Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds – Albert Einstein

Why do we send our children to school?

To be educated? - a real education would channel us into curiosity and self-discovery

To keep them out of the way for a few hours? - working mums enticed into the workplace so that they too can pay taxes, need to place their children somewhere

To be good workers? - what parent brings a child into this world to ‘be a good worker’

To be prepared for life? - survival and creativity are way down the list in the average syllabus.

Because the law demands it?

School does exactly what it was created to do: it solves, or at least mitigates, the problem of a restless, ambitious labour pool - deadly for capitalist economies; and it confronts that other thorny problem: left to their own devices, people might learn to un-divide themselves, band together in the common interest, and take control of the institutions that stunt their lives.

Busy parents are prone to buying convenience food. Family units are dispersed. Rarely does a child learn the basics of cooking at home.

Cheap and disposable clothing mitigate the need to sew, to be creative and to extend the life of a garment. In a land where a yard of fabric is more expensive than a ready made item there is neither financial nor social benefit to learn even the basics.

Children living in less rigid societies can make their own clothes, grow their own food and build their own houses. Most so-called educated kids never learn practicalities of life because they are too busy learning how to sit still in a classroom.

In her book: “Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All In The Head” biologist Dr. Carla Hannaford states that almost all children are born as “whole brain” thinkers; however, by the time the child is 7 years old, due to parental, religious, and scholastic programming in the modern world, we see a very definite trend toward the left-brain orientation. Intuition and creativity are lost.

A real education is not achieved through memorizing data and ticking the boxes in multiple choice questionnaires. We have to find out who we are by experience and by risk-taking. We must pursue our own nature intensely. School routines are set up to discourage us from self-discovery. People who understand who they are make trouble for schools.

To know yourself, you have to keep track of your random choices, figure out your patterns, and use this knowledge to dominate your own mind. It's the only way that free will can grow. If you avoid this, other minds will manipulate and control you for the rest of your life.

The ancient Greeks discovered thousands of years ago that rules and ironclad procedures burn out imagination, stifle courage, and wipe the leadership clean of resourcefulness. Greek education was much more like play, with studies undertaken for their own sake, to satisfy curiosity. It assumed that sane children want to grow up and recognized that childhood ends much earlier than modern society typically allows.

If we are considering restructuring our society, we must consider what real benefit our current institutions have for the future. Today we are faced with an energy crisis, converging peak resources and financial collapse. But, in fact it is a consumption crisis, a lifestyle that has led to the depletion of resources, toxification of the globe, and obsession with money.

Society needs people who will take care of the elderly with love and who know how to be compassionate and honest. Society needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional.

It is not financially or socially feasible to continue to build and maintain cities as we know them today. The expense of acquiring land upon which to construct facilities such as schools, shopping malls, industrial and office complexes, etc., maintaining and expanding the roads and transportation system for the irrational rush hours and the few hours a day in which they are in use. In many ways it would be far cheaper to pay people to stay home. Out of this realization came Alvin Toffler's idea for the "electronic cottage" as we face the "end of work" which is visible today, and we are forced by changing climatic and economic circumstances to design a new lifestyle more appropriate for our time. "If we build self-contained structures - ones that do as little harm as possible to the environment, we can weather the coming collapse. This task will be accomplished through the existence of small, physical enclaves that have access to sustainable agriculture, are able to sever themselves as much as possible from commercial culture and can be largely self-sufficient. These communities may well have to build electronic walls against the propaganda and fear that will be pumped out over the airwaves.

We will need isolated areas of land and distance from the food deserts of our inner cities. Produce and goods will become prohibitively expensive and state repression will become harsher and harsher."

All infrastructures we build, like the monasteries in the Middle Ages, should seek to keep alive the intellectual and artistic traditions that make a civil society, humanism and the common good possible. We will have to grasp, as the medieval monks did, that we cannot alter the larger culture around us, at least in the short term, but we may be able to retain the moral codes and culture for generations beyond ours."

School is neither in the business of teaching survival (playground survival is usually self-taught and a major life lesson) nor creativity. Survival and creativity, compassion and honesty are the main requirements for an uncertain future. The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Soil erosion now exceeds new soil formation on about 30 percent of the world's cropland

Since 1990, the developing world has lost about 32 million acres of forest a year.

Water tables are now falling in countries that together contain half the world's people

World population has more than doubled since 1950.

The melting of the Greenland and west Antarctic ice sheets, combined with thermal expansion of the oceans, is likely to raise sea levels significantly.

The shrinking of the glaciers in the mountains of Asia represents the largest threat to food security humanity has ever faced.

The number of hungry people is likely to rise to an estimated 1.2 billion or more by 2015.

Environmental refugees are on the increase fueled by the advance of deserts and rising seas.

If we continue with business as usual, there will be millions of environmental refugees in the decades ahead.

We have squandered the precious gift of fossil fuels on trips to the supermarket and joy riding. We always knew it was a finite resource. This gift should have been used to develop the technologies of the future but its employment was diverted to produce profits for the few. Despite governmental cowardice in producing a long term strategy for sustainable power supplies, there are glimmers of hope:

Worldwide, annual solar installations are doubling every two years.

The available wind energy in China is seven times the country's electricity consumption. Three states (North Dakota, Kansas and Texas) have enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy total US energy needs.

The UK could produce 5 times more energy through wind power than it uses

The Earth's geothermal energy resources far exceed the world's current energy needs.

The technology for hydrogen fuel cells, high lipid algae and tidal energy is being advanced

Sweden has taken the biggest energy step of any advanced western economy by trying to wean itself off oil completely within 10 years - without building a new generation of nuclear power stations. Norway produces the majority of its electricity through Hydro and Iceland just over 70%.

Climate change or no climate change, we always knew the oil and gas would run out. Now we are playing catch-up, and nowhere near winning the game. We are told the lights might go out, yet always we knew that we would need to find sustainable technologies to support us in the future. Copenhagen succeeded in showing us one thing: we cannot wait for governments to act when their chief concern is votes, not welfare.

Localisation is the way forward: local power supplies, locally sourced food, clothing and furniture, jobs nearer home. This doesn’t mean we have to do it the hard way, but it does mean we can be secure, sustainable – and much happier.

Can we become the generation that changes direction, moving the world onto a path of sustained progress? The choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on Earth for many generations to come.

Plan B 3.0 is a comprehensive plan for reversing the trends that are undermining civilization. Its four overriding goals are climate stabilization, population stabilization, poverty eradication and the restoration of the Earth's ecosystems. At the heart of the initiative is a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2020.

PLAN B 3.0: MOBILIZING TO SAVE CIVILIZATION by LESTER R. BROWN

http://www.motherearthnews.com/shopping/detail.aspx?itemnumber=4115

"Human history is a race between education and catastrophe." HG Wells

The problems associated with food and energy vex us because food and energy, or indeed the essentials of life, are not part of our upbringing and education.

Control food and energy and you control people. Control you own food and energy and you are liberated. Food & Energy are the essentials of life yet they play little part in our upbringing and education.

Food and energy should be at the top of our social agenda and the baseline for learning.

• Feeding us is the ground we stand on

• All forms of human learning, literacy and erudition come from this ground.

• Food, soil, water and energy are seen as foundation subjects.

• The teaching of these subjects is inclusive, and indicative too of a mood change, of a healing process.

New Literacy makes a compelling case for this universal education. Based on essentials, this education has lasting benefits

The file “Education of the Essentials” expands the FE argument. It’s accessible via http://www.newliteracy.co.uk/files/nl-educ-essentials.pdf. For any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact Mario on 01622 662524 or email him mario@newliteracy.co.uk

Rebuilding the 'New Haiti'

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government – Thomas Jefferson

The only thing in the way of a new approach to the redevelopment of Haiti is the lack of true servants of justice within the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the USA and other nations who prefer to obtain the dependence of charity and aid rather than enable the independence of a self-sustaining society. We need to promote new leaders who have the courage to think outside of the conventional boxes and offer new ideas for empowering all Haitian citizens from the bottom-up.

This is a moment for new thinking. Every Haitan including the poorest of the poor, could have the means to acquire, control and enjoy the fruits of productive assets. From the rubble of Haiti a fair new society could so easily emerge.

Anything that can be owned by a government can and should be owned by the citizens a government is supposed to serve. The democratization of capital through universal access to asset ownership will end the power and opportunity gap between today's haves and have-nots. No property need be taken from today's owners.

Here is how:

• Money for the rebuilding of Haiti should be internally generated under a properly designed and citizen owned central bank, eliminating Haiti's dependency on external (and ruinous) financing sources. (Many countries printed new money to bail out the banks in 2008)

• A Citizens Land Co-operative would allow the community to share equally in the control and profits associated with land planning and development.

• Local Community Banks should be set up to aid the democratization of capital with interest-free credit.

• Newly issued shares in sustainable new enterprises would enable every man, woman and child to accumulate wealth and receive tax-free income. This would include those who have no remunerative employment, such as the disabled, the unemployed, homemakers, volunteers and children.

• Schools need to teach their students a commercial language such as French or English in addition to Creole.

• Haiti's huge current national debt must be forgiven.

A "New Haiti" can and should emerge out of this disaster. Funding for the rebuilding can be generated internally by the issuance by a citizen-owned bank of interest-free ‘new money’ which would be allocated equally from the bottom-up through each individuals’ bank account.

This new money would be invested in the sustainable growth of the New Haiti and each citizen would have the means to invest in newly issued shares in green companies involved in producing marketable goods and services.

The only thing in the way of developing a fairer society for Haiti, and indeed the rest of the world, is the mindset (or is it greed) of those who purport to act in our interests. But there are many bright, capable and fair-minded people out there who could manage the transition to a fairer society in all our worlds. Pull them out of the shadows and give them your support!

Attached is a link for the proposed restructuring any given economic system. This could easily be adapted for a New Haiti, a New Palestine, a New Afghanistan – indeed a new paradigm: http://www.cesj.org/thirdway/thirdway-intro.htm With thanks to Norman Kurland.

The framework for our previous mailing on Haiti began as a post on the Global Prout Policy egroup by Sister Ambika, Ame Johnson: www.proutinstitute.org

Haiti and a Fair New World

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world. Those who are afraid to try themselves, and those who are afraid that you will succeed

Our money, credit and tax systems are confused and overly complicated. They are designed to discourage the subversion of justice by the greedy few, but no - one really understands them.

Systems are created by humans. If they are flawed or incomplete only humans can change them. Systems should be targeted by our emotions and minds, not by socialists or capitalists. The systems we have compelled ourselves to work with determine whether our behaviour and thoughts will encourage vices like greed or envy, or virtue and the good habit of justice.

Every citizen has the personal responsibility to organize with others to make their social system as fair as possible.

A simple tax shift would keep more money in the pockets of ordinary taxpayers to cover, education, housing and other basic household living expenses. Elected representatives could be more directly accountable and responsive. In one move we could eliminate the tax loopholes and exemptions for the super-rich that unjustly discriminate against poor and non-rich families.
You and I are the leaders and activists who need to come together with passionate clarity concerning the fundamentals of economic justice in order to build a powerful force and create a fair global society, a world that works for everyone, a Fair New World.

The rebuilding of Haiti can help serve this larger purpose.
Haiti's vulnerability to natural disasters, its food shortages, poverty, deforestation and lack of infrastructure, are not accidental. To say that it is the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere is to miss the point; Haiti was made poor - by France, the United States, Great Britain, other Western powers and by the IMF and the World Bank.

Very few individuals and corporations in Haiti - less than 1% - own and control most of the land. The island is 99% deforested, the cash crops are exported under unfair trade deals which have led to greater and greater debt. Most of the people are landless or have no papers to show that the land they have lived on for generations is indeed theirs. Vast numbers have been trying to survive on just one or two dollars a day; children scavenge garbage dumps for scraps of food leftover from the plates of US soldiers stationed there; and that was before the earthquake.
Up to about 30 years ago, Haiti was self sufficient in the production of rice, but the terms of the IMF loan required that the island reduce tariff protections for its rice and other agricultural products.

By 1988, so much American rice had invaded the country (the US has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF),that it became unprofitable for many Haitian farmers to continue planting. The US rice farmers were enjoying subsidies totalling around US$1B per year. The farmers in Haiti got nothing and were forced to move to the cities to find work. That is why so many have died.
Development beyond the current crisis:

It is possible for a fair and just society to be raised from this human disaster. For basic needs to be secured for all, the land problem in Haiti must be addressed through land reform and land value taxation.

There needs to be:

• Establishment of community land trusts and allocation of land for ecological villages.
• Implementation of a transparent public finance system based on land value taxation as called for by the UN Habitat and the Global Land Tool Network.

When secure and equitable land tenure is established, the following basic human needs can be met:

1. potable water
2. reforestation
3. agricultural fields (rice and root crops) and appropriate technology
4. wind and solar energy
5. dairy farms (goats, cows)
6. cotton and hemp fields for fabric and building material
7. mangosteen, mango, pineapple, papaya, trees, nut trees/ coconut trees,
8. holistic heath centres.
9. educational institutions
10. cooperatives.
11. small industries.

One way we can help Haitians build a better tomorrow is to convince global creditors to cancel Haiti’s $890 million international debt. Doing so will help make sure that every possible future dollar goes towards rebuilding a stronger Haiti, not to servicing old debts. This is not charity – it is justice.

With thanks to Allanna Hartzok http://www.earthrights.net/about/hartzok.html
and Don Killoran

Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction

We live in a society which tends to reduce everything to a commodity with a price tag. In these conditions, lack of motivation at work, sickness and absenteeism, disinterest in the wider society, different kinds of escapism, crime and antisocial behaviour will tend to flourish.

The cyclical crises (boom and bust) of the current economic and social order become increasingly alarming as companies go to the wall, labour and machinery are thrown onto the scrapheap and public services are depleted.

A minority of big shareholders own the world’s capital - the big money - and employ almost everyone else to work for them. For these big shareholders and directors the sole purpose of any endeavour is to maximise their wealth. Production is not carried out to meet the needs of people or the needs of society as a whole. Houses are not built by private developers so that people can have homes. They are built only when a big enough profit can be made from selling the houses. There could be a million people in need of a home – but unless they can pay a price which guarantees a profit (usually by taking out a mortgage to pay at least five times the actual building cost of the house) those houses will not be supplied because the speculative land alone will increase in value regardless of whether or not a house is built on it.

If capital can gain a higher rate of return in arms production, banking, or through the employment of child labour overseas, its owners will invest it there. Similarly technology is developed and deployed primarily in the interests of profit. There is little or no profit to be made in the development of medicines for afflictions linked to poverty, and the technology will not be pursued or applied unless public money is forthcoming. On the other hand, in hugely profitable sectors such as hi-tech entertainment systems, innovation is relentlessly pursued in order to ensure speedy obsolescence. The two world wars of the 20^th century multiplied and strengthened the bonds between big business and the state - indeed the whole system is lubricated by the circulation of money, personnel and posts between big business and the state. As a matter of priority a capitalist state will devote substantial funds to military research and development.

Globalisation has intensified the contradictions of laissez faire capitalism. Its uneven economic and political development, it’s periodic financial crises bringing mass unemployment, poverty, insecurity and exploitation, have widened further the gap between rich and poor on a domestic and global level.

Globalisation is a strategy driven by the world’s most powerful monopolies and their states. Its’ primary goal is the unhindered penetration of every part of the globe. International organisations (such as the IMF, WTO and World Bank) are dominated by the US, Japan, Germany, Britain and France in order to drive through free movement of capital, deregulation of labour and the privatisation of almost all public sector industries and services. This power and freedom for transnational corporations has problems. In Britain for example, the export of capital has eroded the country’s manufacturing base and the privatisation of essential public services is proving to be inefficient and expensive.

Society is losing its’ optimism. Many people are experiencing psychological problems – often arising from stress – and ever larger sections of the population demonstrate their disaffection through self-destructive or escapist behaviour. Politics has become increasingly corrupted and the mass media have largely abandoned any notion of inquiry, integrity and improvement in favour of vulgar populism, cynicism, defeatism and consumerism.

The world-wide scramble for profit is depleting the Earth’s non-renewable resources without regard for the immediate environmental or longer term ecological consequences. Vital research, development and utilization of renewable and less harmful energy sources are neglected because bigger profits can be made elsewhere.

Globalization often appears to be a force of nature, a phenomenon without bounds or alternatives. But peoples’ movements have shown that it is neither unalterable nor inevitable. Citizens all over the world—ordinary people from the global North and South—can work together to shape alternate futures, to build a globalization of cooperation, solidarity and respect for our common planetary environment. It need not be all about profit.

The deepening contradiction between the economic, environmental and democratic needs of society as a whole, and the requirements of big business profits can only be resolved peacefully through the political will of self-empowered, self-educated and responsible voters.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/globalization.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Griffiths_(politician)