Month: January 2013

Imagine yourself as a civilian caught up in a global conflict while being drip-fed a range of selective and unconnected news items such that you had little or no time to gain much understanding of what was really going on, or of the overall strategy of your leaders. This blizzard of information would consist of advertising slogans urging you to buy more, rapidly changing economic forecasts and snippets of political, fashion, celebrity and sports news etc.  Unless you tried to cut yourself off from all of this, and make a serious attempt to make sense of what was happening to you, your neighbourhood and country, you would have little comprehension of the nature of the dynamic forces shaping your life, and of the whole architecture of the planet. I believe this is the position of most people today.

I would like to try and share something of my own understanding of what is happening to us all.

There are now over 7 billion people living on earth today, all of whom aspire, and are being encouraged to attain the same standard of living and affluent lifestyle that we enjoy in the ‘developed’ world.  Fact:  long before every Chinese, Indian, South American and African were eating and drinking as we do, stacking their fridge, driving a car, using a mobile phone, watching a flat screen television etc, the earth’s fertile land, available water resources, oil and rare earth minerals would be exhausted. Bluntly speaking, as has been said so often, our own wasteful, consumer lifestyle cannot be sustained if we continue to live as we do, let alone extend the same consumer model to the rest of the developing world.

Against the rush to seize the earth’s remaining resources, where do we in theUK and in the rest ofEurope stand?  As we all know Europe (apart perhaps fromNorway) is heavily indebted.  In fact, that debt is equivalent to 80% of the region’s economy, and is still rapidly increasing.  Do we print more money (quantitative easing) and cut back on public spending, or ‘go for growth’? But where are the new jobs going to come from?

In the UK, nearly a quarter of the workforce are paid employees of the state – NHS, teaching, police, prison, probation, social services, civil servants and local authority workers etc.  They pay taxes, but they do not earn the money for the nation’s export economy, the main driver of economic growth.  Small manufacturing companies have been starved of capital by successive governments who have courted International Conglomerates, Media Empires and Banks in their own drive for political power.  An increasing number of other businesses are now fattening themselves on tax-payers’ money in an attempt to deliver the privatisation of public services.

Against this background, the emerging economies of China, India, Brazil, etc have access to huge natural resources, burgeoning sovereign wealth funds, cheap labour, and in China’s case in particular, an increasingly educated and innovative work force – just as we once had in Victorian and early Edwardian times.

To put it bluntly, our developed economies are now old and increasingly decrepit, while theirs are young and vigorous.  Indeed, they an easily purchase or imitate any new technology we may invent, as well as offer, for a price, to build our Nuclear Power Stations, run our infrastructure, buy our Car factories or brand names such as Weetabix – now Chinese owned!

However , China, India and Brazil have their own very real problems, not least being the rapid migration of people from the countryside to the cities to seek work in factories producing consumer goods for the western world.  If we no longer buy such goods in the quantities we have previously bought, many of these factories will go bust, with potentially huge social disruption.

So, with increasing national debt and rising unemployment, where are the innovative, export earning jobs going to come from in the UK – jobs that will put people back to work as they make products to sell abroad to pay down our national debt and maintain our standard of living?

We have only to look at the collapse of the Greek economy to see what may happen to us here in theUK.  There, many are starting to move out of the cities into the countryside, while many who remain are living without electricity, and denuding the forests around them to get firewood.  A minority, as yet, are voting for a type of national socialism.

As others have been warning for some years now, we have been on a binge, and are now waking up to the reality of the physical and mental hangover, and the broken glass and furniture around us.

If enough people wake up, and begin to ‘think globally and act locally’ it may not be too late to begin to salvage some of the good things that contribute to the health and harmony of real community life.

I finish with three quotes (not quite accurate);

‘A man who does rich is a fool’
Carnegie

‘Gross National Product measures nothing that is really important in life’
Bobby Kennedy

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth have been set on edge.’
The Bible

 

Nothing in nature is centralised.  Lots of little things unite to make up the complexity of the vast variety of eco-systems. This is the fundamental and vital fact that the Green Party, governments, and indeed the great majority of people fail to understand.  We ignore this fact at our peril.

Consider political power;  the more a government tries to impose its own uniform way of doing things on local communities, the more resentful and rebellious will those communities become, as their local customs and initiatives are undermined or attacked.  If a government refuses to listen and becomes more autocratic, it will inevitably have to spend more and more time, energy and money imposing it’s authority.

Now consider the power of the five or six major energy companies in the UK which monopolise the market.  With government subsidies (ie our money) they build huge coal, gas and nuclear power stations, and arrays of giant wind turbines.  At least 40% of the energy generated is lost down the line – hardly efficient, and vastly expensive. But not only that;

Nuclear power is by far the most expensive way to generate energy if you take into account research and development, building, running and de-commissioning costs.  Its also potentially hugely dangerous, and in terms of climate change and rising sea levels, a blindly stupid course of action.  Energy generation from coal still accounts for about 50% o fUK energy needs and emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide.  Wind energy, in the form of arrays of giant turbines, not only radically alters the landscape, it destroys the spiritual and tranquil nature – those numinous, life-enhancing qualities that cannot be measured, much less appreciated by ‘bean-counters’, or indeed the Green Party whose local president seems to enjoy shooting wildlife!

So what is the answer?  As I have said before in this column, the only economic and environmentally wise solution is local energy generation.

If you were to erect a wind turbine on an industrial estate eg Pottington in Barnstaple, few would object and the landscape would not be despoiled.  If you were to install two or three small hydro units in rivers and streams running through towns and villages and wave generators beneath the cliffs of coastal communities – again few would be against.  If, instead of spending tens of billions of pounds on centralising power generation we had a programme of super-insulating every house and factory (energy conservation) and supplying solar panels, small wind generators, underground heat pumps, underfloor heating, heat-retaining glass etc etc etc, most of our smaller communities would be energy self-sufficient if not energy exporters.  Such a programme would raise revenue for those communities and provide huge employment opportunities.

None of these ideas are new.  The reason they haven’t been pursued is because of vested interests, and an arrogant belief that we are in control of nature, and to exercise that control we need a centralised command economy.  Instead of working with nature and applying our technical knowledge on a small local scale, we stamp on her and then grow misty-eyed as we view the disappearing landscape and wildlife. I would appeal to everyone, if you haven’t read it already, and if you have, re-read E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful.  It might make members of the Green Party in particular withdraw their disastrous support for the proposed Atlantic array in theBristol Channel and the still static, Fullabrook eyesore!

Co-operation – The Only Sensible Way

Socialism failed: transnational, corporate capitalism, driven by greed, and without patriotism or borders, is squeezing the necks of governments and voters and funding the destruction of the planet.  Is there another way? From the outside, a co-operative may look like any other business; it’s what goes on inside that makes it different. Co-operatives are businesses owned and run by their members.  Whether the members are customers, employees or individuals, they are everyday people who have an equal say in what the business does, and enjoy a share of the profits the business makes One billion people in the world are members of co-ops and there are thirteen million people who are members of co-ops in theUK.  There is a co-op in everyUK postcode. Globally, co-ops are worth 1.6 trillion dollars a year – and growing. In theUk for instance, the co-op Bank was named as the world’s most sustainable Bank in 2010 because of it’s ethics.  It turned away half a billion pounds’ worth of business in the last few years because it refused to use it’s customers’ money to fund unethical business ventures such as the arms trade, animal experiments or ventures that would harm the environment etc.  During the current financial crisis it has not had to be bailed out by the government.  It only lends out from the resources it’s customers deposit with it ie it doesn’t speculate with customers’ money.  Because it holds to its values and principals, it has seen a 60% rise in customer deposits in the last three years. The United Nations has designated 2012 as The International Year Of Co-operatives.  From America (where many small towns and cities have co-operative energy-generation schemes) to Zambia, co-ops across the globe will be celebrating how we can build a better world.

Financial and Political Corruption – And Blindness

As Warren Buffet said ‘ when the tide goes out you can see who’s been bathing naked’.  As we are all now experiencing, the economic tide is ebbing fast, and we can all see what a skinny and loathsome lot our politicians, media barons and bankers really look like.  They live by their creed that ‘greed is good and avarice a virtue’.  With less and less water to swim in they are desperately trying to cover up their ‘privates’, and blaming each other for the mess they have got us into. The churches and educators have failed too.  The former have ignored the threat from the only great global religion – the worship of mammon (money) and are instead obsessed with sexual relationships.  The latter have bought into the myth that the purpose of education is not the traditional one of developing the individual’s mind, body and spirit, but to educate for the economy ie to fit ‘clots into slots’ – to produce obedient ‘battery hens’ who will produce and consume without asking questions. In fairness, how can the churches and educators compete with the omnipresent powers of the high priesthood of advertisers who control the media with their dominant message that the more you have the happier you’ll be. Meanwhile, twenty years after the first Rio Conference on the threats to the global environment, what conclusions did world leaders come to at the end of the second Rio Conference at the end of June?  Basically, things have got a great deal worse, very little has been achieved since ‘Rio 1’, and nothing much more can be achieved until the problems of the sinking global economy have been dealt with. ie. Keep sawing away at the overcrowded branch of the tree on which we’re all sitting! (So much for homo-sapiens).

Ever tried to open a bank account? How much documentation did they ask you for to prove your identity? You may only want to deposit a few hundred quid, but you are treated as a potential gangster. ‘I’m afraid we have to do this Sir to prevent fraud.  However, if you are an important Nigerian, such as the former governor of the oil rich DeltaState, who has been defrauding his poverty stricken electorate, ( most of whom have to exist on a dollar a day ), British banks such as RBS,  Barclays, HSBC and Nat West will happily launder your money with few questions asked. DittoNigeria’s former president, Mr Abacha.

From HSBC USA, HSBC London, HSBC Swiss private banking this once great bank, headed by Stephen Green (who wrote a book entitled ‘Serving God – Serving Mammon- reflections on money and morality in an uncertain world) has been condemned by the US Currency Regulator and a US senate committee, for handling stolen funds looted by various African dictators. Lord Green was in charge of HSBC for most of this period, and has now been co-opted by David Cameron onto the treasury team deciding how to reform British Banks!!

By the early 1990’s, money laundering through banks was so rife that in 1993 a European Directive was introduced to try and address the issue, and was adopted into UK law. Under it banks are meant to make stringent checks on all transactions, and report any suspicious activity to the authorities.

The Financial Services Authority has the power to prosecute money launderers – but has never prosecuted a banker, although small fines have been imposed on one or two banks eg. RBS, 82% of which is owned by us, the tax payers. ( Google Global Witness for more in-depth information ).

Given the ‘dog eat dog’ culture of the City of London, and the ease with which money can be laundered and tax avoided through British Overseas Territories such as the Cayman Islands and Gibraltar, together with Crown Dependencies such as Jersey and Guernsey, it is hardly surprising that so much illegal financial activity gets channeled through London’s financial centre.

Because of these tax havens, the British electorate is being squeezed (increases in taxes, cuts in public services ) while tens of billions of pounds of taxes owed by the rich, go unpaid. Further, these secret tax havens hold an estimated one trillion pounds of laundered money from developing countries – ten times what they receive in aid!

Sadly, one could continue for ever on this theme eg. the fixing of the Libor interest rate costing small businessess and mortgage payers billions of pounds of interest which need not have been paid, the £290,000,000 fine by the US authorities of HSBC for laundering Mexican drug monies, Standard Charters’ £217,000,000 fine for laundering Iranian money etc. etc. etc.  Note; if you or I ran a business and were found to be laundering money we would receive a lengthy jail sentence. In contrast, if you are a top banker, you merely ‘trouser’ a huge pay off, and are in the running to become the next Governor of the Bank of England!

Meanwhile, many so called financial experts writing in those bastions of democratic freedom – the National British press – are saying ‘stop bashing the bankers’. No wonder our expense fiddling MP’s have been trying to surf the wave of glory made by our great GB Olympians, in an effort to divert attention away from the greed and corruption at the centre of power.

If governments of whatever colour were serious about getting the British economy out of debt, they would be ensuring that all British tax havens would be closed down immediately or, be compelled to open up every account held there to the British tax man. But clearly its not in their financial interest.

They prefer to cut a couple of billion pounds off the welfare budget, rather than upset their super – wealthy friends by forcing them to pay their fair share of taxes.

 

 

 

 

A)  Some of you may remember a sci-fi film in which aliens gradually take over the world by sucking out human souls from their bodies before taking them over. I’m afraid that I now have firm evidence that this is no longer fiction – but fact!  A real human being is able to sympathise, empathise and think – not just in a binary, logical way, but laterally, analogically and imaginatively, i.e. Joined up creative thinking. In contrast, although an alien can be extremely intelligent, it can only think in straight lines.  Operating like a computer, it will have a separate program for X, and a separate program for Y – but will be unable to make connections between them.

Dear reader – there are aliens on Torridge District Council. How else to explain how their program X – trying to win a Mary Portas Award to revive Bideford Town Centre, and their program Y – considering planning permission for an out of town McDonald’s and Premier Inn, etc. on the woodland site opposite Atlantic Village?

How else to explain their program A – ‘consulting’ whether to spend over half a million pounds widening a road and building a café and BBQ area on Northam Burrows,  and their program B – how to prevent Northam Burrows being inundated by the sea and stop the toxic old tip site washing away and poisoning the Taw Torridge Estuary?

As I say, aliens don’t do joined up thinking; they lack the human gift of imagination.

Part of the training for an Outward Bound Course involved showing a client how to make a shelter in which he would live alone in the wilderness for two or three days. No mobile phone or TV – just the person alone with nature. They might be visited by a tutor during this time, who would sit with them for a while, and listen to anything they wanted to share, which had been repressed by the scramble to compete in the noisy, frantic world. For many, this was often the most memorable part of their Outward Bound challenge.

B) Chips, But No Fish

We are fortunate in N. Devon because we have the Marine Reserve aroundLundyIsland. It is proving hugely successful. Not so elsewhere, where alien intelligence in the E.U. and other government organisations in the world are engaged in mass piscine extermination.

Consider the following. In order to conserve fish stocks, trawlers, some trailing nylon, near invisible nets miles long, catch a huge tonnage of fish. However, only those fish of a certain size are allowed to be kept – the rest being thrown back into the sea, dead! Only an alien is unable to understand that small fish grow into big fish, and thus ploughing the oceans in this way inevitably leads to the wholesale destruction of fish stocks.

Consider – in September this year Marine Scientists suggested that there could be as few as a hundred fully mature cod left in the North Sea – because no cod over thirteen years old (their breeding age) had been landed inUK ports in 2011. In the early 1970s 360,000 tonnes of cod were caught in theNorth Sea. The E.U. has just put a quota of 32,000 tonnes of cod to be caught this year, but many think that even this figure is unsustainable, and will lead to a complete collapse of the cod fishing industry, as happenedNorthern Canada 20 years ago.

It is a similar story for salmon. Before 1950, which is when the feeding grounds of salmon were discovered offGreenland, salmon in British rivers such as the Taw & Torridge, were plentiful. Having almost trawled out theGreenland feeding grounds, an angler now considers himself fortunate if he catches a salmon in a British river.

There has also been a 95% collapse in eel numbers since 1980, but they can still be caught commercially. Ditto bass, which can only breed when they are about 42cm long – yet commercial fisherman are still allowed to bring them to market at 36cm in length!
The aliens can’t see a problem with all of this. They are already subsidising commercial fish farms, cramming salmon into cages like battery hens, and seem surprised when disease breaks out. Naturally, for them, they believe that antibiotics will eventually solve this difficulty. As alien control of the planet accelerates, anything free-range is considered uneconomic and rather primitive.
Dear Reader – how human and free-range are you? Don’t let the aliens suck the soul out of your body!
Don’t Send Me Information – Communicate

Once upon a time, a huge liner was constructed and launched with great fanfare and celebration. For the first time in history it was generally believed that this ship, unlike all other vessels which had sailed the world’s oceans in previous times, was unsinkable. The ships of other empires – Greek, Roman, Spanish, British, etc. – were all vulnerable, but now the latest science and technology had produced a vessel that could withstand any storm or accident. Mankind was quickly harnessing nature, and the Titanic was the hubristic expression of his new power.

When the Titanic hit that iceberg, there was stunned disbelief – but as reality broke in, trust in the ship and the relaxed routine of life on board, quickly dissolved. Reactions varied from outright panic and a desire to save oneself at any cost, to brave acceptance and self-sacrifice.

Imagine now that our consumer/technological empire is the Titanic. Most people, particularly in the ‘developed world’ have put their trust in the productive power of scientific invention. Despite the finite nature of the planet’s resources, they nevertheless subscribe to the idea of ever increasing production and consumption, entranced by the magic of technological gadgetry which allows them to instantly access and exchange information. This information revolution, it is believed, can now help overcome the ignorance of previous generations, whose leaders tended to keep the power of knowledge to themselves, and were able to manipulate and brainwash their subjects into accepting a subservient position.
But information exchange is not communication, whose meaning is rooted in the words ‘community’, ‘communion’ – the mutual knowing that lovers and poets do best ‘with sighs too deep for words’. I can know masses of information about someone I’ve never met, e.g. a celeb or politician, but until I spend time with them, talk, and above all listen to them – commune with them, I can never really know them.
Can more information make a nurse more caring? Just because you have an Oxbridge degree in Mathematics, does it automatically mean you are able to teach Mathematics to a class of thirty 15 year olds? An empathetic nurse may help me get better quicker, and an imaginative Maths teacher with no degree might well be able to enthuse me.
This is the great myth of the information revolution: it is assumed that the more people can access information, the more rational and intelligent will be their decision making; but all we are doing is training brains to process more and more information and assuming that the most intelligent people are the ones who can memorise or access the most, and regurgitate it in the required formats. Today you are seldom asked to think for yourself, place values on information, or attempt to see and respond to the relationships between things. Thus today, there are people leading big companies employing thousands of people, with degrees in accountancy or computer programming, who are emotionally semi-literate and have no feeling for history, poetry or the needs of their workers, or the Earth itself, i.e. They view their company like a machine – a computer program which they control, with regard to nothing else but profit. This is another example of alien intelligence at work.
In contrast, the analogy that I often find myself thinking about is that of the tree. Gales of information are blowing through the leaves and twigs – the brain. More and more people merely twitter and tweet, trying to respond to every nuance as the foliage is blown about: they feel they have no time, indeed many would be afraid to be still and silent, and let the deeper meaning of the branches and unifying trunk, let alone their spiritual roots, feed their minds and help them make creative sense of the swirling world of information battering their brains.