Robert Paterson's Weblog

Upward Spial - How Just you and I can make a big Difference

Small things are happening on PEI - Tim Banks land offer, Dave Cormiers Web Offer - Josh Biggley's chickens. Maybe these things are not small???

Chris Corrigan pointed me to this 45 minute film - The film helped me see clearly how the world really works and how I could act- just little me - and make a difference - the most productive 35 minutes you could spend.

Property Tax - a new battleground

As property values fall - as people are squeezed to the limit - property taxes are becoming a battleground.

Cities depend on property tax. They have the power to foreclose your house if you do not pay. But if they raise taxes, people will balk. If they foreclose, they make the situation worse. If they raise taxes people will not pay. In fact people want taxes to be reduced.

Cities and people are on a collision course.

Ms. Lynch, meanwhile, lost her job at a Bed, Bath & Beyond this year, and is behind on her mortgage payments. Shaving a few hundred dollars off her annual tax bill of $4,300 might not keep her out of foreclosure, but it would help, she said.

“Everything’s in God’s hands now,” she said.

Officials say stories like these are common as unemployment hits 9.5 percent and people seek to trim their budgets. Appraisers and assessors, normally concerned with land values and comparable sales, are becoming ersatz crisis counselors.

Jeff Furst, the appraiser in St. Lucie County, Fla., said a 62-year-old man recently walked into his office and described how his wife had been laid off and his salary had been cut in half. He was struggling to pay his taxes and looking for relief, Mr. Furst said.

“We’re hearing from people like this every day,” Mr. Furst said. In St. Lucie, which sits along the Atlantic, property tax revenue is expected to fall 20 percent, and tax appeals are 10 times as high as they are normally. “Most people are going to see a significant decline in their tax bill.”

As with employment - this is a structural issue that will not just bounce back or go away.

Dave's Appeal to Build an online Farmer's Market on PEI

Here is Dave Cormier's Appeal - I am in - Can you help too:

Please go to his site and sign up here if you want to help.

Hi,

My name is Dave. If you are a farmer on this island, odds are I don’t know you. I’m the web projects lead at UPEI and a social media consultant in Charlottetown. I didn’t grow up on the island and, while i’ve been here 4 years I’ve still not done a particularly great job getting to know the people who grow food here on Prince Edward Island. (i grew up in norther new brunswick) I’ve bought fresh eggs from one farmer, been to an apple orchard a few times, and am currently in the process of trying to go out an strawberry pick. I have a share in a cow currently being raised by a friend in his yard in NS.

I want to have a connection to the food i eat. I want my kids to understand that food comes from somewhere, and really like the health, taste and environmental advantages of buying local food that grows here on the island. We called around today, after looking at a bunch of websites (and i talked to people at the farm fairs last year who assured me that there were “lots of opportunities” to buy fresh food, but had no system other than ‘call whozit who has lettuce early). Some people told us that strawberries picking was starting monday, some said later next week, some told us our information was outdated and one nice lady called us back today and said “we don’t even grow strawberries, i don’t know where you got that idea”.

This is not going to work. I need a simple, one stop place to go to get this information, and I need to not have to call twenty people to find strawberries that aren’t shipped in from who knows where. Same goes for everything else grown on the island. This is not very hard to do. You can do this. I can help, advise, or send you to others who can help you do this. Consider this as my commitment paid or unpaid to be part of a solution for this.

Here’s what i think we need for a Farm 2 Plate website. (in broad terms, think about a page like amazon.com but for farming products on PEI)

1. We need a website that you yourselves can update with times and products that are available. I currently have a few hundred people doing this at the university… you can learn how, and we can teach you how.
2. We need a back up person committed to answering phone calls from people who are having trouble. Someone who will teach first but, most importantly, ensure that the information is posted.
3. We need an automatic way of updating people from around the island when a new ‘availability’ has been posted. This is also not hard. People would be able to subscribe to this website like they would to a newspaper, except they would get the update by email or other means as soon as you put it on the website.
4. People would need to accept that their product and the ‘client experience’ would be rated. Ratings are critical to success. We need to spread the good news and encourage others to do a little better.

There are a few technical details around this, we would need to decide what the ‘categories’ of food were, and how the content would get spread out. This is also not that difficult. It would require some cooperation, and someone in a position to make decisions, but it’s very easy to change this stuff on the fly. We could do it this way for this season and then talk about it over the winter when the timelines weren’t so short.

And that’s the thing. We could the earliest version of this running by next week. It would need to be worked on, adjusted and, if you’ll pardon the metaphor, weeded, but that’s not a problem either. It’s an organic process and there will be disagreements and frustrations, but i think this is important, and, as you will be in charge of your own content, you can make sure that things look the way you want them to.

I don’t know where we go from here. I would like to hear if you are interested, and how we can go about doing this. It may be that we talk to the government, or some other organization… i don’t know… but i do know that this is possible.

If you are out there and have done or are doing this… let me know about it. If i can help, great. If that help is just telling people about it… that’s great too.

Bruce Sterling - The next 10 years - reboot11

Manifesto for our time - John Robb's

So what are we going to do as the storm arrives?

I rarely quote an entire post - But John is sooo on the money here and this sooo fits my own view that I will:

"There are growing signs -- from a black swan in savings/debt reduction to massive debt loads to quarterly trillion dollar losses in personal wealth to stagnant/falling consumer purchases to persistently low consumer confidence -- that the parasite ridden American "consumer" is finally dead.   If this is true, the economic model of the latter half of the last Century is likely dead too, and that will mean wrenching change.  It's my belief that the dominant solution is to prepare for a local future to ride out this storm.  Here are some of my random (more random than I would like) thoughts on what you should do to prepare:

• Ruthlessly reduce debt. Nothing on credit. Pay off every loan. Strategically walk away from underwater assets (like homes that are worth less than the mortgage).  This will allow you to stay one step ahead of the death throes of the old economy.
• Turn your hollow home into a productive asset.  Most homes are devoid of any productive capacity.  Adding energy, food, etc production to them turns them into real, productive assets.  Get your assets out of financial derivatives (stocks, bonds, etc.) as fast as you can and put them into productive assets (not commodities) you can touch.
• Make everything you can yourself.  Grow your own food.  Produce your own energy.  Make/repair your own clothes.  Turn costs into savings.  Reskill to do this.  The new "fashionable trend" isn't what you can buy, it's what you can make.  Anyone that buys "designer or branded" anything is a fool.
• Work online.  Convert your skills into something that can be sold electronically (most of my complex work is done this way).   Develop the skills necessary to work as part of a virtual team.  Telecommute whenever possible (and push to do this, even if it means less money), reduce the number of cars/dress clothes/etc you own in synch with this conversion (and move to a less expensive locale when possible!).   Always have two jobs going at the same time.
• Build a local business.  Own assets that produce and sell that production locally.  Even if it is small, it will help down the line via contact networks/experience (a new spin on modern "networking").  Develop the niche skills that sell locally. Group/tribe up when possible to tackle larger opportunities.
• Barter.  Cashless trades.  Convert what you have to what you need.  Skill set bartering is amazingly effective.  Become part of a local barter network (the backchannel).
• Bring your family home.  Grow your home to accommodate more people.  Bring back parents and grown kids (with their families).  This will allow you to pool incomes and radically reduce workload/costs.  It's also beneficial for security.  NOTE:  I've found that consideration/compromise is the best way to handle an expansive family home environment.  
• Suggestions welcome!! 

This change doesn't require cute and crunchy notions about "lifestyle" environmentalism.  It's all about mitigation of stresses in the short to medium term as living conditions deteriorate, while at the same time preparing to ride the resilient community wave to rapid and sustained long term success/wealth."

Unemployment - A Tipping Point?

The official Unemployment rate is 9.4% but digging deeper suggests that the real rate in the US may be closer to 20%. Here is Paul Solman of the PBS News Hour exploring this possibility

We all think that Tipping Points are about good things - but the idea is neutral. It merely signifies when a system makes a phase shift.

Innovators account for 2.5 percent of individuals in a system.
Early Adopters account for 13.5 percent.
The Early Majority account for 34 percent.
The Late Majority also accounts for 34 percent.
Laggards make up the remaining 16 percent.

We are well inside the norms of 15% for employment to Tip - for job losses to cascade affecting housing and credit and in the end society itself.

A system tends to Tip if about 15% of the total is reached with momentum. Well there has certainly been momentum in unemployment. It is also structural. The new Flat World - has shifted millions of jobs offshore that will never return. At first these were blue collar jobs. But now they include most white collar jobs too.

This is not your grandfather's unemployment!

If the real rate is close to 20% - what is the impact? Most Americans are 3 pay checks away form being on the street. How do millions come back from that? Most cities and states will surely follow.

Are we seeing anything in Washington that suggests that the full scale of the risk is understood? I don't.

What is the underlying problem?

I think that our corporate system is the problem. As a system it destroys jobs and distances the control of vital services from where they have to be delivered.

Jobs are exported or people replaced with automation. Maybe we have reached a Tipping Point in this process too.  McJobs are all that is left that have to be local - but you cant live on  minimum wage job.

Water, Food, Energy and Housing are all controlled by a system that has no accountability to the local. Maybe this process too has tipped.

It is no longer "just" the underclass who are affected. The middle class is now structurally jobless. Where are new college grads going to get work? Not only are they jobless but they also have college loans. Even the McJobs are taken.

Where is the career for them? Their parents are getting laid off in swathes too. Male boomers are especially vulnerable - how will they ever get jobs in the structure that we have today? We have in many families 2 generations of middle class unemployment or under employment.

How can we get work back?

I think that the only way we can get work back is to take back the key services locally.

Local Food - Local Energy and in the end a local financial system. Millions of jobs are to be found here. A local financial system will emerge too as a result.

This will become self evident soon to many.

Who is the "Tyrant" Today? NPR will shed light

After the Preamble - that we all know - Jefferson offers a list of the sins of the Government of King George - here are the top 3 - As I read them and as I think about how Washington has been hijacked by lobbysts - I see that they are back as key problems.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

Who is the Tyrant today?

Do you have confidence that our financial system will be reset properly? Do you have confidence that our healthcare issues will be settled in favor of the people? Do have confidence that Washington CAN govern on behalf of the people?

Who do they take orders from?

They have surely been captured by the lobbysts? Who are these people? Part of their power comes from the fact that their work is secret. We don't know who they are and we don't know their influence and power.

Well NPR is going to Washington like Mr Smith to help us see more clearly. Want better energy policy - let's see who is blocking it?

June 25, 2009; Washington, D.C. – Millions of dollars are pouring into Capitol Hill this summer, as lobbyists jockey to have their clients’ interests represented in three major pieces of legislation just beginning to take shape. The object of the lobbyists’ attention: massive bills on health care, banking regulation and energy.

In “Dollar Politics,” a multi-part, multimedia series beginning this week, NPR examines this extraordinary intersection between money and politics, and what it could mean for public policy. The series begins today on air and online, with pieces airing on both Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and continues occasionally through August. Part 1 is available now at: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105878862

As part of its effort to explain the lobbying effort, NPR will turn around to face the packed hearing rooms, to photograph and identify the men and women working to influence the legislation under review. The first interactive panoramic photo may be found at NPR.org. More photos will follow, along with profiles of key lobbyists, and explanations of the interests they represent and the objectives they hope to achieve. Audiences are asked to help identify the people in the photos by emailing dollarpolitics@npr.org and by following the series on Twitter @DollarPolitics.

“Dollar Politics” is being reported by congressional correspondent Andrea Seabrook and Peter Overby, power, money and influence correspondent, with contributions from NPR’s Washington, Business and Science desks. In addition to following the trail of political money and profiling key lobbyists, Seabrook and Overby will also show how members of Congress are affected by the system. One example: members who win seats on key committees suddenly become recipients of political contributions several times what they received before winning those seats.

“Dollar Politics” is part of NPR’s extensive political coverage, with original, news-breaking reporting on every branch of government. Continuing at NPR.org is “The Obama Tracker,” an online interactive timeline – updated daily – that gives audiences the ability to follow the progress and actions of the administration on domestic, foreign and economic fronts. For all political reporting, columns, podcasts and blogs, visit www.NPR.org/politics

The New is not "Self Evident" - MiND in Philadeplhia - "All people can have a voice"

One thing I know is true- real innovation - the disruptive idea that declares independence from the old system - can only happen at the edge.

So this spring when I got a call from Howard Blumenthal CEO of MiND, in Philadelphia, my instincts told me that this was a very very important call.

No TV operation is more unique than MiND (or, properly, MiND: Media Independence).

MiND is not a PBS affiliate. It broadcasts a stream of 5-minute programs, many made by MiND’s staff producers, some made by members of the public who attend MiND’s production Boot Camps. MiND is both on air and on the web. The staff have their own voice in a way that I have never seen anywhere before in media or ANY other place of work. It was not only a novel TV operation - it was a novel organization. It was what a 2.0 organization would be like- inside and outside. As an independent community licensee, MiND makes the most of its freedom--and engages everyone who walks through the door.

So I booked my flight and flew down to see Howard and his team.

So what did I find? How to make TV, the Gutenberg of our time.

You don't believe me? Please invest 5 minutes in this film.

Did you get it? I found it compelling. A beautifully crafted story. Here is a heartfelt comment on IMDB. Made by a real pro - right? No - made by a regular citizen, Leontyne Anglin, whose passion is the topic but who had never made a film before.

The impact of Gutenberg's technology in the 1500's was to give people a voice. If video and TV are the main means of communication today, then the "New TV" must give people a voice. This is surely more than uploading to YouTube or adding comments to a web video. Merely pointing and shooting does not make you a filmmaker. When you have the ability to tell a story well - then you need a place where your early work reaches an audience with an already-established relationship with a trusted brand.

This is what happens at MiND. Day-in and day-out. It’s the reason why the system was built. And it’s working.

The key to MiND is found in its willingness to help the public learn how to be real video storytellers. MiND’s core members have joined a tribe of filmmakers with something to say. MiND’s eagerness to provide every storyteller access to its Trusted Space makes all the difference—MiND is a branded space that adds real depth and texture to the word “public” in the term “public television.”

How does MiND do this?

First of all, MiND employs a production staff drawn from the public and not from the priesthood. It has attracted such a staff by its culture and by its remarkable intern-and-volunteer system. While many stations regard interns as more trouble than they are worth, MiND has transformed coping with, and training, more than 200 interns into common practice. As such, the keen are fed into the system and the cream rise to the top. Nearly a third of MiND’s current staff members started as either volunteers or interns.

Secondly, MiND has built a transformational training system modeled on and called ‘Boot Camp.’ It is transformational in that a citizen comes in with all sorts of wild expectations about television and media; after six hours of intensive training, she is on the path to making a real MiND program that will go on the air and become part of MiND’s extensive internet library of 5-minute programs. In time, she becomes an enabled storyteller.

Leontyne went to a MiND Boot Camp. She was a doubter - MiND’s promise seemed too good to be true. But Leontyne and two others at the Boot Camp took up the challenge. They developed an idea, checked back with MiND to make sure they were on the right track, and made a terrific MiND program.

As a result, Leontyne is a new person--and now, one of MiND’s most vocal advocates. On her own terms, she has become video- and story- literate. She possesses new power in the most powerful medium of our age.

She is not an anomaly.

Here is a short documentary film made by another MiND intern. It's broadcast quality in every way - a strong story line and intricate editing combine old and new footage. The person who made this film has become an accomplished filmmaker--and is now a teacher at a small college in New England.

MiND is creating a core of accomplished story/film makers who can help their community as storytellers. In time, with MiND’s support, Philly (and in time, other cities that may carry a local version of MiND as their own service) can develop a cadre of the new, media-literate creative workers engaged in the betterment of their home, their neighborhood, their city. It does not take much to imagine what they could do.

The incentive that MiND offers its "students" and interns is that not only will they gain the skills that they will need for our time, but that the work will be showcased on TV and the web--by a Trusted Brand.
All artists want their work to have an audience. TV is 1.0 but it offers a reward like no other. "Hey Mom my work is on TV!" So MiND is expanding its reach to other markets. It is building a national alliance in most of the key markets of the US - details here. The bigger the audience, the greater the impact.

So what next?

It is no secret that all the public stations in Pennsylvania are under pressure because their Governor plans to cut all state funding. MiND’s low cost approach makes it especially vulnerable--just completing its first year, MiND has focused on operational efficiency, programming and community; MiND’s first revenue programs are just beginning, and are insufficient to cover a 40% cut in the total budget. MiND will not stop--but it will slow down as resources disappear.

This is the reason for my post today--to encourage the public television community to consider what MiND has done in its first year, and how its ideas might be used to reinvigorate a tired system. MiND is not the full answer but it contains most of the DNA for the full answer and so I felt compelled to tell its story now.
What can we all learn from this?

    •    Set up a new organization to do this - The station culture is key. MiND is a 2.0 Culture. Here is how it sees itself. These are not simply words on a page. With 30 plus years in the field of culture - I observed first hand that this is no bull - what they say is how they are. So you cannot change all your station culture to be like this. I also know that to be true. So what can you do? Clay Christenson is clear - set up a separate organization to house this aspect of the new - your transformational organization. I know of several stations that are thinking along these lines. You cannot make this shift inside the old--but you can make the shift if the new is allowed to grow alongside the old.

    •    The Goal Is Self Reliance - The goal is to transform your community to be self-reliant - to do that you have to be able to tell the collective story of how people are bringing about change in your community. To do that you need to develop real storytellers by teaching them how to tell stories-- and you have to imbue their stories with the added value of your brand. Create a "school" for the new literacy. Bring in the people as interns and volunteers. Bring in the young. Use your digital channels and the web as the "channel." Or, let MiND show you how; they are willing and capable guides. And, please, don’t get caught up in the validity of five-minute programs--not before watching MiND or considering the sheer number of unique five-minute programs that can be produced in a year.

    •    Gain strength and power by connecting. Connect to the institutions organizations in your community who need this kind of help - use your storytellers to give them a voice. How might non-profits be involved? How about schools (K-12 and higher education)? What if everyone really did have a voice--and what if that voice defined the future of public media? Imagine connecting with other stations across America and the world--perhaps create a national network with MiND at the core - and jointly build MiND as an initiative that engages people at the local, regional, national, even global level. It’s clear that MiND was built with precisely that strategy at its core. Increase the power of the collective story by comparing what’s happening in Philadelphia with what’s happening in Chicago or Denver, and ultimately, with Mumbai or Warsaw.

MiND benefits from a wonderful gift--it is one of the few truly independent agents within public media--in fact, the company’s official name is (you guessed it) Independence Media. From that independence has grown true innovation. Make no mistake--this is not a play by a tiny public TV station operating at the edge of reality. Instead, it is likely the center of a new solar system with increasingly powerful gravitational pull.

We will not get through the turbulence of our times by relying on the status quo in any part of our lives. So I do my bit to tell the story of Howard and his band of sisters and brothers at MiND.

Bless them all. And for my American friends, about to celebrate their annual holiday, do consider the value, opportunity and responsibilities associated with independence.

 

US Obesity Rates Surge - Why?

I was in the supermarket this afternoon - I was feeling hungry - I have not felt hungry since I was a boy at school in the post rationing period in England. I was hungry because I have been on a diet. Not a tough diet. I eat meat, dairy, including lots of butter and cheese - even bacon and sausages. I have been eating a lot of veggies.

What I have stopped eating are simple carbs - bread, pasta, potatoes etc - beer/no - wine yes!

In 3 weeks I have lost 9 pounds and now only look 3 months pregnant rather than 7! I feel great too. My poor old knees are better and I just feel good.

But as I walked around the market all I saw was the kind of food that had helped me get fat. Massive advertising push behind food that is bad for us. On a day when Presidents choice had to recall a lot of meat.

What's wrong? The entire industrial food system based on corn and sugar and on treating animals really badly and OUR acceptance of this as being not only normal but desirable.

Here is a new report as reported on by the BBC - The results of this capture of our fodd and our minds by the system maybe our downfall.

Obesity rates in the US have surged over the last year, a report shows.

The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found adult obesity rates rose in 23 of the 50 states, but fell in none.

In addition, the percentage of obese and overweight children is at or above 30% in 30 states.

The report warns widespread obesity is fuelling rates of chronic disease, and is responsible for a large, and growing chunk of domestic healthcare costs.

Obesity is linked to a range of health problems, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Dr Jeff Levi, TFAH executive director, said: "Our health care costs have grown along with our waist lines.

"The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the US.

"How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?"

How indeed?

How do you make industrial meat safe? You Can't!

Today it is President's Choice that are announcing a huge recall of meat.

What is to be done to make meat safer? The answer is that when you concentrate animals the way we do - when we feed them food that is not their norm - they get ill. Hence the massive amounts of anti biotics that that have to take.

The problem is our system. Based on concentration and corn. As long as we concentrate, we have to have disease

The answer?

A network of smaller local units with the animals eating what they should eat - cut the corn out!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBC) Consumers should avoid eating certain President's Choice brand steaks, roasts and ground beef products that are being pulled from store shelves due to possible contamination with E. coli, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says.

The agency issued the health hazard alert Tuesday as an expansion of a voluntary recall of beef products in the U.S. by JBS Swift Beef Company in Greeley, Colo.

It affects:

• Fresh beef steaks roasts and ground beef bearing best-before dates between April 29 and June 16, inclusive, sold in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.
• Fresh beef knuckle roasts, four to five pounds (about 1.8 to 2.27 kilograms) in size, sold from Apr. 30 to June 10 at Sue's Market at 205 Don Head Village Blvd. in Richmond Hill, Ont.

The agency advises consumers who have purchased the affected products to throw them out.

As of Tuesday, no illnesses associated with the contamination had been reported.

Food contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 may not look or smell spoiled, but eating it may cause serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses.

CFIA list of products affected by the recall

• PC cab sirloin tip stk marinating sc.
• PC cab sirloin tip oven roast sc.
• PC cab strip loin grilling stk sc.
• PC cab strp loin prem oven rst sc.
• PC cab tenderloin grilling stk sc.
• PC cab tnderloin prem. oven rst sc.
• PC cab flank marinating steak sc.
• PC tnt top sirloin steak cp.
• PC tnt top sirloin beefeater steak.
• PC tnt top sirloin cap steak.
• PC tnt top sirloin steak.
• PC tnt top sirloin oven roast.
• PC tnt top sirloin steak.
• PC tnt top sirlion steak cp.
• PC tnt top sirloin roast.
• PC tnt top srln c/o beefeater.
• PC tnt top srln cap stk bnls.
• PC tnt top srln cap stk bnls.
• PC tnt top sirloin steak.
• PC tnt top sirlion steak cp.
• PC tnt top srln c/o beefeater.
• PC tnt top sirloin oven roast.
• PC cab beef ground xlean sc.
• PC cab beef ground lean sc.

Tim Banks offers land for a Community Garden

I quote in full a great offer by Tim Banks:

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Any Group Interested In A Community Gardens?

The Nature Conservancy of Canada each year purchase and donate a parcel of land for conservation under a "Gifts To Canadians Campaign" which has been quite successful... so I was thinking that we own some excess farm land on the corner of the Brackley Point Road and the Union Road next to MacLean Construction that is not being currently used... so why couldn't we lease the land for $1. a year to a non profit group to run an Organic Community Gardens for public use... there is probably 25 acres close to the City and it's a shame that it's not in production and since we don't have any immediate use for it then why not let some organization use it for free... our staff could help with some plans, fencing, water and infrastructure and hopefully the end-users would donate some of what they harvest to the local food bank or some other needy organization... this could be one of our "Gifts To Our Community" and we would be more than happy to entertain any reasonable proposals from any groups interested in setting something up along the lines that I have described... it may be a little late this year to start something but we would try if possible or at least get a good start on something for next year... if you know someone that may be interested in taking us up on this offer than please contact me directly...

I don't know anyone at the Food Bank - might they be a first step here?

End Food Banks - Start Community Gardens - A New Reality in Atlanta

This is surely a good thing?

The Impact of Domestication on Dogs and Man

If you ask why I keep banging on about why it may be good to find a way home to being more self reliant, here is a view of the power of domestication on both animals and us.

Sitting Bull - A Natural and Wild Leader

Grey Wolf - Natural Wild Leader - Look at Sitting Bull's eyes and at the Eyes of the Wolf
'
WSC New Modern Leader

German Shepherd - New  Modern Dog - Both Churchill and the Shepherd still have the remnants of the natural and the wild in them. In a tough corner, you would want both by your side.

Post Modern - Totally domesticated Dog - All wildness has been bred out. Rely on the power of manipulation and on being liked.

What next? This? Totally helpless - totally self absorbed - a complete drain

"You say Tomayto and I say Tomahto" HBR and Rob on the power of Stories

I am convinced that the only way to change the world is to change the stories we tell - if we do that we have a good chance.

I said this the other day in a typical Rob Post
Snip:

We have to be the new to make the change.

We have to build the new to make the change. We have to tell the story of the new in the new way to make the change. When enough us of live it, do it and have told the story, the world will change.

Harold Jarche pointed me to this excellent article by Peter Bregman that says the same thing is  a very different language. Snip:

To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:

1. Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.


2. Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.

For example, if you want to create a faster moving, less perfectionist culture, instead of berating someone for sending an email without proper capitalization, send out a memo with typos in it.

Or if you want managers and employees to communicate more effectively, stop checking your computer in the middle of a conversation every time the new message sound beeps. Instead, put your computer to sleep when they walk in your office.

Or if you're trying to create a more employee-focused culture, instead of making the bride work on her wedding day, give her the week off.

We live by stories. We tell them, repeat them, listen to them carefully, and act in accordance with them.

We can change our stories and be changed by them.

Michael Jackson and us - why his life and death mean so much - for we are he?

The eternal child - Peter Pan - ageless - always a boy - loves toys. Michael Jackson? But maybe also us. Stuck as a child. Maybe us?

I read this passage yesterday in Steven Pressfield's new book Killing Rommel - a book not about Killing Rommel but about growing up. As many reviewers have called it - "A lesson in Honor"

"Stein has a theory about inner evolution. A man matures, he believes from archetype to archetype: from Son the Wanderer to Warrior and from there, if he is lucky to Lover, Husband, Father, King Sage and Mystic..."

This is surely the journey that is open to us all - there are the feminine versions of this too ending of course with Crone.

I think that we are stuck, as MJ was, in the earlier phases of adolescence. MJ and Farrah Fawcett too, embodied our stuckness with YOUTH and its primary energy, the denial of our death.

When we deny death, we deny life and true creation. We deny the chance to become so in later life so big that we start to meld again into the fabric of the universe - like an infant who comes from that place.

For the Crone and the King Sage meld into the Mystic and become one human - the Mystic melds into the universe itself and has all its power available. This is the fullness of a life's potential.

But as eternal teenagers, we remain stuck in Neverland and we become bankrupt in every way. We can never nourish other life.

I think that this is why millions fel so bad today. They have seen part of themselves die and they see how sad and tragic a life that is stuck can be.

Natural Money - A New Book - "New Currency - How Money Changes the World as we know it"

Why can't we fix what we know is wrong?

The gap between rich and poor widens - today a billion people starve - in 1800 there were only a billion people on Earth. Starvation increases. No amount of rock concerts has made a difference. On the other side, the concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands continues but there is no idea other than complaining about what to do.

The wave of the boom/bust continues. If we recover soon from this blow, when will the next one come and how bad will that be? Also how can the solution be to get credit going again so that we can start buying more stuff from China and lay off more workers at home?

Where does the idea of limitless growth go in a planet that has real boundaries?

Key natural resources get scarcer - fish, wood, water! No one has any confidence that we can halt this degradation. What will happen we we run out? Worse, no one is thinking about the reality of Peak Oil. The very underpinning of our world today is easy to get cheap oil.  Why can't we even get ready for this?

Is our economy unsustainable by design? it sure looks that way.

Who will make the changes that we all need? Corruption and cynicism at the elite level seems to be the new normal. Few if any who run institutions seem to care about the real mission - they seem to care only about themselves.

But simply explaining this as greed does not help.

Simply complaining does not help. While all of this has been going on for decades, people have pushed back. But all this push back has failed. Why? Why is there no progress? Why would only trying harder get us a result?

What are we missing?

The issue is Context. If we all live in the Matrix, we cannot do anything because we use assumptions that take for granted our dysfunction.

To solve our contextual problem you have to take the Red Pill. You have to step out of the prevailing context and see our reality for what it is. Then you can work to shift the context.

At the centre of any human reality is our contextual relationship with money. Money is it self only an artifact. It is the reflection of our prevailing values. As such it is also a lever to change values.

Jordan McLeod has written a book that may become one of the most important books of our time. In it he defines the root cause of our problems and offers a robust solution. Align money and our culture to nature's rules.

The Book is called "New Currency - How Money Changes the world as we know it" - it will be available this week - Here is the Amazon Page.

The book is a tour de force. It is short, highly readable and deep - I would not dare to summarize it except to offer the key points.

Core to his analysis of the problem is Context.

Jordan's perspective is that we are an adolescent society. It's all about me. It is Narcissistic.

Narcissism is "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a lack of empathy." ^[1]

The narcissist is described as turning inward for gratification rather than depending on others, and as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, and prestige.^[2] Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness. It is also colloquially referred to as "the god complex". (Wikipedia)

Sound familiar?

So our money is no longer a means of exchange but has become an eternal force - the only store of wealth that does not have a life. Of course all people and all things have a life - none of our resources are boundless or eternal.

The result is that we have indeed made money itself our eternal god. This means that we have a mismatch between our view of reality and money and the reality of how nature works.

That is why we fish until the last fish. That is why our financial system pursues money as THE end at the expense of people's real needs.

Only when money itself has a life and is subject to time, can there be a balance and money can return to being a means of exchange and not  the end.

So long as we all give money this meaning, then there can be no improvement. That is why all attempts to solve our problems that work within this mindset of Narcissism have to make the situation worse.

The idea of money has to change. The meaning of money has to be changed. So how do you give money a real life?

Jordan goes back in time to see the root of the problem. Interest.

With interest money can and does grow exponentially. Nothing in nature can do that indefinitely.

Exponential growth in the natural world is typified by cancer. In nature, other forces fit the parts into a healthy relationship with each other.

All our ancient traditions warn against interest. In their wisdom they knew that the best investments were made in things that would themselves grow to benefit the community. That money was best used only as a means of exchange. To work best money must not be hoarded but circulate fast.

Sounds unrealistic?

In the 1930's when national currencies lost their trust and value, many communities started their own. The most successful example was in the town of Worgl where the economy boomed when the local currency was designed to lose value over time.

Keynes at Bretton Woods hoped for such a global system but a triumphant US blocked this.

The point is that real wealth is not a store of money - but a healthy watershed, a healthy people, a system where the parts support each other.

I cannot in this short review come anywhere close to the power and sheer elegance of Jordan's argument. (This is a link to a short article in Kosmos where he ofers a precis)

Snip:

Today, as members of the G20 and architects of the global Bretton Woods II convene to consider new financial instruments for building the 21^st century economy, a circulation charge should be at the top of their list. A validation fee of this sort addresses the essential design flaws of the current economy that make it utterly impossible to reconcile finance with environmental sustainability and the alleviation of poverty. These flaws include compulsive exponential economic growth in a world of finite resources, the myopic discounting of the future and a regressive redistribution of wealth into the hands of the world’s wealthiest via the interest on money.

A circulation charge effectively goes to the root of these problems by changing the qualitative nature of how we hold money. It inherently shifts financial thinking towards longer time frames. It creates a natural incentive to lend money without the need for interest, which would mitigate compulsive exponential growth, lessen the costs associated with borrowing and investment and reduce social disparities. It is precisely by shifting these central financial dynamics that markets can naturally begin reversing the inequalities between the rich and poor, facilitate investments in alternative energy infrastructure and create a more resilient financial system.

The implementation of a circulation charge in the global financial system will require profound, unprecedented cooperation between nations. Much like any other global instrument, it will rely on widespread adoption and integration to take hold and succeed. It is for this reason that the G20, as a relatively broad and diverse group of nations, is an excellent starting point for considering this tool. In addition to serving as a catalyst for restoring lending and confidence in markets, it would simultaneously enable a pragmatic shift within the financial system towards achieving the 21^st century objectives of sustainable development and the alleviation of poverty.

A circulation charge could be integrated into the financial system through its simultaneous adoption by several nations for their currencies. The tool itself, however, is more naturally predisposed to function as an integral part of a global currency. In fact, it could enable the realization of a global currency by transcending the present weaknesses in monetary policy that arise out of current national fiat currencies and policies. These limitations characteristic of today’s national economies include exponential growth, interest rates, hoarding and inflation. The diverse economic conditions of nation-states within the current economic paradigm mean that national monetary policies are often divergent and frequently irreconcilable. It is therefore only when a global currency is realized that the problems inherent to national currencies are likely to be resolved.

I urge you to read him yourself.

But in closing I offer one Rob idea. How to make this a new reality?

There are maybe 50 million cultural creatives in America today.

(source Values Technology - Dr Brian Hall)

They are people whose values are in Phase III - there is a critical mass of people enough to tip the system - but they are unconnected and have no power.

Jordan reminds us that there is an evolution of human culture just as as we get older as individuals, our world view changes. A 2 year old lives in a very different reality from an 8 year old. This is a map of how we develop. Of course you can see that societies evolve as well.

We live today at possibly the biggest break in values possible. In Phases I and II, the child/teen years, we are attached to the directly seen and experienced. In Phase III, we progress to the phase of meaning and connection.

This shift is not a linear progression. It demands that the Boy die. The adult lives for us. The Boy for Me. This shift is not made with grace and ease. This is why the "Boys" are hanging on so hard.

A catalyst may be the inevitable collapse of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency? The God of the Boys will die. But when this happens, there has to be new thinking and a new mindset or we will simply try to do the old again.

We have to grow up. We have to make the move to "Us"

So how do we put Jordan's idea into action? We change the social process. How do we do that? We change the story? How do we do that? Here is the link.

The Recession - Wall or Oil? Jeff Rubin on why it's Oil

Jeff is one of the best economists around - why he is now on his own!

The world is going to get local soon - time to plan for this Distance will cost money is the key idea.

There will not be a global economy - Jobs will have to come home

We will not be able to stop oil from going to triple digit prices. The central figures cant help us.

We have to use less, and take back our power locally

Resilient PEI - Heating with Wood - Start with the Schools

PEI's schools are very vulnerable to any increase in the price of oil. (Here is a link to the risk for schools) So of course is PEI itself.

How can we reduce this risk? How can be get ahead of the risk and create a whole new economy that regular Islanders can participate in?

Stop heating with oil!

One of the smartest things we did on PEI was to kick start wind energy by deliberately creating enough scale at the outset by the Provincial & Federal Governments taking their share of the power from wind. This guarantee of use, built the foundation.

We can do this with wood heat as well. All Public Buildings could shift from oil to wood.
This chart shows PEI's Energy use and costs in the ramp up in 2008. Nearly $200 million, A THIRD OF PEI'S INCOME TAX REVENUES - is spent on heating oil. While prices are lower today (71 cents vs 1.09) we can be sure that in the future even $1.09 will look like a bargain.

What if we started to use this same model with PEI's Public Buildings? What if we converted from oil to Wood?

This is easier than you might think. Here is Dick Arsenault taking us around the test of a new Pellet/Chip furnace at the Ecole Evangeline in Western PEI.

You will see that such a furnace

• Can be easily installed
• Can be fed easily
• Has NO emissions
• Is easy to clean
• Can save a school about $100,000 a year

There are 2 new schools that will be built in the next year. There is federal money.

If we went full tilt in the public sector and went wood (pellet and Chip) we would create the support systems and the local businesses that we could then lever to help with the rest of PEI's oil heating.

Lots of real jobs that are not going to go away will be created.

If we can pull this off, we would have to do a lot of work on conservation as well that also leads to many new jobs, then $200,000,000 at least will stay in the hands of Islanders.

The biggest tax break ever.

PEI will also be on track to start to reduce its dependency on oil and the outside.

Oh but Rob there is not enough wood for that!

Yes there is. Here is a snip from Roy MacMullin's great piece on this question:

Looking at a wood alternative, we would have to cut 2.8 million cords of wood to replace this volume of oil. (For all of Atlantic Canada) To compare, the existing residential usage of hardwood in New Brunswick is roughly 500,000 cords each year.

Using wood as a solution requires an additional 332 thousand cords to be harvested annually to displace the New Brunswick fuel oil requirement. (Roy lives in NB) This shouldn’t be a problem with mills shutting down. Pellets and briquettes can use softwood that is compressed to provide the same heat density of hardwood, with less moisture content.

Wood heat could very quickly meet the requirements of a conversion program. The reduction of oil purchases of 943,000 barrels would retain $137 million a year in the New Brunswick economy as opposed to sending it offshore. Over the years, this would be the equivalent of investing over a billion dollars in the local economy.

If Efficiency NB extended their offer of $2,250 to oil heat customers converting to wood, it would go a long way toward alleviating the problems of oil prices. The cost of the providing stoves would be $135 million (60,000 x $2,250), probably spent over a number of years.

The use of EPA rated stoves ensures an efficiency of 70% and emissions that are less than 10% of previous generation stoves. In urban areas, the use of pellet or briquettes may have to be mandatory with round wood as a rural option.

We are at the beginning of an emergency, perhaps a low intensity war. This change from low cost energy to high cost energy will sap our resources, leave us poor and eventually cold. If we fail to adapt to the heating oil challenge as well as the other aspects of peak oil, we lose.

This is surely the easiest political choice before us? There is no downside.

Peak Oil - One of the best papers for a community I have seen - Moncton NB

Is your community officially exploring the impact of Peak Oil?

Maybe this excellent paper written for the City of Moncton by Tim Moerman may help you convince your community to begin thinking. It is clear, short, well written and relevant for any community. A first class piece of work.

Moncton has also set up a task force to explore what could be its plan.

Critically important to assess our situation for each community - the process of just thinking about what very expensive oil will mean will help awaken the intelligence of people and bring your community together.

The first project for Moncton - Urban Farming - Hello Charlottetown!

Over the past several years, several municipalities have begun to
take action on Peak Oil. In January 2006, the City Council of
Burnaby, BC received a detailed staff report on the issue; Hamilton,
Ontario also commissioned a report. In the United States, the
councils of cities including San Francisco; Oakland, California;
Portland, Oregon; Franklin, New York; and Bloomington, Indiana
have passed Peak Oil resolutions and/or established task forces to
address the issue. Citizens'groups in cities including Dallas, Austin
and Seattle are developing resolutions to be presented to their
respective councils. The Town Council of Kinsale, Ireland has gone
so far as to adopt an "Energy Descent Plan" intended to cope with a
permanent decline in fossil fuels.

Here is the pdf.Download Moncton Peak Oil Report - June 8 2009

reboot11 - Action - Rob's List of 10 things to do

This year's reboot 9 (reboot11) may be the last reboot. I get the sense that Thomas feels that this may be the swansong. The topic for reboot11 is action. He asked me to offer up my 10 point list of what I thought this may mean.

With all action - there has to be a context. So here is my context (Heavily influenced by Jordan McLeod - whose book on Money I will review this week)

Context - THE WORK is to change our paradigm from Narcissism (The world is all about me - I am separate from it and from all things and all people - I get my kicks from the use of power and getting stuff) to Integration (I am one with the world and all things and people - I am made whole by participating fully in the wonder of the life of all things)

Why do we have to do this? Becuase as we can see, living as Narcissists is unsustainable. We are imploding.

None of the tools of the Narcissistic world can help heal it. There is no mechanistic reform that can work. No new regulation of the old system can work. Look at the mess in Washington. Acting in the old way will in the end only make things worse for the action is all based on the premise that we can and should continue to act in a self centred way where our connection and reliance on nature and others does not matter.

We have to be the new to make the change.

We have to build the new to make the change. We have to tell the story of the new in the new way to make the change. When enough us of live it, do it and have told the story, the world will change.

We know how to do this.

1. Know that our goal is that we have to change the prevailing story from "its all about me" to "it's all about us"
2. First step is that each of us has to take is to start to live this new story. We cannot lecture. We cannot explain. We have to live it.
3. You might start with your family and your close friends - start to see them as one with you and start to act in such a way as to make that real
4. Start to do this in your work. If you work in a traditional "Me" organization - be "Us". If you are a freelancer, go to the "Us" work. If "they" throw you out - all the better. If you are poor because there is not much "us" work - all the better - you influence
5. Look for "Us" work - Find a local issue that is all about "Us" - Local Food is a good example and get behind it. Connect and showcase others who can be part of this. It does not have to be local food - but it has to be a vital issue for where you live. Local energy - what is happening to Kids - health. It will be work that gives power back to people and takes power away from institutions. So this work has to be dangerous. It must offend "them" If you are not taking risk, you are not doing the right work.
6. Use social media to connect to others who are doing this work all over the world and so make what you are doing locally part of the world work. Find your support and strength from the millions of people out there who are doing this work. Make "Us" a huge group.
7. Use Social Media to tell your local story with authentic power. Look at Iran! The objective is to create a huge collective story. Once the collective story about real things making a difference in the "Us" world become big enough - we will find ourselves at the edge of a Tipping Point - we need about 15% of the population to get there - it's not impossible
8. Be brave. "They" will fight back. Again look at Iran. The irony is that when "They" go too far, "They" push many who had been on the fence to shift too. Expect to be attacked. It is a sign of their impending defeat
9. Meet your allies face to face - locally and globally. You will draw energy from them - they will inspire you - reboot itself has been a social incubator of this fellowship. But also be sympathetic with those that oppose you. For they are "Us" too. The British left India when India was ready. Martin Luther King's non violent approach has lead to President Obama. Mandela's compassion enabled the Whites to give him power
10. Bring your children into this. We like Moses and the children of Israel are in reality all ex princes or slaves of the system. It will be Jonathan and the children who cross over into Jordan - Don't expect a quick result but be certain that if enough of us act, that our children will inherit a legacy beyond price.

Bless you Thomas (@mygdal) for bringing so many of us together over the last decade and for planting the seed of renewal