Pope Francis says Church hasn't known 'how to listen'

Yahoo – AFP, Kelly VELASQUEZ,  January 26, 2019

Pope Francis officiates at a mass at the centuries-old Cathedral Basilica of Santa
Maria la Antigua in Panama City on January 26, 2019 during a global youth
gathering (AFP Photo/Alberto PIZZOLI)

Panama City (AFP) - Pope Francis acknowledged Saturday that the Catholic Church was "wounded by sin" in a message addressed to priests and seminarians reeling from sexual abuse scandals and coverups.

In a mass that he officiated at the centuries-old Cathedral of Santa Maria La Antigua in Panama City, Francis warned of the "weariness of hope that comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which has so often failed to hear all those cries."

It was the Argentine pontiff's first reference to the sex abuse scandals rocking the Church since he arrived in Panama on Wednesday for a global gathering of young Catholics.

It comes as he prepares to meet senior bishops from around the world in Rome next month to deal with widespread clergy sex abuse of children and young people.

Addressing white robed young seminarians and priests during the mass, the pope said "a subtle weariness" had entered Church communities that "calls into question the energy resources and viability of our mission in this changing and challenging world."

Those changes, he said, "call into doubt the very viability of religious life in today's world."

But he said that the notion that religious communities had nothing to contribute -- that the world "has no room for our message" -- would be "one of the worst heresies possible in our time."

Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Friday that next month's meeting in Rome would be a unique chance to provide bishops with "concrete measures" to tackle the "terrible plague" of sex abuse by the clergy.

Pilgrims pray on January 26, 2019 in front of the centuries-old Cathedral Basilica of 

Santa Maria la Antigua, in Panama City, as Pope Francis celebrates mass inside

(AFP Photo/Raul ARBOLEDA)

Lunch with the pope

After the mass in the basilica -- home of the first diocese on the American mainland -- the pope and the archbishop of Panama, Cardinal Jose Domingo Ulloa, hosted a lunch for 10 young people of different nationalities attending World Youth Day, a tradition at the global gatherings, held every three years.

The pope's homily to seminarians about the challenges of the priesthood raised the problem of dwindling vocations around the world.

Around the globe, there were 414,969 Catholic priests at the end of 2016, more than 800 less than in 2014, according to the Vatican. There were nearly 700 less people joining the priesthood over the same period.

Francis himself acknowledged at a general audience in August that the scandals of abuse and cover-up by Church leaders has caused a decline in vocations to the priesthood in Ireland.

Later Saturday, the pope was set to preside over an evening vigil with an expected crowd of 200,000 pilgrims at the three-kilometer (two-mile) Metro Park on the outskirts of Panama.

Francis, 82, drew the largest crowd of his five-day visit on Friday evening at a solemn ceremony commemorating Christ's crucifixion in another Panama park.

In a swipe at US President Donald Trump's plans to build a border wall against Central American migrants, the pope told hundreds of thousands of young pilgrims that it was "senseless" to condemn every immigrant "as a threat to society."

He has used his encounter with young people in Central America this week to speak out strongly in defense of migrants, and address other problems affecting the region such as poverty, drug trafficking, violence and what he said was a regional "plague" of murders of women.

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Pope in Panama blasts 'fears and suspicions' over migration

Painful memories for family of Guatemalan girl who died in US custody

Yahoo – AFP, Henry MORALES ARANA, December 16, 2018

Claudia Maquin, the mother of Jakelin Caal -- the seven year-old Guatemalan girl
who died in US Border Patrol custody -- speaks to reporters with the late girl's three
siblings (AFP Photo/JOHAN ORDONEZ)

Raxruha (Guatemala) (AFP) - Outside a humble thatched-roof home deep in the lush Guatemalan countryside, the mother of a seven-year-old girl who died after being detained by US border agents tries to remember happier days with her daughter.

The 27-year-old woman mournfully points to a nearby tree that young Jakelin Caal enjoyed climbing.

"I feel pain and sadness over the death of my daughter," said Claudia Maquin, speaking in her native Maya Q'eqchi' language through an interpreter.

Jakelin's death in American custody on December 8 -- which followed her detention after illegally crossing from Mexico with her father -- has reignited a debate in the United States on immigration policy and mistreatment of migrants.

It has also shocked residents of this indigenous farming village of unpaved roads that has neither electricity nor running water, and where crushing poverty is the norm.

The child's death came as President Donald Trump struggles to deter a tide of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.

Nearly 60 percent of Guatemala's 17 million people live under the poverty line, according to government and World Bank figures.

That rate is higher in indigenous communities like the remote village where young Jakelin lived in the municipality of Raxruha, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Guatemala City.

Claudia Maquin stands outside the home where her late seven-year-old daughter 

Jakelin Caal grew up deep in rural Guatemala (AFP Photo/JOHAN ORDONEZ)

Left 'out of necessity'

Jakelin's father Nery Caal, 29, left the village to travel to the United States with her on November 30.

"He left out of necessity," Maquin told AFP, with her father-in-law Domingo Caal acting as an interpreter.

"When he left he said that he'd be looking for work there," she said.

Jakelin traveled north with her father because "the girl was very close" to him, said Domingo Caal, 61.

He said the girl was "jumping with joy" as she began the trip.

Before leaving "she told her mother and grandmother that when she grew up she would work and bring money to them," he said.

The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed the death of the girl, saying she died of dehydration and exhaustion in an El Paso, Texas hospital less than 24 hours after being detained as part of a group of 163 illegal border crossers in a remote New Mexico border area.

The DHS confirmation came only after it was reported by The Washington Post.

A relative shows a picture of the late Jakelin Caal on a phone (AFP Photo/

JOHAN ORDONEZ)

Guatemala's foreign ministry said the child came down with fever and was shaking and vomiting after she was in US Border Patrol custody, where she received aid from paramedics before being hospitalized.

Father wants answers

The girl's father, who is seeking asylum in the United States, issued a statement Saturday in his family's name "seeking an objective and thorough investigation" into his daughter's death.

The statement was read to reporters by Ruben Garcia, the head of Annunciation House, the refugee shelter where he is staying in El Paso, Texas.

Jakelin, who was just five days past her seventh birthday, had not been crossing the desert for days and "had not suffered from a lack of food or water prior to approaching the border," the statement read.

The statement also said that it was "unacceptable" that US agents had the father, who mainly speaks Q'eqchi', sign documents in English.

Immigrant rights activists, several waving signs and clutching pictures of the young girl, rallied to protest Jakelin's death in downtown El Paso as Border Patrol agents warily looked on from a distance.

A woman draws water from a well in the indigenous village of San Antonio Seacortez,
home of the Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of US border agents (AFP Photo/
JOHAN ORDONEZ)

"We want to know what happened during those hours in which she was detained and then taken to hospital," said one of the protesters, Fernando Garcia, head of the Human Rights Border Network advocacy group.

The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general announced an internal investigation into the girl's death.

'What can we do?'

The Guatemalan government has offered to bring back the girl's remains, and said that her father would be released by special permission from US immigration authorities.

The late girl's uncle Jose Caal told AFP that it could take some three weeks to complete the process to repatriate the girl's body for a funeral.

"It's very painful, very painful, but what can we do?" asked Domingo Caal.

"What happened, happened, but it's painful," he said.

Central American caravan continues toward US after rest

Yahoo – AFP, Yemeli ORTEGA, November 10, 2018

The metro in Mexico City opened an hour early to transport migrants toward
neighboring Mexico State (AFP Photo/Alfredo ESTRELLA)

Mexico City (AFP) - Around 5,000 Central Americans left Mexico City at dawn Saturday, brushing exhaustion and illness aside to get back on the road towards the United States as part of a migrant caravan that has drawn fury from President Donald Trump.

Between coughs and sneezes, the migrants packed up their makeshift camp in a sports park, where they had rested for six nights, and headed to the city's metro -- which opened an hour early to transport them toward neighboring Mexico State.

"We got cold sleeping out in the open, so that's why we're sick now. The kids have got lice, there's not always enough water to bathe them," Adamari Correa, a Guatemalan traveling with her sister and her sister's children, told AFP.

From there, the plan was to set off once again on foot toward Queretaro in central Mexico, still hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the US border.

"I don't want to walk, Mommy!" cried one little girl wrapped in a blanket, as her mother -- a sleeping mat on her back and two large bundles in each hand -- stood in an endless line waiting to board the five designated train, each carrying around 1,000 people, metro authorities estimated.

Some 1,000 police officers kept watch over the operation.

The caravan left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13 and has covered more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) so far.

A group of Central American migrants is seen on the metro in Mexico City, on 

their way to Queretaro state (AFP Photo/Alfredo ESTRELLA)

At least two other caravans have since been established, defying threats from Trump -- who has decried what he describes as an "invasion" and ordered thousands of soldiers to the US-Mexico border.

On Friday, his administration unveiled a controversial new crackdown, announcing it would no longer allow people who enter the US illegally to claim asylum. Instead, those seeking political or other kinds of asylum will be heard exclusively at the border crossings.

Also on Friday, a group of 1,300 Central American migrants fragmented from the caravan to embark on the same path from Mexico City.

They quickly amassed on the sides of the wide high-speed road that snakes around the capital, leading to the exit toward Queretaro.

Taking the risk

"We're sick from the temperature changes," said Wilson Alexander Mejia, a 27-year-old laborer traveling alone.

"But we're determined to reach the border and beyond."

On the highway, truck drivers stopped to offer rides. Some migrants clung to vehicles; others found a seat perched on the hood, above the engine.

"Thank you Mexico! We go forward!" they yelled to passers-by, waving.

Other caravan members following behind trekked on foot or took public buses to reach the Queretaro exit, where trucks slowed to pick them up.

Under already intense sun, transport police were also seen helping migrants into one cargo vehicle's two trailers -- but they lacked any ventilation system.

"When you want something, you have to take risks and not care what happens," said Lucas Rocha, a 31-year-old on his second journey to the border. He said if he doesn't make it this time, he'll try again.

Years ago, he rode the notoriously dangerous cargo train route through Mexico known as "La Bestia" -- "the beast."

Along that route, migrants are routinely robbed and assaulted by organized criminals -- while scrambling onto moving trains sees many get dragged underneath and lose limbs.

Honduran migrant 'caravan' resumes from Mexico to US: AFP reporter

Yahoo – AFP, 21 October 2018

The authorities opened the border to women and children who were then taken to a
shelter in the city of Tapachula, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico

Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo.

Mexican authorities on Thursday had managed to block the "caravan" of migrants on a border bridge between Mexico and Guatemala, but many later entered via a river separating the two countries.

"No one is going to stop us, after all we've gone through, like crossing the river" said 21-year-old Aaron Juarez, who was accompanied by his wife and baby and was walking with difficulty because of an injury.

"We are tired, but very happy, we are united and strong," added Edwin Geovanni Enamorado, a Honduran farmer who was part of the caravan, who said he was forced to leave his country because of intimidation by racketeering gangs.

The caravan left San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras last week, following a call on social networks relayed by a former Honduran deputy.

On Sunday morning, about a thousand migrants, including women and children, were still stranded on a border bridge hoping to enter Mexico legally via Guatemala.

The day before, the Mexican authorities opened the border to women and children who were then taken to a shelter in the city of Tapachula, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico.

US President Donald Trump has been tweeting about the caravan's progress and thanked Mexican authorities on Saturday for their efforts to block it.

"Mexico will not allow irregular entry into its territory, much less violent," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Friday evening in a video message.

VIDEO: The Colombian government has set up social centres to help Venezuelan migrants, where migrants receive toiletries, help with immigration matters, and even haircuts and vaccinations

VIDEO: The Colombian government has set up social centres to help Venezuelan migrants, where migrants receive toiletries, help with immigration matters, and even haircuts and vaccinations pic.twitter.com/a7PrcZcPSh

— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 29, 2018

Cuban exodus leaves elderly behind

Yahoo – AFP, Carlos Batista, March 10, 2016

Elderly Cubans wait for help at La Milagrosa Grandparent House in Havana

(AFP Photo/Adalberto Roque)

Havana (AFP) - They have lived through dictatorship, the Cuban Revolution, the Missile Crisis, the Cold War, the near-starvation of the "special period" and rapprochement with the United States.

Now, many of Cuba's senior citizens are alone, left behind by an exodus of younger generations that has given the country a rapidly aging population.

"I'm 88 years old. My son doesn't send me anything. At first he sent a little money, but I don't even hear from him now," said Leocadia Aguila, whose son Valentin, a martial arts expert, left two years ago for the United States.

Leaning on her cane, the brown-skinned, white-haired former hospital janitor said she was scraping by with the help of the Catholic Church, which supplements her tiny pension from the state.

The average retiree in Cuba gets a pension of $10 a month.

Cuban emigration has resulted in abandoned elderly

 people and government-run retirement homes tend 

to be overcrowded and poorly maintained (AFP

Photo/Adalberto Roque)

To help impoverished seniors, the Church runs a charity called the "Grandparents' House" in Havana, where aging Cubans gather to talk, share their hardships, watch TV and play dominoes.

"My 'brothers' here are the only family I have," said 93-year-old Raimundo Aleman, who arrives at the center every morning at dawn to help out in the kitchen.

The retired delivery-truck driver's only close relatives are his three children in the US.

Politics drove the first major wave of Cuban migrants to the United States, after Fidel Castro's band of rebels overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

More recently, it is the communist island's economic woes that have sent younger Cubans abroad.

Cuba is doing better than during the economic crisis in the 1990s provoked by the collapse of the Soviet Union, its main benefactor -- the so-called "special period."

The economy grew a respectable four percent last year.

But tentative economic reforms by Castro's successor, his 84-year-old younger brother Raul, have so far failed to deliver the hoped-for results. This year, the government is forecasting just two-percent growth.

And the thaw with long-time enemy the United States has only accelerated the Cuban exodus.

Last year, 43,000 Cubans entered the US, a new record.

The restoration of US-Cuban ties after more than half a century of enmity has raised fears on the island that Washington will soon change its preferential policies on Cuban immigrants, which fast-track them for permanent residency.

Loneliness and poverty

"Today, emigration mainly involves the relatively young, from 20 to 45 years old," said demographer Alina Alonso.

Often, those who reach the US then bring over family members, but senior citizens are frequently left behind.

Today, 12.6 percent of Cuban households consist of just one person, a retiree.

The government runs some 150 retirement homes, but they tend to be overcrowded and poorly maintained.

Many would rather scrape by on their meager pensions and the money they get from the Church, which receives state funding and foreign donations to assist the elderly.

"They take good care of me here," said Maria Angelica Vidal, a 72-year-old former English teacher with a son in Haiti and grandson in the US.

At the Grandparents' House, she gets food, clothing, medical care and most importantly, affection.

Cuba, where nearly 20 percent of the populace is over 60, is on track to have the oldest population in Latin America by 2030. It is currently second only to Uruguay.

Castro, Pena Nieto seal warmer Cuba-Mexico ties

Yahoo – AFP, Leticia Pineda, November 6, 2015

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) and Cuban President Raul Castro shake

 hands during a joint press conference at the government palace in Merida, Yucatan

State, Mexico, on November 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

Mérida (Mexico) (AFP) - Cuban leader Raul Castro received a warm welcome in Mexico as President Enrique Pena Nieto sought to end a diplomatic chill and boost business opportunities on the island.

With the colonial Caribbean city of Merida serving as the backdrop, Castro was given red carpet treatment at the Yucatan state government palace for his first official visit to Mexico since taking power in 2006.

"Long live the indestructible brotherhood between the people of Cuba and Mexico," Castro said as he delivered a speech alongside Pena Nieto following a private meeting.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (L)

 speaks with Cuban President Raul Castro

at the government palace in Merida, in 

Yucatan state, Mexico on November 6,

2015 (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

For his part, Pena Nieto greeted Castro with an embrace and told him that "Mexico welcomes you with open arms."

The two governments signed five cooperation agreements in migration, education, diplomacy, fishing and tourism.

Both leaders made clear that the improved relations could lead to more investment opportunities for Mexican companies as the communist nation implements economic reforms.

"We committed both our governments to creating the conditions for Mexican businessmen and investors to invest in Cuba," Pena Nieto said.

Cuban migration surge

The diplomatic reconciliation between the United States and Cuba has raised the prospect of new business opportunities on the island, though the US embargo remains in place.

In May 2014, Mexico sent a business delegation to Havana representing 48 companies. It also opened a trade promotion office in Havana.

Mexico has several investment projects in Cuba's Mariel megaport.

"We are pleased by the interest that Mexican companies have in doing business and investing in Cuba, especially at the special development zone of Mariel and in sectors like agriculture and tourism," said Castro, who returns to Havana on Saturday.

In his bid to improve ties since taking office in 2012, Pena Nieto forgave 70 percent of Cuba's $487 million debt in 2013 and held a state visit in Havana a year later.

The US-Cuba rapprochement has had another effect for Mexico, as thousands of Cubans have been entering the country on their way to the United States.

A group of Cuban migrants arrive to the National Institute of Migrations in

Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico on November 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pep Companys)

The surge is driven by fears among Cubans that the US-Cuba detente will prompt Washington to stop giving them automatic visas when they step on US soil.

Mexican government figures show that nearly 6,500 Cubans were taken to migration centers in the first nine months of this year, three times more than in all of 2014.

Pena Nieto said the two governments signed an agreement to broaden legal tools to ensure a "legal, safe and orderly" flow of migrants between both countries, and combat human trafficking.

'Eat and leave'

Castro's visit sealed a warming of relations between two nations that have had close ties in past decades.

Pena Nieto feted him with a toast at lunch at a famous villa in Merida, where Castro, an 84-year-old great-grandfather, invoked his plans to retire on February 24, 2018.

"I won't be a great-great-grandfather... because Cubans will get bored of me," quipped Castro, adding that he would like to return to Merida after retirement because it was the first place he visited in Mexico 60 years ago.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) speaks with Cuban President Raul 

Castro at the government palace in Merida, in Yucatan state, Mexico on

November 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ronaldo Schemidt)

His brother Fidel had less brotherly relations with conservative Mexican governments that were in power from 2000 to 2012.

Ties were better when Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was in power for much of the 20th century.

The Castro brothers lived in exile in Mexico in the 1950s and sailed off from this country to launch their guerrilla revolution.

Mexico was the only Latin American nation to resist US pressure to break relations with Havana during the Cold War.

But relations turned sour under Vicente Fox's 2000-2006 presidency, which condemned Cuba at the UN Human Rights Council.

At a UN poverty summit in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey in 2002, Fox urged Fidel Castro to "eat and leave" early to avoid an awkward encounter with then-US president George W. Bush.

Japanese dancers find samba salvation in quake tragedy

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Wright, Yasuyoshi Chiba, 14 Feb 2015

Megumi Kodo (centre) from Kobe is set to perform as a solo dancer in Brazil's 

Carnival in Rio de Janeiro (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

When she sways to the sensual beat of samba, Megumi Kudo also heals the wounds in her mother's heart from a huge earthquake that shattered their home city in Japan 20 years ago.

This year's festive menu for the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro has special poignancy for the Kudos, with daughter Megumi set to perform as a "passista" dancer with the famed Salgueiro school this weekend, continuing a tradition that has now spanned two generations.

Megumi Kodo (centre) is set to perform with

 the famed Salgueiro school, continuing a

 tradition that has now spanned two 

generations (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Megumi's samba-teaching and costume-designing mother Taeko will watch proudly in Rio's packed sambadrome -- after the pair first dance together in a smaller group.

"I remember the day the earthquake struck. At our house, a door was damaged and would not open," Taeko reflected in a soft voice, recalling the January 17, 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake in the southern Japanese city of Kobe.

"A dark and sinking feeling just washed over me."

More than 6,000 people died in the temblor, which left a $100 million trail of damage. It was Japan's worst quake since the 1923 Great Kanto disaster that ravaged Tokyo.

Emotional void

As she sat sewing glittering beads and sequins onto one of her daughter's 15 Salgueiro costumes, Taeko, 54, recounted the emotional void that filled her after the disaster.

The former softball pitcher scanned a newspaper ad as she sought to channel her grief.

"It read, 'let's dance samba,'" Taeko told AFP.

Megumi Kudo at Imperio Serrano Samba

 School in Rio de Janeiro (AFP Photo/

Yasuyoshi Chiba)

"I knew nothing about samba, but from the first class, it was a lot of fun and I could forget my pain."

Months later, a 150-strong samba delegation came to Kobe from the dance's heartland, Rio de Janeiro. The two cities have had a twinning arrangement for nearly half a century.

"When I saw the Brazilian dancers, their natural moves and their joy it hit me: Samba is a really fun thing."

Her 29-year-old daughter Megumi caught the bug as her mother began offering samba classes and turning her hand to designing intricately-decorated outfits for dancers.

"Megumi asked me to let her visit Brazil and I let her go," Taeko said.

"When she returned, her dancing was powerful, the feeling coming from deep within."

'One of the family'

Since taking the plunge in 2005, Megumi, a trained careworker, has now made seven visits to Rio, even staying in a favela, or slum, the first time.

Megumi Kudo with the school's

choreographer Carlinhos before a lesson

at their school in Rio de Janeiro (AFP

Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

"I started at Kobe's Megu Samba Palace aged 10 as my mom sought to overcome her sadness after the quake," she said.

"I want to change people's appreciation of samba. It's not about showing off bare flesh but creating an artist."

In her home city, Megumi is a seven-time samba competition champion competing for a school called Feijao Preto, or black bean.

The homage to a Brazilian food staple being twirled in samba parades 19,000 kilometers (11,800 miles) away amuses her fellow dancers.

Although Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan, Megumi's fellow citizens are still a rare sight at samba parades.

"Samba is essentially black culture. I had to work so hard to gain their respect in the beginning," she said.

"I quickly sought out Carlinhos, Salgueiro's head choreographer. He is so talented and I asked to do a test."

Megumi Kudo (centre) with her mother
Taeko after a show in Rio de Janeiro
(AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

The diminutive Carlinhos recalls: "She was raw -- but she's got talent and merits her place."

Salgueiro president Regina Fernandes put it simply: "She's one of the family."

The Kudos rallied round last year when Megumi had her purse snatched and required treatment after her assailant knocked her to the ground, and she cut her head.

Taeko said some of her most rewarding experiences have come from entertaining residents at old people's homes.

"Sometimes, elderly people who usually just sit vacant will shed tears or even mark out time to a samba rhythm. It moves you," said Taeko.

"We want to show the passion of samba. Rather than just a hobby, people dedicate their life to it."

Related Articles:

Japan prepares to mark three years since devastating quake

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“... Japan

Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.

Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."

Nuclear Power Revealed

So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.

It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.

We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.

This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.

So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise.  …”

Mexico, Central America hail Obama immigration plan

Yahoo – AFP,  21 Nov 2014

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto delivers a speech in Beijing on

November 13, 2014

Mexico's president on Friday joined Central American leaders and Latino celebrities in applauding US President Barack Obama's landmark offer to shield millions of undocumented migrants from deportation.

"I wish to express our appreciation, as a country, to the president of the United States for his announcement," President Enrique Pena Nieto said at a gathering of justice officials in Mexico City.

"Speaking of justice, this is an act of justice that values the great contributions made by millions of Mexicans to the development of our neighboring country of North America," he said.

Mexican and Central American officials said they would provide information about the program to their citizens through their consulates in the United States.

Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, praised "the courage of the US executive, who decided to move forward toward a fair goal that did not deserve to be further postponed."

The measure shared the spotlight at the Latin Grammy Award ceremony in Las Vegas late Thursday.

"I don't think I have heard any US president speak so beautifully about our Latinos as Obama did," Colombian singer Carlos Vives said as he dedicated his award for best contemporary tropical album to the US leader.

Defying his Republican Party rivals, Obama announced Thursday that he would offer up to five million undocumented migrants protection from deportation.

The controversial overhaul provides three-year relief for those who have lived in the United States for more than five years and have children who are US citizens or legal residents.

The order will affect about 44 percent of more than 11 million people -- mostly from Mexico and Central America -- living in the United States illegally.

"We thank President Obama for his decision," Guatemalan President Otto Perez said late Thursday, shortly after the US leader's announcement.

El Salvador's foreign minister, Hugo Martinez, voiced "the satisfaction of President Salvador Sanchez Ceren's administration because many of our compatriots will have temporary relief regarding their migratory situation."

The Honduran government said the move was "a great step in the right direction by the United States to resolve the migratory problem of 11 million people."

Central American migrant rights groups also welcomed the move.

"While they are temporary, these are actions for which we have fought for years," Cesar Rios, director of the Salvadoran Migrant Institute, told AFP.