Earth Hour 8:30-9:30pm on 28 March 2009 Saturday

Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund), held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.

It was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald (a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia) in 2007 with 2.2 million homes and businesses turning off their lights for an hour in between 7:30pm to 8:30pm on 31 Mar 2007 Saturday. Many Sydney icons were switched off for the hour including the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House sails and the Luna Park face. According to Energy Australia, there was a 10.2% reduction in electricity consumption across the Sydney CBD for the 60 minutes Earth Hour 2007.

This event had grown into a global sustainability movement by the following year of 2008 and achieved worldwide participation up to 100 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour.

In 2009, the Earth Hour will be at 8.30pm local time on 28 March, Saturday. Hope the people across the world to turn off their lights and join together in creating the vital conversation about the future of our precious planet. The iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to The Americas will stand in darkness at that one hour.

[Source: www.earthhour.org, Wikipedia, WWF Australia and Facebook Earth Hour Group]

Earth Hour is a message of hope and a message of action. It’s just as simple as a flick of the switch. So, lets join for the Earth Hour 2009 next Saturday (28 March 2009) from 8:30pm to 9:30pm and make a difference.

Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world (sign up and be counted). They will send you newsletters filled with useful tips and a reminder for the big night.

Everybody, lets save our blue planet by turning off the light for an hour on 28 Mar 2009 8:30pm to 9:30pm. To Sign UP Now!

World Yoga Day 2009 [Sunday on 8th Feb 2009]

World Yoga Day is a day where the yoga teachers and schools around the world will donate their time and space to a two hour yoga session which is devoted to human rights. The class should be held from 11:00am – 1:00pm sharp, local time in each time zone, which will lead to a 24-hour yoga marathon around the world.

This is a NON-Profit prject with with NO commercial interest involved. Students attending the event will donate whatever tuition they can afford. All contributions are welcome and also students who can't pay at all – the money is important to help victims of human right violation but so is the spirit.

Found that this campaign only started in year 2007 and Germany has the most yoga teachers and schools/centers participated. This year 2009 is the first time that Malaysia participated and I only found yogaloft and yoga365 from Malaysia in the list. I couldn’t even find any participant from Hong Kong and Singapore. No wonder some of the practitioners yet to aware of this meaningful event.

This idea was originated from Germany by a film director cum yoga teacher living in Berlin, named Samira. One Saturday morning after a long night with little sleep, Samira was counting milk bubbles in her Cappuccino when the idea for World Yoga Day popped out of nowhere. When the fabulous Sandra, Bjoern and Lei joined her the idea started to walk. The milk bubble count was 6844.

Sandra is a freelancing interaction designer and graphic design teacher living and working in Berlin, Germany. Of course she's an enthusiastic yogi too and always searching for projects that actually do make a difference.

Björn is an IT professional who also living in Berlin. He did his very best to set up this accessible website for Samiras great idea of a WORLD YOGA DAY for charity. Let this union of yogis become an energetic swarm and in 2008 Björn became an enthusiastic and certified Tantra Practitioner.

Below are the past and current World Yoga Day:

21st Jan 2007 (Sun)
In 2007, they joined forces with Medica mondiale (www.medicamondiale.org) to contribute to the elimination of violence against women and girls in Afghanistan.
Donation collected so far: US$19,731 / €14,657

3rd Feb 2008 (Sun)
While China is fast developing into a global super-power, the human rights situation in China is still cause for concern. Therefore, in 2008 World Yoga Day decided to support AI's Human Rights for China campaign
Donation collected so far: US$37,085.45 / €23,394.22

8th Feb 2009 (Sun)
This year they like to support people in Zimbabwe. The country has been deteriorated in the 28 years regime under Robert Mugabe and brought about massive suffering to its population.

For further details, you may visit their website at http://www.worldyogaday.net

Tribal Style Belly Dance

Happy New Year to everyone. Quite some time didn't drop any note here and miss you all. Thanks for some of your concerns and email greetings and I'm fine, just a bit busy and facing some challenges at work. Anyway, hope the year of OX 2009 brings everyone good health, great success and peace in practising yoga.

Just receive a piece of information about "Tribal Style Belly Dance" taught by Nanci Traynor. There will be a free trial class on this Sat at KLPAC and below are the details:

Date: 7th Feb 2009 (Saturday)

Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: KualaLumpur Performing Art Centre (KL Pac)

Website: www.klpac.com

Event: Tribal Belly Dance Class (18 years and above)
Host: Nanci Traynor

Contact: Yoga.dance.life@gmail.com

Description: Tribal Style Belly originated in San Francisco in the 1960’s. The movements of this style are based on traditional dance from North Africa, India and Eastern Europe. Tribal Belly Dance builds unity, creates feminine strength and gives a sense of belonging. The movements are improvised and performed in a group. Nanci Traynor has a special ability of simplifying movements so all students can understand.

It sounds interesting. Those yoga lovers who also love dancing, should pay a visit there... Below is a simple map to KL Pac.