Gaia: Global Abundance

Re: How is global abundance going to be achieved?

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:58:02 GMT

Peter

Would Penny On map on to your CCSD concept?

Jem

Re: About this pod theme...

http://goodworld.gaia.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:56:11 GMT

This pod should not die!

Well said, Jennifer: some measures are missing, and it is not finger pointing to say that these measures are missing from the dominant economic theories.

Other vital concepts are also missing from the economic orthodoxy that drives practice in economics. These are some fundamental distinctions that were observed in classical economics:

Difference between

needs and wants;
prices largely determined by demand (like price of land, or money) and those largely to do with costs in production;
a fair price and a price the market is willing to pay
real demand and effective demand (backed by money);
earned and unearned (windfall) gains like rise in food prices after a bad harvest*.

*when demand outstrips supply, people and groups of people increase prices not a law of nature.

Lack of these distinctions and the existence of other misconceptions in the thoretical engine driving economic practice will stifle any effective reform in practice as unfeasible.

So I would distinguish "finger pointing" from an analysis of what is missing and from where it is missing.

Re: States vs Stages - the big pitfall

http://goodworld.gaia.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:49:18 GMT

...So another thread promising to grow some muscle for zaadz fizzles out.

Bluewater,
I do not mean to be personal or rude but what do you mean? Have you any comments on Patrick's statement?

I know, I have not been active in this pod myself, but I have been supporting many other authors dealing with the fundamental reasons why good peeple seem to be unable to have an impact on the prospects of the possible good world (PGW) arriwing before it is too late.

How is global abundance going to be achieved?

http://peterbnyc.gaia.com — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 07:10:31 GMT

Dear Colleagues

One can argue that global abundance was achieved some years ago, but has been sequestered for access by a limited few ... and now there are signs of spiralling destruction of the environment in the ongoing quest for monetized assets.

The Sachs approach to poverty alleviation ... that in essence calls for a lot more resources doing more or less the same thing with little or no systemic change is likely to impoverish and not enrich. It is value destruction that has to stop in order for value creation to leave a benefit in the communities that need progress. The millennium village (MV) approach has very high costs for very good goals ... but can it ever be replicated at an affordable cost. If it can ... great ... but my attempts to find data to support this have not been welcomed by the MV organization ... which is a sure sign to an accountant that all is not well.

My view of the Sachs approach may be wrong ... but such data as I have suggests that it is very much a flawed approach. My preference is for approaches that start with the idea that a community has human resources and these people have priorities ... and then move on from there. I call this Community Centric Sustainable Development (CCSD).

Peter Burgess

Re: Limitless Oneness

http://goodworld.gaia.com — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:47:29 GMT

Current reality: Corporations rule the world;
they determine what will or will not be possible;
they dictate to governments (through well funded lobbies) what corporation-friendly laws to enact;
they made the laws to allow the free movement of capital, but do not want free movement of people lest the new wage slaves in developing countries chose to up roots and take better paid jobs (at minimum wages) in developed countries.

Current reality is there to be recognised not denied or avoided. Once it is recognised there is a chance of transforming it. Without recognition of current reality there is no chance of transforming it.

Be SIMPOL adopter.

Re: Community mapping as an art form

http://my-head.gaia.com — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:38:03 GMT

O you who are a part of me!

pray tell me, what wisdom do you have to teach me?

… and the snake thus spake …

The Penny On Trust has been established as a “brick in the wall”
of the Penny On campaign.

The Penny On Brand has been established as a “brick in the wall”
of the Penny On campaign.

The Penny On 4-concept has been established as a “brick in the wall”
of the Penny On campaign.

What has thus far not been established IS the clear, concise & coherent
message of the “cement” , which binds all those bricks together.

A simple message of global self-less compassion for ALL in the world
who are worse off than ourselves and, but for the grace of god, would also
include ourselves.

A simple message of the equality of thinking of one woman, one man.

A simple message of TRUST, as with the trust that is established between
a child & it's mother and that which is established between them and the father,
to further establish the “brick of the family”.

Bricks of individuals, bricks of families, bricks of nations of families & …
bricks of the family of nations.

ALL bound together, in balance & harmony, in a simple model of the Penny On Wall.

LOVE

machiavellissssssssssssssssssnake

Re: Community mapping as an art form

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:18:45 GMT

Two things nagging in my brain: there is a well-known economist/statistician who has illustrated powerfully (in PowerPoint) some of the issues you have mentioned. Can anyone remember who he is?

And THP's Epicentre philosophy is mirrored by the Sirolli Institute's approach to local economic development in the 'developed' world -- Enterprise Faciltitation®, a powerful social technology that helps communities create economic diversity and sustainability that is people-centered and locally controlled. It empowers people to achieve their personal dreams and aspirations

Re: Limitless Oneness

http://my-head.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:12:59 GMT

Talking the Talk ...
Talking the Walk ...
Walking the Walk ...

BUILDING COMMUNITY -- BUILDING LOVE

AS a process of transparency of WORDS, VALUES, ACTIONS

Re: Community mapping as an art form

http://my-head.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 07:55:32 GMT

Unless you can establish a model which encompasses ALL maps - NO solution will ever BE found to be able to "speak with your enemy". If you cannot "speak with your enemy" WE will never, ever, establsh peace on earth. If we cannot establish peace on earth - YOU will never achieve your goal of eradicating poverty on earth by the time you are 50.

The predominately patriarchal global "control mechanism of HOMO SAPIENS" has to be re-aligned in accordance with "nature", THE MODEL of the ONE, to re-establish the balance and harmony of yin & yang.

I have set my target to implement that GLOBAL MODEL by the time of Linnie & I's 50th Wedding Anniversary - when hopefully WE shall - ALL 7 billion plus & counting - BE able to reflect on our ACTIONS.

Re: Community mapping as an art form

http://patrickmoore.gaia.com — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:59:05 GMT

Michael,

I can go with you as far as believing that an n-dimensional model encompassing multiple maps would be a powerful tool.

I think our aspirations diverge when you start talking about encompassing ALL maps.

The key aim of the mapping exercise is to illuminate or unconceal opportunities for action. In other words, the purpose of the maps is to allow people to see something they hadn't previously seen.

For that purpose, I believe it's sufficient to represent two or three dimensions, IF those dimensions are carefully chosen, and shown in a way that makes the challenges more immediately apparent.

It's something of a challenge to convey what I mean without doing it, so my intention is to start prototyping some of these ideas in reality, as soon as possible.

All the best,
Patrick

Re: Community mapping as an art form

http://my-head.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:33:51 GMT

The ONLY solution is to eastablish ONE 3D model which encompasses ALL MAPS.

Advantage of physical gallery

http://patrickmoore.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:24:55 GMT

Jennifer,

It's a good question - I know that because it made me think ;-)

Here are the advantages I see:

1. It lets people see MUCH more of the picture in one go, which I think is sometimes important. If we all had wall-sized monitors with infinite resolution, this would make less of a difference, but we don't.

2. I think there's a different level of brain activity that can get unleashed when people have the immediacy of working with a physical picture, even if they have to use Post-It notes to make changes (which is probably not a bad way).

3. The intention of the physical space is that it become the context for Open Space workshops, collaboration cafes, etc. In other words, there's a lot more to it than just the static display.

The other thing to say is that, in my mind, there's a very powerful synergy between the physical wall (and its maps) and technological representations of the content on the physical wall, which can be manipulated via tools such as MindManager, Google Maps, etc.

My long-term goal is that both will exist, and cross-fertilise one another.

All the best,
Patrick

What gets measured gets done..... or not!

http://patrickmoore.gaia.com — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:15:43 GMT

Jennifer,

Thanks for a beautiful summary - I couldn't have put it better myself :-)

Patrick

Re: States vs Stages - the big pitfall

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 01:00:19 GMT

Excuse me, I have a plane to catch overseas, but first I am going to go light a match and put it in the bottle...anyone have an egg?

Re: States vs Stages - the big pitfall

http://my-head.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:54:40 GMT

" LOOK INTO the window of my mind.
   Reflexions of the fear's I know I've left behind.
   What have you done today to make you feel proud.
   It's never too late to try.
   We need a change yeah!
   So DO IT today yeaH!"

                                                  Mpeople

Re: About this pod theme...

http://uncharted-worlds.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:25:28 GMT

What I heard in what Chris was saying is:

1. you get what you measure

2. there are some measures missing.

Re: Community mapping as an art form

http://uncharted-worlds.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:24:07 GMT

What's the advantage of the gallery over having the same maps on a web page?

Not objecting, just asking.

Limitless Oneness

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 10:57:36 GMT

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Re: About this pod theme...

http://patrickmoore.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:33:31 GMT

Chris,

Many thanks for your post.

At the risk of taking the wind out of your sails, I think we're coming from a VERY fundamentally different place here.

I'm not about finger-pointing. I'm not saying that anything's wrong with the current system. I'm not saying it's anybody's fault that things are in the mess they're in.

What I AM saying is that there are some things missing that, if they were present, could make a big difference to the fostering of global abundance. Those things are:

1) A widespread belief that it's possible for a world without extreme poverty to exist.

2) Building on 1), an upsurge of activity on the part of ordinary people, when they realise:
    a) it's not hopeless;
    b) they have something to say about how things turn out;
    c) there are organisations that, given some money, actually produce big results.

3) A global shift in mindset, from scarcity (competing for "resources") to abundance (collaborating to create wealth)

Now, I'm not saying that there are no scarce resources in the world. Clearly there are finite resources on the planet, particularly including fossil fuels, fresh water and fertile land. However, if we can harness the creativity of not thousands but millions/billions, I firmly believe we can address the energy crisis, which in turn allows us to address all three of these issues.

The biggest tragedy of our current world is that so many talented lives are going to waste. HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and chronic persistent hunger are claiming 20,000 to 25,000 a day; who knows what talents are perishing among that number? The next Einstein? The next Mother Teresa? The next Ghandi? We really have no idea.

My mission for this pod is to unleash the solutions that are known, and have them spread like wildfire across the globe: The Hunger Project's Epicenter strategy; Muhammad Yunus's Grameen Bank; Practical Action's low-tech, high-impact farming techniques; the permaculture techniques that are greening the Western Sahara; Rick Nelson's Solaroof technology.

All these tools/techniques can make a huge impact, and we can spread them quickly and quietly, through our networks, because fundamentally they're about spreading knowledge (i.e. bits of information) rather than spreading stuff (i.e. atoms).

And the best news of all is this: none of them really threatens the status quo particularly. Perhaps a few of the more extreme despots will be discommoded by the new-found empowerment of some of the people they've been oppressing, but in general the "powers that be" will be fairly indifferent to this stuff, because it will happen very gradually.

I think one of the big challenges for the conscious capitalism community is choosing to spend more energy on creating solutions, and less energy on pointing the finger at the big, bad establishment, on to which it projects the ills of the world.

Maybe Shell, Monsanto, Esso, the US Government, Cargill, Wal-Mart, the Chinese Government, the World Bank et al have done nothing fundamentally wrong. Maybe it's all our doing that the world is in the state it's in, because we were too busy pointing the finger, rather than rolling up our sleeves and getting to work....

All the best,
Patrick

Community mapping as an art form

http://patrickmoore.gaia.com — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:11:03 GMT

Over the past few days, there's been a very lively discussion taking place on email, and covering a number of topics. Out of that discussion has emerged one particular suggestion that seems to resonate with a number of people:

The idea is that we could create an art installation in a public gallery, consisting of a number of large mind-maps or geographic maps. Each map would seek to capture an aspect of the global movement to create global abundance.

For example, one possible map would be a geographic one, combining regional data on infant mortality rate (IMR) with successful grassroots interventions (e.g. an Epicenter created by The Hunger Project). This would show, very clearly, the areas of the world where necessary action is being taken, vs those areas where additional intervention is required.

Another possible map would be an X-Y graph of major NGOs, plotting output, in terms of number of lives elevated out of extreme poverty (Y-axis) against input, in terms of $ budget (X-axis). This would identify very clearly where donors can get the most bang for their buck.

Each map would have a webcam permanently trained on it, so as to facilitate access by the global community. The web-site would have a feedback facility, allowing registered members to make suggestions for new maps.

In terms of cost, the main expense would be the salary of the curator, but it seems reasonably likely that volunteers could be found for that purpose.... in this community, for example ;-)

All the best,
Patrick