MUSIC CONCERT FOR VOWW MEMBERS IN CENTURION, PRETORIA

NOTICE OF MUSIC CONCERT IN FOR VOICES OF WOMEN

NOTICE OF MUSIC CONCERT

FOR

VOWW'S MEMBERS

IN AND AROUND CENTURION, PRETORIA

An awesome coming together and an intimate presentation of one of South-Africa’s leading spiritual world music composers and producers – DESERT ROSE, known for their breathtaking fusing of Sufi melodies and African indigenous sounds and rhythms, and the living legend of South-African music – POPS MOHAMED!

SATURDAY, 17 MARCH at 8pm at
(Please arrive 7.30pm)

IStart2 Hub and Conference Centre
160 South Street
Lyttelton Holdings/Die Hoewes
CENTURION, PRETORIA


Humanity’s Team invites you to an exceptional occasion – a collaboration between two masters; Lynne Holmes who is a master of crossover world music compositions and Pops Mohamed who is a master of indigenous music; an intimate evening of music performed by Lynne Holmes, Founder of DESERT ROSE, composer, lyricist, producer, pianist, keyboard player and director, Yusuf Ganief, South Africa’s leading Arabic world music vocalist, and our much treasured, ‘one of a kind’, musical artist, Pops Mohamed.


• Lynne who specializes in fusing indigenous music and diverse cultures into a unique classical world music style and who is currently acknowledged as one of the leading world music composers in South Africa has produced 9CDs to date of which 4 were chosen as Critics Choice by Musica in 2008 and 2009. Her latest CD, Silence of the Music, received a 5 star rating from mainstream media in 2010.

• Yusuf is the lead singer for Desert Rose and is widely accepted as the leading Arabic vocalist in Southern Africa. In 2010 he was chosen to represent
the Islamic faith and Sufi communities in a national television programme (Southern Rhythms) on SABC which highlighted South Africa’s diverse
spiritual communities during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

• Pops has released 37 albums in five decades of music-making, performance, and collaboration and received an Arts and Culture Trust impACT Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. His long-lasting connection to the Koisan in the east of Namibia resulted in a most successful album How far we have come, and his latest release, Society Vibes-Fast 4WRD - a reflection of his philosophy, draws on his (& our) past while looking forward to the future - the music combining the rich cultural traditions of the continent with the technological breakthrough of the 21st century.

Come and join in the joy of the spiritual getting together of these artists who have worked together with one-another in a variety
of other ways over the past number of years.

Don’t miss this very rare experience and opportunity to share close space with these wonderful and highly respected artists! The evening
will be a beautiful celebration of the Oneness and Love that their music is synonymous with.

See DESERT ROSE Youtube VIDEOS http://www.youtube.com/user/awakeningrose
Desertrose Southafrica Facebook
See Pops Mohamed Youtube VIDEOS

Hurry and make your booking NOW! First Come First served. We look forward to a most ONEderful evening with you!

* Bring your own wine/beer/AND glasses
* Coffee/Tea/Cold drinks, snacks, uBuntu Posters and CD’s for sale

Tickets: R110 per person
A booking of 10 tickets gives you one free!
To book email info@humanitysteamsa.org
Or call: 012-348-5621 083 445 0412

"Music Unites, In a World of Difference" ~......Desert Rose

“I feel the other, l dance the other, therefore 1 Am.” ~Leopold Senghor

"Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." ~ Martin Luther King

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WHERE AND WHAT IS FREE WILL ? Posted by Catherine Sarah Hislop

Where and what is Free Will?

Posted by Catherine Sarah Hislop  on March 10, 2012

 

The profound uniqueness of the Play Divine has it that at role termination stage one the True Master which has Eternally Existed just behind the veil of dream commences to manifest within the dream context—even in the not yet ascended dream body. 

This means that such an entity is no longer performing in a scripted manner in his or her activity on the earth stage.  In other words, one having consciously ascended is, yes, still interacting with all other scripted entities upon the Stage, but with one major difference.  Namely, that while there is no actual choice deviation from pre-scripted roles in the non-ascended context, there is total freedom of choice activity wherever Divine Mind is manifesting.

This is to say plainly that Divine Mind is never scripted wherever It is in manifestation.   And of course, there is
no place in the Boundless Infinity or the Realm of the Real where Divine Mind or Consciousness is not present.  Divine
Consciousness being the Sole Actual Existing Consciousness, consequently is the Sole Existing and operating active will.  Besides the will of God-no will exists period. (Hence: not mine but Thy will be done).

Dream entities being not actual or real appear to be exercising multiple choices daily.  However, such choices are
all pre-scripted or pre-designed and therefore it is truly said that, contrary to appearances on the dream stage, there is no such thing as free will.

Plainly speaking and contrary to the general imaginings of dream-egos, false-selves of the Play have no actual will to exercise.  The fact of the matter is that the multiple minds represented on the earth stage are not actual minds—such are but Play minds only operating within Play bodies moving about in non-deviating roles within the make-believe Story cast upon the Cosmic Screen.

It’s just like any movie within the dream.  The script is made up the cameras roll and everyone performs precisely according to a set script all the while making many apparent choices throughout the story, but all of which are pre-designed into the multi-scripted production.  It would be utterly unacceptable in the industry of film to proceed in any other fashion.  Chaotic in-continuity would result and overrule!

 

At such a time when a movie is finally readied for the big screen and projected thereupon, the real performers are not by any means actually bopping around on any such screen.   The actual performers are always elsewhere, in another reality altogether, such as at home enjoying their children, etc, etc.   So with the Cosmic Earth Movie—all actual Divine Beings are never on the earth stage—until at such time when the ascension process commences for individual performers. 

In this feature the paralleling aspects between Divine and earth productions part ways.    And of course behind every
single actor/ actress on the stage dwells the True God Being or Divine Self who is entirely untouched by Play Stage scenarios.

Presently it is the time of ascension in mass in the Story of the Grand Play.  This means essentially that the earth stage will truly be full of Joyous Divine Masters just prior to the final ending of the Earth Drama Divine.   What an indescribable Joyous time!  Truly, now is a time second to none in the entire
Story of the Dream.  Rejoicing is the order of the day!

International Women’s Day: A View of “Islamic Feminism”

8 March 2012 International Women’s Day: A View of “Islamic Feminism” Can you be liberal, feminist and Muslim at the same time? Malaysian activist Marina Mahathir says “Yes”. She spoke to INSEAD Knowledge recently when she was in Singapore to deliver the Shirin Fozdar lecture at the Singapore Management University. The following is an excerpt of the article which will be published soon. By Grace Segran ‘Islamic feminism’? The phrase sounds contradictory at first: Islam is often viewed as intrinsically patriarchal and opposed to ‘feminism’. Marina Mahathir – Malaysian activist and writer - understands why Islam is perceived this way but claims that while individual Muslim believers may have a patriarchal outlook, this does not mean that Islam itself is patriarchal. “Like other religions, most interpreters of Islam are men and therefore they will bring their patriarchal interpretations into society. And because they hold power, few would challenge it,” she says. But Marina is involved with Sisters in Islam (SIS) and its Musawah (Equality) movement which believe that many passages of the Qur'an promote equality between men and women: “Our belief is that the main message of the Qur'an is justice and equality for humankind, therefore it cannot possibly support any sort of discrimination.” She asserts, “Women are now better educated and are participating in society, so surely Islam must make itself relevant to today, rather than just the time of the Prophet.” Islamic feminists believe that they can find support for feminist values and principles from the Qur'an. Marina is one of “Women Deliver 100”, a list of the 100 most inspiring people who have improved the lives of girls and women worldwide by Women Deliver, a New York-based advocacy group in celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day in 2011. Muslim women doing ‘feminist’ things In some Muslim communities, working outside the home and driving a car are, relatively speaking, very ‘feminist’ things to do. Marina says these are aberrations rather than the norm and that there are growing protests from these women against not being allowed to drive. As far as working outside the home is concerned, she says that people are often confused about women’s work. “Women work all the time - at home, in the fields, and in workplaces outside the home such as in factories, hospitals and offices. But people only seem to get upset about the latter workplaces perhaps because it is paid for and also it is where women are likely to meet people other than their own families and communities,” she opines. “Having her own income can liberate women and this is what conservatives find ‘dangerous’ and therefore there are constant reminders that ‘good’ mothers are those who stay at home.” Polygamy and the veil In the media, Islam has frequently been associated with practices that are oppressive towards women, such as polygamy and wearing the veil. How do Islamic feminists make sense of these teachings? Marina points out that it is important to remember the context in which this verse was revealed. In the case of polygamy, she argues that the practice existed to protect orphans and widows, who had no source of financial support. At a time when very few women could support themselves, the injunction for men to take on several wives was seen as a charitable gesture. As for the veil, Marina says that it is important to remember that “Islam came to a desert country where both men and women cover themselves from head to toe”. The Qur'an presupposes that women (and men) were already wearing a veil when it encourages them to display modesty. While Mahathir herself does not wear a veil, she does not discourage other women from wearing one, claiming in the current social climate, wearing the veil has become a political statement of identity. She says, “Our stand is that Muslim women should have the choice of wearing it or not and that neither should be taken as a sign of her inner piety or lack thereof.” 'INSEAD Celebrates Women' is an annual INSEAD initiative to join the global celebration of women’s achievements during International Women’s Day. This news alert is part of the series of events at the school that aims to draw attention to a variety of issues concerning women.

UN WOMEN's 56th COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN (CSW)

Rural women: the road towards sustainable development

Categories: Awareness Building, Economic Development, Global Health, by Julia, March 9, 2012

VOWW & VOW-TV VIDEOTAPED AND RECORDED MANY GLOBAL RURAL WOMEN WHO ARRIVED - ORDINARY WOMEN TELLING EXTRAORDINARY STORIES OF THEIR RURUAL AND URBAN WORKLOADS IN THEIR COUNTRIES ...

For the last two weeks the United Nations held the 56th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The CSW is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to women’s rights and gender equality. This commission meets annually for 10 working days.

The principal outcomes of the commission are the agreed conclusion between member (45 countries with equal representation of each region of the world) states on a specific priority theme. The conclusion contains a list of best practices and recommendations for governments to promote women and gender equality. It also encourages private sector and civil society to act at a local, national and global level.

This year, the focus theme has been the empowerment of rural women. As a student interested in rural development, I was happy to hear the focus theme for the CSW. However, I wondered why, in a world were 50% of the population now lives in cities (and the fraction or urban population is expected to continue growing), it is still important to consider rural women as a priority.

On the one hand, it seems natural to focus on rural women because the agricultural sector is major industry in many parts of the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia (in Sub-Saharan Africa it’s still around 60% for both men and women, in Southern Asia women’s participation in the agricultural sector is 60%). One the other hand, the female share of the agricultural labor force keeps increasing, due to the increase of men’s migrations to the urban areas. Even though half of our population keeps increasing, rural women are still major actors of our global economy.

Rural women have an economic and social potential that is often underestimated by the public and private sector. In the path towards sustainability, rural women have an important role to play. Particularly, empowering rural women creates the possibility of increasing food security and reducing poverty. However, it seems to me that this will not be an easy task.

Education is the first difficulty to overcome.

Empowering women must come from the grassroots level. Women must be aware of the inequalities they are living and they should be the ones to demand more rights. In my experience, often times rural women are not aware of the important role they play in society: increasing their awareness in an essential step to their empowerment.

Besides education (a requisite for women to be aware of their potential), in the rural areas women need more power in the decision-making processes. The gender gap in the rural areas is very important. In most countries, the share male vs. female of land titles is not equal. For example, although more women work the land in Sub-Saharan Africa, men own 80% of the land. This is partly due because many societies, laws and traditions bar the access of women from owning of inheriting the land (and overcoming this obstacle will require education).

Women not having property rights is not only unfair; it is also economically unsustainable. They are the major workers of a plot of land, they are the ones that know how to maximize productivity and thus they know how to manage it better. Additionally, I am persuaded that in many indigenous populations the knowledge on agriculture and natural cycles is transferred between women, from generation to generation. In these cases, since women have special knowledge about their land, it is even more important that they become part of the decision-making processes (such as what to produce and when).

Finally, women lack access to the appropriate economic resources. Often times, women have no access to the appropriate resources to keep their business and their jobs. It has been claimed that the vast productivity difference between the yields of men and women exist not because women are less skilled but because they have less access to inputs such as improved seeds, fertilizers and equipment.

I think that empowering rural women will be an essential as well as necessary step towards sustainable development. To do this, we have to decrease the gender gap that exists in the areas that I mentioned above. Food security and poverty alleviation is a priority for governments and international organizations.

It is time to realize that rural development, and in specific rural women’s empowerment, is a necessity in order to achieve the health or our society. The fact that the CSW focused on Rural Women is a benefit, but the discussion must lead to an implementation of the solutions.