American Immigration Planned Strategy To Repress Wage The US immigration system is actually a strategy to repress wages, and undermine working America. The United States needs labor economics in their immigration policy that support working America. Labor economics is a very important component in any domestic economy, and trading cheap labor around the globe without regard to a domestic labor market is not protecting and enhancing the lives and quality of life for working America. Illegal Immigration Videos 7 Videos *Suad Leija Story 'Paper Weapons' 5 Videos Illegal Immigration Videos 2 *Immigration By the Numbers Illegal Immigration Videos 3 *Hiding In Plain Sight Illegal Immigration Videos 4 *Illegal Immigration:Still a Hot Issue? Illegal Immigration Videos 5 *Sacramento Illegal Immigration Protest Illegal Immigration Videos 6 *Amnesty for Illegal Aliens Demonstrations:Round 'em Up! Illegal Immigration Videos 3 Parts *Migrant Housing Parts 1,2,3 *Illegal immigration into the United States is a highly profitable proposition for both employers and the US government, and it also benefits Mexico, which is the largest source country of undocumented immigrants into the US. *The US and Mexican governments are silently, and actively, enticing illegal immigrants to enter this country and to work illegally. Poverty-stricken immigrants respond to the financial enticements and then are blamed by US citizenry for illegally being in the US. US Government Can't Afford To End Illegal Immigration US illegal immigrant population "may be as high as 20 million people. Illegal immigration accelerated under the Bush Administration, with the US gaining 3 million additional illegal immigrant residents in 2004. A third of all illegal immigrants in the US live in California. Other states with large illegal populations are, in descending order, Texas, New York, Illinois, Florida and Arizona. *Immigration and Naturalization has been plagued by years of corruption by top officials of the department. After more than 100 years in existence, *President Bush dissolved the US Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS) in March 2003 and absorbed it into the new Homeland Security Department, along with FEMA and dozens of other federal agencies created to help citizens and residents. The massive US intelligence agencies overhaul passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in January 2005 required Homeland Security to hire 10,000 more Border Patrol agents, 2,000 per year starting immediately. The Border Patrol currently employs 9,500 agents who patrol 8,000 miles of border. According to the World Bank, 53% of Mexico' population of 104 million residents live in poverty, which is defined as living on less than $2 a day. Close to 24% of Mexico's population live in extreme poverty, which means they live on less than $1 a day. The bottom 40% of Mexican households share less than 11% of the country's wealth. Millions live in extreme poverty,and children are compelled to work on the streets in order to help provide food for their families. Unemployment in Mexico is realistically estimated near 40%, and there are no government unemployment benefits. There are also virtually no welfare benefits to provide the basics for poverty-stricken, often-starving women, children and families. US Corporations Flood South In 1983, the devaluation of the Mexican peso triggered an explosion of US-owned factories, called *maquiladoras, along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border. Corporations closed thousands of factories within US borders, and relocated them to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, few required benefits and legally-acceptable poorer working conditions. Hundreds of thousands of poor Mexican workers and their families moved to northernmost Mexico to labor in the maquiladoras. Within ten years, though, those same US corporations closed the maquiladoras, and again relocated factories, this time to Asia, which offered even cheaper labor costs, no benefits and often abject working conditions acceptable to local governments. Those hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers in the maquiladoras, and their families, were left with nothing. No benefits, no severance. Nothing. To complicate economic matters more, *Mexico's 1994-95 privatization of its banking and telecommunications industries thrust millions more into poverty with increased consumer prices, rising unemployment and wage and benefit cuts. Mexico's Billionaires Mexico's massive privatizations in 1994-95 also created a new privileged class of home-grown millionaires and billionaires. As of 2002, Mexico ranked fourth in the world in billionaires, behind the US, Japan and Germany. To summarize, millions of Mexican families live in soul-stripping poverty unemployed, hungry, without health care and the US border with Mexico is significantly under-enforced. *US Employers Routinely Hire Illegal Immigrants, With Little Penalty In March 2005, Wal-Mart, a company with $285 billion in annual sales. was fined $11 million for having untold hundreds of illegal immigrants nationwide clean its stores. "The federal government boasts it's the largest of its kind. But for Wal-Mart, it amounts to a rounding error---and no admittance of wrongdoing since it claims it didn't know its contractors hired the illegals" wrote the Christian Science Monitor on March 28, 2005. "If it weren't so easy for illegals and employers to skirt worker ID verification, the settlement's requirement that Wal-Mart also improve hiring controls might have a ripple effect in corporate America. but the piddling fine will hardly deter businesses from hiring cheap labor from a pool of illegals that's surged by 23 percent since 2000....But enforcement is pathetically inadequate, especially since 9/11." Federal Business Sanctions To Hire Illegals *The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provides for sanctions against businesses that hire undocumented workers, which means workers without proper identification. The legislation was enacted once Mexico-US border maquiladoras run by US corporations began closing, and those workers streamed across the border, searching for jobs of any kind. In 1999, under President Bill Clinton, the US government collected $3.69 million in fines from 890 companies for employing undocumented workers. In 2004, under President George Bush, the federal government collected $188,500 from 64 companies for such illegal employment practices. And in 2004, the Bush Administration levied NO fines for US companies employing undocumented workers. In 21st-century America, it's an unspoken agreement between employer, the undocumented employee and the federal government: the employee provides acceptable ID that appears authentic, the employer asks no questions, and the US government looks the other way. Fake ID...Social Security cards, US permanent residency cards (i.e. "green cards"), US temporary employment authorization cards....are readily available for about $100 to $200 in every major American city,and plenty of smaller ones, too. Wrote reporter Eduardo Porter in an April 5, 2005 New York Times article, "Currently available for about $150 on street corners in just about any immigrant neighborhood in California, a typical fake ID package includes a green card and a Social Security card. It provides cover for employers, who, if asked, can plausibly assert that they believe all their workers are legal." According to Catholic priest *Dr.Daniel Groody Associate Professor at University of Notre Dame and a director of the university's Center for Latino Studies, "If they make it across the border, most immigrants will work at low-paying jobs that no one except the most desperate wants. They will de-bone chicken in poultry plants, pick crops in fields and build houses in construction. As one person in Arizona noted, 'It looks like entering the US through the desert as undocumented immigrants is some kind of employment screening test administered by the US government for the hospitality, construction and recreation industries.' *Millions of US jobs have shifted from the legal workforce "as employers have systematically replaced American workers with lower wage illegal aliens." For illegal immigrants, it's about finding any work to feed, clothe and shelter their families. For employers, it's about profits. But why would the US government look the other way, allowing employers to replace American workers with undocumented workers from other countries? "...experts blame the twin pressures of ethnic advocacy and business interests" reports the Christian Science Monitor. Translation...."ethnic advocacy" means buying favor...and votes....within the illegal immigrant community. If an immigrant doesn't vote, he/she has relatives who do. In the 21st century, Hispanics surpassed African-Americans as the largest ethnic group in the United States. Many believe that the Bush Administration's lack of immigration enforcement in 2004 was directly connected to the Republican Party's goal to court the Hispanic vote, and to entice Hispanics to join Republican ranks. Translation..."business interests" means profits. When labor costs are lower, business profits are higher. When thousands of businesses have higher profits, then the US business community is stronger (and happier). More votes and more voter perception of success. All American Wages Depressed A major economic drawback, though, to allowing thousands...probably millions...of US businesses to pay under-market wages and benefits to undocumented workers is that it depresses wages for all workers in the US. All Americans workers, then have decreased incomes, lower benefits and higher rates of poverty and hunger. An obvious moral drawback to allowing US businesses to pay under-market, lower than even minimum wage rates, is that it's wrong. Minimum wage and standard minimal working conditions are established to humanely provide for the safety and welfare of all workers...not just American-born workers. It's a matter of decency and human rights, rooted in the United States' Christian-Judeo heritage. It's wrong and exploitative, and it's immoral. It's an updated form of economic slavery. Writes Dr. Groody, "Immigrants die cutting North Carolina tobacco and Nebraska beef, chopping down trees in Colorado, welding a balcony in Florida , trimming grass at a Las Vegas golf course, and falling from scaffolding in Georgia.... With an economic gun at their backs, they leave their homes because hunger and poverty pushes them across the border....Every day, immigrants dehydrate in deserts, drown in canals, freeze in mountains and suffocate in tractor trailers. As a result, the death toll has increased 1,000 percent in some places." Illegals Boost Social Security Profits And there's one more reason why would the US government would look the other way, thus allowing US employers to replace American workers with undocumented workers from other countries. A huge, seemingly insurmountable reason. A $7 billion a year problem:Social Security. Undocumented Workers Give $7 Billion Annually to Social Security According to a New York Times article on April 5, 2005, "...the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as *$7 billion a year. Moreover, the money paid by illegal immigrants and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections." However,since illegal immigrant workers are here illegally, and ostensibly presented fake ID to the US employer, they will never collect Social Security benefits. "For illegal immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture," reports the New York Times. The Social Security Administration remains solvent in large part due to deductions taken from the paychecks of illegal immigrant workers,yet Social Security will never pay benefits to those workers. *The workers pay in, but they never receive back. Wouldn't the federal government detect fake Social Security numbers? According to that April 6, 2005 New York Times article, "Starting in the late 1980s, the social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect sometimes simply fictitious Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the 'earnings suspense file' in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to. The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990s, two and a half times the amount of the 1980s. In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. The mismatched W-2's fit like a glove on illegal immigrants' known geographic distribution and the patchwork of jobs they typically hold. An audit found that more than half of the 100 employers filing the most earnings reports with false social Security numbers from 1997 through 2001 came from just three states: California, Texas and Illinois." As shown by this information, the federal bureaucracy clearly knows which companies employ probable illegal immigrant workers, and it even knows which workers are likely illegals. And the government does nothing about it. Not one penalty was levied by the federal government against an employer in 2004 for hiring undocumented workers. The equation to explain the whys of illegal immigration into the US is simple: Widespread abject poverty and starvation in Mexico after US corporations relocated their cheap-labor plants from the US-Mexico border to Asia, and after Mexican banks and telecommunications were privatized, creating dozens of instant billionaires and plunging millions into poverty. Illegals Boost Corporate Profits US employers anxious for more profits, and willing to exploit the poverty and fears of illegal immigrants to do so. The federal government anxious to curry favor with , and garner votes from, business owners and the Hispanic community thus, willing to under-enforce borders and immigrations laws, and ignore illegal hiring by employers. The Social Security Administration dependent on taking in $7 billion annually of contributions from illegal immigrant workers who will never receive benefits from the system. THE RESULT: Millions of illegal immigrants working for low wages and in poor working conditions, grateful for "scraps to fall from the US table of prosperity," per Dr. Groody. Wealthier US businesses, and a much-richer Social Security Administration, neither which reimburse local and state authorities and taxpayers for the costs (education, health care, law enforcement and more) associated with illegal immigrants. And a very angry US citizenry, who vilify immigrants for being here, rather than blaming the business owners who hire and exploit them, the US government which lets them enter the US and profits greatly from them, and the Mexican government which is happy to see them immigrate out of their country. "Our nation virtually posts two sign on its southern border: 'Help Wanted: Inquire Within' and 'Do Not Trespass," says *Pastor Robin Hoover of Humane Borders. Also see *The Humane Borders Blog. "Without the help of immigrant labor, the US economy would virtually collapse. We want and need cheap immigrant labor, but we do not want the immigrants." Technocrati tags Illegal Immigration, US Immigration, Labor economics, maquiladoras, Mexico's 1994-95 privatization, Mexico's Billionaires, Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Dr.Daniel Groody, Humane Borders, Pastor Robin Hoover, Stumble It!

*American Forces Network Europe has a greatly enhanced and updated website now with super quick audio and video links. Military news is now greatly expanded and timely. Videos are plentiful. All 11 American military bases in Europe are highlighted each with its own news and integrated website. *United States European Command has greatly expanded its photo and video offerings. It is user friendly and has news and videos you will not find anywhere else. Stumble It!

The Western World is shopping for Christmas. Christmas for Western societies is perhaps the most important economic event. During this time of mass consumption, when goods of all kinds are purchased, in Bethlehem; the birthplace of Jesus Christ, it is a somber, desperate time, for the inhabitants. If you believe in Christmas, Bethlehem may be no place for you. The Little Town, since antiquity an emotional world capital of Christianity, is steadily becoming a city without Christians. The exodus of Bethlehem's Christian Palestinians, spurred by Israel's military occupation and settlement policies, the violence and upheaval of the intifada, as well as beckoning opportunities in the Americas and elsewhere, has left a town that was 80 percent Christian in 1948, to one that is now 85 percent Muslim. Read more *Christmas 2006:Is Jesus still a Palestinian? The Hamas government, often labeled by the international community as Islamic militants, has promised to donate US$50,000 to prepare Bethlehem for the traditional Christmas holidays. The offering will be twice as much as given in previous years. Local businesses are feeling the harsh reality of the ever-declining tourist economy. Now people here have no salaries. It’s like a well that finished drawing water ... Read more *Islamic Hamas Donates Cash for Bethlehem’s Christmas *Bethlehem mayor calls on world Christians to visit his town this Christmas Bethlehem XMAS Video *Bethlehem:Christmas preparations Video The Bethlehem Wall Israel began to wall in the Bethlehem ghetto in 2002, constructing sections of electrified fence around the city of Beit Jala and on lands belonging to Bethlehem and Beit Sahour sprawling below the massive illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa. In 2003, more of the Wall was hastily erected further around Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. It wasn't until 2004 that Israeli occupying forces brought in the massive cement panels that have come to characterize Israel's Apartheid project and the Palestinian ghettos it is creating. In June of 2004 Israel built sections of cement wall around the northern entrance to Bethlehem, the historic road linking the city to Jerusalem, and up against the neighboring Aida Refugee Camp. They left open the section between the Bethlehem checkpoint and the Israeli fortress at the holy site of Rachel's Tomb. Where Is Everyone Secrets live in the space between our footsteps. The words of my grandfather echo in my dream, as the years keep his beads and town. I see Bethlehem, all in dust, empty a torn piece of newspaper lost in its narrow streets. Where is everyone? Graffiti and stones answer. Where is the real Bethlehem - the one my grandfather came from? Handkerchiefs dry the pain from my hands. Olive trees and tears continue to remember. I walk until I reach an old Arab man dressed in a white robe. Aren't you the man I saw in my grandfather's stories? He looks at me and leaves. I follow-ask him why he is going? He continues. I stop, turn around, realize, he has left me secrets between his footsteps. The Occupation The Poverty Israel's encroachments into the Bethlehem District alone, which include the townships of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, have taken a devastating toll in terms of the lands lost to Israeli confiscation policies. The decades-long occupation has expropriated 46 percent of Beit Jala, 27 percent of Beit Sahour and approximately 9 percent of Bethlehem. These lands include those taken from Palestinian Christians for Jewish-only settlements like Gilo, Har-Gilo, Har Homa, and Givat Hamatos; or for future illegal constructions, such as Giv'at Ya'el in Beit Jala, and Har Homa B and C in Beit Sahour. There is, in fact, an imminent threat to the existence of Palestinian Christian communities, and it does not stem from Israel's annexation policies alone. It includes restrictions on movement and the denial of the rights to self-determination, worship (i.e. access to Jerusalem's holy sites), education, proper health services and an adequate standard of living. And for Gaza's Christians, who account for 2,200 of the Strip's 1.4 million residents, the situation is deteriorating at an exponential rate, as Israeli bombardments and closures deny them water, food and electricity. The above restrictions and violations must also be viewed through the larger lens of Israel's systematic destruction of Palestinian civil society, a process that is blind to religious identity and grounded in an ethnically-based discrimination against Arabs that is increasingly used to justify further Isreali land grabs. In a report issued earlier this year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) found that between 1999 and 2004, Israel's occupation and oppressive measures led to unprecedented levels of poverty in the West Bank, with 63 percent of Palestinians living below the poverty level of $2.3 per person per day, 16 percent of whom live in extreme poverty conditions ($1.6 per person per day). UNCTAD avers that these figures "have been hard to reverse under the Israeli policy of internal and external closures and the complex system of mobility restrictions" and that this "system has effectively turned the West Bank into isolated islands, involving at the height of the closure regime up to 600 physical barriers in the form of permanent checkpoints, metal gates, earth mounds and walls, roadblocks and trenches." Additionally, Israel's continued construction of its separation wall, whose illegal ruling by the International Court of Justice approaches its second anniversary, along with various other separation barriers on either side of the wall, have created over two dozen communities stranded between the West Bank and Israel's 1948 borders. Several of these enclave populations have no access to public health care whatsoever. Jew does not necessarily mean victim, and Christian is not somehow divorced from Arab. Do not forget Gaza where war by the Palestinians, is equated with freedom. Resources *Bethlehem To Be Crushed Without Negotiation *Israel's Apartheid Wall *Israel/Palestinian Statistics *Stop the Wall *Two States One Future *Jewish Voice For Peace Stumble It!

New Music Videos *EuroYank Music Box See My Luxembourg Christmas Photos *A Luxembourg Christmas For my loyal readers, some "Special Christmas" Videos. I wish you all the best of the season, and hope this contribution will add some holiday joy. Special Christmas Videos Scrooge Video *Scrooge (Click Full Movie) (1935 Original Classic Movie Uncut 78 minutes) Classic Christmas Videos *Classic Christmas Videos *Classic Christmas Cartoons Christmas In Germany Videos German Christmas Videos *German Christmas Market Video *Nuremberg XMAS Market Video (Large Screen Video opens in default player) *Christmas In Nuremberg Germany Video *Christmas In Seiffen Germany Video *Christmas In Neustadt Germany Video *Christmas Market Trier Germany Video *Christmas Market Magdeburg Germany Video German Christmas Markets Photos *Nuremberg XMAS Market Photos *Ruedesheim XMAS Market of Nations Photos (World Famous Ruedesheim Christmas Market of Nations Photos) The Meaning of Christmas *The Hope Video (Instant Play in 13 parts; click a chapter play the video) Not Your Average XMAS Videos Video 1 *Christmas:finally cracked the secret code of Alexander Sokurov Video 2 *Christmas At St Ives United Kingdom Video 3 *Christmas Around the World Video 4 *Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Video 5 *A Visit To Santa Video 6 *Human Dog XMAS Special Video 7 *Christmas In Japan Video 8 *Minimum Wage Christmas Under the Sea Videos Video 9 *Christmas Under the Sea Aqualounge 1 Video 10 *Christmas Aqualounge 2 Video 11 *Christmas Aqualounge 3 Video 12 *Christmas Aqualounge 4 Stumble It!

The "Controlled American Media" decides what it wants the public to know, and how to spin the tale. Here is today's UNREPORTED NEWS ... Government Agencies Stealing Relief Funds Federal, state and local governments are teaming up with corporations and developers to systematically steal hurricane relief funds from the poor to enrich themselves. Billions of dollars were given to help the communities damaged by Katrina. The people gave this money to help the working, elderly and disabled people of the Gulf Coast rebuild and restart their lives after Katrina. The need is still great. Over 300,000 people remain displaced from the City of New Orleans alone. Hundreds of thousands of others on the rest of the Gulf Coast are also not home. Over 80,000 families in Louisiana are living in FEMA trailers. Texas says they have 250,000 displaced people, and Georgia reports another 100,000. Tragically, money that was supposed to go to those in need is instead being diverted by federal, state and local politicians and corporations who have swooped down on these billions and are taking them for other purposes. Total Disregard Of Law Congress allocated $10.4 billion through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to rebuild Louisiana. By law, over 50% of these funds are supposed to benefit low and moderate income people. As of November 1, 2006, only eighteen people have actually received any of this money to fix up their homes, out of over 77,000 homeowners who have applied for assistance. Yes, only 18! Louisiana cannot get the money to those in need, but it has managed to start paying a corporate management company, ICF International, $756 million over the next three years. This is very big for ICF, whose total revenue in 2005 was $177 million. While tens of thousands of homeowners wait for assistance, renters are not even on the list. Not a single dollar of CDBG money is allocated directly to any of the renters devastated by Katrina, despite the fact that over 50% of the people in New Orleans were renters. Using Public Relief Funds To Bail Out Private Corporations Louisiana is giving $200 million in CDBG federal hurricane relief funds to bail out a private utility corporation, Entergy New Orleans. This corporation pleads poverty despite being a subsidiary of its parent, Entergy Inc., which reported a net cash flow of $777 million dollars for the third quarter of 2006. Worse, Louisiana is saying this $200 million in CDBG funds counts as a contribution to the low and moderate income people of New Orleans - most of whom have not even made it back to the city. Clearing Out the Poor For High Profit High Income Housing US Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which has taken over the local Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), is seeking millions in hurricane relief tax credits to demolish over 5000 apartments. Since Katrina, HUD and HANO have barred thousands of families from returning to their apartments. All the renters are African-American. Most are mothers and grandmothers. Some are elderly and disabled. Private apartments are out of the question as rent in the New Orleans area is up nearly 80% over last year. These apartments are safe and could have already been repaired, but almost all the maintenance workers were fired. A professor from MIT recently inspected the apartments and declared they are structurally sound and are in better shape than most of the rest of the housing in New Orleans. Residents still living in Texas and Georgia are pleading to return to their apartments and promise to clean up the apartments themselves if only the government will take the bars off the doors and windows. Developers and the agencies want to tear these apartments down and build other mixed income housing. They say there is only a short window of opportunity available to get hurricane tax credits to demolish and redevelop so it does not make financial sense to repair the apartments. After taking millions in hurricane relief money, will the developers still provide affordable housing to 5000 families? Absolutely not. HUD flatly says that everyone who lived in these apartments before Katrina will not have a home after the developers are finished. Public housing residents remember a 1600-apartment development was demolished before Katrina and only 100 families have been allowed to live in the new place. A hopeful sign is that Amnesty International USA has joined in on the side of local residents and affordable housing allies. AIUSA has mounted a campaign calling on people across the country to "stand with Katrina survivors and call for HUD to stop the destruction of housing for low-income residents." Meanwhile, disaster profiteering continues. The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 was established by Congress to rebuild the communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So far, this has been used to subsidize all kinds of private projects, including the building of a mall for Target and JC Penny in Lafayette, expanding an auto dealership in Baton Rouge, and converting a plantation in Livingston into a hotel. Politically Connected Corporations Reap No Bid Contracts This corporate plundering follows the path taken in the immediate days after Katrina, when politically connected corporations were given hundreds of millions of no-bid contracts: Ashbritt Inc., of Pompano Beach, Florida, has received contracts worth over $579 million for debris removal from Army Corps of Engineers despite apparently not owning a single dumptruck. Ashbritt had only recently paid $40,000 to the lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, which had been run by Mississippi governor and former National GOP chair Haley Barbour. The owners of Ashbritt gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004. Ceres Environmental, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was given a $500 million contract for debris removal in Louisiana by the Corps on September 16, 2005. Additional contracts bring the company up to $555 million. In the previous 4 years, the company had received a total of $29 million in government contracts. The Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance lists the company as a provider of "yard waste compost and horticultural potting soil. Circle B Enterprises was awarded $287 million in contracts for housing by FEMA, despite not even being licensed to build homes in its own state of Georgia and filing for bankruptcy in 2003. The company does not even have a web site. Other corporations profiting off the devastation include Bechtel, Blackwater, CH2M Hill, Fluor, Halliburton subsidiary KBR and many others. Katrina Reconstruction Videos *Katrina's Impact *New Orleans Reconstruction *Katrina:America's Test No Oversight No Criminal Charges Filed There has been no real oversight of these misdeeds. The only criminal charges filed have been against individuals who ripped off programs for a couple of hundred or a few thousand dollars. Most recently, the Department of Justice triumphantly announced to the press that they had issued an indictment for abuse of Katrina funds - of a man who illegally received Katrina unemployment benefits while still working! Meanwhile, hundreds of millions are being diverted without a peep from the government. The people of New Orleans and the Gulf coast are fighting against the robbing of the poor and the looting of hurricane relief funds, but the clock is ticking. Before long, there will be no money left. The generosity of those who contributed to help those harmed by Katrina will be snugly in the pockets of developers and corporations. Affordable housing will remain scarce. The working poor, the elderly and the disabled will remain displaced. The next disaster will occur, and this will happen again. Congress appropriated $62.3 billion in emergency financing after Hurricane Katrina struck. So far, a total of $15.8 billion has been allocated from a FEMA-managed disaster relief fund, of which $11.6 billion has been committed through contracts, direct aid to individuals or work performed by government agencies. Read more *Katrina Clean-Up Contracts Questioned A series of exemptions to competitive bidding and other procurement requirements adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Army Corps of Engineers has effectively turned the Gulf region reconstruction and cleanup contracts into a feeding frenzy for disaster profiteers — a network of crony contractors for whom the $200 billion cleanup and reconstruction promises to be a significant windfall. Read more *The Flood of Crony Contracting Following Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has become a free-for-all for corporations. The big money, as usual, is reserved for the big corporations. The usual suspects, including Halliburton and the Shaw group, are getting the big contracts from FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers. Read more *Contaminated Contracting in Post-Katrina New Orleans And who will investigate this looting of public funds designated for KATRINA RELIEF? You guessed it - YOUR ELECTED FEDERAL OFFICIALS. Read more *Housing Scarcity Scare Technocrati Tags Controlled American Media, Government Agencies Stealing Relief Funds, FEMA trailers, Community Development Block Grant, Federal Hurricane Relief Funds, Housing and Urban Development, Housing Authority of New Orleans, Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, Ashbritt Inc, Ceres Environmental, Circle B Enterprises, Stumble It!

Miracle At Lourdes, France

St Bernadette Today Unchanged Since Death 1879 On 18 April 1925, Bernadette's body was exhumed for the third and final time. After 46 years, her body was still intact and uncorrupted. Our Lady of Lourdes 128 years after death You can see her body in the Church of Lourdes A Life of Pain and Suffering Without Bitterness Bernadette was to suffer poor health for the rest of her life ever since 1855, when her city of Lourdes was hit by an outbreak of cholera, and she was hit by the fever where 38 people died and hundreds more were affected In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to her, she was just a fourteen-year-old peasant girl in Lourdes; a small town in the Pyrenees in the south of France. read more *Bernadette Soubirous Our Lady of Lourdes On Thursday, February 11, 1858, a poor, sickly, unlettered peasant girl of Lourdes, France went with her sister and another girl to fetch sticks. Bernadette Soubirous, age 14, who knew little of her catechism but was devoted to the will of God, experienced her first apparition of a lovely Lady at the Grotto of Massabielle. See the Webcam *Webcam Grotto of Massabielle Upon seeing the Lady, who had a rosary draped over her right arm, Bernadette began praying the Rosary. Bernadette did not know who the Lady was at this time. This is Bernadette's description of the Lady at that first apparition ... "While I was saying the Rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the toes appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her shoulders and arms almost to the bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her knees. The chain of the rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely spaced." Thereafter commenced a series of apparitions of the Lady to Bernadette at the Grotto. There were eighteen in all; the last took place July 16, of the same year. Bernadette often fell into an ecstasy during these apparitions, as was witnessed by the hundreds who attended the later visions, though no one except Bernadette ever saw or heard the apparition. One day, the Lady told the girl to drink of a mysterious fountain within the grotto itself, the existence of which was unknown, and of which there was no sign. But Bernadette scratched at the ground, and a spring immediately bubbled up and soon gushed forth. On another occasion the apparition bade Bernadette go and tell the priests she wished a chapel to be built on the spot and processions to be made to the grotto. At first the clergy were incredulous. The priest said he would not believe it unless the apparition gave Bernadette her name. After another apparition, Bernadette reported that the Lady told her, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Though the girl was unfamiliar with the term, the Pope had declared the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854. Word soon spread about the apparitions and more and more people accompanied Bernadette to the Grotto, but only Bernadette could see the Lady. At these apparitions the Lady told Bernadette to "Pray to God for sinners!" Bernadette, as instructed by the Lady, also kissed the ground several times to do penance for sinners. At one of the apparitions Bernadette, following instructions of the Lady, scratched at the muddy earth and began to drink and wash from an unknown stream. Only later was the stream discovered to have miraculous healing powers. The village Curé had asked Bernadette to inquire of the Lady who she was. On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, also known as Lady Day, the Lady told Bernadette her name. She said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Only a few years ago the Holy Father, Pius IX, had declared ex cathedra as dogma of the Faith that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been conceived without the stain of original sin. Four years after Bernadette's visions, in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition" of Our Lady. A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest. In 1873 the great "national" French pilgrimages were inaugurated. Three years later the basilica was consecrated and the statue solemnly crowned. Bernadette died on 16th April 1879. Her body was buried in the small chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, within the convent grounds. In 1883 the foundation stone of another church was laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of the basilica and was consecrated in 1901 and called the Church of the Rosary. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church; it is now observed on February 11. Read more *Lourdes France Official Website Millions of pilgrims venture every year to Lourdes. Miracles still flow from the miraculous waters of Lourdes. The message of Our Lady of Lourdes is about the healing Mercy of God. Lourdes is also about the need for prayer and penance. St. Bernadette testified to this call of Our Lady of Lourdes by living the rest of her life in humble prayer and suffering in a convent in France. The site has since become the greatest of all modern Christian shrines with more than five million pilgrims visiting each year, many of which are seeking cures from illnesses at a miraculous spring of water, that the Holy Virgin revealed in a grotto. Details of the Exhumations On September 22, 1909, Bernadettes body was exhumed, as part of the process leading to her eventual canonisation. Bishop Gauthey of Nevers, together with other Church representatives and officials, entered the convent Chapel and took an oath upon the Holy Bible to tell the truth. Bernadette appeared exactly as she had been on the day of her death. The hollowed-out tomb was extremely humid - her habit was very damp, the rosary held in her hands was rusted and her crucifix had turned green. In her hands she held a Rosary, which was rusting, and a Crucifix, which was covered in verdigris. The body was completely intact. There was no smell and no trace of corruption was seen on the little body in the coffin. Doctor Jourdan, the surgeon who was present for the exhumation, has left a written record in the Community archives describing what occurred - "The coffin was opened in the presence of the Bishop of Nevers, the mayors of the town several canons and ourselves. We noticed no smell. The body was clothed in the habit of Bernadette's order. The habit was damp. Only the face, hands and forearms were uncovered." "The head was tilted to the left. The face was dull white. The mouth was open slightly and it could be seen that the teeth were still in place. The hands, which were crossed upon the breast, were perfectly preserved, as were the nails. The hands still held a rusting Rosary. The veins on the forearms stood out." After the identification, the Sisters washed the body and dressed it in a fresh habit. It was then placed in a new coffin lined with white silk, and lowered back into the tomb. The entire process was completed at half past five in the evening. On 13 August 1913, Pope Pius X authorised the introduction of the Cause for Canonisation - Bernadette could now be given the title 'Venerable'. This meant that body had to be exhumed once again. This process was interrupted by the war, and the body was not re-exhumed until 3 April 1919. The process was the same as before - as were the results. The body remained intact. On 18 November 1923, the Holy Father announced the authenticity of Bernadette's virtues - her beatification could now proceed. Consequently, a third exhumation was needed. This time, relics were to be taken from the body - these would then be sent to Rome, to Lourdes and to Houses of the Sisters of Nevers throughout the world. On 18 April 1925, the exhumation took place. Bernadette had been dead more than forty six years. Yet, her body remained uncorrupt. Doctor Talon, a surgeon, removed the relics. Three years later he wrote a report about this exhumation, for a medical journal. In it, he described his amazement at the perfect preservation of the skeleton and the muscles in particular, as well as the liver which - he stated - should have deteriorated entirely very soon after death. he concluded that "this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon". The body itself was perfectly preserved. At this exhumation, it was noted that a small portion of the skin on the face had discolored slightly, due probably to the washing the body had received and its exposure to the organisms of the air. Consequently, it was decided to cover the face and hands with light wax masks. The firm of Pierre Imans in Paris was contacted, and they agreed to make the necessary masks. Also, the Armand Catelan workshop in Lyons had been contacted and they would make a beautiful reliquary for the body of the deceased Sister. By June of 1925, the Cateland workshop in Lyon had finished the gilt and crystal reliquary which was to be the final resting place of the saint; the light wax masks were placed on the face and hands and the body was placed in the shrine. The same month, Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette - she could now be called "Blessed" and her remains could be publicly venerated On 14 June 1925, Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette 'Blessed' - her relics could now be exposed for public veneration. But the reliquary was not yet ready. So the body was put in the small chapel dedicated to Saint Helen, which was then officially sealed. On 18 July, the shrine was ready. The body of the Beata was clothed once more in a new habit and was then transferred to the shrine. The reliquary was made of silver, gilt and crystal. On it were depiction's of the Apparitions at Lourdes, and lilies - the symbol of Bernadette's purity. Crowning the reliquary were the initials 'N.D. de L.' Notre Dame de Lourdes, entwined around which was a Rosary. The Office of Virgins was sung by the assembled Sisters. The shrine was solemnly transferred to the main chapel of the convent on 3 August 1925. In August, the shrine was ceremonially placed in the main chapel of the convent, and the long line of pilgrims began to visit the convent. In 1933 Bernadette was declared a Saint - appropriately, this took place on December 8th, feast of the Immaculate Conception The Lady of Lourdes had kept the promise She made to Bernadette in 1858 - "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next." The Grounds The warm, dry weather makes long walks in the grounds very pleasant. Its very easy to imagine Saint Bernadette herself walking here, especially as there have been few changes since that time. Behind the convent, at the end of an avenue of chestnut trees, is the tiny chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph. This was one of Saint Bernadette's favorite places for quiet prayer, as she had a fond love of the Spouse of Mary. It was later to become her resting place during the forty-six years of her burial. It is very plain and simple, with a stained-glass window of Our Lady above the small altar. Inset into the wall is the tombstone from Saint Bernadette's original grave At the bottom of the garden is the statue of Our Lady of the Waters, Saint Bernadette's favorite statue; "It has something of the beauty I saw" she used to say about it. It was placed here following the discovery of a spring nearby, hence the name. Upstairs in the convent is the Saint Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary. This is the room in which Saint Bernadette died in April 1879, having entered the "white chapel" of her sick-bed the previous December. It is now a chapel proper, used by the Sisters themselves for quiet prayer. There is an inspirational atmosphere in this room, stemming from the knowledge that this is where the thirty-five year old sister spent the last months of her life before once more seeing the heavenly smile of her Beautiful Lady. Bernadette's long periods of illness were never wasted on self-pity or bitterness - each became for her an opportunity of self-knowledge and personal and spiritual growth. For her, illness was not a burden but a special gift from her loving God, whose supreme gift was the Cross. References *Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette *Our Lady of Lourdes *Living Miracles *Lourdes, France Photos *Lourdes, France Photo Gallery Technocrati Tags St Bernadette, Our Lady of Lourdes, Virgin Mary, Grotto of Massabielle, Immaculate Conception, Lourdes France, Our Lady of the Waters Stumble It!

US Cannot Afford To End Illegal Immigration

American Immigration Planned Strategy To Repress Wage The US immigration system is actually a strategy to repress wages, and undermine working America. The United States needs labor economics in their immigration policy that support working America. Labor economics is a very important component in any domestic economy, and trading cheap labor around the globe without regard to a domestic labor market is not protecting and enhancing the lives and quality of life for working America. Illegal Immigration Videos 7 Videos *Suad Leija Story 'Paper Weapons' 5 Videos Illegal Immigration Videos 2 *Immigration By the Numbers Illegal Immigration Videos 3 *Hiding In Plain Sight Illegal Immigration Videos 4 *Illegal Immigration:Still a Hot Issue? Illegal Immigration Videos 5 *Sacramento Illegal Immigration Protest Illegal Immigration Videos 6 *Amnesty for Illegal Aliens Demonstrations:Round 'em Up! Illegal Immigration Videos 3 Parts *Migrant Housing Parts 1,2,3 *Illegal immigration into the United States is a highly profitable proposition for both employers and the US government, and it also benefits Mexico, which is the largest source country of undocumented immigrants into the US. *The US and Mexican governments are silently, and actively, enticing illegal immigrants to enter this country and to work illegally. Poverty-stricken immigrants respond to the financial enticements and then are blamed by US citizenry for illegally being in the US. US Government Can't Afford To End Illegal Immigration US illegal immigrant population "may be as high as 20 million people. Illegal immigration accelerated under the Bush Administration, with the US gaining 3 million additional illegal immigrant residents in 2004. A third of all illegal immigrants in the US live in California. Other states with large illegal populations are, in descending order, Texas, New York, Illinois, Florida and Arizona. *Immigration and Naturalization has been plagued by years of corruption by top officials of the department. After more than 100 years in existence, *President Bush dissolved the US Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS) in March 2003 and absorbed it into the new Homeland Security Department, along with FEMA and dozens of other federal agencies created to help citizens and residents. The massive US intelligence agencies overhaul passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in January 2005 required Homeland Security to hire 10,000 more Border Patrol agents, 2,000 per year starting immediately. The Border Patrol currently employs 9,500 agents who patrol 8,000 miles of border. According to the World Bank, 53% of Mexico' population of 104 million residents live in poverty, which is defined as living on less than $2 a day. Close to 24% of Mexico's population live in extreme poverty, which means they live on less than $1 a day. The bottom 40% of Mexican households share less than 11% of the country's wealth. Millions live in extreme poverty,and children are compelled to work on the streets in order to help provide food for their families. Unemployment in Mexico is realistically estimated near 40%, and there are no government unemployment benefits. There are also virtually no welfare benefits to provide the basics for poverty-stricken, often-starving women, children and families. US Corporations Flood South In 1983, the devaluation of the Mexican peso triggered an explosion of US-owned factories, called *maquiladoras, along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border. Corporations closed thousands of factories within US borders, and relocated them to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, few required benefits and legally-acceptable poorer working conditions. Hundreds of thousands of poor Mexican workers and their families moved to northernmost Mexico to labor in the maquiladoras. Within ten years, though, those same US corporations closed the maquiladoras, and again relocated factories, this time to Asia, which offered even cheaper labor costs, no benefits and often abject working conditions acceptable to local governments. Those hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers in the maquiladoras, and their families, were left with nothing. No benefits, no severance. Nothing. To complicate economic matters more, *Mexico's 1994-95 privatization of its banking and telecommunications industries thrust millions more into poverty with increased consumer prices, rising unemployment and wage and benefit cuts. Mexico's Billionaires Mexico's massive privatizations in 1994-95 also created a new privileged class of home-grown millionaires and billionaires. As of 2002, Mexico ranked fourth in the world in billionaires, behind the US, Japan and Germany. To summarize, millions of Mexican families live in soul-stripping poverty unemployed, hungry, without health care and the US border with Mexico is significantly under-enforced. *US Employers Routinely Hire Illegal Immigrants, With Little Penalty In March 2005, Wal-Mart, a company with $285 billion in annual sales. was fined $11 million for having untold hundreds of illegal immigrants nationwide clean its stores. "The federal government boasts it's the largest of its kind. But for Wal-Mart, it amounts to a rounding error---and no admittance of wrongdoing since it claims it didn't know its contractors hired the illegals" wrote the Christian Science Monitor on March 28, 2005. "If it weren't so easy for illegals and employers to skirt worker ID verification, the settlement's requirement that Wal-Mart also improve hiring controls might have a ripple effect in corporate America. but the piddling fine will hardly deter businesses from hiring cheap labor from a pool of illegals that's surged by 23 percent since 2000....But enforcement is pathetically inadequate, especially since 9/11." Federal Business Sanctions To Hire Illegals *The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provides for sanctions against businesses that hire undocumented workers, which means workers without proper identification. The legislation was enacted once Mexico-US border maquiladoras run by US corporations began closing, and those workers streamed across the border, searching for jobs of any kind. In 1999, under President Bill Clinton, the US government collected $3.69 million in fines from 890 companies for employing undocumented workers. In 2004, under President George Bush, the federal government collected $188,500 from 64 companies for such illegal employment practices. And in 2004, the Bush Administration levied NO fines for US companies employing undocumented workers. In 21st-century America, it's an unspoken agreement between employer, the undocumented employee and the federal government: the employee provides acceptable ID that appears authentic, the employer asks no questions, and the US government looks the other way. Fake ID...Social Security cards, US permanent residency cards (i.e. "green cards"), US temporary employment authorization cards....are readily available for about $100 to $200 in every major American city,and plenty of smaller ones, too. Wrote reporter Eduardo Porter in an April 5, 2005 New York Times article, "Currently available for about $150 on street corners in just about any immigrant neighborhood in California, a typical fake ID package includes a green card and a Social Security card. It provides cover for employers, who, if asked, can plausibly assert that they believe all their workers are legal." According to Catholic priest *Dr.Daniel Groody Associate Professor at University of Notre Dame and a director of the university's Center for Latino Studies, "If they make it across the border, most immigrants will work at low-paying jobs that no one except the most desperate wants. They will de-bone chicken in poultry plants, pick crops in fields and build houses in construction. As one person in Arizona noted, 'It looks like entering the US through the desert as undocumented immigrants is some kind of employment screening test administered by the US government for the hospitality, construction and recreation industries.' *Millions of US jobs have shifted from the legal workforce "as employers have systematically replaced American workers with lower wage illegal aliens." For illegal immigrants, it's about finding any work to feed, clothe and shelter their families. For employers, it's about profits. But why would the US government look the other way, allowing employers to replace American workers with undocumented workers from other countries? "...experts blame the twin pressures of ethnic advocacy and business interests" reports the Christian Science Monitor. Translation...."ethnic advocacy" means buying favor...and votes....within the illegal immigrant community. If an immigrant doesn't vote, he/she has relatives who do. In the 21st century, Hispanics surpassed African-Americans as the largest ethnic group in the United States. Many believe that the Bush Administration's lack of immigration enforcement in 2004 was directly connected to the Republican Party's goal to court the Hispanic vote, and to entice Hispanics to join Republican ranks. Translation..."business interests" means profits. When labor costs are lower, business profits are higher. When thousands of businesses have higher profits, then the US business community is stronger (and happier). More votes and more voter perception of success. All American Wages Depressed A major economic drawback, though, to allowing thousands...probably millions...of US businesses to pay under-market wages and benefits to undocumented workers is that it depresses wages for all workers in the US. All Americans workers, then have decreased incomes, lower benefits and higher rates of poverty and hunger. An obvious moral drawback to allowing US businesses to pay under-market, lower than even minimum wage rates, is that it's wrong. Minimum wage and standard minimal working conditions are established to humanely provide for the safety and welfare of all workers...not just American-born workers. It's a matter of decency and human rights, rooted in the United States' Christian-Judeo heritage. It's wrong and exploitative, and it's immoral. It's an updated form of economic slavery. Writes Dr. Groody, "Immigrants die cutting North Carolina tobacco and Nebraska beef, chopping down trees in Colorado, welding a balcony in Florida , trimming grass at a Las Vegas golf course, and falling from scaffolding in Georgia.... With an economic gun at their backs, they leave their homes because hunger and poverty pushes them across the border....Every day, immigrants dehydrate in deserts, drown in canals, freeze in mountains and suffocate in tractor trailers. As a result, the death toll has increased 1,000 percent in some places." Illegals Boost Social Security Profits And there's one more reason why would the US government would look the other way, thus allowing US employers to replace American workers with undocumented workers from other countries. A huge, seemingly insurmountable reason. A $7 billion a year problem:Social Security. Undocumented Workers Give $7 Billion Annually to Social Security According to a New York Times article on April 5, 2005, "...the estimated seven million or so illegal immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as *$7 billion a year. Moreover, the money paid by illegal immigrants and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections." However,since illegal immigrant workers are here illegally, and ostensibly presented fake ID to the US employer, they will never collect Social Security benefits. "For illegal immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture," reports the New York Times. The Social Security Administration remains solvent in large part due to deductions taken from the paychecks of illegal immigrant workers,yet Social Security will never pay benefits to those workers. *The workers pay in, but they never receive back. Wouldn't the federal government detect fake Social Security numbers? According to that April 6, 2005 New York Times article, "Starting in the late 1980s, the social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect sometimes simply fictitious Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the 'earnings suspense file' in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to. The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990s, two and a half times the amount of the 1980s. In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes. The mismatched W-2's fit like a glove on illegal immigrants' known geographic distribution and the patchwork of jobs they typically hold. An audit found that more than half of the 100 employers filing the most earnings reports with false social Security numbers from 1997 through 2001 came from just three states: California, Texas and Illinois." As shown by this information, the federal bureaucracy clearly knows which companies employ probable illegal immigrant workers, and it even knows which workers are likely illegals. And the government does nothing about it. Not one penalty was levied by the federal government against an employer in 2004 for hiring undocumented workers. The equation to explain the whys of illegal immigration into the US is simple: Widespread abject poverty and starvation in Mexico after US corporations relocated their cheap-labor plants from the US-Mexico border to Asia, and after Mexican banks and telecommunications were privatized, creating dozens of instant billionaires and plunging millions into poverty. Illegals Boost Corporate Profits US employers anxious for more profits, and willing to exploit the poverty and fears of illegal immigrants to do so. The federal government anxious to curry favor with , and garner votes from, business owners and the Hispanic community thus, willing to under-enforce borders and immigrations laws, and ignore illegal hiring by employers. The Social Security Administration dependent on taking in $7 billion annually of contributions from illegal immigrant workers who will never receive benefits from the system. THE RESULT: Millions of illegal immigrants working for low wages and in poor working conditions, grateful for "scraps to fall from the US table of prosperity," per Dr. Groody. Wealthier US businesses, and a much-richer Social Security Administration, neither which reimburse local and state authorities and taxpayers for the costs (education, health care, law enforcement and more) associated with illegal immigrants. And a very angry US citizenry, who vilify immigrants for being here, rather than blaming the business owners who hire and exploit them, the US government which lets them enter the US and profits greatly from them, and the Mexican government which is happy to see them immigrate out of their country. "Our nation virtually posts two sign on its southern border: 'Help Wanted: Inquire Within' and 'Do Not Trespass," says *Pastor Robin Hoover of Humane Borders. Also see *The Humane Borders Blog. "Without the help of immigrant labor, the US economy would virtually collapse. We want and need cheap immigrant labor, but we do not want the immigrants." Technocrati tags Illegal Immigration, US Immigration, Labor economics, maquiladoras, Mexico's 1994-95 privatization, Mexico's Billionaires, Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Dr.Daniel Groody, Humane Borders, Pastor Robin Hoover,

American Forces News Europe

*American Forces Network Europe has a greatly enhanced and updated website now with super quick audio and video links. Military news is now greatly expanded and timely. Videos are plentiful. All 11 American military bases in Europe are highlighted each with its own news and integrated website. *United States European Command has greatly expanded its photo and video offerings. It is user friendly and has news and videos you will not find anywhere else.

Christmas Time In Bethlehem

The Western World is shopping for Christmas. Christmas for Western societies is perhaps the most important economic event. During this time of mass consumption, when goods of all kinds are purchased, in Bethlehem; the birthplace of Jesus Christ, it is a somber, desperate time, for the inhabitants. If you believe in Christmas, Bethlehem may be no place for you. The Little Town, since antiquity an emotional world capital of Christianity, is steadily becoming a city without Christians. The exodus of Bethlehem's Christian Palestinians, spurred by Israel's military occupation and settlement policies, the violence and upheaval of the intifada, as well as beckoning opportunities in the Americas and elsewhere, has left a town that was 80 percent Christian in 1948, to one that is now 85 percent Muslim. Read more *Christmas 2006:Is Jesus still a Palestinian? The Hamas government, often labeled by the international community as Islamic militants, has promised to donate US$50,000 to prepare Bethlehem for the traditional Christmas holidays. The offering will be twice as much as given in previous years. Local businesses are feeling the harsh reality of the ever-declining tourist economy. Now people here have no salaries. It’s like a well that finished drawing water ... Read more *Islamic Hamas Donates Cash for Bethlehem’s Christmas *Bethlehem mayor calls on world Christians to visit his town this Christmas Bethlehem XMAS Video *Bethlehem:Christmas preparations Video The Bethlehem Wall Israel began to wall in the Bethlehem ghetto in 2002, constructing sections of electrified fence around the city of Beit Jala and on lands belonging to Bethlehem and Beit Sahour sprawling below the massive illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa. In 2003, more of the Wall was hastily erected further around Beit Jala, Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. It wasn't until 2004 that Israeli occupying forces brought in the massive cement panels that have come to characterize Israel's Apartheid project and the Palestinian ghettos it is creating. In June of 2004 Israel built sections of cement wall around the northern entrance to Bethlehem, the historic road linking the city to Jerusalem, and up against the neighboring Aida Refugee Camp. They left open the section between the Bethlehem checkpoint and the Israeli fortress at the holy site of Rachel's Tomb. Where Is Everyone Secrets live in the space between our footsteps. The words of my grandfather echo in my dream, as the years keep his beads and town. I see Bethlehem, all in dust, empty a torn piece of newspaper lost in its narrow streets. Where is everyone? Graffiti and stones answer. Where is the real Bethlehem - the one my grandfather came from? Handkerchiefs dry the pain from my hands. Olive trees and tears continue to remember. I walk until I reach an old Arab man dressed in a white robe. Aren't you the man I saw in my grandfather's stories? He looks at me and leaves. I follow-ask him why he is going? He continues. I stop, turn around, realize, he has left me secrets between his footsteps. The Occupation The Poverty Israel's encroachments into the Bethlehem District alone, which include the townships of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, have taken a devastating toll in terms of the lands lost to Israeli confiscation policies. The decades-long occupation has expropriated 46 percent of Beit Jala, 27 percent of Beit Sahour and approximately 9 percent of Bethlehem. These lands include those taken from Palestinian Christians for Jewish-only settlements like Gilo, Har-Gilo, Har Homa, and Givat Hamatos; or for future illegal constructions, such as Giv'at Ya'el in Beit Jala, and Har Homa B and C in Beit Sahour. There is, in fact, an imminent threat to the existence of Palestinian Christian communities, and it does not stem from Israel's annexation policies alone. It includes restrictions on movement and the denial of the rights to self-determination, worship (i.e. access to Jerusalem's holy sites), education, proper health services and an adequate standard of living. And for Gaza's Christians, who account for 2,200 of the Strip's 1.4 million residents, the situation is deteriorating at an exponential rate, as Israeli bombardments and closures deny them water, food and electricity. The above restrictions and violations must also be viewed through the larger lens of Israel's systematic destruction of Palestinian civil society, a process that is blind to religious identity and grounded in an ethnically-based discrimination against Arabs that is increasingly used to justify further Isreali land grabs. In a report issued earlier this year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) found that between 1999 and 2004, Israel's occupation and oppressive measures led to unprecedented levels of poverty in the West Bank, with 63 percent of Palestinians living below the poverty level of $2.3 per person per day, 16 percent of whom live in extreme poverty conditions ($1.6 per person per day). UNCTAD avers that these figures "have been hard to reverse under the Israeli policy of internal and external closures and the complex system of mobility restrictions" and that this "system has effectively turned the West Bank into isolated islands, involving at the height of the closure regime up to 600 physical barriers in the form of permanent checkpoints, metal gates, earth mounds and walls, roadblocks and trenches." Additionally, Israel's continued construction of its separation wall, whose illegal ruling by the International Court of Justice approaches its second anniversary, along with various other separation barriers on either side of the wall, have created over two dozen communities stranded between the West Bank and Israel's 1948 borders. Several of these enclave populations have no access to public health care whatsoever. Jew does not necessarily mean victim, and Christian is not somehow divorced from Arab. Do not forget Gaza where war by the Palestinians, is equated with freedom. Resources *Bethlehem To Be Crushed Without Negotiation *Israel's Apartheid Wall *Israel/Palestinian Statistics *Stop the Wall *Two States One Future *Jewish Voice For Peace

Happy Holidays

New Music Videos *EuroYank Music Box See My Luxembourg Christmas Photos *A Luxembourg Christmas For my loyal readers, some "Special Christmas" Videos. I wish you all the best of the season, and hope this contribution will add some holiday joy. Special Christmas Videos Scrooge Video *Scrooge (Click Full Movie) (1935 Original Classic Movie Uncut 78 minutes) Classic Christmas Videos *Classic Christmas Videos *Classic Christmas Cartoons Christmas In Germany Videos German Christmas Videos *German Christmas Market Video *Nuremberg XMAS Market Video (Large Screen Video opens in default player) *Christmas In Nuremberg Germany Video *Christmas In Seiffen Germany Video *Christmas In Neustadt Germany Video *Christmas Market Trier Germany Video *Christmas Market Magdeburg Germany Video German Christmas Markets Photos *Nuremberg XMAS Market Photos *Ruedesheim XMAS Market of Nations Photos (World Famous Ruedesheim Christmas Market of Nations Photos) The Meaning of Christmas *The Hope Video (Instant Play in 13 parts; click a chapter play the video) Not Your Average XMAS Videos Video 1 *Christmas:finally cracked the secret code of Alexander Sokurov Video 2 *Christmas At St Ives United Kingdom Video 3 *Christmas Around the World Video 4 *Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Video 5 *A Visit To Santa Video 6 *Human Dog XMAS Special Video 7 *Christmas In Japan Video 8 *Minimum Wage Christmas Under the Sea Videos Video 9 *Christmas Under the Sea Aqualounge 1 Video 10 *Christmas Aqualounge 2 Video 11 *Christmas Aqualounge 3 Video 12 *Christmas Aqualounge 4

Today's Unreported News

The "Controlled American Media" decides what it wants the public to know, and how to spin the tale. Here is today's UNREPORTED NEWS ... Government Agencies Stealing Relief Funds Federal, state and local governments are teaming up with corporations and developers to systematically steal hurricane relief funds from the poor to enrich themselves. Billions of dollars were given to help the communities damaged by Katrina. The people gave this money to help the working, elderly and disabled people of the Gulf Coast rebuild and restart their lives after Katrina. The need is still great. Over 300,000 people remain displaced from the City of New Orleans alone. Hundreds of thousands of others on the rest of the Gulf Coast are also not home. Over 80,000 families in Louisiana are living in FEMA trailers. Texas says they have 250,000 displaced people, and Georgia reports another 100,000. Tragically, money that was supposed to go to those in need is instead being diverted by federal, state and local politicians and corporations who have swooped down on these billions and are taking them for other purposes. Total Disregard Of Law Congress allocated $10.4 billion through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program to rebuild Louisiana. By law, over 50% of these funds are supposed to benefit low and moderate income people. As of November 1, 2006, only eighteen people have actually received any of this money to fix up their homes, out of over 77,000 homeowners who have applied for assistance. Yes, only 18! Louisiana cannot get the money to those in need, but it has managed to start paying a corporate management company, ICF International, $756 million over the next three years. This is very big for ICF, whose total revenue in 2005 was $177 million. While tens of thousands of homeowners wait for assistance, renters are not even on the list. Not a single dollar of CDBG money is allocated directly to any of the renters devastated by Katrina, despite the fact that over 50% of the people in New Orleans were renters. Using Public Relief Funds To Bail Out Private Corporations Louisiana is giving $200 million in CDBG federal hurricane relief funds to bail out a private utility corporation, Entergy New Orleans. This corporation pleads poverty despite being a subsidiary of its parent, Entergy Inc., which reported a net cash flow of $777 million dollars for the third quarter of 2006. Worse, Louisiana is saying this $200 million in CDBG funds counts as a contribution to the low and moderate income people of New Orleans - most of whom have not even made it back to the city. Clearing Out the Poor For High Profit High Income Housing US Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which has taken over the local Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO), is seeking millions in hurricane relief tax credits to demolish over 5000 apartments. Since Katrina, HUD and HANO have barred thousands of families from returning to their apartments. All the renters are African-American. Most are mothers and grandmothers. Some are elderly and disabled. Private apartments are out of the question as rent in the New Orleans area is up nearly 80% over last year. These apartments are safe and could have already been repaired, but almost all the maintenance workers were fired. A professor from MIT recently inspected the apartments and declared they are structurally sound and are in better shape than most of the rest of the housing in New Orleans. Residents still living in Texas and Georgia are pleading to return to their apartments and promise to clean up the apartments themselves if only the government will take the bars off the doors and windows. Developers and the agencies want to tear these apartments down and build other mixed income housing. They say there is only a short window of opportunity available to get hurricane tax credits to demolish and redevelop so it does not make financial sense to repair the apartments. After taking millions in hurricane relief money, will the developers still provide affordable housing to 5000 families? Absolutely not. HUD flatly says that everyone who lived in these apartments before Katrina will not have a home after the developers are finished. Public housing residents remember a 1600-apartment development was demolished before Katrina and only 100 families have been allowed to live in the new place. A hopeful sign is that Amnesty International USA has joined in on the side of local residents and affordable housing allies. AIUSA has mounted a campaign calling on people across the country to "stand with Katrina survivors and call for HUD to stop the destruction of housing for low-income residents." Meanwhile, disaster profiteering continues. The Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 was established by Congress to rebuild the communities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So far, this has been used to subsidize all kinds of private projects, including the building of a mall for Target and JC Penny in Lafayette, expanding an auto dealership in Baton Rouge, and converting a plantation in Livingston into a hotel. Politically Connected Corporations Reap No Bid Contracts This corporate plundering follows the path taken in the immediate days after Katrina, when politically connected corporations were given hundreds of millions of no-bid contracts: Ashbritt Inc., of Pompano Beach, Florida, has received contracts worth over $579 million for debris removal from Army Corps of Engineers despite apparently not owning a single dumptruck. Ashbritt had only recently paid $40,000 to the lobbying firm Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, which had been run by Mississippi governor and former National GOP chair Haley Barbour. The owners of Ashbritt gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee in 2004. Ceres Environmental, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was given a $500 million contract for debris removal in Louisiana by the Corps on September 16, 2005. Additional contracts bring the company up to $555 million. In the previous 4 years, the company had received a total of $29 million in government contracts. The Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance lists the company as a provider of "yard waste compost and horticultural potting soil. Circle B Enterprises was awarded $287 million in contracts for housing by FEMA, despite not even being licensed to build homes in its own state of Georgia and filing for bankruptcy in 2003. The company does not even have a web site. Other corporations profiting off the devastation include Bechtel, Blackwater, CH2M Hill, Fluor, Halliburton subsidiary KBR and many others. Katrina Reconstruction Videos *Katrina's Impact *New Orleans Reconstruction *Katrina:America's Test No Oversight No Criminal Charges Filed There has been no real oversight of these misdeeds. The only criminal charges filed have been against individuals who ripped off programs for a couple of hundred or a few thousand dollars. Most recently, the Department of Justice triumphantly announced to the press that they had issued an indictment for abuse of Katrina funds - of a man who illegally received Katrina unemployment benefits while still working! Meanwhile, hundreds of millions are being diverted without a peep from the government. The people of New Orleans and the Gulf coast are fighting against the robbing of the poor and the looting of hurricane relief funds, but the clock is ticking. Before long, there will be no money left. The generosity of those who contributed to help those harmed by Katrina will be snugly in the pockets of developers and corporations. Affordable housing will remain scarce. The working poor, the elderly and the disabled will remain displaced. The next disaster will occur, and this will happen again. Congress appropriated $62.3 billion in emergency financing after Hurricane Katrina struck. So far, a total of $15.8 billion has been allocated from a FEMA-managed disaster relief fund, of which $11.6 billion has been committed through contracts, direct aid to individuals or work performed by government agencies. Read more *Katrina Clean-Up Contracts Questioned A series of exemptions to competitive bidding and other procurement requirements adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Army Corps of Engineers has effectively turned the Gulf region reconstruction and cleanup contracts into a feeding frenzy for disaster profiteers — a network of crony contractors for whom the $200 billion cleanup and reconstruction promises to be a significant windfall. Read more *The Flood of Crony Contracting Following Hurricane Katrina New Orleans has become a free-for-all for corporations. The big money, as usual, is reserved for the big corporations. The usual suspects, including Halliburton and the Shaw group, are getting the big contracts from FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers. Read more *Contaminated Contracting in Post-Katrina New Orleans And who will investigate this looting of public funds designated for KATRINA RELIEF? You guessed it - YOUR ELECTED FEDERAL OFFICIALS. Read more *Housing Scarcity Scare Technocrati Tags Controlled American Media, Government Agencies Stealing Relief Funds, FEMA trailers, Community Development Block Grant, Federal Hurricane Relief Funds, Housing and Urban Development, Housing Authority of New Orleans, Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, Ashbritt Inc, Ceres Environmental, Circle B Enterprises,

Miracle At Lourdes, France

St Bernadette Today Unchanged Since Death 1879 On 18 April 1925, Bernadette's body was exhumed for the third and final time. After 46 years, her body was still intact and uncorrupted. Our Lady of Lourdes 128 years after death You can see her body in the Church of Lourdes A Life of Pain and Suffering Without Bitterness Bernadette was to suffer poor health for the rest of her life ever since 1855, when her city of Lourdes was hit by an outbreak of cholera, and she was hit by the fever where 38 people died and hundreds more were affected In 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to her, she was just a fourteen-year-old peasant girl in Lourdes; a small town in the Pyrenees in the south of France. read more *Bernadette Soubirous Our Lady of Lourdes On Thursday, February 11, 1858, a poor, sickly, unlettered peasant girl of Lourdes, France went with her sister and another girl to fetch sticks. Bernadette Soubirous, age 14, who knew little of her catechism but was devoted to the will of God, experienced her first apparition of a lovely Lady at the Grotto of Massabielle. See the Webcam *Webcam Grotto of Massabielle Upon seeing the Lady, who had a rosary draped over her right arm, Bernadette began praying the Rosary. Bernadette did not know who the Lady was at this time. This is Bernadette's description of the Lady at that first apparition ... "While I was saying the Rosary, I was watching as hard as I could. She was wearing a white dress reaching down to her feet, of which only the toes appeared. The dress was gathered very high at the neck by a hem from which hung a white cord. A white veil covered her head and came down over her shoulders and arms almost to the bottom of her dress. On each foot I saw a yellow rose. The sash of the dress was blue, and hung down below her knees. The chain of the rosary was yellow; the beads white, big and widely spaced." Thereafter commenced a series of apparitions of the Lady to Bernadette at the Grotto. There were eighteen in all; the last took place July 16, of the same year. Bernadette often fell into an ecstasy during these apparitions, as was witnessed by the hundreds who attended the later visions, though no one except Bernadette ever saw or heard the apparition. One day, the Lady told the girl to drink of a mysterious fountain within the grotto itself, the existence of which was unknown, and of which there was no sign. But Bernadette scratched at the ground, and a spring immediately bubbled up and soon gushed forth. On another occasion the apparition bade Bernadette go and tell the priests she wished a chapel to be built on the spot and processions to be made to the grotto. At first the clergy were incredulous. The priest said he would not believe it unless the apparition gave Bernadette her name. After another apparition, Bernadette reported that the Lady told her, "I am the Immaculate Conception". Though the girl was unfamiliar with the term, the Pope had declared the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in 1854. Word soon spread about the apparitions and more and more people accompanied Bernadette to the Grotto, but only Bernadette could see the Lady. At these apparitions the Lady told Bernadette to "Pray to God for sinners!" Bernadette, as instructed by the Lady, also kissed the ground several times to do penance for sinners. At one of the apparitions Bernadette, following instructions of the Lady, scratched at the muddy earth and began to drink and wash from an unknown stream. Only later was the stream discovered to have miraculous healing powers. The village Curé had asked Bernadette to inquire of the Lady who she was. On March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, also known as Lady Day, the Lady told Bernadette her name. She said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Only a few years ago the Holy Father, Pius IX, had declared ex cathedra as dogma of the Faith that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been conceived without the stain of original sin. Four years after Bernadette's visions, in 1862, the bishop of the diocese declared the faithful "justified in believing the reality of the apparition" of Our Lady. A basilica was built upon the rock of Massabielle by M. Peyramale, the parish priest. In 1873 the great "national" French pilgrimages were inaugurated. Three years later the basilica was consecrated and the statue solemnly crowned. Bernadette died on 16th April 1879. Her body was buried in the small chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, within the convent grounds. In 1883 the foundation stone of another church was laid, as the first was no longer large enough. It was built at the foot of the basilica and was consecrated in 1901 and called the Church of the Rosary. Pope Leo XIII authorized a special office and a Mass, in commemoration of the apparition, and in 1907 Pius X extended the observance of this feast to the entire Church; it is now observed on February 11. Read more *Lourdes France Official Website Millions of pilgrims venture every year to Lourdes. Miracles still flow from the miraculous waters of Lourdes. The message of Our Lady of Lourdes is about the healing Mercy of God. Lourdes is also about the need for prayer and penance. St. Bernadette testified to this call of Our Lady of Lourdes by living the rest of her life in humble prayer and suffering in a convent in France. The site has since become the greatest of all modern Christian shrines with more than five million pilgrims visiting each year, many of which are seeking cures from illnesses at a miraculous spring of water, that the Holy Virgin revealed in a grotto. Details of the Exhumations On September 22, 1909, Bernadettes body was exhumed, as part of the process leading to her eventual canonisation. Bishop Gauthey of Nevers, together with other Church representatives and officials, entered the convent Chapel and took an oath upon the Holy Bible to tell the truth. Bernadette appeared exactly as she had been on the day of her death. The hollowed-out tomb was extremely humid - her habit was very damp, the rosary held in her hands was rusted and her crucifix had turned green. In her hands she held a Rosary, which was rusting, and a Crucifix, which was covered in verdigris. The body was completely intact. There was no smell and no trace of corruption was seen on the little body in the coffin. Doctor Jourdan, the surgeon who was present for the exhumation, has left a written record in the Community archives describing what occurred - "The coffin was opened in the presence of the Bishop of Nevers, the mayors of the town several canons and ourselves. We noticed no smell. The body was clothed in the habit of Bernadette's order. The habit was damp. Only the face, hands and forearms were uncovered." "The head was tilted to the left. The face was dull white. The mouth was open slightly and it could be seen that the teeth were still in place. The hands, which were crossed upon the breast, were perfectly preserved, as were the nails. The hands still held a rusting Rosary. The veins on the forearms stood out." After the identification, the Sisters washed the body and dressed it in a fresh habit. It was then placed in a new coffin lined with white silk, and lowered back into the tomb. The entire process was completed at half past five in the evening. On 13 August 1913, Pope Pius X authorised the introduction of the Cause for Canonisation - Bernadette could now be given the title 'Venerable'. This meant that body had to be exhumed once again. This process was interrupted by the war, and the body was not re-exhumed until 3 April 1919. The process was the same as before - as were the results. The body remained intact. On 18 November 1923, the Holy Father announced the authenticity of Bernadette's virtues - her beatification could now proceed. Consequently, a third exhumation was needed. This time, relics were to be taken from the body - these would then be sent to Rome, to Lourdes and to Houses of the Sisters of Nevers throughout the world. On 18 April 1925, the exhumation took place. Bernadette had been dead more than forty six years. Yet, her body remained uncorrupt. Doctor Talon, a surgeon, removed the relics. Three years later he wrote a report about this exhumation, for a medical journal. In it, he described his amazement at the perfect preservation of the skeleton and the muscles in particular, as well as the liver which - he stated - should have deteriorated entirely very soon after death. he concluded that "this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon". The body itself was perfectly preserved. At this exhumation, it was noted that a small portion of the skin on the face had discolored slightly, due probably to the washing the body had received and its exposure to the organisms of the air. Consequently, it was decided to cover the face and hands with light wax masks. The firm of Pierre Imans in Paris was contacted, and they agreed to make the necessary masks. Also, the Armand Catelan workshop in Lyons had been contacted and they would make a beautiful reliquary for the body of the deceased Sister. By June of 1925, the Cateland workshop in Lyon had finished the gilt and crystal reliquary which was to be the final resting place of the saint; the light wax masks were placed on the face and hands and the body was placed in the shrine. The same month, Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette - she could now be called "Blessed" and her remains could be publicly venerated On 14 June 1925, Pope Pius XI declared Bernadette 'Blessed' - her relics could now be exposed for public veneration. But the reliquary was not yet ready. So the body was put in the small chapel dedicated to Saint Helen, which was then officially sealed. On 18 July, the shrine was ready. The body of the Beata was clothed once more in a new habit and was then transferred to the shrine. The reliquary was made of silver, gilt and crystal. On it were depiction's of the Apparitions at Lourdes, and lilies - the symbol of Bernadette's purity. Crowning the reliquary were the initials 'N.D. de L.' Notre Dame de Lourdes, entwined around which was a Rosary. The Office of Virgins was sung by the assembled Sisters. The shrine was solemnly transferred to the main chapel of the convent on 3 August 1925. In August, the shrine was ceremonially placed in the main chapel of the convent, and the long line of pilgrims began to visit the convent. In 1933 Bernadette was declared a Saint - appropriately, this took place on December 8th, feast of the Immaculate Conception The Lady of Lourdes had kept the promise She made to Bernadette in 1858 - "I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next." The Grounds The warm, dry weather makes long walks in the grounds very pleasant. Its very easy to imagine Saint Bernadette herself walking here, especially as there have been few changes since that time. Behind the convent, at the end of an avenue of chestnut trees, is the tiny chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph. This was one of Saint Bernadette's favorite places for quiet prayer, as she had a fond love of the Spouse of Mary. It was later to become her resting place during the forty-six years of her burial. It is very plain and simple, with a stained-glass window of Our Lady above the small altar. Inset into the wall is the tombstone from Saint Bernadette's original grave At the bottom of the garden is the statue of Our Lady of the Waters, Saint Bernadette's favorite statue; "It has something of the beauty I saw" she used to say about it. It was placed here following the discovery of a spring nearby, hence the name. Upstairs in the convent is the Saint Croix (Holy Cross) Infirmary. This is the room in which Saint Bernadette died in April 1879, having entered the "white chapel" of her sick-bed the previous December. It is now a chapel proper, used by the Sisters themselves for quiet prayer. There is an inspirational atmosphere in this room, stemming from the knowledge that this is where the thirty-five year old sister spent the last months of her life before once more seeing the heavenly smile of her Beautiful Lady. Bernadette's long periods of illness were never wasted on self-pity or bitterness - each became for her an opportunity of self-knowledge and personal and spiritual growth. For her, illness was not a burden but a special gift from her loving God, whose supreme gift was the Cross. References *Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette *Our Lady of Lourdes *Living Miracles *Lourdes, France Photos *Lourdes, France Photo Gallery Technocrati Tags St Bernadette, Our Lady of Lourdes, Virgin Mary, Grotto of Massabielle, Immaculate Conception, Lourdes France, Our Lady of the Waters