Wheat Harvest Ministries

WORLD BANK WARNS OF GLOBAL RECESSION

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:06:00 +0000

This article titled “World Bank warns of global recession” was written by Larry Elliott, economics editor, for The Guardian on Wednesday 18th January 2012 02.02 UTC

The World Bank has warned that the crisis in the eurozone will lead to a sharp slowdown in growth in rich and poor countries this year and could spiral into a rerun of the 2008-09 recession.

In its half-yearly health check on the global economy the Washington-based institution said the world had “entered a very difficult phase characterised by significant downside risks and fragility”. The bank lowered its forecast for global growth in 2012 from 3.4% to 2.5% but said governments should be preparing for a downturn as bad as that which followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

“An escalation of the crisis would spare no one,” said Andrew Burns, manager of global macroeconomics at the World bank and the report’s author. “Developed and developing country growth rates could fall by as much or more than in 2008-09. The importance of contingency planning cannot be stressed enough. It is clear that whatever probability is attached to this downside scenario, it has increased since June last year.

“Developing countries should hope for the best and plan for the worst. If these downside risks materialised there is not much developing countries can do to prevent it. But they can prepare for it.” He added that such countries should be drawing up list of public spending priorities and stress testing their banks.

The forecasts contained in the half-yearly Global Economic Prospects report reflect the slowdown in the global economy seen in the second half of 2011, which was already evident in weakening trade flows, declining capital flows to developing countries and lower commodity prices. A similar picture is likely to be painted by the bank’s sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund, when it releases updated predictions for global growth next week.

The bank said the eurozone was already in recession and was likely to contract by 0.3% this year. High-income countries would grow by 1.4% as a result of a recovery in Japan from a tsunami-affected 2011 and a slight pickup in activity in the US. Even so, rich countries are expected to grow in 2012 at only half the 2.7% expected when the Bank last published forecasts in June 2011.

It added that there had also been a slackening in the pace of activity in some of the leading developing countries – such as Brazil, India and Turkey – as a result of action taken by governments to tackle inflation. There was a risk, the bank said, of the crisis in the eurozone and weaker growth in developing countries reinforcing each other at a time when the ability of policymakers to respond to a downturn was much diminished compared with three years ago.

“While contained for the moment, the risk of a much broader freezing up of capital markets and a global crisis similar in magnitude to the Lehman crisis remains,” the World Bank report said. “In particular, the willingness of markets to finance the deficits and maturing debt of high-income countries cannot be assured. Should more countries find themselves denied such financing, a much wider financial crisis that could engulf private banks and other financial institutions on both sides of the Atlantic cannot be ruled out. The world could be thrown into recession as large or even larger than that of 2008-09.”

A second global downturn would again have its epicentre in high-income countries, it said, but it added that developing countries would feel its effects deeply through trade, commodity prices, remittances, financial pressures and capital flows. Many developing countries would see outright falls in output and overall developing country gross domestic product in 2013 would be more than 4% lower than in the bank’s baseline projection.

“In the event of a major crisis, activity is unlikely to bounce back as quickly as it did in 2008-09, in part because high-income countries will not have the fiscal resources to launch as strong a counter-cyclical policy response as in 2008-09 or to offer the same level of support to troubled financial institutions. Developing countries would also have much less fiscal space than in 2008 with which to react to a global slowdown (38% of developing countries are estimated to have a government deficit of 4% or more of GDP in 2011). As a result, if financial conditions deteriorate, many of these countries could be forced to cut spending pro-cyclically, thereby exacerbating the cycle.”

The co-ordinated global response to the 2008-09 slump saw interest rates slashed, money created through quantitative easing, public spending increased and taxes cut. “Monetary policy in high-income countries will also not be able to respond as forcibly as in 2008-09, given the already large expansion of central bank balance sheets,” the Bank said. “Among developing countries, many countries have tightened monetary policy, and would be able to relax policy (and in some cases already have) if conditions were to deteriorate sharply.”

Burns said China had the resources and the political will to mount a counter-cyclical policy, but was unlikely to be able to boost its economy as quickly as it did three years ago. “There was a big response in 2008-09 but it is not obvious that the same mechanisms can be used as effectively as they were in 2008-09. Those parts of the economy that were stimulated in 2008-09 are already over-heating.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Posted as a headline on January 19, 2012
Tags: Article, banking, business, Credit crunch, economics, euro, Europe, European banks, European monetary union, European Union, Eurozone crisis, financial, Financial crisis, Financial sector, Global economy, Larry Elliott, Main section, Market turmoil, news, the guardian, world bank, world news

via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2012/01/world-bank-global-recession-headlines.html#ixzz1jvBqkNfP

What's This About BPA?

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:12:00 +0000

Access to Food, THIS IS SERIOUS

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered why so many different recalls of fresh produce have occurred in recent years? Strawberries, I think, where first then lettuce, spinach, peanuts, and so on. The latest I remember it was grape tomatoes that where snatched. I am a thoughtful person and so it was easy me to question what was taking place from the very first recall. I just became aware of some legislation that answers my question.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=10618

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/webreturn/?url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.875:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s425/text

James 5:1 Go to now, [ye] rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon [you].

5:2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

The LAST Message

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:17:00 +0000

http://www.thelastmessage.net/

WNBA Draft Pick: An Overcomer of the Homosexual Lifestyle

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:50:00 +0000

I would like to thank TheForerunner777 and Camille LeNoir for sharing this interview.

Geodesic Dome Greenhouse

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:15:00 +0000

Gardeners if you have been struggling for a good harvest this is could be your oasis.

http://www.geodesic-greenhouse-kits.com/

The Ahh OR Ah-Ha in Ice Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Thanks to this informative article from Waymarks Publications we shall have a better understanding of the ahh or ah-ha in ice cream. Thanks to Rakka for the image.

Ice Cream, Anyone?

The average American consumes 24 quarts of ice cream every year. He thinks he is only eating cream, sugar, and vanilla. But he is actually putting a lot of very strange things into his body.

There are over 1,400 flavorings, stabilizers, colors, and emulsifiers available to the commercial producer of ice cream.

Unfortunately, ice cream manufacturers are not required by law to list the additives used in making their product. As a result, most ice creams are synthetic from start to finish.

Ice cream makers are giving us a wide variety of delicious flavors, but are they fit to eat?

There is hardly any ice cream flavor that does not have a chemical substitute. Some of the artificial flavors are potent poisons which are powerful enough to cause liver, kidney, and heart disease.

Some ice creams contain natural flavorings; some contain a mixture of natural and artificial flavors, and some are entirely artificially flavored. The artificial flavors are favored by the manufacturers because, since they cost less, the profit is increased.

For example, consider "vanilla": Category I is commercial vanilla flavoring made entirely of vanilla. Category II is a combination of natural and artificial flavors; and the package may read, "vanilla flavored." Category III is entirely artificial; and the label may read, "artificially flavored vanilla."

What is in artificial vanilla flavoring? It is peperonal or vanillin. Peperonal is a chemical used to kill lice. Vanillin is made from the wastes of wood pulp and has no relationship to the vanilla bean.

Natural vanilla (which is pureed vanilla beans or vanilla extract) is much more expensive than artificial vanilla. Today it is only rarely found in the ice cream you buy at the store.

Then there is strawberry flavor. How nice fresh, ripe strawberries taste! But in your dish of "strawberry" ice cream, you will find benzyl acetatea synthetic chemical that tastes like strawberries.

According to the Merck Index, an encyclopedia for chemists, this substance is extremely dangerous and can cause vomiting and diarrhea. It is a nitrate solvent.

Would you rather have pineapple flavoring in your ice cream? Ethyl acetate is used to give that flavor. It can cause liver, kidney, and heart damage. It is also used as a cleaner for leather and textiles. Its vapors have been known to cause chronic lung, liver, and heart damage.

What about banana flavoring? It is amylbutyrate, which is also used as an oil paint solvent.

Cherries anyone? Aldehydec 17 is used to provide the cherry flavor in your ice cream. This is an inflammable liquid which is used as aniline dyes, and the manufacture of plastic and rubber.

Perhaps nuts is what you want in your ice cream? Butraldehyde is the chemical used to provide the nut flavoring in ice cream. It is one of the ingredients in rubber cement.

The problem is that nearly all our artificial food flavors and food colorscome from coal tar! This is a substance in coal and also petroleum. We would never think of putting coal or gasoline in our bodies; yet that is what is put into all the processed food which contains, what the label calls"pure food colors" or "artificial flavorings." Coal tar is notorious as a causative agent in producing cancers of the stomach, bowel, kidney, liver, and other organs.

Back in the old days, fresh eggs would be added to ice cream as an emulsifier, to make it more textured. Today diethyl glycol is used instead. This is the same chemical used in antifreeze and paint removers. Like all the other chemicals, it is dangerous. You do not want even small amounts of these chemicals in your body. According to the Merck Index, it is sufficiently toxic to cause liver and kidney damage.

Stabilizers make ice cream smooth; and emulsifiers make it stiff, so it can retain air. Here are some of the chemicals used to stabilize and emulsify the ice cream you eat:

Propylene glycol (also used in antifreeze), glycerin, sodium carboxyl methylcellulose, monoglycerides, diglycerides, disodium phosphates, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, polysorbate 80, and dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate.

Government regulations permit all these things to be placed in your ice cream.

Last but not least, ice cream makers pump air into the product. Homemade ice cream weighs 7 to 8 pounds per gallon. Store-bought ice cream weighs 4.5 pounds or less. So you are paying a lot for a smaller amount of cream; but you are still getting a heavy dose of chemical additives. Is it really worth it?

The next time you are tempted by a nice-looking banana split, think of it as a mixture of oil and nitrate solvent, antifreeze, and lice killer.

Bill Clinton became a vegan, lost 24 pounds, healing himself by not ing...

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:11:00 +0000

EXTREME NEGLECT by David Gates

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:15:00 +0000

http://gospelministry.org/blog/medias/audios/?plid=53

One of the most profound sermons you'll ever hear!

Preserving Your Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:07:00 +0000

Here's a great website to educate and equip you
to preserve those delicious fruits and veggies!
Dehydration preserves 97% of the nutrients, is
compact and light weight for storage.
http://www.canningpantry.com/dehydration-of-food.html

Aeolians singing Someday

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:54:00 +0000

Check out this great MSN Video: Could Electromagnetic Pulse Make U.S. Dark?

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:44:00 +0000

Check out this great MSN Video: Could Electromagnetic Pulse Make U.S. Dark?

The Ark of the Covenant-AN AMAZING DISCOVERY

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sun, 16 May 2010 04:35:00 +0000

BIRTH OF A SQUARE FOOT GARDEN

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:54:00 +0000

Pardon the music please it's not my choice but I just had to share this fabulous gardening video. For those who want a weed free, animal free garden, enjoy!!

Thanks SquareFootSteve

WOMEN PASTORS: A Biblical Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:26:00 +0000

Lucifer Returns, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:48:00 +0000

Lucifer Returns, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:41:00 +0000

The Masterful Deception is in Full Swing!!

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:16:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVdtExDYc-k The masterful deception spoken of in prophecy is in full swing. If you know that you are not right with the Father of creation, I suggest you drop to your knees right now and let Him know you love Him. Soon will be the pronouncement, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Rev. 22:11

Some Things Never Change

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:58:00 +0000

Super powerful sermon by Randy Skeete brought to you by Audioverse. You may want listen.

http://www.audioverse.org/sermons/recordings/2089/some-things-never-change.html

How to be Like Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:48:00 +0000

How to be Like Jesus

DA 302 “If the eye is kept fixed on Christ, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image.”

ED 18 “As the perfection of His character is dwelt upon, the soul is re-created in the image of God.”

SC 70 “It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.”

MH 500,501 “Christ gave no stinted service. He did not measure His work by hours. His time, His heart, His soul and strength, were given to labor for the benefit of humanity...His love for man led Him to welcome every indignity, and suffer every abuse.”

CT 262 “The Saviour’s entire life was characterized by disinterested benevolence and the beauty of holiness. He is our pattern of goodness...He showed consistency without obstinacy, benevolence without weakness, tenderness and sympathy without sentimentalism. He was highly social, yet He possessed a reserve that discouraged any familiarity. His temperance never led to bigotry or austerity.”

TMK 155 “The Christian life does not consist merely in the exercise of meekness, patience, humility, and kindness. One may possess these precious & amiable traits and yet be nerveless and spiritless and almost useless...

(DA 353 “He fearlessly denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity, but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes.”)

TMK 155 “Jesus was our example in all things…Loving words fell from His lips to comfort, encourage, & bless....Jesus was a silent and unselfish worker. He did not seek fame, riches, or applause, neither did He consult His own ease and pleasure. ...He did not shirk care and responsibility.”

TMK 156 “Christ never flattered. He never deceived or defrauded, never changed His course of straightforward uprightness to obtain favor or applause. He ever expressed the truth. The law of kindness was in His lips, and there was no guile in His mouth...Those who follow Christ will be continually looking into the perfect law of liberty, and through the grace given them by Christ, will fashion the character according to the divine requirements.”

TMK 157 Remember, “repetition of acts form habits, and habits, character.”

DA 43 “He shunned all outward display...Greatness can never save a soul.”

DA 68 “He manifested a patience that nothing could disturb, and a truthfulness that would never sacrifice integrity. In principle firm as a rock, His life revealed the grace of unselfish courtesy.”

DA 70 “He was possessed of one purpose; He lived to bless others.”

DA 789 “The grave clothes were not thrown heedlessly aside, but carefully folded…In His sight, who guides alike the star and the atom, there is nothing unimportant. Order and perfection are seen in His work.

DA 800 “Christ never forces His company upon anyone.”

DA 815 “The Saviour’s manner with Peter taught his brethren to meet the transgressor with patience, sympathy, and forgiving love.”

DA 72 “In His industrious life there were no idle moments...He closed the door to the tempter. Neither gain nor pleasure, applause nor censure, could induce Him to consent to a wrong act…He was perfect as a workman, as He was perfect in character...He taught that it is our duty to be industrious, that our work should be thorough.”

DA 73 “Jesus carried into His labor cheerfulness and tact...He held communion with heaven in song…seemed to banish the evil angels.”

DA 85 “In every gentle and submissive way Jesus tried to please others.”

DA 87 “He often denied Himself food in order to relieve the needy.”

DA 88 “Even in the lowliest position He was content.”

DA 89 “Jesus did not contend for His rights. Often His work was made unnecessarily severe because He was willing and uncomplaining...He did not become discouraged...He did not retaliate...but bore insult patiently.”

DA 91 “He passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to save.”

DA 92 “He would not betray the secrets…poured into His sympathizing ear.”

DA 147 Christ taught that the “claims of God are paramount...”

DA 181 We must consent to bring into captivity every thought to Christ.

DA 190 “To minister to a soul hungering...was a refreshment to Him.”

DA 198 “The Saviour cannot withdraw from the soul that clings to Him, pleading its great need.”

DA 208 “He made no plans for Himself. He accepted God’s plans for Him.”

DA 243 “He was the embodiment of purity…of spotless integrity.”

DA 253 “His language was pure, refined, & clear as a running stream.”

DA 254 “He was earnest, rather than vehement.”

DA 260 “In His life no self—assertion mingled.”

DA 261 “In that life no noisy disputation, no ostentatious worship, no act to gain applause, was ever witnessed. Christ was hid in God...”

DA 330 “In the heart of Christ...was perfect peace. He was never elated by applause, nor dejected by censure or disappointment. Amid the greatest opposition & the most cruel treatment, He was still of good courage.”

DA 337 “He...who had met Satan & conquered him did not flee before these demons, but cast them out.”

DA 353 “He exercised the greatest tact…He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness.”

DA 356 “Jesus...never purchased peace by compromise…Jesus assures His disciples of God’s sympathy...Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father.”

DA 363 “As a man Christ supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity...His experience is to be ours…When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God…The soul that is thus refreshed will be surrounded with an atmosphere of light and peace.”

DA 434 “Christ taught them not to place themselves needlessly in antagonism to established order…avoid controversy whenever possible.”

DA 451 “Christ was not to be presumptuous, not to rush into danger, not to hasten a crisis...He must wait patiently.”

DA 488 “Though Christ had just been repulsed… His love toward them was unchanged.”

DA 515 “In all His intercourse with rude and violent men He did not use one unkind or discourteous expression…He spoke as one having authority.”

DA 533 “He weeps with those who weep, rejoices with those who rejoice.”

DA 594 “It was not Christ’s purpose to humiliate His opponents.”

DA 619 “His indignation was directed against the hypocrisy…but He spoke no words of retaliation. He had a holy wrath...but He manifested no irritated temper.”

DA 645 “Jesus alone could read his [Judas’s] secret. Yet He did not expose him.”

DA 693 “His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself.”

DA 704 “He [Caiphas] was struck with admiration for His noble...bearing.”

DA 722 “He spoke no word of condemnation. He looked pityingly upon Judas.”

DA 724 “On His [Christ’s] face he [Pilate] saw no sign of guilt, no expression of fear, no boldness or defiance. He saw a man of calm and dignified bearing.”

DA 726 “His whole bearing gave evidence of conscious innocence. He stood unmoved by the fury of the waves that beat about Him.”

DA 735 “Every feature expressed gentleness and resignation and the tenderest pity for His cruel foes. In His manner was no cowardly weakness.”

DA 741 “From insult to insult, from mockery to mockery, twice tortured by the scourge, all that night there had been scene after scene of a character to try the soul. Christ had not failed. All through the disgraceful farce of a trial he had borne Himself with...dignity.”

DA 744 “The Saviour made no murmur of complaint. His face remained calm and serene...No curses were called down upon the soldiers who were handling him so roughly. No vengeance was invoked upon the priests…Christ pitied them in their ignorance and guilt. He breathed only a plea for their forgiveness…”

FW 16 “Let this point be fully settled in every mind: If we accept Christ as a Redeemer, we must accept Him as a Ruler. We cannot have the assurance and perfect confiding trust in Christ as our Saviour until we acknowledge Him as our King.”

Originally compiled by “Patricia” Star, edited and reprinted by GROW Ministries, PO Box 96 Clarksburg, TN 38324, www.growministries.net all emphasis supplied.

Interesting View Point

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:14:00 +0000

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/793.html

Need To Clean Your Kidneys? You Might Try. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:06:00 +0000

Kidney Cleaning

Dr. Abdullah Q Turkistani

CLEAN YOUR KIDNEYS IN LESS THAN $1.00

Years pass by and our kidneys are filtering the blood by removing salt, poison and any unwanted entering our body. With time, the salt accumulates and this needs to undergo cleaning treatments and how are we going to overcome this?

It is very easy, first take a bunch of parsley and wash it clean

Then cut it in small pieces and put it in a pot and pour clean water and boil it for ten minutes and let it cool down and then filter it and pour in a clean bottle and keep it inside refrigerator to cool.

Drink one glass daily and you will notice all salt and other accumulated poison coming out of your kidney by urination also you will be able to notice the difference which you never felt before.

Parsley is known as best cleaning treatment for kidneys and it is natural!

Mountain Media Productions Presents H1N1 Natural Remedies

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:03:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdwUMr607Wg

Germany's Sunday Law

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:17:00 +0000

Germany Reaffirms Sunday Law
December 1, 2009 From theTrumpet.comDec. 1, 2009, marks a historic day in Germany in more ways than one! By Ron Fraser

Coincident with the enacting of the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution on December 1, Germany’s Constitutional Court has ruled that the nation’s capital must, like the rest of the country, abide by the law instituting Sunday as a day “of rest from work and of spiritual improvement” (Deutsche Welle, December 1).
Since the war, Berlin had enacted its own legislation allowing 10 shopping Sundays per year. That local ruling is now quashed. Effective from Jan. 1, 2010, Berlin must fall into line with the law institutionalizing Sunday as a day of rest and religious contemplation as contained in Germany’s Basic Law.
The actual law establishing Sunday as Germany’s weekly day of worship is enshrined in an appendix to the Basic Law under the heading, “Extracts From the German Constitution of Aug. 11, 1919 [Weimar Constitution].” There we find, under the subhead “Religion and Religious Societies,” Article 139, which reads: “Sunday and holidays recognized by the state shall remain protected by law as days of rest from work and of spiritual improvement.”
Though, under that same section, Article 137 (1) states “There shall be no state church,” the effect of the Sunday law is to institutionalize Roman Catholicism and its daughter churches as Germany’s state religion.
Those aware of the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation will see this move by Germany’s highest court as one step further toward enforcing Rome’s religion, not only as the state religion on Germany, but on the whole European empire enacted by treaty on this infamous day, Dec. 1, 2009.
The prophecies of Revelation 13 leap into current-day perspective with this latest ruling of Germany’s Constitutional Court. For a clearer understanding of just where this is all leading, read our booklet Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast? •

Disclaimer: This article is presented as information only and does not necessarily reflect the view of Wheat Harvest Ministries.

Back to Top

SUNDAY LAW IN GERMANY?

noreply@blogger.com (Wheat Harvest Ministries) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:15:00 +0000

The World from Berlin
'Even Atheists Need to Switch Off on Sundays'

REUTERS
Shoppers walk among illuminated Christmas decorations in a shopping mall at Berlin's Potsdamer Platz.
Germany's highest court has ruled that Sunday should be kept as a day of rest and has overturned a Berlin law easing restrictions on Sunday shopping. Most German newspapers on Wednesday greet the ruling, some for reasons of religion and tradition, others out of a concern for workers' rights.
Many visitors to Germany can find themselves standing outside a closed department store, perplexed to find that they cannot do a bit of shopping during their weekend trip. This is a result of Germany's long-held resistance to Sunday shopping even in the face of growing consumerism.
');
document.writeln('');
document.writeln('');
document.writeln('');
document.writeln('');
}
// -->
Yet many of Germany's 16 states have already made some exceptions, allowing stores to open a few Sundays a year. And in Berlin the city government had gone the furthest in chipping away at the ban on Sunday trading. In 2006 the German capital gave the green light for retailers to open on 10 Sundays a year, including the four Advent Sundays preceding Christmas.
However, Germany's Constitutional Court has now upheld a complaint made by the country's Catholic and Protestant churches, based on a clause in the German constitution that Sunday should be a day of rest and "spiritual elevation."
The court on Tuesday decided in favor of the churches, saying that Sunday opening should not take place four weeks in a row. The ruling will not affect shopping this December, but would come into force next year. However, the ruling did not overturn completely the principle of limited Sunday store opening.
The labor unions had joined the churches in their campaign to ring-fence Sunday as a day off for the nation. However, their focus was not on protecting the right to practise religion, but rather on protecting workers in the retail sector from having to work on Sundays, sometimes the only day they might get to spend with other members of their family. The services union Verdi greeted Tuesday's ruling with "relief and joy," saying this was a boon to shopworkers and their families.
German papers on Wednesday are broadly in favor of the ruling, though their reasons for supporting the court's decision are strikingly different.
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The Constitutional Court had to overthrow the Berlin law. ... The judgement was not 'out of touch with reality,' as the Berlin Chamber of Commerce claims, but is actually very closely in touch with real life. The great diversity of working lives brings with it the fact that members of a single family are forced into different and sometimes incompatible working hours. If the state does not use some of its regulatory power to give a dependable rhythm to at least one free day -- and that is still Sunday -- then the family faces the threat of being pulled further apart."
"If they have no time with each other and for each other, then the formal notion of belonging together loses value. This danger faces many families in society. … The fact that in the face of growing commercialization and fewer jobs hardly any employee ever dares to ask for a free Saturday, led the labor unions to join the churches in their campaign -- with noticeable success."
The conservative Die Welt writes:
"The churches have argued correctly that employees in the retail sector are not given the possibility of organizing their Advent Sundays according to Christian principles: going to church, being involved in the community, singing and reading aloud. It is part of religious freedom to be able to do these things."
"The judges did not just endorse the division of time marked by Christianity, but also the necessity for this division. There is no ambiguity about this weekly rhythm. We people as social animals are duty bound and justified in dividing our time together. It is good to have free time together, it helps us to live as the social beings that we are."
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"The judgement sounds antiquated, maddeningly unmodern and pretty patronizing. It tells citizens when they are allowed to shop, and when they are not. It makes shopping on a Sunday an exception. It is a ruling that goes against the economic liberal zeitgeist and is a ruling against the round-the-clock commercialization of life."
"Yet, the ruling is humane. It is an act in favor of the public spirit. … Those who regularly go shopping on Sundays today will have to work regularly on Sundays tomorrow."
"It may sound old fashioned but it is still correct: Sunday is Sunday because it is unlike other days. This is not about tradition or religion or a social heritage. Sunday is more than just a day off for individuals. It that were so, then it wouldn't matter if someone took a day off on Tuesday or Thursday. It is a day to synchronize society, that is what makes it so important. Without Sunday, every day would be a working day and a fixed point in the week would disappear. Of course there can be exceptions, there have always been particular professions who work on Sundays. But when the exception becomes the rule, then the commercialization of Sundays will not end at the department stores."
"The court has given everyone the right to a day off on Sundays. You don't have to take it. Everyone can do what they like with it. But it is good to have it."
The Financial Times Deutschland writes:
"The ruling by the Constitutional Court has revived the emotional debate about opening hours of shops on Sundays. That alone is annoying. But even more annoying is that with its strong emphasis on the religiously based day of rest on Sunday, it is interfering in individual and economic freedom."
"Without a doubt the freedom to practise religion is of great value. However, in an increasingly secular society with more and more individualized rhythms of living, it seems an anachronism for the country's highest court to use retail of all things to save the day of rest."
"In the public debate there is too little mention of the freedom of shop owners to keep customers through opening on Sundays, who would otherwise order online. And the freedom of towns to use Sunday opening hours to attract tourists. Or the freedom of customers to decide for themselves if they would rather spend Sundays amidst the crowds in the shopping malls or walking in the forest."
"Appreciating these rights does not mean throwing away the country to the false god of consumerism. It means allowing a debate … about what Sunday really means to us. That includes protecting the rights of salespeople, paying them extra for working on Sundays and not putting anyone under pressure to work on Sunday."
"If this is achieved, then it is high time that Sunday opening hours are no longer discussed in terms of belief but rationally."
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung, which is based in Berlin, writes:
"Sunday as a day off is a great gift. The treadmill is closed for 24 hours. The court has given relaxation, rest and 'spiritual elevation' precedence over the thirst for profit and the right to a consumer fix. However, it made it clear in its ruling that Sunday was not just for those who wanted to practise their religion undisturbed. It is also to play cards, go for a walk or simply to laze around. After all even the strictest atheist needs the switching off that Sundays allow."
-- Siobhán Dowling