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Ikea. Great concept, but in the pursuit of the almighty buck, they have landed in the kind of climate that invites massive boycotts. Their recent expansion into a potentially lucrative market – Saudi Arabia – has resulted in a catalogue where women are airbrushed away. away, as in the above photo. Presto, change, ladies, you no longer exist!

We received two references to this travesty today, the start of a cluster synchro. One came from a woman in Malibu, California, who has bought a lot of Ikea merchandise, and the other email came from a man in Australia who worked for them for 24 years and was recently “rendered redundant” – fired.

The story:

A local version of Ikea’s yearly catalogue, published on its Saudi website, shows images that are identical to those in other editions save for one detail: the women are gone. “We are looking into the issue and holding a dialogue with our Saudi franchise holder,” said Ulrika Englesson Sandman, a spokeswoman for Inter IKEA Systems, which owns the Ikea trademark and concept.

When entering a new market the company always takes into account the ability to balance local culture and legislation with its own values, she added.

The removal of women from the pages of the Saudi edition, including a young girl who was pictured studying at her desk, has prompted a strong response from Swedes, who pride themselves on egalitarian policies and a narrow gender gap.

“You can’t remove or airbrush women out of reality. If Saudi Arabia does not allow women to be seen or heard, or to work, they are letting half their intellectual capital go to waste,” Trade Minister Ewa Bjoerling said in a statement. Her sentiment was echoed by Swedish European Union Minister Birgitta Ohlsson, who branded the incident “medieval” on social networking site Twitter.

Saudi Arabia applies strict rules of gender segregation, banning women from driving and requiring them to have permission from a male guardian before travelling or receiving medical care. Ikea’s Saudi franchise partner currently operates three stores in the country, where it has seen ‘double digit’ yearly growth over the past five years, according to its webs.

Our Aussie friend was going to do a post about this,  but he figured that since he had an axe to grind, it might not mean much. But the bottom line is how can a country like Sweden do business with a country like Saudi Arabia, where women are rendered completely irrelevant? Saudi women can’t even leave their homes without the permission and accompaniment of a male relative. They must cover themselves completely. Why? Is the female body oh so tempting to Saudi men that it might incite unprecedented lust?  Might it lead to the collapse of marriages?

I’ve never understood Saudi Arabia, never understood their attitude toward women, have never understood why these women don’t rise up in some huge rebellion and take this ridiculous monarchy down. But I do know one thing: I will never buy anything made by IKEA, just as I will never step foot inside a Walmart.

These companies are soulless scourges, after profit at any price, sacrificing the very individuals who do the shopping. I mean, seriously? You airbrush women out of the catalogue and really think they are going to buy your products? How about keeping them in your  catalogue? Maybe it would help to change hearts and minds, IKEA. Maybe you could sweep into this market as agents of CHANGE rather than business as usual.

You think this guy would save your life?

The headline on the article sent to me by Jim Banholzer read: Shark Rescues Man Adrift in Pacific Ocean.  That I’ve got to read, I thought. Of all the large creatures on the planet, it seems that sharks along with alligators are the least likely to be performing any humanitarian deeds.

So here’s what happened to Toakai Teitoi of Kiribati, a Micronesian island nation 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. He took a two-hour boat ride with his brother-in-law from the capital of Tarawa, where Teitoi had flown to be sworn in as a policeman, to his home in Maiana. But it didn’t work out that way. He and Ielu Falaile stopped to fish en route, and lost track of time. They ran out of gas, and were set adrift on the 15-foot boat with very little water.

They were apparently able to catch fish, but suffered from severe dehydration and Ielu died after a few weeks. Toakai was finally saved after 105 days. He was laying in the boat with his head covered to protect him from the sun when a six-foot shark bumped against the boat, circled it, and swam away. Toakai sat up and saw a ship coming his way with crew members peering at him through binoculars. If he hadn’t sat up, the crew might’ve thought it was an abandoned boat and ship might’ve continued on.

Did the shark intentionally save Toakai? If it were a dolphin, I might say yes. But a shark? I would say it’s more likely a life-saving synchronicity. The shark probably was interested in eating Toakai, not rescuing him. But its actions inadvertently saved his life. Then again, maybe there was an invisible force involved, a non-physical entity who came to the man’s rescue by nudging the shark into action.

one of the most famous Jacquelines!

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In 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, the fifth secret is called Clusters. This happens when synchronicity manifests itself in clusters of numbers, names, objects, events, words, symbols. It’s one of the most intriguing aspects of synchronicity and when it happens to you, you sit up and take notice.

Back in February, Adele Aldridge, who has a great blog on the I Ching,   sent us a terrific cluster synchro involving the name Jacqueline.   The other day, she sent us another Jacqueline cluster that also involves the iPad and birthdays.

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The 4 Jacquelines involved in this cluster are:

#1 – Jacqueline T. – my sister who lives in Manhattan.

#2 – Jacqueline B. – my friend for 35 years who lives in San Francisco Bay area.

#3 – Jacqueline K. – is a neighbor/friend/acquaintance and lives in my apartment complex in a separate building.

#4 – Jacqueline C. lives in Phoenix Arizona and is Jacqueline Ceballos, a former president of the New York Chapter of N.O.W. and founder of Veteran Feminists of America, a group I am a member of, having participated in the early feminist movement days of the second wave of feminism. I receive email notices from Jacqui when one of those pioneers either dies or is having an art show in the New York Area.

Background on my synchro: On Monday, September 17th, I received in the mail a gift of an iPad. I had been lusting for an iPad because I am about to publish volume 1 of my ongoing project of I Ching Meditations and want to have it available for the iPad. I need an iPad to be able to proof the document.

So when a friend offered to give me her “old” iPad because she got the latest version, I was more than thrilled. And while I have been using a MAC since it was born in 1984, I quickly discovered that using the iPad has a different set of things to learn. I managed to set up the WIFI, enter passwords, but what I really was a person with an iPad sitting next to me and showing me how to take advantage of all the goodies available. Being shown how to do anything saves untold hours of time and time for me now is the most valuable commodity.

Now to the Jacqueline synchros for September 19th.

1. When I opened my morning email there was a message from Jacqueline B. in California. I hadn’t heard from her in several weeks. I had told her how Katya Walter was sending me her iPad and she was eager to know if I’d received it yet.

2. September 19th was my sister’s birthday – Jacqueline T. I decided to get some fresh air and call her from my cell phone while sitting outside on a bench near the driveway that goes to the other building in back of mine. I told my sister Jackie how frustrated I was because I had this new wonderful tech toy and wished I knew someone nearby who had one so they could give me a quick lesson on using some of the functions. Jackie suggested going to an Apple store but there isn’t one nearby. A big part of our talk was about the continual learning curve of the tech world and my latest toy and the help I needed with it.

3. As I was chatting away with my sister Jackie, a car pulled up, rolled down the window and I saw that it was Jacqueline K. from nearby. I haven’t seen her since early spring. Jacqueline K. leaned out of her car window and waved me over to talk. I remained where I was sitting and pointed to my cell phone, indicating that I was busy on the phone. I didn’t  want to interrupt my birthday call to the other Jacqueline, my sister.

4. When I went inside and checked my email there was a message from Jacqueline C., informing me of the death of Bettye Lane, a feminist photographer of the feminist movement who had died on this day, September 19, which was also Bettye Lane’s birthday. The message informed us that there will be a memorial in NYC and hopefully a mention in the New York Times Obituaries.

I began musing about the significance of hearing from those 4 Jacquelines within hours of each other and that I had not been in recent communication with 3 out of the 4 and how come they all happened at one time? I may not have thought about it at all if I had not written about my 3 Jacqueline synchros previously.

Pow! It hit me. I remembered that Jacqueline K. has an iPad. I called her immediately, made a date for some wine, and she will run me through the iPad this afternoon. Since I haven’t talked to or seen her for months, I had completely forgotten that she has an iPad. And there she was wanting to talk just as I was talking to my sister Jacqueline about needing to see someone with an iPad. I thought that pretty nifty timing. So while only 3 of the Jacquelines in this synchro had to do with the iPad, the other Jacqueline was announcing the birth and the death of someone with the same birthday as my sister.

The entire experience left me with the sense that there are invisible threads in our lives, much like the weaving of a cloth. Some threads are visible but there are others that are mysteriously strong and hold the whole cloth of our lives together. In this set of Jacqueline synchros the difference is that besides hearing from 4 Jacquelines within hours of each other (and none of them knows the other) the thread of my need for help with my new iPad gift ended with a very useful “reason” for the connections. The birthday/death Jacqueline connection had nothing to do with my iPad wish but all things considered, was a part of this synchro package.

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Any ideas from anyone about the possible meaning of this cluster?

Nika, Noah. See the devil in Nika’s eyes? She’s ready to rock  roll.

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Our daughter, Megan, came home for a visit recently and brought Nika, the dog she adopted when Nika was 6 weeks old. Nika lived with us for about a year and became quite attached to our golden retriever, Noah, who is a couple of years older that she is. They became inseparable. They played together, ate together, slept curled up next to each other,  chased Frisbes together. Nika became the sister Noah didn’t have. At the dog park, Noah often defended Nika against other larger dogs.

Nika loves everyone – human or animal, she’s your friend. And she had a lot of friends at our dog park. There was Thunder, a 12-year-old grumpy German shepherd mix who cuddled with her, barked at her when she was out of line, licked her when needed loving. There was Cody the trickster huskie, who chased off bigger dogs when she was a puppy and always made sure she had an ally. But Noah is definitely her bro and her protector and Megan is certainly her human.

During the time that Megan worked at her internship at Disney, we would get together once a month or so and Nika would go nuts when she saw Megan and would seem sort of sad and depressed once we all separated again.  One night here at the house, Nika cornered a possum in our backyard and the possum was as freaked out as Nika – hissing, baring its teeth. Noah came to Nika’s rescue and the possum – wisely – took off.

In June, Megan’s internship at Disney ended and Nika moved to Orlando with her. During these past months, we’ve gotten together fairly regularly. Nika and Noah are so overjoyed to see each other that at one reunion, Nika leaped out the passenger window of Megan’s car just to get to Noah.  During their most recent reunion, they headed to the dog park together and Nika reconnected with her buddies there, then she and Noah headed out into the park on their own, commiserating, exploring, connected at the heart.

While they were visiting, I woke in the middle of the night and saw Nika and Noah cuddled together on the quilt where he usually sleeps alone.  All was well. I instantly fell back asleep. They looked like this, but on a quilt:

Dogs remember. They form bonds as intricate and intimate as those among humans. Their emotions are as real to them as our emotions are to us. Yes, I’ve been accused before of anthropomorphizing, but my response to those critics is that there’s no such thing. All animals feel and with dogs, perhaps because of their long history with humans, it’s easier to recognize these emotional connections, these memories.

There’s something here for us humans to keep in mind: if we treated each other as Nika and Noah treat each other,  wouldn’t the world be a better place? We would have each other’s backs, we would remember the early love and the forever love and would give each other space to explore the world independently. We would honor each other’s differences and honor the myriad ways we are the same. We would honor the fact that we have come together in the same space and time. We would grasp the spiritual underpinnings.

I’m telling you, my next political vote will be for an individual who loves and understands dogs.  It won’t be Mitt Romney, who  put his dog Shamus on a roof rack  during a trip to Canada.  Really? A roof rack?? In the U.S, alone, there are nearly 80 million dog owners. Why would a single one of them vote for Romney? If a man can’t treat his dog right, what makes you think he would do right by you?

Years ago, one of the things my dad advised was pretty simple and straightforward, as I look at it in hindsight: You want a quick way to see who someone else actually is? Look at how they treat their family – and their pets. And then look at how they act when money is the bottom line. Those things will tell you what you need to know about that person.

I am buoyed at the dog park. Yeah, I know how that sounds. But it happens to be true. Dogs are genuine,we humans are often anything but. We’re trying, though. We’re learning, we’re evolving. Really, we are.

. With nearly 1,500 posts, it’s possible we posted this before. But this one is a favorite.

Former UFO debunker now says there were two crashes at Roswell…

I don’t think we’ve ever written about Roswell on our blog, even though we’ve put up quite a few UFO-related stories. It’s probably because Roswell is so well known. It’s also a case where many of the long-time UFO researchers say the story has been conflated into something they say it never was – the crash of an alien craft. Meanwhile, if there’s any case that the public knows about, it’s Roswell and there’s widespread belief that something very mysterious happened there.

Now comes Lt. Col. Richard French, a retired air force pilot, who says there was not one crash, but two near Roswell in 1947. He claims the first UFO was hit with an electronic pulse-type weapon. All the controls failed and it crashed. The second crash was that of a similar alien vessel that was on a rescue mission for the first one.

The problem with the story is that the type of weapons described didn’t exist at the time. Or did they, and we didn’t know?

The strange synchro here relates to an MIB story that appeared in Operation Trojan Horse, a 1970 UFO book by John Keel. A woman in Owatonna, Minnesota, who had a UFO experience accompanied by a number of paranormal incidents, was approached by a mysterious stranger, who called himself Major Richard French. He was wearing crisp new clothes, not a uniform. She was told not to talk it to anyone about her experience.

Was it the same person? If so, then French’s story about being a debunker takes on more veracity, and with it the scenario about Roswell.