The questions that we should be asking ourselves:

1. What sort of world, and what sort of familial, communal, national and international "systems" do we want our children to inherit?

We have all been complicit (as Gordon Brown has quite correctly said) in what is unfolding, in the bad practices, policies and poor relationships that our societies have been engaged in, over the past decades.
(Shame on him however, for telling us that the "buck stops" at the White House! The "pound stops" (indeed goes backwards), with him - GB, in our house, ex-GB!)

It is not just the bankers, financiers, hedge-funders, tax avoiders, politicians, but all of us. As we have all, surely, been aware of what has been going on. Nobody of course is perfect and can say "I have never done anything wrong in my life".
At the very least, we have done nothing as the situation has deteriorated, in so many areas, and in so many of our "systems" (none of which necessarily needs ditching, just reforming ("never throw the baby out with the bath water").

One (the welfare system) has, along with other personal, familial, communal, and national causes (eg, the many crummy programs on the TV that throw up all the degenerate ills, the "freedom" of the internet) given rise to knife crime, unruly youth - and families who have never had a member who has worked in their lives. And they're not even disabled...except by the system itself!!
Some of them (far too many) even "bite the hand that feeds them" - as we all know.

And it's not just one side of the socio-economic divide either, is it?
It could be said that Madoff and Stanford and all similar "hyenas" "bit the hands that fed them", in fact every damned bit..bones and all, as hyenas do !

1a. What else did we expect from such policies?

1b. What did we expect, when there was likewise a total lack of "regulations" for the people at the top of the ladder?
Just for example, those who could legally get away with not paying their due taxes to this nation, as they should. Poorer paid workers, have all theirs taken out straight away in their wages. And they get relatively very little in the first place!
Is this in any way fair, at all?

2 . Could we perhaps do with:

• a Truth and Reconciliation Commission", as set up by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa, so that a witch hunt doesn't start and take us back to the dark ages!
• a General Amnesty for all who own up to their "misdeeds" or "failings"
  
  We surely don't want to incarcerate or lose (in any way) all our top Bankers, businessmen or Politicians, or indeed anyone who has just been doing as so many other people have been doing...what all others have been seemingly doing...
  We just need openness and honesty (and tighter regulation), along with the best brains in the country for each different area of "expertise." And to reform all of our "systems", so that our children will be a lot less likely to keep on with the old bad habits, poor thinking, and immoral ways.
  
  The truth needs to be told, for all our childrens' sakes !

3. Are we not being presented with the most OPPORTUNE MOMENT in our lifetime?
For some very important transformations to be made in the following "systems" and areas of human interactions:

• Morality
• ( Economics
• Finance
• Politics
• Business practices
• Social behaviour
• Family life
• Thinking Patterns )
• Morality
  
• Technology
  
  We surely need to ask ourselves where we have been going wrong (and we have, haven't we?) in our practices, behaviour, habits, and relationships-personal, familial, national and international.
  

OPPORTUNITY #1 - ECONOMIC/FINANCIAL/TECHNOLOGICAL/POLITICAL/MORAL****
We can use this huge opportunity to hasten the very wonderful future that awaits us (being prepared for us by our visionary Scientists, Engineers, Designers, Architects, and Politicians (President Barak Obama especially, and most importantly).

We can do this, as long as:

• the astronomical sums of money being poured down some drains is halted, except to those (Banks) that are using it correctly and wisely (giving credit to viable businesses etc. and to the rest of us, who will be going down the plug hole otherwise...if we haven't already!
• we find better ways of accumulating the money that is floating around the place, mostly in offshore trusts and other tax havens.
  We can also get the indolent back to work, rather than going the Zimbabwe†† route)
• the "NEW DEAL" being discussed, includes projects that can:
• create the most jobs for the longest time, while at the same time:

  • have the greatest and widest-ranging transformative impact, thereby providing us all with the best future possible, as soon as possible.
  • transform probably the most important issues of all-food production, along with other concomitant issues (vital to our planet's wellbeing).

ONE SUCH PROJECT - VERTICAL FARMS HAS BEEN IN THE OFFING FOR QUITE SOME TIME!
We could be starting to build a trial one, right away (and as long as it works)...we can then build them in or around all big cities and towns, all around the world.
There is great interest already in many countries and their cities.
Major comapanies, even, are very interested.
This can all be verified via the Vertical Farm website.

This will enable us to:

• grow organic produce (of any kind imaginable, as artificial environments will be created for them) "on our doorsteps", in self-sustaining ecosystems.
• cut back on a lot of transport costs, therefore ALSO: pollution, fossil fuel use, noise, and wear and tear of our roads.
• free up a great deal of land for communal use (eg freedom to roam) and business use, running Leisure Parks, Wildlife Parks, Botanical gardens, to delight us, to relax and holiday in.
• To take us "Forwards to Nature".
• You name it, we can do it!
  
  "Yes, we can", to coin a memorable phrase!
  
  It will of course take time and real effort from us all, but what of any real value comes to us easily?

There are plenty of other new technologies in other areas of life, but this seems like an ideal major (potentially world transforming) project that will also be a very necessary symbol of renewal.
It will be the equivalent of moving from the Gutenburg Printing Press to the Internet age, but in the most important "field" of all.


OPPORTUNITY #2 - THINKING PATTERNS/SOCIAL/POLITICAL/MORAL***
Isn't it time for us, the "Silent Majority" of people, all around the world (who just want peace, "decency", and to make the most of our lives, and especially those of our children), to stand up now, and face down these extremists of all persausions, bad practices, bad people, bad habits, and bad behaviour, everywhere.
They are all holding us hostage and preventing good relations, dignity, forward thinking, progress, problem solving and finding the TRUTH.

We in the West have not only been showing other races and religions (who understandably are shocked and appalled by) how debased we can be, but we've also been showing our young children!! (On our internet sites, TV programs, magazines and films).

• How can we have let this happen, and for so long?
  Some of us will have "filtered" it out, or "monitored" our children's viewing, but have we been able to oversee this everywhere??
• Are we not aware of how we are viewed by some nations and peoples/religions?
• Do we not have sufficient self-respect to keep these debased practices or even just normal "adult" ones, behind closed doors (or domains in the case of the internet), where they have always been kept, for very good reasons?
• Do we not owe people of other ways/religions, the respect they deserve (as we all should have) and not show our debaucheries in such a way?
• Do we not think that by stopping these practices and show a "decent" vision of our culture, (which is as it should be), that the Moslem people of the world (and indeed most decent people anywhere, never mind from any religious perspective) would not be more accepting of us, and our culture?
• Do we not think that this could go a long way, potentially, to change the attitudes of even the most vehement fundamentalists, with the added bonus (and we all like those, don't we?) of concurrently healing our own societies of its' ills and indecencies?
• Are we not aware that conflicts/differences polarise us, until the right approach (the "open Hand") is offered, in the spirit of common humanity.
  
  Reduction of Differences = more Harmony
  Harmony = Good realtionships, Agreements and Allegiances
  
• Have we not been too irresponsible, unthinking and uncaring for too long? - is it not time for change-big time?
• (See the panel to the right, for more, and a link to a very moving speech, addressed to us adults, by a young person-Severn Suzuki's speech to the UN Earth Summit in 1992.
  I urge you all to watch it-it doesn't take long. It'll cause you to hang your head in shame-or it should!
  It still resonates today.
  However, in the end, it was a negative message, sadly, and we know where negative thinking leads us, don't we?
  
  What a missed opportunity!

Could we not all possibly do with a dose of "better thinking and habit/attitude changing"?

Should we not have been providing our unruly youths more in the way of external, healthy, communal activities, that also instill in them (for life), the same sort of "guides" as the "Scout" movement or the "Woodland Folk" did, and still do (but appear to have lost their allure).

If someone could "create" a new, modern youth movement that will:

• unite both "ideals"-sound guides to life, such as " be prepared", duty to others and your country, care for others, and love and care for our environment and all it's denizens.
• provide the facilties for healthy positve activities that would prevent a lot of our unruly youths who, through no fault of their own, have nowhere to go to have fun and relax after school, or college.
• Of course there are plenty of sports clubs, youth clubs, often at our unpopular churches, but altogether it just doesn't seem to be enough, now does it?
  

For those who think that none of this is possible, or just too difficult or too complex, or that what I say is all "pie in the sky", I say... yes, you're right (only on the last point) it is!
Let's all get "cooking" and grab a slice of it!
It'll be very good, if we bake it well, when we have moved over to the new technologies, new thinking, attitudes, and systems we need for our bright new future!

As for the first points:

Anything is possible if you put you mind to it!

One man (Mahatma Gandhi) just by his own will, determination and GOODWILL and PEACE, defeated the British Empire - or at least, hastened it's demise, thus changing the world forever.

Just think of what's possible if the WORLD get's it's mind and act together !!

Everthing is in fact pretty simple when you're familiar with the "terrain" : **

If we look at the problem carefully and:
find the source of the problem, there we will find the real solution.

Look down at the "problem" (as though from above) and envisage the destination/end, and the route we need to take to get us there, or to achieve the goal being set.
Look at it from all angles like a camera looking at a model (of this "journey" and it's terrain).

This way we will be able to see the road ahead clearly, which bridges to cross, which barriers to bring down (or climb over/get around) and which resources are needed to accomplish it.
And how hard we're going to need to work at it!!

The problem right now is, as it is nearly always...money.

We shoud be thinking of a better way than just printing money, willy-nilly, and hoping for the best. What we need to do, asap, is to free up the money that is there already by:

Get started on the modernising projects in the "New Deal" which will provide the necessary work for so may of the unemployed (and the indolent, which will in turn free up all the billions they are costing, in money and knife crime, and most violent crimes). Not white-collar crimes, obviously. (This will give tham back their dignity and stop them" biting the hand that feeds" them! With a stake in society and a voice that will be heard, and their needs met.

Try to urge all our businessmen who might also not be working as hard as they might, having taken early retirement or who can anyway "create":

• more businesses - no problem for them (eh, Dragons?)
  • therefore work, and money,
    • so we can restore our faith in:
      • ourselves and our abilities to solve problems,
        • and convince us all to spend again,
          • which will build up our confidence more and more,
          • holding steady in these unbalanced times,
    • and then we can let go a bit,
  • and relax a bit more, once we have got back on track:
• all the while creating our bright new future,
  that has come to us, with outstretched hands.
  
  

†
There can only be one reality, and therefore one truth, though there are as many (potential) perceptions of that reality and truth as there are sentient creatures in this universe, including us! ;-)
Of course, there may be other universes out there, that have different laws of physics, and nature!
However, only if I learn that this is in fact the case, will l amend this statement!

We must always keep an open mind, however, and "sitting on the fence" is the way to do this, in order to see any new reality that is approaching. Those in the fields cannot see over their hedges, so they obviously cannot see it coming!

Or in other words those being kept back either by incorrect thinking or a one-sided point of view. (see new thinking for more on this)

Richard Dawkins - you can make Science seem just like a religion, and a fairly extreme one at that - there is a lot of goodness in all religions, and they are all both right (as they all seek the truth) and wrong (if they are mutually exclusive). We must all adapt to modern thinking/life, but just as we cannot force democracy down people's throats, we cannot force them to abandon their deepest held beliefs - that is just going to create (no quotation marks on this "create" - as this is in fact making something out of nothing!) the polarisation of postions.

I personally am an Agnostic (sitting on the fence). I have actually believed, ever since I was a teenager, at college, that religion was just the "precursor" to science-a seeking to explain the world, and especially the terrifying powers of Nature: the sun, thunder and lightning, floods, etc. the passing of the seasons, and Fear itself - especially of the unknown!

I also rather suspect that Science will be coming up with the same answer...eventually - that after all, there is a God, or Gods. And that we are just a large part of it. As we start finding our true powers, together, united, we will be the greatest "creative" power in the known universe, and will be "creating" life ourselves!

Whew!

back to where you were

††
which (coincidentally) is where I have left a huge part of my heart and soul, having spent my childhood and youth there. Once you have lived in Africa, it's spirit (in whichever way you connected to it) never leaves you.

back to where you were

**
Nothing is that complex or difficult, really,
when you're familiar with the "terrain"
As we're finding out, mostly on the internet now,
not even (the working of) the brain.

Of course there is that wonderful conundrum:

If it were so simple to be able to understand how our brain works, then we would be so simple that we couldn't.

But of course, it's just a brain-teaser and takes you up a dead end-and there is no end to our abilies to explain and learn, at least by no means yet.
Of course, we could one day, in the far off future, find that there is nothing else to learn, or to discover, but that will be the day that we find that it was in fact us who was God after all...maybe.



back to where you were



*** & ****
Both Political and Moral have been included in both these "categories", as they are totally inter-connected with all of our activities, in our countries, and on this planet, our home.

back to opportuniity #1

back to opportuniity #2

 

Disclaimer:

Everything written on the site is just an opinion, even though firmly held, and no offense is intended to anyone, any organistaion, political party, nation, tribe or religion/belief system.

We should all feel (and be) free to express ourselves as long as we have these positive sentiments- incitement to hatred and incitement to murder or war, however, should be made illegal everyewhere.