Economic Survival Plan (ESP)

Simple, short and effective. Every Canadian Citizen, will, for the next twelve months, receive a $2000 monthly payment. If you make more than $35,000 per year, it will be progressively taxed to ensure it gets to those whom need it the most. Simple.

This programme will run for one year only. Short.

As the lower income earners all know, this money would enter the economy almost completely, as there is little or no room for most to squirrel away their money. People could spend this money to buy a car, thus bailing out the auto industry. Or they could choose to spend it on housing, thus bailing out the housing industry. Or they may decide to invest in more education and go back to school, thus bailing out the education sector. What matters here is that the PEOPLE would decide where to put OUR hard earned tax dollars. The politicians would then be able to see where we chose to put our money and they could then craft legislation to reflect these investment choices made by Canadians. Effective.

Karl Marx felt that the underclass, the majority, would need the direction of the Party during the first stages of the revolution. I have turned this on its head and called on the population to direct the Governments policy. Canadians would have to start thinking about their collective desires and dreams and engage in responsible political behavior, voting to start with, wise consumer choices to follow.

Fine print...this offer requires that in order to be eligible, Canadian Citizens would have to register to vote and include proof of this in their application for the programme.

Join Peace in the Middle East (Gush Shalom)

Simple, short and effective. Every Canadian will join the most literate Israeli peace movement headed by philosopher and ex-soldier Uri Avnery, which partners with the Palestinian peace movement. Within a few months of reading the real background to the conflict, Canadians will understand that a lasting and durable peace is available right now.

This peace proposal will become common knowledge and Canadians will disseminate this simple plan to our media and political representatives.

A Canadian group of scholars and peace activists will be invited to attend Middle East peace negotiations with Obama's mediation team. A lasting peace will be formed btween Israel and Palestine within the year. World threats of terrorism and violence will diminish.

The world will enter a new age of hope, social cooperation, alternative energy technology and excitement for a new future. (All thanks to the Tyee's initiative!)

More information about Gush Shalom can be found at their website.
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/index_en.html

The best idea (and it's not

The best idea (and it's not mine) I've ever seen is money reform. No genuine progress in the human condition is possible while we are forced to live our lives in debt slavery. There are many websites and books dedicated to educating people on the truth about money and banking. My favorites are, in order of preference:

the zeitgeist movie
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912

money as debt
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

the money masters
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936

No 1: Get rid of Harper and

No 1: Get rid of Harper and his gang !!!!

I go along with the guaranteed annual income. It would cure much of if the homelessness, indebtedness, minimum wage part time jobs and the unnecessary commuting to them etc. and encourage home based creativity people used to have many years ago.

E.g. I have a hopechest full of the most wonderful craftwork by my mother, the skills now completely gone, with people forced into worthless, dead end jobs, basically waiting for death.

E.g. You can bake 3-4 loaves of healthy bread, free of the tons of chemicals in the
supermarket junk with a few minutes work in less then 2 hours, but there's no time to do it. Does anybody look at the chemical contents of cans and prepared food packages, then look what by getting rid of them will do to the cancer rate we didn't have 50 years ago and no bald headed little children in hospitals?

Get out of NAFTA, the WTO, the IMF and the SPP. They're nothing more than criminal organizations invented to enslave.

Foreign investment is basic colonization that brings nothing to a country. Pay off foreign investors to the extent they've brought into the country with a reasonable interest, if they've already taken out more than what they've brought in....Goodbye !

Send WalMart et al, packing without any compensation.

Bring back the same amount of "protection"
(screams and convulsions by economists and politicians) we had in the 50-s and 60-s and rebuild small, independent farming, manufacturing and private enterprise, cutting out the middlemen who are killing real enterprise and steal everybody blind.

Propagate "cooperation" instead of "competition" and lower real costs, because all forms of "competition" increase real, physical and ultimately monetary costs.

This is why we have over 1000% inflation of living costs in the past 35-40 years, with prices still going up, since the world was sold this criminal neoclassical market economy theory destroying us.

Form independent scientific panels to examine the garbage being taught in our universities as "economics" and tell the professors to "look for other jobs" as they've been advising and ruining the lives of billions since the mid 70s.

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

A modest proposal

Every single document - except for those involving sensitive personal data (age, address, health details etc.) of the municipal, provincial and federal governments and crown corporations - including contracts (after they have been concluded and signed), memoranda of negotiations and meetings with any interest group are to be open and equally accessible to the public.

These data should not be available only upon application through FOI legislation; in fact, that whole business should be turned on its head and a government or public agency wishing to protect or restrict access would have to satisfy a commission that such an action would be necessary and lawful.

Furthermore, decisions to restrict access would be subject to judicial review.

Accountability means nothing without real freedom of information.

Changes to FOI

At present any government organization can do what they wish with your information as their employees have been know to distort personal health information to cause harm while usiing it for purposes it wasn't intended. And when you finally get to see what they have done with your information which they try to withhold on you they still make it hard. They can lie their little hearts out and cause you harm but the best someone can do is ask them please not to do that even when you catch them with their pants down?
We need openess and accountability something that is a pipe dream with this government so I propose a vote for the NDP
and wide sweeping changes to FOI as you can't expect change when there is no accountability as thats a recipe for more of the same. And after saying all that the bottom line is be careful, real careful because they just can't be trusted with any information. I would love to do a story on the issue.

Change the Laws and Jurisprudence of Canada

Make all people in Canada, legally responsible for their own actions. All citizens, no profession exempt.

No Exemptions to the Law

I'm with you anyone in a position of trust needs to also be in a position of accountability for the relationship not to be to contrived or rather not to make it dishonest or one-sided.

Accountability also should

Accountability also should include the secret negotiations under the SPP, TILMA and NAFTA, etc. by taking away the special privileges of the artificial entities of corporations, like Chapter 11, presently overruling the democratic decision making powers of societies.

Then we have more secret deals, like the BC Rail racket and the fish farms, rivers, the phony PPP deals, etc. selling off public properties and not telling the public what was sold and what was received.

These alone are criminal acts many trustees have gone to jail for. Except politicians.

And why not ?

Ed Deak.

Economic Reality

Whatever happened to the idea that institutions like senior's homes, hospitals, power utilities, ferry corporations could be run as not-for-profit societies for the common good rather than as private-for-profit businesses? Is this an excessively naive question?

They could be run very well

They could be run very well and pay decent wages and working conditions to the staff, but that wouldn't add to the phony GDP figures and so economists and politicians can't permit it.

Ed Deak.

Unionize the service sector

I'm no expert and I have not put a great amount of thought into this. We are in transition to a service economy. Just as manufacturing wages where low before unions, so are service wages now without unions. Canada needs union friendly laws to ensure that the flexible and fragmented service sectors become unionized. Think of all the trouble that Walmart in Quebec had with becoming unionized. San Fransisco I believe has a union for all the houseworkers in the city or something like that ( in different companies over a geographic area). This will put upwards pressure on the the jobs that most of us are ending up with.

I'll let the experts figure out the details.

outlaw "throw away" items

Stop all manufacturing of "BIC" disposable lighter/pen/shaver/computer/telephone/cell phone/television/automobile/refrigerator/
handtool/battery/battery charger/child's toy etcetera. While we are at it eliminate unnecessary packaging.
Design and manufacture (or import) only standardized items with interchangeable compatible parts.
One buys a "Car" or a "Truck" for instance as opposed to a "Toyota" or "Chevrolet".
By now most of us should know what we need and use - what we do not need is our garbage bins filled with exotic toys.

I love this game

and all the awesome ideas.

Here's mine. Every Canadian to stop thinking only of themselves, and/or making a buck off someone else or without honestly working for it. And to adopt a person (or family) who is not as fortunate and ensure that they are helped in every way possible to make their own life better. We could help either with money, or expertise, or training, whatever we want. But our goal is to leave that person or family in much better shape by the end of the year than we found them.

I'd also like to see that politicans are made accountable for what they say and are subject to dismissal every time they make a promise that they break (or tinker with so bad you don't recognize it anymore).

We really could be, "the best place on earth".

I Got Nothing

Unfortunately, I'm fresh out of new ideas. All of my best ones have already been done. Some examples:

- Improve the prospects of the world by replacing George Bush with a young, well educated, African American Democrat as president of the US. Check.

- Reduce commuter resistance to tolls as a means of financing new bridge construction by shutting down the Pattullo Bridge for a few weeks, on a "trial basis". Check.

- Improve literacy in Canada by teaching all Canadians, regardless of race, creed or gender, the meaning of the word "prorogue". Check.

- Tighten airport security by prohibiting lactating women from taking their breasts on board with them (note: this one didn't quite fly, but a compromise was reached with Border Services ... no breast pumps allowed).

Hemp for Victory!

This plant has been demonized for too long. Let's forget for a moment that it gets you high if you smoke it. So does plastic.

The Environmental & Economic Benefits.
http://eap.mcgill.ca/CPH_3.htm

A gentleman in Nova Scotia claims that taken internally, (or topically) it cures cancer as well as hundreds of other diseases.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw

The stigma of this plant exists only in our collective mind through disinformation. Inform yourself.

A collection of good ideas from many places

I wanted to share the link to my Hopebuilding wiki at http://hopebuilding.pbwiki.com. For the past 3 years, I have been collecting stories of locally-driven achievement from around the world. I hope that in reading about peoples' achievements in other places, others can emulate or adapt the idea to their own setting - a peer-sharing approach to international and local development - neighbours sharing good ideas with neighbours.

Big Media

The media is concentrated in the hands of too few. The CRTC is to begin operating in the public interest by busting up Big Media.

Join the Food Chain

We are growing up a generation who can't fully connect a hamburger to a cow. Sushi to a salmon. Hot wings to a bird.

I propose that in 2009, every Canadian makes one concerted effort to actively join the food chain.

Catch a fish. Hunt a deer. Harvest wild mushrooms.

As we hack up our landscape to make room for cattle farms and chicken pens, we disrupt the natural hunt/forage grounds for our native species. (Habitat destruction is the leading cause of species extinctions.) Worse yet, as we more increasingly become dependent on mass-produced domestic agriculture, we lose our connection to our food and therefore our respect for it. This leads to over-consumption -- 99 cent hamburgers, eat half of one then toss it in the garbage. Who cares? Buy another.

I've never seen anyone gorge on then toss out a piece of salmon from a fish they caught themselves.

A cow gave its life for that hamburger, brother -- show it some respect.

Re-connect to the land. This country was formed by those that hunted, fished and foraged -- pre-European and post. Don't let your kids grow up asking where hamburgers come from or what a drumstick is made of.

Hunt a deer? No

Hunt a deer?
No thanks.
Here's my idea: stop killing other species. Get over the idea that we humans are so great. We aren't.

Let nature BE.

50% Minus One Equals A True Democracy

British Columbian Democracy Does Not Work: Please Do Not Vote May 12, 2009

Democracy is described as a form of government in which power is held by "the people." In our present system of government, the government is able to change the terms of our democratic system as they see fit. So the question to be asked is, is power held by "the people?"

Previously, we mentioned the issue regarding the Olympic Athlete's Village as an example of the broken governmental system. Another example is the tremendous stress that has been put on the people of the Lower Mainland and all of British Columbia with the Pattullo Bridge out of operation for an extended period of time. For decades, the people of Metro Vancouver have been in desperate need of upgraded bridges, more bridges, proper roads, better public transportation (such as the long awaited and promised Evergreen Line), social housing, and a functional social network for those who really need it. All these important issues were denied because, of what was consistently reported by those in power, there was not enough money in the budget to improve the transportation in Metro Vancouver. However, the people were also told that there is enough money to bid on, host, and profit from the 2010 Olympics. We the people of British Columbia were not asked, were lied to (or misled deliberately) and were not given an opportunity to vote if we wanted the Olympics, or if we wanted all the things that we need for Vancouver and British Columbia to succeed into the future as "the best place on Earth." This is not Democracy. In a real democracy this could not happen.

Many people in government use the term "democracy" as shorthand for liberal democracy, which may include elements such as political pluralism, equality before the law, the right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances, due process, civil liberties, human rights, and elements of civil society outside the government. This all sounds too good to be true and it is. It would appear that the term "democracy" is open to interpretation.

The only way, in my opinion and many others, for power to be brought back to "the people" is to not participate in the broken system. In the upcoming Provincial Election on May 12, let your voice be heard and do not vote.

Flood gates

Is it allowed to have more than one BIG IDEA?
If so I'd call for legalization of ALL banned drugs - including glue,gasoline and the "really bad" like Coke, meth-amphetamine and Heroin.
Imagine the influx of unmarked bills that would suddenly be looking for something - anything - to invest in.
From what I read long term Meth users might continue to unpredictable even if the
drug was free but since they would be the only "jumpy" characters out there besides the hedge fund managers they would be easy to spot and avoid - everyone else would be laid back. Stoners safe and warm with some old Led Zeplin and Straights safe and warm reading Tao te Ching or Cottage Magazine.

Hug the sun

There was a piece on the godamnoisybox (GDNB for short) this last week, I only caught the end, so I know few details.

An outfit is printing photovoltaic ink onto thin aluminum sheets and making them into solar panels for high end uses. Making it by the mile.

Turn this stuff into roofing materials. Design a thin aluminum shingle, or panel in such numbers that it becomes cheap and common. Every house and barn covered with the stuff, producing power all day every day.

Design a similar auto roof and hood, so your electric car can recharge itself just sitting around.

12 volt appliances are readily available off the shelf, so 12 volts would likely be the most efficient output.

“That governments around

“That governments around the world so quickly and easily found trillions of dollars to bail out the bankers, lenders and speculators who precipitated the financial crisis shows starkly the brutal disdain with which governments have treated their own citizens for decades. Who can now believe that governments could not have found the money for better schools, health care, and other programs that would have enhanced the well-being and livelihood of millions of ordinary citizens and helped create a more just, equitable and stable world?” - Chris Floyd

Because people generally are unaware of where money comes from, witness the astounding chutzpah of the financial elite in this latest in a long line of economic crises. They perpetrate the crisis, then order the government to bail them out, transfering even more money into the perps pockets and condemning society to unimaginable amounts of yet more debt. All because the people just don't get it.

Obama is being compared to Abraham Lincoln.

"The government should create, issue and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the government and the buying power of consumers. By adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity." Abraham Lincoln, US President 1861-5.

A lot of good ideas already, however...

1. Abolish limited liability. Make everyone responsible for their debts and not let corporations off the hook.
2. Abolish the corporation as fictitious individual. Rights only for living, breathing individuals!
3. Democratize corporate control. One shareholder = one vote, period
4. Eliminate corporate welfare
5. End discriminatory legislation against trade union organizing. Sign up a majority of workers in a place and the union has to be recognized.
6. End media monopolies. Make the mass media reflect all views, not just that of the right wing.
7. Institute a proportional ballot and provisions for referenda for contentious issues, with strict spending limitations on the latter.

Canada Green Bonds

A Canadian Saving Bond, backed by the Feds, whose proceeds would finance renewable energy projects AND engage people in supporting a new economy.

Introduction is here: http://www.greenbonds.ca/

Details are there: http://www.greenbonds.ca/index2.html

...And apparently is is getting momentum:
http://www.nanosresearch.com/library/polls/POLNAT-F07-T275.pdf

The time has come to start

Thinking about conflict, and thinking about thinking.

Malcolm Galdwell, in “Outliers”, would have us believe that the violence in Harlan, Kentucky, in the late nineteenth century, was simply the result of levels of violence passed on from culture of origin, and from subsequent geographically induced cultural differences found in the immigrant families that settled Harlan that allowed culture of origin violence to continue.

According to Galdwell, violent, aggressive behaviour is the product of being responsive and defensive to constant threats to a lifestyle where survival depends on the offerings of a meager environment. Apparently, it produces folks who “are willing to fight in response to even the slightest challenge” to reputation, and this willingness to fight breeds a “culture of honor”. And, if we carry the argument further, fighting becomes a way of saving livelihood, reputation and self-worth.

Gladwell is right, we may have to go back several generations to grasp the whole picture of why violence is a way of life in Harlan, however, in order to really understand the patterns of violence in Harlan, we have to do more than look at the influence of country living in borderline environments: We have to look at the distortions of reality called “honor”, “reputation” and “self-worth”.

Unfortunately, Gladwell along with most of humanity isn’t prepared to ask, “Why do we think the way we do?”

People actually believe the argument: “Human nature is fixed”. “Violent behaviour is a product of human nature”. “Therefore violence is unavoidable”.

This thinking is accepted as universally true and can be found across all segments of society.

thinking about thinking cont'd

Here’s what J.N. Mattis, General, U.S. Marine Corps Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command, has to say about human nature (from Joint Operating Environment (JOE) 2008).

“The nature of the human condition will guarantee that uncertainty, ambiguity, and surprise will dominate the course of events. However carefully we think about the future; however thorough our preparations; however coherent and thoughtful our concepts, training, and doctrine; we will be surprised.

“If war at its essence is a human endeavor, then it follows that one of the most effective ways to understand human nature is by a close consideration of history.

“There are other aspects of human conflict that will not change no matter what advances in technology or computing power may occur: fog and friction will distort, cloak, and twist the course of events. It will arise “from fundamental aspects of the human condition and unavoidable unpredictabilities that lie at the very core of combat processes.

“Even where adversaries share a similar historical and cultural background, the mere fact of belligerence guarantees profound differences in attitudes, expectations, and behavioral norms. Where different cultures come into conflict, the likelihood that adversaries will act in mutually incomprehensible ways is even more likely.”

According to Gladwell and Mattis, we can ignore any attempts at understanding that which makes up human nature because it’s immutable.

There can be no doubt that factors affecting survival, at the species level, can be transferred to the collective survivability of any specific culture. Those factors relate directly to belief systems (culture) and how they think about their environment, other members of their group and members of other groups. It is this basic interrelationship between biological functions (human nature) that ensure survival and how these functions affect the way we think that needs exposure.

Mutable

If human nature is immutable, as you think General Mattis claims, human behaviour is not.

Marine Corps basic training is a strong declaration of faith in that principle. The personal belief systems of ordinary people is transmuted into a rather dodgy belief in the usefulness of violence on a mass scale to effect change on societies.

In fact, the only change the military belief system can actually produce is by wiping out the proponents of other belief systems or the owners of stuff they want.

Except,of course, the change in fundamental behaviour wrought in the ordinary people who submit to basic training at Paris Island.

Those facts alone speak against the immutability theory, though admittedly in different ways.

More likely is the theory that the military, like all the most expensive manifestations of western thought, has always been subject to the command and control of a type of person whose thinking is in itself pathological.

If all cultures came to the concept of forceful concentration of all wealth in few hands, one could argue more convincingly for immutability, but they don't.

I offer several first nations, Polynesian island cultures, Inuit culture as examples. I admit that whenever one of these cultures meets a western military culture, they tend to be robbed, enslaved and murdered.

Which produces an illusion that human nature is not susceptible to change.

This is believable only if you ignore the number of peaceful cultures that have been wiped out that way over the millenia.

I think very strong evidence can be shown that human nature permits a wide range of behaviours to be taught, and a wide range of hopes for the future to be embraced

nature is immutable, behaviour is not

Precisely my point Bailey … Gladwell and Mattis make the same mistake. They both acknowledge the role of human nature and that behaviour is shaped by what we are trained to think, but they don’t acknowledge that there’s a difference between the thinking process that is a response to reality ( a slab of meat) and the thinking that is a repsonse to the cue (label or judgment). Those differences are a result of the WAY we are trained, not WHAT we are trained … and this process of conditioning lies at the core of our problems.

“Honor”, “reputation” and “self-worth” are judgmental labels. Although we are trained to believe they are reality, they aren’t. “Honor”, “reputation” and “self-worth”, like good, bad and evil, are cues that trigger desired responses … violence, aggression and emotional “drooling”. The problem is that most folks react as if they were real, claim their behaviour is a result of human nature and never question the thinking that led to their behaviour.

How GM wasted money

Make the auto companies face the result of their own stupid mistakes!

Here is a quote from an article in the Globe, by auto journalist Jeremy Cato:

GM paid $2.4 billion for 20 per cent of Fiat and another $2 billion to give it back. GM did get some engine technology out of the deal, but not $4.5 billion worth.

As veteran commentator Jerry Flint of Forbes magazine noted at the time: “The $2 billion handed to Fiat could be enough to turn GM around. It is enough to buy a rear-drive platform for the Cadillac DeVille and a big Buick, plus a hybrid for Chevrolet. It's enough to tool a plant for five-speed automatic transmissions so Bob Lutz's new models don't have to carry outdated four-speeds, with enough money left over to add XM radios to a year's production.”

Yet these clowns blame everything else but their own actions!

electrifying

Buy a whole bunch of little golf carts.

Build a bunch of cart racks all over town that recharge the batteries on the carts that are parked there.

Give key cards to people all over the city that will record the time or mileage or whatever that each user uses a cart for. Like a bus pass.

I believe this was tried somewhere in Europe a few years ago, but new technology might easily have made the idea more practical.

You could take them to the store, you could take them to work, you could take them to your mother in law's for dinner, and only be charged for the actual travel time.

You could offer your car to a homeless person for a condo.

Recently there has been a

Recently there has been a lot of talk about Global Warming and Climate Change. These are worthy of a lot of thought and action but they are only the beginning of the process to take care of the environment. We must remember plants, as well as animals and people, are part of the environment.
We need to be concerned about environmental alteration, not just climate change. We must be concerned about all pollutants, not just green house gases (GHG’s.) No chemicals should be used unless they are studied and tested for damage to animals, plants and the environment. These studies must be made public.
Three things we all need are housing, food and energy. We must get these without damaging the environment too much. Any activity we do will alter the environment. We must be able to get these in such a way so all forms of life can continue to live. We must become sustainable in obtaining all of these three things. We may want more things than the big 3 but sustainability is the key. If we are not sustainable in these, then we will run out of them and we may perish.
To reduce energy wrt food, we should use local foods as much as possible. We must grow them without harmful chemicals. BC and Canada should be self-sufficient wrt food. We may import food from other places but at no net cost to the environment.

BC and Canada should be self sufficient and sustainable in energy as well. We have to look at how we are going to get our energy. We must do a complete and thorough study of all ways we can generate energy, whether it be hydro, coal, solar, geothermal, wind, nuclear, wood, biofuels, gas or any other source of energy. All methods must be examined and these results must be public. Only after such a study can we use an energy source. We must do this so our energy sources are sustainable and not harmful to the environment.
For example, with the Site C Dam project, we would look at the costs to the environment, people displaced, farmland lost, water use downstream and the generation of energy without producing GHG’s.
No undertaking such as mining, housing developments, highways, etc. can be done without an environmental and sustainability analysis. We must be careful not to remove too many plants or trees, as we need them to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Other wastes must be recycled rather than thrown into landfills or oceans. Recycling must become a major activity in our sustainable culture.

We must develop a national and provincial energy plan so we can look forward and know we can have a healthy life for future generations.

Small towns dying

I would like to see a concerted effort on the part of our Premier to remove 50% or more of the government offices in Victoria to some of the towns in Central and Northern B.C. This would A) Provide jobs in the previously "resource" towns B) give some of our mentally constipated civil servants some idea where the tax dollars they live on have been coming from and C) reduce the load on the non-existent sewage system in our Capital City. Forms do not care where they are processed and a little first hand knowledge of what the paper relates to would be a real revelation to denizens of Victoria.
A second improvement would be the removal or serious curtailing of the "non-elected" government which is rapidly growing fatter - the Regional District. This organization is totally nonproductive and could be removed without creating any waves at all

Help design a good solar cooker for Chad

In towns in Chad women are no longer allowed to collect wood to make fires for cooking because nearly all the trees are gone. There is already social unrest because of this.
They do not know that you can make a solar cooker by sticking aluminium foil onto mud and using the reflected concentrated light to heat pots of food.
But they need the right curves aimed in the right direction to do it. (Parabolic is the wrong shape, some sort of compound parabolic or cusp shaped reflectors might be better). The right shape would allow the women to place pots in the same place for 3 or 4 hours of cooking with sunlight every day for months for the price of a roll of kitchen foil!
The right shape could be designed with software. The software people who have given most help are users of "art of illusion". A free (and not hard to use) modeling program. Check it out in their solar cooker thread in their "open discussion" forum. It is just a start but we can design for a lot of people who need that design help really badly.

Citizens' Watchdog at United Nations

UNPA Canada Network in support of
Appeal for the establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA)

An international grassroots campaign is afoot to introduce citizens' representation at the United Nations, and Canadians are playing a leading role. The idea is to begin with an advisory body associated with the UN - a citizens' watchdog with clout - that gradually transitions into a world parliament. This would be similar to the development of the European Parliament that now has co-decision powers and is elected by over 490 million voters of the European Union. Although just launched in April '07, the Campaign already has support from participants in 128 countries including academics, Nobel Prize winners and almost 600 current national parliamentarians. Please go to the website unpacampaign.org for background information and to endorse the proposal on-line. Join activists all over the world working for global community and an effective, accountable United Nations.

The UNPA Canada Network is composed of individuals across Canada who support the UNPA initiative and want to be kept up-to-date on developments both national and international. The network also allows participants the opportunity to discuss campaign strategies and co-ordinate actions.

For more information, contact Canadian campaign co-ordinator Larry Kazdan at (604) 874-9982 or

and consult the Canadian website at unpacampaign.ca

Linux not Microsoft

The emerging role of Linux and related free software deserves celebration, and is the idea which will explode this year.

Many think kindly and respectfully of Bill Gates and his Company but I call for a class action lawsuit for an aggravated fraud on the world. If I can discover the following facts then the richest man has known from the start, that his core kernel software has irreparable flaws requiring whole industries of protection to keep it functioning at the low level we endure.

Linux is built on a flawless core kernel which requires no virus protection, no spyware, none of the quick fixes that are so expensively parasitic on Windows.

Gates got caught with his flawed kernel and did not want to admit that his software is designed to crash. The repair industry knows this but why would they steer customers they depend on to Linux? The American Justice Department should recharge Microsoft with the biggest scam on people in history, and I want my money back. The layoffs in Seattle are caused by people turning to Linux.

Try Linux boys and girls and your computers will operate as well as your televisions.

And oh yeah, Linux is free!

Idea

History has shown that the most far-reaching, world-changing motions are those that come from a small group and can be replicated in an inspiring way by many others. Gandhi made use of this by living simply, wearing and making homespun, and being an example.

We're in a time and place where we need to produce less waste and less "stuff". We need to build more communities. We need to work on balancing the inequality in our society that's been linked to so many negative traits: unhappiness, crime, even health.

So something fundamental is needed in terms of how we live. Aside from looking far away, like Argentina or Venezuela, one of the best examples I've seen is in Intentional Communities. These are communities where so much is shared. There are variations, but the common factor is the sharing. Often income is shared. Cooking and cleaning is considered "work" and shared. Child rearing is shared and considered just as valued as work. There's much more recycling going on because of the community. There's much less waste. There's more happiness as there's community.

Of course there are issues; many intentional communities have fallen apart from friction. But seeing those that work demonstrates that we can live with exponentially less impact on the Earth - and in more of a community.

So my idea is to fund experiments in this. Many Kibbutz in Israel work very well, and with good support, so it can work on a larger scale. Obviously the "hippie farm" idea doesn't work in the cities. But there are other options and variations that have been tried out in the cities. There also needs to be plenty of professionals who see the benefit in this so the idea that this is "hippie" or "new age" disappears.

Something we have to learn: Wealth is not what you have; it's what you have access to. That's the power of community.

Neighbourhood collectives and share clubs

1. share sheds in every neighbourhood, by which neighbours collectively own and share gardening tools, other machinery for local living practices (ie. power tools, hand tools, hardware supplies), DIY library of books on anything and everything concerned with sustainable living practices, as well as shared food storage facilities, like common central root cellars, cold rooms, and freezers.

2. neighbourhood growing clubs...by which local residents come together, plan the growing season together, ie. who grows what based on what their city properties are best suited for, weeding and maintenance rotations, etc, divide up the harvest, share in the preservation of food stores for the winter (ie. canning, drying, fermenting), and share food storage space in neighbourhood share shed concept.

3. regular local workshops organised around sustainable living practices whereby those who know stuff share it with those needing to know that stuff, adding to the local indigenous pool of knowledge...

replace toilet paper

cloth bum wipes...for everyone, not just babies...washable, reuse-able, made only of 100% natural fibres so they can eventually bio-decompose, along with all our other human waste properly and easily collected in compost toilets and used in our sustainable food growing practices...as part of an all encompassing, genuine closed loop system with minimal if any at all, leakage, loss and waste of our resources.

fruit trees on all city property

fruit trees on all city boulevards and parks, harvested by paid city pickers workers, sold by the city to local community food stores for fair prices and offered to local city residents and consumers for affordable and reasonable prices.