Tony Henderson

As the latest development of the worldwide phenomenon of Parks of Study and Reflection, the Park at Narhi, Madhubani, Bihar, India, is also dedicated to studying and reflecting about the Human Being, the condition, and the evolutionary possibilities that allow general progress toward the establishment of a humanized non-violent world that is without discrimination of any kind.

Echo from the recent past: a letter from Humanist Association of Hong Kong that appeared in the *South China Morning Post* regarding Iran was posted on the same newspaper’s website 16 January 2011 as a side-post to the issue of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear weapons programme. As chairman of the Association I re-iterate, what programme?

Pinagpalang Kamay Association or PKAI is an NGO formed by Ms. Mina Tecson to aid two communities in need, one a poverty-stricken community in Payatas on the outskirts of Quezon City, and the other a home for abandoned physically and mentally ill children residing at Cottolengo Filipino, Montalban Rizal, quite nearby. I toured both in December 2010.

*Has the target to promote peace and non-violence ‘gone to the dogs’ I was thinking on entering the Sunday-noisy Krispy Creme café situated in up-market Bonifacio High Street at Global City, Taguig, Manila. I was to meet Patricia Carrascoso of Pets for Peace & the Labrador Retriever Owner’s Club. I was in for an awakening!*

*The second-last tranch of entrants into the School of Silo took place at the 20 Parks of Study and Reflection, 4 December, 2010. It was a simple procedure. People came and went. There were group discussions and parties were held. The collective conscious life of a relative few was substantially augmented to the betterment of the general human condition.*

The renown and revered botanist Leonardo L. Co, 56, was killed by gunfire 15 November, 2010, in a geothermal reservation in Leyte in Upper Mahiao, Barangay. Lim-ao, Kananga town, Leyte. He was doing research work for the Energy Development Corporation and was with four other team members. Three of them were killed and two survived.

*A gathering of about 30 friends of Silo, connected through activities concerning The Message of Silo, and the Humanist Movement over these past forty years, took place at Parke Banahaw, Philippines, Saturday November 2010. The occasion was marked with the symbolic scattering of Silo’s ashes. Friends from around Asia and Australia also took part.*

Western governments have called Myanmar elections November 7, 2010, a “missed opportunity” according to press agencies AFP and Al Jazeera as Myanmar’s military government set itself up to win the country’s first elections in 20 years, with the ruling generals voting themselves back into power, amid opposition claims of intimidation and poll irregularities.

* The Guardians of the City are Orthodox Jews – they wear those distinctive black hats, beards and curling side locks – who (like me) participated in the Tehran conference on Gaza, March, 2009. These Jews want an end to the present Israeli state – the stance of Iran as so widely disseminated in the media. They oppose the Zionists as they are non-believers.*

This is how it’s done in China, ignore everything and without stretching things to any limits, get on with it. This was the message the lone meditator seemed to express as he sat in lotus style under the trees in the quiet hinterland of the Taoist temple of the Yellow Dragon. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Common Man relaxed while children frolicked in a heady afternoon of family fun.