Fisheries In An Equal Money System

I made a video on my youtube channel and as I was writing the description it turned into a blog. It started off with a point about over-fishing and how international 'law' cannot stop states from depleting natural resources because of profit/overconsumption/capitalism etc... and how the relentless pursuit of profit results in a world of lack, whereas if you simply remove profit the world can provide for all. The blog ends with the corosion of the middle-class, which may seem unrelated, but as every aspect of Life is dependant on money, it is all connected. The international stage is a macrocosmic example of human behaviour, human nature, human interaction and its results/consequences.

Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7M3dVnZVPc

Here's my blog:

International law (specifically, in this video, public international law) is not a common-sense system. It is more like a grab-all where states (countries) snatch up all natural resources without any consideration for the future implications of their actions. The customs, norms, treaties and public international ‘laws’ that are formed around this principle of greed can barely contain the overconsumption that capitalistic behavior constantly pushes on natural systems. Overconsumption has become normative and customary profit-creating behavior, and this behavior has accumulated over time to form the current condition of Life on earth- specifically the yawning gap between the rich and poor.

International law has its roots in maritime law because international, or ‘shared’ waters, are the first places states began to interact with each other on common grounds. Fisheries cases are those in which state’s fight over who has rights to which fishing areas. Conflict usually arises when over-fishing takes place, or when certain state’s simply want more than their fair share.

Seafood is a lucrative business, and the economy of many coastal states depends on the resources provided by the sea. No matter how bad the condition of the sea, the sea bed or the species living therein, the economy of a country is always placed above the health of the natural resource. Only when the resource is depleted, destroyed or almost destroyed do states begin to change their behavior- out of necessity- indicating that change IS in fact possible. There are alternatives, there are better ways to live, overconsumption is not necessary and the natural systems that provide for us need change to happen NOW.

In an Equal Money System, the economic system will be changed entirely to stop this endless pressure on the natural systems to meet our ever growing demand. As the minority of human beings profit off of this action, the majority is left starving, or close to it, and natural systems such as fisheries are being devastated.

The Equal Money System will take profit out of the equation, allowing for needed change to not only become ‘affordable’, but to become the focus of all human action. Soon enough, the consequences of our current behaviour will start becoming more apparent and affecting us more directly. Anyone who has any kind of common-sense knows that action is required NOW to reduce our future suffering, and the current and future suffering of the masses, the environment and of course, the suffering of generations to come.

We need only gain control over our own greed and self-interest, and investigate it to see and realize that consumerism is programmed into us from birth. We don’t have to be these programmed working robots that act as cogs in the profit machine, working our lives away to support a system that destroys Life and takes our freedom. We are not free- we are slaves to money. An Equal Money System will allow us to experience freedom for the first time, because we will no longer be the modern-day slaves that we are.

      Only the wealthy will not agree with my statements, but I know that the middle-class is corroding. The dream of working hard your whole life to retire at 60 and sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labour are slowly fading as the illusion we were sold is proving to be nothing but smoke and mirrors- a lie that benefitted only very few. Middle-class income has only declined in the last three decades; while the cost of living has sky rocketed. I know there is more stress, more struggle and more hopelessness because if you look for the signs you can see it everywhere. What is the point of Life if all we’re doing is working our whole lives only to be able to scrape by, while those below us are starving and those above us are living in the lap of luxury. Only those who choose ignorance and who choose to put blinders on will continue to believe there is some kind of hope or light at the end of the tunnel. Life is not a lottery, we need to stop holding our breath and hoping for a break. Those who choose to open their eyes and see reality will see that the Equal Money Solution is really the only solution that has been put on the table that actually addresses the real problems we are facing.

We simply cannot continue as we are now living. On a domestic level and an international level- one is merely a reflection of the other- it needs to stop. Join the walk- support the cause. www.equalmoney.org.

How can we practically go about implementing an Equal Money System?

We live in an economically bipolar world, where the majority of human beings remain isolated in poverty while a small minority experience relative comfort and security. Even though there are enough resources to provide every human being with a dignified life, the current economic system diverts these resources to the top. This creates waste, pollution, over-consumption, obesity and greed, while the bottom 80% experience starvation, malnutrition, poverty and death from preventable disease.

 Both ends of this polarity, the developed and the developing worlds, experience survival issues and self-compromise due to money, and very few people are actually benefiting in this equation. Furthermore, many people are kept just comfortable enough to keep them from speaking up, or stepping out of line for fear of losing what little they have. Many have food and shelter, but are ‘mortgage poor’ or live under crushing debt, one step away from food stamps- the modern day bread-line. The current economic system we live in is a legal system wherein the rules are such that diverting resources away from the under-privileged (who are most easily taken advantage of), causing people to starve to death en masse, is a completely legal phenomenon. Figments of legislation have been weaved in to place, one by one, creating this bipolar and asymmetrical global situation. We are stuck, and the system we live in now doesn’t have any answers, all it has anymore are false promises, conflict, deceit, debt and compromise. If you’re not rich in this world, you’re a slave to money. If you don’t have money, you have no worth.

We need a new system, and the Equal Life Foundation, brought into being by the group called Desteni, proposes the solution of a new economic system: the Equal Money System. Within an Equal Money System, value will be inseparable from Life, therefore, money will be backed by Life. Each human life will have an innate worth, and that worth will correspond exactly to the worth of a dignified life whereby all basic needs are met, so that the human can stop merely surviving and start learning how to take responsibility for him- and herself, and become proper custodians of the earth.

The implementation of an Equal Money System will not be easy, as humanity, society and all its institutions will have to go through a major transition, from competition, survival and lack, to peace of mind, security and care. The first stage of implementation will be voting by the people through legal democratic elections. The Equal Life Foundation is busy developing political parties and their platforms all over the globe. Regular people are in the process of empowering themselves through the Desteni ‘I’ Process and are going back to school, cleaning up their lives emotionally and financially, and taking responsibility for themselves in every way in order to become effective members of the current system. It is this kind of self-change at an individual level that is the very first step necessary in order to implement this system. We cannot be in this world as children, dependant and in need of being taken care of, and we needn’t demand change from a rich or powerful elite; they will not change the system that created them.

 We need to create the change we want to see, by becoming the system itself and changing the system from within. We do this by becoming the politicians, the well-educated and the rule writers, by using all the resources we have at our disposal to empower ourselves in this way, to share the process by which we achieved our success in order to empower others, and to support each other to stand up from within and as ourselves, so that we can stand up from within and as the system. Right now we have no options and no alternative, so we are taking the responsibility to create one: an Equal Money System for all that supports all life equally, and that abides by the principle of doing what’s best for all in all ways.

Once the Equal Life Parties are voted in we will begin the transition from one system to another by first introducing a Basic Income Grant phase (BIG phase). Within this phase, profits from natural resources and other major sources, such as technology, will be distributed equally, as it should have always been. All debt will be forgiven and every human being will be provided with an income guaranteeing their basic needs such as food, shelter, medical care, transportation and communication. This way people can become accustomed to experiencing themselves as dignified beings with innate worth (otherwise known as equals) and realize the value of life, which has been disregarded for too long.

Over time, we will collectively work out the necessary adjustments using existing technology, knowledge and expertise to eventually implement the Equal Money System. The process of implementation will be an entire re-education and an altogether new system of distribution so that each being can learn to not only value himself, but also to value his neighbour, as well as the plants and animals that feed him. In the process of creating and implementing this system, people will learn how to become decent, considerate human beings who take into account the rest of life and their place within it. No longer will it be acceptable to place oneself above the rest of life, because the consequences of such allowances is what we see manifested in our reality today, in terms of the greed of a few and the consequence of the suffering of many.

This Equal Money system may be a long way off from the current system we experience ourselves within, which has no regard for human life and views the plants and animals as resources to exploit in the most abusive possible ways. That is why it is necessary to begin the self-change that is required right now, to begin to re-educate oneself now by living one's actions according to the principle of what's best for all, which are actions that will accumulate an all together different reality.

Slowly this group is growing, as people realize the common sense in taking the initiative of self-change and to begin taking complete responsibility for oneself and this world. It's time to stop waiting for someone else to do it for us, and as I mentioned before: we need another option. We need to create an alternative, and that alternative is a world that considers all life within the manifestation of an economic system that actually provides for life- instead of denying life to those who can't afford it.

Oppression, isolation, separation, corruption, and abuse are not Life, they are systemic, so we need to change the system to one which reflects what Life truly is: caring, nurturing, providing, considerate, equal and one. Join the Equal Money movement by researching it, donating, checking out the blog books (http://store.desteni.org/categories/books), voting or actually actively participating in it. Try out the Desteni I Process (www.DesteniIprocess.com) to change your life to one where inner-stability and peace of mind will allow for the self-movement and self-mastery necessary for this kind of global change to occur sooner rather than before it's too late. Realize that we can't change the world if we can't change ourselves, and that life doesn't have to be this way.

Self-change, systemic change, Equal Money- it’s that simple, and it’s that possible.

"We must start taking individual responsibility for the collective responsibility we have for the relationships that create this world. And start to understand how we - through accumulation created this world and then correct it...by corrective action at an individual level collecting, accumulating a result that is best for all." - Bernard Poolman

"Walk directively - breath by breath - accomplishing every task, piece by piece managing your time effectively, knowing that you will have to walk through the resistance, and that by doing it this way - you will accomplish a result you are satisfied with. And in this way - focus on self-satisfaction, that empowers you to be able to contribute to what is best for all, and through that -acquire a real benevolence and self-acceptance." - Bernard Poolman

Videos:

Basic Income Grant - Equal Money FAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b68sr3oA1Xg

What will happen to my debt in an Equal Money System? -FAQ:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpVgzjt6gq0

How will the Equal Money System be implemented? - Equal Money FAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld_8tve2a1s

Equal Money FAQ thread:

http://desteni.co.za/intro-forum/viewforum.php?f=41&sid=b2fef4cc5155619ed76f52091d91ad9e

Equality Always Pays

Equality always pays.

Life gives constantly, consistently and continuously. Take a plant, if you grow a fruit bearing plant and you don’t water it, don’t feed it and don’t tend to the soil, that plant will not give up. That plant will put everything into staying alive, growing and bearing fruit. If such a plant does manage to still bear fruit, you can eat it and nourish yourself, regardless of how you treated that plant.

The environment in which we live is constantly filtering out our toxins, cleaning our water and air, and providing us with food, shelter and raw materials with which we create every single thing we need for our comfort, enjoyment, entertainment and security.

Animals provide the same giving. They will produce in the form of their labour and their products in the form of milks, eggs, flesh, skin, bone etc... And they will continue to produce these things which we use, regardless of how we treat them, for as long as they are able.

This is the unconditional giving of life, and of innocence of Life: they do not have a mind to judge us or the ‘free will’ to choose not to provide. They do what they do because they are alive.

Inequality exists only within the mind of man, and is expressed in his actions, in our actions, wherein we take advantage of this unconditional giving from our world and even demand more, as if we were somehow entitled to take what we want without considering the experience of that which is providing, or `the consequences of our `taking. We demand more and more until we suck the life out of that which provides, and we move on to the next one, or the next space, to do the same. Over and over until we ruin everything and there’s nothing left for our children.

All we would have to do to gracefully receive all these unconditional gifts provided to us by Life in all its different shapes and forms is to realize our equality with all of Life, and with all that is here. This involves treating everything with the respect, care and dignity we ourselves would want to be treated with. If we are unable to even treat ourselves and our own bodies with respect, care and dignity, then we will be unable to treat our world with equality, because we are unequal to ourselves. This is why, within the process of bringing about equality, we must first start with equality within, because only then can we realize our equality with All Life.

If we were to actually live as ‘equals’ with all that is here, we would nurture the land and it would provide the most wonderful produce forever, baring of course the occasional isoloated environmental factors that would prevent such a thing. On a global scale, if we as humanity took care to respectfully cultivate the land and animals all around the world, the earth would provide ceaselessly and endlessly for us. It is already willing to do so, except we take too much, we abuse the animals and we deprive the land of the essentials it needs, we destroy the land and deprive half the people in the world of any kind of Life other than to struggle for survival, while a small minority live the kind of life we could all be living if we truly lived as equals. If we truly cared for each other, honoured life as ourselves and ourselves as Life.

The animals and insects already provide for us unconditionally, all we have to do is acknowledge that. Acknowledge that we depend upon them for our very survival and be humbly grateful for what they do, by treating them with respect, by giving them something in return, like dignity, care, comfort, enjoyment.

This is what I mean when I say it’s time to realize our equality with all that’s here, treating others, even other life-forms, as we would want to be treated.. This can only be done by mature, responsible people who have the strength to be humble enough to be grateful. Most humans are not that advanced, think only of themselves and their personal experience in the world as the world cares for them as if they were spoiled children who never grew up to realized that :at some point, it’s time to take responsibility, for oneself  and one’s actions.

That time is now, because it has to be. We can’t remain in denial about what we’ve created in the world. As all of us have been living out our lives in ignorance, millions and now biliions are going without. We are completely insulated from what’s going on in the world, in terms of suffering and destruction. It can’t continue.

We have to get through this by forgiving everything that has led up this point, everything that has allowed us to get this far out of control, so that we can stop immediately and start to change. Start to respect what we have and where we live so that we can ALL graciously experience the abundance and the unconditional giving the earth is already providing.

Profiting off of Food While Millions Starve, just because we can.

     In order to understand the necessity for humanity to start opening themselves up to the proposal of an Equal Money System (EMS) and to start actually taking steps towards an economic change at a global level, we must first understand some of the intricacies and consequences of the current economic system. This system has been molded and manipulated for generations by an increasingly powerful and an increasingly small group of human enterprises and corporations.

     To illustrate this point I'm using the example of the global food market. This market began at a local level where farmers would sell what they grew at a market price which was based on the system of supply and demand. More recently, this activity has reached a global scale with profits in the billions.

     What happens is countries produce crops of, for example, rice, soy or cotton, and sell them in the global food market. As food is a basic requirement for human survival, it has gained much interest from the very wealthy in the word as a source for profit.

How does it work?

     The global food market functions with its own language and set of complex rules and regulations understood for the most part only by experts and speculators. Speculators make educated guesses or predictions based on their unique understanding of this system, thus influencing buying and selling behavior. Corporations will buy up billions of dollars of these life sustaining resources based on these predictions, and they will hoard them until the price goes up and they can then sell them at a greater profit. These human actions are the major contributors to the movement of money and the fluctuation of prices within the global food market (more so than weather, global warming, drought, pests etc...).

     These fluctuations within the food market can cause the prices of food to double and even triple. This can cause the cost of our groceries to go up (as it is the price of very basic foods which are a small portion of our diets), but it also causes tens of millions of people to be added to the list of starving people globally (whose diets consist mainly of these items). In 2008, one fluctuation added 75 million people to that list.

     The problem within all this is that it is nothing but a game for the the very wealthy people who believe the stakes are only financial. They do not take a step back to see, or use common sense to realize that in the end those stakes translate in to human lives, including the lives of innocent children who were born into poverty and who never even had a chance at life in this system of money played like a lottery for the rich. The global food market is played very much like a lottery based on odds, where people with money can take as much risk as they can afford, and when they win, they win big. However, nowhere in this game of manufactured luck are there any rules with respect to the loss of life involved. While corporations are hoarding food, people are starving, and people are dying. The lives of the world's most vulnerable people are but collateral damage in the quest for profit, and the most messed up thing about this is that it's all viewed as normal and acceptable.

     What I am saying is that THIS IS NOT NORMAL AND THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!!! And I think many people would agree with me, if they knew it was going on.
These wealthy people who play the food market are drunk on making profit and their sensibility and common sense are distorted because of it, There is no accountability and no responsibility being taken and it needs to stop now. But this behavior is not unique to giant corporations and very wealthy people, its being acted out by all of us. We're all 'drunk' on consumerism which is based in greed, and we're consumed by it and we too disregard the rest of the world as we over eat and over consume and live out our lives like mindless robots wanting more products, more experiences more savings, bigger things, better things, always looking at those who have more than us and never really thinking about those who are sacrificed so that we can live the way we do, whether they be the have-nots, the slave labourers, the animals, or the natural world.

     I am a member of a group called Desteni. We are proposing an alternative economic system called the Equal Money System, which will entail all of us taking responsibility by changing the rules of the game from purely profiting, to rules which involve looking at the consequences of our actions. Such as: how can we be so detached from one another that we can allow such abuse to take place in this world? How can we be so blind to what we're doing? How is our human nature being manipulated by consumerism, by the fear of survival, by competition? How have we manipulated ourselves to believe we are not responsible and there's nothing we can do?



More Specifically:
   
      We have the basics of this system worked out wherein the value of money is not backed by gold or by debt, but by life, inseparable from life. Herein, human beings will not be allowed to be in a situation of power where they can dangle the daily bread of the poor just out of reach, as they do in the global food market; where as the price of that bread sky-rockets because of the absolute desperation of the people, people die, and people profit. There will be no poor, only equality and equal opportunity, so for those who want to live simply and work very little, that is their choice, and those who want a life of possessions and entertainment - they will have to work for it, as many of us already experience. It is the already wealthy in our current reality who will experience the biggest change, because unlike this profit-based capitalist system we live in, the Equal Money system will not allow some to profit off the labor of others.

     We as the masses who agree that this current system is unacceptable need to do so in an organized, unified and visible way. We at Desteni have created an outlet for this to be expressed and lived into reality by preparing to enter into politics where the rules are written, so that we can work within the legal boundaries which already exist by presenting a platform based on economic change and a system proposal that abides by the principle of what's best for all.

Taking responsibility and waking up to the abuse that's going on due to the current economic system we all participate in is every human being's job. You can do your part by finding out what the Equal Money System is all about by searching Youtube, Networked blogs, facebook, Netlog, Twitter, Branchout, or any other social media outlet. You can participate on the forums at www.Desteni.co.za, or visit the Equal Money site at www.equalmoney.org. We have an Equal Life non-profit set up and we are doing research into the abuse taking place in the world so that we are not ignorant to the workings of reality, such as the millions of deaths due to the gambling that takes place in the global food market. This is but one of literally countless examples of the absolute disregard for life and suffering in the world, and of the hopeless future we're leaving to the earth's children.

    For further insight into the global food market I recommend the short documentary called "Dying in Abundance" on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvqbNRq3Zk). If you agree that this is not acceptable, use your voice and say so. Support the Equal Life Party with your vote, speak for those who have no voice. Be a part of the group that is ready to do something real about the dire state of the world.

By 2012 there will be Equal Money books available, describing how the Equal Money System will work, and how it is the first feasible solution that has ever been proposed in all of time by all of humanity. Walk this solution with us,

     One man- one vote - on all issues that affect the whole, because we are one whole, and we all have the right to live with dignity respect, within ourselves and towards others.

Here are some links for further perspective, a good place to get started:

The Equal Money Solution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fKIQltJR6M

World Equality is Equal Money (4 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/user/MarlenLife?blend=7&ob=5

test your FREE WILL: Support Equal Money for All

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYjXLAIVbys

Equal Life healthcare System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nirgY4JnIy0