Monday, October 24, 2011

Do You Need Friends in an Equal Money System?




Do You Need Friends in an Equal Money System?
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                In Equal Money System friendships will no longer be economic relationships, because each will have what they need, and each will have the same opportunity as the other to have more.
If you consider groups of friends today, think about who gets invited out the most, or to the most parties. Who is the most popular and who is it that people want to be around. It is always the one who has something more, something to offer, the one who others can receive ‘something’ from. And that ‘something’ doesn’t only have to be money. It is sometimes money, in terms of the one friend who buys all the drinks and pays the way. It can be the one with the car, the one from a rich family who has a large house for parties, or a ski lodge to bring friends to, or a second home somewhere exotic. It can be the one who has an outgoing and successful personality, one who is looked up to, wherein others might gain 'tricks of the trade' or networking connections.
                These relationships are based in self-interest through gaining something from the other. There may be some reciprocity, but a self-honest look at the starting point of this type of giving will reveal that it is not based on actual caring or concern for the other, but rather ‘what is in it for me’.
                This type of relationship is the type that is fostered in our current economic system, where we are born in to a world of competition and survival. We have to fight each other for finite resources, and the attitude is: “it’s me or you, and it might as well be me”. This is what lies at the starting point of most all relationships in our world. Behind the handshakes and crocodile smiles, all the niceties and nice-to-meet-you’s, is the ‘what-can-you-give-me and ‘how-am-I-a-better-competitor’.
                If one were to take a look at all the friends one has and ask how many are based purely within economics or business? How many are kept out of guilt, or because something is gained from them? If each person eliminated all these types of relationships, which are based in self-interest, would there be any ‘friends’ left?
                Conversely, if one is rich, and shares everything and is therefore constantly surrounded by friends and family, I ask: if the sharing is stopped, how quickly will the situation change? If one who is rich were to lose everything, would he still feel he has something to offer others in terms of ‘who he is’? Are friendships bought? And if one has very little, how many friends are kept because of gain? How many people does one want to ‘be like’, instead of just being ok with who one is?
                If there are some people who haven’t been eliminated after having asked all these questions, then consider income levels. We are limited to friends within our own general level of income, because it costs money to do things and to hang out with friends. I myself have been in the situation where simply buying a coffee at a cafĂ© was a luxury I could rarely afford; so when my ‘well-off’ friends would invite me out, I had to decline because I simply couldn’t afford it. I eventually had to withdraw from the relationship. The reality is that if a middle income individual has a very poor friend, it is only a matter of time before he or she gets tired of paying for everything, or simply can’t afford it, or the poverty stricken individual becomes tired of declining or making special arrangements to suit his financial situation. And if you have friends that are very rich, it might be hard to relate to them and to their problems and issues when you’re struggling to keep up on rent, or mortgage payments and bills. This kind of class difference facilitates the psychological issues of judgment, feelings of inadequacy, shame, pity etc…. It is simply easier to choose friends only from your level of income, in which case money is the determining factor of the friendship.
        Another experience I've had with a supposed 'best friend', was when we discoverd a profitable employment opportunity to which there was only one position. The years of 'friendship' were quickly replaced by a situation of survival of the fittest. True friendship, where loving, caring and respecting your friend as you would love, care for and respect yourself, simply cannot exist in a situation where are we are competing with eachother for survival, yet this is the global reality we exist within.
                It is the ugly truth, but it is also completely unnecessary. The real truth is the fact that there are enough resources to go around, but that they have all accumulated into a lop-sided equation, wherein a few have the majority of the wealth and the means to production, while the majority are left fighting each other for the scraps. There is no dignity in this, and there is no dignity in relationships that are based on this principle.
                In terms of ego, in an Equal Money System it will be very apparent that there is no need and no room for ego within equality. Ego, like survival, is something we cling to in order to save ourselves, to be the best, or to be the victim, to be hurt and to hurt others. Within the Equal Money System, those who cannot see past their ego to their oneness with the rest of life, and the equality with all that is here, will be gently re-educated until they realize that no one needs to suffer mercilessly due to the existence of the ego of another (i.e. The ego that needs to surround itself by millions of dollars as security, as survival, while others are born into poverty and starvation).
                In an Equal Money System, resources will not be owned and profited from, they will be evenly distributed as the distribution of a dignified life for all. No one has the right to profit off the labour of another as slavery as is accepted and allowed in the current system, just as no one has the right to own and profit from resources that are provided freely and unconditionally from the earth. Absolutely nobody has the right to profit from resources that we all depend upon for our survival, nor to keep them from us if we can’t pay. That is barbaric. In an Equal money System, each human will be provided and cared for equally, and each human-hour will have the same value, relationships will therefore be formed within absolute equality, thus friendship In an Equal Money System will not be based in self-interest, competition, personal gain and survival, but rather on actual caring, sharing, mutual respect, and it will be dignified.
                To answer the question: ‘Do you need friends in an equal money system’, the answer is no. You don’t NEED them because there is no need or dependency; you either choose to have them, or not. The real question is: will you be brave enough to enter into friendships with nothing to offer other than who you are?
Friendship based on Money Will End in an Equal Money System:

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Life Is Not Fair

Life’s Not Fair

                Life’s not fair: it’s harsh, but it’s true. Life’s not fair because some people are taller and are better basketball players, and some people have a huge singing range and can stay on key effortlessly, while some people have an aptitude for math like it’s nobody’s business.
To be born with such advantages or disadvantages in life is not fair. We are not all born equal no matter what any constitution says, and that’s just the way it is. We’ve got to work with what we’ve got in this life and learn to accept ourselves the way we are.
                However, there’s another type of inequality that exists, and it’s much more unfair than any physiological or biological difference will ever be: it’s the current, competitive economic system. This system has been built and designed to produce haves and have nots, where billions of people are going hungry, most people are struggling to get by, and a handful of people have everything they could possibly want and more.
                It’s one thing to be ‘lucky’ enough to be born with certain aptitudes wherein one can possibly enjoy a certain skill set throughout their life, which another may never get the chance to do. It’s another thing when you’re born into a country in debt, and you starve from the moment you take your first breath till the moment when you die.
Life’s Not Fair: The American Dream
Two people are born in the ghetto somewhere in the U.S.A, One is tall and a good basketball player, and the other is the same minus the height and skills. The tall one who can play basketball gets discovered and goes on to make millions and now he’s all set, while his counterpart will remain in the ghetto, where he will suffer the consequences of the unemployment, unaffordable education, and the bad economy created by the elite. Basically, he hasn’t got a chance in hell. And no matter how much money his basketball playing friend can make, he can never buy a solution to this problem, because it is global and it is systemic. Instead his millions will go to supporting the system as it is and making sure everything stays in place.  
We live in a world where one can be born  into a country, or a part of a country where no matter how hard you work or what type of person you are, you will go hungry, and you will never get the opportunity to change that reality because of the systemic and inescapable poverty that exists. And then there’s the illusion that in America, there’s still a chance for everyone to ‘make it’, also known as the American Dream. It’s not called a ‘dream’ by accident: dream on America. Take my example of the basketball player- that would be an example of the American dream- but even if every NBA player were to have come from poverty, the fraction of people that go from rags to riches is so insignificant. Billions of people, tens of millions in the U.S. remain struggling, isolated, merely surviving with no future and no hope. The few people who make it out of this situation are celebrated, given media attention and held as examples of what the others ‘could’ become if they’re lucky. To this I say: Good luck getting a loan with bad credit and no assets. Good luck getting a good job with a criminal record. Good luck making sense of the world when you’re born into drug addiction. Good luck being an honest, hard-working individual when you are physically or sexually abused, and you have no one to show you how to ‘rise up’ and ‘overcome’. Good luck becoming competitive in a country where the quality of education is poor unless you can afford Ivy League schools, where a BA just doesn’t cut it anymore, and where poverty is systemic. Poverty HAS to exist in order for the system to function properly, wherein the rich become even more rich every year, and the middle class -the backbone of America- gets chipped away at, crumbles under crushing debt and begins to live hand to mouth, joining the ranks of the poor.  But these are the breaks right? I mean, Life’s not fair after all.
                But this is different, this is a man-made phenomenon. This has been planned and orchestrated, accepted and allowed, legislated and concretized.  The difference is also the fact that this is global, and that starvation and suffering is systematic and long-term.  The situation has been created over generations, and it has gotten out of hand. Now it’s time to just stop, stop, and do something altogether different.
                The Equal Money system is a new kind of economic system. It is being proposed as an alternative to profit-based capitalism. It is being proposed by an international, self-organized group who are committed to change. We understand that in order to bring about change we first have to change ourselves, by going to school, educating ourselves, and getting jobs that will place us in good standing within the system. We are cleaning up our own financial situations and becoming responsible, well-disciplined individuals who care enough about the lives of those who have no chance, to commit our own lives to personal, then systemic, then global change. We are empowering ourselves by learning about what Life is really about: not clothes or beauty, sex, partying, drinking or sports- but rather the global community who need to work together to lift the poor out of their isolation, help the rich step down from their delusions of grandeur, and bring everybody to a level playing field where education, medical attention, food, shelter, communication and transportation are guaranteed to all.
                We understand that REAL change can only come from a change within the system. That we have to ‘be the change’ as they say, by becoming the politicians, by becoming the educated, by becoming the rich, by becoming the system, in order to change the system from within. We need to become the system to change the system, not fight the system.
 If you are unsatisfied with the way things are and if you agree we need to change, I propose you join the Equal Money movement by learning about it, learning about Desteni, and then empowering yourself to become the system, so that you truly can ‘be the change’ that will change the world. It’s about time, but it will take time. Real change is slow, but there’s a lot to do.
Here are some of the principles of the Equal Money System in simple English:
No human being may profit off of the work of another, one human hour of labour has the same value across the board. If you want to be rich and have more, you simply have to work more. Profiting off of the work of another is called slavery.

The value of money is not backed by gold or market shares, but by Human Life. We are all born with the same worth; we all have intrinsic value which is inseparable from us. When the human dies, the value dies, no value carries over to be passed down the bloodline creating family elites. We are one global family and each member will be considered.
- This not only makes sense, but helps to deter corruption while we re-educate ourselves till we understand that equality always pays in the end. It eliminates the constant fear of not having enough, eliminating the ‘you OR me’ mentality, and nurturing the ‘us’ mentality.
Within an Equal Money System there will be two parallel systems, one for basic requirements and one for luxuries.
-          It’s not the same as communism. If you want more- you can have it, you just have to do the work yourself. If you don’t want to work, you don’t have to, but you will only get the bare minimum in life, if you’re cool with that-so be it! If you want to work 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours a week only, that is fine because you are only ‘sacrificing’ luxuries by working less.
Basic Needs System: All basic needs will be met, giving the human peace of mind and security, eliminating the need to simply survive, giving each human value so that he and she can understand what it is to value others and respect life. Educating him and her to be responsible, considerate and caring custodians of the earth and the plant and animal systems  upon which we depend for our survival.
-          How can we value others if we don’t value ourselves? How can we value ourselves when our societies only value money? How can we value the earth when it pays to destroy the earth?

-           When a child is born he or she is immediately granted a bank account, the balance in the account will last the child’s entire life, the money can only be spent on basic needs for that child and the well-being of that child.
The Luxuries System: Entertainment and other luxuries will be provided wilfully by humans, and paid for by money which represents man-hours of labour. Entertainers will be paid per hour worked the same as doctors and veterinarians and teachers. If you want more luxuries, you work more.
Profit will not exists, thus cheap products and excessive packaging will cease to exist, among other things, drastically reducing pollution.
-           Everything that’s related to cutting costs will cease to exist. Such as using harsh chemicals, (because ‘green products’ are too expensive and don’t work fast enough).  Advertising and all the waste associated with it will cease to exist: therefore, false advertising, and ads that are emotionally manipulative will cease. Products that self-destruct after two years will have no place here. Fertilizers, hormones, antibiotics and other high-yield producing techniques will end. Pesticides will be reduced and replaced.Cheap waste removal such as waterways and landfills will be drastically reduced with the aim of only producing so much waste as the environment can effectively handle. No more slave labour, no more inhuman working conditions. No more child labour. No more child sex trade. No more insurance-based suicide.
All decisions will be guided by the principle of what’s best for all, and voted on in democratic elections where each person has a vote.
None are free until all are free. None are equal until all are equal.
There will be a four year mandatory work period for all human beings. Once schooling is complete, a 4 year mandatory service in work towards the functioning of society is required for the running of the system.  4 years is nothing compared to today, where many people have to work a lifetime after schooling is complete, if they were even lucky enough to get an education. We have to work for our whole lives in order to survive; even the idea of retirement is becoming something that is no longer tangible for most.
Leaders will lead as equals, and will be voted in by the people.
For more information visit www.equalmoney.org.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Language Divides Us: Quebec

The country where I’m from has two official languages, English and French. The country is Canada, and I’m from the French part, the province of Quebec, on the eastern side. In Quebec there is a big river called the St. Lawrence that comes in from the Atlantic Ocean and goes right down into the Great Lakes and is a major port of entry for imports into the heart of the United States. In the St. Lawrence River there is an island, the Island of Montreal. This is where I live.
                The city of Montreal has a population of about 3 million, depending on what you qualify as ‘the city’, and it gets pretty crowded in the downtown areas. The city is divided nearly in half, with, as a general rule, the majority of Anglophones (English speaking people) on the West side of the city and the Island, and the Francophones (French speaking) residing mostly in the east. In the entire province, Anglophones are the small minority, but on the island it’s pretty much an even split. The culture and lifestyle in Montreal is drastically different than that of the rest of Quebec, and even more so from the rest of Canada.
                Some Quebec politicians dedicate themselves to preserving the French language and culture, and they have been voted in often enough to have legislated laws surrounding that preservation. There is a sort of ‘language policing’ that takes place where fines are given to store owners whose signs do not meet the criteria of having the English wording in a font 2/3 the size of the French lettering. Phone calls are made by government offices to businesses to ensure that employees can communicate effectively in French, new immigrants must attend school in French, and the children of parents who went to school in French must do the same. Many Quebecers are unable to speak English and don’t have the option to learn how through the public school system and conversely, many Quebecers can’t speak French well enough to be employed in the public sector. Needless to say, a lot of the politics of Quebec are tied up in the language issue, and because of Quebec’s size and population, this issue reaches the federal level as well. Quebec has historically received special allowances due to the power of its government juxtaposed to the other provinces. It can make threats, such as the threat to separate from Canada, and it can act in an obstructionist manner in order to reach compromises.
                Being an English speaking Canadian, born and raised in Quebec, I was not brought up with a feeling of belongingness or of strong ties to my province or my country. I do not have a rich history of tradition passed down from generations because my French Canadian grandmother died before I was born, and I know nothing of the families of my English grandparents who passed away some time ago. I learned French in school but I learned it as a subject, not as a living reality. I can conjugate the hell out of verbs and I can take your food order at a restaurant, but I can’t discuss anything in much depth as I never developed a real meaningful relationship with a French speaking person. My linguistic skills improve the more I immerse myself in the French culture through living here, working and getting around, but I lack the skills to fully express myself in the language.
                From where I stand, this reality presents several obstacles in the quest for universal equality. First of all, there is a general separateness that exists between the English and the French within Quebec. There’s a history of oppression and conquest that seems to linger in the minds of the present-day population, an ‘us-and-them’ mentality.  This separation creates a barrier between the two groups of people: there are communication difficulties and cultural differences, and besides some inter-mingling of the mostly younger generations on the island of Montreal, the two pretty much just keep apart. A francophone from rural Quebec is completely alien to an anglo living in a west-end Montreal suburb, and vice versa.This difference can be a scary thing, but if the two swapped places and were born in each other’s shoes we’d have the same result, so what does that say other than we are not in fact different, but rather exactly the same. So the separation is really only a perception, existant only in the mind.
 This emotional political battle between French and English has been a defining factor of life in Quebec and has been a 'presence' in the rest of Canada for generations as well. To cut to the chase: this is something that we’re going to have to get over and get through in order to realize our real relationship to each other, which is that we are one and equal, so that we can start facing and taking responsibility for the real problems in the world, such as the wealth gap, starvation, the child sex trade, animal abuse, pollution, war, crime, mental disorders, slave labour, illiteracy, preventable disease, eutrification, desertification, rape, child abuse, torture, malnutrition, obesity, economic insecurity, suicide, and the list goes on. And on. And on.  
I’m all for equality, but there is a hierarchy when it comes to the relevance of the problems we as humanity are facing. Politicians -those in power- need to be able to use the common sense necessary to address the more important problems first, because with the power we elect to them comes that great and grave responsibility. But these politicians have us instead pitted against each other as they sit atop platforms of language and cultural preservation. So it's up to us to stop participating in these games. We can't depend on the politicians anymore to make the right decisions, and I don't know if we ever could. Maybe the fact that we so blindly followed and trusted their leadership is what got us into and created this mess of a world. We the people now need to start taking the responsibility we thought the government was taking for us because as it turns out, they weren't. So now it's up to us to take responsibility of rourselves and stop participating in the puppet show and start havig a look at what's really going on.
Secondly, doesn’t the preservation of something indicate the fear of losing it?
 I’m an Anglophone, a minority without religion, without tradition, without a culture or a place I feel is ‘home’ for ‘my people’... so is the fear that if they lose the French culture, language, religion (Roman Catholic), and tradition, that they will become like me?
In a way, I am removed from fearing losing that which I never had, and therefore I am not bound by that fear of loss. That fear of loss has consistently tied up a huge chunk of political energy and finances in an un-reckonable juggernaut with no signs of ever being resolved, because in reality there is an established English and an established French population in one province. Point finale. This is not going to change. But we are not the same English and French people who fought on the Plains of Abraham or who wrote the British North America Act; we are altogether different beings living in the present moment and it’s time we stop digging up the past and throwing it out in front of us like a path we have to endlessly walk while the world crumbles around us. We are not defined by our language and we are certainly not defined by our culture because if we fear losing these things that means they can be taken away when, who we are as human beings, as Life, cannot be taken away.
Third of all, we are the product of whatever environment we are born into. So those who are extremists in Quebec would be extremists if they were born anywhere else, fighting tooth and nail for that which they have decided is the ‘truth’ and is ‘right’ because it is what they 'know' and it is apparently ‘who they are’. Culture and tradition have no bearing in practical reality. Culture and tradition do not function on common sense or doing what's best for everyone. Culture and tradition have led people to defend human and anmal sacrifice, female and male circumcision, removing limbs as punishment, rape as punishment, all sorts of oppression and more. Why? Because when that's what you're brought up with it's all you know, but every human being has the opportunity to use common sense over and above tradition and culture, to be able to look at where they stand in relation to the rest of the world, and what the consequences of their actions are. It's easier to do this in some countries more than others, that's why the global system needs to change.
The ironic part is that in the fight to preserve the language, culture, status and numbers they have actually created the reality they fear, but for others. It’s interesting because at Desteni it is said that ‘you create that which you fear’. It’s almost like the law of attraction because so much time, energy, attention and focus is spent on the issue that it actually manifests in reality, just not for those who spent all that time conjuring it up. In this particular scenario   it manifests as a reality for people like me. So my message for those who fear becoming like me is this: I am not subject to the cattle call of patriotism; I am not bound to the history of a people, and I’m not tied by the fear of loss of language or culture... I’m absolutely free to say that the reality we have accepted is bullshit, the status quo is literally insane, and we as humanity need to get over our differences so that we can work together as one voice to change the world because that is what needs to be done.
 In this respect, our politicians have failed us. They have lowered themselves to childish fears and the comfort of living 'the way things are' and stalling the politics of a country to get their way. Politicians are supposed to be our leaders and lead us by example, to show us how to elevate ourselves above quarrelling like children so that we can advance as a species. But they don't.
The Equal Money System is a part of the political platform of the Equal Life Party- a political group that is dedicated to the radical advancement of mankind by placing th principle of what's best for all above the immediate emotional desires of the individual. This is truly responsible government and leading by example. 
The Equal Life Party proposes a change in the economic system as we know it, from a profit-based system of abuse to one that supports all life. This is done by ensuring all being's basic requirements are met, and that the few cannot continue to profit off the majority while the majority struggle to survive. Also, by backing money with life and making it inseperable from life is the realization that all beings are in fact one and equal, and no one has the right to deny that fact.
 In the end, equality has to start at an economic level, because if you don't have money your priorities change pretty quickly. We need to make economic equality our priority if we truly care, and only then can we realize that language and culture don't matter in a world where all are equal.
            I am one vote for world equality, I am one vote for an Equal Money System, and the Equal Life Party has my full support because I support all Life equally and I understand we need to work together to get this done.
www.equalmoney.com
www.equallife.org
www.desteni.co.za
www.desteniiprocess.com
               
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