Message to The People

 

My dear brothers and sisters of Haiti, I’m very, very happy and honored to set my foot on the soil, the sacred soil, of Haiti. Black people all over the world owe Haiti a debt of gratitude, for you produced the first free Black Republic in the world.

The reason you suffer is because The Enemy knows that what you did in 1804 can be done again. So, from France, from England, from America: No matter what they say, they do not want to see Haiti rise again.

Advertisement

The reason that we are here is because as the Bible teaches, “My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge”—it is not because of the blackness of our skin, but it is because we lack the knowledge of self that will free our minds from the domination of The Enemy.

Who are you, Haiti? Why are we Black? The Enemy taught us that we are Black because we are “cursed by God”; to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for other people! But we are not Black because we’re “cursed,” we are Black because we are The Original People of this Earth!

As the Bible teaches, “First there was darkness, and then came light,” then first there was Black, and then came White. You are the Alpha and the Omega of the scriptures! We didn’t come to this great island nation seeking “freedom.” Our fathers were brought here in the holds of ships to be made slaves to Western powers.

They never did intend for us to ever come out from under their domination, so when the French had the slaves, they took away our African names, they took away our African language, they took away our African culture; and they imposed on us their language, their culture, their religion to make us worship them as though they were God.

To the east of Haiti is the Dominican Republic… It was Black Haitians under Toussaint Louverture, under Jean-Jacque Dessalines, under Henri Cristophe that freed this whole island, West and East.

But the Spanish, who have always been battling with the French, took that side of the island and made the people to speak Spanish, gave them Spanish names, gave them Spanish culture; and made that side hate this side!

My parents came from the British West Indies—so now, we speak “English,” we have “English” names; we have “English” culture, but the one thing The Enemy gave us all was his religion. There’s nothing wrong with “Jesus Christ,” but there’s something wrong with those who use his good name to do evil things in his name!

My dear brothers and sisters of Haiti, I know that you know much, and I can feel your pain, but the one thing that I can assure you is that we are living at the end of White Supremacy.

Soon Haiti will be free! Soon, and very soon, The Enemy will be removed from power not only over your lives here, but he will be removed from power over the people of our planet! So what is your and my responsibility in an hour like this?

Ayiti Toma! (Haiti) —This is your land! Everything under this land is your rightful possession! But The Enemy wants to own your wealth. There once was a time when we fed ourselves; we were the masters of agriculture, so we all had rice.

Now, we are not producing the same rice that we once produced, so it’s coming from former President Bill Clinton’s state of Arkansas. We once had lots of chicken; but now, chicken is coming from Tyson’s Foods in Arkansas… What are they bringing into Haiti in the food?

May I humbly say to you, dear brothers and sisters: A man named Zbigniew Brzezinski recently was talking to the Foreign Relations Committee, and here’s what he said: “In the past it was easier to control a million people than to kill a million people. But now it is easier to kill a million people than to control a million people.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

The anger that’s in the masses of the people is directed at those in authority. But what we don’t see is that Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad—all of the islands of the Caribbean have borrowed money from the International Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

So when we borrow their money to help develop our land, they put conditions on the loan that are destined to rob the people of their wealth; so Haiti is in debt, Jamaica is in debt, Trinidad is in debt—Africa is in debt! And debt is another form of slavery!

We have to break the chains that keep us from enjoying the good life. My brothers were angry because it is wrong that a few of us can enjoy a good life, while the masses of our people are suffering.

But here’s what I saw when my feet touched the soil of Haiti: I saw a strong and resilient Black people! I saw you by the side of the road with your businesses, trying to sell products so you could feed yourself and your family. I saw strong Black women…

And I say to you, Haiti: No nation can rise any higher than its women! If your woman is down, you and I are down; if your woman is up, we are up! For when you teach a man, you teach an individual, but when you teach a woman, you teach a nation!

It is your time now to rule where you live! It is your time now to rise up, Haiti, and come into unity among yourselves for that is the power that will free you from foreign aggression and oppression!

Those of you who are the people of vodou (voodoo): In America, they want us to believe that vodou is “evil,” that vodou is “satanic”; and they want you to believe the same! But if it were not for vodou there would not be a free Black Republic in the world.

It was vodou—and Boukman, a Muslim—that started the Revolution that gave us Toussaint, that gave us Dessalines, that gave us Cristophe, that gave us Liberty!

But where is Toussaint now? Where is Dessalines now? Where is Cristophe now? Where is Boukman now? I’m looking at Toussaint! I’m looking at Cristophe! I’m looking at François Makandal! I’m looking at Dessalines! They are in you! So rise up Haiti! Take back your land!

Take back your heritage! And protect your woman, because The Enemy likes to have “sport” with our women. We must not let The Enemy think that our women are free for them! God gave you and me the Black woman, and she has produced our life!

In my conclusion, the Bible teaches that Jesus said, “In the end there will be wars and rumors of wars; nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in diverse places;

There will be famine and pestilence. But this is just the beginning of sorrows.” We lost 250,000 Haitians in the earthquake of January 12, 2010; behind us is the National Palace, with the dome fallen in.

The “dome” is your head, and when your head is absent of knowledge, your dome falls in. So to the leadership in Haiti: The people can’t take much more. Jesus said:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep”—we need leaders who are willing to live for the people. And when we as leaders can’t help it, willing to die on behalf of the people!

Leaders of Haiti: Do not let foreigners tempt you with money to betray your people and this nation! Soon, the money will be worthless… In fact, America is printing dollars that have no backing (fiat currency), so if we will betray one another for “dollars” or “francs,” or “euros,” we have sold our soul to the devil!

Haiti, I am so happy to be with you. I hope that you will get the messages that I left with government, the messages I left with the press, the messages I left with those in leadership. But most importantly: You are the people that can make leadership accountable for their promises.

So as I leave you, although my heart and my spirit will never leave you, by stating: Ayiti toma–This is your land! Everything on it is yours! Everything under it is yours! And when your mind is free from the chains of ignorance and self-hatred, then we will free the land!

We will feed ourselves again! We will grow the cotton, turn it into lint and cloth, and clothe ourselves again! We will take the wood from the trees, and remove the tents and build houses for the people of Haiti to live in!

This is not going to come from outside, it’s going to come from you and those who love you that will help you to rise to your destiny.

I want to thank Wyclef Jean, who is my friend and a fellow musician, who came back to Haiti to be with his brother. And I thank him for what he wants to do in his heart for the Haitian people. But he needs the unity of Haiti, that his voice may speak to the forces that want to crush Haiti! We can’t do it by ourselves, but we can do it together.

May God bless Haiti! May God guide Haiti! May God grant Haiti wisdom and power, that the next 10 years will see Haiti rise from the ashes of an earthquake, and then lead the whole world as you did in 1804.

R-ONE - SING

Cry for Justice

I am a student of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. The Qur’an says “every nation has received a messenger”—and my beloved Muslim family believes that the final messenger is Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. But when Prophet Muhammad came, the Western world had not been discovered, America had not been founded, slavery had not begun, and the Native American people, who are the owners of this country, had not met an enemy that deprived them and us of life, liberty and the pursuit of their happiness. America is in need of a divine messenger and a warner from God. America is in need of someone to help her to keep her from a destructive fall. Advertisement A criminal nation (America) and the current condition, a people kidnapped, enslaved and robbed The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Inside America is a people that did not ask to come here; a people that were brought out of their native land and people, and brought on a westerly course. And here we are, the Black man and woman in North America: What is our condition? A people robbed and spoiled. … Nearly 50 million of us who do not know our origin in the world, 50 million of us are ill-acquainted with our own history so that today they are “kind enough” to give us a month to study a History that is older than the Sun, Moon and Stars. Slavery is a crime! Then America is a criminal. Kidnapping is a crime! Then America is a criminal. Robbery is a crime! Then America is a criminal to bring us from our native land and people, and rob us of a connection to our native land and people. You have Irish here; they have a connection. You have Italians here, you have Greeks—everybody has a connection. Ours was cut off. That’s a crime. Black man and woman: You don’t wear the names of your parents. We wear the names of our former slave masters and their children. That’s a crime. Other people can speak words of their native language or mother tongue, but for us, “mother” gone, “father” gone; “motherless child” sees a hard time. That’s a crime. “Slavery”: Selling another human being like a piece of property; then, if we disobeyed master, to be beaten, to be burned at the stake, to be castrated. All of these horrible things have happened to us as a people. To my dear Christian family: We have to consider that for 300 years they never taught us to read. The Bible was a locked book, and any White person of decency that tried to teach us to read was severely punished; and so, in the 1700s, they thought it not incompatible to have us as “slaves,” and then to make us “Christians.” I submit to you that we were never made Christians to bring us closer to Jesus, because if we were as close to Jesus as we could be, as we should be—as we must be—we would never be in the condition that we are. And the church would never be an instrument of disunity rather than an instrument of unity of all the Christian family. Nobody changed our condition, so God, as He did in the past, intervened in our affairs and in America’s affairs. And His pattern is the same: He doesn’t run to the ruler to choose a messenger. He doesn’t go to the college to choose a messenger. He goes among the oppressed, the poor, the weak, the disadvantaged, and out of them He chooses a man and feeds that man the truth that will deliver his people and the truth that will warn the government that has mistreated his people, that perhaps they might listen and avoid utter and complete destruction. So we believe that The One Who was to come has indeed come, called in your Bible “The Son of Man,” Who would come out of The East, for as the scripture teaches in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 24, verse 27: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” He would come: Habakkuk the prophet saw Him coming! Isaiah the prophet saw Him coming! Moses saw Him coming; Jesus talked about His coming! “As it was,” Matthew 24:37 teaches, “in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Is it like that today? What was it like in the “days of Noah”? The scripture teaches in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 6, verse 5 that “every imagination of the peoples’ hearts was to do evil.” How about America today? A robbery every 15 seconds? A murder every 30 seconds? Murder, robbery, rape and racist killing, and our own fratricidal conflict killing one another: This doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus. It doesn’t have anything to do with Prophet Muhammad. I know my president, Brother Barack Obama, was trying to keep away from saying “Islamic terrorism”; and today, I want to help my brother—I want to talk about the root of “terror.” And I have a word to say to you, brothers and sisters, about “terrorism” and the universal cry that is intensifying in the people for justice. I hate the division that is manifested in the world today, particularly in the world of Islam, where we are witnessing the killing of Christians because they are Christians, the killing of Jews because they are Jews, and those who kill Muslims simply because we are Muslims. I would like to say those things that unite us, to say the things to make us see each other as a “family,” and to say those things that will demonstrate to the world that God has raised a light in the midst of the darkness of America that shines back towards The East where all the prophets came. The “light of the prophets” has gone out in The East, and it is now alive and well in The West. Today I’m going to weave all the scriptures together, and in that process weave us together as a beautiful garment of many colors like Joseph’s coat, that you may see where we fit, and why the universal cry that is intensifying for justice has called God out of His hiding place. ‘The Day of Judgment’ in which we now live The Al-Fatihah, which is to the Muslims like “The Lord’s Prayer” is to our Christian family: Elijah Muhammad would say this prayer, “In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. All praise belongs to Allah, The Beneficent, the Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment”—but he added something—“in which we now live.” That’s where I’m going today; because for religious scholars and leaders to think that The Day of Judgment is “afar off”: You’re in it right now. And that’s why if you watch the weather, the meteorologists can’t get it right. That’s why there’s trouble all over the Earth, because we are at the end of the time of this world. Dear pastors, pay attention: The Bible teaches “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I cannot allow you to think that God loves this world, because if you think that way you’ll want to stay in it; you’ll see yourself as desirous of being a part of it. My poor brother president: He’ll never be able to bring peace, no matter how sincere his heart is. I’m so sorry that he wanted to be Pharaoh in the time of the end of Pharaoh. I’m so sorry that he wanted to be Pharaoh when God has come to put an end to that “Egypt” which old Egypt was a sign of. God did not love this world. He declared its destruction the day of its inception. He gave this world six days. … And to my Seventh Day Adventist family: In “the seventh day,” God would come. And you, Black man and woman: You think so little of yourself. Though you sing the song “What He Did for Others He Can Do for Us”—but He hadn’t done it yet; and you have rejected the gift of life that He wishes to give to you because you are so in love with your former slave masters, and their children. You want to be a part of this. Wrong. The scripture teaches, “Come out of her, My people. Babylon has fallen and has become a habitation of devils.” Do you really think you’re a saint? Let’s discuss this, because if we are “saints” then God helps righteousness. What is a “devil”? A rebel against God and His way; and not only one who is a transgressor, but leads others into transgression. Brothers and sisters, I just want you to pay attention to my words; if “the seat gets a little hot,” I’m not after you, I’m after what’s sitting up inside you that makes you an enemy of God and an enemy of yourself. … If you fear, you won’t live to see justice. If you are a scared-to-death people, you are scared of the power of the enemy because you’re not acquainted with The Power of God. “God so loved the world”: When you use the definite article, you’re talking about that world that is “the example of worlds,” and is why this world will not last! God so loved the world that was in His Mind, that He gave His only begotten son to bring that world into existence because this one is perishing—and if you love this world, you will go down with it as it’s going! That is why you have to be told the truth that will set you free. Free of what? Free of your oppressor. Free of the tyranny of those who terrorize you. Free of that fear that makes you into a “little boy” in the face of your enemy, when God wants to make you a man. ‘The Cry of the Human Family in Demand of Justice’: With 100 percent dissatisfaction, what power will bring about 100 percent change? God’s world is in need of a truth that will set up a government where everybody can live in peace under real freedom, real justice, and real equality. Christian family: You pray for it every Sunday, and even through the week! You don’t pray for “this world,” but you say “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” “The Will of God” is not being done today in any country, including the holiest places of Christianity and Islam, and Judaism; so we can go from Jerusalem to Mecca, to Medinah, to Rome—to wherever you think is a “holy place,” it has been defiled. And those of us who think that we are “holy” because we like to put on robes, and strut like peacocks in front of the ignorant as though we are “holy”: You have never been holy. Even if you tried, you haven’t made it. So let us disabuse ourselves of the arrogance of self-righteousness, and the hypocrisy of it. “There is none righteous, no not one.” (That’s what the Book says.) If this were God’s world, there wouldn’t be 100 percent dissatisfaction. Trouble is breaking out in all the countries, and America, “the land of the free”—and the home of the slave, as well as “the brave”: There’s trouble in Ferguson, trouble in St. Louis, trouble in Chicago, trouble in New York, trouble everywhere you look. Because “justice” is not where we look; it’s injustice that is the order of the day. Seven billion people on our planet are upset, angry, dissatisfied with those who lead and govern their lives and the institutions that have been put into place by various governments to govern lives of the people of the Earth. This intense cry for justice demands The Presence of God—and we find Him in The Great Mahdi (or Mahadiah, or “Guide that is Self-Guided”). The poor Muslim world, trying to get back to the pristine purity of the faith of Muhammad: You haven’t made it, have you? And you won’t make it because you are not guided right. That’s why God sent a Guide; because we’ve lost the way. Christians: You’ve lost the path of Jesus; in fact, most of you never knew his path. You know his name, you know something about his goodness, his beauty as a human being, and you love to praise him in song, in dance, and in preaching, but our hearts are far removed from living the life that he wanted us to live. So what good is it to know the name of a great one, to talk about him, and then deny him in our actions? Every nation on Earth now: If you listen to the politics of each nation, they’re running on a theme, or a plan, about “change” to satisfy the dissatisfied elements. But no change can satisfy the demand of the Human Family for justice. No change orchestrated by those presently in power could ever satisfy the cry of the people. You know why? Because this cry is not a cry that comes out of some petty hurt or pain; it’s not a cry to “fix the unions,” it’s not a cry to “straighten out the politics,” it’s not a cry to “get the mosque right or the church right”—it’s so much deeper than that. The change that will satisfy the cry of humanity can only come not from any present ruler, but from God Himself. No institution that presently exists can satisfy the cry of the people; no government—and no religious order. Again, no religious order can satisfy the cry that is coming up out of the people in your own order, much less the order of someone else. And you know why? Because what is demanded out of the very Nature of God, and the nature and order of His creation that is inside the nature of the people, that has been stirred, now, by the cry for justice: There’s something in you that is crying out, and it cannot be met in the political arena, or the voting booth. Now, you can vote for whoever you want for mayor. But it is an exercise in futility; because you are never going to get what you think you might get if you put “the right man” in office. I don’t care what his color is—he can’t fix it because he doesn’t know enough to solve the problems. The problems are too complex, and the cry continues to get stronger and stronger. … The people are crying out for The Kingdom of God to be established on the Earth. This is why God says through the Book of Revelation, “There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will pass away.” That not only means there will be a new sun, a new moon, new stars; that is in the works now, but we will never live to see it for it’s billions of years in the future. But The God with perfect knowledge is dissatisfied even with what we think is already “perfect,” so there will be a new sun, a new moon, a new star—but that is not what the scripture is talking about. A “new heaven” means a new spiritual order, and a new political order governed by the spiritual order that will bring human beings together. Not on the basis of color of skin, or ethnicity or biology, but on the basis of our desire to do that which is right.

Indigenous community wins

Cut down trees lie near the limit of the Cordillera Azul National Park, Peru’s Amazon, on Oct. 3, 2022. Photo: AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File An Indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon is celebrating a legal victory in the latest stage of its attempt to take back claimed ancestral rainforests. The Puerto Franco community of the Kichwa tribe say their territory was stolen to form the Cordillera Azul National Park in 2001. Companies such as Shell and TotalEnergies spent tens of millions of dollars on carbon credits in the park to counter emissions from their fossil fuel operations. The Kichwas got next to nothing and were left in hunger, despite a 2022 Associated Press investigation finding that it was almost certainly their ancestral territory, by the terms of a convention Peru signed decades ago. The community celebrated a dramatic legal victory last year, when provincial Judge Simona del Socorro Torres Sánchez ruled that creating the park without their consent had violated their rights. Authorities were ordered to grant them legal ownership and proceeds from the carbon credit sales. Advertisement But that was quickly overturned by an appeals court in a move that some legal experts called questionable. Judge Sánchez has now ruled once again in the Kichwas’ favor, however, making a new order that the Kichwas should get their land back and benefit from the carbon credit sales. She found the Kichwas were Indigenous, and their territorial rights counted for more than the amount of time that’s passed. The Peruvian government and a nonprofit which runs the park, CIMA, have argued that too much time has passed for the Kichwas to make a claim, and that they are not truly Indigenous people. Peruvian authorities have also argued in legal filings that the community didn’t object to the park’s creation in 2001. Kichwa leader Inocente Sangama said he was “outraged” at the claim they were not Indigenous people. “Who said an Indigenous person cannot wear clothes?” “The justice system has proved us right,” he said. “We feel pride and happiness.” The AP emailed the Peruvian government but did not immediately receive a reply. Jorge Aliaga Arauco, a director at CIMA, said by email that they would appeal the decision and were on solid evidential ground. The nonprofit says proceeds from the carbon credit project help protect the ancient rainforest, one of Peru’s most pristine and biodiverse environments. The case may be moving towards a conclusion. Juan Carlos Díaz, a constitutional lawyer at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told the AP that the ruling could be appealed before a superior court. If the Kichwas win there, the decision would be final, he said. Should the Kichwas lose, they would have one last right of appeal, to a Constitutional Court in Lima, but the government doesn’t have that last recourse. (AP)

Israeli Power Station in Hadera

Yemeni armed forces have claimed responsibility for an operation against a power station located on the Mediterranean coast in the Israeli-occupied territories, in retaliation for the Tel Aviv regime’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced in a televised statement on Sunday that Yemeni missile units targeted the Orot Rabin power station in Hadera, with a Palestine-2 hypersonic ballistic missile. Saree added that the retaliatory strike attained its desired objectives successfully. He noted that the Yemeni nation, its leadership, and its armed forces will continue to fulfill their religious, moral, and humanitarian obligations towards oppressed Palestinians. Saree underscored that Yemeni military operations in support of Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza will continue unabated as long as the ongoing aggression on the impoverished coastal territory persists and the siege is not lifted. A member of the Supreme Political Council of Yemen also issued a warning to Saudi Arabia whose forces targeted a border region on Thursday evening, killing a Yemeni civilian and an African refugee. “Our people have the experience and readiness to confront any escalation of tensions that aim to distract people from the issue of Palestine,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi said. “We tell Saudi Arabia that the de-escalation was a golden opportunity to review the wrong assessments that previously got you into trouble,” he said, referring to years of war between the two sides. “You thought that Yemen would fall in two weeks, and today every other mistake will fail and the Yemeni people will win,” he added. In March 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a war on Yemen in collaboration with its Arab allies and the support of the US and some Western countries to reinstall a Riyadh-friendly regime and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement. The Saudi-led coalition, however, achieved none of the objectives and remained bogged down in Yemen for years in the face of stiff resistance by its nation and armed forces. Yemenis have been carrying out high-intensity and high-precision military operations against vessels linked to the Israeli regime in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean. They also carried out long-range missile strikes deep inside the occupied Palestinian territories, including Tel Aviv. Yemen’s arsenal includes long-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones capable of hitting targets up to 2,000 kilometers away, which has been on full display in recent months and weeks. The domestically manufactured missiles have repeatedly penetrated Israel’s much-hyped military systems. In recent weeks, Yemen has notably intensified its pro-Palestinian strikes on Israeli military targets within the occupied territories, employing advanced hypersonic ballistic missiles. In an attempt to halt these pro-Palestinian operations and in support of the Israeli genocide, the US and UK have conducted indiscriminate aerial attacks on the Arab country. However, despite months of heavy airstrikes, Yemeni forces have remained undeterred and continue to target Israeli-linked vessels in regional waters. These attacks have also prompted Yemen to retaliate by targeting West’s military assets stationed off its coastline. The Yemeni armed forces have said they will not stop their attacks until Israel’s ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end. Israel has killed at least 45,717 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured another 108,856 individuals in Gaza since the onset of the war.

Monday to Friday

 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends Israel Hayom's security conference in Jerusalem, December 1, 2024

(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the rescheduling of the days on which the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange will operate – to Monday to Friday instead of Sunday to Thursday.

Friday’s trading will end at 2 p.m. to account for Shabbat.

The previous trading was from Sunday to Thursday. Friday's trading, however, will end at 2 p.m. so that Shabbat will still be observed.

Smotrich visited the TASE on Monday. According to Ynet, his representative said the switching of the trading days was to “adapt the Israeli economic market to international standards.”

Ittai Ben-Zeev, TASE’s CEO, hosted Smotrich during his visit.

Finance Minister and Head of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, December 9, 2024 (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Change to happen in over a year

Maariv reported that the change was expected to take effect in early 2026. It added that the move received broad support from both local and international market players.

According to the publication, many of them emphasized the advantages of the move.

They said, for example, that it would improve accessibility for global investors – because adapting trading days to global standards would allow foreign investors to operate more easily in the local market.

Increased contribution to more accurate pricing and improved market efficiency were more reasons listed in favor of the change.

Supporters also said the revised schedule could increase the chance of future integration of Israeli securities into leading world indices, as this will allow for an integration into international stock market indices.

“During the longest war in the country’s history, the stock exchange demonstrated impressive resilience, strength, and growth,” Ben-Zeev said.

“The move to the Monday to Friday trading days is an opportunity to leverage its advantages in the global financial arena,” he added.

“Adapting the exchange’s activities to the world will open a window for broader international investments, strengthen the attractiveness of Israeli companies, and accelerate the growth of the local capital market," Ben-Zeev said.

First Wave Energy Power Plant

 

Floaters off the breakwater at Jaffa Port.

(photo credit: Eco Wave Power)

Israel's first sea wave energy power plant will launch in Jaffa Port next Thursday to help the country address climate change and transition to renewable energy.

The project was jointly developed by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, the municipal development company 'Atarim,' Eco Wave Power, and EDF Renewables Israel.

This will be a pilot station for generating electricity from sea waves, and will aim to combine multiple areas, such as innovation, sustainability, and the challenges of climate change.

The municipality said that supporting innovative technologies to reduce emissions is a key part of the city’s environmental and sustainability initiatives.

The Energy and Infrastructure Ministry recognized the project as a "pioneering technology."

Inna Braverman, Co-Founder & CEO, Eco Wave Power Ltd. (credit: Courtesy)

Eco Wave Power

Eco Wave Power explains the technology behind the project, which "connects floaters to existing marine structures like breakwaters and piers. These floaters rise and fall with the waves, powering a hydraulic motor and generator located onshore. The system includes smart controls that lift the floaters out of the water during storms to prevent damage."

The company is currently building several other similar stations across the world, including Los Angeles and Porto.

The project is led by Eco Wave Power founder and CEO Inna Braverman, who graduated from the “Women for Climate” program, one of the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality's environmental and sustainability initiatives.

In the program, "selected women receive professional guidance and tools to lead innovative projects that advance urban sustainability and tackle climate change."

High-Tech Sector

 

Tech CEO

Leumitech, the high-tech banking arm of Bank Leumi, and IVC, a provider of data, quantitative research, and business information, have published preliminary data from the IVC-LeumiTech Israeli Tech Review report for the fourth quarter and 2024.

Advertisement

According to the report, capital raised in 2024 amounted to approximately $9.58 billion, reflecting an increase of 38% in funding volume. In addition, total funding raised in Q4 surged by approximately 60% compared to Q4 of 2023, with a 44% rise in the number of deals.  

Mega-rounds (over $100 million each) accounted for 48% of the total funds flowing into the local tech sector this year. Even excluding these rounds, 2024 shows growth compared to the previous year.  The report also revealed that the cybersecurity sector stood out in 2024, with total fundraising in the field representing 38% of the year’s total.

We see that there are companies that already know how to translate the technologies that were born - or tried in - the war into actual deals, along with the adoption of innovative work methods that were often born as a result of these challenging times.

These give high-tech an excellent starting point for the coming year. The reduction in the interest rate in the US also gives a tailwind to Israeli high-tech, which is greatly affected by macro conditions, and we expect that 2025 will continue this trend.”

Ben Klein, CEO of IVC: “No matter how we looked at the data, 2024 ended with a clear growth trend in Israeli high-tech. The challenges facing the local industry are well known, but it seems that high-tech is succeeding in coping and continuing to be the growth engine of the Israeli economy.”

Decipher Ancient Texts

 In October 2023, an email arrived on papyrologist Federica Nicolardi’s phone with an image that would transform her research forever, according to Nature. The image showed a fragment of a papyrus scroll that had been burnt in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The latest results revealed a strip of papyrus packed with neat Greek lettering, glowing bright against a darker background. “It was incredible. I thought, ‘So this is really happening’,” said Nicolardi, according to a report by Nature. She knew right then that papyrology would never be the same.

The breakthrough was part of the Vesuvius Challenge, a project that utilized artificial intelligence (AI) to decipher ancient texts that had remained unreadable for centuries. Brent Seales, a computer scientist at the University of Kentucky, and his colleagues tackled the task of reading the Herculaneum scrolls, which could not be seen at all, utilizing neural networks to detect ink patterns on the fragile scrolls, according to gadgets360.com. The Herculaneum scrolls were part of a cache of papyrus rolls buried and carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which wiped out the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 CE. The scrolls were discovered in the remains of a luxury Roman villa in Herculaneum in the eighteenth century, as reported by National Geographic.

In the spring of 2023, a college student named Luke Farritor, now 22, found himself riveted by a podcast as he drove to his SpaceX internship in Starbase, Texas, according to National Geographic. The podcast hosts were describing a competition with the goal of reading a 2,000-year-old scroll without physically unrolling it. “A lot of things about it were really compelling, the biggest one being that you're going to potentially discover a new library from the ancient world, and that's a big deal,” stated Farritor, according to a report by National Geographic. While focusing on space travel in his day job, Farritor, a computer science major, devoted his nights and weekends to the Vesuvius Challenge.

Contestants in the Vesuvius Challenge had to develop their own programs to interpret existing 3D scans of the coiled scroll, with the virtual-unwrapping step being the bottleneck currently limiting the data they had to work with, as reported by Nature. The main challenge in reading the Herculaneum scrolls was to virtually flatten the documents and distinguish the black ink from the charred remains to make the Greek and Latin writings legible, requiring the charting of subtle physical variations to detect writing on the charred material, according to Mundo Deportivo. The scribes of Herculaneum used carbon-based ink, invisible in scans because it had the same density as the papyrus, as noted by Nature.

In February 2024, a grand prize was awarded: computer science students Youssef Nader, Luke Farritor, and Julian Schilliger received $700,000 for producing 16 columns of clearly readable text, as reported by Nature. The winning team used a TimeSformer model, a variant of the transformer model usually used for videos. They relied on this neural network to reveal text attributed to an ancient Greek philosophical work. “We will have 400 columns of Greek text to read,” said Nicolardi, noting the challenge for papyrologists in managing the volume of text produced, as reported by Nature.

Scholars who study ancient societies oscillate between enthusiasm and doubt regarding the use of artificial intelligence to translate documents written thousands of years ago, according to Folha de Sao Paulo. There is no doubt that the technology can already do a lot and will advance enormously. The debate has focused on the technical potential of AI and whether it can substitute human work.

Researchers are using neural networks to tackle ancient languages for which only a small amount of text survives. Katerina Papavassileiou at the University of Patras and her colleagues used a recurrent neural network to restore missing text from 1,100 Mycenaean tablets from Knossos, Crete, as reported by Nature. Papavassileiou hopes to use models trained on Linear B to tackle Linear A, a script used by the Minoan civilization that shares many symbols with Linear B but has never been deciphered.

Seales noted that the success of AI in these applications underscores its role as a complement to human expertise. “What AI is doing is giving the papyrologists data to work on which they could not otherwise have,” stated Richard Ovenden, head of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford, as reported by Nature. He added, “It's making their work more important than it has ever been.”

As AI continues to evolve, its impact on science and technology promises to reshape our understanding of the world, with potential breakthroughs in decoding lost languages and exploring underground libraries, as reported by Nature. Researchers emphasize the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and open-source data to ensure transparency and replicability in AI applications for ancient texts, according to gadgets360.com.

In archaeology, AI models have accelerated the discovery of geoglyphs in Peru’s Nazca Desert, including symbols that had gone unnoticed by archaeologists.

Gerrard Skillz

 

Micky - Best ft. R-One

President Bush in

GAY MEN IN HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGES

 

Source: Facebook photo

An Introduction

My client sat in the chair looking down at the floor, glancing up briefly to make eye contact, then darting his eyes back to the carpet. He spoke quietly, as if almost afraid to be heard. He clutched his hands throughout the session, displaying all the markers of an anxious man in the throes of shame. He was a new client to my practice: a married, middle-aged, suburban dad with a high-powered career. A colleague had given him my number months before. It took him a long time to muster the courage to call and make an appointment. Towards the end of our first session he looked up at me and said, “I think I’m in love…with another man. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do.”

I have worked with hundreds of gay men in heterosexual marriages struggling with being in the closet or wanting to emerge from it. There is so much about these men that is misunderstood and very few studies or little literature to provide insight. I decided to share my thoughts and research about these men and their struggles at a conference a few years ago. That presentation led to other opportunities to tell their story and of my work with them. Those presentations prompted men to write to me looking for guidance and support. My work with these men is informed by my own research, the experiences of my friends, but largely from over 20 years of working with men living two lives. Many of these men have been on a quest for an authentic life. These are some of the most courageous people I have encountered. They have decided to leave their secret selves behind and in the process heal old wounds, recover from past traumas and live wholeheartedly as gay men.

Maybe you are a man struggling with these issues and have no one to talk to and feel alone. I hope this blog series will provide some solace to let you know that you are not alone. Perhaps you are a therapist seeking to help your clients with these issues. I hope this series of blogs will be a resource to you and to those you are helping.

For those of you who want to understand more about these men, I’d like to give you some insight into their interior lives. Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine living your life with a secret, one that you have guarded closely for many, many years, possibly starting from childhood. A secret you keep from your spouse, your children, family, friends and co-workers. You may have built a whole life on top of and around this secret. You fear that if you reveal this hidden part of yourself you will be harshly judged, shamed, ostracized or abandoned. You believe you have a lot to lose. At times you may contemplate embracing this hidden self, living as a whole, authentic person. But with that contemplation comes the fear that if you embrace this part of yourself your world could unravel and come crashing down around you.

If you are a gay man in a straight marriage you are not alone. Let’s look at some numbers: In the 1970’s, Masters and Johnson discovered in their research that 23% of gay men and women had previously been in a straight marriage. Recent studies conducted by the Family Pride Coalition reveal that 20% of gay American men are married to a woman. In 2011, demographer Gary Gates found that of the 27 million American men married at that time, 1.6%, or 436,000 identified as gay or bisexual.

Since they were little boys, these men have been conditioned by their parents and society to try and fit into a straight mold. These boys often recognize that there is something different about them as compared to their male peers. Other boys may notice this too, leading to bullying and harassment. This leaves the gay youth feeling deep shame which becomes unexpressed and internalized. Parents often initially make the assumption their son will be straight. The programming and conditioning begins early. Parents may recognize that little Timmy is “different” yet not know how to respond to him or reject him. A father may distance himself from his son. Consider that the father is the first man the young gay boy will fall in love with and want to become attached to. If the father emotionally rejects him, it will be the boy’s first emotional betrayal. Some boys may then bond deeply or become enmeshed with mothers who overcompensate in protecting the boy. If the gay youth has no mentors, role models or people that accept him as he is, he will further wall off his homosexuality or only allow that part of himself to come out in secret.

Over the course of this blog series, I will bring some clarity and insight about this population. For those gay men in straight marriages I hope this series can offer some validation to your experience.

I will explore the reasons why gay men enter into heterosexual marriages, look at the dynamics of mixed orientation relationships and how to begin to help lead a more integrated and fulfilled life. A series on this subject would be sorely lacking if it did not address the trauma and complex emotions that the wives of these men experience once there has been a discovery or a disclosure that a husband is gay.

In the next blog in this series we will look a bit more into who these men are and why they choose to marry women.

Student Debt

 

https://marynesther.wordpress.com/2025/01/01/minister-don-muhammad/

Senior citizens with student loan debt traveled from around the country for the second time to tell President Joe Biden to cancel student loan debt for borrowers over 50 years old before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

This group faces significant financial challenges,  many delay retirement, neglect health concerns, and can’t pay their bills.  Many older Americans feel embarrassed, ashamed and hopeless about their mounting debt. According to the Biden administration, a third of seniors with student loan debt were in default. 

Millions of seniors took out student loans to pay for their education as they changed careers. Increasing numbers of parents, especially those who are Black, rely on Parent PLUS loans to finance their children’s college education.

Direct PLUS (Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students) loans, commonly called “Parent PLUS” loans, make up $104 billion of the total federal student debt.

Advertisement

Detroit resident, Becki Wells, attended the December protest at the Department of Education.  She has student loan debt at over $230,000 from sending two children to college.

Concept of financial literacy and education. Graduation cap on gold coins and rising red arrow isolated on white background.

Speaking at the demonstration, Ms. Wells told the crowd, “We hail from Detroit’s inner city. Yet, I successfully raised two responsible, healthy individuals who contribute positively to society and are now productive, tax-paying citizens.”

The protesters believe President Biden can easily cancel this debt before he leaves office.  The Federal Claims Collection Standard Act, under Section 902.2, authorizes the Department of Education to forgive loans for elderly borrowers, considering their age and the probability of repaying the debt during their remaining years.

The combined federal and private student loan debt in the United States amounts to $1.75 trillion, spread across approximately 42.8 million federal borrowers and an estimated three million private borrowers. Many voted for President Biden because he pledged at least $10,000 in student debt relief for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.

The government tried to fulfill this promise, but in June 2023, the Supreme Court stopped the program. Despite this setback, the administration provided student loan debt relief through focused initiatives rather than a broad-based approach. These efforts resulted in nearly $175 billion in debt relief for 4.8 million borrowers.

However, little, if any, of that relief came to seniors. The protesters are all members of the Debt Collective, the first union of debtors in the country. In September, the group protested outside the White House.

They contend that death should not be their only option for debt relief. While in Washington, they also spoke with various congressional representatives and officials from the Department of Education.

Maddie Clifford, creative media strategist for the Debt Collective, has over $120,000 in student debt.  She stood in front of a group of senior student loan borrowers and told the crowd in front of the White House, “The fastest growing demographic of student debtors right now are borrowers that are 50 and older.

This issue, the student debt crisis, is affecting people from multiple generations. I’m standing here (in front of the White House) because behind me, we (other protesters) collectively owe over a million dollars in student debt. What have we done? We decided to go to college.”

She continued, “That was our only decision. We decided we wanted a piece of an American dream, and we’re being penalized for it. We’re being punished.  These are really important issues because we also know that older debtors have contributed so much to the community.

They are beacons of light in their communities. They have sacrificed to keep their communities afloat, and yet they’re worried about how they’re going to make these student loan payments.

Sometimes they’re $1,000 a month. Sometimes they’re $1,500 a month. There’s no way they can pay them, so sometimes they have to default.  Older borrowers, 50 and older are also more likely to default on their student loan payments.”

She explained that for seniors, death is the only comprehensive student debt relief plan.  Further, “the federal government doesn’t even need these payments. They know that they won’t be able to collect the debt from these borrowers, and yet they’re still punishing them. 

Student loan borrowers represented by the people behind me are also overwhelmingly women, are also disproportionately Black women,” said Ms. Clifford.

A study conducted by the Urban Institute revealed significant racial differences in student loan delinquency rates among older adults. The research showed that older individuals residing in predominantly American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN), Black, or Latino communities were more likely to fall behind on their loan payments.

While the overall delinquency rate in the representative national sample stood at eight percent, it was considerably higher in communities with a majority of AIAN (15 percent), Black (13 percent), and Latino (10 percent) residents.

Fundamental systemic obstacles play a significant role in perpetuating these inequalities. Despite achieving equivalent educational qualifications, people of color often fail to reap the same financial rewards from their academic accomplishments as their White counterparts.

Notably, women from diverse ethnic backgrounds are disproportionately concentrated in positions offering lower wages and inferior working conditions compared to White males with similar educational backgrounds. This pattern results in a compounding disadvantage that persists throughout their lives.

At 52 years old, Tricia Louise Keffer traveled from Niceville, Florida, to Washington, D.C., to participate in the protest. She explained to Truthout and In These Times that she has accumulated $200,000 in student loans from a landscape architecture master’s program that was advertised to only cost $35,000. 

She believes President Biden’s refusal to follow through with his campaign promise to cancel debt felt like being ​“thrown out in the cold, into a freezing iceberg of death. … We don’t know what’s going to happen with the next administration. Am I going to be thrown into a debtors’ prison?”