Dear all,
An unexpected pleasure in November was taking advantage of the later sunrise and mild weather to get outside and greet the day, and get a more intimate sense of the varieties of early morning color and light. As we settle in, here in our part of the northern hemisphere, to await the shortest and darkest days of the year, i am reminded of all the different ways we have found to bring other kinds of light into the world.
In a holiday season that can be full of extra stress and expectation/disappointment, I wish you small joys of connection, perhaps in unexpected places.
Love,
Pamela
Fine and well
When I was growing up, everything was fine. That was the non-negotiable way of the world. I was fine. My family was fine. Life was fine. We were told that we were a big happy family and, with no hard evidence to disprove it—and much to support it—we accepted this worldview as truth.
Since I was fine and my life was fine, and my mother was very busy working to keep it that way, there seemed to be no place for complaints. So I never complained. I settled into the job of having a happy childhood, and more or less succeeded.
What a shock to discover as an adult that this wasn’t the whole story! My childhood hadn’t been as happy as I had been taught. It turned out that my father was harsh and judgmental, my mother was emotionally needy, and in a family that prized education I secretly (even to myself) hated school. All in all, it had been quite a chore to be the hard-working non-complaining responsible team member that my big happy family required.
It was a huge relief to realize that everything had NOT been fine. I took some time luxuriating in outrage at what I’d had to put up with, and the idea of complaining, while still seeming totally taboo, began to hold some attraction. Yet I was constrained by awareness of how relatively good my life had been. To increase my confusion, the life I was living in the present was markedly better than my childhood, and as my perspective on the world widened, my own little problems seemed more and more petty and insignificant. At the same time, I fought against being pushed back into that familiar position where the needs of the larger whole always and inevitably trumped mine.
Did I, or did I not, have a right to complain? I started experimenting: complain about this, complain about that. In a way it was a relief to be able to notice and say out loud that some things did not feel fine. But when I really got into it, I started to get confused about reality. Were my complaints real? Were they from the past or the present? Was I really not fine? I liked the possibility that there could be space in the world for my complaints, but did I want them to define my emotional state?
On the other hand, was the only alternative to be “fine”? I couldn’t buy that one either. Things had not been fine in my family, and they are certainly not fine in the world. The attempt to believe or pretend that they are requires walling off great pieces of reality and agreeing to a small and defended life. While I was born into relative comfort and have more than enough in the present, it’s not hard to notice that I’m in a minority. Our peoples and our planet are in great and growing distress, and I ignore that reality at peril to my soul.
In a real way, “fine” has no substance. Used as a response when people ask how you are, it’s clearly just code for “I’m choosing at this moment, for any number of reasons, not to complain.” It’s no more than an opaque brush-off.
I’m reaching for a response that captures more truth. Currently this is how it sounds. “I have a few complaints.” There is space in this world for me to experience life as I experience it, and things will not all be sunshine. “There is a lot to grieve and fear.” I am connected to the larger picture, and I would choose to engage with all that is not fine rather than turn away. And, finally, “I am well.” I have found my way to a life of connection, joy and meaning, even in the midst of great suffering, and will not be rocked from that place.
In my experience, being fine calls for a cover-up, as completely as possible, of all that is wrong, and a commitment to construct a life on top of that cover-up. Being well is the opposite—a commitment to connecting to the solid ground that lies underneath, and engaging with all that is wrong, and all that is right, from that place. I am happy to consign “fine” to the dustbin of history, and have great faith that “well” will see me forward.
Bathing in wood air
We all know that a walk in the woods refreshes--
great trees, bird calls and breezes
pungent scents of earth and pine.
Yet our senses fail to name the greater forces
here at work.
Mushroom threads—mycelia—
weave a network underground
sharing nutrients at the root
helping those great trees to thrive.
And all those trees give out
not just the oxygen
that we forget to thank them for
but other subtle essences
(named now by scientists, thus real)
that nourish us.
We are bathing in wood air
as they say in Japan
deep in the molecular life of the trees
breathing in the benefits of
living in an interspecies web.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Economic conversion
As we look for precedents for transitioning an economy away from fossil fuels, there's an obvious on in our country's recent history. During the Second World War, the U.S. government took strong measures to increase its control over the economy. The War Production Board, established by Roosevelt by executive order, converted and expanded peacetime industries to meet war needs, allocated scarce materials vital to war production, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such things as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper, and plastics.
The auto industry, which had been producing three million cars a year, was turned to war production; from early 1942 through the end of 1944 essentially no cars were produced in the United States. In addition to the ban on the production and sale of cars for private use, residential and highway construction was halted, and driving for pleasure was banned. Strategic goods—including tires, gasoline, fuel oil, and sugar—were rationed. Reducing private consumption of these goods freed up material resources that were vital to the war effort.
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
If you liked--or missed--the film, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, here's a trailer about the upcoming sequel: Earth Island: Cuba, Community and Climate Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD4Eof3nfPs
The Sustaining All Life delegation at the Paris climate talks, how they harnessed the power of listening and weren't afraid to look at the hard issues at the root of climate injustice. www.facebook.com/SustainingAllLife
A project initiated by George Lakey at Swarthmore College, that has gathered hundreds of stories of successful nonviolent action from around the world. http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu
And have I mentioned Pope Francis recently? I find him an ongoing source of hope.
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Pamela Haines
215-349-9428
To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing.
www.pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
#148 Risk management
Dear all,
The ripples from our trip to Africa continue to spread in my life and my mind, as can be seen in this month's post. I'll keep looking for more ways to share that experience.
An on-going joy at home is a near-by grandchild, who reminds us on a regular basis of the incredible buoyancy, keen observation and intelligence, flexibility and love of life that is our birthright. May we rejoice in it in others, and reclaim it more and more for ourselves!
Love,
Pamela
Risk management
As I was biking into a poorer neighborhood just west of mine to get to my local YMCA, I noticed how the number of bikers without helmets grew, and couldn’t help but think of my recent time in Africa, the tons of bike riders there, and the total non-existence of helmets. I think most of us would identify an arc of progress here: Africa in the rear, many in the US ahead of them, my helmet-conscious neighborhood in the vanguard.
There’s certainly logic in this line of reasoning. Historically, prosperity has created the conditions for risk mitigation, with generally good results. It’s great, for example, to ensure that water is safe to drink, require people to follow traffic laws, and encourage vaccination against deadly and contagious diseases.
As we extend beyond these overall public protections, however, there are some troubling trends. We seem to be focusing more and more on consumption of safety. In a society with great income inequality, such risk mitigation comes at a price that is often paid individually. The more affluent can drive the biggest and safest cars, consume the best health care, and buy protection from violence in gated communities. People with fewer resources have fewer options about the risks they are exposed to, from the environmental contaminants in their neighborhoods to the lack of spending money for “extras” like bike helmets.
We have identified many more things as risky than our parents or grandparents ever did, and prohibitions against individual behavior that is deemed risky are steadily growing. Yet, as we pour our resources and well-developed risk management capacity into a crusade to eliminate risk, the expense of additional protection yields less and less additional well-being. I would go farther, and suggest that we may have reached the point where our risk aversion is putting us in greater danger.
Childhood asthma, for example, has now been linked with the reduction in gut bacteria that comes with use of antibiotics in the first years of life. I have to wonder: are those parents who are trying hardest to protect their young children from bacterial infections actually putting them at greater risk? The early childhood education field struggles with a similar paradox. Regulations around sanitizing, that are getting increasingly stringent in an effort to create germ-free environments for our little ones, are creating their own unintentional hazards—both in the dangers of inhaling/ingesting the sanitizing agents, and in the decreased opportunities for children to acquire their own antibodies to fight off infection.
Shifting to look through the widest possible lens, by far the greatest risk we are facing as a species is the threat to life on earth that comes from global warming. From that perspective, our focus for risk mitigation is seriously misplaced. Those of us with the largest carbon footprint—driving cars, heating and cooling big houses, eating food that’s traveled thousands of miles, mindlessly consuming products that depend on scarce natural resources—are engaging in the most risky behavior of all. Riding without a bike helmet entails risk. Pursuing consumption and economic growth at the cost of the planet’s integrity, however, is risk of a whole different order.
I wonder if part of our obsession with fighting germs and pursuing bike safety is a manifestation of this paradox. In a world with enormous risks and dangers all around, we focus on the little ones that are at hand. While taking antibiotics and wearing bike helmets can’t protect us from climate change, at least it’s something that we as individuals can do to feel safer.
I’m not advocating that we stop taking basic safety precautions or that we intentionally put our loved ones in danger. But what if, whenever we spent time, attention, money or energy in order to feel safer ourselves, we committed to spending an equal amount of time, attention, money or energy to reduce the risk that our cumulative individual and societal decisions are bringing to others in distant places or future generations?
As I think about this whole issue, a couple of lessons stand out. First, it always helps to step back and take a look at the big picture. Second, when we think about risk management, it may be time to look beyond traditional technical, regulatory and product safety solutions—to mass movements for changed priorities, perhaps. Finally, a little humility may be in order. Those countries in Africa that have lots of helmet-less bike riders and few cars to hit them—that seem so backward to us—may be engaging in much less risky behavior overall than our own rich industrialized fossil-fueled hyper-risk-averse societies.
First light
First light, I learn
can give relief to those who struggle
with the darkness of the winter.
I choose first light of summer for the cool,
before it is a penance
not a joy
to work outside.
But I have marveled at
the beauty of the sky when day is new
and searched for words.
Soft? Delicate?
These only hint at what envelops me.
But now I know.
This light is new. Not settled yet
it fills the sky with possibility
and draws us in.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Eliminating homelessness
In the past nine years, Utah has decreased the number of homeless by 72 percent—largely by finding and building apartments where they can live, permanently, with no strings attached.
Nationwide, the chronically homeless fill up the shelters night after night and spend a lot of time in emergency rooms and jails. This is expensive—costing up to $50,000 per person per year according to the Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Traditionally in social service sectors, homeless people are required to get a job, deal with substance abuse or treat mental health issues first before they can even be considered for housing. But in 2005, Utah adopted a policy called “Housing First” which calls for putting the homeless in housing before addressing the issues that caused their homelessness in the first place.
Nine years into the 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, officials estimates that Utah's Housing First program cost between $10,000 and $12,000 per person, about half of the $20,000 it cost them to treat and care for homeless people on the street.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-homelessness-utah
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
An 84 year old Chinese woman who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine for her discovery (in 1977) of the cure for malaria, based on a reference in a text from 400 A.D.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386
Brazil’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions 37% by 2025 from 2005 levels, the first major developing country to pledge an absolute reduction.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/546bf2c0c20d4a99adf59cf5321b3dd2/brazil-pledges-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions
The September win by California prisoners of an historic settlement ending long-term solitary confinement.
https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/ca-prisoners-win-historic-gains-with-settlement-against-solitary-confinement/
A summer ruling by the Hague District Court that the Dutch government must ensure that Dutch greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2020 be at least 25% lower than those in 1990—a precedent that could be used by courts in other countries.
http://www.calltothebar.org/court-orders-government-to-do-more-to-fight-climate-change/
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
The ripples from our trip to Africa continue to spread in my life and my mind, as can be seen in this month's post. I'll keep looking for more ways to share that experience.
An on-going joy at home is a near-by grandchild, who reminds us on a regular basis of the incredible buoyancy, keen observation and intelligence, flexibility and love of life that is our birthright. May we rejoice in it in others, and reclaim it more and more for ourselves!
Love,
Pamela
Risk management
As I was biking into a poorer neighborhood just west of mine to get to my local YMCA, I noticed how the number of bikers without helmets grew, and couldn’t help but think of my recent time in Africa, the tons of bike riders there, and the total non-existence of helmets. I think most of us would identify an arc of progress here: Africa in the rear, many in the US ahead of them, my helmet-conscious neighborhood in the vanguard.
There’s certainly logic in this line of reasoning. Historically, prosperity has created the conditions for risk mitigation, with generally good results. It’s great, for example, to ensure that water is safe to drink, require people to follow traffic laws, and encourage vaccination against deadly and contagious diseases.
As we extend beyond these overall public protections, however, there are some troubling trends. We seem to be focusing more and more on consumption of safety. In a society with great income inequality, such risk mitigation comes at a price that is often paid individually. The more affluent can drive the biggest and safest cars, consume the best health care, and buy protection from violence in gated communities. People with fewer resources have fewer options about the risks they are exposed to, from the environmental contaminants in their neighborhoods to the lack of spending money for “extras” like bike helmets.
We have identified many more things as risky than our parents or grandparents ever did, and prohibitions against individual behavior that is deemed risky are steadily growing. Yet, as we pour our resources and well-developed risk management capacity into a crusade to eliminate risk, the expense of additional protection yields less and less additional well-being. I would go farther, and suggest that we may have reached the point where our risk aversion is putting us in greater danger.
Childhood asthma, for example, has now been linked with the reduction in gut bacteria that comes with use of antibiotics in the first years of life. I have to wonder: are those parents who are trying hardest to protect their young children from bacterial infections actually putting them at greater risk? The early childhood education field struggles with a similar paradox. Regulations around sanitizing, that are getting increasingly stringent in an effort to create germ-free environments for our little ones, are creating their own unintentional hazards—both in the dangers of inhaling/ingesting the sanitizing agents, and in the decreased opportunities for children to acquire their own antibodies to fight off infection.
Shifting to look through the widest possible lens, by far the greatest risk we are facing as a species is the threat to life on earth that comes from global warming. From that perspective, our focus for risk mitigation is seriously misplaced. Those of us with the largest carbon footprint—driving cars, heating and cooling big houses, eating food that’s traveled thousands of miles, mindlessly consuming products that depend on scarce natural resources—are engaging in the most risky behavior of all. Riding without a bike helmet entails risk. Pursuing consumption and economic growth at the cost of the planet’s integrity, however, is risk of a whole different order.
I wonder if part of our obsession with fighting germs and pursuing bike safety is a manifestation of this paradox. In a world with enormous risks and dangers all around, we focus on the little ones that are at hand. While taking antibiotics and wearing bike helmets can’t protect us from climate change, at least it’s something that we as individuals can do to feel safer.
I’m not advocating that we stop taking basic safety precautions or that we intentionally put our loved ones in danger. But what if, whenever we spent time, attention, money or energy in order to feel safer ourselves, we committed to spending an equal amount of time, attention, money or energy to reduce the risk that our cumulative individual and societal decisions are bringing to others in distant places or future generations?
As I think about this whole issue, a couple of lessons stand out. First, it always helps to step back and take a look at the big picture. Second, when we think about risk management, it may be time to look beyond traditional technical, regulatory and product safety solutions—to mass movements for changed priorities, perhaps. Finally, a little humility may be in order. Those countries in Africa that have lots of helmet-less bike riders and few cars to hit them—that seem so backward to us—may be engaging in much less risky behavior overall than our own rich industrialized fossil-fueled hyper-risk-averse societies.
First light
First light, I learn
can give relief to those who struggle
with the darkness of the winter.
I choose first light of summer for the cool,
before it is a penance
not a joy
to work outside.
But I have marveled at
the beauty of the sky when day is new
and searched for words.
Soft? Delicate?
These only hint at what envelops me.
But now I know.
This light is new. Not settled yet
it fills the sky with possibility
and draws us in.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Eliminating homelessness
In the past nine years, Utah has decreased the number of homeless by 72 percent—largely by finding and building apartments where they can live, permanently, with no strings attached.
Nationwide, the chronically homeless fill up the shelters night after night and spend a lot of time in emergency rooms and jails. This is expensive—costing up to $50,000 per person per year according to the Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Traditionally in social service sectors, homeless people are required to get a job, deal with substance abuse or treat mental health issues first before they can even be considered for housing. But in 2005, Utah adopted a policy called “Housing First” which calls for putting the homeless in housing before addressing the issues that caused their homelessness in the first place.
Nine years into the 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness, officials estimates that Utah's Housing First program cost between $10,000 and $12,000 per person, about half of the $20,000 it cost them to treat and care for homeless people on the street.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/housing-first-solution-to-homelessness-utah
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
An 84 year old Chinese woman who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in medicine for her discovery (in 1977) of the cure for malaria, based on a reference in a text from 400 A.D.
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-34451386
Brazil’s pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions 37% by 2025 from 2005 levels, the first major developing country to pledge an absolute reduction.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/546bf2c0c20d4a99adf59cf5321b3dd2/brazil-pledges-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions
The September win by California prisoners of an historic settlement ending long-term solitary confinement.
https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/ca-prisoners-win-historic-gains-with-settlement-against-solitary-confinement/
A summer ruling by the Hague District Court that the Dutch government must ensure that Dutch greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2020 be at least 25% lower than those in 1990—a precedent that could be used by courts in other countries.
http://www.calltothebar.org/court-orders-government-to-do-more-to-fight-climate-change/
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Monday, September 21, 2015
#147: The heart of the story
Dear all,
It's been a struggle to talk about my experience in Northern Uganda, because there is so much to say, and it's hard to even know where to start. I've tried to include the heart of the story below. If you would like to hear more, please let me know.
How strange to arrive back from worlds away, not only in a different time zone, but a different season. It's taken a while to get adjusted, but I'm getting back on my feet , picking up the threads of life at home, glad to be back to these loved ones, this work, these opportunities.
Love,
Pamela
The heart of the story
Our three weeks in Northern Uganda were full: we supported a dear friend and the large primary school that she runs, took her on a brief trip to a game park, led a five-day peer counseling workshop, and consulted widely about youth employment. Of course I’ve written tons in the process: twenty vignettes of people and situations I came across there, a whole series of Haiku on a trip through the countryside, interviews with ten people who were at our workshop, a concept for a new crafts/trade program at the school, reports on what we did. But what is the heart of my story?
This is a question that has particular resonance for me from our time in Africa. Many of the people we met were master storytellers. They could go on for a very long time describing the intricacies of a family conflict or a land dispute, and I would listen as best I could, all the while struggling, in the midst of all that vivid detail, to find the heart of the story. One of the themes of my workshop experience was helping people get to that heart.
As I reflect, I believe mine has to do with honoring human connection and resilience. I could tell stories of poverty and horror, but they are not at my story’s heart. I think of Charles, who is so kind and playful with the shy pre-teen girls even as he worries about school fees for his own; of the old guard at the school who borrowed my glasses to read his Bible; of Felix and his three boys, and how we played and laughed in a living room so small there was barely room for our legs between the couch and chair; of Robin, recently graduated and pursuing a dream of an NGO to support farmers; of Alfred and Naume and the beautiful duets they sang; of Omona, a young man with deep knowledge and pride in his clan’s stories and traditions; of how everyone knows the local tribal dances and loves the opportunity to dance them together.
I think of the quiet motorcycle taxi driver who turned out to know six languages; of Oloya who has been disappointed by people many times, but loves caring for the animals; of Christopher, burdened with tragedy but enormously kind, whose skills as a counselor grew so much in the course of a week; of Emmanuel, damaged as a child soldier, who is now planting flowers at the edge of his farm plots; of Jenefer, a feisty feminist and now young mother, who gathers groups to listen to each other wherever she goes; of shy little Sheila, and how she confided in me about her nightmares; of Agnes, who started a wedding and funeral catering business in her farmers cooperative; of Achen and her irrepressible spirit, undaunted by a hard new marriage; of Abitimo, getting the worried test-takers and their parents to laugh and relax a little.
The heart of my story also has to do with the advice of theologian Walter Wink: to attend to listening for what is ours to do in this world, then to do just that—no less and no more—and wait in modest confidence for a miracle.
The obstacles can seem insurmountable. What about privilege? How do you show yourself fully in a relationship where you carry all the privilege of wealth, power and opportunity without burdening the other person with the weight of your discomfort?
What about energy? I have grieved to see the tall bags of charcoal standing by the roadside waiting to be picked up and trucked south to the big city, knowing that with each bag of charcoal there are fewer trees. But when someone suggested that ethanol imported from Brazil to Kampala would be a cleaner fuel, I wondered at the cost/benefits, and grieved for the potential loss of livelihood in the north.
What about education? Trying to pay school fees, in a country where public education is so under-resourced as to be almost valueless, and where most people survive on subsistence agriculture and the informal economy, is a constant struggle. Worse, with so many people pinning their hopes for the future on education in a country with so few jobs, those degrees, which are won at such cost and sacrifice, keep declining in value.
Some problems are not mine to solve. I can’t fix the lives of other people or other countries. But I can do my share. I can grieve. I can love. I can pay attention, be as present as I know how, and be alert for my best role in each new moment—as both giver and receiver, in ways both large and small. When I do this, I can be sure that there will be ripples I won’t see, and I can steadfastly expect a miracle.
Somehow being in an environment so very different from where I usually spend my days helped me focus on this intention. Yet, as I reflect on it, this is the way I would choose to live all the time.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Control of corporate influence
In 2005 the World Health Organization (WHO) passed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, commonly called the Tobacco Treaty. It is the first-ever public health and corporate accountability treaty. The treaty creates an internationally coordinated response to the tobacco epidemic, encouraging governments to raise taxes or prices to discourage tobacco use, put prominent warnings on tobacco packages, ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship and more.
Article 5.3 of the Tobacco Treaty enshrines in international law the principle that the tobacco industry has no role in public policy: “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, [governments] shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.”
The article has allowed dozens of countries to implement much stricter policies than would have been possible with the presence of Big Tobacco in policy debates. Imagine if the international climate talks were able to take place without the heavy presence of fossil fuel corporations, or if health care policy could be created without Big Pharma.
www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_5_3.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently (in addition to all the people we met in Northern Uganda):
A law passed this spring, requiring new buildings in the commercial zones of France to have either solar panels or green roofs. Similar green-roof bylaws exist in various cities around the world, including Tokyo, Toronto, Copenhagen, and Zurich. http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/france-green-roofs-law-solar-panels-20150819
The Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, which includes 28 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia Los Angeles and Houston, and is complemented at the international level by the Compact of Mayors, all committed to reducing local greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing resilience to climate change. http://commongood.unitedforimpact.org/node/753
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
It's been a struggle to talk about my experience in Northern Uganda, because there is so much to say, and it's hard to even know where to start. I've tried to include the heart of the story below. If you would like to hear more, please let me know.
How strange to arrive back from worlds away, not only in a different time zone, but a different season. It's taken a while to get adjusted, but I'm getting back on my feet , picking up the threads of life at home, glad to be back to these loved ones, this work, these opportunities.
Love,
Pamela
The heart of the story
Our three weeks in Northern Uganda were full: we supported a dear friend and the large primary school that she runs, took her on a brief trip to a game park, led a five-day peer counseling workshop, and consulted widely about youth employment. Of course I’ve written tons in the process: twenty vignettes of people and situations I came across there, a whole series of Haiku on a trip through the countryside, interviews with ten people who were at our workshop, a concept for a new crafts/trade program at the school, reports on what we did. But what is the heart of my story?
This is a question that has particular resonance for me from our time in Africa. Many of the people we met were master storytellers. They could go on for a very long time describing the intricacies of a family conflict or a land dispute, and I would listen as best I could, all the while struggling, in the midst of all that vivid detail, to find the heart of the story. One of the themes of my workshop experience was helping people get to that heart.
As I reflect, I believe mine has to do with honoring human connection and resilience. I could tell stories of poverty and horror, but they are not at my story’s heart. I think of Charles, who is so kind and playful with the shy pre-teen girls even as he worries about school fees for his own; of the old guard at the school who borrowed my glasses to read his Bible; of Felix and his three boys, and how we played and laughed in a living room so small there was barely room for our legs between the couch and chair; of Robin, recently graduated and pursuing a dream of an NGO to support farmers; of Alfred and Naume and the beautiful duets they sang; of Omona, a young man with deep knowledge and pride in his clan’s stories and traditions; of how everyone knows the local tribal dances and loves the opportunity to dance them together.
I think of the quiet motorcycle taxi driver who turned out to know six languages; of Oloya who has been disappointed by people many times, but loves caring for the animals; of Christopher, burdened with tragedy but enormously kind, whose skills as a counselor grew so much in the course of a week; of Emmanuel, damaged as a child soldier, who is now planting flowers at the edge of his farm plots; of Jenefer, a feisty feminist and now young mother, who gathers groups to listen to each other wherever she goes; of shy little Sheila, and how she confided in me about her nightmares; of Agnes, who started a wedding and funeral catering business in her farmers cooperative; of Achen and her irrepressible spirit, undaunted by a hard new marriage; of Abitimo, getting the worried test-takers and their parents to laugh and relax a little.
The heart of my story also has to do with the advice of theologian Walter Wink: to attend to listening for what is ours to do in this world, then to do just that—no less and no more—and wait in modest confidence for a miracle.
The obstacles can seem insurmountable. What about privilege? How do you show yourself fully in a relationship where you carry all the privilege of wealth, power and opportunity without burdening the other person with the weight of your discomfort?
What about energy? I have grieved to see the tall bags of charcoal standing by the roadside waiting to be picked up and trucked south to the big city, knowing that with each bag of charcoal there are fewer trees. But when someone suggested that ethanol imported from Brazil to Kampala would be a cleaner fuel, I wondered at the cost/benefits, and grieved for the potential loss of livelihood in the north.
What about education? Trying to pay school fees, in a country where public education is so under-resourced as to be almost valueless, and where most people survive on subsistence agriculture and the informal economy, is a constant struggle. Worse, with so many people pinning their hopes for the future on education in a country with so few jobs, those degrees, which are won at such cost and sacrifice, keep declining in value.
Some problems are not mine to solve. I can’t fix the lives of other people or other countries. But I can do my share. I can grieve. I can love. I can pay attention, be as present as I know how, and be alert for my best role in each new moment—as both giver and receiver, in ways both large and small. When I do this, I can be sure that there will be ripples I won’t see, and I can steadfastly expect a miracle.
Somehow being in an environment so very different from where I usually spend my days helped me focus on this intention. Yet, as I reflect on it, this is the way I would choose to live all the time.
Imagine: A new economy is possible!
Control of corporate influence
In 2005 the World Health Organization (WHO) passed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, commonly called the Tobacco Treaty. It is the first-ever public health and corporate accountability treaty. The treaty creates an internationally coordinated response to the tobacco epidemic, encouraging governments to raise taxes or prices to discourage tobacco use, put prominent warnings on tobacco packages, ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship and more.
Article 5.3 of the Tobacco Treaty enshrines in international law the principle that the tobacco industry has no role in public policy: “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, [governments] shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.”
The article has allowed dozens of countries to implement much stricter policies than would have been possible with the presence of Big Tobacco in policy debates. Imagine if the international climate talks were able to take place without the heavy presence of fossil fuel corporations, or if health care policy could be created without Big Pharma.
www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_5_3.pdf
Some things that have made me hopeful recently (in addition to all the people we met in Northern Uganda):
A law passed this spring, requiring new buildings in the commercial zones of France to have either solar panels or green roofs. Similar green-roof bylaws exist in various cities around the world, including Tokyo, Toronto, Copenhagen, and Zurich. http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/france-green-roofs-law-solar-panels-20150819
The Mayors National Climate Action Agenda, which includes 28 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia Los Angeles and Houston, and is complemented at the international level by the Compact of Mayors, all committed to reducing local greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing resilience to climate change. http://commongood.unitedforimpact.org/node/753
More resources
Resource from my friend Daniel Hunter, Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow; An Organizing Guide. http://www.danielhunter.org/books/building-movement-end-new-jim-crow-organizing-guide
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, August 23, 2015
#146 Claiming economics
Dear all,
Well, we're delighted to welcome a new grandchild, Sebastian, born on August 7, and glad to be in a position to hang out with his big brother as they all get adjusted to their family's new size--everyone is well. And Chuck and I are about to set off on an adventure--three weeks in Northern Uganda doing counseling and trauma healing work with our dear friend Abitimo Odongkara.
Part of me wishes for the kind of vacation that involves doing nothing for an extended period of time, but I think I'd prefer to have a life full of adventures, with deep rest tucked in here and there.
I'm loving the early morning light--more about that another time.
Love,
Pamela
Claiming economics
When I was nine or ten my father, who taught college economics, would get my help creating the multiple choice questions for his exams. He would ask a question, I would come up with an answer that made sense to me in the absence of any text-book knowledge, and that became one of the choices. As a teenager, I witnessed his growing disillusionment with classical economics theory and its dismissal of whole fields— including human generosity, community and the environment. An accumulation of such childhood experiences left me feeling that I had a right to think about economics, and a right to expect it to make sense.
Leading an intensive week-long series of morning sessions on faith and economics at a conference this summer, I had one overall goal—for people to come out of it believing that they too had a right to bring their thinking and values to the realm of economic thought.
The barriers are significant. Although the original economic philosophers saw the field as infused with moral implications, economists of later years were eager to transform it into a hard science, where accurate measurements and tested formulas could lead to unassailable conclusions. (I’ve heard this impulse described as “physics envy”.) Though not all economists fit this mold, many are satisfied to be masters of a complex field; it leaves one able to dismiss the general public as dense and incompetent, and relieved of responsibility to address the common good. In the face of such unwelcome, it’s not surprising that many people just give up and cede the whole territory to the “experts”.
This is a problem. Now more than ever, the field of economics needs the public to wade in with our values intact, yet it can be hard to notice how they relate to such a complex and abstract system. It helped to start our workshop series with the reminder that the word economics comes from Greek roots meaning management of the home. (Ecology is “knowledge of home”.) Well, we all know something about the home.
So we made a list of principles involved in good home management. These included promoting safety; knowing your capabilities and limitations; keeping the future in mind; creating a place of rest and spiritual refreshment; not taking more than your share, and giving back when you have extra; having a budget—knowing what’s coming in and going out; seeing that everybody has a role; taking care of the little and vulnerable ones; giving up on things that aren’t working; knowing where things belong; gathering together to do larger projects; looking beyond the strictly functional; cleaning and taking out the trash—and knowing where the trash ends up; being kind.
Such principals are intensely relevant to our larger home management process, but the economy has strayed far from them. There was a time when we at least had language about promoting the common good. From Roosevelt’s New Deal and the start of Social Security, through the social planning of World War II, the GI Bill and grants for higher education, Medicare and Johnson’s War against Poverty, there was an assumption that the government had a duty to mitigate the grossest inequities of a market-based system for the benefit of the citizenry at large. (How many people know that the federal income tax rate in the 1950’s for income over $250,000 was 91%?)
Since the 1970’s, however, a significant shift has taken place, very much under the radar of general public awareness. A “neo-liberal” economic ideology has gained ascendancy, grounded in the belief that an unrestricted market will best serve our overall economic interests. Taxes have been adjusted to benefit those with more wealth, restrictions on the financial sector have been rolled back, corporate power and influence have grown. In consequence, the public sector has been squeezed, inequality has ballooned, credit card and student debt have mushroomed, and economic insecurity has gripped more and more of the population.
Equally troubling, underlying both the socially-conscious economic policies of the 1950’s and 1960’s and the greed-based neo-liberalism of the last 40 years, lies an assumption that our well-being depends on continued economic growth—which is setting us on a collision course with our finite planet’s resources and ability to sustain life.
These are not times to tinker with formulas and rates. These are times to step in boldly with our values intact and ask the big questions: Who is the economy for? What increases well-being? What makes up our common wealth? When is more better than less? What motivates people? What is our responsibility to the future? Who should decide?
We are all needed here: the innocents, like the child who saw that the emperor had no clothes; the people of conscience who can say that things are just not right; the farsighted ones who can offer the perspective of those who come after us; those who stand on their faith values; the people in my workshop—and everyone else—who claim their right to have a voice in the management of our home.
Soil
This vacant lot is vast
a gap once filled by two great houses
now hemmed in by poverty.
A lovely family tends it
for the children in their center
and the neighbors
who need beauty and good food.
Overflowing with abundance
our community garden’s flowers
spread and spread.
I long to share the bounty
with these new friends.
One great carload
and a morning’s work
together
fill the few raised beds,
the soil hauled in
from far away
by this good man,
each hard-earned shovelful
a kiss, a promise
of more nourishment
to come.
I would fill this lot with flowers
growing so abundantly
crying out to share.
Yet in this packed debris
a shovel cannot penetrate.
What’s needed first is soil.
My little compost pile
even if I gave it all away
would be a speck
in this vast lot—
and I have need of it.
My easy generosity
has foundered
on the hard slow work
of building up the soil.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
The financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax is a very small excise tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives and other securities. A tax of just one-hundredth of a percentage point would raise $185 billion over 10 years, according to new estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Such a tax would also reduce the amount of high-frequency automated trading that is used to make windfall profits by taking advantage of small differences in price in milliseconds.
Transaction taxes of one type or another have long been in place in countries with thriving financial markets, including Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, India and Switzerland. Eleven countries of the European Union agreed to implement such a tax, in 2013, though pressure from opponents caused the introduction to be postponed until next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/opinion/the-case-for-a-tax-on-financial-transactions.html?_r=0
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The recent presidential decree of the Costa Rican government—based on the research of a small non-profit—to protect workers in the agricultural industry from heat stress and dehydration, a major cause of kidney disease in that population.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150129-sugarcane-workers-kidney-disease-nicaragua-health-ngfood/
The relative freedom that President Obama is feeling these days to say and do what he thinks is right.
All the urban farming and gardening initiatives all over the country, and the positive impact they have on everyone involved.
A doctor in Indonesia who created a system for rural people to trade in recyclable trash for health insurance.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/indonesians-can-trade-trash-for-free-health-care/
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Well, we're delighted to welcome a new grandchild, Sebastian, born on August 7, and glad to be in a position to hang out with his big brother as they all get adjusted to their family's new size--everyone is well. And Chuck and I are about to set off on an adventure--three weeks in Northern Uganda doing counseling and trauma healing work with our dear friend Abitimo Odongkara.
Part of me wishes for the kind of vacation that involves doing nothing for an extended period of time, but I think I'd prefer to have a life full of adventures, with deep rest tucked in here and there.
I'm loving the early morning light--more about that another time.
Love,
Pamela
Claiming economics
When I was nine or ten my father, who taught college economics, would get my help creating the multiple choice questions for his exams. He would ask a question, I would come up with an answer that made sense to me in the absence of any text-book knowledge, and that became one of the choices. As a teenager, I witnessed his growing disillusionment with classical economics theory and its dismissal of whole fields— including human generosity, community and the environment. An accumulation of such childhood experiences left me feeling that I had a right to think about economics, and a right to expect it to make sense.
Leading an intensive week-long series of morning sessions on faith and economics at a conference this summer, I had one overall goal—for people to come out of it believing that they too had a right to bring their thinking and values to the realm of economic thought.
The barriers are significant. Although the original economic philosophers saw the field as infused with moral implications, economists of later years were eager to transform it into a hard science, where accurate measurements and tested formulas could lead to unassailable conclusions. (I’ve heard this impulse described as “physics envy”.) Though not all economists fit this mold, many are satisfied to be masters of a complex field; it leaves one able to dismiss the general public as dense and incompetent, and relieved of responsibility to address the common good. In the face of such unwelcome, it’s not surprising that many people just give up and cede the whole territory to the “experts”.
This is a problem. Now more than ever, the field of economics needs the public to wade in with our values intact, yet it can be hard to notice how they relate to such a complex and abstract system. It helped to start our workshop series with the reminder that the word economics comes from Greek roots meaning management of the home. (Ecology is “knowledge of home”.) Well, we all know something about the home.
So we made a list of principles involved in good home management. These included promoting safety; knowing your capabilities and limitations; keeping the future in mind; creating a place of rest and spiritual refreshment; not taking more than your share, and giving back when you have extra; having a budget—knowing what’s coming in and going out; seeing that everybody has a role; taking care of the little and vulnerable ones; giving up on things that aren’t working; knowing where things belong; gathering together to do larger projects; looking beyond the strictly functional; cleaning and taking out the trash—and knowing where the trash ends up; being kind.
Such principals are intensely relevant to our larger home management process, but the economy has strayed far from them. There was a time when we at least had language about promoting the common good. From Roosevelt’s New Deal and the start of Social Security, through the social planning of World War II, the GI Bill and grants for higher education, Medicare and Johnson’s War against Poverty, there was an assumption that the government had a duty to mitigate the grossest inequities of a market-based system for the benefit of the citizenry at large. (How many people know that the federal income tax rate in the 1950’s for income over $250,000 was 91%?)
Since the 1970’s, however, a significant shift has taken place, very much under the radar of general public awareness. A “neo-liberal” economic ideology has gained ascendancy, grounded in the belief that an unrestricted market will best serve our overall economic interests. Taxes have been adjusted to benefit those with more wealth, restrictions on the financial sector have been rolled back, corporate power and influence have grown. In consequence, the public sector has been squeezed, inequality has ballooned, credit card and student debt have mushroomed, and economic insecurity has gripped more and more of the population.
Equally troubling, underlying both the socially-conscious economic policies of the 1950’s and 1960’s and the greed-based neo-liberalism of the last 40 years, lies an assumption that our well-being depends on continued economic growth—which is setting us on a collision course with our finite planet’s resources and ability to sustain life.
These are not times to tinker with formulas and rates. These are times to step in boldly with our values intact and ask the big questions: Who is the economy for? What increases well-being? What makes up our common wealth? When is more better than less? What motivates people? What is our responsibility to the future? Who should decide?
We are all needed here: the innocents, like the child who saw that the emperor had no clothes; the people of conscience who can say that things are just not right; the farsighted ones who can offer the perspective of those who come after us; those who stand on their faith values; the people in my workshop—and everyone else—who claim their right to have a voice in the management of our home.
Soil
This vacant lot is vast
a gap once filled by two great houses
now hemmed in by poverty.
A lovely family tends it
for the children in their center
and the neighbors
who need beauty and good food.
Overflowing with abundance
our community garden’s flowers
spread and spread.
I long to share the bounty
with these new friends.
One great carload
and a morning’s work
together
fill the few raised beds,
the soil hauled in
from far away
by this good man,
each hard-earned shovelful
a kiss, a promise
of more nourishment
to come.
I would fill this lot with flowers
growing so abundantly
crying out to share.
Yet in this packed debris
a shovel cannot penetrate.
What’s needed first is soil.
My little compost pile
even if I gave it all away
would be a speck
in this vast lot—
and I have need of it.
My easy generosity
has foundered
on the hard slow work
of building up the soil.
Imagine--A new economy is possible!
The financial transaction tax
A financial transaction tax is a very small excise tax on trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives and other securities. A tax of just one-hundredth of a percentage point would raise $185 billion over 10 years, according to new estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Such a tax would also reduce the amount of high-frequency automated trading that is used to make windfall profits by taking advantage of small differences in price in milliseconds.
Transaction taxes of one type or another have long been in place in countries with thriving financial markets, including Britain, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, India and Switzerland. Eleven countries of the European Union agreed to implement such a tax, in 2013, though pressure from opponents caused the introduction to be postponed until next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/opinion/the-case-for-a-tax-on-financial-transactions.html?_r=0
Some things that have made me hopeful recently
The recent presidential decree of the Costa Rican government—based on the research of a small non-profit—to protect workers in the agricultural industry from heat stress and dehydration, a major cause of kidney disease in that population.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150129-sugarcane-workers-kidney-disease-nicaragua-health-ngfood/
The relative freedom that President Obama is feeling these days to say and do what he thinks is right.
All the urban farming and gardening initiatives all over the country, and the positive impact they have on everyone involved.
A doctor in Indonesia who created a system for rural people to trade in recyclable trash for health insurance.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/indonesians-can-trade-trash-for-free-health-care/
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, July 19, 2015
#145 Seeing the bones
Dear all,
What a rich away time we've had--a week at a Quaker gathering in North Carolina, where I had the privilege and challenge of leading a five morning workshop series on faith and economics, followed by three days with our wonderful west coast family who had come east for the same gathering (just what the doctored ordered!), bookended by stunning drives through the southern mountains, volunteer fire-company home cooking in Virginia, and an amazing fossil dig/display of big mammals in Tennessee.
One of the many gifts of the gathering was hearing from an elderly couple from Oklahoma who have persisted steadily over the years in raising the evils of mass incarceration, and are beginning to see some changes in their state. I'm reminded of the power we all have...
Love,
Pamela
Seeing the bones
It was the third time I found myself meditating on the importance of being able to see the bones of a situation—and in three totally different contexts. Clearly there was something here to understand.
The first was about trees. I always used to think that trees in winter were a sorry sight. The green fullness of summer, and the bright colors of fall were gone. Nothing of beauty or use was left. With all my attention on what was missing, I couldn’t even notice what was there. Then one day, on a long winter car trip, I started really paying attention. I could see how the shape of each kind of tree was different. I could notice their structure, and form a question in my mind about how the branches knew which way to grow and when to stop. It felt like I could see and think about trees in a new way because I had access to their bones.
The next experience came from reading a book about the melting glaciers, framed by the author’s experience with a tiny village high in the Himalayas. Since glacial melt was no longer reaching their village, they had made a collective decision to relocate—to land that was now barren but could get water by constructing a long canal to a more reliable source.
They could see the shape of their survival. Its bones were laid bare in those mountains—water for their crops, yak dung to burn for fuel, and neighbors to help in times of need. They could see clearly that they were the ones to take responsibility, and then, how to take focused, patient strategic action. In the west, our vision of what is required for survival has become clouded, and our vistas are cluttered with the accumulated stuff of wealth. Neither what we need nor what we might lose is in focus for us, and we face the prospect of climate change as individuals, with a combination of denial, arrogance and fear.
I was reminded of the third in a recent conversation with a friend. We have both followed the amazing work of a small group of passionate and dedicated peacemakers in East Africa—home of genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, war in the Congo, and deep tribal conflicts in Kenya. They hold workshops called Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, bringing together people from both sides of the conflict for two or three days of very personal peace-building.
People come out of these workshops with a new understanding of the trauma they have experienced, and a new ability to forgive. Not only do they often experience what appears to be complete and transformative forgiveness of individuals whom they may have seen kill their loved ones, they go on to rebuild lasting neighbor relationships together.
How could they do this? We speculated that it had to do with seeing the bones of the conflict. They knew it as immediate and ugly, as a festering wound that kept one from sleeping at night, or being truly alive during the day. Their hunger for peace was immediate and pressing, and those who had offended were close at hand. It was worth it to them to forgive.
For many of us, particularly in the west, the bones of conflict are not so clear. Actual warfare is far away in time and space. Much of our social conflict is handled by big impersonal institutions, and we have so many personal options for avoiding what remains—distracting consumption, medication, losing ourselves in cyberspace, leaving and finding new real-time communities—that we rarely have to face it directly.
While the goal can’t be to hold up leafless trees, or the economic conditions of struggling Himalayan villages, or the conflict conditions of East Africa as an ultimate model, we ignore what they have to teach us at our peril.
What are the lessons? One has to do with clutter. If our eye is distracted or our sightlines are blocked, we lose our ability to see the shape of things. Another involves the importance of grasping whole systems and being able to identify our part in feedback loops. Western industrialized society has become so enormously complex that this is hard to do, but if we don’t see our place in the system, and see how our actions—or lack thereof—impact others, how can we know what to do? Ultimately it’s about being neighbors. Setting aside the trees for a moment, who are not confused, and whose dependence on their neighbors happens to a large extent underground, we’re in danger of losing the critical understanding that we need each other.
Cherry blossoms
Pink petals fall.
The stuff of poetry:
delicate beauty
soft caress
drifts and clouds
and gentle intimations
of mortality.
But this is no poem.
It’s a squall
a wall of pink
blowing sideways
fierce and full.
Don’t be fooled
those flying
blossoms say.
Nature at its heart
is rarely
delicate.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Creating money in the public interest
In 1938 the Canadian government, recognizing that money should be created in the public interest, turned the Bank of Canada into a public institution. The bank was harnessed to finance Canada's war effort, plus infrastructure projects across the country. Mandated to lend not only to the federal government but to provinces and municipalities, this public credit was used to fund social programs like the Old Age Security Act and vocational training for veterans. Repayment on loans simply went back into government coffers.
In 1974, however, under the influence of neo-liberal economic philosophy, the government of Canada stopped borrowing from the Bank of Canada, and started borrowing through private banks, which then charged and kept the interest. Since 1974 the federal government has paid out over $1.5 trillion in interest to private banks that previously would have been available for public programs.
A current lawsuit seeks to restore the Bank of Canada to its original role, arguing that not only may it lend interest-free to the government, it is obliged to do so. Two courts have now refused to throw the case out, which means that the Bank has to justify charging interest on such loans.
http://citizenspress.org/leftnews/can-the-courts-liberate-the-bank-of-canada
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
How the practice in Finland of giving student 15 minutes of free play after every 45 minutes of class helps keep them focused.http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/
An art teacher in Chechnya who used time when children were confined for long hours to wartime shelters to teach them art--resulting in powerful illustrations for a book of stories on non-violent action in the region.
All the honest conversations on race that are happening throughout our country, and the good soil they are finding to grow in.
Pope Francis and his papal encyclical on climate change. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
What a rich away time we've had--a week at a Quaker gathering in North Carolina, where I had the privilege and challenge of leading a five morning workshop series on faith and economics, followed by three days with our wonderful west coast family who had come east for the same gathering (just what the doctored ordered!), bookended by stunning drives through the southern mountains, volunteer fire-company home cooking in Virginia, and an amazing fossil dig/display of big mammals in Tennessee.
One of the many gifts of the gathering was hearing from an elderly couple from Oklahoma who have persisted steadily over the years in raising the evils of mass incarceration, and are beginning to see some changes in their state. I'm reminded of the power we all have...
Love,
Pamela
Seeing the bones
It was the third time I found myself meditating on the importance of being able to see the bones of a situation—and in three totally different contexts. Clearly there was something here to understand.
The first was about trees. I always used to think that trees in winter were a sorry sight. The green fullness of summer, and the bright colors of fall were gone. Nothing of beauty or use was left. With all my attention on what was missing, I couldn’t even notice what was there. Then one day, on a long winter car trip, I started really paying attention. I could see how the shape of each kind of tree was different. I could notice their structure, and form a question in my mind about how the branches knew which way to grow and when to stop. It felt like I could see and think about trees in a new way because I had access to their bones.
The next experience came from reading a book about the melting glaciers, framed by the author’s experience with a tiny village high in the Himalayas. Since glacial melt was no longer reaching their village, they had made a collective decision to relocate—to land that was now barren but could get water by constructing a long canal to a more reliable source.
They could see the shape of their survival. Its bones were laid bare in those mountains—water for their crops, yak dung to burn for fuel, and neighbors to help in times of need. They could see clearly that they were the ones to take responsibility, and then, how to take focused, patient strategic action. In the west, our vision of what is required for survival has become clouded, and our vistas are cluttered with the accumulated stuff of wealth. Neither what we need nor what we might lose is in focus for us, and we face the prospect of climate change as individuals, with a combination of denial, arrogance and fear.
I was reminded of the third in a recent conversation with a friend. We have both followed the amazing work of a small group of passionate and dedicated peacemakers in East Africa—home of genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, war in the Congo, and deep tribal conflicts in Kenya. They hold workshops called Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities, bringing together people from both sides of the conflict for two or three days of very personal peace-building.
People come out of these workshops with a new understanding of the trauma they have experienced, and a new ability to forgive. Not only do they often experience what appears to be complete and transformative forgiveness of individuals whom they may have seen kill their loved ones, they go on to rebuild lasting neighbor relationships together.
How could they do this? We speculated that it had to do with seeing the bones of the conflict. They knew it as immediate and ugly, as a festering wound that kept one from sleeping at night, or being truly alive during the day. Their hunger for peace was immediate and pressing, and those who had offended were close at hand. It was worth it to them to forgive.
For many of us, particularly in the west, the bones of conflict are not so clear. Actual warfare is far away in time and space. Much of our social conflict is handled by big impersonal institutions, and we have so many personal options for avoiding what remains—distracting consumption, medication, losing ourselves in cyberspace, leaving and finding new real-time communities—that we rarely have to face it directly.
While the goal can’t be to hold up leafless trees, or the economic conditions of struggling Himalayan villages, or the conflict conditions of East Africa as an ultimate model, we ignore what they have to teach us at our peril.
What are the lessons? One has to do with clutter. If our eye is distracted or our sightlines are blocked, we lose our ability to see the shape of things. Another involves the importance of grasping whole systems and being able to identify our part in feedback loops. Western industrialized society has become so enormously complex that this is hard to do, but if we don’t see our place in the system, and see how our actions—or lack thereof—impact others, how can we know what to do? Ultimately it’s about being neighbors. Setting aside the trees for a moment, who are not confused, and whose dependence on their neighbors happens to a large extent underground, we’re in danger of losing the critical understanding that we need each other.
Cherry blossoms
Pink petals fall.
The stuff of poetry:
delicate beauty
soft caress
drifts and clouds
and gentle intimations
of mortality.
But this is no poem.
It’s a squall
a wall of pink
blowing sideways
fierce and full.
Don’t be fooled
those flying
blossoms say.
Nature at its heart
is rarely
delicate.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Creating money in the public interest
In 1938 the Canadian government, recognizing that money should be created in the public interest, turned the Bank of Canada into a public institution. The bank was harnessed to finance Canada's war effort, plus infrastructure projects across the country. Mandated to lend not only to the federal government but to provinces and municipalities, this public credit was used to fund social programs like the Old Age Security Act and vocational training for veterans. Repayment on loans simply went back into government coffers.
In 1974, however, under the influence of neo-liberal economic philosophy, the government of Canada stopped borrowing from the Bank of Canada, and started borrowing through private banks, which then charged and kept the interest. Since 1974 the federal government has paid out over $1.5 trillion in interest to private banks that previously would have been available for public programs.
A current lawsuit seeks to restore the Bank of Canada to its original role, arguing that not only may it lend interest-free to the government, it is obliged to do so. Two courts have now refused to throw the case out, which means that the Bank has to justify charging interest on such loans.
http://citizenspress.org/leftnews/can-the-courts-liberate-the-bank-of-canada
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
How the practice in Finland of giving student 15 minutes of free play after every 45 minutes of class helps keep them focused.http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/06/how-finland-keeps-kids-focused/373544/
An art teacher in Chechnya who used time when children were confined for long hours to wartime shelters to teach them art--resulting in powerful illustrations for a book of stories on non-violent action in the region.
All the honest conversations on race that are happening throughout our country, and the good soil they are finding to grow in.
Pope Francis and his papal encyclical on climate change. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Sunday, June 14, 2015
#144 Turning the collar
Dear all,
Looking work with the weather in this current heat wave, I've been getting out to do gardening in the very early morning, and spending more time in our coolest downstairs room under the fan (where I am now as I write).
It's been a pleasure to hang out with my grandchild in the garden, noticing the sure progression of many plants from bud to flower to fruit, and to watch fruits get steadily bigger, learning to wait with patience for them to ripen. While other change activities we engage in may require our more active participation and have less certain outcomes, it's lovely to have and share this sure place where we can soak up goodness and rest in confidence. I wish you the same.
Love,
Pamela
Turning the collar
This was a favorite shirt. When the elbows wore though years ago, I cut them off and transformed it to short sleeves with minimal fuss. (And then I had the pleasure of using the sturdy fabric from the lower arm and cuffs for quilt squares.)
But when the collar began to fray, it wasn’t so simple. If I didn’t do something it would soon be suitable only for wearing around the house. But if I put a patch over that frayed spot, I still couldn’t wear it to work in an office downtown.
Then I remembered the possibility of turning the collar. People used to do it all the time. After all, back then, how could you imagine abandoning a perfectly good shirt if just one side of the collar was showing some wear? Surely I had the skills to pull this off?
Once the idea entered my mind, it took root. I waited impatiently for a time when I could justify turning away from “more important work” to engage in such a luxury. After all, I do have other shirts. I looked at it many times lying there on the worktable between the computer and sewing machine, and itched to see what could be done.
Finally a window opened. I found my scissors with the tiny sharp blades, perfect for cutting thread, and got to work, carefully snipping the collar loose from the rest of the shirt. It wasn’t hard at all. Later I stole a few minutes at the machine to sew it back on the other way, with the frayed part now invisible underneath. I could have left it at that, but the hidden frayed spot on that good shirt called out for better treatment. So I found a bit of bias tape, and once again waited till I could justify taking the time to make a neat little patch.
The mend was now complete. The shirt could be worn to work again without apology. And I was pleased. In fact, I was extremely pleased—more pleased than a simple mend should warrant. I kept looking at it, folding that fine new collar down, running my finger over the unfrayed fold, turning the collar up to see the patch that would be visible to no one but me.
Why such inordinate pleasure? As I sat with this question, it came to me that it has something to do with claiming my connections in space and time. That collar connects me to our ancestors who knew the value of a well-made garment. They turned collars as a matter of course, turned dresses, mended cleverly and invisibly if possible, and neatly if not.
It connects me to our neighbors as well, to those who have less means in the present, and know the value of a good mend. I remember seeing carefully mended dress shirts in Africa, and being touched by the attention that people took to looking neat in the midst of poverty. And some of my most satisfying excursions when visiting our son in Nicaragua have involved shoe repair. More than once I brought down old shoes that would be discarded as worthless in this country. At the market, however, we always found men who saw the value of those shoes and were glad to use their skills to make a sturdy and serviceable mend.
It also connects me to our descendants. The time will arrive when we finally come to our senses and realize that we are living beyond our ecological means, when—willingly or unwillingly—we in the wealthier nations adjust our life-styles to a level that the planet can support. When that time comes, a good shirt will have a value that may be hard to imagine in our present-day orgy of consumption and waste. Looking down that tunnel of time, I can see our descendants turning the collars of their shirts once again—and I will be with them in spirit. I just hope it might give them a fraction of the satisfaction and pleasure that it has given me.
Expressway after a storm
Crawling along
the expressway
in rush hour
with nothing but—
a
rainbow.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Complementary currencies
Curitaba, Brazil was an impoverished city in 1971. But new initiatives by Mayor Jaime Lerner leveraged some of its strengths--access to fresh food and an underutilized bus system--to address pressing urban issues.
Garbage trucks couldn't get into the narrow favela streets, but anyone who deposited a bag full of pre-sorted garbage received a bus token which they wouldn't have had access to previously, or chits exchangeable for fresh fruits and vegetables. Recycled materials at schools were exchanged for notebooks, a boon to many poor children. Many initiatives—environmental cleanup, city restoration, job creation, improved education, disease intervention, hunger prevention—were tackled in this way without having to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, issue bonds, rely on charity or obtain loans from the federal government or organizations such as the World Bank. In the process, the average Curitaban came to earn more than three times the country's minimum wage.
Curitiba discovered a means by which to match unmet needs with unused resources to provide much needed improvements to the local economy, and vastly improve their economic condition. They did so by making use of complementary currencies—monetary initiatives that supplemented the national currency system.
http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/the-story-of-curitiba-in-brazil/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
A new law in France that requires supermarkets to donate or recycle unused food rather than destroying it.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/french-law-says-supermarkets-must-donate-recycle-food/
The Norwegian parliament's approval of a measure calling for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund—the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with holdings of approximately $890 billion—to begin divesting from companies heavily involved with the mining, transportation, or burning of coal.
www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/05/norway-goes-big-fossil-fuel-divestment-now-whos-next
A village in India that plants 111 trees every time a girl is born.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/a-village-that-plants-111-trees-for-every-girl-born-in-rajasthan/article4606735.ece
Boulder, Colorado’s innovative carbon tax, which levies a tax on energy use and used the proceeds to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_21941854/boulder-issue-2a-carbon-tax-appears-likely-be
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Looking work with the weather in this current heat wave, I've been getting out to do gardening in the very early morning, and spending more time in our coolest downstairs room under the fan (where I am now as I write).
It's been a pleasure to hang out with my grandchild in the garden, noticing the sure progression of many plants from bud to flower to fruit, and to watch fruits get steadily bigger, learning to wait with patience for them to ripen. While other change activities we engage in may require our more active participation and have less certain outcomes, it's lovely to have and share this sure place where we can soak up goodness and rest in confidence. I wish you the same.
Love,
Pamela
Turning the collar
This was a favorite shirt. When the elbows wore though years ago, I cut them off and transformed it to short sleeves with minimal fuss. (And then I had the pleasure of using the sturdy fabric from the lower arm and cuffs for quilt squares.)
But when the collar began to fray, it wasn’t so simple. If I didn’t do something it would soon be suitable only for wearing around the house. But if I put a patch over that frayed spot, I still couldn’t wear it to work in an office downtown.
Then I remembered the possibility of turning the collar. People used to do it all the time. After all, back then, how could you imagine abandoning a perfectly good shirt if just one side of the collar was showing some wear? Surely I had the skills to pull this off?
Once the idea entered my mind, it took root. I waited impatiently for a time when I could justify turning away from “more important work” to engage in such a luxury. After all, I do have other shirts. I looked at it many times lying there on the worktable between the computer and sewing machine, and itched to see what could be done.
Finally a window opened. I found my scissors with the tiny sharp blades, perfect for cutting thread, and got to work, carefully snipping the collar loose from the rest of the shirt. It wasn’t hard at all. Later I stole a few minutes at the machine to sew it back on the other way, with the frayed part now invisible underneath. I could have left it at that, but the hidden frayed spot on that good shirt called out for better treatment. So I found a bit of bias tape, and once again waited till I could justify taking the time to make a neat little patch.
The mend was now complete. The shirt could be worn to work again without apology. And I was pleased. In fact, I was extremely pleased—more pleased than a simple mend should warrant. I kept looking at it, folding that fine new collar down, running my finger over the unfrayed fold, turning the collar up to see the patch that would be visible to no one but me.
Why such inordinate pleasure? As I sat with this question, it came to me that it has something to do with claiming my connections in space and time. That collar connects me to our ancestors who knew the value of a well-made garment. They turned collars as a matter of course, turned dresses, mended cleverly and invisibly if possible, and neatly if not.
It connects me to our neighbors as well, to those who have less means in the present, and know the value of a good mend. I remember seeing carefully mended dress shirts in Africa, and being touched by the attention that people took to looking neat in the midst of poverty. And some of my most satisfying excursions when visiting our son in Nicaragua have involved shoe repair. More than once I brought down old shoes that would be discarded as worthless in this country. At the market, however, we always found men who saw the value of those shoes and were glad to use their skills to make a sturdy and serviceable mend.
It also connects me to our descendants. The time will arrive when we finally come to our senses and realize that we are living beyond our ecological means, when—willingly or unwillingly—we in the wealthier nations adjust our life-styles to a level that the planet can support. When that time comes, a good shirt will have a value that may be hard to imagine in our present-day orgy of consumption and waste. Looking down that tunnel of time, I can see our descendants turning the collars of their shirts once again—and I will be with them in spirit. I just hope it might give them a fraction of the satisfaction and pleasure that it has given me.
Expressway after a storm
Crawling along
the expressway
in rush hour
with nothing but—
a
rainbow.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Complementary currencies
Curitaba, Brazil was an impoverished city in 1971. But new initiatives by Mayor Jaime Lerner leveraged some of its strengths--access to fresh food and an underutilized bus system--to address pressing urban issues.
Garbage trucks couldn't get into the narrow favela streets, but anyone who deposited a bag full of pre-sorted garbage received a bus token which they wouldn't have had access to previously, or chits exchangeable for fresh fruits and vegetables. Recycled materials at schools were exchanged for notebooks, a boon to many poor children. Many initiatives—environmental cleanup, city restoration, job creation, improved education, disease intervention, hunger prevention—were tackled in this way without having to raise taxes, redistribute wealth, issue bonds, rely on charity or obtain loans from the federal government or organizations such as the World Bank. In the process, the average Curitaban came to earn more than three times the country's minimum wage.
Curitiba discovered a means by which to match unmet needs with unused resources to provide much needed improvements to the local economy, and vastly improve their economic condition. They did so by making use of complementary currencies—monetary initiatives that supplemented the national currency system.
http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/the-story-of-curitiba-in-brazil/
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
A new law in France that requires supermarkets to donate or recycle unused food rather than destroying it.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/french-law-says-supermarkets-must-donate-recycle-food/
The Norwegian parliament's approval of a measure calling for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund—the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world with holdings of approximately $890 billion—to begin divesting from companies heavily involved with the mining, transportation, or burning of coal.
www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/05/norway-goes-big-fossil-fuel-divestment-now-whos-next
A village in India that plants 111 trees every time a girl is born.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/a-village-that-plants-111-trees-for-every-girl-born-in-rajasthan/article4606735.ece
Boulder, Colorado’s innovative carbon tax, which levies a tax on energy use and used the proceeds to pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_21941854/boulder-issue-2a-carbon-tax-appears-likely-be
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Friday, May 15, 2015
#143 The Golden Rule
Dear all,
Our two-year-old grandson has learned to say complete sentences that start with the words "I want". He's very clear, passionate, and direct about what he wants--and, despite all the inconvenience and the tears, I would wish that for all of us.
I also wish that we could all get better at noticing the tiny and subtle beauties around us, as well as the striking and obvious ones. I've been trying to take in the amazing process of leaves opening up day by day--it's an endless source of joy if only I can pay close enough attention.
Love,
Pamela
The golden rule
I was busily treating a dear friend the way I would like to be treated. But we were in closer quarters than usual, and I kept getting messages that this was not working. My attempt to calm ruffled feelings was irritating her. How could this be? I was being so diligent in following the Golden Rule of my childhood. Could this rule, one that I had lived by all my life, be wrong?
As I thought about it, I realized that there are at least five possible rules on how to treat other people, with the one I knew best right in the middle.
“Treat others in a way that maximizes your advantage.” Use them. I imagine that few of us aspire to this first rule, though the behavior is not uncommon. I know that I often end up following the second rule: “Treat others in a way that minimizes your disadvantage.” It seems more like an unaware fall-back position. Try not to get them angry or upset, or otherwise set them up to cause you trouble. Protect yourself.
Then there’s the rule of my childhood: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” This rule is a great advance, setting us up to be active, thoughtful and positive in our relations with others. I’m discovering, however, that it has a serious flaw. People have different experiences and preferences. Think of the child who wants to give a parent the gift that he or she would be excited about receiving. Giving what you want for yourself often just doesn’t work. This was what I was running up against with my friend. I like to get my ruffled feathers calmed. I like reassurance. She, on the other hand, would prefer to be joined in her upset. The smoothing makes her feel patronized and unseen.
So we arrive at the next rule: “Treat others the way they indicate they would like to be treated.” This seems pretty advanced. I’m taking myself out of the center and trying to really think about the other person. I have to acknowledge our differences in culture and experience. I have to consider the power dynamic between us, and maybe between our people. This is an exciting possibility, and I stretch toward it with my friend, stepping way outside my comfort zone, and trying out behaviors that are counterintuitive at best, and risk humiliation at worst. Yet things go better! I’m happy to claim this new rule as my own.
Even as I do, I can glimpse another one far out on the horizon: “Treat others in a way that allows them to flourish.” I’m not rushing to get there. I still need plenty of time to practice with the fourth rule. But this one calls for seeing beyond what people say to who they really are and what they really need; it calls for recognizing that their words and attitudes may not tell the whole story. It involves being willing to challenge what they say they want. I’ve done this a few times with small children, putting my arms around a beloved child who has been taken over by distress and saying, "No, I’m not going to let you do that. You may not like it, and I'm glad to listen to you be upset, but I'm just not going to let you do it."
For this to work, we have to by crystal clear about the other person’s goodness. We have to be so solid in the relationship that we can dare steer it into uncharted waters (and humble enough to know when we’re going out of our depth). We have to take complete responsibility for holding onto our own goodness, so we can take the brunt of their upset without getting rocked or hurt.
This is aspirational to be sure—maybe too much so to be called a rule. But who wouldn’t want to build those muscles—in all our relationships? It certainly makes the rule I grew up with seem like just the beginning rather than the end in our journey toward treating others well.
Oak cycle
Through fall
when other leaves turn red and gold
then, knowing that their time is done
gently disengage and float away
oak leaves fade to brown and hold on tight.
Through winter cold when other trees
reveal their splendid bones
in graceful silhouettes against the sky
oaks keep their clumpy ugliness
of rumpled brown.
Even in early spring
when all the world is new
and mists of green are spreading everywhere
those tired old leaves hold tight.
Only when new growth
deep inside the tree
starts to clamor for its turn,
only then do they cede their place
release their hold
and fall.
Branches are bare now
for a short few days
then buds begin to swell
and tiny perfect oak leaf babes
peek out, uncurl,
join the glory of the spring
and start the journey of another year.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Challenging corporate personhood
Over a decade ago, to protect small and family farms from industrial factory farming, a handful of Pennsylvania townships took the unprecedented step of banning corporate farming within their borders. Communities in eight states have followed their lead, banning corporate “fracking” for shale gas, factory farming, sludge dumping, large-scale water withdrawals, and industrial-scale energy projects.
These actions challenge an edifice of corporate legal doctrines – like corporate ‘personhood’ – that has been built over the past century to protect corporate prerogatives. The goal is to reclaim a legal structure that allows for the building of economically and environmentally sustainable communities free from corporate interference.
Recently, a Pennsylvania county court gave this new movement a boost. The judge ruled that corporations cannot elevate their “private rights” above the rights of people. The Pennsylvania Constitution, she declared, only protects the rights of people, not business entities; the article of the state Constitution which reads, “All men are born equally free and independent,” cannot apply to business entities because they were not born at all.
While some state governments are trying to limit these local initiatives, this ruling represents a significant crack in the judicial armor that has been so systematically welded together by major corporations, and affirms that change occurs only when people begin to openly question and challenge such legal doctrines.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/new-civil-rights-movement.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The leadership that Pope Francis is taking on climate change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pope-francis-poised-to-weigh-in-on-climate-change-with-major-document/2015/04/27/d5c268b2-df81-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html
The entry into the US presidential race of Bernie Sanders, bringing a fresh and progressive voice--and one unbeholden to current power holders--into the Democratic primary.
The growth of opposition to the hugely anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which seemed unstoppable just a few months ago (to learn more and take action: http://act.350.org/sign/congress-tpp/)
All the farmers who know, respect, love and care for the land that supports them (and all of us).
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
Our two-year-old grandson has learned to say complete sentences that start with the words "I want". He's very clear, passionate, and direct about what he wants--and, despite all the inconvenience and the tears, I would wish that for all of us.
I also wish that we could all get better at noticing the tiny and subtle beauties around us, as well as the striking and obvious ones. I've been trying to take in the amazing process of leaves opening up day by day--it's an endless source of joy if only I can pay close enough attention.
Love,
Pamela
The golden rule
I was busily treating a dear friend the way I would like to be treated. But we were in closer quarters than usual, and I kept getting messages that this was not working. My attempt to calm ruffled feelings was irritating her. How could this be? I was being so diligent in following the Golden Rule of my childhood. Could this rule, one that I had lived by all my life, be wrong?
As I thought about it, I realized that there are at least five possible rules on how to treat other people, with the one I knew best right in the middle.
“Treat others in a way that maximizes your advantage.” Use them. I imagine that few of us aspire to this first rule, though the behavior is not uncommon. I know that I often end up following the second rule: “Treat others in a way that minimizes your disadvantage.” It seems more like an unaware fall-back position. Try not to get them angry or upset, or otherwise set them up to cause you trouble. Protect yourself.
Then there’s the rule of my childhood: “Treat others the way you would like to be treated.” This rule is a great advance, setting us up to be active, thoughtful and positive in our relations with others. I’m discovering, however, that it has a serious flaw. People have different experiences and preferences. Think of the child who wants to give a parent the gift that he or she would be excited about receiving. Giving what you want for yourself often just doesn’t work. This was what I was running up against with my friend. I like to get my ruffled feathers calmed. I like reassurance. She, on the other hand, would prefer to be joined in her upset. The smoothing makes her feel patronized and unseen.
So we arrive at the next rule: “Treat others the way they indicate they would like to be treated.” This seems pretty advanced. I’m taking myself out of the center and trying to really think about the other person. I have to acknowledge our differences in culture and experience. I have to consider the power dynamic between us, and maybe between our people. This is an exciting possibility, and I stretch toward it with my friend, stepping way outside my comfort zone, and trying out behaviors that are counterintuitive at best, and risk humiliation at worst. Yet things go better! I’m happy to claim this new rule as my own.
Even as I do, I can glimpse another one far out on the horizon: “Treat others in a way that allows them to flourish.” I’m not rushing to get there. I still need plenty of time to practice with the fourth rule. But this one calls for seeing beyond what people say to who they really are and what they really need; it calls for recognizing that their words and attitudes may not tell the whole story. It involves being willing to challenge what they say they want. I’ve done this a few times with small children, putting my arms around a beloved child who has been taken over by distress and saying, "No, I’m not going to let you do that. You may not like it, and I'm glad to listen to you be upset, but I'm just not going to let you do it."
For this to work, we have to by crystal clear about the other person’s goodness. We have to be so solid in the relationship that we can dare steer it into uncharted waters (and humble enough to know when we’re going out of our depth). We have to take complete responsibility for holding onto our own goodness, so we can take the brunt of their upset without getting rocked or hurt.
This is aspirational to be sure—maybe too much so to be called a rule. But who wouldn’t want to build those muscles—in all our relationships? It certainly makes the rule I grew up with seem like just the beginning rather than the end in our journey toward treating others well.
Oak cycle
Through fall
when other leaves turn red and gold
then, knowing that their time is done
gently disengage and float away
oak leaves fade to brown and hold on tight.
Through winter cold when other trees
reveal their splendid bones
in graceful silhouettes against the sky
oaks keep their clumpy ugliness
of rumpled brown.
Even in early spring
when all the world is new
and mists of green are spreading everywhere
those tired old leaves hold tight.
Only when new growth
deep inside the tree
starts to clamor for its turn,
only then do they cede their place
release their hold
and fall.
Branches are bare now
for a short few days
then buds begin to swell
and tiny perfect oak leaf babes
peek out, uncurl,
join the glory of the spring
and start the journey of another year.
Imagine -- A new economy is possible!
Challenging corporate personhood
Over a decade ago, to protect small and family farms from industrial factory farming, a handful of Pennsylvania townships took the unprecedented step of banning corporate farming within their borders. Communities in eight states have followed their lead, banning corporate “fracking” for shale gas, factory farming, sludge dumping, large-scale water withdrawals, and industrial-scale energy projects.
These actions challenge an edifice of corporate legal doctrines – like corporate ‘personhood’ – that has been built over the past century to protect corporate prerogatives. The goal is to reclaim a legal structure that allows for the building of economically and environmentally sustainable communities free from corporate interference.
Recently, a Pennsylvania county court gave this new movement a boost. The judge ruled that corporations cannot elevate their “private rights” above the rights of people. The Pennsylvania Constitution, she declared, only protects the rights of people, not business entities; the article of the state Constitution which reads, “All men are born equally free and independent,” cannot apply to business entities because they were not born at all.
While some state governments are trying to limit these local initiatives, this ruling represents a significant crack in the judicial armor that has been so systematically welded together by major corporations, and affirms that change occurs only when people begin to openly question and challenge such legal doctrines.
http://www.positivenewsus.org/new-civil-rights-movement.html
Some things that have made me hopeful recently:
The leadership that Pope Francis is taking on climate change.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pope-francis-poised-to-weigh-in-on-climate-change-with-major-document/2015/04/27/d5c268b2-df81-11e4-a500-1c5bb1d8ff6a_story.html
The entry into the US presidential race of Bernie Sanders, bringing a fresh and progressive voice--and one unbeholden to current power holders--into the Democratic primary.
The growth of opposition to the hugely anti-democratic Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which seemed unstoppable just a few months ago (to learn more and take action: http://act.350.org/sign/congress-tpp/)
All the farmers who know, respect, love and care for the land that supports them (and all of us).
More resources
Recent posts on other web/blog sites:
In http://www.classism.org/gifts-american-dream/, Pamela Haines locates her family's homey DIY celebrations on a class spectrum of different connections to upward mobility.
http://www.transitionus.org/blog/unlikely-suspects-–-deep-outreach-diverse-initiating-groups-–-pace-building-trust
http://www.classism.org/demolition-derby
Muscle Building for Peace and Justice; a Non-Violent Workout Routine for the 21st Century--an integration of much of my experience and thinking over the years: doingdemocracy.com/MB4PnJ02.htm (or just google the title)
faitheconomyecology.wordpress.com, a website that I've contributed to often (check the archives)
www.ourchildrenourselves.com, a home for all the parenting writing I've done over the past 20 years. NOTE THE NEW URL.
www.startguide.org. START: a way to study and work together with others to create a better world.
For earlier columns, go to www.pamelascolumn.blogspot.com. I'm currently posting at pamelalivinginthisworld.blogspot.com.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/education-uprising/where-dignity-is-part-of-the-school-day
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