Despite ongoing violence in the region, NewScientist is reporting
that the “‘Garden of Eden’ has been saved.” The country’s Council of
Ministers recently approved its first national park, restoring
Mesopotamian marshes in Iraqi’s southern region.
Biblical scholars say this massive oasis in the desert may have been the
Garden of Eden. For more than five millennia, tribal groups of Marsh
Arabs lived sustainably in this water world, using the dominant plant, a
giant grass called Phragmites australis, for housing, animal feed,
fuel, and commerce. Under their ministrations, the marshes teemed with
life, serving as one of the world’s most important stopovers for
migratory birds and as breeding habitat for Persian Gulf fisheries.
After the Gulf war in 1991, Iraq's president, Saddam Hussain, used
dykes, sluices and diversions to cut off the country's two major rivers,
the Tigris and Euphrates. This drained 93 per cent of the marshes, largely obliterating the largest wetland ecosystem in the Middle East.
Please find more about it in:
+++
Looked at by Marcus Ampe from a Christian viewpoint.
De wereld bekeken vanuit een Christelijke visie door Marcus Ampe
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Wednesday 2 October 2013
Wednesday 28 August 2013
Chemical warsite and Pushing king of the South
Marcus Ampe, Andy Walton and Christadelphian World report
At the end of July Syria’s civil war had claimed over 100,000 lives, the UN announced on Thursday July 25 2013, after the number of deaths rose by more than 7,000 in just over a month.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, used the announcement of the landmark death toll to appeal for new efforts to convene a peace conference to end the Syrian conflict that began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.
“More than 100,000 people have been killed, millions of people have either been displaced or become refugees in neighbouring countries,” Mr Ban said.
“We have to bring this to an end, the military and violent actions must be stopped by both parties and it is thus imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible.”
The death toll was placed at 93,000 on June 13, with Thursday’s announcement marking a steep increase in the number casualties in recent weeks.
Both sides in the Syrian civil war have committed atrocities and both sides have misrepresented photos and falsified reports. But the burden appears to be on the government’s side.
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), which is above partisanship as well as devoted to saving lives, has reported that the hospitals it supports in Damascus have treated thousands of victims for neuro-toxicity. Their reports say that the symptoms are a result of the presence of Sarin gas.
Photo credit: AFP. A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children and adults laying on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21st 2013. |
A doctor from Irbin and a volunteer from Douma said that it wasn't until the mosque loudspeakers repeatedly announced warnings of a gas attack and residents were told to keep all doors and windows closed that they realized what had happened. "I was familiar with the patients' symptoms from earlier attacks," doctor Abu Akram recounts from the emergency hospital in Irbin. "People are externally unharmed, but they are foaming at the mouth and trembling, and their heartbeat becomes weaker and weaker. It was only a few victims in the past, but this time it was hundreds. They were lying on the floors of the treatment rooms, in the corridors, everywhere, and more and more kept coming. One after another, the patients around us lost consciousness. We injected atropine," a drug used to counteract the effects of Sarin nerve gas, "until we ran out. Then we used hydrocortisone, and finally we dripped onion juice. Most were revived, but 73 people died."
- Spiegel Online InternationalThe world looks out for the reaction against the use of chemical weapons. An attack on Syria is now being planned by the US and its allies will be the ninth direct western military intervention in an Arab or Muslim country in 15 years.
The Syrian atrocity, where the death toll has been reported by opposition-linked sources at 322 but is likely to rise, was damned as a "moral obscenity" by US secretary of state John Kerry. The killings in Egypt, the vast majority of them of civilians, have been estimated at 1,295 over two days. But Barack Obama said the US wasn't "taking sides", while Kerry earlier claimed the army was "restoring democracy".
Hafez al-Assad. Taken sometime before April 1987. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
President Morsi became Egypt's first ever democratically elected leader. But he has lasted only 18 months. The people have once again taken to the streets to remove him. This is people power. Obama promised freedom and democracy and human rights. But it has bought only violence, discontent and people wanting their rights above others. It is this godless spirit that Revelation 16 speaks about going forth from the kings of the world and infecting all the world – it leads to Armageddon....
Events in Syria might well be reaching a conclusion with the chemical weapon attack this week.
The conflict in Syria will Not have a peaceful outcome. Assad has made gains in recent weeks and is in no mood to compromise with the rebels. Why should he when he has the support of Russia - a nuclear super power?
In fact Assad’s comments the week of August the 5th speak of even greater trouble to come. He wants to crush his opponents with an “iron fist”. We know he has weapons to do this – chemical and biological. We also know he is not afraid to use them. Even this week there were reports of “toxic gas” wounding many in Damascus itself.
A victim of an air strike by regime forces on Aleppo is carried away, on August 26 2013. 'Chemical weapons are far from being the greatest threat to Syria’s people. That is the war itself and the death and destruction that has engulfed the country.' Photograph: Abo Al-Nur Sadk/AFP/Getty Images |
The Bible says that things will not end peacefully. In fact it clearly says that events in Syria will come to a sudden and dramatic end. It will culminate in the complete destruction of Damascus and the actual kingdom of Syria will cease to exist. We don’t know when this will happen – but we know it will – we keep watching….
Step by step Russia and America are being driven apart. This is God’s work. He said through his prophet Daniel over 2500 years ago that at the time of the end there would be a conflict between these two powers. Ezekiel 38 clearly identifies these powers as Russia on the one side and Britain and America (based in Saudi Arabia) on the other.
Over the last few years we have witnessed Russian / US disagreement over Iraq, Libya, Syria, Nato. Each time it gets worse. Now with this spy case they have even resorted to name calling! Obama said this week that Putin acted like a “bored kid” in their meetings. But much worse is to come. Events in Syria will be the final straw for Russia. When Syria is removed from being a power Russia will have been pushed too far. At that point (or shortly afterwards) Russia will descend into the Middle East….
July 21 - 27, 2013: Syria civil war death toll passes 100,000 people; Egypt crisis: 'Scores killed' at Cairo protest; Israel: considers 'serious territorial concessions'; Russia pushes ahead with arms shipments to Syria; Vladimir Putin dives to bottom of the sea in latest stunt; David Cameron: I'd like to export gay marriage
July 28 – August 3, 2013: Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem.; Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious; Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.”; The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.”; Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase; Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc
August 4 - 10, 2013: Assad vows to stamp out 'terror' with iron fist; Sinai airstrike on militants in Egypt kills five; Obama cancels meeting with Putin over Snowden; US steps up drone strikes in Yemen
August 11 - 17, 2013: Cairo devastation day after Egypt violence; US-Egyptian relations on the rocks; Temperature records broken in Austria and Hungary
And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
- Daniel 11:40
+
Please find also to read:
Guttering, choking, drowning
Chemical warfare in Syria: who and why?
Assad's Cold Calculation: The Poison Gas War on the Syrian People
+++
Related articles
- Egypt arrests U.S. citizen son of Brotherhood figure
- Downing Street: Cameron, Obama have 'no doubt' Syria used chemical weapons in Damascus attack - @AFP
- Limited Attack on Syria Imminent
- Syria: wrong war, wrong time
- West could hit Syria in days, envoys tell rebels
- Syria crisis: Russia warns of 'catastrophic consequences' of military intervention - The Independent
- US war on Syria 'as early as Thursday'
- Saudi-Russia deal on Syria could spell more pricy gas for EU
- West readies attacks after Syria gas 'obscenity'
- Will A Attack From The United States Against Syria Start World War III?
Temperatures rising
July 28 – August 3, 2013:
Temperatures in parts of China have hit record highs, prompting an emergency level-two nationwide heat alert for the first time. In Shanghai, at least 10 people have died from heatstroke, as the city experiences its hottest July in 140 years, reports say.
I call this Fire In The Sky. A sunrise from the workshop at the Hotel Lafayette in downtown Buffalo, New York on January 8, 2008. Photo was captured at roughly 7:30 a.m. (EST). That morning was followed by a day of record temperatures with the highs reaching nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) despite it being in the dead of winter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The national heat alert covers nine provinces, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Shanghai and Chongqing. According to figures from the Shanghai Meteorological bureau, Shanghai has seen 24 days with temperatures at or above 35C in July. "It should be a new record since Shanghai had its own weather recording," said chief service officer Wu Rui."Also, in July of this year Shanghai reached 40.6 degrees Celsius, its highest ever temperature. So the highest temperature in July also broke a record."
Temperatures have hit all-time highs in Austria and neighbouring Hungary as a stubborn heat wave nears the end of its second week. Thursday's 40.5 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit Thursday eclipsed the previous record of 39.9 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) set just five days before. In Hungary, temperatures were fractionally lower at 40 C Thursday. Officials there have issued a heat warning, while some government ministries have relaxed dress codes. For men, that means ties and jackets can be left at home. For women, pantyhose is optional. Croatia sent two water-dropping planes to Bosnia earlier in the week to help battle wildfires set off by drought and sweltering heat that threatened several villages. A Russian aircraft was dispatched to fight blazes in Serbia. Temperatures also nearly broke records in Poland.
More temperatures reaching record highs in Europe in the last few weeks.
Global Temperature Map for Exoplanet HD 189733b (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Creation is groaning. Hardly a week goes by without some new record being broken in some part of the world. The hottest, the wettest, the driest etc.
Amazingly a BBC report out today links increasing temperatures to a rise in violence.
The report shows that shifts in climate are strongly linked to increases in violence around the world. US scientists found that even small changes in temperature or rainfall correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes and murders, as well as group conflicts and war! The team says with the current projected levels of climate change, the world is likely to become a more violent place. They show that weather influences behaviour. There are numerous instances of God controlling the weather to change events and bring about his plan and purpose. We are told the earth would be full of violence at the time Christ returned. The weather is contributing to this….
The world is heating up in more ways than one.
We see it physically heating up with temperatures rising around the world and breaking new records. But we also see it heating up in the Middle East.
The situation north and south of Israel is incredibly volatile and it might not take much for there to be conflict.
But are we looking for a time of peace or a time of war? I believe we are looking for a time of war. There is conflict coming not peace. Yes there will be talk of peace (there is at the moment)– there may even be a peace agreement – but it won’t be real peace. There is great conflict coming between Israel and Syria. It could start anytime. It will involve the inner ring of people’s around Israel leading to an even greater conflict….
CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S WWW 11-17 August
+++
Related articles
- Chennai heats up as rains lie low
- Bacon fries on pavement as heat wave grips China
- China Feels the Heat
- Temperature records broken in Austria and Hungary
- Oceans Storing Earth's Excess Heat in Leaked UN Report - Bloomberg
- China: 10 dead in Shanghai amid hottest temperatures in 140 years
- China reckons with heat wave
- Shanghai heat wave 2013: Hottest temperature in 140 years!
- Record temperature as Japan heatwave takes toll
- Japan Heatwave Sees Temperature Hit Record 41 Degrees
Thursday 30 May 2013
Relieve the current humanitarian crisis in Syria
At the end of March the Samaritan Fund made a significant donation to an Emergency Appeal by the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to help relieve the current humanitarian crisis in Syria. This is in addition to the donation made in January to the UNICEF emergency appeal for children in Syria. The DEC appeal provides a grim summary of life in that troubled country:
Map of the autonomous areas under the French Mandate of Syria before 1937. Only the entities within the territory of the modern state of Syria are shown, so that Hatay (Alexandretta) -- which was ceded by France to Turkey -- and Lebanon (often considered part of Syria before 1936) are excluded. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Neville Moss (Secretary Samaritan Fund)
+++
Related articles
- UNHCR: Keep Borders Open to Fleeing Syrians
- Syria: "A Blackened Page of Modern History"
- Syria's refugee exodus now at more than 1.5 million
- Over 8 million Syrians Are In Need Of Humanitarian Aid- UN
- Syria war could spill over to Lebanon: Saudi envoy
- Syrian rebels plead for help as army pounds Qusair
- The mess in and over Syria
- British doctor killed in Syria
- Vaccination Campaigns Beefed Up by UNICEF Amid Measles Outbreak in Syria
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)