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%

 

This Says It All...

... the geometry of death and life...

on the left - the pyramid - how we, in our arrogance and ignorance, have deluded ourselves into thinking the world is ordered (almost killing the planet in the process)...

and on the right - the circle - how it really is ...

If we want a future for ourselves, our children and the other surviving life forms with whom we share this time, space and place, we're going to have to re-frame our understanding, our choices and our actions...

It's time for:

Triple P Bottom Line Accounting

Planet

People

Prosperity

Decisions, Decisions...

From my Facebook Status:
"OK - decision time... should I, or should I not, take a risk and spend $45 of the $70 I have left on a trip over the water to collect the mail and get a haircut ($25 haircut and $20.20 ferry ticket)?

Will cash come in to refill my depleted coffers in time to get me across the water, get some gas and pay for parking for Friday's court hearing to decide whether boy and I can go back to Australia to live?"...

Friend's response: 

"Maybe getting a cheaper haircut. In White Center it would be $10"...

My reply:

"I know... but I have to go to Shoreline to pick up the mail, and the haircut is a discount someone gave me for a place in Lake Forest Park - basically three streets away... 

Going to White Centre for the haircut and then up to Shoreline to get the mail would be the extra $15 in petrol and time...

Am thinking this is a trust test; have to stay in the NOW and keep moving, not sit at home being scared my resources are limited and if I use them up, there will be no more"...
  

And no, this is not a "poor me, look how hard life is" pity post...

I'm really awake to the fact that at this point, I'm being given the opportunity to look deeply at every situation I create/find myself in, at all its possibilities and at the choices I make...

Am I coming from a place of love - expansion, or fear - contraction?

POST SCRIPT: 
Seems the Universe thought it was a good idea to get my hair cut yesterday; recalcitrant ex-husband overnight deposited some of what he owes in my bank account, so the cheque I wrote to the salon is covered AND we can get around! 

Funny that he puts in the money - that he's been withholding for two months - the night before we go to court to argue over whether I can take our child back to Australia to live...

Guess it doesn't look good in court, when you're saying how much you love your son and how much of an unfit mother his other parent is, to be behind in your payments, so far behind that your child becomes homeless as a result...

What's Next?...

Naivety is charming in a child; sad (and disturbing) in an adult i.e any fully functioning person over the age of 45... wake up people - the oligarchy rules!

And if you accept that as a truth, what are you going to DO about it?  Accept it and live under its shackles, or reject, resist, overthrow?

Maybe it's too late to do anything about it... 

I think we are beyond the point of no return... 

My 'sense' of what's happening in the world is usually about two years ahead of the curve... and it's usually pretty accurate - say somewhere between 80-100%...

And what I've been seeing/sensing coming (for about the last six months), is societal breakdown on the back of planet degradation, financial collapse, food and water shortages...

I'm not alone in these views; indigenous elders have been warning about this coming for hundreds (if not thousands) of years, western mystics have foreshadowed it, and even hard-headed academics who are not necessarily in tune with 'energy' are stepping out into the open on this...

Some are calling what is coming the "Post-Industrial Stone Age"...

And why do I think it's going to get so bad? 

WE ARE LIVING IN A CLOSED LOOP.... 

ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED OR DESTROYED - IT CAN ONLY BE TRANSFORMED...

SO, IF WE ARE LIVING ON A PLANET THAT HAS FINITE ENERGY/RESOURCES, IT IS COMPLETELY ILLOGICAL TO THINK WE CAN HAVE INFINITE GROWTH... it just does not make sense, no matter how you look at it...

We're literally trashing our planet, contaminating and killing the earth and the waters and the air, damaging and disrupting natural cycles like the weather, driving other life-forms to extinction, and with our uncontrolled population growth, we've been spreading like a viral plague...

It's been said that if we wanted all people on the planet to live as westerners do, we'd need the resources of at least four Earths...

Most of the planet's wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of less than 3% of the planet's population.   Everything's been commodified.   Now it's not just the Third World poor who can't afford food, water or shelter - millions in the west are in the same boat...

Here in the US, the housing market has not yet finished its downward spiral; each week foreclosures go up and house prices go down...

The real unemployment/underemployment rate is hovering around 30%; 44 million people receive food stamps and 25% of American children are living in poverty.

This in the richest country in the world, while trillions of dollars are being spent on senseless wars/fighting for control of far off places.... 

In one news story, they tell us that X number of jobs have been created last month... at the next news bulletin, they say that unemployment has climbed yet again... NEVER ONCE, DO YOU GET BOTH SETS OF INFORMATION IN THE SAME NEWS STORY, so that you can tell the number of jobs lost EXCEED the number of jobs created...

Things are worse now than during the Depression, but no one wants to call it that; instead, this time we're living through the Great Recession!

The worst the 'experts' will say is that it will take several years to climb out of this pit...

But our way of life (social structure, economic and political philosophies) got us into this mess, and continuing on with the same ideas and actions will never get us out of it...

And I believe the oligarchs know this... but knowing this, they continue to push us all down this path... they appear willing, determined even, to suck the very LIFE out of us and the earth, the mother who carries us all...

So what's next?   Where do we take this knowledge and build on it?

Maybe the best we can do is get together with like-minded people...

Get as far off the grid as we can...

Create connections and networks and ways of living that make minimum impact on the earth and her resources and wait it out...

While we're waiting it out, support each other and work together to come up with a different system of social organisation - perhaps "thrivalism" in small communities, perhaps a resource-based economy... 

Maybe a "Triple P" society, where the focus is Planet, People, Prosperity...

Where, before we make any decision and take any action, we ask ourselves:

Is it good for the Planet?

Is it good for all the People?

Does it bring Prosperity (which is different to profit)?

If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then we scrap whatever the idea/plan/action is...

What do you think?

Prosperity, Happiness & Revolution?

It's a holiday here today (Presidents' Day), plus the start of a week-long, mid-winter break for school children...

(And maybe the start of a revolution?)

Am tired... almost finished moving out of the old house... stuck between messiness in two places now...

Leaving shortly to resume and, hopefully, complete the transition...

Will carry with me this chant, to up the energy...

I usually use a dance mix version to call in the energies before I speak at church/group services...

Enjoy Yeha Noha - wishes for prosperity and happiness...

Black Friday Special: The Story of Stuff...

Here in the US, there's a day called Black Friday... and no, it's not called that because it's a Friday the 13th...

It's the Friday after Thanksgiving, when Americans are urged, encouraged, enticed, manipulated, pressured to go on an orgy of spending (using money they don't have) so that retail receipts/profits can go into the "black"... and it marks the lead-up to the gross excess that is Christmas here...

 

It appears few people question why we would need all this "stuff".   Does it add to our quality of life, does it fulfill us, does it fill a hole in our lives, in our selves, in our souls?

Now here's something you might like to know about the origins, creation and final destination of all that "stuff"...

Will this make a difference to your choices this year?

 

First Things First....

Lots on my mind, lots happening in the world that feels really urgent, time is speeding up, lots to write about... 

Been busy, busy, busy out there, spreading the word and vision about alternative realities and inciting revolt and revolution...

Is that because its my calling, or am I avoiding taking care of my own issues in here?

Physician, heal thyself!   Can't save the world if I'm drowning myself... Gotta get my own house in order first....  

So, I'm Taking the Pledge NOT TO INVOLVE MYSELF WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION OR OTHER SOCIAL JUSTICE ACTIVITIES (except the issuance of media alerts?) until I've finished moving house, gotten my youngster settled into the new school year, caught up with personal admin, planned and marketed some new classes and secured more speaking engagements and 'paid-to-play' projects...

That includes no more activist postings and commentary on other social media, newspapers and blogs (though maybe I will finally write those open letters to Oprah and to Nick Hanauer that've been in my head for about two years now!).

The world will save itself without/in spite of me - yes it will... really!

And I'll be back here in a couple of weeks when the house moving dust settles...

Namaste

(given the exceptions to my own rule that I've already created, how long do you think I'll last???)

Triple Bottom Line Accounting in Socially Responsible Businesses

Speaking of old paradigms... there are some 'socially aware' businesses around the world who have adopted the Triple Bottom Line operating and accounting philosophy of PPP, which stands for People, Planet, Profit...

Now, in my opinion, they've still got the focus wrong: It should be PLANET, PEOPLE, PROSPERITY....

As a species we are merely one variety of life in the ecosphere; we seem to have developed the arrogance of
thinking the planet is our playground and we can do what we want to it, regardless of the rights of other species....

None of the beings on this planet can live within a damaged ecosphere, so our first responsibility is to the PLANET...

And I think the word PROFIT ought to be replaced by PROSPERITY... profit still implies exploitation and benefit only for some, while prosperity implies benefit for all...