did?” The Achuar have opposed President Alan Garcia’s idea to privatize large areas of the rainforest. Local leaders say this would continue to have adverse impacts and so far have rejected any new oil exploration in their territory, reports Collyns.
Source: Common Dreams News Center 2008-04-03
 
As Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama (a “Dalai clique”) of orchestrating rebellion in Tibet, the Nobel Peace laureate urged all parties to remain peaceful, writes Audra Ang for the Associated Press. The current protest against Chinese rule began peacefully in Lhasa on March 10, marking the date of a 1959 uprising that failed. Tibetan Buddhist monks led the demonstrations which spun out of control as more and more Tibetans joined the march and were ordered to disperse.

The increasing violence spread to neighboring provinces with reports of as many as 80 deaths. However, the Chinese blackout of the media, including blocking of the Los Angeles Times web access, made it difficult to determine the accuracy of reports. “China’s tight control over information and ban on trips by foreign reporters restricted independent reporting from the region,” writes Ang.

The uprising focused world attention on China as the host of the summer Olympic Games in August, with some observers calling for a boycott based on human rights violations. The Dalai Lama, while suggesting that “Chinese agents could be involved” in the unrest, continued to urge non-violence on both sides and declared his opposition to a boycott of the Olympic Games. The Chinese people, he said, take pride in the Games, and “deserve” to host them.

Chinese authorities in Tibet made some arrests over the weekend and threatened sweeping arrests if protesters did not turn themselves in by Monday midnight. However, the deadline passed with no evidence of surrender or a major crackdown.

The Dalai Lama issued a statement that he would resign as the political leader and head of state if Tibetans chose a path of violence. “If things become out of control,” he said, his “only option is to completely resign.” An aide issued the clarification that he would not resign as the Dalai Lama but as a political leader.

The India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported thousands of demonstrators in the streets in Seda in the southern province of Sichuan and noted that the situation remains “extremely tense.”
Source: Associated Press and Los Angeles Times 2008-03-20
 
Bill Gates wonders why capitalism isn’t working for everyone and points to the neglected human need to help others. Speaking to Robert A. Guth of the Wall Street Journal recently before addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the software tycoon and famous philanthropist plans to speak to the issue of why the economic system we revere is working only for a few and has failed so many. Advances in technology, education and health care, he told Guth, rapidly help the top third of six billion people, but is “unsatisfactory for the bottom third – two billion people.”

While still committed to capitalism as the best system we’ve discovered so far, he outlined the need for a “creative capitalism” that marshals market forces to address poor countries as well as rich countries. In his world travels on behalf of Microsoft, Gates has seen first-hand the disease and poverty in areas such as the South African slum of Soweto. Human beings want the opportunity, he told Guth, to exercise kindness as well as make a profit.

The enlightened philanthropy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (established in 2000) emerged gradually as the Seattle billionaire traveled, observed and read about global economic issues, reports Guth. Gates believes that large companies should focus on products and services that help the poor. “Such a system,” he says, “would have a twin mission: making profits and also improving lives for those who don’t fully benefit from market forces.” He noted several programs which “stretch the reach of market forces:” A World Health Organization project which sells a meningitis vaccine in Africa at affordable prices; a program for African coffee farmers which links them to rich coffee buyers in other parts of the world. This view places Gates in the ranks of those who have devised entrepreneurial ways to address the greed of unfettered capitalism, which hasn’t solved critical social problems. Among them is Nobel Peace Prize winner (in 2006) Muhammad Yunus who developed the Grameen Bank which provides small loans to poor individuals. This and other such programs demonstrate that the profit-oriented side of human nature is only half of the picture: a core aspect of human nature is “the satisfaction derived from helping others.”

Drawing from the writings of Adam Smith, whose treatise, “The Wealth of Nations” has guided Western capitalism, Gates highlights Smith’s 1759 book, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” which preceded the famous Wealth of Nations. It makes the case for the other half of the equation: that human beings take pleasure in supporting the good “fortunes of others.”

Critics of philanthropic efforts over the past three decades argue that there is little evidence that the trillions of dollars to poor countries have provided tangible benefits. Gates says that economic growth is not the only measure of “success.” He cites a study by Hans Rosling, a Swedish professor of international health, who has graphed statistics which show “that in the previous four decades, life expectancy and family size in developing countries has approached the levels of developed countries.”

His increasing emphasis when he retires in June in order to devote full-time to his Foundation, he told Guth, will be to prod major corporations to focus on “astonishing new abilities to diagnose illness, heal disease, educatie the world’s children, create opportunities for the poor and harness the world’s brightest minds to solve our most difficult problems.”
Source: Wall Street Journal Online 2008-03-06
 
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