Why are alternative and complimentary currencies on this GreenplanetFM program being constantly emphasized? The reason is very clear, the global economic system is out of control, with bankers out of New York and London calling the shots (assisted by acquiescing politicians), and are printing money at will, leveraging bonds, hedge funds, derivatives, promissory notes and every sneaky, cunning ploy of chicanery being fostered on the unknowing public.
These snake oil banksters and hucksters are out to CON everyone who is unknowing, implying that everything is REALLY OK, that it is all under control, nothing to worry about - just keep buying. It's called keeping the status quo alive in an unsustainable consumptive and dishonest economy.
And you will never hear a squeak out of the Government, or any Government. Mums the word! (Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Act 1, Scene 2:' Seal up your lips and give no words but mum.'?
However, if things do slide and quickly and funds become scarce and money is in short supply, we have PLAN B, another method that is grass roots in intent and can be easily put in place. This simple 'Living Economies Educational Trust' could save communities across the country a lot of angst, frustration and even despair, enabling them to communicate with each other and at least put food on the table and also into the soil and assist in pulling the strings of community together towards an outcome of peace.
This erudite interview covers the problems, (being endemic and global) the challenges - (power structures) and the solutions - possibilities and empowerment at a localised community level.
That we need to learn what is going on and move quickly to solutions.
That growth for its own sake is the ideology of the cancer cell.
Phil deconstructs growth ideology on a finite planet, to the degree that we extract and take more and more resources especially from the environment, at the same time pollute and contaminate more and more until we run out of everything except our pollution that basically poisons and contaminates us - in our own waste.
That we have found ourselves in a debt economy that is really a pyramid scheme that has been running for a few hundred years and that it needs constant growth (and a growing population) to exist, if not it will implode, which it is having to face as of this very moment.
The problems of environmental degradation, resource over use, of pollution of inequality of social injustice, poverty, despair, wars all stem from a monetary system that requires continued growth to keep the momentum exponentially growing to keep paying the interest.
Which basically is an eternal ponzi scheme, with the central banks all acting in concert to keep propping up this house of cards with huge injections of capital - printed money!
The present high tech web related system slushes funds at light speed around the global casino and in the process syphoning more and more money off the 99% into the hands of the 1%.
SOLUTIONS:
Smart approach is the holistic one, the grass roots one with the community utilizing these parallel systems of localized currencies as well as the current traditional monetary system. Bringing together a strengthened neighborhood, more resilient economies and localized involvement that respects nature as being integral to the process of community livelihood.
The www.le.org.nz system, allows for the extension of credit and issues IOUs and assist you in finding needs or wants - and sell what you wish, and a buyer can also be found, all without using NZ dollars - where you can also purchase software to run your localized green dollar system and time bank.
Time Banks value everybody's time equally. One hour of an accountant is equals to one hour of mowing lawns = very egalitarian. A lot of tie-in with voluntary organizations that good deeds and work can be accounted for and be rewarded. Time Banks can act as a central coordinating location for all exchanges to take place. The community when allied to voluntary organizations end up assisting and looking after one another.
So successful was Lyttleton's Time Bank in the Christchurch earthquakes that NZ Civil Defense calls it a great model for connecting community that they are encouraging time banks across the nation via the Civil Defense organization.
http://www.lyttelton.net.nz/about-project-lyttelton/earthquake/lyttelton-timebank
Savings Pools. Based on trust, are both very simple and interesting, because they can trump the banks by not having you pay any interest. Working in localized groups you pay into a common pool and over time build up a substantial kitty and by utilizing the 'reciprocity indicator' it uniquely calculates the divvying up of the cash that is in the collective pool, and is then ready for loaning out.
Necessities:
Urgent need to form a new grass roots economy across the nation, because due to escalating interest rates the NZ current account is in a more dire predicament than the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister will ever let on as they do not want to spook both 'their' voters or the market! Meanwhile, the Labour Party still continues to slumber and sleep at the wheel. Once the interest we pay overseas entities leaves NZ it never comes back! The big one for NZ is our growing private debt.
A very informative and empowering interview that Phil in his closing statement calls for a powerful renaissance within NZ communities to extend into more 'conscious connection' to acknowledge the 'commons' and the choices we make. That we actively commit to understanding and participating in alternative and complimentary currencies, as our future may very well depend on it!
http://www.le.org.nz
http://www.le.org.nz/index.php/support-us/37.html
