Whose Money is it Anyway?

Last week at work I was talking with a colleague about the government, more specifically, the corrupt politicians and their dirty deeds. I used the disgusting behaviour of our city and the police in the eviction of the Occupy protest camp as an example of our government at its worst. Of course there are many more examples of corruption, greed, mismanagement and general sneakiness. But it seems I was talking to a wall when the response I got was that I can't really complain because I work for the government. "You can't have it both ways."

At first I was shocked. Naturally I can complain about the government even if they sign my paycheck since I am not obliged to agree with what the government does as a condition of my employment. Our country has a couple of documents securing my right to free speech and free thought called the Canadian Constitution and The Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I thought most Canadians would be familiar with these documents. Perhaps not.

What is even more shocking is that my colleague believes the government owns the money. The government doesn't have money, it collects and distributes the people's money, our taxes. I work for the public, not the government. I work in a public institution which means it belongs to the public. I owe no allegiance to this or any other government party or leadership. It is very scary to know that people believe we cannot question authority if they sign our paychecks. In actuality, it is our obligation to question authority, especially the government, whom we have placed in office to oversee the management of public resources.

Let's get this straight. The government works for the people, not vice versa. Anyone is allowed at anytime to voice objection to this or any other government department, agency or party. If you are working within the government and don't like the criticism, might I suggest moving to the private sector?

Eye Exercise

I think it was last week. Someone sent me an article about exercising your eyes. I didn't think much of it but was curious and sure enough, 10 minutes later I was doing the eye exercises described in the article. It got me thinking though. Why do we not exercise our eyes? They are, after all, a muscle. We work our other muscles, in gyms, jogging, swimming, yoga, pilates, tai chi...even vocal exercises. Why not exercise our eyes? They're kind of important no?

Anyhow, it's been niggling in my mind for days. I'd rather exercise my eyes than wear glasses or contacts. Having recently joined the four-eyed club with a prescription for reading glasses, I now understand the difference between good and bad eyesight. And, glasses (although sometimes a cute accessory) suck! I think glasses are weakening my eyes. After I wear them, my vision is worse than before. Yes, I need them to read books but maybe an e-reader with large font is a better idea. I digress.

Today is when it all began to make sense...the annoyance, the niggling, the curiosity. I was in a meeting at work with some colleagues and some international students. We were meeting about a college program that sends employees overseas for short-term individual volunteer placements. We were talking about what people in different countries think of Canada...and the difference between Canada and their country. Everyone in the room had an opinion because every one of us has gone on overseas placements, or relocated, or experienced some sort of work or personal travel to Asia, Africa, South America, Middle East, etc. We all have had experiences abroad that were eye-opening and mind-broadening. We all had on some level exercised our minds culturally, intellectually and socially.

Now think about it. We are told that our eyes, over time, harden and become more rigid. We become unable to focus on things near or far so we go to the eye doctor. A specialist! The eye doctor examines us and, if we're not 20/20, gives us a prescription. The eye doctor then tells us it is likely our eyes will get worse over time so expect to return in a year or so for another prescription...on and on it goes. What the eye doctor does NOT do is suggest eye exercises instead of buying glasses. Instead the eye doctor advises us to close our eyes and rest our eyes regularly. Ha!

Examinations! Prescriptions! Lenses! Resignation! Bah. How familiar. When I applied the same line of thought about eyesight to cultural competence it dawned on me that our society would rather us wear 'glasses' than take the time and effort to exercise our minds, even though the results would be far more favourable.

Consider this...what might our society look like if we all had some intensive experience in a foreign country with an unfamiliar culture or language? Would we need to have diversity policies, cultural counseling or inclusiveness courses? Or would we not need these 'prescriptions' because we all would be exercising our minds in a way that would help us to understand that we are all different and that different is not bad or fearful, it's good. Would we be as dependent on government to give us the rules on how to behave fairly and without prejudice? Would the government be as capable of instilling fear and hatred in us? I think it would make a huge difference.

When we try to correct a problem in an unnatural way (prescriptions) we risk becoming dependent on something originating from authority (specialists), and this dependence compounds.We relinquish our power and surrender without taking the time or making the effort to correct the problem ourselves. We capitulate and, in the end, lose a lot more than we had expected. Meanwhile the authority lines its pockets with our gold and controls us with false promises of security or support.

Prescriptions are mechanisms of control and they ought to be the very, very last resort in ANY situation. Policies, laws and processes are designed to keep us in line so we'll be compliant thus easier to control. Effort would be much better spent on learning programs that give us opportunities to exercise our minds than on policies that close our eyes and keep us in the dark.

Demurrage

Demurrage. This is something new I've learned about in the past few weeks. Defined, demurrage is "the cost associated with owning or holding currency over a given period. It is sometimes referred to as a carrying cost of money. For commodity money such as gold, demurrage is the cost of storing and securing the gold. For paper currency, it takes the form of a periodic tax, such as a stamp tax, on currency holdings. Demurrage is sometimes cited as economically advantageous, usually in the context of complementary currency systems." (wikipedia)

In an interest based monetary system the cost of borrowing is a burden on the borrower. In effect, it is beneficial to retain money instead of spending so that you can accumulate wealth for current and future expenses, both real and imagined. It is a fear based system in which saving for a rainy day is deemed wise. Insurance companies make billions on this societal assumption. Pay now...just in case. Risk adverse financial planning banks on this idea. And, yes, there are risks and we do need to save for our retirement, unforeseen accidents or economic downturns, etc.

But, when you think about it, why is this so? Why do we fear the unknown and plan so cautiously for the future. Well, I think it is because of the interest-based system itself. It generates fear in the belief that storing funds is the only way to be prepared for what may come to pass. We don't invest in preparing for the future, we invest in not preparing for the future...not creating a better future. This makes no sense.

In a demurrage system, the reward for accumulating wealth is gone. In this system it is a burden to store money since its value or purchasing power depreciates over time. Distributing currency becomes the ideal. If there is a cost to accumulate wealth, what would happen? Would more money flow through business and the community? Would more lenders lend? Would entrepreneurship increase? Would we invest more in the tangibles, better systems, infrastructure, services...in each other?

Who benefits from interest? Certainly not the majority who hold the burden of interest payments. It is a fundamentally flawed system in which the wealthy get wealthier. I wonder how much currency is locked away in private holdings, only used to exert influence and control over the majority, domestically and internationally.

Governments would benefit from the demurrage fees placed on currency holding, as would other institutions. Imagine if we actually lived in a gift-based society where wealth, influence or wisdom were not determined by the size of your bank account but by by the size of your generosity.

Do I think our bankers are crooks? Definitely. There are other options to our current financial system to consider and demurrage is one of them. We just need to think differently. Giving is definitely better than taking, as any volunteer will admit. We just don't place real value on it yet....and we should.

read: http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/different_money.html

We Don't Need Permission

I could wait forever for permission. I work in higher education. There’s a lot of waiting…for the i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed. But I just can’t wait. They’re too slow.

Why are colleges and universities so slow to change? Higher education institutions have an ethical and public obligation to further our communities. And by ‘further’ I mean designing and delivering education for the purpose of sustainably balancing economics, environment, society and culture in our world. Higher education institutions have to change as our world changes. It is our responsibility; yours and mine, to ensure higher education institutions fulfill their obligations. No matter what your role is in any institution, community, club or chapter, if you know and believe that something is not fair, ethical or honest, you must try to change it. It’s common sense. Doing anything less is merely acceptance, denial or apathy.

I think something has to change in higher education and it has to change immediately. I believe that sustainability needs to being taught to all learners in higher education, not just as an add-on and not isolated in specialized programs.  Unfortunately, in many disciplines sustainability is seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ or the latest trend. To make matters worse, sustainability is viewed as something you ‘do’ not something you ‘are’. This is wrong! 

Sustainability is a mindset, a way of thinking. It is how you approach something, how you understand, how you study, how you learn and act. It is big picture thinking merged with microscopic understanding. It is two-eyed seeing. It is a holistic approach to learning not only about the world, but also about yourself.

What message is higher education sending when it spends millions of dollars on sustainable infrastructure and energy management while disregarding sustainability in the curriculum, professional development and higher learning? I think it is teaching us that sustainability is vocational, but not academic. This won't do.

Osmar_Schindler_David_und_Goliath

Grace Hopper once said, “It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.” She also said, “Humans are allergic to change." And she’s right on both accounts. We resist change out of fear; those who try to make change have not only to overcome their own fear but the fear of others as well. Much like David and Goliath, one small entity has to confront an extremely powerful and intimidating force. Incidentally, fear is often speculative and a small crack in the foundation of fear has the potential to bring down an assumption built on shaky ground.

I’ve been chipping away at the great wall of higher education for a number of years. I’m not in a position of influence but I am persistent. And that is key. Like a weed that breaks through concrete, persistence is essential. Authority, control and dominance are not the most significant forces; might does not make right. Integrity is boundless. Authority is not.

Permission is a top-down arrangement too, isn’t it? Who really has the authority to tell you what to think and how to think? Who has the authority to deny you the right of discovery and personal growth? Well, at this time in history, the education system exercises that right because we let them. Many people know that institutional deconstruction is necessary but the flawed higher education system remains intact. Why? Fear.

Our education system (primary, secondary and post secondary) has been designed to teach us to accept authority and behave according to cunningly crafted authoritarian and industrial-age rules and regulations. The CLOCK, another industrial invention that helps us to compliantly work on average 35 hours per week, RULES our lives. We are taught to fear change, fear the unknown and fear one another.

If you believe this to be true, as I do, then please recognize the education system for the illusion it is. Metaphorically, throw a rock at it: your fears, the wall, the clock, the inequality, the control. It is only as real as you allow it to be. When you know change is necessary, you have to change how you think.

Here are some works by marvelous changemakers that have helped me to overcome some of my fears, insecurities and doubts:

1.     Exopedagogy (Education Out of Bounds, by Tyson Lewis and Richard Kahn)

2.     Eco-feminism (Wangari Maathai, Vandana Shiva)

3.     The Ascent of Humanity, by Charles Eisenstein

4.     Walden, by Thoreau

5.     MOOCs (take as many as you can. I like Coursera)

6.     The Great Work, by Thomas Berry

7.     Earth in Mind, by David Orr

8.     Blessed Unrest, by Paul Hawken

9.     A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

10.   The Earth Charter

I could write about the little things I’ve tried to change…some successes, some failures; different ways I’ve been trying to chip away at the wall. But there is no point in talking about what has been done by one person in one place at one time. The entire higher education system in my country, and in the ‘Western’ world, is a flawed, broken system and its pigeon-holed approach to sustainability is glaringly inadequate. This has to change. It will take a lot of effort from many individuals and groups to change the education system, transforming how we live and learn sustainably. Change will never come from the top. Goliath wears a lot of armour and has other plans for us. Change will come from people like you and me who don’t wait for the permission we’ve never needed. 

Frankenstein Lives!

The movie I, Frankenstein is coming next week and I am taking my son to see it. It's meant to be a treat for him but I'm secretly looking forward to it. Frankenstein is one of my favourite books. In the new movie, Frankenstein is still alive 200 years later and I think it a well timed release. Ah human pride. What suffering comes from it.

I was reading the news this morning and thought about the creature. Frankenstein is everywhere...he lives on. We see him in the neo-colonial world of hubris. We see him in the technological explosion and in our increasingly individualistic society. We've created a beast that we do not care for and cannot control; and we would love to abandon and destroy the beast were he not already so powerful and running amok. Made from our own hands, fashioned in our best interest...we've played god with the world and now it's not at all what we wanted nor expected.

Look at the politicians, jet-setting around the world in an attempt to manipulate or rein-in the beast. Who are they to be given this power? What gives them the right to play god with people's lives? Pride. Arrogance. And what is their aim exactly? Their goal? What do you do with something you've created that you cannot control?

The creators have abandoned the creation and now seek to control or destroy what they've made now that it threatens to destroy the creator. A cruel fate for blind ingenuity.

I know this movie will not live up to Shelley's original work in any way but I am curious to see how they portray the creature. He is definitely our shadow...a constant reminder of our dark side and a lesson never learned.