By a Falun Dafa practitioner from Liaoning Province, China

(Clearwisdom.net) The Chinese Communist Party has persecuted Falun Gong for ten years. I recently recalled a fellow practitioner, Wu Junyang, who left us five years ago. He was young, righteous and brilliant. All the people who knew him felt pain in their hearts upon his death.

Wu Junyang

Mr. Wu Junyang started practicing Falun Gong when he was 22 years old. He finished reading the book Zhuan Falun in two nights, and the next afternoon when he took a bus to return home, and when he smelled cigarette smoke, he felt nauseous, so he quit smoking and drinking. He felt that Dafa was so supernormal, and he told his family, "I started practicing and will practice to the end. I will never walk the path of regression."

On July 20, 1999 the Communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong. Mr. Wu went to Beijing to appeal four times and was detained at the detention center twice. After he arrived back home he withdrew 10,000 yuan, which was his only savings, to make truth-clarification materials. After he was detained three times, he was forced to leave his workplace, so he lost his source of income. As a result he was forced to become homeless, and his life became very difficult. In winter, because he had no money to buy coal, he could not warm himself. When he saw the snow melting, he collected leaves and grass to maintain his life. He spent all his time validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. Most nights he was very busy and didn't get much sleep, sometimes sleeping for two or three hours. He also ate very simple food. He devoted all his time to clarifying the facts. Regardless how difficult it was to do so, he conducted himself according to Dafa's principles.

He wrote many articles exposing the evil and "clarifying the facts." His articles scared the evil. Many times he simply sat in front of his computer and typed what he thought, and other people felt his articles were fluent and strong. Minghui Radio broadcast his poem, "I Still Clarify the Facts to You." In order to help practitioners walk their paths well, he rushed about to cities and villages and patiently helped practitioners, and shared with practitioners. Due to his great efforts he brought along practitioners over a large region to catch up with the Fa-rectification.

At midnight on September 18, 2004, many policemen from Benxi City, Liaoning Province jumped into the yard of the house he rented. They broke the locked windows and jumped into his room from three windows. At that time Wu Junyang was sending forth righteous thoughts. They cuffed him and put him in the police car. They detained him in a small dark room at the Benxi Detention Center and tortured him. Each day the thugs beat him to force him to give them information about the truth-clarification materials production site and his fellow practitioners. Regardless of how they tortured him, he divulged nothing.

Mr. Wu's family requested to see him many times, but the guard did not allow them to meet with him. After he was detained for 54 days, he asked his family to bring an insulated warm-up suit to him. After he was detained for 57 days, his family was asked to sign a paper. When his family met with Wu Junyang, he was lying on a flexible bed in the corridor of the Benxi First-aid Center Hospital. Wu Junyang, who was previously heavyset, was tortured to the point of being skin and bones, and he had become blind. When he heard his family's voices, he said, "Water, water. Since they brought me here, they have not given me water." When his family saw this scene, they cried loudly. When they looked up, they found that the guards had all disappeared, including the prison doctor.

Wu Junyang knew that his family had no money, so he told his family, "It is unnecessary to cure me. Let's go home." When his family took him home, the entire process was only half an hour. Wu Junyang felt a severe headache, and could not speak, and later his speech was unclear. No one knew what kind of torture he had suffered. His former clothes disappeared and he wore only the cotton warm-up suit that his family provided for him. His body was full of scars, his left eyeball protruded, and one ear was black and purple. His neck could not be touched, his arms and inner legs were full of thickly dotted pinprick scabs, and his left kneecap was swollen and purple. He was unable to move, fainted from time to time, and appeared incontinent. He told his family that there were ten yuan in his pocket that were not his. He had his family give it to the truth-clarification materials production site. What a sacred heart he had! Even the policemen who knew his situation well said, "Wu Junyang is a good man. He is the No. 1 in Benxi City."

When a funeral was held for Wu Junyang, the police were very scared. There were many policemen and plainclothes officers inside and outside the crematory. Many practitioners were hindered by police from attending the funeral. They could not see Wu Junyang for the last time, and only watched this sacred lotus rise and rise.

(Clearwisdom.net) Wangcun Forced Labor Camp officials are still torturing the many practitioners incarcerated there and make them do hard labor to try to "reform" them.

Cruel brainwashing

The first thing a new arrival encounters is several reform strategies. These include having to read documents or watch DVDs that slander Falun Gong, writing statements to give up the Falun Gong practice and defame it, standing for a long time, being handcuffed and hung up, being deprived of sleep and water and food, being deprived of bathroom use, and being forced to take drugs. Collaborators accompany practitioners initially, and then drug addict inmates in pairs monitor them constantly. In order to earn reductions in detention terms, inmates would do anything to torture practitioners. Below are some examples.

Changyi practitioners Ms. Yu Lili and Ms. Chen Zhenbo had their heads covered and were hung up for seven days. Guards urged Xu Huihui and other inmates to hit them like punching bags and scratch their backs with sharp needles until the women were severely bruised. Female guard Zheng Jinxia incited Jiang Lixia and Sun Dandan (drug addicts) to beat Ms. Chen barbarically. She sustained an injury to a cervical vertebra, and her head leaned to one side. Even a year later she was unable to hold her head straight. Inmates also inserted a sharp needle into Ms. Chen's ear, injuring it permanently. The needle had to be surgically removed.

Ms. Lu Xiumin from Laizhou City was forced to sit on a small stool for two days and nights, but she refused to "reform." Guard Zheng Jinxia shouted at inmates Jiang Lixia and Sun Dandan, "If she [Ms. Lu] does not 'reform' today, beat her today! If she does not 'reform' tomorrow, beat her tomorrow! Beat her till she 'reforms.'" These two inmates beat Ms. Lu until they were tired, took a break, and then beat her again. The beatings went on for two days. Once, seeing Ms. Lu lying on the floor after a beating, female guard Song Lijuan pretended ignorance and asked her why she was lying on the floor. Ms. Lu told her, "I was beaten so badly that I cannot get up." Song said, "Nonsense! Nobody saw it!" She then stomped hard with her high heels on Ms. Lu's instep, causing an injury that did not recover after more than a year. Another time guards ordered a group of inmates to beat Ms. Lu to try to make her write statements giving up the practice.

Ms. Cao Yuxiang from Hubei Province was doused with water and exposed to freezing cold during the winter. For seven days the windows and doors were left open. She was deprived of food, water, and sleep. Another time Ms Cao was forced to stand for two days. Although she was deprived of food and water, every meal was recorded as one steamed bun with one dish. Inmate Liu Wenlong recorded these in a log-book three times a day without exception.

Ms. Fu Wenying is from Shouguang City. Female guards Shi Wei and Sun Zhenhong dragged her by her hair and smashed her into a wall for failing to finish her labor assignment, injuring her head. They ordered her not to tell others that the head injury was the result of torture, but to say she hurt herself.

Ms. Sun Huaisen protested by going on a hunger strike. Drug addict inmate Jiang Lixia brutally forced-fed her, using a wide tube for one month, feeding her with a mixture of vegetables and water. Jiang once beat Ms. Sun so brutally that her head was injured. Jiang then covered Ms. Sun's head so that others would not see the damage.

Ms. Li Xiaoyan, 26, was hung up for seven days and nights for not giving up the practice. She was deprived of toilet use. Once, guard Sun Zhenhong and drug addict Jiang Lixia took off Ms. Li's pants for her to urinate while she was hung up, but did not pull up her pants afterwards. Guard Song Lijuan saw this and laughed loudly, humiliating Ms. Li.

Excessive hard labor

To increase their profits, labor camp officials regularly increased the work quotas. This is what happened when inmates had to make coils of wire: each person was assigned 80-150 coils per day, depending on her physical condition. The assignment was always beyond a person's capacity during working hours, requiring her to work overtime to finish the job. Considering the time taken for eating, sleeping, and restroom breaks, there is not enough time. Working hours were extended. For those who were ill or could not finish the assignment even after working 15-16 hours, they had to work on the weekends as well. Sometimes, they had to work even on Chinese New Year's Day. Whoever was too weak to work was given less food or no food.

Covering up the use of "slave labor"

When inspectors came, labor camp officials temporarily improved living conditions and also told the inmates to lie. The money used to temporarily improve conditions would be recovered later by reducing expenses. Designated inmates were identified in advance to talk with the inspectors. They were told how to answer different questions and where to stand. All these were pre-arranged so that things were covered up.

Whenever someone was ill, labor camp officials arranged for exams and treatment at Wangcun 183 Hospital at the detainee's expense. Once the hospital prescribed drugs, labor camp officials forced the detainee to take them. Very often, dizziness, memory loss, and other symptoms occurred when the drugs were taken. It was unclear what drugs were given, but labor camp officials had to make profits and control its detainees.

 

http://men.style.com

 

By Christopher Ketcham; Photograph by Mark Heithoff

DANIEL SUELO LIVES IN A CAVE. UNLIKE THE average American—wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office—he isn't worried about the economic crisis. That's because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.

His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He's either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo's blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he's both. "When I lived with money, I was always lacking," he writes. "Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present."

On a warm day in early spring, I clamber along a set of red-rock cliffs to the mouth of his cave, where I find a note signed with a smiley face: CHRIS, FEEL FREE TO USE ANYTHING, EAT ANYTHING (NOTHING HERE IS MINE). From the outside, the place looks like a hollowed teardrop, about the size of an Amtrak bathroom, with enough space for a few pots that hang from the ceiling, a stove under a stone eave, big buckets full of beans and rice, a bed of blankets in the dirt, and not much else. Suelo's been here for three years, and it smells like it.

Night falls, the stars wink, and after an hour, Suelo tramps up the cliff, mimicking a raven's call—his salutation—a guttural, high-pitched caw. He's lanky and tan; yesterday he rebuilt the entrance to his cave, hauling huge rocks to make a staircase. His hands are black with dirt, and his hair, which is going gray, looks like a bird's nest, full of dust and twigs from scrambling in the underbrush on the canyon floor. Grinning, he presents the booty from one of his weekly rituals, scavenging on the streets of Moab: a wool hat and gloves, a winter jacket, and a white nylon belt, still wrapped in plastic, along with Carhartt pants and sandals, which he's wearing. He's also scrounged cans of tuna and turkey Spam and a honeycomb candle. All in all, a nice haul from the waste product of America. "You made it," he says. I hand him a bag of apples and a block of cheese I bought at the supermarket, but the gift suddenly seems meager.

Suelo lights the candle and stokes a fire in the stove, which is an old blackened tin, the kind that Christmas cookies might come in. It's hooked to a chain of soup cans segmented like a caterpillar and fitted to a hole in the rock. Soon smoke billows into the night and the cave is warm. I think of how John the Baptist survived on honey and locusts in the desert. Suelo, who keeps a copy of the Bible for bedtime reading, is satisfied with a few grasshoppers fried in his skillet.


HE WASN'T ALWAYS THIS WAY. SUELO graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in anthropology, he thought about becoming a doctor, he held jobs, he had cash and a bank account. In 1987, after several years as an assistant lab technician in Colorado hospitals, he joined the Peace Corps and was posted to an Ecuadoran village high in the Andes. He was charged with monitoring the health of tribespeople in the area, teaching first aid and nutrition, and handing out medicine where needed; his proudest achievement was delivering three babies. The tribe had been getting richer for a decade, and during the two years he was there he watched as the villagers began to adopt the economics of modernity. They sold the food from their fields—quinoa, potatoes, corn, lentils—for cash, which they used to purchase things they didn't need, as Suelo describes it. They bought soda and white flour and refined sugar and noodles and big bags of MSG to flavor the starchy meals. They bought TVs. The more they spent, says Suelo, the more their health declined. He could measure the deterioration on his charts. "It looked," he says, "like money was impoverishing them."

The experience was transformative, but Suelo needed another decade to fashion his response. He moved to Moab and worked at a women's shelter for five years. He wanted to help people, but getting paid for it seemed dishonest—how real was help that demanded recompense? The answer lay, in part, in the Christianity of his childhood. In Suelo's nascent philosophy, following Jesus meant adopting the hard life prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount. "Giving up possessions, living beyond credit and debt," Suelo explains on his blog, "freely giving and freely taking, forgiving all debts, owing nobody a thing, living and walking without guilt . . . grudge [or] judgment." If grace was the goal, Suelo told himself, then it had to be grace in the classical sense, from the Latin gratia, meaning favor—and also, free.

By 1999, he was living in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand—he had saved just enough money for the flight. From there, he made his way to India, where he found himself in good company among the sadhus, the revered ascetics who go penniless for their gods. Numbering as many as 5 million, the sadhus can be found wandering roads and forests across the subcontinent, seeking enlightenment in self-abnegation. "I wanted to be a sadhu," Suelo says. "But what good would it do for me to be a sadhu in India? A true test of faith would be to return to one of the most materialistic, money-worshipping nations on earth and be a sadhu there. To be a vagabond in America, a bum, and make an art of it—the idea enchanted me."


THERE ISN'T ENOUGH SPACE IN SUELO'S cave for two, so I sleep in the open, at the edge of a hundred-foot cliff. No worries about animals, he says. Though mountain lions drink from the stream, and bobcats hunt rabbits under the cottonwoods, the worst he's experienced was a skunk that sprayed him in the face. Mice scurry over his body in the cave, and kissing bugs sometimes suck the blood from under his fingernails while he sleeps. He shrugs off these indignities. "After all, it's their cave too," he says. I hunker down near a nest of scorpions, which crawl up the canyon walls, ignoring me.

The morning ritual is simple and slow: a cup of sharp tea brewed from the needles of piñon and juniper trees, a swim in the cold emerald water where the creek pools in the red rock. Then, two naked cavemen lounging under the Utah sun. Around noon, we forage along the banks and under the cliffs, looking for the stuff of a stir-fry dinner. We find mustard plants among the rocks, the raw leaves as satisfying as cauliflower, and down in the cool of the creek—where Suelo gets his water and takes his baths (no soap for him) —we cull watercress in heads as big as supermarket lettuce, and on the bank we spot a lode of wild onions, with bulbs that pop clean from the soil. In leaner times, Suelo's gatherings include ants, grubs, termites, lizards, and roadkill. He recently found a deer, freshly run over, and carved it up and boiled it. "The best venison of my life," he says.

I tell him that living without money seems difficult. What about starvation? He's never gone without a meal (friends in Moab sometimes feed him). What about getting deadly ill? It happened once, after eating a cactus he misidentified—he vomited, fell into a delirium, thought he was dying, even wrote a note for those who would find his corpse. But he got better. That it's hard is exactly the point, he says. "Hardship is a good thing. We need the challenge. Our bodies need it. Our immune systems need it. My hardships are simple, right at hand—they're manageable." When I tell him about my rent back in New York—$2,400 a month—he shakes his head. What's left unsaid is that I'm here writing about him to make money, for a magazine that depends for its survival on the advertising revenue of conspicuous consumption. As he prepares a cooking fire, Suelo tells me that years ago he had a neighbor in the canyon, an alcoholic who lived in a cave bigger than his. The old man would pan for gold in the stream and net enough cash each month to buy the beer that kept him drunk. Suelo considers the riches of our own forage. "What if we saw gold for what it is?" he says meditatively. "Gold is pretty but virtually useless. Somebody decided it has worth, and everybody accepted this decision. The natives in the Americas thought Europeans were insane because of their lust for such a useless yellow substance."

He sautés the watercress, mustard leaves, and wild onions, mixing in fresh almonds he picked from a friend's orchard and ghee made from Dumpster-dived butter, and we eat out of his soot-caked pans. From the perch on the cliff, the life of the sadhu seems reasonable. But I don't want to live in a cave. I like indoor plumbing (Suelo squats). I like electricity. Still, there's an obvious beauty in the simplicity of subsistence. It's an un-American notion these days. We don't revere our ascetics, and we dismiss the idea that money could be some kind of consensual delusion. For most of us, it's as real as the next house payment. Suelo doesn't take public assistance or use food stamps, but he does survive in part on our reality, the discarded surfeit of the money system that he denounces—a system, as it happens, that recently looked like it was headed for the cliff.

Suelo is 48, and he doesn't exactly have a 401(k). "I'll do what creatures have been doing for millions of years for retirement," he says. "Why is it sad that I die in the canyon and not in the geriatric ward well-insured? I have great faith in the power of natural selection. And one day, I will be selected out." Until then, think of him like the raven, cleaning up the carcasses the rest of us leave behind.

 

By Julia Duin

At noon Thursday on the lower west terrace lawn of the U.S. Capitol, members of Congress, human rights and religious freedom activists will meet to commemorate a sad anniversary: 10 years of imprisonment and torture of the Chinese meditation group Falun Gong.

You may remember how Wenyi Wang, a reporter for the Epoch Times, sneaked into the press section during an April 20, 2006, speech on the South Lawn of the White House just before Chinese President Hu Jintao was to give a speech. Suddenly, "Stop persecuting Falun Gong," she screamed while unfurling a yellow banner with the group's name on it. It took several minutes for the Secret Service to arrest her.

Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual discipline that is Buddhist in nature. It consists of moral teachings, meditation and four exercises that resemble tai-chi.

The group says 3,200 of its members, at a minimum, have been tortured to death by the Chinese government. It cites Wang Lixuan, who had to watch her 7-month-old son die in front of her after he was hung upside down. Then police broke her neck and crushed her skull.

Then there are the forced organ transplants, one of the things Miss Wenyi was protesting. Just before her White House visit, this newspaper interviewed a Chinese journalist who uncovered a secret detention center in northern China that was used to harvest human organs for sale to domestic and international buyers. (The Chinese, of course, denied such a place exists.) The journalist estimated 6,000 Falun Gong prisoners were being mined for body parts. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, which chronicled the practice in March 2007, said the harvesting began in 2001.

What got the communist government going on April 25,1999, was the Falun Gong's ability to summon 10,000 of its practitioners, standing in silent protest, in a mass demonstration in Zhongnanhai, the government's compound in Beijing. The government struck back July 20, arresting the ringleaders of the April demonstration. Thousands of practitioners, the Falun Gong says, were dragged from their beds at dawn that day by police.

The Falun Gong is one of many groups I have listed in the fat religious persecution folder in my office. Buddhists, Muslims (especially out west) and Christians likewise get brutalized in China. But the Falun Gong, whose numbers were 70 million to 100 million at its height, seem to outrage the Chinese leaders the most. Maybe it's because the Falun Gong outnumbered the membership of the Communist Party and their practices are so quintessentially Chinese.

New Jersey Reps. Christopher H. Smith, a Republican, and Robert E. Andrews, a Democrat, plus 59 other members of Congress wrote a July 8 letter to President Obama asking that, "In view of the extreme brutality of the persecution faced by Falun Gong practitioners, our government should speak very clearly and specifically on their behalf to the Chinese government."

Mr. Obama hasn't said much about religious persecution during his brief time in office and the U.S. government isn't exactly known for standing up to China on human rights issues. Our massive indebtedness to China gives us little heft when it comes to pressuring them. But where there's a will, there's a way and the Falun Gong deserves a break.

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Teng Wenzhi from Dalian City, Liaoning was arrested by the Chinese Communist regime's police, and she was illegally sentenced to three years in prison. During the time Ms. Teng was held in prison, officers from the Pulandian City Police Station, along with 610 Office personnel, tried to locate and arrest her husband as well. During the long-term persecution by the Chinese Communist regime, Ms. Teng's husband's health deteriorated, and he passed away on December 24, 2007. The couple did not get to see each other before he died.

Ms. Teng is sixty years old and her home is in Taoyuan Residential area, Jinzhou District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province. At midday on April 26, 2002, with no official reason, officers from the Bolan Police Station, Pulandian City Police Station, and Jinzhou District Xianjin Street Police Station tried to arrest Ms. Teng and her husband. The couple was able to get away. The next day, police officer Zhao Kan and residential area committee directors Liu Qinglan and Xi Yumei forced Ms. Teng's neighbor to give them Ms. Teng's home key, which Ms. Teng asked the neighbor to keep for her. Without Ms. Teng and her husband there, they went into their home and searched thoroughly. They hid near the couple's home for over a month waiting to try and arrest them. In order to avoid being illegally arrested the elderly couple was forced to become homeless.

On the evening of July 3, 2007, Ms. Teng and her husband went to the Nanwang Village, Taiping Township, Pulandian City to hand out Falun Gong materials and flyers. They were reported, and the village Communist Party Committee head Zhou Xingyan, the security director, and the village head came to arrest them. Ms. Teng's husband was able to get away but Ms. Teng was captured by three officers, one of whom was Ma Hongyan, a policeman from Huaershan Police Station, and two other policemen. At the police station, Ms. Teng was forced into a so-called confession and photographed. Ms. Teng asked who the persecutors were and what their names were, but they refused to tell her.

Ms. Teng was held in the Pulandian City Detention Center that night and as Ms. Teng refused to give her name and refused to change shoes, officer Yang Changsheng at the detention center cursed her, beat her, and forcibly handcuffed her very tightly, to the point that her wrists bled.

Starting the next day, the communist personnel began interrogating Ms. Teng twice a week and then later once a week. The interrogators would not reveal their names during the interrogations. We only know one of the policeman's name- Zhang Liang. He is the district prosecutor and is extremely vicious.

On December 10, 2007, the Pulandian City Court secretly held a court session. Present was the judge (female, last name Wang), prosecutor Zhang Liang, court police, two jurors (the last name of one of them was Zhao), and two other people watching. The two people watching were said to be "representatives of the public." Ms. Teng asked them why her family wasn't notified of the trial. She was told that they were not obliged to do this. The court police took out two bags which contained the Nine Commentaries books and Falun Gong flyers, and said this was the evidence.

Ms. Teng said, "Freedom of belief and freedom of speech are specified by law. By passing out flyers I am merely using my rights that the law provides me. I did not do anything wrong. Instead, you all are committing crimes."

Prosecutor Zhang Liang slandered Falun Gong and requested the judge to sentence Ms. Teng harshly. Ms. Teng defended herself in court. She denounced the defamation of Falun Gong and the false claim that Falun Gong "impedes the justice of the law." Ms. Teng also pointed out that Falun Gong is spreading far and wide both in China and overseas. Ms. Teng warned them that the WOIPFG (World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong) will trace every person and organization that persecutes Falun Gong practitioners. She expressed hope that those persecuting her would choose a better future for themselves by not getting involved with the persecution of Falun Gong. They had no reactions and the judge announced a halt to the session.

On January 24, 2008, Pulandian City Court opened a second session for Ms. Teng's case. The court police took Ms. Teng to the court jail and locked her in a cell for an hour. They didn't begin a court session at all. Instead, the judge basically told the court police that Ms. Teng was sentenced to jail for three years.

On March 6, 2008, Pulandian City Detention Center director Zhou and Guan Xiujuan transferred Ms. Teng to the Liaoning Province Women's Jail, located in Shenyang City. Ms. Teng suffered poorly both physically and mentally from several months of inhuman torture. During the health check-up at the jail, she was diagnosed with high blood pressure (220), tachycardia, dizziness, Myocardial ischemia, and kidney stones. The jail therefore refused to keep her but the police still refused to let her go home and again put her back in the detention center. Ms. Teng resisted further persecution by holding a hunger strike. Ms. Teng was finally released on bail to receive medical treatment outside the jail.

 

 

(Clearwisdom.net) Mudanjiang Prison in Heilongjiang Province has 22 wards, and imprisons over 100 Falun Gong practitioners. Aside from forcing the Falun Gong  practitioners to work overtime at hard labor, the prison openly tortures practitioners in order to improve the "transformation" rate. They subject practitioners to a variety of torture methods, including electrical baton shocks, beatings, force-feeding, hanging, tying, freezing, stabbing with awls, solitary confinement, and coercing other inmates to beat them. Many practitioners have been disabled or killed by the torture. The number known to have been killed is over ten.

In early December 2004, prison guards Li Jiezhi, Li Yuhong, Li Wei, Dong Yujiang, and Wang He coerced Liu Lijun (convicted of robbery and murder) and other inmates to persecute practitioners. Practitioner Yang Xiaoguang was beaten until his nose bled and his face became swollen and bruised. Liu Guolai had his eyes blackened, three of his ribs broken, and he was knocked to the ground, unable to get up. Sun Ronxiao, in his fifties, was beaten twice in four days, causing several broken bones in his face.

Around November 10, 2005, prison staff member Zhang Qingshan beat Falun Gong practitioner Guan Lianbin, and shocked the inside of his thighs and around his genitals with an electrical baton. The torture lasted over three hours. One hour into the torture, Mr. Guan's heart condition was triggered. Zhang put the electric baton under Mr. Guan's shirt to shock his heart, and said, "I am curing your heart attack."

On March 16, 2006, Manager Wang Xuhui, from the Prison Operations Department, staff member Hou Po, and instructors Song Junlin and Li Yangkui used many methods to torture practitioner Wang Hai because he refused to "transform." They tortured him four to five times per day. Song beat him every day and dragged him around on the ground by his shackles. The police summoned the most vicious inmates, including Liu Lijun, Li Xiaodong, and Niu Miao, to strip Mr. Wang of his clothes and beat him with nylon tubes. They stomped and trampled him on his shackles and handcuffs, bruising his wrists and ankles and causing them to fester. The torture lasted for over a month, and caused Wang to become mentally disordered and incontinent. His whole body was bruised. Officer Ho Po claimed, "I have finished up half of his life.

On March 25, 2006, Wu Xuejun, Song Junpiao, and Jiang Lei went to the solitary confinement cell to beat practitioner Huang Guodong, and shocked his genitals and anus with an electric baton, causing him to have diarrhea right then, and his anus lost its ability to contract for a long time afterwards.

On May 17, 2006, Wu Xuejun knocked practitioner Liu Jun to the ground, stomped on his neck to shock him, and then kicked him. Mr. Liu's eye became swollen as a result of the kicks.

Mr. Tian Ronghe, a teacher in Harbin High School, was tortured in the intensive training ward at the prison for seven days and nights. The inmates taped his mouth and beat him, breaking all his teeth. The police doused practitioner Wu Yaorong with cold water until he passed out. They also force-fed practitioner Yao Guocai with raw corn flour and pepper.

Practitioners who died due to persecution include Jin Youfeng (a teacher in Mudanjiang Normal School), Pan Xingfu (31, deputy director of the Switching Center, Shuangyashan Telecommunication Bureau), Ning Jun (50, from Xian District, Mudanjaing City), Wei Xiaodong (34, a teacher in the Engineering College, Bayi Agricultural University in Heilongjiang), Wang Jiguo (40, Mudanjiang Normal School staff member), Li Ruqing (66, staff member at the Electrical and Mechanical Factory of Shuangyangshan Mine Bureau), Du Shiliang (50, a resident of Hailing City), Yu Junxiu (from Zhejiang Province), Zhang Hongquan (an engineer at the calculation station in the Well Measuring Company of Daqing Petroleum Company), Kong Xiangzhu (39, a resident of Shuangyashan City), and Wu Yueqing (30, a resident of Shuangyashan City).

The persecution of practitioners in Mudanjiang Prison has never stopped. Practitioners Wu Guoli, Jia Changmin, Sun Fa, Zhao Jiangguo, Gong Chengge of Mudanjiang City Second High School, Dai Qihong, who is a Mudanjiang Prison guard, and Hou Xicai were all gathered together and persecuted in the intensive training team. They were deprived of sleep, not allowed to wash or brush their teeth, and prohibited from seeing their families or friends. This has been ongoing for almost three months.

The prison held about 4800 people, and inmates were forced to work twelve hours each day. Some didn't have a chance to wash their hands or clothes. Many developed scabies. They were assigned to package "sanitized chopsticks" or popsicle sticks, thus spreading germs to the consumers.

 

http://www.lfpress.com

By RANDY RICHMOND 
 
       As the province begins to fine-tune its new Green Energy Act, the controversy over wind power is blowing up in Southwestern Ontario again.

In Middlesex County, worried residents have asked the Environment Ministry for a full environmental assessment of a 40-turbine project north west of Strathroy.

In Huron County, the local federation of agriculture is calling for a moratorium on projects pending results of an epidemiological study on wind power's health effects.

     Alternative energy companies, such as the one proposing the Middlesex project, are paying close attention to the rising opposition.

"It has kind of taken off across the country. As an industry we are concerned about any concerns or queries people have," said Mark Gallagher, development manager for TCI Renewables.

     TCI's's Adelaide Wind Farm would put 40 turbines, which would generate 72 MW, on about 3,240 hectares of land north and south of Hwy. 402 just west of Strathroy. Opponents say they have had little chance to express their concerns, which centre on the health effects of the turbines.

"For me, the biggest concern is that there are not enough health studies done," said Esther Wrightman, a Kerwood resident and a founder of the Middlesex Wind Action Group.

     Early studies have shown people living near the turbines suffer a range of health problems, Wrigthman said, citing several U.S. and Canadian studies. According to those studies, the turbines can cause sleep disturbances, headaches, rapid heart beat, panic episodes, vertigo and nausea. She filed a formal request yesterday to the province to have the project bumped up to a full environmental assessment, saying the initial environmental screening done for the project doesn't address key health issues, including the proximity of turbines to an elementary school.

     Wrightman also claimed TCI tried to sneak its proposal into the area with so-called public meetings made up mainly of farmers who stand to make money off the leases.   "The rest of us didn't know."

TCI's Gallagher disputes claims the company tried to hide its plans, saying all township residents were invited to two public meetings through newspaper advertisements.

     The township also provided TCI with a list of people who should get mailed invitations, Gallagher said. He also cited medical reports, these ones concluding there were no ill effects from wind turbines. Complicating matters is the province's new Green Energy Act, passed in May.

Ontario residents have until July 24 to comment on proposed regulations in the act, such as a minimum setback for wind turbines of 550 metres from the nearest dwelling.

     "There is no study to back that number up," Wrightman said. "It is just a number out of a hat." Also proposed are requirements for ongoing monitoring to address low frequency noise and vibration. Any project with 24 or more turbines would require a noise study before getting approval.

     The Huron Federation of Agriculture has taken a cautious approach to the issue, said president Wayne Black. The federation represents about 2,000 farmers.

"Some of them have the wind turbines and others want them, and others really don't care to ever see them again."

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture passed a resolution at its June board meeting urging local federations to seek a moratorium, Black said.

By Zheng Yan

(Clearwisdom.net Special Commentary) July 20, 2009 is the ten-year anniversary of Falun Gong practitioners all over the world resisting the persecution and clarifying the facts about Falun Gong. It could be said that these ten years were unexpected by the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP), most Falun Gong practitioners, and society as a whole. The events of the past ten years have fully validated the purity and righteousness of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance. The faith of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is indestructible, a fact that has been witnessed by all.

On July 20, 1999, the leaders of the CCP initiated the brutal persecution of Falun Gong out of jealousy and paranoia. At the time, they publicly stated their goal of "eradicating Falun Gong in three months" and gave the infamous policy for the persecution: "defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically." They felt assured that with their iron grip over television, radio, newspapers and the Internet in China, along with all their other propaganda organs, once they mobilized the military, police, special agents, jails and labor camps, diplomats, and with their half-century's experience in persecuting innocent people, three months would be plenty of time to wipe out a group of unarmed Falun Gong practitioners that live by compassion and forbearance. Many in China said that Falun Gong's efforts to resist the persecution would be like "dashing an egg against a rock".

As the last decade has gone by, people can see that the "egg" is an indestructible, divinely assisted one. Instead of being wiped out, Falun Gong practitioners inside and outside of China have become more mature and rational, gained deeper understandings of the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, and strengthened their faith. Along the way, they have helped 57 million Chinese people withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party or its affiliated organizations. This was an outcome that the perpetrators of the persecution could never have imagined possible.

At the same time, even though Falun Gong practitioners knew from day one that the persecution would end in failure, the vast majority of us did not expect that we would need to continue to resist the persecution for ten years. There are factors related to our cultivation state at work here, not to mention changes brought about by the cosmic climate. Regardless, this unprecedented ordeal has allowed us to see ever more clearly the CCP's wicked nature, and to realize that the persecution can be completely ended only with the CCP's disintegration. We saw that this persecution is wicked to the extreme not just because it targets the Falun Gong practitioners' belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, but because it is attempting to wipe out the moral principles and spirituality of people all over the world. Because of this, helping more people to know the truth has become the top priority for all truly cultivating Falun Gong practitioners.

We know that in the past ten years, massive amounts of truthful information have been widely disseminated through the Minghui/Clearwisdom websites and through the Falun Gong practitioners, but inside and outside of China, too many people are still unable to overcome the CCP's lies and slander, which they came into contact first. There are also too many people who dare not look at Falun Gong positively, in the face of economic benefits or the CCP's iron-fisted rule. Still more are buried in their busy lives, without a chance yet to find out about Falun Gong even after ten years. But we firmly believe that the stage of history was not created for the evil, and the truth will guide people to find hope and discover what they need most in their lives.

Ten years have passed by, unexpected by good and evil alike, and a new chapter of history is being written. The cultivators of Dafa will walk ever more solidly, quickly, and steadfastly on their paths. On a foundation forged over the last ten years, Dafa disciples inside and outside of China will not only cultivate themselves better, but will pour even more of themselves into resisting the persecution and helping people to know the truth. We will absolutely not allow this persecution to go on. This battle between good and evil can only end in the CCP's ultimate demise, a fate brought on by itself; the end of the persecution; and more people of the world seeing the truth and choosing to side with justice and goodness.

We hope that more people will distance themselves from the CCP as soon as possible, discover the facts for themselves, and in the process help end this wicked persecution--and may the truth lead even more people to find hope.

July 17, 2009

By Minghui/Clearwisdom reporter Liu Bin and Huang Kaili

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Prior to the 10^th anniversary of the start of the persecution, more than 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners, nine U.S. Congressmen, and representatives from more than 10 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) held a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., calling upon people to recognize the evil nature of the CCP and calling for the end of the persecution.

The rally started at 9:30 in the morning. Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated the peaceful exercises. At noon, practitioners held up dozen of banners with the messages, "Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong," and, "Bring Jiang Zemin, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang and Liu Jing to Justice." U.S. Congressmen, representatives from NGOs and other supporters attended the rally. They expressed their respect to Falun Gong practitioners for their spirit and continuous efforts to clarifying the truth.

Ten years ago, when the persecution had just started, Falun Gong practitioners gathered on Capitol Hill, telling people the facts about Falun Gong and exposing the persecution in China. Since then, practitioners have come here every year, clarifying the truth to the U.S. Congress and calling for an end to the persecution.

Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese spiritual discipline for mind and body. The practice involves slow, gentle movements and meditation. It is easy to learn, enjoyable to practice, and free of charge. Its principles are based on Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. The practice began in China in 1992 and quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China and then beyond. Today, Falun Gong is practiced by over 100 million people in 60 countries. The main works of Falun Gong are available in over 30 languages.

On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of Falun Gong. The persecution is not only towards Falun Gong, but also aims to destroy the moral standards and human principles of all people. Since the start of the persecution, Falun Gong practitioners throughout the world have been constantly speaking out about the truth of Falun Gong and exposing the CCP's crimes in a tireless effort to end the persecution.

(Clearwisdom.net)

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhang Dezhen, 38 years old, was persecuted to death a few years ago by the Mengyin County 610 Office in Shandong Province. A very good person died after suffering from continuous brutal persecution by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities. The people in her hometown are often moved recalling her goodness. Her fellow practitioners are often moved to tears remembering her tribulations and suffering.

Falun Dafa practitioner Zhang Dezhen

Zhang Dezhen's mother could not withstand the sorrow of losing her daughter. One day in 2003 summer, she went to the Mengyin County 610 Office alone to look for CCP official Lei Yancheng to appeal the justice for her daughter. Lei Yancheng hid and did not dare to see her. In the brainwashing center run by the Mengyin County 610 Office, her mother cried sadly, "You give me back my daughter! You give me back my daughter!"

Falun Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhang Dezhen was a teacher at the Jiuzhai Middle School in Mengyin County. She was persecuted by CCP officials many times because she refused to give up her practice of Falun Gong. About September 20, 2002, Ms. Zhang was arrested again in Daigu Town, Mengyin County and was illegally detained at the Mengyin County Detention Center by police from the Mengyin County National Security Team. Lei Yancheng, the director of the Mengyin County 610 Office at that time, used threats and lies to try to force Zhang Dezhen and other Dafa practitioners to give up their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. After he was firmly rejected by Zhang Dezhen, he secretly ordered police officers Bao Xitong, Tian Liegang and others to hit and kick Ms. Zhang, and brutally beat her with rubber sticks.

Zhang Dezhen maintained her belief in Dafa and staged a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police brutally force-fed her more than ten times.

Under the conspiring of Lei Yancheng, detention center chief Sun Kehai and Chinese Medicine Hospital Chair Guo Xingbao, detention center prison doctor Wang Chunxiao and the doctors from the Mengyin County Chinese Medicine Hospital forcibly injected unknown drugs into Zhang Dezhen, which caused her life to be in great danger.

On January 31, 2003, the doctors again injected the toxic drugs into Zhang Dezhen, which soon caused her death. She did not even have the chance to meet with her family again for the last time. She died at the age of 38.

The CCP officials were afraid that their crime would be exposed, so they immediately forged false evidence about Ms. Zhang's death. They lied to the Mengyin County CCP Committee, saying that Zhang Dezhen committed suicide. Then they lied to Zhang Dezhen's family, saying that she died of heart disease. They also threatened and beat Zhang Dezhen's brother Zhang Dewen and forced him to sign the cremation agreement. Then the police cremated her body hurriedly. The police also went to Zhang Dezhen's hometown, ransacked her home and took away many of Zhang Dezhen's photos in order to eliminate proof of their wrongdoing.

After the atrocities happened, Zhang Dezhen's families and friends were both saddened and angry. They strongly requested the Mengyin County Judicial Department to punish the murderers according to the law. But several years have passed, and they still haven't gotten any response. The murderers still remain free.

Background: Zhang Dezhen's Story

In March 1997, Zhang Dezhen was found to have hepatitis B during a physical examination at Yishui Normal School. After many kinds of treatments, her health did not get better at all. She was desperate.

Just when she lost all hope, one of her relatives introduced Falun Dafa to her. She acquired Master Li's lecture and exercise tapes and started to practice Falun Gong. Gradually her sickness completely disappeared. She understood that Master Li had saved her life. She made up her mind to cultivate the Fa and never give it up.

After the persecution started, in January 2000 Ms. Zhang went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Dafa. She was forcibly brought back to her hometown by the Mengyin County police and was detained for two months. During her detention, the CCP officials from the Jiuzhai Town insulted, verbally abused her and beat her brutally. They even forced her to sit out in the snow during her menstrual period as a means to torture her.

In December 2000, Zhang Dezhen went to Beijing again to appeal for Dafa. She was arrested by the Mengyin County "610 Office" and was imprisoned at the brainwashing center and the detention center for more than four months. She was threatened by Li Zhiye (party secretary of the Mengyin County CCP Politics and Law Committee), Lei Yancheng (depputy director of the Mengyin County CCP Propaganda Department), Fang Simin (deputy director of the Mengyin County Military Department) and Xing Xianying (deputy director of the Mengyin County Women's Federation). Then she was brutally tortured physically and mentally by the Mengyin County 610 Office.

In April 2001, the Mengyin County 610 Office illegally sentenced Ms. Zhang to three years' forced labor and imprisoned her in the Jinan City Women Forced Labor Camp. Thirteen days later, she was released because she did not pass the physical examination. The principal of the Jiuzhai Middle School and others continued to monitor her and harass her under orders from the authorities. She had to leave the school and her hometown, but she still clarified the truth and validated the Fa. In October 2001, Ms. Zhang and other practitioners went to Beijing again to appeal for Dafa. Under Teacher's merciful protection, she returned home safely.

In late October 2001, Zhang Dezhen was arrested by the security guard from Xiaoxiezhuang Mine while sharing cultivation experiences with the local practitioners in Xintai. She was detained at the brainwashing center of the Mengyin County 610 Office for more than three months, where she suffered brutal torture. Even her sister who went to visit her was also detained for more than a month. Zhang Dezhen staged a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force-fed by the guards many times. Her esophagus was injured by the feeding tube. Eventually, she could not take care of herself and her life was in great danger. Finally her family was allowed to take her back home. Since then, Ms. Zhang had to become homeless again in order to avoid the persecution.

In the span of three years, Zhang Dezhen suffered from countless tribulations and persecution by the CCP officials. Every time, she faced the test of life or death. Every time, she suffered unimaginable pain and sadness. But every tribulation made her all the more firmly believe in Dafa. Her firm belief in Dafa shook all the CCP officials. When Ms. Zhang was arrested at Daigu Town, all of her friends and family members hoped she would break through the CCP's evil den to reunite with her family and celebrate the coming Chinese New Year. But no one expected that the CCP officials had murdered her.

Her hometown people can never see her beautiful figure walking by the brook again. They cannot hear her happy voice and laughter at the peach garden again. Her colleagues and students can still recall the sweet sound of her voice while teaching. Every year when the Chinese New Year approaches, people cannot help remembering her and shedding tears for her.

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Chen Yuxiang and Ms. Chen Yufen, sisters and Falun Gong practitioners from Laixi City, Qingdao, Shandong Province, were illegally arrested by CCP personnel and sentenced to five and three years of imprisonment, respectively. Their elderly father could not endure the heavy blow and died of a broken heart in the evening on May 19, 2009.

Officials from the Laixi City 610 Office, police station, and the National Security Division seized the 55-year-old Ms. Chen Yuxiang on July 5, 2006. She was held in Shandong Province's Jinan Women's Prison and abused.

Chen Yuxiang strives to be a good person by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion- Forbearance. Agents from the 610 Office and the police arrested her, claiming, "Someone reported you." Laixi Criminal Court presiding Judge Wang Huanxian covertly sentenced her to five years of imprisonment. Laixi Judiciary Bureau agents prevented her family from hiring a lawyer to defend her. When a lawyer tried to defend Falun Gong practitioners on his own initiative, Judiciary Bureau officials also threatened him, and he had to give up.

Ms. Chen Yufen, 52 years old, is Chen Yuxiang's younger sister. She was arrested on July 31, 2008, by the 610 Office and the police. She was taken to Qingdao Dashan Detention Center by police from Laixi. She was detained for over eight months, during which time her family members went to the detention many times to try to see her but were turned away. On April 23, 2009, at the insistence of presiding Judge Hu Naijie, she was secretly sentenced to three years of imprisonment. Chen Yufen is currently detained in Jinan Women's Prison in Shandong Province.

Their father was over 80 years old and in poor health. When he heard that his beloved daughters were jailed by the CCP simply because they believed in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and tried to be good, he could not bear the mental pressure and the heavy blow. His condition deteriorated and he passed away in the evening on May 19, 2009.

When his condition became critical, the family went to talk to the police officers concerned, asking them to allow the two sisters to pay their father a last visit. The police refused to write the required "letter of certification" and did not allow the two sisters to go home to see their father. Their elderly father passed away without being able to see his beloved daughters one last time.

 

 

 

JUNK foods such as Snickers bars and ketchup really are irresistible. Manufacturers have created combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are so tasty many people cannot stop eating them even when full, according to America’s former food standards watchdog.

David Kessler, former head of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has warned that snacks, cereals and ready meals devised by food scientists can act on the reward centres of the brain in the same way as tobacco.

He argues that manufacturers are seeking to trigger a “bliss point” when people eat certain products, leaving them hungry for more.

“It is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese,” said Kessler. “The real problem is we have created a world where food is always available and where that food is designed to make you want to eat more of it. For millions of people, modern food is simply impossible to resist.”

While at the FDA, Kessler was best known for his attacks on the tobacco industry, which he accused of manipulating cigarettes to make them even more addictive.

In a new book, The End of Overeating, he suggests food manufacturers have achieved a similar result using precise combinations of fat, sugar, salt and texture to make foods “hyper-palatable”.

Kessler cites Heinz tomato ketchup and Starbucks white chocolate mocha Frappuccino as examples of the thousands of modern foods that have been engineered to stimulate feelings of pleasure.

A study carried out by Kessler with researchers at Yale University using functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques, showed that about 50% of obese people and 30% of those who are overweight were prone to so-called “excessive activation”.

“The right combination of tastes triggers a greater number of neurons, getting them to fire more,” said Kessler. “The message to eat becomes stronger, motivating the eater to look for even more food.”

In other research, scientists have used rats to study how different combinations of fat, sugar and salt trigger the release of neurotransmitters in the brain’s pleasure centres.

The most powerful combination involved sucrose (table sugar) mixed with chocolate and alcohol – the same mixture found in desserts such as tiramisu.

Kessler said: “Many of us have what’s called a ‘bliss point’ – the point at which we get the greatest pleasure from sugar, fat or salt.

“As more sugar is added, food becomes more pleasurable until we reach the bliss point, after which it becomes too sweet and the pleasure drops off.” The same thing happens with fat and salt.

At the optimum point, food stimulates many people’s appetites instead of suppressing it, according to Kessler, who ran the FDA from 1990 to 1997 and is now professor of paediatrics, epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California.

There have been a series of warnings about obesity in Britain. A landmark report by the National Audit Office in 2001 found that 20% of adults were obese – a figure that has since risen to 25% – while a further 38% were overweight.

The findings alarmed Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, so much that he warned of a “health time bomb” – particularly among children.

In 2007 the government’s science-led Foresight report said: “The wide variety and appeal of modern foods, with their increased palatability and ability to heighten sensory stimulation, drive us to reward ourselves with more food.”

Experts claimed that such evidence showed the need for state intervention. However, when Gordon Brown announced the Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy early last year, he said: “There should be no doubt that maintaining a healthy weight must be the responsibility of individuals first – it is not the role of government to tell people how to live their lives.”

Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University and a government adviser, said politicians’ obsession with promoting “choice” was damaging public health.

“If I walk to my local park for some exercise,” he said, “I pass more than 30 food outlets before I get there. It’s that combination of availability, advertising and seductive taste that makes modern food so addictive. ”