If only the Evil people would do this

AOKIGAHARA FOREST, Japan (CNN) -- Aokigahara Forest is known for two things in Japan: breathtaking views of Mount Fuji and suicides. Also called the Sea of Trees, this destination for the desperate is a place where the suicidal disappear, often never to be found in the dense forest.


Japan's Aokigahara Forest is known as the "suicide forest" because people often go there to take their own lives.

Taro, a 46-year-old man fired from his job at an iron manufacturing company, hoped to fade into the blackness. "My will to live disappeared," said Taro. "I'd lost my identity, so I didn't want to live on this earth. That's why I went there."

Taro, who did not want to be identified fully, was swimming in debt and had been evicted from his company apartment. He lost financial control, which he believes to be the foundation of any stable life, he said. "You need money to survive. If you have a girlfriend, you need money. If you want to get married, you need it for your life. Money is always necessary for your life."

Taro bought a one-way ticket to the forest, west of Tokyo, Japan. When he got there, he slashed his wrists, though the cut wasn't enough to kill him quickly.

He started to wander, he said. He collapsed after days and lay in the bushes, nearly dead from dehydration, starvation and frostbite. He would lose his toes on his right foot from the frostbite. But he didn't lose his life, because a hiker stumbled upon his nearly dead body and raised the alarm. Watch report on "suicide forest" »

Taro's story is just one of hundreds logged at Aokigahara Forest every year, a place known throughout Japan as the "suicide forest." The area is home to the highest number of suicides in the entire country.

Japan's suicide rate, already one of the world's highest, has increased with the recent economic downturn.

There were 2,645 suicides recorded in January 2009, a 15 percent increase from the 2,305 for January 2008, according to the Japanese government.

The Japanese government said suicide rates are a priority and pledged to cut the number of suicides by more than 20 percent by 2016. It plans to improve suicide awareness in schools and workplaces. But officials fear the toll will rise with unemployment and bankruptcies, matching suicide spikes in earlier tough economic times.

"Unemployment is leading to this," said Toyoki Yoshida, a suicide and credit counselor.

"Society and the government need to establish immediate countermeasures to prevent suicides. There should be more places where they can come and seek help."

Yoshida and his fellow volunteer, Norio Sawaguchi, posted signs in Aokigahara Forest urging suicidal visitors to call their organization, a credit counseling service. Both men say Japanese society too often turns a cold shoulder to the unemployed and bankrupt, and breeds a culture where suicide is still seen as an honorable option.

Local authorities, saying they are the last resort to stop people from killing themselves in the forest, have posted security cameras at the entrances of the forest.

The goal, said Imasa Watanabe of the Yamanashi Prefectural Government is to track the people who walk into the forest. Watanabe fears more suicidal visitors will arrive in the coming weeks.

"Especially in March, the end of the fiscal year, more suicidal people will come here because of the bad economy," he said. "It's my dream to stop suicides in this forest, but to be honest, it would be difficult to prevent all the cases here."


One year after his suicide attempt, Taro is volunteering with the credit counseling agency that helped him get back on his feet. He's still living in a shelter and looking for a job. He's ashamed, he said, that he still thinks about suicide.

"I try not to think about it, but I can't say never. For now, the will to live is stronger."
By Kyung Lah
CNN

As much as they change they remain the same

Such a terrible uproar Could this be a call to return to the Monarchy.

By James Mackenzie James Mackenzie – Thu Mar 19, 9:39 am ETPARIS (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people across France Thursday began protests expected to draw at least a million demonstrators to the streets to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis.By James Mackenzie James Mackenzie – Thu Mar 19, 9:39 am ETPARIS (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people across France Thursday began protests expected to draw at least a million demonstrators to the streets to denounce President Nicolas Sarkozy's handling of the economic crisis.

The protests, which polls show are backed by three quarters of the French public, reflect growing disillusionment with Sarkozy's pledges of reform.

The crisis has sent the number of jobless past two million and left many people struggling with the high cost of living.

Transport, energy and some government offices were all affected as workers went off the job, although there was no general shutdown of the economy. Most businesses and public services functioned at close to normal levels.

Around 200 marches and rallies are planned to follow an earlier day of protest on January 29, when up to 2.5 million people took part. There has also been a spate of smaller demonstrations against factory closures and job cuts.

"They (the protesters) have a profound sense of social injustice, and that, I think, is something that neither the government nor the employers have understood," said Jean-Claude Mailly, head of the large Force Ouvriere union.

Sarkozy, battling to contain a budget deficit that has ballooned dramatically as the state pours billions of euros into bailing out banks and carmakers, has refused to contemplate union demands for pay hikes or better job protection.

But a series of disputes, ranging from strikes by university staff to unruly protests by workers at a tire plant in northern France, have underlined a worsening climate of discontent that the government fears could escalate. The tire plant workers pelted managers with eggs at the protest this week.

SERVICES HIT, THOUSANDS MARCH

The main rally in Paris was due to start at 1300 GMT (2 p.m. local time) and run until around 2000 GMT. Demonstrations in provincial cities earlier showed a generally strong turnout.

"According to the information we have on the demonstrations from this morning, there are more demonstrators than there were on January 29 and more stoppages in the private sector," said Bernard Thibault, head of the powerful CGT union.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 people marched in the northern city of Rouen, organizers said, while in the port city of Le Havre, unions said 35,000 people took part in protests. Police put the number in Le Havre at only 10,000.

High speed TGV intercity trains and suburban rail services in Paris and a number of provincial cities, including Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg, were heavily affected, although most Paris metro services were running close to normal.

Energy workers also cut off 10,000 megawatts of French electricity production capacity overnight, including 14 percent of nuclear capacity in 11 different plants, the CGT union said.

The unions have presented a long list of demands, including a boost for the lower salaried, more measures to protect employment, a tax hike for high earners and a halt to job cuts planned in the public sector.

The government has introduced a 26 billion euro ($36 billion) stimulus plan aimed at business investment, and after the January 29 strike Sarkozy offered 2.65 billion euros of additional aid to help vulnerable households weather the storm.

With its large public sector and generous welfare system, France is better placed than many to ride out the economic storm, but it is nonetheless taking a hit, with many analysts predicting the economy will contract by 2 percent this year and unemployment will jump 25 percent to almost 10 percent.

($1 = 0.73 euros)

Call me Gready

Truth be told, I hope we do open up Cuba think of all the beach property waiting for development.


(CNN) -- The $410 billion budget President Obama signed Wednesday will make it easier for U.S. residents to travel to Cuba and to send money to family members on the island. It also could facilitate the sale of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba.


The residents of Havana, Cuba, often rely on bicycle taxis for transportation.

Three provisions attached to the omnibus spending bill loosened restrictions enacted by then-President George W. Bush after he came to office in 2001.

Analysts see the move as a way for the new Obama administration to start thawing relations with Cuba one month before the Fifth Summit of the Americas brings together the U.S. president and 33 other leaders from the Western Hemisphere in Trinidad and Tobago.

"[Cuba] is the issue of greatest symbolic importance," said Peter Hakim, president of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue policy institute. "It will be seen as a test of real U.S. readiness to change in the hemisphere. What he says about Cuba will make headlines."

Hakim testified about Latin American policy Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Cuba and the United States have had a troubled relationship since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The United States broke off diplomatic relations in 1961 and imposed a trade embargo in 1962. Bush tightened some of those restrictions in recent years, most notably limiting travel to the island to once every three years for a limit of 14 days.

Under the new provisions, relatives will be able to go once a year and stay for an unlimited time. In addition, the definition of relatives has been broadened to include uncles, aunts, nephews and nieces. The new measures also increase the amount of money visitors can spend.


Lugar says Cuban embargo is ineffective
Otto Reich, who served presidents Reagan and both Bushes in a number of high-level Latin American posts, also testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Reich and Hakim have different perspectives on how far Obama should go on improving relations with Cuba, but they agree that attaching the latest measures to the spending bill was the wrong way to do it.

"It's important to open up Cuba, but it should be done systematically," Hakim told CNN. "This is very important for the Cuban American community. It ought to be done with them at the table. If they're not involved, they're going to push back."

Initial opposition from two Democratic senators with large Cuban American communities in their states put the spending bill in jeopardy. Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Bob Menendez of New Jersey voted for the budget Tuesday after receiving personal letters from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner assuring them that the new provisions will not alter U.S. policy.

Reich said he did not like the Cuba provisions in the budget because the United States gets nothing in return.

"I'm opposed to it because of the way it was done," he said. "There's a way it can be done to advance the conditions of the people in Cuba. I don't approve of the unilateral way it's being done. The embargo is a negotiating tool. We should not negotiate with ourselves, and that's what we're doing."

Hakim warns that too much should not be read into the new measures, saying, "The fact is that this is very minor."

Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, said in a policy statement Wednesday that the new provision "suffers from being too little and too late."

Similar measures have been attached to previous spending bills in the past eight years but Bush threatened to veto the legislation, so the language was scrapped.

Senators Nelson and Menendez were most concerned with the provision that allows cash advance sales of agricultural and pharmaceutical products to Cuba.

Before Bush, "cash advance" used to mean that money would have to be paid as soon as the goods reached Cuba. But the Bush Administration said "cash advance" had to mean money was sent before the cargo was loaded on ships in the United States for Cuba. The language in the new spending bill reverts the meaning to the previous "cash-on-delivery" method favored by U.S. farmers and exporters.

Some members of Congress also were concerned the new provisions would allow credit sales, which would poke major holes in the economic embargo. But Geithner's letters to Nelson and Menendez assured them this would not happen.

He did tell the senators, though, the Obama administration is reviewing its policies toward Cuba.

Jesus is anoyed by Mormons

Mormon church says bishop acting alone in civil union fight

(Chicago, Illinois) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says that an Illinois bishop was acting alone in sending an e-mail to members of his ward urging them to oppose a civil union bill before the state legislators.

Send / ShareAdd CommentBut the Utah-based denomination has not ruled out becoming involved in the issue in the future.

The e-mail, sent to at least one LDS ward in Illinois, was authorized by Bishop Chris Church of the Nauvoo, Illinois, 3rd Ward, and was sent out by that website’s ward administrator.

It urges members of the church to call their local legislators and tell them to oppose the bill. The e-mail claims that civil unions would “empower the public schools to begin teaching this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests otherwise.” It goes on to also claim that “it will also create grounds for rewriting all social mores.”

The e-mail raised the concerns of national LGBT civil rights groups. The Mormon Church was instrumental in the passage of anti-gay measures in a number of states.

It was heavily involved in the Proposition 8 campaign in California, a voter-based initiative that prohibits same-sex marriage in that state, a similar constitutional amendment in Arizona and the defeat this year of a package of LGBT rights bills in Utah called the Common Ground Initiative.

The e-mail prompted the Human Rights Campaign to issue an alert to its members.

“It is irrefutably clear that the LDS Church is fighting an anti-gay crusade throughout the nation, targeting any form of equality for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community,” said Bruce Bastian, a member of the board of the Human Rights Campaign and former member of the LDS Church. “Church leaders want nothing more than to do their hateful work in secrecy, but the time has come to shine a light on their insidious efforts. If the LDS Church won’t tell the truth, we will.”

But Thursday, the LDS Church’s National Public Affairs Office said the e-mail was not part of a coordinated effort by the Mormon Church but an isolated act. Still, it did not rule out future involvement if the civil union bill appears to gain support in the legislature.

“As is widely known, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of traditional marriage,” the LDS statement said.

“The Church has not taken a position on any legislation currently being considered by the Illinois State Legislature. The Church did not send an e-mail to its members in regards to House Bill 2234, although a false report to the contrary has been circulated. An e-mail was sent from a local Illinois church leader to his congregation — one of 129 congregations in the state — who was free to express his own views.”
gay365.com

KARMA

Despite what we all thought this hateful new monied heffer is rumored to have a heart.
CNN) -- Former first lady Barbara Bush underwent heart surgery Wednesday at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN.


Former first lady Barbara Bush had heart surgery Wednesday in Houston, Texas.

Jean Becker, chief of staff for former President George H.W. Bush, said that Barbara Bush, 83, was "fine" following the surgery.

"In fact, she is awake," Becker said.

"We, of course, naively wanted to keep it quiet -- Mrs. Bush did," Becker said Wednesday night. "She thought there was too much fuss the last time."

Wednesday's surgery was not related to surgery she had in November for a perforated ulcer.

Her husband is with her in the hospital, where she is expected to remain for seven to 10 days.

"I am very impressed with and grateful to the wonderful team of doctors and nurses at The Methodist Hospital who have helped Barbara," the former president said. "We have every confidence she is in the best hands."

The open-heart surgery was taken as a precautionary step after she experienced shortness of breath last week and doctors found hardening on one part of her aorta, according to a statement released by the hospital.

Dr. Gerald Lawrie performed the 2 1/2 hour surgery, replacing her aortic valve with a biologic valve, the hospital said.

"This is a very common aging change," Lawrie told CNN's "Larry King Live."

"It's estimated as many as 10 percent of people over 70 need this type of surgery. It's basically a wear-and-tear that leads to calcium deposits."