There Is A Better Way...

I am a 21 year-old student from Finland.
 

It makes me sad to hear how Americans are suffering.

Here, our taxes are high but we all benefit from them.

I grew up in the countryside and always had access to the same services that people in the city did.

My university is known around the world in my field and my education is not only free, but my government pays ME to go to university. Everyone has a right to this.
 

Everyone has a right to the best healthcare, there is no such thing as health insurance.
 

I am young now and able to take risks and pursue my passion because I will never have to worry about starving if I loose my job or my business fails.
 

I know that when I am old my state pension will be there for me so that I can enjoy my retirement.
 

We call this the Nordic Model, and under it we live well and our businesses are among the most competitive in the world.

 

I am grateful to have been born a citizen of a country that cares for its people, and I hope that one day the USA will take example from us.

I am the 99%

 
We are the 99%

 

Love (And Common Sense) Prevails...

Washington State has seen the light and today Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law the right for same sex couples to get married...

The law comes into effect on June 7th, and anti-same sex marriage bigots have until then to get the required number of signatures on a petition to take the issue to a November referendum...

I'm confident the law will stand...

I guess some people might see this as opportunistic...

AND...

I'm an ordained, non-denominational minister and a shaman...

If any gay and lesbian couples want to get married now that you can, it would be my very happy honour and privilege to facilitate your ceremony/ritual...

Yes... I Know, I Know...

... the last post was a whiney 'poor me' sulk from a privileged, middle class, middle-aged white woman who really doesn't have anything to bitch about...

In all our travails, my son and I have always still had:

• a warm and dry roof over our heads
• running water, sewer and heating
• clothes on our backs and shoes on our feet
• food for the next meal and some left over
• a vehicle to get us around and petrol in the tank
• books, music, toys and other things with which to entertain ourselves
• medical and dental care when we've needed it
• caring people in our lives
• the ability to access resources to help us

and we still have that... and there is only the NOW... so what am I complaining about?

Is it my sense of entitlement that's driving this dis-satisfaction?

I remember feeling guilty when I was driving us to legal appointments at the Refugee Women's Alliance, when I was dealing with the domestic violence and immigration issues, passing by other women (mostly non-white) waiting with their children, in the rain, at bus stops ...

I remember feeling guilty when I accessed and accepted the help of various agencies in dealing with our issues and needs... there was I, white, middle-class, educated, english-speaking, knowing how and where to look for help, taking/using resources women less equipped than I also needed ...

But then I also had a young child to care for, no money, was an (unintentional) illegal immigrant, had cancer, no family here, no support network - wasn't I just as entitled?

Why shouldn't we all feel entitled?   

Don't we all deserve the basic necessities of life, and a little more to satisfy the yearnings of the soul?

And there is enough to go around in this world... the issue is one not one of lack but rather one of control and distribution of resources...

Some of my hard-core socialist colleagues argue that the middle class is the enemy because it doesn't act in solidarity with the working class and the poor against the tyranny of the rich...

But I don't see why anyone should be expected to feel guilty for an accident of birth that placed them in the ranks of the 'haves', rather than the 'have nots'...

And I don't think the solution is to reduce everyone to the level of the 'have nots' just to satisfy the definitions of balance, equality and equity...

What needs to happen is a redistribution of wealth, power, control, resources so that we all have what the English call "elegant sufficiency"... enough to eat to be satisfied and not so much that we're so stuffed we can't move comfortably...

How to make that happen?

What makes people so insecure that they think a bigger house, bigger car, more 'stuff' will give them a safe place in the world, will prove/advertise their value, will give them power and control over their lives?

How many toilets does a family of four really need in one house?   How many square feet of space, how many rooms do they need to spread out in?

How to make them aware that when they have/take more than they need, someone, something else, somewhere else has to make do with less than they need, because this is a closed system we're living in?

How to make the uber rich give up 99% of what they have and share that with the 99% of other humans on the planet?

Nine Pictures of the Extreme Income Wealth Gap

Does an uber rich man like Bill Gates, for example, think about the billions of children starving around the world, as he feeds, clothes and educates his own kids?   

Yes, he's doing the philanthropic bit through his Gates Foundation (about which I have some serious questions to ask, on another post), but he is still living a life of excess... 

And to make that excess possible, others have to give up necessities...

Which brings me back to my own situation...

Much of where I'm at is a result of CHOICE... 

I'm choosing not to rejoin the corporate world;  I'm choosing not to do lucrative work that's been offered because I don't want to continue/add to what, in my view, is a severely dysfunctional paradigm...

But where to take that choice next, to build a sustainable life?

How would I live in a more "aware" manner, taking less so that those who "have not" can have more?

I'm living in a large city where communities are not well resourced...

One has to either do without or travel large distances to get what one needs...

I'm driving an older van that's not wonderfully fuel efficient but is very useful for moving 'stuff' from one living space to another!

I'm driving 20 miles each day (2 trips of 10 miles each, there and back) to take my son to school, using gas, time and energy... it seems better to keep him in the same school community to give him some sense of stability and security, than to move him around from school to school as our life circumstances change...

I'm driving 40 miles several times per month to take my son to the dentist to have his retainers adjusted (he doesn't have enough room in his jaws for his adult teeth and the retainers are making that space)...

Why on earth would I drive 40 miles for that?   Because I couldn't find another dentist nearby who treats children, who doesn't use flouride and mercury and other toxins to clean, maintain and repair teeth...

I don't buy and hoard large quantities of food/household supplies... I don't buy in bulk... I try to buy organic, locally produced food that's in season...

We don't have all the latest gadgets, electronic toys, fads...

We don't do sports, alcohol, 'fine dining' and 'entertainment'...

I have few wants and desires; I try to live simply - and I know and acknowledge that my version of "living simply" would make other less fortunate people gasp...

Is this attitude one of 'entitlement'?

Am I merely 'justifying' my 'right' to my relative 'wealth'?

What else is it my responsibility to do, to even the scales a little on this planet?

Will the US Follow New Zealand & Australia & Recognise First Peoples' Rights?

In finally announcing its support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, New Zealand has acknowledged that indigenous people must have full freedom to use their lands and resources as they wish.

The Declaration calls for states to acknowledge indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and demands that private interests obtain ‘free, prior and informed consent’ for use of indigenous land for commercial and development purposes.

http://www.newint.org/columns/currents/2010/06/01/new-zealand-indig...

When will the US follow suit?

Counting for Nothing - Women's (non) Value in the World's Accounting Systems

 

From TUC radio: 

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/7310

"There is something fundamentally wrong with the way we measure the well being of a society. In our upside-down system of accounting (GNP & GDP) war is productive, misery caused by it is not taken into account and a dead tree is better than a living forest."

 
This is a radio version of the feminist economics film about the New Zealand author and former member of parliament Marilyn Waring, directed by the Oscar winning Canadian director Terre Nash.

http://emma2.radio4all.net/pub/archive/07.08.03/0628waringone.mp3

http://emma2.radio4all.net/pub/archive/07.08.03/0628waringtwo.mp3

A World Without Flags, Borders and Anthems

It's been in my thinking for a long time now (perhaps because I've been an immigrant all of my life, so far living in five countries), how ridiculous and anachronistic it is that we have borders.

Where's the logic and the sanity and the compassion in a world that is divided up into regions by invisible lines in the sand and ocean?

Where one's lot in life is basically decreed by a geographical accident of birth?

Where, if you're born one foot on this side of that invisible line you have a certain kind of life, and if you're born one foot on the other side of that line you have another kind of life?

And where some people get to control the majority of the resources on the planet and others get to do without?

Where's the equity and compassion in all of that?

And borders and flags and anthems and patriotism all lead us to separate ourselves from the 'others' and give us cause to make the other an enemy and to criticise and to disparage and to exploit and to fight and to exterminate.

Where's the compassion in all of that?

Isn't it time we did away with this ridiculously outdated notion of countries and national interests?

We're living in an interconnected web.   What we do, how we live here in the web affects someone, something elsewhere in the web.   Because we're living in a closed system, when we take more than we need on a moment by moment basis, when we claim our 'rights' to a certain piece of land or a body of water, to a certain lifestyle and degree of comfort, someone, somewhere else has to pay the price, do without.

Where's the compassion in that?

Who thinks about that when they're shopping at Walmart or Costco?

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
...Living life in peace 

~John Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980), English musician and singer-songwriter, political activist...

 

Volunteering - Service or Exploitation?

I'd like to make a point about volunteering.
  

I've done my share of volunteering in my life; however, I've always thought that volunteering was a double-edged sword.   

Volunteering ensures that our world keeps running in a somewhat humane manner, that the social supports are there to help those who can't help themselves.


In fact, volunteering and other unpaid work is an entire economy unto itself, without which much of this world would cease to function. 


And there are some economists  (Marilyn Waring for example, in her book "Counting for Nothing") who've made the point that our current national accounting systems seriously misrepresent what's really going on in our world by not counting volunteering and unpaid work, undertaken mostly by women and children. 


Volunteering lets society and its institutions off the hook in fulfilling essential functions/delivering essential services to its citizens, and is also exploitative of people.

I see many non-profits operating from a commercial business model, but paying their staff relatively low wages/salaries.   They claim lack of funds for this disparity in pay between the private and non-profit sector.   

And there's an underlying implication that people ought to be OK about being paid less because its for a 'worthy cause', they're giving of themselves and a degree of altruism is required to prove they're sincere in their motivation.

I think this contributes to the continuation of the imbalance we have in our world.

Firstly because it sends the message that someone else will come along and clean up the mess...

And secondly, those issues are not important anyway, because we use volunteers so much and don't pay staff enough to show we value the work.