GPF - USA 2008, Washington D.C. August 9th.

Alright, so you might heard me mention it before, but now I'm going to tell you a bit more about it.

The Global Peace Festival is a festival to celebrate the progress towards peace we've already made and the plans we have for the future. However, the biggest thing it is I think, is a call to arms, so to speak. We are calling out to the world that enough is enough, and that if we could all just put the barriers of our race, religion, and nationality behind us we could really have a wonderful place to live here on earth for everyone. Finally, it's also an awareness campaign, to make people aware of the root causes of war and poverty.

There are many reasons for war and poverty in the world. Disease, past colonial oppression, lack of freedom, lack of control, not enough water, not enough infrastructure, misunderstandings and/or stubbornness between people and nations. We at the Universal Peace Federation believe that the key to it all is the family.

The family is the place every one of us starts out life. If we don't learn respect and responsibility within our family, how can we be expected to respect others outside our family or take responsibility outside our family? If we don't have peace and a sense of oneness within our family, how can we be at peace with the world? How can we love our neighbor if we cannot love our brother? How can we care for the people of another nation if we do not care for the ones within out own?

This is why the theme of the Global Peace Festival is One Family Under God. First we have to make individual families which are full of love, respect and a sense responsibility and interdependence, and we believe the best way to do this is through the basic tenants that all different religions teach. From there, we can work towards making whole villages, cities, countries, and the whole world act as one family under God, where we all fallow the basic tenants of our various religions which all teach just about the same thing and we all teat one another as family. A big part of being able to do this is fostering a culture of service, where people learn to live for the sake of others by their own free will.

That's the gist of it anyway. Below is a video which talks about the GPF some more, and below that is the basic schedule which I will be fallowing next week. This schedule isn't for everyone attending the GPF, just those like myself who are also attending the American Youth Leadership Conference I have another, shorter video at the very bottom of this web page if you would prefer.

My Schedule

· Aug 5^th Arrival – all participants will arrive in DC, at the Washington D.C. National Cathedral Church (1610 Columbia Rd) and we'll have a short orientation after dinner. I will personally be leaving the Vineyard on the 6 AM boat, to take the 6:55 AM bus to South Station, to take the 11:05 AM train to Washington D.C., finally arriving in D.C. at 6:50 PM

· Aug 6^th Community-Wide "Peace Through Service" Day – we will join the service efforts of many partners in DC including some celebrities performing for GPF on this project from 10am – 5pm.

· Aug 7^th Outreach – we will join the local efforts of youth on this day, to spread the word on the GPF event on the streets of DC.

· Aug 8^th Sightseeing and Interfaith Prayer for Peace – we'll spend a day to discover DC. and God's hope for America, and close with a prayer on the grounds of the main event, at the Mall in front of the Capital building.

· Aug 9^th American Leadership Conference and Global Peace Festival – join this conference in the morning and afternoon and be side by side national and world level Ambassadors for Peace as they forge their commitment to hold America to it's founding creed and build One Family Under God. Join us at the Youth Breakout to discuss long-term vision and strategy for the movement of Young Ambassadors for Peace. In the evening we will all attend the Global Peace Festival main event together. The event starts at 5pm at the Capital West Lawn (Independence Ave. and Constitution Ave, SW). Come early for seats and to check out the GPF Service and Cultural Expo from 2-5 on the National Mall (between 3rd and 4th St. NW). My parents and younger brother will arrive for the main GPF event on a bus rented by our church, and I'll be leaving with them at 9 PM on one of those buses back for Massachusetts.

· Aug 10^th Youth Celebration – Join the hundreds of youth who have volunteered their time this summer for the Global Peace Festival as they celebrate this day and build up spirit and enthusiasm for many more events that uphold peace in the semester to come. I will have sadly had to miss this part, and instead will be arriving on the Vineyard with my family so I can get to work on time on Monday, the 11th.

If anyone out there feels inspired to help out, I think the best way is to tell everyone you know about it, and if you can, try to show up for the main GPF event on Saturday, the 9th in Washington D.C. Please go to www.gpfusa.org for more information. If you're not in the United States, or even if you are, you may be interested in going to www.globalpeacefestival.org or www.upf.org for more information about GPF events happening in other parts of the world, and other things the UPF is doing to promote world peace.

If you're feeling particularly inspired, or you know won't be able to attend any GPF or UPF events, another great way to help out other than telling all your friends and family is to donate funds to our cause.

Click here to donate to the GPF-USA.
Click here to donate to the Universal Peace Federation, which is the main sponsor of the Global Peace Festival as well as other peace-building initiatives.

To contact the organizers of the Global Peace Festival USA go to http://gpfusa.org/contact-us/

I hope you are inspired by what the GPF is doing and join us in truly making the world a better place by taking on the root causes of the worlds biggest problems.

Sincerely, in Libety and True Brotherly Love,

Christopher D. Osborn - Vineyard Haven, MA

More Testimony on the Helicopter Crash, pluss a good start to the month.

Before anything else, I want to share with you a link to another testimony about the helecopter crash involving the True Family (Rev. Sun Myung Moon, his wife, their children and grandchildren). This one is from someone who was actually on the helicopter, Peter Kim.

I want to thank Rev. Kalamba W.M. Kayembe of Era of Africa for sending it to me in an email. While I'm at it, I aught to thank Knut Holdhus for providing me with the other testimony by FFWPU President Rev. Hyung Jin Moon.

Now, here's why I've had a good start to the month.

It was a beautiful Friday, I woke up well rested with a clear mind and hardly any pains at all. I went to work still feeling well rested, with only a minor bit of tention in my neck wich I think was built because I planned on taking the 20 question theory exam at the local branch of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles in order to get my Driveing Learner's Permit. I was also feeling well fed, and generally had a pretty physically healthy feeling about me.

My dad picked me up at work at 12:40 and took me to the RMV. When we got there it was closed, as the RMV (on the Vineyard anyway) closes for lunch. They opened at 13:00, and while there were two people in front of me, there were also two RMV Reps. there, and I was asked to come up fairly quickly.

When I went up to the counter I explaind to the woman I had been away for a while and I've lost my previous permit and wasn't sue if it had expired. She told me it had, so I gave her my U.S. passport, Mass. ID, and a Martha's Vineyard Savings Bank bank statement with my name and address printed on it. Normally I should have had my Social Security Card with me too, but I guess they let is slide since I had done this before and I got the Mass. I.D. from their office. Come to think of it, I don't think I even remembered to fill in my SSN on the yellow form she gave me to fill out. Oh well, I guess they had that already too so they didn't bother asking me about it.

Anyway, I took the test on a computer and it was very easy. To pass the test you must get 14 out of 20 questions correct, and I got 19 of them correct. I got the fealing that the test was easyer this time than the last time - not because I had done it before, as it's been like two years since, but I honestly think the questions weren't as hard as they should have been. Oh well, it worked well for me.

So, I passed the test, she took my picture and printed it out on my new Learner's Permit, and I payed her $30 USD with my MVSB Mastercard Check Check Card. So the only thing that I didn't like is that the fee had exactly doubled since the last time I did this, and it worried me a bit how easy the test was. I don't want just anybody sharing the roads with me, I want to know that the other drivers know what they're doing too. But hey, I'm very greatful that I past so easily. The MV RMV only does road tests on Tuesdays, so the last opportunity I have to get my drivers licence is on the 9th of September, two days before I go back to Norge. That's just 40 days from now, and five of them I won't be able to practice because I'll be in or on my way too or from Washington D.C.

By the way, I also wanted to let everyone know that on Tuesday, the 5th of August, I'll be going to Washington D.C. to repare for the Global Peace Festival - USA event, which is being held on the 9th. More on that tomarrow.

Also, on the way home from work, I came up with a brilliant idea for a story. I don't want to give out too may details here, because this is something I, right now in my moment of isnpiration and passion, would really like to see published and really think could get published if I do a good job.

For starters, it will have something to do with Martha's Vineyard, Brazil, The Vatican and the Catholic Church, Christianity a whole, and a secret cult. The working title is Cross Robbers. If anyone knows of a book already of that title, please let me know so I can think of a different title. I may have to start a new writers blog for specific guests only so people I know around the world can review my work on this project, yet untrustowrthy people won't have as great a chance of finding it and plagiarizing my work.

This latest writing project of mine is much better than anything else I've come up with before. It's not fantacy and therefor it'll be easyer to discribe people, and events. In fact, I'm not even going to go too far into the future with this so I won't even have to make up much new technology. The biggest differences will be that North Korea won't exist as a seperate country, the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan will be over, and there will be a new North American Union and Pacific Rim Union in the midst of being established.

This month is going to be beautiful, though I really can't wait 'till September! Goodnight for now. I hope God is able to bless you like he has been able to for me.

Sincerely, in Liberty and True Brotherly Love,

Christopher D. Osborn - Tisbury (Vineyard Haven), Massachusetts.

P.S. I really liked the picture they took, so maybe tomarrow, as another P.S., I'll post a link to a scanned copy of the picture itelf.

Big Changes

You might notice a couple changes to the blog. Who am I kidding, you've probably never been here before and never will again. I'm sorry, that's not true, a few people in my family might check it every once in a while.

Anyway, the first change you should notice is the change to the name of the blog from Fipher.net to Min Sannhet. I've made this change because I've decided to slowly shed the name Fipher from my life. It will never go away completely. Anyone who has always known me as Fipher can continue to do so, but I won't be using it myself so much. It part of my past now, a past that had good and bad moments, but still thew past. I'm married and trying to move to Norge (Norway) and become more in touch with my inner self. It's time to move forward.

So, the blog is now titled Min Sannhet, Nosk (Norwegian) meaning My Truth.

Another couple of changes to the blog may seem superficial, but they really aren't. The first change I made was add a big banner linking to Free Rice, the online Vocabulary game where you improve your vocab while donated rice to the U.N. World Food Programme. Below is a great video about it.



The last change to the blog is the banner in the "Quote of the Unnamed Time Period" block. I made the change because Ron Paul no longer has any chance of winning the 2008 presidential election, however, his new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto has finally come out, and I would like as many people to read it as possible. Besides wanting others to read it, I'd like to read it myself. Anyone willing to get me a copy will be rewarded handsomely with a big warm hug.

Here's a video related to the book.



Now, how can I be a supporter of the WFP, a United Nations programme, while at the same time be a strong supporter of Ron Paul? Well, me not helping the WFP is not going to make it go away. Also, as far as government agencies go, the WFP does pretty good. They're not just giving away food. Granted, they're doing a lot of that, but a huge part of it is teaching people how to fish, rather than just giving them fish. The WFP is designed to not be a permanent organization feeding the poor and keeping them poor, and so while I'd rather it be funded by volunteer donations than tax money from various governments around the world, I can still be supportive of their mission. Besides, playing the Free Rice game doesn't cost me anything. Pluss, Free Rice doesn't just give the WFP more money to pay with and perhaps waste. Instead, they buy rice and give it to the WFP to distribute where their experts think it's needed.

The last change is not to the site, but to me. I'll be leaving for Boston some time during the second week of May. Orbitz.com is acting up so I haven't bought the tickets, but the plan is for me to stay from the ides of May to almost the ides of September. The reason is UDI gave us a no for my request for a family immigration living and working permit, and the appeal process can last "many many months" so I'm heading back where I can work.

Unfortunately Lisa won't be comming with me because her school doesn't end 'till June, starts back up in early August, and pay here is much better on average. So she'll stay in Bergen going to school and working for Helsebutikken, I'll go to the Vineyard working for MVSB, and we won't see each other for about 4 months. Oh well, that's the way life goes sometimes. We've just got to work through it and find the lessons to learn. There's now flashy video I can post about that, is there?

Wildfires and such.

Well, I've been hearing a lot about wildfires lately and wanted to share a bit with you. The first I heard about was actually not California, but Canada. Apparently, the Mountain Pine Beetle has killed and dried up more than 50% of the mature pine trees in British Columbia, and experts say that there is likely to be a huge forest fire their in the near future because of the problem. Apparently, these dead trees are so dry it would only take one lightning strike to burn down the whole 20 million acres of forest(twice the size of West Virginia). Also, though the Canadian government is allowing loggers to chop them down, not many are doing it, because there's not much used for beetle-kill trees. The wood is much too brittle to build a house from or anything, all there is for their use is a small market for specially designed firniture that's supposed to look cool when made from beetle-kill.

Well, there is a solution. Have you ever heard of wood pellets? Apparently they're a new alternative fuel, basically would dried and compressed into tiny little pellets (looking like rabbit food). It's cleaner and cheaper than coal, electricity, gas or oil. Lost of people are starting to use it to heat their homes, and the Chinese government wants a large supply of it to make their coal electric plants cleaner and more efficient. Beetle kill is a perfect natural resource for make wood pellets. It's already dried up and so much easier to make into saw-dust than healthy trees.

The first I heard of it was from DailyWealth, a free financial newsletter I get via email just for fun. The first article I got on November 14th called Why Chinese Power Plants Need Rabbit Food, and the other I got on the 16th was The Alternative Fuel Industry You've Never Heard Of. Finally, I also heard more about it from this blog called Storybook, in the blogpost Anatomy of Wildfire.


In other news: I am going home to The United States of America for 3 months! See here for details.

Also, today is the 1st anniversary of Lisa and I being legally wed. We'll be going out to eat and that's about it. We're not fully decided on where we want to go, but I'll post about it in a comment tomorrow or something.