PEOPLE POWER

This is intended to be a positive thread focusing on current examples of humanity waking up and fighting the different elements of the ptb or ptw (powers that were) en masse.

Of course humanity gathering together to overthrow the power-mongers in various countries or protest their decisions on a world-wide level (eg the rallies held at Climate Change summits) have been going on for some time now. We've had the Russian Revolution, Gandhi's work in India, Martin Luther King, Corazon Aquina in the Philippines, etc all of which have had a major impact on our world. The phenomenon seems to be gathering steam of late as people in many countries are gathering together to protest and overthrow those in power who have been abusing their position to the detriment of the general public...the 'sheeple' as some define them.

This year 'People Power' appears to be becoming viral as one country's victory inspires others to stand up and fight for their rights, not only in the Middle East. There Tunisia seems to have inspired the Egyptians, leading to others in the area mounting their own protests. (The CIA (or whomever) may be massaging them in doing so, but the people are still out there joining in.) There have also been large protests in England, Denmark, that State in the US (can't remember which one) and others.

To me, the phenomenon appears to be gathering steam all over the world where oppression by the ptb/w has become obvious to many more than may be being given credit currently, and I'm hoping this thread will prove that to be so with lots of new addtions. Please add any you become aware of here.

I'm starting with a video about a rally that's to be held on April 5th 2011 in NY protesting the current government, Wall Street, military elites, etc.

Syrian government bows to people power



Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 30/03/2011

Reporter:

Syria's prime minister and his cabinet have been forced to stand aside amid ongoing anti-government protests.
Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has addressed the nation in an attempt to quell weeks of unrest.

In the speech he vowed to defeat the plot against his country, but is also expected to announce a number of reforms. The lifting of emergency rule, which has been in place since 1963, is anticipated to be among them.

Earlier the prime minister and his cabinet quit and hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Damascus.

At least 60 people have died in the anti-Government demonstrations.

Protest rally in Delhi against Saudi intervention in Bahrain
Monday, 28 March 2011


New Delhi: University students held demonstration in front of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in New Delhi today, in solidarity with Arab uprising, and against Saudi brutal invasion in Bahrain on Friday. The protest was organized under the banner of Indian People's Solidarity with Arab Uprising

“We hail the people's upsurge against US/Saudi puppet dictatorships in Bahrain. The Hamad AL Khalifa’s dictatorial regime is facing an unprecedented challenge from the people of Bahrain and we condemn such type of regimes,” said one of the protesters from JNU.

“This is a historic moment, and all progressive and democratic voices across the world join the protesters in solidarity with not just Bahrain, but several other countries like Libya, Yemen and Saudi Arabia where people are now revolting against anti-people puppet regimes supported by the US,” said Saira Mujtaba, a student of MCRC Jamia Millia Islamia.

After protest a delegation of the students met Saudi officials and submitted their resolution demanding complete withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain and Yemen.

It is to be noted that the Hamad AL Khalifa regime, which has consistently been backed by the US, Israel and Saudi Arab, is facing an unprecedented challenge from the people of Bahrain. People are braving tear gas, water cannons, rubber bullets and truncheons every single day. The regime has also tried to quell the movement by shutting down internet services, a key organizing tool of the protests.

Students, activists of different socio political parties and intellectuals participated in the demonstration.

http://www.siasat.com/english/news/protest-rally-delhi-against-saudi-intervention-bahrain

London, England -- 26th March 2011

TUC protest march: police charge 149 demonstrators
Police have charged 149 people with various offences in connection with the disorder which followed the peaceful protest by hundreds of thousands of people against the Government's spending cuts.

Read more here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8410545/TUC-protest-march-police-charge-149-demonstrators.html

Iraq--1st April, 2011

35 hurt in clashes at north Iraq protest rally


AFP - Thirty-five people, most of them policemen, were injured on Friday in clashes during protests against the two main Kurdish parties in Sulaimaniyah in northern Iraq, hospital sources said.

Some 4,000 people gathered in Tahrir Square in the centre of the town, some 270 kilometres (173 miles) north of Baghdad, after Friday Muslim prayers.

Witnesses told AFP some people in the crowd began throwing stones at police, who responded with batons.

An official at the emergency room at Sulaimaniyah hospital said 35 people were hurt, and that nearly all were policemen.

The injured included at least one protester and a journalist working for a media outlet linked to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), witnesses and security sources said.

Sulaimaniyah has since February 17 been the scene of near-daily demonstrations by thousands of people criticising the stranglehold on the region's politics of the two main Kurdish parties, the PUK and Massud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

The protesters also denounced corruption and called for the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of three young protesters killed in clashes with security forces and KDP guards in February.

Link: http://www.france24.com/en/20110401-35-hurt-clashes-north-iraq-protest-rally

Yemen--ongoing

More than 400 people have been injured after police fired live rounds and used teargas on protesters attempting to march to a presidential palace in Yemen's Red Sea city of Hudaida, according to doctors.

The violence broke out at a march scheduled to take place at 2am local time (11pm GMT) in protest against a security crackdown on rallies in Taiz, south of the capital, that killed two and wounded hundreds on Sunday.

A few thousand demonstrators were said to have taken part in the march, local residents told Reuters.

Protests inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have brought President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule to the verge of collapse. But the president called on Sunday for an end to the violence, signalling he has no intention of resigning.

"They suddenly gathered around the province's administrative building and headed to the presidential palace, but police stopped them by firing gunshots in the air and using teargas. I saw a lot of plain-clothes police attack them too," a witness told Reuters by phone.

Doctors at a local hospital said nine people had gunshot wounds, 350 suffered from teargas inhalation, and around 50 had been wounded by plain-clothes police hurling rocks.

The presidential palace in Hudaida is one of several homes kept by Saleh, 68, around the country. He was most likely at the presidential palace in capital Sanaa on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, at least two people died and hundreds were hurt when police tried to break up protests in Taiz, the site of some of the largest and angriest protests against the president's rule, and where doctors said they had treated hundreds suffering from tear gas inhalation.

Protesters have been camping out in main squares throughout Yemen for weeks and have been coming under regular attack. Saleh's top security official in Taiz, Abdullah Qiran, is accused by demonstrators of orchestrating some of the most brutal crackdowns.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/04/yemen-police-protest-wounded-hudaida

Thank you dear SiriArc.

You've been reading my mind again. This sums it up......

.. all is an apparent contradiction that the earth and the cosmos was supposed to have been created by a loving God and yet what we call Nature is a bloody battle-ground in which one animal's survival is dependent on another's, often grotesque, demise.

....is the main question I've asked myself my whole life, depressing me deeply for many, many years. And it's come back to haunt me over the past few days. The question that plagues me specifically is, "How IS one supposed to live on this planet without eating other life forms to survive, whether it be animal or vegetable??? Are our 3D bodies equipped to just take in life force from the ethers?? Or manifest the nourishment we need?? It makes sense to me that if we feed off other life forms there are life forms that feed off us. I worked that one out years ago. I just couldn't figure out what those life forms are, until the past few years.

And yet you say "The "someone" noted above is a shortsighted, lunatic, drug addict - A minor creator god that is currently in the process of being Healed and restored to pre Distortion Self." And the excepts from Don Juan speak off a method to be free of these dark beings. Are those two things going to resolve this issue?

You also said, "What works is Symbiosis and Empathy (Which is the Natural Realm of "loosh")" and, recalling your vision, is the aim to heal the 'sick one' through symbiosis and empathy? That I can relate to also. Interesting, I was told through inspired writing years ago that my task in this life was to go into the dark realms to heal one or those who needed the healing most ie that's where they reside. You've really got me thinking now haha.

In Sanicle's PM

Relayed Here

Keys

For Others To See:

Dear SiriArc, you've been reading my mind again. This sums it up......

all is an apparent contradiction that the earth and the cosmos was supposed to have been created by a loving God and yet what we call Nature is a bloody battle-ground in which one animal's survival is dependent on another's, often grotesque, demise.

....is the main question I've asked myself my whole life, depressing me deeply for many, many years. And it's come back to haunt me over the past few days. The question that plagues me specifically is, "How IS one supposed to live on this planet without eating other life forms to survive, whether it be animal or vegetable??? Are our 3D bodies equipped to just take in life force from the ethers?? Or manifest the nourishment we need?? It makes sense to me that if we feed off other life forms there are life forms that feed off us. I worked that one out years ago. I just couldn't figure out what those life forms are, until the past few years.

And yet you say "The "someone" noted above is a shortsighted, lunatic, drug addict - A minor creator god that is currently in the process of being Healed and restored to pre Distortion Self." And the excepts from Don Juan speak off a method to be free of these dark beings. Are those things going to resolve this issue?

Forgive my questions. As I said, these questions have risen from the core of my being my whole life causing me to just not want to be here at all and never return. And you, dear Soul, seem to be so far ahead of me in figuring these things out. But if you don't answer, I'll understand that as well. Maybe it is better if I go within to find these answers for myself. I really just wanted you to know how well you read me and to show my appreciation of your care once again.

SA Reply (PM)

Sanicle

Your Essence Questions Are KEY.

If Not Already On Your Thread,

Let's Address Them There.

"And you, dear Soul, seem to be so far ahead of me in figuring these things out."

Nope.

You Are Catalyzing

SYNERGY

As The Transducer YOU Truly Are.

Regardless The Seeming,

WE Are In Lock-Step

Achieving What WE Came To Do.

OK, more study. Thanks SiriArc.

To those following this thread for People Power articles, this isn't one of those, although I guess it comes down to the same thing on a personal level.

OK SiriArc, I've read everything you've pointed me towards and I'm grateful that you did. Your input has been very consolidating for me, as I'm sure it is for others. The influx of information grows year by year, answering a lot of the 'whys' and 'hows' that have driven me (the monkey me) from as early as I can remember. And what all of those answers have basically resulted in is a truer sense of knowing where I stand, which has brought me a sense of inner peace and harmony. A clearer mind naturally enables me to focus my energies on the world around me to a greater extent and in a much more positive way. And I believe that is needed from all of us. As you say..


Just for the record, I'll also tell you how I've come to relate to all I've learned which has given me this sense of peace...the 'why' of it, as basically as I can.

As we all know, the greatest opponent of peace is fear. All negative experiences grow out of that, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Doubt, anger, insecurity, hatred, sickness, all of them. To counter fear we fall into all the ego traps of control, manipulation, retaliation etc to 'protect' ourselves from those we fear, who are, in reality only a 'threat' to the ego self. We also do it to 'protect' the egos of our loved ones (although that often comes out of our own ego needs yet again. When our loved ones are happy, we can be happy also.) And yes, behaving that way is conditioned into us from day one. This behaviour pattern over lifetimes keeps us centred in our ego mind, away from Source, and creates karma, thus reincarnation. The only way out of that treadmill is to overcome ego fears, including unconscious ones we may still unknowingly hold, and settle karmic debts, which can be as simple as agreeing to disagree and letting go. We learn to become discerning rather than judgemental and afraid, allowing others to learn in their own time in their own way, remembering that they have a Higher Self to guide them much more effectively than we can.

Then we can focus on the bigger picture, the area of the Higher Self's expertise. With It's help we find our answers to life's bigger mysteries. And this is where we come to what you have been talking to me about. The way I see it, at that level there are only two 'fears' left to deal with...death and the primary manipulators. Call them Gods/the Matrix/reptilians/the Illuminati/shadow beings...it really doesn't matter to me anymore as the pattern of their methods and their aim seems to be much the same. If one doesn't fear death and knows their method, one doesn't fear them anymore either. Death is merely one way out of the matrix. The other is transmutation to the fifth dimension. I'll take either, but preferably the latter.

What I've learned from you, among other things, is specifically how the 'negs' trigger the monkey mind and why they can. I'm learning to recognize when this happens and knowing who is encouraging that and why is immensely helpful. Learning about the M-band was also helpful. That explains a lot about why I live my life the way I do and have. Also how to encapsulate the lesson, which you do so elegantly, although I guess it doesn't look that way with this long post lol.

So all that's left to do is to deepen the connection with the Higher Self/Selves and so grow into Loving All...even the poor, deluded predators who need it the most... and try to encourage others to do the same. Also to love with as little personal/ego attachment as possible. The latter is the tricky bit as, I believe, personal attachment to loved ones who are not 'with us' will only bring us back here again.

So, as you say again, dear SiriArc.....

“It’s Not About Fixing, It’s About Change”

“When YOU Heal YOURSELF
There Is More Health In The World
Not Just One More Healthy Person
More Health In The World”

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Riyadh, April 05: Over a hundred people have gathered outside the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Civil Services as anti-regime protests gain momentum in the Middle East powerhouse.

Saudi demonstrators have been calling for political freedoms and an end to sectarian discrimination by the country's Wahhabi monarchy.

On March 25, hundreds of anti-government protesters hit the streets in the city of Qatif and surrounding villages in eastern Saudi Arabia, demanding the immediate release of what they called forgotten political prisoners.

The protesters said the prisoners were being held without trial, some as long as 16 years.

Link: http://www.siasat.com/english/news/saudis-stage-protest-rally-riyadh

India -- 70 days

After cornering the government in Parliament over corruption, BJP has said it would take the fight to the streets starting from Wednesday with marches, marathons, plays and agitations at block, district and state levels against graft in UPA regime. "BJP will commence its nationwide Jan Sangharsh agitation against corruption, price rise, black money and ongoing scams in UPA government from April 6," BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

He claimed it would be an aggressive and effective programme against the Congress-led government.

"The whole country is seething with anger at the corruption in this government. BJP will hold rallies in rural areas across the country to increase awareness among people about the various scams. In urban areas, at the district level marathons and street plays would be organised to expose the corruption-friendly attitude of the Congress," Naqvi said.

The principal opposition is launching its campaign on April 6 which is the foundation day of party as well as the day on which Jai Prakash Narayan began his famous agitation against corruption.

Incidentally, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa-who is facing charges of nepotism and land-grab to favour his sons-will also be a part of these agitations.

BJP is roping in all its senior leaders in the agitation.

The 70-day agitation will, however, exclude the five poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry till the elections gets over.

Link: http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/BJP-to-take-fight-against-corruption-to-the-streets/Article1-681812.aspx

In the media..

This is a link to a site run to make people aware of all the 'wrongs' in, not only Oregon US, but all over the world, inviting people to join them in organized protests.

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/region/global/

It is linked to another website who define themselves as being..
Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. They have links worldwide.

http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml

Australia

We just received this email from the Australian Conservation Society, dedicated to protecting the environment here in Australia.


Dear Kaye,

Well done. When Melburnians turned out a couple of weeks ago, 8000 strong, to support a price on pollution, you dwarfed an anti-action rally of just 300 people.

Now your example is spreading all around the nation. After you set the tone, our positive rallies outnumbered the sceptics and polluters’ rallies in Perth, Port Macquarie, and Sydney. Brisbane will, we hope, achieve the same thing next Saturday.

To see how Sydney followed your lead, and the impact you had on the national news, check out this video:

http://support.acfonline.org.au/PricePollution

Thank you to all the groups and individuals who made this happen, and CONGRATULATIONS. You proved that ordinary Australians who support a price on pollution will stand up and be counted. For all the relentless vitriol from climate sceptics, online and on the airwaves, relatively few of them actually turned out in our communities.

We’ve done well, but we know our opponents are well resourced. They have media muscle and money for ads. Remember the campaign against the mining super profits tax? (By companies who are AGAIN making record profits.) Big polluting companies will spend tens of millions of dollars to keep their ability to pollute for free.

If we want to cut pollution and make clean energy cheaper, we’ll need to take this fight all the way. The next six months are crucial and this time we need your financial support. Please donate to ACF’s price on pollution campaign, and together we can:

Work with our allies to create an advertising campaign to counter the scare-mongering
Help organise more positive rallies and events around Australia
Train selected supporters as climate leaders and advocates
Use the power of social media to spread our message peer to peer

Some media commentators said the sceptic rallies were full of older people, while our crowd was youthful, but there was something that touched me deeply at our Melbourne rally -- it was the grandmothers holding signs with pictures of their grandchildren. What more can I say.

Watch this amazing video of the rallies, and let’s keep working together.

http://support.acfonline.org.au/PricePollution


If anyone is wondering, no, I didn't attend. I'm hoping a better way will arise to deal with those who steal Mother Earth's resources ie clean energy. And with all the earth changes ......

Sanicle wrote:

.. all is an apparent contradiction that the earth and the cosmos was supposed to have been created by a loving God and yet what we call Nature is a bloody battle-ground in which one animal's survival is dependent on another's, often grotesque, demise.

....is the main question I've asked myself my whole life, depressing me deeply for many, many years. And it's come back to haunt me over the past few days. The question that plagues me specifically is, "How IS one supposed to live on this planet without eating other life forms to survive, whether it be animal or vegetable??? Are our 3D bodies equipped to just take in life force from the ethers?? Or manifest the nourishment we need?? It makes sense to me that if we feed off other life forms there are life forms that feed off us. I worked that one out years ago. I just couldn't figure out what those life forms are, until the past few years.

And yet you say "The "someone" noted above is a shortsighted, lunatic, drug addict - A minor creator god that is currently in the process of being Healed and restored to pre Distortion Self." And the excepts from Don Juan speak off a method to be free of these dark beings. Are those two things going to resolve this issue?

From living as the body to living from the Soul

Breatharians

This is a state of man (breatharian, inediate, non-eater) characterized (among other things) by the absence of eating, resulting from (or rather being a stage on the way to) expanding of the Consciousness sphere in which a person lives. In general an ideal (fully realized) inediate, breatharian, non-eater has no need to eat or drink to keep the body working perfectly. A breatharian consumes no food and no drink, he/she needs only air to nourish the body.

Permanent non-eating, inedia or breatharianism are states which usually appear as a side effect of expanding one's sphere of the Consciousness. However there are also many cases that this state happened unexpectedly and lasted for months or years.

Ubiquitous energy, whether called prana, qi, ki, orgon, liquid light or by other names, maintains the organism of someone who doesn't eat. A human body can be powered by prana if the subconscious (which manages the body metabolism and shapes the physical body) acquires the skill of automatic transformation of ubiquitous prana to satisfy the needs of a human body.

http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t1395-breatharians?highlight=breatharians



Love from me
mudra

Thank you again SiriArc. I realized when I went to bed last night how important it is to have conscious knowledge of how humanity came to be in the sad state it has been in for so long in order to better help, not just myself but, others to open up their hearts too. And to know the weakness of the predators within that. Your posts have helped me to not just believe that but to know that from so many different angles and I'm deeply grateful. Hopes from long ago have become proof in that energy follows thought.

I'm placing the main quotes from you that have consolidated this most clearly for me here as quick reference.

IT IS(IS) Done.

The “current now“ Is A Reflection (Recapitulation) By The Butterfly ON (AN) what Transpired.

They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now.

Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear.

Know that YOU are a High Magician sent by Love to Heal this distortion.
YOUR Powers are beginning to come on line - NOW.
As YOU complete what YOU came to do, this time-line dissolves and ends.
Wisdom, which is so Precious, is retained and OUR Journey as
The Explorer Race continues.

I'm also including this here which I found from you on my latest venture into the Noble Realms area you directed me towards as balance is so very important. I'm hoping others will see this here and try it also.

The Holon of Balance

From the Hathor Message of February 3, 2007

We suggest you experiment with this; play with this, and master
this very simple geometry. Carry it with you in your conscious
awareness at all times so that you may create it at will, as
needed, both for yourself and those you are connected to.

It is called a Holon, and the specific one we refer to is the
Octahedron, or the Holon of Balance. Imagine yourself surrounded
by a pyramid of light that extends above you and a matching
pyramid below you. These are square-based pyramids, one pointing
up, and one pointing down. You are in the center of this. If you
are lying down, you are on the square, where the two halves of
pyramids touch, and the pyramid above you matches the pyramid
below you. You make this as large or as small as you wish, so long
as you are completely enclosed within it.

If you are standing or sitting, the axis of the octahedron
extends through the center of your body, so that if you were to
draw a line through the apex of the pyramid through the center
down to the apex of the opposite pyramid, this line would pass
through the center of your body. This octahedron balances energy.
It is the balancing of the male and female aspect of consciousness.
Do not let its simplicity fool you. It is a powerful tool for
balancing subtle energies.

The sharing of your wisdom is such a blessing SiriArc, as is the love I feel when you send your messages.

mudra wrote:

Sanicle wrote:

.. all is an apparent contradiction that the earth and the cosmos was supposed to have been created by a loving God and yet what we call Nature is a bloody battle-ground in which one animal's survival is dependent on another's, often grotesque, demise.

....is the main question I've asked myself my whole life, depressing me deeply for many, many years. And it's come back to haunt me over the past few days. The question that plagues me specifically is, "How IS one supposed to live on this planet without eating other life forms to survive, whether it be animal or vegetable??? Are our 3D bodies equipped to just take in life force from the ethers?? Or manifest the nourishment we need?? It makes sense to me that if we feed off other life forms there are life forms that feed off us. I worked that one out years ago. I just couldn't figure out what those life forms are, until the past few years.

And yet you say "The "someone" noted above is a shortsighted, lunatic, drug addict - A minor creator god that is currently in the process of being Healed and restored to pre Distortion Self." And the excepts from Don Juan speak off a method to be free of these dark beings. Are those two things going to resolve this issue?

From living as the body to living from the Soul

Breatharians

This is a state of man (breatharian, inediate, non-eater) characterized (among other things) by the absence of eating, resulting from (or rather being a stage on the way to) expanding of the Consciousness sphere in which a person lives. In general an ideal (fully realized) inediate, breatharian, non-eater has no need to eat or drink to keep the body working perfectly. A breatharian consumes no food and no drink, he/she needs only air to nourish the body.

Permanent non-eating, inedia or breatharianism are states which usually appear as a side effect of expanding one's sphere of the Consciousness. However there are also many cases that this state happened unexpectedly and lasted for months or years.

Ubiquitous energy, whether called prana, qi, ki, orgon, liquid light or by other names, maintains the organism of someone who doesn't eat. A human body can be powered by prana if the subconscious (which manages the body metabolism and shapes the physical body) acquires the skill of automatic transformation of ubiquitous prana to satisfy the needs of a human body.

http://www.themistsofavalon.net/t1395-breatharians?highlight=breatharians



Love from me
mudra

Wow Mudra! So it IS possible in the 3D body!! That is absolutely brilliant news. Thank you so much for pointing me to this thread.

Update: OK, have downloaded the pdf and now I'm off to watch the videos.

Sanicle wrote:
Wow Mudra! So it IS possible in the 3D body!! That is absolutely brilliant news. Thank you so much for pointing me to this thread.

Singularity Power Sanicle



Love for You



mudra

Mexico-6th April 2011

Thousands Protest Mexico Violence

Thousands of protesters marched in various Mexican cities yesterday, demanding the government crack down on the nation's mounting crime. Mexico has been rocked by kidnappings and murders connected to drug-trafficking gangs and corrupt police, with an estimated 12,000 drug-related deaths so far this year, reports the Los Angeles Times. "We don't want promises—we want security," said a march organizer.

For the full story behind the protest read this...
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.692381365d745fc505df40c97673c9ec.991&show_article=1

Update on Bahrain

Bahrain: Still fighting for change

n March 9, 2011, Al Jazeera English broadcast an episode of People & Power profiling the February 14th Youth Movement protesting at Bahrain's Pearl Roundabout.

Since then everyone who was interviewed on the programme has either been arrested or is in hiding. We are receiving messages detailing how they are moving from house to house to avoid capture and texts saying "help us, help us".
Sayed Ahmed al-Wedaie says he was attacked by police

Al Jazeera's team had met Sayed Ahmed al-Wedaie on Pearl Roundabout a month ago. He was excited about the prospect of democratic change and keen to explain what had brought him out to protest.

He had already suffered at the hands - or rather, boots - of the police.

He told us he was attacked while sleeping at the roundabout and that the police kicked and hit him.

"At least 10 policemen attacked me and continued hitting, hitting. I was bleeding, I was tasting my own blood. The only thing that stopped them was that I pretended I was completely dead," he said.

After appearing on the programme al-Wedaie was arrested while driving near the airport on March 15. For three days no-one knew what had happened to him. When his parents eventually saw him at a police station on March 18, his face was a mess of bruises and he could barely walk. He told them that police had had to take him to hospital after beating him so badly on his first day in custody.

He had already foreseen what was likely to happen to him for speaking out. In the programme he said: "We are going to be destroyed by all means. They'll target us one by one, one by one. Whoever appeared on camera, standing brave enough to tell the world 'we don't want this regime ...' will be a target in the future. I think it will be really dangerous."

There has been no charge against al-Wedaie. The police originally threatened to charge him with murder but now, his brother says, he may be taken to a military court to answer charges of having an ornamental knife in the borrowed car he was driving when he was arrested - a charge that could see him serve three years in prison.

State of emergency

The Bahraini government has arrested more than 300 opponents of the regime since the imposition of the state of emergency on March 15. But they do not want the wider world knowing about this.

On March 28, the military public prosecutor imposed a media gag, banning "any publishing, through print, audio, video and online media, based on the requirements of discretion and commitment to the principle of confidential investigation" - in line, it says, with the state of emergency.

On Wednesday, March 30, masked men in seven police cars descended on the home of Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights defender in Bahrain, when he was being interviewed by a CNN crew. They were all detained; the CNN crew was kept for four hours.
Bahrain had stopped production of its main opposition newspaper Al-Wasat [Reuters]

And on Saturday the only independent newspaper in Bahrain, Al-Wasat, was instructed by the Information Affairs Authority (IAA) not to publish its Sunday edition.

A Bahrain TV programme accused Al-Wasat of maliciously publishing misleading information which directly and deliberately posed a real threat to the kingdom's security and stability.

After the programme, publication of the newspaper was suspended and its officials were referred for investigation.

Al-Wasat is a rare mouthpiece for independent and opposition views. It had come under physical attack before and was struggling to keep getting the paper out.

Editor Mansoor al-Jamri had been threatened many times. On Sunday, he and the managing editor resigned in an attempt to save the paper. Al-Wasat came out today with a new editor and managing editor, but people on the ground say it is already clear that it is not the same paper it was before.

A leading journalist in the country said that newspapers and TV in Bahrain are controlled by the ruling family and the IAA is not under parliamentary supervision but reports directly to the king. It has close associations with the National Security Agency, whose deputy head is now head of the IAA. "The Bahrain News Agency (BNA) and the IAA are an integral part of the National Security Agency. News agencies like Al Jazeera are not tolerated and those who speak to them are deemed terrorists and traitors," the journalist said.

From the start of the protests in February the government made it difficult for foreign journalists to get visas for themselves and their equipment to enter Bahrain. One journalist who is currently in Manama and did not want to be named, said it is almost impossible to move around with a camera as the town has many checkpoints and drivers are scared to take them.

He described how some key places are particularly protected from prying eyes. At Salmaniya Hospital, for example, which has been the scene of state security brutality against medical staff and abduction of patients and which is still ringed with security forces, it is impossible to film. The roofs of buildings surrounding the hospital have been closed off and residents living there have been warned not to let journalists enter. Similar constraints have been placed on hotels where journalists are staying.

Meanwhile the clampdown continues, increasingly un-covered by the media. The Bahrain Human Rights Council reports that 370 people have been arrested since the imposition of the emergency law on March 15. Seventeen of the estimated 24 people who have been killed since the protests started, have died since March 15.

So-called citizen journalists are continuing to expose the brutality meted out against unarmed Bahraini youth.

Sayed Ahmed al-Wedaie understands what happens when no-one is watching. Now there is media present in the country, but later there will be no-one to see and report what goes on behind bars.

Link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/04/20114511175261498.html

Belfast, Ireland

Ronan Kerr murder: 1,000 people at protest rally


According to police estimates, 1,000 people have attended a peace rally at the City Hall in Belfast in response to the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr.

The 25-year-old officer was killed in a car bomb in Omagh on Saturday.

The Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions put the figure for those who attended the rally as much higher.

A lone piper played a lament at city hall and trade union leaders addressed the crowd.

Pamela Dooley, vice chair of the Northern Ireland committee of the union, said the new recruit was a fine public servant.

"He understood the risk he was taking to build a fairer, more just and equal society. He was prepared to take that risk and paid a terrible price for his courage," she said.

She added that everybody needed to work together without fear of intimidation, violence or death.

"Here today, in Ronan Kerr's name, we pledge to strive for a society where the hurt of the past is given proper expression through truth and justice and to build a future where no-one, especially our new generations, will ever again believe that violence has any place in building that future."

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12980135

Update on Syria

Witness says 13 protesters killed in Syria

BEIRUT – Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on thousands of protesters in the southern city of Daraa, killing at least 13 people, wounding hundreds and forcing residents to turn mosques into makeshift hospitals, witnesses said.

The government acknowledged violence in Daraa, but said only two people died at the hands of armed thugs.

One witness said he helped ferry the dead and wounded to the city's hospital, where he counted 13 corpses.

"My clothes are soaked with blood," he said by telephone from Daraa, adding that he was among thousands of people at the protest and he witnessed security forces shooting live ammunition.

Like most activists and witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press, he requested anonymity for fear of reprisals..................

...............Assad has made a series of concessions to quell the violence, including sacking his Cabinet and firing two governors.

On Thursday, he granted citizenship to thousands of Kurds, fulfilling a decades-old demand of the country's long-ostracized minority. But the protest Friday in Amouda — a Kurdish city — suggested the population still was not satisfied.

An activist in Douma, a Damascus suburb where at least eight people were killed during protests last Friday, said he was expecting a large turnout Friday. Hundreds of activists and residents have met this week to prepare for the demonstration.

But telephone lines to Douma appeared to be cut Friday. Activists in Damascus, quoting people who came from Douma, said thousands of people were demonstrating outside the suburb's Grand Mosque.

Despite the regime's gestures, many Syrian activists remain skeptical about the regime's concessions.

"All these decisions are cosmetic, they do not touch the core of the problem," Haitham al-Maleh, a leading opposition figure, told the AP on Thursday.

Al-Maleh, an 80-year-old lawyer and longtime rights activist who spent several years in jail, said the protests that began in Syria will "continue to snowball until real changes are made."

He said Syria must take steps including: lifting the state of emergency, which has been in place since 1963 and gives the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge; allow the formation of political parties; and allow free elections.

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110408/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

India - April 14

Protest Rally against Jan Lokpal Bill on April 14

Arguing that the very concept behind the proposed Jan Lokpal Bill goes against the constitution, a city based group has organised a protest rally on April 14, the birth Anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

"The Bill is against democracy and gives all rights of investigation, prosecution and punishment to the Lokpal. We are opposing the concept as it is against the Constitution of India," Raju Kuthavad, member of 'Sanvidhan Bachao Manch' said.

A rally by the group would start from August Kranti Maidan in the morning and will end at Chaitya Bhumi at Dadar.

"The Lokpal would be the ultimate authority if the Bill is passed. He would be above Parliament and the Judiciary which challenges the basics of democracy," he said.

Link: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/protest-rally-against-jan-lokpal-bill-on-april-14/774697/