Entries from June 2008 ↓

“Serving the world with love and cooperation, you will find your own true Self. As you help those in need, selfishness will fall away, and without even noticing you will find your own fulfillment.”
- Amma

Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – aka Amma, the ‘hugging saint’ – is currently in the US on her 2008 world tour. Since 1981 she has been giving hugs, inspiration and spiritual guidance to people around the world, and is estimated to have hugged more than 30 million to date. Tens of thousands line up for her ‘darshan’ (Sanskrit for divine sight, or blessing) wherever she travels. On her recent visit to Los Angeles, I decided to investigate this phenomenon, and figure out what it is exactly that draws so many millions to share the ‘Amma experience.’

I first met Amma in June of 2006, just two days after my sister’s death in a tragic car accident on the afternoon before her planned visit to see the hugging saint. The idea of wading through thousands of people to see the renowned saint-figure had always kept me away, but this time I felt a divine mandate to go and meet her myself, and share with her the awful news of what had happened to my sister, Ananda, who was a longtime Amma devotee. Continue reading →

Believe it or not, Mickey’s Disney-friends are off to join the cause in Iraq. An American development firm based in Los Angeles is spearheading the multi-million dollar “Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience,” a 50-acre amusement park that will feature a skateboard park, rides, a concert theater and a museum. The park is being designed by Disney’s “Imagineering” pioneers, Ride and Show Engineering (RSE).

Llewellyn Werner, chairman of C3, the Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms that’s funding the Pentagon-backed project, admits he’s facing certain unusual obstacles – namely, insurgent attacks and looting.

The story hit the news this past April, but a new Facebook group created by Rudy Duboille out of France “Non à Disneyland en Irak – Go Home !” is bound to stir some notice on the social media network.
Nonetheless, it’s doubtful American policy-makers will take much notice, considering the 200,000 American government-sponsored skateboards already shipped to Iraq for assembly to promote the new skateboard park opening in advance of the complete “Baghdad Experience.”
Continue reading →