Honey Bee
TW is posting this special appeal from Iain, Antonia, Mia, Luis, Ricken, Stephanie, Pascal, Alice, Ari and the whole Avaaz team.
Avaaz staff state they “don’t set an agenda and try to convince members to go along with it. It’s closer to the opposite: staff listen to members and suggest actions they can take in order to affect the broader world. Small wonder, then, that many of our most successful campaigns are suggested first by Avaaz members themselves. And leadership is a critical part of member service: it takes vision and skill to find and communicate a way to build a better world.”
Avaaz
“Because Avaaz is wholly member-funded, democratic accountability is in our DNA. No corporate sponsor or government backer can insist that Avaaz shift its priorities to suit some external agenda—we simply don’t accept funds from governments or corporations. (Read more about why it’s worth donating to Avaaz here, and chip in here.)
“Avaaz—meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages—launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.”
Ellen Page
Act Now
Dear friends,
“Quietly, billions of bees are dying, threatening our crops and food. But if the US Environmental Protection Agency bans a major pesticide, we could save bees from extinction.
“Four European countries have begun banning many of these poisons, and some bee populations are already recovering. But Bayer has lobbied hard to keep their main pesticide on the US market. The EPA has been slow to react, but an Avaaz petition with over a million signers helped force the agency to open a formal consultation to measure public support for action — and in 48 hours, the consultation closes. Let’s all act now and call on the EPA to put people before polluters and save our bees!
“The pressure is working, and this is our best chance for impact in the fight for bee survival. Send an urgent message to the EPA at the link below– and we’ll formally submit it before the deadline on Tuesday!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/hope_for_bees_usa/?twegvab
“Bees don’t just make honey, they are vital to life on earth, every year pollinating 90% of plants and crops — with an estimated $40bn value, over one-third of the food supply in many countries.
“Without immediate action to save bees, many of our favourite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves.”
“Recent years have seen a steep and disturbing global decline in bee populations — some bee species are already extinct and some US species are at just 4% of their previous numbers. Scientists have been scrambling for answers. Some studies claim the decline may be due to a combination of factors including disease, habitat loss and toxic chemicals. But increasingly, independent research has produced strong evidence blaming neonicotinoid pesticides, forcing several European countries to ban one or more of these bee killers. But in the USA, Bayer’s poison is still unregulated.”
Send a Message
“This issue is now coming to the boil as major new studies have confirmed the scale of this problem. If we can get the EPA to act, we could shut down this attack on bees and our food supply. The real experts — the beekeepers and farmers — want these deadly pesticides prohibited until and unless we have solid, independent studies that show they are safe.” Let’s support them now — click to send a message to the EPA:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/hope_for_bees_usa/?twegvab
“We can no longer leave our delicate food chain in the hands of research run by the chemical companies and the regulators that are in their pockets. Banning this pesticide will move us closer to a world safe for ourselves and the other species we care about and depend on.” With hope,
Iain, Antonia, Mia, Luis, Ricken, Stephanie, Pascal, Alice, Ari and the whole Avaaz team
MORE INFORMATION
“Studies fault Bayer in bee die-off” (Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0406/Studies-fault-Bayer-in-bee-die-off
“Two Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies” (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/science/neocotinoid-pesticides-play-a-role-in-bees-decline-2-studies-find.html?_r=1
“Leaked document shows EPA allowed bee-toxic pesticide despite own scientists’ red flags” (Grist)
http://grist.org/politics/food-2010-12-10-leaked-documents-show-epa-allowed-bee-toxic-pesticide/
“Bee Deviled: Scientists No Longer Bumbling Over Cause of Colony Collapse Disorder” (HuffingtonPost):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/bee-deviledscientists_b_1884294.html
“Controversy Deepens Over Pesticides and Bee Collapse” (Wired)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/04/neonicotinoids-colony-collapse/
Theosophy Watch 
Does Theosophy teach that the bee came to Earth from Venus? If so, how was it accomplished?
Is there any information about the bee in the Secret Doctrine?
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We understand from Theosophy that forms are brought into manifestation as astral patterns, the same way a photograph can be developed in the darkroom from light impressions on sensitive film, or a book can be digitized in a computer and then “re-manifested” back into a visible book on any computer screen. W. Q. Judge, Mme. Blavatsky’s co-worker, refers to the bee in The Ocean of Theosophy Ch. 15: “neither the bee nor the wheat could have had their original differentiation in this chain of globes, but must have been produced and finished in some other from which they were brought over into this. Why this should be so I am willing to leave for the present to conjecture.” It may have been a form transferred astrally from Venus, or from another invisible Earth chain of which there are seven, including ours.
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Well, thank you, this is just a remarkable reminder, to WQJ’s statement about Venus regarding the bees, in the The Ocean of Theosophy…very interesting to note this student having read somewhere that Venus is in her last round, and I wonder if there’s a correlation here with the timing of dying out of the bees? Every species has its time. But even If this is so, there is still no reason under the Sun to irresponsibly or deliberately kill them…if it must be their end then let them have their dignity and end their cycle naturally, and not at the hands of our selfish materialism. NAMASTE ALL
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I’m sorry. I said in my last comment that I’d read somewhere that Venus is in her last round and this is not correct. Though I don’t remember exactly where I read it, I now remember that what I read was that Venus is in her Seventh round, not her last, to be specific. Just wanted to make that correction, thank you.
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VENUS IN HER 7TH ROUND QUITE CORRECT. See italicized para. SD 1:165, where it is said that that planet is in her last round. This must be her 7th. Hence the men there are as gods to us, and, if the argument from analogy is to be relied on, some of her great light must emanate from those beings and not all be from the sun. (Judge – Hidden Hints in The Secret Doctrine). Here are the Master’s words: “It is quite correct that Mars is in a state of obscuration at present, and Mercury just beginning to get out of it. You might add that Venus is in her last Round….”
NAMASTE!!
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Thank you very much for this special posting. Done. NAMASTE ALL
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So much rests on our willingness to assist and work with for the health of nature, opposing contamination of our only home. Thanks for being a part of the solution as you always do. Namaste devisun!
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I appreciate your concern about brain tumors and bees — especially bees because they have no choice. However, I do hope Theosophy Watch isn’t turning into a money-raising organization only.
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Hi Joan, no we’re not going to be a money raising group at all. Just promoting a worthy cause now and then when it seems appropriate.
Thanks for your comments as always.
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