I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year.   I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery. .....


I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel or have them put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels

I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.


I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking ones nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot).

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. 

ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl ( Penny Brown ) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.


I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.


I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's Novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.


I no longer use c ancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.


THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas .


I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.


I no longer use Saran Wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face... disfiguring me for life.


I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.


I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.


I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a  number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan .


I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.


THANKS TO YOU I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.


AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!


I can't do any gardening because I'm afraid I'll get bitten by the brown recluse and my hand will fall off.

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump.  I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician . .

(thanks to high school buddy, Jan Custode, for sending this e-mail to me this morning )
 

One night after yoga class, I stepped out into the night. There was a frozen mist in the air. My class was held in an old convent school right above the brink of Niagara Falls. (you can see it on the right in the middle of the photo, the big blocky building)  The place reeked spiritual energy - beautiful rose gardens, a mini labyrinth, Sufi's dancing in the auditorium, school kid choirs singing in the ornately carved chapel, a few nuns scurrying, yoga teachers, windchimes, spiritual seekers doing 3 day retreats.

As I stepped out into the  mist, the night sky seemed darker but brighter, the stars were larger and brighter, the sound of the earth was like music, the mist on my face was bathing me with love and goodwill.  I was in a state of bliss ---like being in love with the earth and life. 

When I woke up the next day I was still feeling "good" and got ready to go to work at casual clothing shop.  As I walked down the street, I felt taller and cleaner, expanded somehow.  A realization came to me , that I was now observing the world and others from the Inside of my body, that I could "see" from somewhere else rather than my eyes and brain and mouth.   What is going on? I thought.  Everything took on a new  "look" - every object seemed imbued with life and connection - the parking meters, the sparrow, the discarded hunk of bagel on the ground. 

When I got into the store some customers came in, and one of them was grouchy.
I "saw" them all, and "heard" them. One walked towards me, and it was like I could see "inside" "him".  Whatever he said to me didn't matter, because he was another person just like me, or  just like the sparrow, or the bagel.  We were just all here together in this moment.

I realized that I had been living my life from my skin out.  That I had been hurling my body and mouth through my life and others' lives.  I had thought I was my body, my stylish shoes, my clever mouth, my spacious brain, etc. etc........

I discovered the real me, and in the process over the years, I have discovered the real 'you's" in Walmart, at the bingo hall, serving me at MacDonalds, fitting me for shoes. You've smiled at me, hugged me, told me to shut up, slandered me, loved me, ignored me.  It is all ok.

My grandson, Alex, who is 8 told me, "mimi, I think we are All One.  I just can't stop thinking about it.  We are  All here on the earth, and we are All here doing the same thing at the same time.  It's  like we are the Same Person.  So we really shouldn't hurt anyone, because it's like we're hurting Ourself.  I can't get that out of my mind..."
I said, "You're absolutely right Alex, we're all one including the trees, rocks,  birds, everything, now go to sleep.  Sweet Dreams, I love you. (kiss, kiss).

From the book "CARAVAN OF DREAMS' - Idries Shah

 "Now that it is gone, does it matter whether a cow ate it or not?"

~~Proverb






PS --Photo credit:  posted on flickr by Michelle
 (title: my grandfather's cow eating some flowers)

PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO F*CKING PARK ON BRINK OF EXTINCTION

DRIVERS who can position their car in the middle of a parking space at a supermarket are sliding closer to extinction, conservationists have warned.   Yet another symptom of climate change? Or is he just an unspeakable bastard who deserves to die? Research teams have recorded a sharp decline in numbers over the last decade, despite strenuous efforts to educate the public about how easy it is to just put your fucking car in the middle of a parking space. Dr Tom Logan, head of species protection at the WWF, said: "There is a series of white lines separated by spaces roughly the same width as a car, plus a little bit more. Let's think of that as the first Great Big Fucking Clue shall we? "As we approach, we then have to ask ourselves: 'do I park on the white line, do I straddle the white line or do I get my huge, chocolate-covered face out of my fat, greedy, unwashed arse and just put the fucking car in the middle of the fucking space?'" Conservationists have blamed the crisis on a combination of poaching, loss of habitat and an unbelievable fucking selfishness by a bunch of total and complete bastards who deserve to die on a spike. "There are now less than 50 people in the UK who are able to do this," said Dr Logan. "That's not just a tragedy for our planet, it's doing my fucking head in every time I go to Homebase." WWF warned that drivers who can park in the middle of a space will soon share the fate of people who knew not to park four feet from the fucking kerb, extinct since 1993. Dr Logan added: "A fucking mountain gorilla could do this with its fucking eyes shut, but for some reason the average British motorist seems to think every car park in the world was made just for them. "Or maybe they've heard that if they park on the white line Graham-fucking- Norton is going to jump out from behind a bottle-bank and send them on holiday to Orlando. "Anyway, the point is we need more money."   From The Daily Mash UK.  --  http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/

PRESIDENT Bush last night claimed his decision to invade Iraq had been vindicated after US troops uncovered an arsenal of shoes on the outskirts of Fallujah.

 

More than 400  lethal shoes including sandals, pumps, desert boots and a solitary brogue were revealed as Mr Bush paid a final visit to Iraq to see if there was anything left.

A White House spokesman immediately dismissed claims the US invasion had been based on Saddam Hussein's alleged stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, adding: "No we didn't, we said shoes.

"We did and if you heard weapons of mass destruction, that's your problem. You might want to try using a cotton bud."

The spokesman added: "We believe that many of these shoes would have been built in China with Russian laces, French-made heels and odour-absorbing insoles purchased through back channels via the west African state of Niger."

Prime minister Gordon Brown backed Mr Bush insisting many of Iraq's shoes were slip-ons that could activated in less than 45 minutes.

But France denied supplying Iraq with shoe components insisting its only exports to Saddam's regime had been a 1994 shipment of humanitarian espadrilles.

Meanwhile the Kremlin said most of Iraq's shoes had actually been bought from ex-US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he worked for Hush Puppies in the early 1980s.

I heard on the morning news that Elvis would have been 74 today.  I was lucky enough to have been 14 years old  when Elvis first appeared.  I wish I had the first Elvis record I won in a spot dance at my high school. My dance partner won a pair of sock.   No one had heard of Elvis at the time.  Anyway, here is one of my favourite Elvis songs - 'I WAS THE ONE  - 'he is performing live and the sound wouldn't meet today's sanitized requirements. 




The second one is my hope and wish for 2009 for everyone in the world.

I'm not sure who thinks up these questions, but some of them leave me scratching my head.  Do people actually do this (each) day?  Does someone think we should - like flossing daily? And what is this business of "take/taking time".  Like one has to schedule reflection? 

To me, this is a question from left field.  Not even sure what it means, and am not getting any mental or emotional picture/vibe from it.  So maybe I better not try to "answer" or make a comment about it.

Oh sure, I could go on about "the moment" or "the now", but why?  either you do it or you don't, and my talking about it is useless in the end.   So I think I will shut up and now and go and fry some eggs and fill the bird feeders, and do something useful.

When I was 12, I refused to go to church anymore.  My mother was dismayed, and my father couldn't bully or intimidate me (even though he didn't attend himself) I REFUSED!  I didn't believe all that stuff - the streets of Heaven were paved with gold, God watching us, punishing us,  and distributing bicycles and helping football players win over their opponent.

I talked to many ministers of every denominations, and read for the next 50 years about Bah'ai, Zen, Sufi wisdom, new age.  I bought every guru's book - ancient gurus and new age. In the midst of my darkest moment (sick, dazed, and homeless) I got a book from the library - "The Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama.    From that beginning, I have found my spiritual home in  Zen Buddhism.   There is no dogma, nothing you have to believe.  In fact it is the opposite.  You have to find out the Truth for yourself.  This can be a long  process.  I recommend a qualified teacher to guide you.  And it is not about reading and discussing and arguing.  It is about living it.

I have posted this poem before, but just in case you missed it.....

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.

Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the top musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written,with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station

was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty?

This was inspired by maze's blog and comments about Spoonerisms.
This is one of the most famous examples.  I hope you enjoy it a lot and don't bust a gut laughing. 


check out maze's blog:
 http://maze8.gaia.com/blog/2009/1/when_some_of_the_edge_is_gone#comment_376787

Just like this.

Is there other intelligent life out there?  Are we alone in the Universe?
This is not meant as a philosophical question about "intelligent, "alone"
This means other "humans" or "thinking human-like beings"

Someone said, "they are out there, and don't wish to have any contact with us.  They have seen what a mess we have made here on Earth, and they don't want our kind to contaminate their society/planet.  They want to make sure we stay confined here on Earth."

Hmmm, could be right...humbling. thought....

Some favourite moments.  My favourite is when the teleprompter quits working.
I like the end when, in Presidential form,  he hawks a greenie.

Muju posted a blog piece called The Martin Mull Songbook. Muji is one funny guy!!!
http://muji9.gaia.com/blog/2009/1/the_martin_mull_songbook


Martin Mull was the star of a funny satiral show called "Ferwood Tonight".  He played host Barth Gimble host of a  very low budget  local TV show in Fernwood Ohio.

I think it ran for a couple of years. 

One of the funniest pieces was whenBarth (Mull)  heard the sherrif had arrested a Jewish person for speeding, and they talked the sheriff into bringing him on the show, because no one in Fernwood had ever seen or met a Jew.  They had baton twirlers, and singer Tony Roletti their house singer, a chubby guy with a great smile, polyester leisure suit, and a bad toupe.  You can check out more Ferwood Tonight pieces on youtube. 

Everyting!

It's very popular now to talk about "The Now" and "Living in the Moment".  You've done it, I've done it.  We can intellectualize till the cows come home, my "now" guru is better than your guru.  But in the end, you either do it and  EXPERIENCE IT , or you just continue to talk about it.

When a friend mentioned trying to live in  "the moment", we talked briefly and I said, "you just have to do".  She said, "ya, ya, I know all that........but ......it's difficult." 

So we can continue to talk, and like an actor preparing for a role, memorize all the lines about The Now and Living in the Moment.  When I was a kid in school, learning a poem was called learning it by heart.   But we have to go beyond memorization, and TAKE it to heart.  We have to breathe life into the role, and GIVE  it life. Not just words, not just brain, not just repetition ya-ya, but livelife itself. If not NOW, when?

"Be here now.  Be someplace else later.  Is that so complicated?"  \
~~~Zen Judaism:  For You, A Little Enlightenment  - David M. Bader

Ya, ya, you know what I mean?

My computer monitor

In my 66 years of life, one of my greatest disappointments with my fellowmen was the treatment of African Americans in the USA.    I had to experience it first hand being married to someone from the Florida panhandle in 1966.  On my first visit  my southern family told me the rules --the black person had to step off the sidewalk and into the gutter if you were walking, no blacks allowed in the restaurant my father-in-law owned.  I remember a group of teenagers - a marching band from Ohio, coming into his seafood cafe.  The waitress panicked and asked my new husband what she should do.  My new hubby said to phone his father who lived just across the street.  She was told to lock the restaurant, to let anyone who wanted to leave to leave, and don't let anyone else in till the black girl left.  It was all so awful.
Worse, signs on drinking  fountains white and colored. Washrooms in  Service stations in the south - men, women and colored.  The colored washroom (there was only one)  didn't have keys, they were lucky to have a door.  It was all ugly.  Everyone used the nword.  On one visit to Florida,  everyone left the house.  I was at home with my new baby.  My father-in-law brought out a book before he left and told me if any (ns) came to the house to pay their rent, I was to look their name up in the book, take their money, and record they paid.  I begged him not to make me do this.  He was a slum landlord.  Had lots of trailers up on NHill as he called it.  He took me on a tour there to show me.  He drove me in his big Cadillac  and laughed as he told me that he told his tenants he needed the rent money to pay for his big car.  This was all a very very big shock for a girl from a small town in Ontario Canada.    Somehow, I thought, I have to try to make up for this horrible thing I had seen and experienced.  When Martin Luther King was killed, I cried for days.  So we have 2 big days coming up, tomorrow and Tuesday.  My dreams and prayers have been answered, and I am glad to be alive to see this moment in history.  Thank you MLK and BO and to all people of good will..

I love the joy and hope of this piece.  Perfect for today! Hope!  but mostly JOY  - that things have changed - one line of the song is no longer true "..if you're a white in America".  The times they are a'changing...!   WhoooHoooo!

In 2000, I suffered a brain attack with seizure that left my right side of my body totally confused, my mind blank.  I lay in the ermergency observation for 5 days,  just lying there, watching everyone and everything happening.  The window to the hallway had a big sign in red letter printed on it. - the sign was backwards to be read by people in the hall to read.  "visiting hours noon - 8 pm".  I would look at the sign 100 times a day and could never remember what it said.  Each time, I would have to figure it out.  I tried not to look, because I knew I wouldn't remember what it would say.  When I got out of bed five days later I could not walk properly.  I was leaning way backwards, hanging on to anything in sight, and  raising my knees waist high like a prancing pony and taking giant strides, like that Monty Python skit..  When I was discharged prematurely, I crawled on my hands and knees at home.  I had lost my balance and it was 2 years before I got an official diagnosis.  Some doctors and relatives thought I was faking. 

What fun!  Just a great ad for a UK cell phone service.  Very clever.

"It's a Grand Night for Singing" -   I used to sing this over and over trying to get that wooshing sound till my Dad told would say, "For krysakes, stop that singing.  I can't stand it."   I was about 8.  My sister Helen  and i sang this for years while we washed the dishes after supper. 

We had a whole repetoire of  "doing the dishes" songs - 2 part harmony - that would drive my dad insane.  He absolutedly hated "Where do the Dusky Gypsies Dwell" - our favourite 2 part song. My sister Helen sang the alto part.  I was descant. 

 PS --I got all my ideas about romantic love from the movies.  It was so delicicous thinking about handsome men, courting, stolen kisses, moonlight, stars, and singing.
No man ever sang to me under the stars -YET!

In 1947, I started school at 5 years of age.  My older sister Helen and I played school for as long as I could remember.  She was 4 years older and taught me everything she learned in school.  So I was really excited about going to a Real School, instead of sitting in the sun porch at our small  wooden table and chairs.

In Real School, I  especially liked the morning ritual.  The teacher would take attendance, call your name and you'd respond "here".  Then she would say,  "all rise" and we'd stand up and recite The Lord's Prayer.
 
Then the teacher would get out her pitch pipe and blow the starting note, raise her arms and conduct us singing "God Save the King".   For  a long time, I sang "sent him victorium, happy and glorium" in my best and loudest, proudest voice..  When the singing ended, the teacher would give the command,

1.  "About face! " - to  gaze on the large Union Jack at the back of lthe room
2.  "Salute the Flag!" - and our little arms would go up into a military type salute.
3.  "Be seated!"
And that is how we started each school day.  I was only five but I felt very patriotic.
Just wondering if kids nowadys feel patriotic.  Do kids in the US still recite The Pledge of Allegiance daily, do they hold their hand to their heart?  What about in other countries?

There's nothing right now that I WANT to know and understand. I have found that I will learn or be taught what I need to know.  That's how the Earth School works.  From one of my favourite books:


'NOT KNOWING" chapter in "Zen to Go"

.  "Knowledge is knowing as little as possible" ~~Charles Bukowski

.  "To know what we do not know is the beginning of wisdom" ~~Maha Sthavira   Sangharakshita

.  "To know what you do not know is the best.  To pretend to know when you do not know is disease."  ~~ Lao Tzu

.  "What is truth?  I don't know and I'm sorry I brought it up." ~~Edward Abbey

.  "All that we know is nothing, we are merely crammed wastepaper baskets, unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing."  ~~D. H. Lawrence

.  "He who knows does not speak;
    He who speaks does not know."   ~~ Lao Tzu

.  "It is the tragedy of the world that no one knows what he doesn't know; and the less a man knows, the more sure he is that he knows everything."  ~~Joyce Cary.

For practical everyday knowing I have lots of tools - the phone, Google, books, asking others, common sense, optimism, faith, hope, love of and for others, etc. etc.

Recycle dammit!  Every single one of us can make a difference.  Yes, I recycle.  i come from a long line of recyclers.  I used to go with my Dad on the truck when our tiny town had a newspaper salvage drive.   Back in the 40's and early 50's, all pop/soda bottles were returnable and refundable.  Milk, shampoo, came in glass bottles. We saved paper bags and string and rubber bands.  Clothes were passed down, around, and remade.  We composted and grew a vegetable garden,  We canned fruit, made pickles and jams.  Nothing was disposable.  Nothing came with stryofoam and plastic wrapping.  There was no Fort Knox type shrink wrap.  It is time to be sensible again.

This video came from "Daily Good" that I subscribed to just yesterday.  Check it out!
http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=3578
They have something called Karma Tube - this video was on it.

Yes!  I am talking to YOU. 
Are you listening?
Pay attention.
Look within.
Keep still
Be kind.

GREEDY BANKER 

I was surprised  to learn that  anyone could issue their own currency.  You just had to get others to buy into using it.  I know "Greenbucks" have been tried.

 

Here’s how we could solve the credit crunch without giving anything to the banks.

 

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian, 20th January 2009

In his book The Future of Money, Lietaer points out - as the government did yesterday - that in situations like ours everything grinds to a halt for want of money(1). But he also explains that there is no reason why this money should take the form of sterling or be issued by the banks. Money consists only of “an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange.” The medium of exchange could be anything, as long as everyone who uses it trusts that everyone else will recognise its value. During the Great Depression, businesses in the United States issued rabbit tails, seashells and wooden discs as currency, as well as all manner of papers and metal tokens. In 1971, Jaime Lerner, the mayor of Curitiba in Brazil, kick-started the economy of the city and solved two major social problems by issuing currency in the form of bus tokens. People earned them by picking and sorting litter: thus cleaning the streets and acquiring the means to commute to work. Schemes like this helped Curitiba become one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil.

But the projects which have proved most effective were those inspired by the German economist Silvio Gesell, who became finance minister in Gustav Landauer’s doomed Bavarian republic. He proposed that communities seeking to rescue themselves from economic collapse should issue their own currency. To discourage people from hoarding it, they should impose a fee (called demurrage), which had the same effect as negative interest. The back of each banknote would contain 12 boxes. For the note to remain valid, the owner had to buy a stamp every month and stick it in one of the boxes. It would be withdrawn from circulation after a year. Money of this kind is called stamp scrip: a privately-issued currency which becomes less valuable the longer you hold onto it.

One of the first places to experiment with this scheme was the small German town of Schwanenkirchen. In 1923, hyperinflation had caused a credit crunch of a different kind. A Dr Hebecker, owner of a coalmine in Schwanenkirchen, told his workers that if they wouldn’t accept the coal-backed stamp scrip he had invented - the Wara - he would have to close the mine. He promised to exchange it, in the first instance, for food. The scheme immediately took off. It saved both the mine and the town. It was soon adopted by 2000 corporations across Germany. But in 1931, under pressure from the central bank, the ministry of finance closed the project down, with catastrophic consequences for the communities which had come to depend on it. Lietaer points out that the only remaining option for the German economy was ruthless centralised economic planning. Would Hitler have come to power if the Wara and similar schemes had been allowed to survive?

The Austrian town of Wörgl also tried out Gesell’s idea, in 1932. Like most communities in Europe at the time, it suffered from mass unemployment and a shortage of money for public works. Instead of spending the town’s meagre funds on new works, the mayor put them on deposit as a guarantee for the stamp scrip he issued. By paying workers in the new currency, he paved the streets, restored the water system and built a bridge, new houses and a ski jump. Because they would soon lose their value, Wörgl’s own schillings circulated much faster than the official money, with the result that each unit of currency generated 12 to 14 times more employment. Scores of other towns sought to copy the scheme, at which point - in 1933 - the central bank stamped it out. Wörgl’s workers were thrown out of work again.

Similar projects took off at the same time in dozens of countries. Almost all of them were closed down as the central banks panicked about losing their monopoly over the control of money (just one, Switzerland’s WIR system, still exists). Roosevelt prohibited complementary currencies by executive decree, though they might have offered a faster, cheaper and more effective means of pulling the US out of the Depression than his New Deal.

No one is suggesting that we replace official currencies with local scrip: this is a complementary system, not an alternative. Nor does Lietaer propose this as a solution to all economic ills. But even before you consider how it could be improved through modern information technology, several features of Gesell’s system grab your attention. We need not wait for the government or the central bank to save us: we can set this system up ourselves. It costs taxpayers nothing. It bypasses the greedy banks. It recharges local economies and gives local businesses an advantage over multinationals. It can be tailored to the needs of the community. It does not require - as Eddie George, the former Governor of the Bank of England, insisted - that one part of the country be squeezed so that another can prosper.

Perhaps most importantly, a demurrage system reverses the ecological problem of discount rates. If you have to pay to keep your money, the later you receive your income, the more valuable it will be. So it makes economic sense, under this system, to invest long-term. As resources in the ground are a better store of value than money in the bank, the system encourages their conservation.

I make no claim to expertise. I’m not qualified to identify the flaws in this scheme, nor am I confident that I have made the best case for it. All I ask is that, if you haven’t come across it before, you don’t dismiss it before learning more. As we confront the failure of the government’s first bail-out and the astonishing costs of the second, isn’t it time we considered the alternatives?

www.monbiot.com

References:

Bernard Lietaer, 2001. The Future of Money. Century. London.

This is truly amazing what this family has done on this small piece of land.  That they produce an income of $25,000/year. 

This is how Cuba has survived, by growing urban gardens on every piece of vacant land.  The CBC did a 2 hour documentary on it.  Hospitals and schools grow their own food.  The school children tend the gardens.  Apartment buildings have huge community gardens right in front where people can pick up stuff fresh each day.

Drop Forge Hammer pictured above.

I have had several spooky experiences where I picked up some obscure thing about or from a person , and I mean really obscure.

I used to go to a shop that sold knitting and weaving yarns.  It was in an historic old house and had 2 floors with thousands of varieties of yarn.   A husband and wife owned the place.  The wife  taught weaving and rang up sales.
Her husband sat at the back  near a filing cabinet and maybe did the books.  One day,  he said hello, and we chatted briefly about the yarn business.  He said it wasn't very good, and I said, it must be nice  being here amongst all the brightly coloured yarn and all the lovely laides coming in the shop.  He kinda grunted, "yah".  For some reason, I said to him, "Well it's got to be better than working.......in a drop forge plant..." He looked stunned and started to stutter,  "why did you say that?  that's what exactly where I worked before we opened this shop.

When I worked in a  store in a tourist town , 2 men in their 20's came in early one Sunday morning.  They were very friendly and were looking for some gifts for relatives.  We were joking around and acting silly , and one said that he had just  been in the Olympics and had won a  gold medal for the the javelin.  I said I didn't believe him, and if he was a gold medal winner,well  then I was an underwater demolition expert.  The 2 guys just stared at me in silence, and then said, "that 's what we do, we are  Navy Frogmen --underwater demolition experts!"  I just laughed, hahahahhaah, and they insisted, and they each pulled down the cuff of their socks to show me a tattoo on their ankle. .  I laughed and said  "Oh, that  looks Beanie and Cecil".   

Then they told me that it was a Navy Seal tattoo ..  And they pulled out their wallets to show me their certificates for completing Parachute School, and other Navy  ID.   Turns out they really were underwater demolition experts.  I got chills all that day, just thinking about this strange encounter.